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KLMNO THE WORLD LETTER FROM KASHMIR
A test of power and popularity
Young chief minister attempts to quell protests amid criticism of his leadership
in srinagar, indian-administered kashmir by Emily Wax A
s India’s youngest chief minister, Omar Abdullah, 40, has posed for the cover of GQ magazine. MTV-India featured him whitewater rafting in this disputed re-
gion’s mountain-fringed rapids, and until recently, he was best known for his youthful blogs on Kashmiri politics and for playing himself in the Bollywood film “Mission Istanbul.” A third-generation scion of Kashmir’s most famous politi- cal family, Abdullah became an icon of a new breed of young and dynamic leadership, a symbol of hope in the troubled Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir after his party won the most seats in the 2008 elections here.
But this summer, Abdullah has faced his toughest political test as the state’s chief minister after simmering public protests ex- ploded when a 17-year-old was killed in a clash with Indian po- lice and paramilitary soldiers. In the weeks following, at least 14 more people have been killed, in- cluding teenage anti-India pro- testers tossing stones at security forces and civilians hit by stray bullets while leaning out of their windows or walking to work. Abdullah said he felt forced to call in the Indian army after po- lice and paramilitary units failed to control weeks of street protests in this mountainous region, nes- tled between Pakistan and India and claimed by both. Text mes- sages were shut down and the popular social media Web sites Facebook — used to organize pro- tests — and YouTube — used to promote them — suddenly be- came the subject of Abdullah’s scorn and police monitoring. Abdullah had faced criticism
before. But suddenly he was in the hot seat, accused of being an aloof puppet of India, out of touch with Kashmiris’ deep mistrust of the army and the young people’s dream of freedom from India. “I’ve had better days, but I’ve had worse, too,” Abdullah said in an interview in his bungalow in Kashmir’s summer capital of Sri-
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nagar. “That’s why they say chief minister of Kashmir is one of the toughest jobs in the country.” Blocking text messages was not
a violation of free speech, Ab- dullah said, but an important tool in controlling the cycle of pro- tests, killings and counterprotests in Kashmir. “Democracy has re- sponsibilities. It gives you rights, but how you use it also has reper- cussions in Kashmir that can be deadly,” said Abdullah, wearing a gray suit with a pink tie and jab-
CHINA MUKHTAR KHAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Abdullah, 40, India’s youngest chief minister, had been riding high on popular support until he called in the army to quell the protests.
bing at his BlackBerry. In June, Abdullah was riding high on popular support. Before a visit by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Abdullah spoke out about allegations that the army had killed three in- nocent youngsters and passed them off as militants. The army ended up suspending a major. “Almost every encounter now has a question mark,” Abdullah said before Singh’s visit. “Army is the judge, jury and the hangman.
There’s absence of transparency, as a result of which people have lost faith in the system.” The irony, many here say, is
that just a few weeks later Ab- dullah had to turn to that same army when the protests turned into a deadly cycle. In Kashmir, Indian security forces operate under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AF- SPA), also known here as “black laws,” which give authorities broad authorization to arrest,
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search, and shoot without ques- tions. Human rights groups say they have led to arbitrary arrests, killings and torture. Many Kashmiris want a reduc- tion of these powers and the drawdown of hundreds of thou- sands of security personnel, who occupy every street corner, their machine-gun nests surrounded by sandbags and barbed wire. Zafarul-Islam Kahn, the pub- lisher of the Milli Gazette, the country’s leading Indian Muslim newspaper, said Abdullah’s call- ing in the army “was like putting petrol on fire.” Kashmiris saw his actions as insensitive and extreme and won- dered why modern crowd-control methods weren’t used. “The problem is that Omar Ab- dullah has never lived in the Kashmir that ordinary Kashmiris live in,” said Basharat Peer, author of “Curfewed Night,” a book that describes a generation of Kash- miris haunted by war and loss. “In his Kashmir, you don’t stop at a military check post, you don’t raise your hands and show your identity card, you don’t feel the humiliation and vulnerability that comes with living with an
overbearing military presence.” Nuclear-armed neighbors In- dia and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir and continue to dispute ownership of the for- mer Himalayan princedom, In- dia’s only Muslim-majority state. Peace talks have been stalled since deadly attacks on Mumbai in November 2008, which Delhi blames on a Pakistani-based mil- itant group.
