Microscopic air pollution caused mostly by burning fossil fuels shortens lives worldwide by more than two years, researchers reported Tuesday.

Across South Asia, the average person would live five years longer if levels of fine particulate matter met World Health Organization standards, according to a report from the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute.

In the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, home to 300 million, crippling lung and heart disease caused by so-called PM2.5 pollution reduces life expectancy by eight years, and in the capital city of New Delhi by a decade.

PM2.5 pollution – 2.5 microns across or less, roughly the diameter of a human hair – penetrates deep into the lungs and enters the bloodstream.

In 2013, the United Nations classified it as a cancer-causing agent.

The WHO says PM2.5 density in the air should not top 15 micrograms per cubic meter in any 24-hour period, or 5 mcg/m3 averaged across an entire year.

Faced with mounting evidence of damaging health impacts, the WHO tightened these standards last year, the first change since establishing air quality guidance in 2005.

“Clean air pays back in additional years of life for people across the world,” lead research Crista Hasenkopf and colleagues said in the Air Quality Life Index report.

“Permanently reducing global air pollution to meet the WHO’s guidelines would add 2.2 years onto average life expectancy.”

Major gains in China

Almost all populated regions in the world exceed WHO guidelines, but nowhere more so that in Asia: by 15-fold in Bangladesh, 10-fold in India, and nine-fold in Nepal and Pakistan.

Central and West Africa, along with much of Southeast Asia and parts of central America, also face pollution levels — and shortened lives — well above the global average.

Surprisingly, PM2.5 pollution in 2020, the most recent data available, was virtually unchanged from the year before despite a sharp slow-down in the global economy and a corresponding drop in CO2 emissions due to Covid lockdowns.

“In South Asia, pollution actually rose during the first year of the pandemic,” the authors noted.

One country that has seen major improvements is China.

PM2.5 pollution fell in the nation of 1.4 billion people by almost 40 percent between 2013 and 2020, adding two years to life expectancy.

But even with this progress, lives in China are on average cut short today by 2.6 years.

The worst-hit provinces include Henan and Hebei, in north-central China, and the coastal province of Shandong.

Compared to other causes of premature death, the impact of PM2.5 pollution is comparable to smoking tobacco, more than three times that of alcohol use, and six times that of HIV/AIDS, the report said.
…

Muhamad Anwar, who until last year worked as a nurse in Kabul, admits he could be the world’s least likely person to be assembling parts for ship engines — and in Ulsan, South Korea, of all places.

“To be honest, up to this point I had never even used a screwdriver,” said Anwar, a soft-spoken, middle-aged man who had also never considered life in Korea until the Taliban swept through his country last summer.

“Within a week, everything changed,” explained Anwar, who fled with his wife, two daughters and three sons, all of whom brought “only a pair of clothes — nothing else.”

They are among the 391 Afghan evacuees allowed to enter South Korea last year — an unusually large number for a country that admitted only 79 refugees in 2019, the year before the coronavirus pandemic slowed global movement.

The Afghans, who had worked for South Korea’s embassy in Kabul or affiliated aid organizations, were designated as “special contributors,” a more domestically palatable concept than “refugees.”

The Afghan evacuees face unique opportunities and challenges in South Korea, which has long seen itself as ethnically homogenous. Although the country has slowly begun to accept more foreigners, non-Koreans sometimes feel unwelcome — especially Muslims, who are at times the target of explicitly bigoted protests.

New life in a ‘Hyundai town’

Like many of the Afghan “special contributors,” Anwar settled in the southeastern coastal city of Ulsan, which is often described as a “Hyundai town.” A city of 1.1 million people with a skyline dotted by giant cranes, Ulsan boasts the world’s largest car manufacturing plant and its largest shipyard. Both are run by subsidiaries of the massive Hyundai conglomerate.

Many Ulsan residents not only work at Hyundai factories, they shop at Hyundai department stores, send their children to Hyundai schools, receive medical treatment at Hyundai hospitals and root for Ulsan Hyundai FC, the town’s professional soccer team.

After six months of cultural orientation, the Afghan evacuees in Ulsan were given jobs at a subcontractor for the shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries. Anwar’s family lives in company housing — an older but recently renovated five-level apartment building. In the evenings, the building is brightened by the sound of Afghan children chasing each other around a makeshift playground, which consists of a soccer goal and a basketball hoop. Anwar jokes that the building, which houses about 30 Afghan families, sometimes feels like a small Afghan village.

Sitting inside his three-bedroom apartment, which is simply furnished but spacious by South Korean standards, Anwar is quick to point out that his family is fortunate. “Society is peaceful. Our kids go to school. I have a job. We are in such a good situation now,” he said.

Challenges

But for the Afghan evacuees, life in South Korea can be challenging in the most basic ways.

Language is a major barrier. Sometimes when Anwar’s Korean-speaking coworkers ask for a tool, such as a hammer, he has to stop and think, “Now what is a hammer?” Sometimes he hands them the wrong tool, prompting good-natured laughter.

Korean food is also unfamiliar. Many of the Afghan children bring their own lunches to school. Others eat school-provided meals, except for the meat, which isn’t halal. But eating Korean lunches raises another practical barrier: how to use chopsticks. One of the Anwar daughters jokes that her schoolteachers double as “chopstick tutors.”

School is especially challenging. After all, how is a Korean-speaking public school supposed to educate dozens of children who speak only the tiniest bit of Korean? In Ulsan, public school officials are solving the problem by having the Afghan children spend a few hours each day learning Korean in their own dedicated classes.

Progress is steady but there’s a long way to go. During a recent class at an Ulsan middle school, VOA watched as three Afghan girls struggled with even the most basic Korean sentences, such as “I ride the bus” or “Korean is hard.” But language teacher Seo Jeong-sook is impressed by how much the students had learned in a month. “They are quite motivated,” she said. “And they are learning very fast.”

For the rest of the school day, the Afghan kids attend the same classes as their Korean peers. They are paired with “helper buddies,” Korean classmates who explain the teacher’s instructions and other basic information using a mix of broken English, broken Korean, and nonverbal gestures.

Parent protests

Certain problems are thornier. When word broke out that Ulsan schools would host a large percentage of the Afghans, some local parents were outraged, even forming protests outside an elementary school. In interviews with local media, some parents said they were concerned about their children’s safety, while others expressed fears about being subjected to Islamic culture.

The protests eventually subsided following two meetings with Ulsan school officials, who assured the Korean parents their children’s education would not be affected. But the incident remains distressing for the Afghan parents, even if many are reluctant to discuss it.

Asked how he felt about Koreans forming protests over the mere presence of his young children, Anwar acknowledges it was difficult but quickly pivots to his gratitude that all of his children — even the girls — can get an education.

“We need to tolerate it. Why? Because this is not our country. This is Korea. Made by Korea and built by Koreans,” he said.

“But also, I have never ever directly met any people who are opposed to our presence or the presence of our children,” he said. “We only heard about this through the media.”

Throughout the conversation, Anwar’s wife had been listening quietly as she sat on the couch next to her husband and youngest child, a 10-year-old boy who attends the elementary school where the protests were held. When asked about the situation, her eyes fill with tears.

“We were so stressed,” she said, recounting how she sometimes accompanied her children on their way to school out of concern for their safety.

“But now the situation has changed. Now it’s OK,” she said, wiping her eyes.

‘We must overcome’

The situation improved partly because of Roh Ok-hee, the superintendent of the Ulsan Education Office, who attended the two tense public meetings with Korean parents. Many of the problems arose from South Koreans’ lack of familiarity with Islamic culture, she explained in an interview with VOA.

“These people came here to escape Taliban violence, but we did not fully appreciate this. We had a preconception of women in Islamic culture, so parents were worried,” Roh said.

In preparation for the Afghan students’ arrival, Roh says her office provided multicultural sensitivity training for teachers. The district tried to provide similar classes for students, but some Korean parents objected – a decision she warns could have long-term ramifications.

“We already live in a multicultural, global era, and we should acknowledge that,” she said. “If we use this opportunity well, there will be many new ways to open up.”

One of the Korean parents’ main complaints is that the school is using limited resources to accommodate the Afghan students, which they fear could lower the overall education quality for their own kids. But Roh rejects that argument.

“Even if there are certain expenses right now, it’s better to learn how to live together. If we can’t do that, then the problems of the future, such as increased conflicts in society, will cost much, much more,” she said.

In the meantime, the Anwar family is eager to make a new life in Korea. Along with the other Afghan evacuees, they were given long-term residency visas. They have no plans to leave.

“I think we have left our country for good,” Anwar said with a sigh. Despite the challenges, he is optimistic. “It’s not easy, but we must overcome.”

Note: The names of the Afghan evacuees have been changed to protect their privacy.
…

The United States and South Korea are preparing for all contingencies of North Korea’s imminent nuclear test, but President Joe Biden’s administration is facing tough questions from congressional members and analysts on the diplomatic impasse and inability to deter North Korea from further provocation. 

Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held talks with South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin at the State Department. The two discussed a “unified and firm” response to North Korea’s unprecedented number of ballistic missile tests and nuclear threats. This year, North Korea has launched 31 ballistic missiles, smashing a previous record of 25 set in 2019. 

Park said he believed North Korea has finished the preparation for the next nuclear test and now requires only a “political decision.” It would be Pyongyang’s seventh nuclear test since 2006 and its first since September 2017. 

“If North Korea ventures into another nuclear test, I think it will only strengthen our deterrence and also international sanctions, and it will only isolate North Korea from the international community,” Park told reporters during his first visit to Washington as South Korea’s top diplomat. 

“We are prepared to make both short- and longer-term adjustments to our military posture as appropriate,” Blinken said during a joint news conference. The top U.S. diplomat added that both countries are talking about how to “expand the scope and scale of combined military exercises” as well as “training on and around the Korean Peninsula.” 

An “extended deterrence” working group between the U.S. and South Korea will be reestablished and “get up and working very soon in the weeks ahead,” said Blinken. 

Diplomatic impasse 

On Saturday, North Korean state media announced the appointment of Choe Son Hui as the country’s first female foreign minister and one of the highest-ranking women officials in its history. It is unclear whether Choe’s promotion indicates a wider shift in North Korea’s approach toward the U.S. and South Korea. 

“We have noted the appointment of a new foreign minister in North Korea, but our approach is not predicated or dependent on specific individuals. It’s focused entirely on the policies that a given country is pursuing,” Blinken said in response to questions from VOA. 

The Biden administration seeks dialogues with Pyongyang without preconditions and has reached out to North Korea, officially the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) on specific proposals, either through third parties or through private channels including personal messages from senior U.S. officials to senior DPRK officials, according to Sung Kim, U.S. Special Representative to DPRK. 

North Korea has not responded nor indicated that it is interested in diplomatic talks. 

“It’s time for preventive diplomacy,” said Yoon Young-kwan, South Korea’s former minister of foreign affairs and now professor emeritus at Seoul National University. He made the comment during a webinar hosted by the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS.) 

“I would like to recommend the Biden administration to seriously consider dispatching a special high-level (as a one-off engagement) envoy to North Korea” to “mediate the crisis situation and to begin dialogue,” Yoon added, suggesting a modification to the current approach of the Biden administration in which Sung Kim serves as both U.S. ambassador to Indonesia and as special envoy for North Korean issues. 

Congressional critics 

While the Biden administration underlined North Korea’s continuing expansion of “illicit nuclear weapons and missile programs” as one of the major challenges facing the Indo-Pacific region and vowed to strengthen “extended deterrence” on North Korea’s provocations, some members of Congress are skeptical about the State Department’s seriousness to prioritize its Indo-Pacific strategy. 

“Despite the administration’s rhetoric, the budget requests for the East Asia and Pacific (EAP) Bureau and South and Central Asia (SCA) Bureau rank at the very bottom when … compared to the State Department’s other regional bureaus … In total, these two bureaus covering the Indo Pacific Region account for only 11% of the total foreign assistance budget,” said Republican Rep. Steve Chabot, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, Central Asia, and Nonproliferation, during a hearing June 7. 

“The administration has requested less personnel and less diplomatic program funding for EAP and SCA (Bureaus) combined than it has for the European Bureau alone,” Chabot added. 

Others raised concerns that nongovernmental organizations seeking to provide humanitarian aid to North Korea may not be able to under current sanctions, particularly at a time of the COVID-19 outbreak. 

“Whatever the regime does next, we can expect the people of North Korea to suffer under harsher conditions, as they’re further cut off from essential food and medicine,” said Democratic Rep. Andy Levin during the hearing last week. 

Former U.S. officials and some experts noted that North Korea did not feature as prominently in Biden’s summit meeting with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol last month. 

“Normally when we see a summit meeting between the U.S. and the South Korean president, particularly a first summit meeting, the featured item always is North Korea,” said Victor Cha, a senior vice president and Korea chair at CSIS who led negotiations with North Korea under former President George W. Bush’s administration. 

“President Biden arrived in Korea, and the first place he went was not the DMZ (the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas) or not the intense discussions on North Korea but went to the Samsung plant in Pyeongtaek,” Cha said in a recent CSIS webinar. 

Some analysts said the U.S. is running out of options. 

“Sanctions so far have not changed the North’s (North Korea’s) policies and aren’t likely to have any greater impact now,” Doug Bandow, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, told VOA’s Korean Service. 

Suzanne DiMaggio, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said, “Now it appears we’re about to enter a fraught period, and U.S. options are limited at best.”

Bill Gallo and Christy Lee contributed to this report.
…

A rebel group in Bangladesh has offered to hold peace talks, officials said Monday, raising hopes for an end to 25 years of violence that has killed hundreds of people.

In 1997, the main rebel outfit in the restive Chittagong Hill Tracts region in southeast Bangladesh, the Jana Samhati Samiti, signed a peace deal and laid down its arms.

But the United People’s Democratic Front, a splinter group of younger rebels in the mainly Buddhist region that is home to several ethnic tribal groups, rejected the agreement.

The deal failed to address key issues such as autonomy for the region and the presence of thousands of government troops and Bengali settlers, the UPDF said.

Since then, a turf war between the JSS and UPDF has left hundreds of people dead, including senior UPDF figures and a small number of Bangladeshi soldiers.

According to local newspapers, nearly 60 people have been killed in clashes in the region bordering Myanmar and northeast India since late last year.

Following several years of back-channel talks, last week the UPDF submitted a formal proposal for peace talks with a former army major, Emdadul Islam, a key architect of the 1997 agreement.

Islam called the move a “significant development.”

“We will now take the UPDF proposals to the government. We hope we can sign another landmark deal which will secure peace and development in the CHT,” Islam told AFP.

Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said the government had yet to receive the formal proposal.

“We always want peace. We are doing everything we can to keep peace. We welcome if they come to peace talks,” Khan told AFP.
…

After cooking for decades on earthen stoves lit with firewood, women in Sarmathla village in India’s northern Haryana state were excited when they received cooking gas stoves and connections about five years ago.

The gas cylinders which use liquified petroleum gas (LPG) meant that they would not have to collect firewood and breathe in the smoky fumes emitted from stoves called “chullahs.”

They are among millions of poor rural households given subsidized gas connections and cylinders under a government program launched in 2016 to help women move away from using highly polluting sources of cooking such as wood and animal dung to a cleaner cooking fuel.

But in most homes in Sarmathla, the cylinders now lie unused in a corner of the kitchen as many return to lighting their stoves with firewood.

“I am a poor person and everything has become so expensive. As daily wagers, we barely earn four dollars a day,” said Santosh Devi, a village resident. “Tell me, should I buy food for children or buy a gas cylinder?”

A series of price increases in the past year and a half has made cooking gas cylinders unaffordable for many poor households already struggling to cope with soaring food prices and incomes that declined due to the pandemic.

The approximately $13 price tag of a gas cylinder is almost double compared to six years ago when the project was launched. And although the government last month announced a $2.50 subsidy for those with subsidized gas connections, most village residents say they still cannot use it as their primary source of cooking.

Cooking gas prices in India have jumped massively as international crude prices have spiraled — India is heavily dependent on imported natural gas.

The soaring costs pose a challenge to the ambitious program that aimed to tackle the severe health challenges caused by indoor air pollution. Along with building toilets and homes for the rural poor, it was one of the flagship programs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government meant to dramatically improve the lives of poor households in the countryside.

The government subsidies had given more than 80 million rural households access to a clean energy source for cooking until last year, according to government figures.

But Poonam Devi, a resident of Sarmathla, said she uses it  sparingly.

“I only cook vegetables on gas but I make everything else on a wood fire,” said Devi as she rolled out Indian bread for the family of seven. “Sometimes I use it when guests come.”

Experts worry that this will set back efforts to address the severe health problems caused by toxic kitchen fumes. While this village depends mostly on firewood, cow dung and agricultural waste are other traditional sources for cooking in India’s vast rural areas.

“The indoor air pollution caused by these solid fuels is equivalent to a person smoking a significant number of cigarettes continuously at the same time,” said Abhishek Jain, director of Powering Livelihoods at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water in New Delhi.

Calling it one of India’s biggest public health challenges, Jain said, “Broad estimates suggest that India loses half a million of its population every year prematurely because of indoor air pollution. That is the scale of the problem we are dealing with.”

The women in this village know the health consequences of the sooty flames only too well.

“I cough and I get congestion and breathing problems due the cooking. So I try to cook on gas when I can,” said Paramwati, a Sarmathla resident whose tiny kitchen traps the fumes.

It is not just poor households that have been affected — even better-off families in this village, who do not benefit from government subsidies, are struggling to cope with the high prices of cooking gas.

“I have to think many times before I can refill this cylinder. I can only do it when I manage to save $13 or I have to wait until my husband gets his salary,” said Manju Chhoker.

That feeling is widely echoed across the village. “It is a huge challenge to cope with inflation and the high prices of gas. When it is time to refill the gas cylinder, I get really worried,” said another resident, Satya Prakash Rajput.

According to studies, the number of households using clean energy as the primary fuel for cooking rose exponentially from about 30 percent to nearly 70 percent between 2011 and 2020. Those gains are now under threat, say experts, as affordability emerges as a huge barrier.

“At the very least this has stalled the progress, at worst this has reversed some of the progress,” says Jain. “So, unless prices would get more affordable through either subsidy support by the government or a decrease in international prices, households may not now shift to liquified petroleum gas for most of their cooking.”

That means women in Sarmathla village may have to continue to lug firewood and cope with the fumes in their kitchens to light their stoves.
…

In India, millions of poor rural households moved to using cleaner energy in their kitchens after the government gave them subsidies to get cooking gas connections. But soaring fuel prices pose a challenge to the program that aimed at tackling the severe health challenges caused by indoor air pollution. Anjana Pasricha visited a village in North India and has this story. Camera: Darshan Singh.
…

Officials in Pakistan are making arrangements to allow the country’s ailing former military leader Pervez Musharraf to return home from self-imposed exile, highly placed government sources said Monday.

An air ambulance will bring Musharraf back from a Dubai hospital in line with consent of his family and doctors, the sources told VOA. The exact date of arrival in Pakistan for the 79-year-old retired four-star general was not immediately disclosed.

The country’s powerful military institution “stands fully behind” the decision to facilitate the repatriation of its former chief, the sources said.

Musharraf’s family tweeted on Friday that he had been hospitalized for the last three weeks “due to a complication of his ailment.” The former dictator has been suffering from amyloidosis, a chronic metabolic disease in which abnormal proteins build up and damage organs such as the heart, kidney and liver, according to the statement.

On Saturday, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, a vocal critic of Musharraf, said the general should face “no obstacle” for him to return home in view of his ill health.

“Past events should not be allowed to stand in the way. May Allah help him recover so he can spend his remaining life with dignity,” Asif tweeted.

On Twitter, Musharaf’s family wrote: “Going through a difficult stage where recovery is not possible and organs are malfunctioning. Pray for ease in his daily living. The family refuted media reports that Musharaf was on a ventilator.

Musharraf has been living in the United Arab Emirates since 2016, when he was allowed to travel abroad on bail for medical treatment. He was being tried on treason charges in a Pakistani court at the time.

The general seized power in a bloodless military coup in 1999, ousting the then-elected government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Musharraf later declared himself president and went on to rule Pakistan until after his political allies lost the 2008 general elections, forcing him to step down to avoid impeachment by the new parliament.

In 2020, a high court overturned the death sentence handed down to Musharraf in the long-running case, dismissing the legal process against him as unconstitutional.

The treason charges related to the suspension of the constitution and the imposition of emergency by the military leader in 2007, when he also placed several top Pakistani judges under house arrest in his bid to cling to power.

Musharraf won much-needed international legitimacy for his military in late 2001 when he quickly aligned himself with the U.S.-led war on terror in neighboring Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

Pakistan allowed the United States and allied nations to use its air and ground routes as well as bases to stage the military action against landlocked Afghanistan and later transport supplies to thousands of Afghan-based international troops in the ensuing years.
…

China’s capital has put school online in one of its major districts amid a new COVID-19 outbreak linked to a nightclub, while life has yet to return to normal in Shanghai despite the lifting of a more than two-month-long lockdown. 

China has stuck to its “zero-COVID” policy requiring mass testing, quarantines and the sequestering of anyone who has come into contact with an infected person in concentrated locations where hygiene is generally poor. 

A total of 166 cases have been linked to the Heaven Supermarket club in the downtown Gongti nightlife area after an infected person visited there Thursday. Of those, 145 were customers, while the rest were staff or people with whom customers had later contact. 

The entire area, along with the adjacent Sanlitun shopping and dining complex, was shut down until further notice. 

The outbreak prompted authorities in the sprawling Chaoyang district to put school back online, with the exception of students taking middle and high school placement exams. Sports gatherings in the city have also been put on hold. 

Chaoyang has ordered daily mass testing, with long lines forming and wait times of two hours or more. 

In Shanghai, 502 people have been linked to three positive tests detected June 9 among patrons of the Red Rose Beauty Salon. The individuals involved come from 15 districts across the city of 25 million people, prompting the first large-scale restrictions since the lockdown was formally ended June 1. 

With mass testing and restrictions on movement back in force, streets and supermarkets emptied again over the weekend. 

Failure to undergo testing will lead to a yellow code on a person’s health status app, forbidding them access to all public places. 

Most students remain at home and all but a few restaurants are open only for takeout. Many customers simply partake of their food and drink on the steps beside blooming flower bushes outside the establishments. 

While 22 million Shanghai residents were released from lockdown almost two weeks ago, 220,000 people are still restricted to their homes under a rule requiring that no positive cases are found within their residential compounds for more than 10 days. Another 600,000 are in control zones, where their movements are restricted within their compounds. 

Corrugated steel fences and other barriers continue to block off neighborhoods and businesses, leading to further discontent and complaints from residents who remain in lockdown. 

The strict implementation of lockdowns, along with a lack of information and poor distribution of food and other daily necessities, has led to rarely seen displays of anger and desperation. Residents have confronted workers and police who have become known as “big whites” for the protective gear they wear, circulated protest videos online and coordinated nightly screaming and pot-banging events to let off steam. 

The loosening of restrictions led to an exodus of non-Shanghai residents, including foreigners, who had found themselves trapped in the lockdown. 

Despite the recent outbreak, Beijing reported just 51 new cases on Monday, 22 of them asymptomatic. City residents are still undergoing regular testing — mostly every other day — and must wear masks and swipe a mobile phone app to enter public places and facilitate case tracing. 

China has maintained its “zero-COVID” policy despite considerable economic costs and an assertion from the head of the World Health Organization that the policy isn’t sustainable. 

Nationwide, China reported just 143 cases, almost all in Beijing and Shanghai. The death toll from the outbreak in mainland China remained static at 5,226.  
…

David Fong made his way from a poor village in central China to the southern boomtown of Shenzhen as a young man in 1997. Over the next 25 years he worked for a succession of overseas manufacturers before building his own multi-million-dollar business making everything from schoolbags to toothbrushes. 

Now 47, he has plans to branch out internationally by building internet-connected consumer devices. But after two years of coronavirus lockdowns that have pushed up the price of shipping and battered consumers’ confidence, he worries if his business will survive at all. 

“I hope we make it through the year,” said Fong, surrounded by talking bears, machine parts and his company’s catalogs in his top-floor office overlooking gleaming towers in an area of Shenzhen once filled with sprawling factories. “It’s a tough moment for a business.” 

The ‘miracle’ city

Fong’s story of rags to riches, now threatened by a wider slowdown worsened by the coronavirus, mirrors that of his adopted city. 

Created in 1979 in the first wave of China’s economic reforms, which allowed private enterprise to play a role in the state-controlled system, Shenzhen transformed itself from a collection of agricultural villages into a major world port that is home to some of China’s leading technology, finance, real estate and manufacturing companies. 

For the last four decades, the city has posted at least 20% annual economic growth. In October, the forecasting firm, Oxford Economics, predicted that Shenzhen would be the world’s fastest-growing city between 2020 and 2022. 

But it has since lost that crown to San Jose in California’s Silicon Valley. Shenzhen posted an overall economic growth of only 2% in the first quarter of this year, the lowest-ever figure for the city, aside from the first quarter of 2020 when coronavirus infections brought the country to a standstill. 

Shenzhen remains China’s biggest goods exporter, but its overseas shipments fell nearly 14% in March, hampered by a COVID lockdown that caused bottlenecks at its port.  

The city has long been seen as among the best and most dynamic places for business in China and a triumph of the country’s economic reforms. President Xi Jinping called it the ‘miracle’ city when he visited in 2019. 

If Shenzhen is in trouble, that is a warning sign for the world’s second-largest economy. The city is “the canary in the mine shaft,” said Richard Holt, director of global cities research at Oxford Economics, adding that his team is keeping a close eye on Shenzhen. 

Fong, who sells his goods mostly to domestic customers, said sales are down about 40% from 20 million yuan ($3 million) in 2020, hurt by the recent two-month lockdown in Shanghai and a general decline in consumer confidence.  

Losing attractiveness  

Shenzhen, now a city of some 18 million people, has been hit by a succession of blows from inside and outside the country. 

Shenzhen-based telecom equipment makers Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp were placed on U.S. trade blacklists over alleged security concerns and for illegally shipping U.S. technology to Iran respectively. Huawei denies wrongdoing, while ZTE exited probation in March five years after pleading guilty.   

Another of the city’s major companies, top-selling property developer China Evergrande, sparked fears of a collapse last year under its heavy debts that would have wreaked havoc with China’s financial system.  

Even smaller firms have suffered. Last year Amazon.com Inc. cracked down on how sellers do business on the platform, impacting more than 50,000 e-commerce traders, many based in the city, the Shenzhen Cross-border E-commerce Association said. 

On top of that, Shenzhen was locked down for a week in March to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. That lockdown, and those in other Chinese cities, depressed domestic demand for goods made in Shenzhen. The city’s 2% growth in the first quarter was less than half of China’s overall 4.8% growth rate.   

Business registrations also fell by almost a third in that time. City authorities are sticking to their 6% growth target for this year, set in April, but the slowdown has sparked alarm in China’s establishment. 

The Shenzhen government did not reply to a request for comment on this story. City officials privately admit that it is increasingly difficult to keep Shenzhen’s ‘miracle’ alive. 

“There’s a lot of people with a stake in Shenzhen remaining predictable, unlike before. You can’t just experiment freely and see what sticks anymore,” one city official told Reuters, on the condition of anonymity. 

‘Time to go’  

The cancellation of most international flights to China, a port snarled by lockdowns and a once-teeming border with Hong Kong that is now all-but-shut have made Shenzhen a difficult place to do business. China’s plans for a Greater Bay Area – melding Shenzhen with Hong Kong, Macau and several mainland cities – appear to have stalled. 

“It’s losing attractiveness, and they (authorities) need to realize that,” said Klaus Zenkel, chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce in South China. “We always say they need to balance the restrictions and the economic growth.” 

In September, the Chinese government said it would expand what is known as the Qianhai economic zone, a special area within Shenzhen’s borders, to 121 square kilometers from 15 square kilometers. British banks: Standard Chartered and HSBC, have set up offices there, but border closures mean the area has struggled to attract foreign businesses, Zenkel and five diplomats in the region said. 

International business chambers have warned the Chinese government of an exodus of foreign talent. One diplomat at a major European consulate told Reuters they estimated the number of its nationals in south China had fallen to 750 from 3,000 before the pandemic. 
…

A Pakistani soldier was killed during an exchange of fire with militants in the tribal district of North Waziristan near the Afghan border, the military said Sunday.

The shootout took place in the Datta Khel area and security forces quickly started a search-and-clearance operation to locate militants who fled, the military said in a statement.

No militant group immediately claimed responsibility. The militant Pakistani Taliban recently extended a cease-fire agreement and are holding talks with Pakistani authorities.

North Waziristan and other tribal districts served as a safe haven for local and foreign militants until 2014, when the military carried out a massive operation to clear the area of militants. But they still attack security forces sporadically.
…

When Ahmad, his wife and three children traveled to Pakistan in November last year, they were hoping to stay there for a short period before migrating to the U.S. through the Special Immigration Visa (SIV) program for Afghans.

The chaos that followed the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in August made the family’s trip to the neighboring country extremely expensive, including hefty fees and bribes to get visas and plane tickets to Islamabad.

Six months later, the family’s hopes were dashed when they were informed that their SIV application had been denied.

Ahmad told VOA that a recommendation letter included in his application had failed authentication, causing the denial.

From October to December 2021, more than 1,300 Afghan SIV applicants were denied, according to quarterly data from the U.S. State Department. In the preceding quarter, July to September, 1,462 Afghan principal SIV applicants were denied.

Denials are issued for various reasons, such as lack of sufficient documentation, failure to prove valuable service to the U.S. government, and the presence of derogatory information associated with the principal applicant.

“I’ve secured a very strong recommendation letter from our chief of mission, which I will submit in my appeal,” said Ahmad, who did not want to use his full name because of security concerns. “But I’m losing hope because I see too many people are being rejected.”

Approvals make up less than 10% of SIV applications.

From July through September last year, 1,292 principal SIV visas were issued.

But only 117 principal applicants received visas in the last three months of the year.

Travel for migration

Since the closure of most embassies in Kabul last year, Afghan applicants must travel to a third country to pursue their immigration cases, whether they’re applying to the U.S., Canada, the European Union or Australia.

Many Afghans have traveled to neighboring Pakistan to process their visa applications. And more than 14,000 Afghans have migrated to Germany via Pakistan over the past nine months, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said last week.

Canada, which has pledged to admit 40,000 Afghans, has also used its High Commission in Islamabad to process Afghan immigration applications.

“The lack of a physical presence in Afghanistan has presented challenges in how we collect and verify the information of applicants still in the country. In some cases, this had led to completing elements of the screening process, such as collecting biographic information, while Afghans are transiting through third countries,” a spokesperson for Canada’s immigration agency told VOA.

The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad is also a major hub for Afghans who seek to come to the U.S. as refugees, visitors or students.

In addition to the SIV, considered a priority program, the U.S. government has offered a Priority-2 refugee admissions program for Afghans who were affiliated with U.S. projects in Afghanistan until August 2021.

“Once an individual with a complete referral arrives in a third country, they are eligible to begin processing their refugee case. We do not publicly disclose the number of refugee cases the United States is processing in specific third countries,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA.

With more than 2.6 million refugees, mostly in neighboring Iran and Pakistan, Afghans already make up the third-largest refugee group in the world, according to the United Nations.

Rising unemployment and poverty, and the prospects of migration to the West, have significantly increased the number of Afghans who leave their country.

Applicants vs. visas

Since 2015, more than 17,800 Afghans have received SIV visas, excluding visas issued to the dependents of the principal applicants.

Approximately 50,000 SIV applications are currently being evaluated. Out of the total 34,500 visas Congress has allocated for the Afghan SIV program, 16,515 principal visas remain available.

This means nearly two-thirds of the applications in the pipeline will be unsuccessful, if not rejected, unless Congress approves additional visas for the program.

Estimated processing time, even for the prioritized SIV applications, takes about two years. Priority-2, as the name suggests, is deemed less urgent and requires more wait time.

From October 2021 to May 2022, 583 Afghan refugees were resettled in the U.S.

Last month, a group of Afghans protested in Islamabad against denials of or uncertainty about their immigration applications.

“I worked as governance specialist for a U.S. project in Afghanistan and have two recommendation letters from my previous employer, but I’ve got no response to my application for six months,” said Ghulam Sakhi, a protester.

U.S. officials say the National Visa Center has received “hundreds of thousands” of inquiries from potential SIV applicants since August.

“We are working diligently to process this enormous surge in applications,” said the State Department spokesperson.

Until their immigration applications are settled, the tens of thousands of Afghans who were once affiliated with or worked for the U.S. government either live in hiding from the Taliban in Afghanistan or as refugees in third countries.

Nearly all applicants, 94%, have reported facing economic hardship because of unemployment, according to a survey by the Association of War Time Allies, a nongovernmental organization that advocates for individuals who support U.S. military engagement in their countries.
…

Sri Lanka may be compelled to buy more oil from Russia as the island nation hunts desperately for fuel amid an unprecedented economic crisis, the newly appointed prime minister said.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he would first look to other sources, but would be open to buying more crude from Moscow. Western nations largely have cut off energy imports from Russia in line with sanctions over its war on Ukraine.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press on Saturday, Wickremesinghe also indicated he would be willing to accept more financial help from China, despite his country’s mounting debt. And while he acknowledged that Sri Lanka’s current predicament is of “its own making,” he said the war in Ukraine is making it even worse — and that dire food shortages could continue until 2024. He said Russia had also offered wheat to Sri Lanka.

Wickremesinghe, who is also Sri Lanka’s finance minister, spoke to the AP in his office in the capital, Colombo, one day shy of a month after he took over for a sixth time as prime minister. Appointed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resolve an economic crisis that has nearly emptied the country’s foreign exchange reserves, Wickremesinghe was sworn in after days of violent protests last month forced his predecessor, Rajapaksa’s brother Mahinda Rajapaksa, to step down and seek safety from angry crowds at a naval base.

Sri Lanka has amassed $51 billion in foreign debt, but has suspended repayment of nearly $7 billion due this year. The crushing debt has left the country with no money for basic imports, which means citizens are struggling to access basic necessities such as food, fuel, medicine — even toilet paper and matches. The shortages have spawned rolling power outages, and people have been forced to wait days for cooking gas and gasoline in lines that stretch for kilometers (miles).

Two weeks ago, the country bought a 90,000-metric-ton (99,000-ton) shipment of Russian crude to restart its only refinery, the energy minister told reporters.

Wickremesinghe did not comment directly on those reports, and said he did not know whether more orders were in the pipeline. But he said Sri Lanka desperately needs fuel, and is currently trying to get oil and coal from the country’s traditional suppliers in the Middle East.

“If we can get from any other sources, we will get from there. Otherwise (we) may have to go to Russia again,” he said.

Officials are negotiating with private suppliers, but Wickremesinghe said one issue they face is that “there is a lot of oil going around which can be sourced back informally to Iran or to Russia.”

“Sometimes we may not know what oil we are buying,” he said. “Certainly, we are looking at the Gulf as our main supply.”

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February, global oil prices have skyrocketed. While Washington and its allies are trying to cut financial flows supporting Moscow’s war effort, Russia is offering its crude at a steep discount, making it extremely enticing to a number of countries.

Like some other South Asian nations, Sri Lanka has remained neutral on the war in Europe.

Sri Lanka has received and continues to reach out to numerous countries for help — including the most controversial, China, currently the country’s third-largest creditor. Opposition figures have accused the president and the former prime minister of taking on a slew of Chinese loans for splashy infrastructure projects that have since failed to generate profit, instead adding to the country’s debt.

Critics have also pointed to a beleaguered port in the hometown of then-President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Hambantota, built along with a nearby airport as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative projects, saying they cost too much and do too little for the economy.

“We need to identify what are the projects that we need for economic recovery and take loans for those projects, whether it be from China or from others,” Wickremesinghe said. “It’s a question of where do we deploy the resources?”

The prime minister said his government has been talking with China about restructuring its debts. Beijing had earlier offered to lend the country more money but balked at cutting the debt, possibly out of concern that other borrowers would demand the same relief.

“China has agreed to come in with the other countries to give relief to Sri Lanka, which is a first step,” Wickremesinghe said. “This means they all have to agree (on) how the cuts are to take place and in what manner they should take place.”

Sri Lanka is also seeking financial assistance from the World Food Programme, which may send a team to the country soon, and Wickremesinghe is banking on a bailout package from the International Monetary Fund. But even if approved, he doesn’t expect to see money from the package until October onwards.

Wickremesinghe acknowledged that the crisis in Sri Lanka has been of its “own making.” Many have blamed government mismanagement, deep tax cuts in 2019, policy blunders that devastated crops and a sharp plunge in tourism due to the coronavirus pandemic. But he also stressed that the war in Ukraine, which has thrown global supply chains into a tailspin and pushed fuel and food prices to unaffordable levels, has made things much worse.

“The Ukraine crisis has impacted our … economic contraction,” he said, adding that he thinks the economy will shrink even further before the country can begin to recoup and rebuild next year.

“I think by the end of the year, you could see the impact in other countries” as well, he said. “There is a global shortage of food. Countries are not exporting food.”

In Sri Lanka, the price of vegetables has jumped threefold while the country’s rice cultivation is down by about a third, the prime minister said.

The shortages have affected both the poor and the middle classes, triggering months of protests. Mothers are struggling to get milk to feed their babies, as fears of a looming hunger crisis grow.

Wickremesinghe said he felt terrible watching his nation suffer, “both as a citizen and a prime minister.”

He said he hasn’t ever seen anything like this in Sri Lanka — and didn’t think he ever would. “I have generally been in governments where I ensured people had three meals and their income increased,” he said. “We’ve had difficult times. … But not like this. I have not seen … people without fuel, without food.”
…

China’s capital, Beijing, is experiencing an “explosive” COVID-19 outbreak connected to a bar, a government spokesman said on Saturday, as the commercial hub, Shanghai, conducted mass testing to contain a jump in cases tied to a hair salon. 

The announcement followed a new tightening of COVID curbs in Beijing since Thursday, with at least two districts closing some entertainment venues after a flare-up in a neighborhood full of nightlife spots, stores and embassies. 

While China’s infection rate is low by global standards, it maintains a zero-COVID policy, citing the need to protect the elderly and the medical system, even as other countries try to live with the virus. 

So far, the country of 1.4 billion has reported a total of 5,226 deaths from COVID-19. 

Beijing authorities said on Saturday that all 61 new cases uncovered in the city on Friday had either visited the Heaven Supermarket Bar or had links to it. 

“The recent outbreak … is strongly explosive in nature and widespread in scope,” Xu Hejian, spokesperson of the Beijing municipal government, told a news briefing. 

The capital had registered 46 new local cases on Saturday as of 3 p.m. local time (0700 GMT), all people already in isolation or under observation, health official Liu Xiaofeng said. 

The city did not announce new curbs at the briefing, but later the Beijing sports administration said all off-campus and “offline” sports activities for teens would be canceled starting Sunday. 

So far, 115 cases and 6,158 close contacts linked to the bar have been reported, throwing the city of 22 million back into a state of anxiety. 

Beijing relaxed curbs less than two weeks ago that had been imposed to fight a major outbreak that began in April. 

The sprawling Universal Beijing Resort, a theme park on the city’s outskirts, on Friday rescinded a plan to reopen. City authorities said three of its workers had visited the Heaven Supermarket bar. 

Many neighborhoods in the capital have been put under lockdown, with residents told to stay home. 

Citywide testing in Shanghai 

In Shanghai, officials announced three new confirmed local cases and one asymptomatic case detected outside quarantined areas on Saturday, as nearly all the city’s 25 million residents began a new round of COVID tests. 

Authorities ordered PCR testing for all residents in 15 of Shanghai’s 16 districts this weekend, and five districts barred residents from leaving home during the testing period. A city official said residents should complete at least one PCR test a week until July 31. 

China’s most populous city only lifted a grueling two-month COVID-19 lockdown on June 1. 

“I am a little bit worried because if there are positive cases in the compound, it will be put into a sealed situation,” said Shanghai resident Shi Weiqi. “I will also stock up on some supplies properly in case the previous situation happens again.” 

Shanghai authorities also said they had reprimanded and dismissed several district-level officials for lapses at a hotel that was used to quarantine arrivals from overseas, pinpointed as one of the sources of Shanghai’s wave of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. 

They also said they had warned or dismissed some executives at a state-owned firm that owned the Red Rose beauty salon, where three cases were found among workers this week.  

The salon’s employees had not followed guidelines to undertake PCR testing daily, they said. 

On Saturday, Shanghai reported seven new local symptomatic cases for the previous day, a rise of one, of which six were detected outside of quarantined areas. 

The city also recorded nine new local asymptomatic cases, up from six the previous day. 

In total, mainland China reported 210 new coronavirus cases for Friday, of which 79 were symptomatic and 131 were asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said. 

That was up from 151 new cases a day earlier, 45 of them symptomatic and 106 asymptomatic. 

As of Friday, mainland China had confirmed 224,659 cases with symptoms. 
…

Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban said Saturday their security forces had killed at least eight key militants of the self-proclaimed Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) and captured three others.  

Taliban forces carried out an afternoon raid against an ISIS-K base in Taloqan, the capital of the northeastern province, Takhar, and eliminated what local officials told Afghan state-run media was a “funding, equipping and training center” of the terrorist group.  

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid late Saturday confirmed the military action, saying special forces of the General Directorate of Intelligence, the new name of the Afghan spy agency, assaulted the militant base.  

Mujahid added that the ensuing heavy clashes killed eight men, including an important commander of the group, identified as Younis Uzbekistani. He did not share further details.  

City residents said the security operation had temporarily blocked the main highway linking Taloqan to the neighboring province, Badakhshan. Both Afghan provinces are on the country’s border with Tajikistan. 

Growing ISIS-K activities in Afghan border areas have worried Tajikistan and other Central Asian neighbors. 

Last month, ISIS-K reportedly claimed responsibility for firing rockets into Tajikistan from the Khwaja Ghar district in Takhar, but no casualties were reported.  

For their part, Tajik authorities said that bullets, not rockets, landed in Tajikistan that were fired accidentally during what they claimed was a firefight between Taliban forces and ISIS-K militants on the Afghan side of the border. 

ISIS-K has increased attacks in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power from the Western-backed government last August, days before the final U.S.-led foreign troops withdrew from the country.  

The militant violence has killed and injured hundreds of people, mostly members of the Afghan minority Shiite Muslim community.  

The United Nations has warned that ISIS-K’s objective “remains to challenge the Taliban by waging a war that fits into the border Daesh concept of ‘global jihad.’”  

The world body, using the Arabic acronym for the terrorist outfit, said in its assessment released last month that ISIS-K’s short-term focus “expected to remain on attacks on soft targets such as Shia Hazara mosques and minority groups.” 

The report estimated ISIS-K has between 1,500 and 4,000 fighters “concentrated in remote areas” of Afghanistan’s Kunar, Nangarhar and possibly Nuristan provinces. It added that ISIS-K’s smaller, covert cells are also located in northern and northeastern provinces, including Badakhshan, Takhar, Jowzjan, Kunduz and Faryab. 

The Taliban rejected the U.N. report as unfounded, saying “the world and the region have been prevented from facing any harm from Afghanistan” since the Islamist group took control of the country last year.  

The Taliban foreign ministry in a statement said the government “again reaffirms its commitments and reassures all that none shall be allowed to use the territory of Afghanistan against others.” 

Recent American military assessments also have warned that both al-Qaida and ISIS-K are growing in strength since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and could pose a significant threat beyond the country’s borders. 
…

Two teenagers were killed Friday in clashes between Hindus and Muslims in eastern India that followed derogatory remarks about the Prophet Mohammad by two ruling party officials, police said Saturday.

Police opened fire to break up the violence in the city of Ranchi in Jharkhand state, but it was not clear if the two victims were killed by the police or by rioters.

Senior police official Surendra Kumar Jha said at least 14 police officials were injured in the incident in Ranchi and other areas. A curfew was imposed, and Internet services suspended to stop the unrest escalating.

In northern Uttar Pradesh state, police said they had arrested 230 alleged rioters after unrest spread across several towns after Friday prayers.

Muslims have been protesting about comments made recently by two officials from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) about the Prophet’s private life, with the demonstrations often turning into violence between Hindus and Muslims.

The BJP has suspended its spokeswoman Nupur Sharma and expelled another leader, Naveen Kumar Jindal, for making the anti-Islamic remarks, which as well as upsetting Indian Muslims caused a diplomatic row from several Muslim countries.

The BJP – a Hindu nationalist party – said the offensive remarks did not reflect the government’s position and that the comments were made by “fringe elements”.

Party leaders have also instructed officials to be cautious when talking about religion on public platforms. Police in New Delhi said Thursday they had filed a complaint against Sharma and others for “inciting people on divisive lines” on social media.

Some in the minority Muslim community, however, see this as the latest instance of pressure and humiliation under BJP rule on issues ranging from freedom of worship to the wearing of hijab head scarves.
…

The Bangladeshi government canceled the registration of one of the country’s top human rights organizations this week, triggering outrage across the international human rights community.

A June 5 order from the government canceled the registration, or operating license, of Bangladesh-based Odhikar. Founded in 1994, the organization is known for its regular documentation of human rights violations in the country, working closely with the United Nations, Human Rights Watch and other international rights groups.

The NGO Affairs Bureau, a wing of the Bangladeshi prime minister’s office, issued the order, stating that “the activities of the organization are not satisfactory.”

Odhikar “created various issues against Bangladesh by spreading propaganda against the state by publishing misleading information on its own website about various extrajudicial killings, including alleged disappearances and murders,” the order said. It added that the organization “has seriously tarnished the image of the state to the world.”

Accusations of rights violations

The security agencies in Bangladesh have long been accused of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and other serious human rights violations.

In December 2021, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an elite paramilitary force of Bangladesh, for its dismal human rights record. Odhikar regularly documented human rights violations by the RAB.

Since the beginning of this year, Odhikar has reported that the rights groups accusing RAB and other security agencies of rights violations were facing reprisals from the government.

For years, Odhikar has been facing persecution because of its work, Adilur Rahman Khan, the organization’s secretary, told VOA.

“In 2014, we sought to renew the registration of Odhikar to receive foreign donations. But our application for renewal of the registration with the NGO Affairs Bureau has remained pending for eight years, critically hindering our ability to conduct human rights monitoring and reporting,” said Khan, who has received several international human rights awards.

In 2019, Odhikar filed a writ petition to the High Court seeking renewal of its registration, and in May, the hearing on this matter resumed in the court, he said.

“Now, in the midst of the hearing, the NGO Affairs Bureau has arbitrarily canceled Odhikar’s registration, bypassing the judicial process, in another attempt to stall our human rights work in the country.”

Despite several attempts, VOA failed to get a comment from the NGO Affairs Bureau. The director of the bureau did not respond to queries from VOA.

Rights advocates see red flag

Rights advocates have condemned the action against Odhikar in strong terms.

Eleven human rights groups, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, said in a statement June 9 that Bangladeshi authorities should immediately reverse their decision to deregister Odhikar.

Nur Khan Liton, a well-known rights activist in Bangladesh, called the cancellation of Odhikar’s registration an “autocratic action” by the government.

“By canceling the registration of Odhikar, the government has aimed to warn individuals and groups against raising their voices against human rights violations in the country,” Liton told VOA.

The arbitrary deregistration of Odhikar is a serious red flag, said Matthew Smith, CEO of the rights group Fortify Rights.

“The authorities can’t improve the country’s human rights record by arbitrarily deregistering its leading human rights organization,” Smith told VOA.

The reprisal against Odhikar is “an egregious and shameless act to silence and intimidate human rights defenders” in Bangladesh, said Saad Hammadi, South Asia campaigner for Amnesty International.

“Odhikar’s deregistration is a clear demonstration of the government’s anger about the credibility the human rights organization enjoys internationally,” Hammadi said.

Deregistration ‘outrageous, unacceptable’

Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman, liaison officer of the Hong Kong-based Asian Legal Resource Centre, noted that Odhikar is the most prominent Bangladesh-based human rights organization, and its deregistration was a big blow to the human rights community as well as to the victims.

“The Sheikh Hasina regime, which accuses rights group Odhikar of ‘tarnishing the country’s image,’ has adopted the policy of using enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, and systemic torture under arbitrary detention as tools against the dissidents and political opponents,” Ashrafuzzaman told VOA. Sheikh Hasina had served as the prime minister of Bangladesh from 1996 to 2001, and she assumed office again in 2009.

Calling the decision to deny the registration “outrageous and unacceptable,” Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division, said that the government’s action was “nothing less than a full-frontal assault” on human rights defenders such as Odhikar who dare to speak truth to power about the government’s systematic rights violations.

“Ever since Hasina returned as prime minister, the authorities have subjected Odhikar staff to intrusive surveillance and harassment and made politically motivated attacks on the organization’s work and findings,” Robertson told VOA.

“The NGO Affairs Bureau under the PM’s Office exists not to regulate or support civil society groups but rather to exercise control, violate freedom of association, and bar access to foreign funds, and Odhikar has borne the brunt of all this discriminatory government treatment over the years,” Robertson said.

Dhaka-based diplomats, U.N. agencies, and the wider international community should pressure the Bangladesh government to immediately and unconditionally restore Odhikar’s license to operate, Robertson added.

“The Bangladesh government uses misleading information all the time, so this accusation against Odhikar — that the organization is tarnishing the country’s image — is a clear example of the pot calling the kettle black,” he said.

Reporting on human rights violations is “not anti-government or anti-state,” Amnesty’s Hammadi noted. He said the government’s “decision to deregister Odhikar is akin to shooting the messenger.”
…

The U.N. children’s fund is appealing for $25 million to provide humanitarian aid to 1.7 million children in Sri Lanka, many of whom are at risk of dying from malnutrition-related causes.

Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis since it gained its independence in 1948. The United Nations estimates nearly 5.7 million people, half of them children, need humanitarian aid.

UNICEF says nearly one in two children in Sri Lanka requires some form of emergency assistance, including nutrition, health care, clean drinking water, education and mental health services.

Speaking from the capital, Colombo, UNICEF representative in Sri Lanka Christian Skoog says malnutrition seriously threatens to the lives and well-being of children.

Chronic wasting

He says Sri Lanka has the second-highest rate of acute malnutrition among children under 5 in South Asia and at least 17 percent of children are suffering from chronic wasting, a disease that carries the highest risk of death. He says UNICEF is in a race against time to make sure children most at risk receive the help they need.

“The target is to treat 56,000 children for severe acute malnutrition up to six to seven months in our UNICEF plan,” Skoog said. “Potentially they could all be at risk of dying. There is some support. So, with that we should be able to come in and avoid those deaths.”

UNICEF reports the education of 4.8 million children hangs in the balance. It says boys and girls are likely to drop out of school because many school feeding programs have stopped. It says 25 essential medicines for children and pregnant women used in the treatment of life-threatening diseases are expected to run out in the next two months.

Skoog says the current crisis also is creating serious protection concerns for children.

“There already are 10,000 children in institutional care in Sri Lanka, mainly as a result of poverty,” he said. “Such institutions are not a good place for children to grow up in. And now, unfortunately, conditions are worsening, and yet more families are taking their children to these institutions because they simply cannot afford to feed them.”

As part of its humanitarian plan, UNICEF will ensure 100,000 young children receive school meals, often the only source of nutritious food for impoverished children. Money from the appeal also will provide primary health care for 1.2 million people, safe drinking water for 1.5 million people and other lifesaving assistance.
…

Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban have illegally detained and tortured residents in northern Panjshir province for their alleged links to armed opposition forces, Human Rights Watch said Friday.

The U.S.-based global rights monitoring group said fighting had escalated in Panjshir since mid-May, when fighters of the National Resistance Front (NFR) started attacks on Taliban units and checkpoints. The violence prompted the Taliban to deploy thousands of fighters to the province and conduct search operations.

“Taliban forces in Panjshir province have quickly resorted to beating civilians in their response to fighting against the opposition National Resistance Front,” said Patricia Gossma, the associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

“The Taliban’s longstanding failure to punish those responsible for serious abuses in their ranks puts more civilians at risk,” she added in the statement.

The Pashtun-based Islamist Taliban is reportedly struggling to effectively control Panjshir, a traditional NRF stronghold and one of the non-Pashtun Afghan provinces.

The report quoted former detainees alleging that Taliban forces detained about 80 residents in Panjshir’s Khenj district and beat them to compel them to provide information about the NRF. Out of those, 10 suspects are still being held on charges that their relatives are members of the NRF.

Former detainees were quoted as saying the district jail held nearly 100 others who have alleged links to the NRF and that none had access to their families or lawyers.

“Taliban forces in Panjshir have imposed collective punishment and disregarded protections to which detainees are entitled,” Gossman said. “This is just the latest example of Taliban abuses during fighting in the region 10 months after the Taliban took power.”

Human Rights Watch stressed that denying detainees access to lawyers and relatives is prohibited and increases the risk of abuses. The punishment of individuals for alleged actions of others is a violation of the laws of war and a war crime, the report warned.

Taliban authorities have consistently rejected reports of fighting and accusations of abuses in Panjshir as baseless media propaganda, insisting their return to power has brought stability and ended years of war in Afghanistan.

In a statement issued Thursday in response to allegations of rights abuses against prisoners by members of the intelligence service, the Taliban claimed that “criminals are being treated strictly in line with the principles of the sacred religion of Islam.”

The NRF, headed by the self-exiled Ahmad Massoud, is the principal armed opposition group in Panjshir and neighboring northern Afghan provinces. It includes some fighters who had served in the former U.S.-trained national security forces of the Western-backed Afghan government overthrown by the Taliban nearly 10 months ago.
…

In Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital, a sprawling port city showcased as a financial hub to rival Dubai is being set up on 269 hectares of land dredged from the sea. It is the latest of the huge Chinese-funded infrastructure projects in the island country that include a port and an airport in Hambantota.

The projects are under scrutiny, though, as an unprecedented economic crisis leaves Sri Lanka with virtually no foreign exchange reserves for fuel and food, or to repay foreign loans.

They were billed as economic game changers but have yielded few returns, say analysts.

“For example, the airport in Hambantota is called the emptiest airport in the world because it really is not attracting the business it should be attracting,” Bhavani Fonseka at the Center for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, told VOA via Skype.

Similarly, the Hambantota port has failed to generate much revenue while a convention center close by remains largely shuttered. “So, there are lot of questions on whether these kind of projects have also contributed to Sri Lanka’s increasing debt,” Fonseka said.

About 10% of Sri Lanka’s $51 billion foreign debt is owed to China. Even before spiraling into a financial crisis this year, the country was struggling to repay some of the loans to Chinese companies.

In 2017, the government handed the Hambantota port over to a Chinese firm on a 99-year lease after it could not pay off the $1.4 billion debt. The deal had sparked concerns in neighboring India that Beijing had secured a strategic berth in the Indian Ocean.

China’s influence in Sri Lanka has grown exponentially in the last 15 years as President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother Mahinda, who stepped down as prime minster last month, became a dominant force in Sri Lankan politics. Many of the projects such as the Hambantota port and airport were sanctioned in their hometown. While critics have slammed them as “white elephant” projects, they also blame the two for sanctioning them.

The economic crisis has now triggered a massive backlash against the Rajapaksas. Public fury forced Mahinda Rajapaksa to resign his post last month and the president has resisted calls to resign, but cries of “Gota Go Home” continue to ring loudly in Colombo’s streets.

“The Rajapaksas are seen as very much tilting towards China,” Fonseka said. “But I think now there is going to be a more balanced foreign policy and efforts to get assistance from more different and diverse actors.”

That is good news for India, for whom Chinese presence close to its shores had become a strategic headache.

New Delhi now hopes to recover some of the ground it lost to China in the country on its southern tip. Since January, it has committed about $3 billion in loans, credit lines and currency swaps to Colombo to import essential commodities. India has also shipped food, fuel and medical supplies to the country to ease hardships caused by the massive shortages of essential commodities that have led to hours-long power cuts, long lines for fuel and runaway inflation.

For the rice-sowing season in Sri Lanka, it plans to send fertilizer to help farmers, who suffered massive crop losses last year as the government ordered an abrupt switch to switch to organic farming. The ban on chemical fertilizers has since been lifted.

“The economic crisis was seen as an opportunity to demonstrate New Delhi’s commitment as a net security provider in an economic sense and to show that India as a regional power could support Sri Lanka in a time of crisis,” according to Harsh Pant, head of Strategic Studies Program at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.

“That has helped underscore India’s credentials as a responsible regional power,” he said.

India is also supporting Sri Lanka’s bid to get a bailout from the International Monetary Fund and asked Japan to assist the country at a recent summit of the Quad — the group including India, Japan, the United States, and Australia, that aims to contain China’s growing power in the Indo-Pacific region.

As New Delhi emerges as one of Sri Lanka’s largest providers of aid, its image as a “dependable ally” is being reinforced, according to Fonseka.

“The fact that India has come through in terms of addressing urgent humanitarian needs is very welcome by many Sri Lankans and many are realizing that India is a true friend,” she said.

China has praised India for helping Colombo and said that it is willing to work with India and others to help Sri Lanka and other countries facing difficulties.

The comment from its foreign ministry came after President Rajapaksa in an interview with Bloomberg this week said that South Asian countries in financial trouble are not getting the same attention from Beijing as before and that China appears to be shifting its strategic focus toward Southeast Asia and Africa.

Rajapaksa said that Sri Lanka could not tap a $1.5 billion credit line from Beijing and has yet to hear back on its request for a $1 billion loan to buy essential goods.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, however told a press briefing on Wednesday that “we have been doing our utmost to provide assistance for the socioeconomic development of that country” and that the “priority for China’s diplomacy lies in China’s neighboring countries, including South Asian countries.”

There is however concern in Colombo whether Beijing will be willing to restructure its loan as it negotiates a bailout with the International Monetary Fund.

While Sri Lanka’s economic meltdown is blamed on a host of factors including mismanagement, pandemic tourism declines, and populist tax breaks, Chinese projects’ role in draining public finances while doing little to boost its economy is getting attention in other South Asian nations.

Desperately needing to modernize their creaky infrastructure, many small Asian countries, such as Nepal, have signed on to China’s Belt and Road initiative despite criticism from countries such as India and the United States, who call it “debt trap diplomacy.”

But analysts say unless these small countries find other financing options, China will continue to establish partnerships with them.

“It is also important for other powers such as Western countries or Japan to offer credible alternatives to these countries, because the debate on the viability of Chinese-funded projects may happen, but if they don’t see any alternative, they will go back to China,” Pant said.
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India’s surprise decision to ban wheat exports has raised concerns about potential curbs on rice exports as well, prompting rice traders to step up purchases and place atypical orders for longer-dated deliveries.

Government and trade officials have said India, the world’s biggest exporter of rice, does not plan to curb shipments for now, as local prices remain low and state warehouses hold ample supplies.

That’s a relief for import-dependent countries already grappling with surging food costs, but most of India’s rice growing season lies ahead and any change in prospects for the harvest could alter its stance on exports of the staple grain.

Monsoon rains determine the size of India’s rice crop, and plentiful rains this year would help it maintain its preeminent position in the global rice trade.

Patchy monsoon rains, however, would stunt the crop and cut yields and that might lead to a drawdown in state inventories that would trigger export curbs to ensure sufficient supplies for the country’s 1.4 billion people.

Why is India so crucial for global rice supplies?

India’s rice exports touched a record 21.5 million tonnes in 2021, more than the combined shipments of the world’s next four biggest exporters of the grain: Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan and the United States.

India, the world’s biggest rice consumer after China, has a market share of more than 40% of the global rice trade.

High domestic stocks and low local prices allowed India to offer rice at deep discounts over the past two years, helping poorer nations, many in Asia and Africa, grapple with soaring wheat prices.

India exports rice to more than 150 countries, and any reduction in its shipments would fuel food inflation. The grain is a staple for more than 3 billion people, and when India banned exports in 2007, global prices shot to new peaks.

Who will suffer the most if India restricts rice exports?

Any move to restrict exports from India would hit almost every rice importing country. It would also allow rival suppliers Thailand and Vietnam to raise prices that are already more than 30% above Indian shipments.

Other than serving Asian buyers like China, Nepal, Bangladesh and the Philippines, India supplies rice to countries such as Togo, Benin, Senegal and Cameroon.

What’s the role of India’s monsoon?

India’s summer-sown rice accounts for more than 85% of the country’s annual production, which jumped to a record 129.66 million tonnes in the crop year to June 2022.

Millions of farmers start planting summer rice in June, when the monsoon lashes India. The monsoon, which delivers about 70% of India’s annual rainfall, is crucial for water-thirsty rice.

Indian farmers rely on monsoon rains to water half of the country’s farmland that lacks irrigation. In 2022, India is forecast to receive an average amount of rainfall. But since June 1, when the four-month monsoon season began, rains are 41% below average.

The rains are expected pick up by mid-June and spur the sowing of rice. Three years of average or above-average rains, and new, modern farming practices have ramped-up rice output.

Should the government worry about rice supplies?

India at present has more than sufficient stocks of rice, and local prices are lower than the state-set prices at which the government buys paddy rice from farmers.

Rice export prices are also trading near the lowest in more than five years.

Meanwhile, milled and paddy rice stocks at government granaries of 57.82 million tonnes are more than quadruple a target of 13.54 million tonnes.

Unlike for wheat, India did not see a surge in rice exports after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, as the Black Sea region is not a major producer or consumer of rice.
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An international human rights defender is urging the United Nations to “reconceptualize” its travel ban on the leadership of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban to pressure them into respecting rights of all Afghans, particularly women and girls.

Human Rights Watch said in a statement Thursday that “a grave human rights crisis has been unfolding” in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over the conflict-torn country in August.

The organization said that the U.N. Security Council will be reviewing the travel-related exemptions for the Islamist group later this month and it “has an opportunity to refocus the ban on specific Taliban leaders who have been implicated in serious rights violations.”

The travel ban, which affects 41 members of the current Taliban administration in Kabul, was partially suspended three years ago to allow 14 top leaders of the then-insurgent hardline group to engage in peace talks with the United States.

Human Rights Watch pointed to the reclusive Taliban chief, Hibatullah Akhundzada, who reportedly played a decisive role in extending the ban on girls’ secondary education.  

It also named Abdul-Haq Wassiq, head of the Taliban intelligence agency, and Shaykh Muhammad Khalid Hanafi, head of the Ministry of Vice and Virtue, for their alleged human rights abuses.

Wassiq is accused of ordering extrajudicial executions and detaining and beating journalists, while Hanafi’s ministry, tasked with interpreting and enforcing the Taliban’s version of Islam, has imposed “many of the most egregious restrictions” on women and girls, according to the statement.

Heather Barr, the associate director of women’s rights division at Human Rights Watch, hailed other countries for condemning the Taliban’s continued ban on girls’ secondary school education and almost excluding women from public life, Barr said condemnations were not enough, however.

“It’s time for governments to turn consensus that the Taliban’s actions are unlawful into coordinated actions that show the Taliban that the world is ready to defend the rights of Afghans, particularly women and girls, in meaningful ways,” she argued.

The Taliban militarily ousted the Western-backed government in Kabul nearly 10 months ago and they have since rolled back many human rights Afghans had over the past 20 years, particularly those of women.

The Islamist group has banned girls from attending secondary school and female employees from returning to their jobs in some government departments. Women have been ordered to cover up fully in public, including their faces, and not to travel long distances or leave Afghanistan unless accompanied be a close male relative.

The Taliban reject the criticism of their governance-related decrees as a disrespect for Afghan cultural and Islamic tradition, insisting their policies are strictly in line with Islam, a position questioned by Islamic law scholars in other Muslim nations.

Critics are skeptical about whether the renewal of travel retractions would pressure the Taliban into reversing their rules for women. The Islamist group had introduced similar restrictions when it previously ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, completely blocking women’s access to education and work.

“Hibatullah has not even traveled out of Kandahar and it is not sure he has any plans to travel anywhere abroad,” said Torek Farhadi, a former Afghan official and political commentator. The Taliban chief is based in the southern city, Kandahar, known as the spiritual base of the group.

“As for other Taliban leaders, they need exposure to Islamic faith’s other Ulema (scholars) who could open/broaden their vision of Islam with regards to girls’ education and women’s right to work,” Farhadi said in his written comments to VOA.

“Human rights exist in Islam; it is the Taliban who have a restricted/narrow view of Islam. Their views need to be broadened by more contacts with Islamic world’s Ulemas.”

In its statement Thursday, Human Rights Watch also proposed that the U.N. secretary-general pay an official visit to Afghanistan, saying it could help redirect world attention to the situation, increase pressure on the Taliban to respect human rights, and prompt global solutions to end the country’ dire humanitarian crisis.

“Afghan women and girls are watching their rights vanish before their eyes. They need more from the world than concern. They need action.”

The international community has not recognized the Taliban as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan, saying the issue would come under consideration only after the group adheres to its pledges to protect the human rights of all Afghans and effectively counter transnational terrorist groups.

U.S. and other Western donors have suspended economic aid to Afghanistan since the return of the Taliban to power but they have sustained the flow of humanitarian assistance into the country where more than half of the estimated 40 million population needs urgent relief. 
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With the risk of arrest or injury high for those reporting on the Myanmar junta, many journalists have fled to borderlands or neighboring countries.

From there, journalists like Hsa Moo try to keep news flowing to their audiences.

Working from the Thai border, Hsa Moo documents evidence collected directly from her sources in Myanmar’s Kayin State. Her coverage includes military clashes and how the military coup is impacting communities and internally displaced people or IDPs.

It’s a tough beat. Airstrikes from Myanmar military warplanes and helicopters make travel risky in what is one of the hardest hit regions.

Under attack

Normally controlled by the Karen National Union army’s 5th Brigade, the region has come under attack from junta forces.

“When you go, you face the Burmese army shelling and everything,” said Hsa Moo, as she edited photographs of a bombed village.

But she added, “When you see the [displaced people] and when they see you, they also feel very happy because they know that somebody, some people, still care for them,”

Hsa Moo contributes to the Karen Peace Support Network, a civil society network for one of Myanmar’s ethnic groups. Made up of 30 organizations in Myanmar and Thailand, the network provides support and information to communities in the region.

Like Hsa Moo, many Myanmar journalists have chosen to work in neighboring countries. Some are trying to avoid arrest. Rights groups say the junta is using laws to target critics.

“If you are inside Burma [Myanmar] they will just block or censor everything. The government has a propaganda newspaper and the TV shows, but that is all the lies,” Hsa Moo said.

The junta is also proposing cybersecurity legislation that could block the use of Virtual Private Network or VPNs.

With access blocked in Myanmar to social media and other websites, VPNs have offered a workaround for those wanting access to information.

Many had come to rely on social media as a source of news. When Myanmar opened up in the early 2000s, a number of independent media turned to Facebook as a platform to post news from their regions.

“Myanmar is not like other countries. Before, it was called the Facebook nation because 99% of the public use Facebook so that is why [military] also tried to ban Facebook,” said a Kachin news editor, who goes by the pseudonym Seng Li.

Seng Li oversees a network of journalists, mainly in an area under the control of the Kachin Independence Organization.

Both Kachin and Kayin states have territory controlled by ethnic armed groups who want autonomy.

Apart from a 17-year cease-fire, the Kachin Independence Organization and its military arm, the Kachin Independence Army, have been at war with the Burmese army since 1961.

Rights groups believe the junta targets media to try to silence criticism.

“For the junta, the enemy is now anyone reporting a narrative that differs from the propaganda pushed out by the ludicrously named Tatmadaw ‘True News’ team,” said Phil Robertson, Asia deputy director for Human Rights Watch (HRW). Tatmadaw is the official name of Myanmar’s armed forces.

“Journalists still operating inside Myanmar are now almost all reporting from hiding, where they courageously continue to try to do their work despite huge obstacles and the risk of arrest at any time,” Robertson told VOA.

Arrest risks

Military spokesperson Gen. Zaw Min Tun has denied that the junta arrests journalists for their work.

Media workers are arrested only “if they are involved in violence or anti-military activities or treason,” he told VOA.

The regional group Reporting ASEAN however has documented over 120 arrests of journalists since the military seized power in February 2021. Of those, at least 48 are still in custody, data show.

Authorities sometimes add additional charges to those already detained, potentially adding years to their prison term.

Han Thar Neing, co-founder of news website Kamayut Media, received a two-year sentence on March 21, on charges of spreading false news.

Now, the 40-year-old faces an additional charge under an Electronic Transactions Law that could add seven years to his sentence.

It’s an unexpected turn of events for his family, who already suffer from chronic stress, unable to see him in person at Yangon’s Insein Prison.

Han Thar’s family can deliver limited food supplies to him twice a month, through the prison officials, but cannot see him.

His sister Kyi Thar says her heart sinks every time she sees footage of her brother on the news, sometimes in a blue prison uniform, his hands and ankles shackled.

“I hope for the future, journalists like my brother — including other Myanmar journalists — will be treated like the other country’s journalists,” she said. “They are journalists doing their job of covering the news and they don’t commit any crimes.”

International bodies have criticized Yangon’s treatment of prisoners held in Insein prison, including detained activists and reporters.

“Myanmar’s prisons are among the poorest and most brutal in the Southeast Asia region, so the imprisoned journalists must be facing the equivalent of hell on earth,” HRW’s Robertson told VOA.

“Incarcerated journalists should be allowed regular, unhindered access to relatives, and to legal counsel, and be made immediately eligible for release on bail,” Robertson added.

Despite the risks that reporting on life in Myanmar brings, reporters continue to cover the conflict, both from within and outside the country.
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While many Afghans have desperately sought ways to flee the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan, a handful of former Afghan government officials returned to Kabul this week to be welcomed by the Taliban.

Farooq Wardak, former minister of education, is the highest-level former official to return.

“A person’s dignity is in his own country. … I feel dignified and proud in my country,” Wardak said, with two Taliban officials at his side, after landing Wednesday at Kabul airport.

Among the former officials who have returned to Afghanistan over the past 10 days are a former deputy minister of transportation, a director of the state-run electricity company, an official from the national security council, and even a Defense Ministry spokesman who for years called the Taliban “enemies of Afghanistan” during his routine Taliban casualty updates.

“Too many people — former ministers, governors and members of parliament — have reached out to us expressing their desire to return to their home country,” Abdul Haq Wasiq told VOA. Wasiq had been named spokesman for a commission the Taliban created last month to facilitate the return of prominent Afghans residing abroad.

The commission is headed by the Taliban’s minister of mining, while its public relations wing is run by Anas Haqqani, younger brother of Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani.

The Taliban have endeavored to make good use of each high-profile returnee.

In addition to filming the returnees at Kabul airport and then spreading short videos on social media, senior Taliban officials also met with them for photo opportunities.

“We welcome you, and we’re happy that today we’re in a peaceful environment [of brotherhood] in our own country,” Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told a small group of returnees in a video released by the Taliban on Wednesday.

Search for legitimacy

More than nine months since seizing power and declaring Afghanistan an Islamic emirate, the Taliban have defied domestic and international calls to form an inclusive government, appointing a Taliban-only government and not appointing women to the Cabinet.

No country has officially recognized the Taliban’s de facto government so far.

“I think the Taliban are using this [the return of prominent Afghans] to their advantage because it sort of gives them some sort of internal legitimacy, where the return of these politicians proves that they are open to having an inclusive system,” Obaidullah Baheer, an Afghan activist, told VOA.

Taliban officials have not indicated whether the former Afghan officials will have a place in the Taliban government.

Taliban Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, the ultraconservative cleric who has held the position since 2016 but has stayed out of public view, has dissolved Afghanistan’s elections commissions, and no political parties are registered in the country.

“They return to their homes, not to work for the government,” Wasiq, the Taliban spokesman, said of the latest returnees, adding that the Taliban gave them “immunity cards” to ensure they would not be detained because of their past jobs.

Some perceive the former government officials’ return as a declaration of allegiance to the Taliban’s emirate.

Criticism

The August 2021 collapse of the former Afghan government prompted an exodus of tens of thousands of Afghans, among them senior government officials, lawmakers, journalists and human rights activists.

While the United States, Canada and Germany have taken in thousands of Afghan refugees and asylum-seekers over the past several months, large numbers of Afghans remain scattered across several countries in the region, their residential status still uncertain.

Former President Ashraf Ghani has sought humanitarian asylum in the United Arab Emirates, but many of his top political allies and government officials have stayed in Turkey.

“I will not return to the terror village the Taliban have made for our people,” Rahmatullah Nabil, a former director of Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, told VOA.

Nabil alleges that some former officials have gone back to Afghanistan for personal business interests.

“They return to retain their properties and assets,” he said, adding that during the sudden collapse of the Afghan government, many individuals could not sell their properties or transfer their assets abroad.

Prominent women staying away

Taliban officials say all former officials are allowed to return to Afghanistan.

Some, however, challenge the invitation.

“What should I return to? The Taliban did not even allow me to enter my workplace where I served for more than 12 years,” said Asila Wardak, a former Afghan diplomat.

Now living in the U.S., Wardak told VOA she would have no means of earning a living under the Taliban.

“Will Taliban leaders like Muttaqi, Haqqani and others sit with us, women, to discuss our problems?”

The Taliban have fired all female government employees except health workers and teachers and have shut secondary schools for girls.

In late February, Zarifa Ghafari, the former mayor of Maidan Shahr, the capital of Wardak province, and a 2020 recipient of the International Women of Courage Award from the U.S. State Department, returned to Afghanistan, saying, “I want to be among my people and serve.”

Two weeks later, Ghafari left the country again and started criticizing the Taliban regime for its policies toward women.

Last month, Ghafari described Afghanistan as “a prison for women” and challenged a senior Taliban official to bring his own daughters to the country.

 
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Frequent fires and a ban on construction of new boats to be used as homes or hotels are endangering the heritage houseboat industry in Kashmir. The worried houseboat owners consider the industry to be on the verge of extinction.

The elaborately decorated and often luxurious vessels — effectively small hotels that line the shores of Dal Lake and the region’s other scenic waterways — have been a major attraction for generations of foreign tourists and for Indians seeking relief from the summer heat of New Delhi.

But the number of boats has fallen from 3,000 in the 1970s to a little more than 850 today with a total capacity of around 2,400 guest rooms, according to Abdul Rasheed Khankashi, 60, who has been associated with the industry all his life. Of those, he said, almost 200 need immediate major repairs if they are to remain in operation.

The decline accelerated in 2010 when the Jammu and Kashmir High Court prohibited houseboat owners from engaging in any type of maintenance, citing the need to preserve Dal Lake’s fragile ecosystem. In April 2020, the authorities issued new guidelines permitting the owners to make some repairs, but only after an onerous process of obtaining clearances from various government agencies.

Abdul Rasheed Kloo, general-secretary of the Kashmir Houseboat Owners Association, says the process is still too burdensome. He also referred to a period after August 2019 and then the subsequent shutdown because of COVID-19, which resulted in no business.

“Is it possible for us to abide by such rules if there is no business?” Kloo asked. “The current state of affairs is that we’re unable to cover our basis costs and many among us have not even paid their electric bills for years together. … Our future is quite bleak.”

The history of houseboats in Kashmir dates from the 18th century, when a British army general made the first Doonga (small boat). The placid waters of Dal Lake, nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas, quickly became a favored summer destination for British colonialists, and the houseboats proliferated.

Most of today’s boats are built from Indian cedar and have between two and five bedrooms, a sitting and dining room, an attached washroom and pantry. Houseboats can also be found in other parts of India, but tourists are attracted by the unique style and construction of Srinagar’s boats, not to mention the stunning mountain views reflected in the lake.

But the wooden vessels are highly vulnerable to fires, which have gutted close to 10 boats on Dal and Nigeen lakes in the past year alone. Bilal Badyari, who had five of his houseboats reduced to ashes in April, told VOA that the fire started in the middle of the night.

“By the time we got to know about it, the fire went wild and destroyed all the houseboats in the row,” he said.

More than 30 tourists were on board the houseboats at the time but none was hurt. “We endangered our lives, but we evacuated and saved all tourists,” he said, explaining that the fire had been started by a tourist who was smoking.

Two other houseboats on Dal Lake in Srinagar were destroyed by fire in January. Officials were unable to determine the cause of that blaze.

Jahangir Badyari, the owner of a houseboat in Nigeen Lake, described several other challenges facing the houseboat community, including the cumbersome bureaucracy.

“We can’t even open the bank account for our business, and to have one we need government registration or renewals,” he told VOA. “That needs a No Objections Certificate from tens of government departments, which is close to impossible to get.”

Even if the construction of new boats was permitted, he said, there is a shortage of the special cedar that is traditionally used and few remaining craftsmen with the necessary skills. Kloo said his boat was first commissioned in 1984, and construction took 18 months with the help of 12 types of craftsmen.

Despite the problems, tourists who stay on the remaining houseboats rave about the experience, citing the opportunity to experience the local cuisine, learn about local customs and enjoy a unique showcase of natural splendor and cultural diversity.

“You’ll want to return to it even after you’ve checked it off your bucket list, to rediscover it as if you’d discovered it for the first time,” said Upendra Sawant, a tourist from Mumbai.

Rauf Tramboo, president of the Adventure Tour Operators Association of Kashmir, said tourists prefer to stay in their boats rather than the three- and five-star hotels that line the shores of Dal Lake. He and other tour operators hope the boats will get a boost from a plan to begin giving them star ratings, much like hotels.

There is also a move to review the rules governing the registration, renewal and operation of houseboats on Dal and Nigeen lakes.

Arun Kumar Mehta, the chief secretary of Jammu and Kashmir, presided over a meeting in April where it was resolved that a committee would take charge of inspecting the houseboats to guarantee compliance with all established rules and procedures, such as structural safety, fire hazards, and sewage and waste disposal.

The committee will also be tasked with reviewing any houseboat paperwork for registration or renewal of registration.
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