English-born Abdullah inher- ited the party leadership in 2002 from his father, Farooq Abdullah. Omar Abdullah is also the grand- son of Sheikh Muhammad Ab- dullah, who was one of Jammu and Kashmir’s most important leaders. Those who defend Omar Abdullah say that he has inher- ited chronic problems and that he is well-intentioned and will be- come more sophisticated about Kashmir’s
rough-and-tumble
politics. “We’ve had two bad weeks —
that doesn’t mean the whole year is like that,” Abdullah said, with a black-and-white framed photo- graph of his grandfather on his desk. “I’m still here. I haven’t run away.”
waxe@washpost.com European Union imposes new economic sanctions against Iran
Move comes after strong pressure from Obama administration
by Edward Cody
paris — Falling into step with the United States, European na- tions significantly broadened eco- nomic sanctions against Iran on Monday in what was described as an effort to force Tehran to re- sume serious negotiations on its disputed nuclear program. The new measures targeting
petroleum, banking, shipping, in- surance and transportation in ad- dition to nuclear-related indus-
tries were approved in Brussels by foreign ministers of the 27-nation European Union after weeks of diplomatic consultations and strong pressure from the Obama administration. Similar to a new package of U.S.
sanctions imposed last month, the European controls go well be- yond the strengthened sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council on June 9. In their sweep and severity, they demonstrate in- creasing frustration among Euro- pean governments at Iran’s refus- al to submit to international con- trols intrusive enough to guarantee against the ability to make nuclear weapons. The Iranian government insists that its nuclear development is
for peaceful purposes, such as medical research and electricity production. But it has repeatedly sought to conceal the nature and extent of its uranium enrichment and other research from Interna- tional Atomic Energy Agency in- spectors, leading to a widely shared suspicion that it is trying to gain the know-how to build a nuclear arsenal. President Mahmoud Ahmadi- nejad warned Sunday that Iran would retaliate against European countries that imposed the new sanctions, describing them as steps forced on Europe by the United States. “Anybody who par- ticipates in the U.S. scenario will be considered a hostile country,” he said, according to news agency
reports from Iran. The new European sanctions,
to go into effect immediately, are designed to prevent investment, assistance or technology transfers by European companies in the oil and gas industries that form the basis of the Iranian economy. As described by diplomats in Brus- sels, the ban also applies to assis- tance in refining petroleum prod- ucts, a particular Iranian vulner- ability. Although it is a leading oil producer, Iran imports about 40 percent of its gasoline because of inadequate refining capacity. In addition, the measures seek to freeze foreign holdings of Irani- an banks, putting a crimp on the country’s trade, and prohibit Eu- ropean insurance firms from
DIGEST AFGHANISTAN
Sailors took wrong turn, NATO says
The two U.S. Navy sailors who disappeared Friday left a base on the outskirts of Kabul called Camp Julien, which houses NATO’s counterinsurgency acad- emy, and might have taken a wrong turn that sent them toward Logar province, NATO of- ficials said. Although NATO characterizes both men as missing, Afghan offi- cials and a Taliban spokesman said one of the two was killed in a shootout with insurgents in the dangerous Charkh district of Lo- gar. Their disappearance has prompted a manhunt in Logar, with U.S. and Afghan troops searching cars and houses for the Americans. After the apparent killing of one American and the abduction of another, NATO has tightened its security. Now, U.S. military personnel are prohibited from driving alone and must travel in convoys of at least two vehicles, NATO officials said. Why the two sailors drove into Logar and which unit they were
part of remain undisclosed. Lo- gar borders Kabul to the south but is a long drive, and it is un- clear why the sailors would not have turned around if they were lost. Adm. Mike Mullen, chair- man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on a visit to Kabul that their trip appeared to be an “unusual circumstance.”
— Joshua Partlow
Claim of civilian deaths disputed
The Afghan government said
Monday that 52 civilians, includ- ing women and children, died when a NATO rocket struck a vil- lage in southern Afghanistan last week — a report disputed by the international coalition. A statement by President Ha- mid Karzai’s office said an in- vestigation by Afghan intelli- gence determined that a NATO rocket slammed into the village of Rigi in the Sangin district of Helmand province, one of the most violent areas of the country. The U.S.-led command said a
NATO-Afghan investigation into the alleged attack “has thus far revealed no evidence of civilians
GERMANY PATRIK STOLLARZ/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE VIA GETTY IMAGES
A man grieves at a memorial at the entrance to the Love Parade grounds in Duisburg, where 19 people were killed in a stampede.
injured or killed.” — Associated Press IRAQ
Bombing in holy city kills Shiite pilgrims
Two car bombs targeting pil- grims in the southern city of Kar- bala killed at least 20 people Monday evening, and a bombing
outside the Baghdad bureau of a popular Arab satellite television station left at least six people dead earlier in the day, Iraqi offi- cials said. The car bombs detonated near the southern entrance of the holy city of Karbala, which has a shrine that millions of Iraqi and Iranian Shiite pilgrims visit each year. Karbala police spokesman Ala al-Ghanemi said that at least
50 people were wounded in the bombing, most of them pilgrims entering the city on foot. Southern Iraqi cities have been
relatively secure in recent years, but militants have launched spo- radic attacks against civilians in recent months. Iraqi and U.S. offi- cials have said that insurgents could be trying to stoke sectarian hatred by attacking Shiite pil- grims. Others have blamed such violence on armed wings of rival Shiite political factions. Earlier in the day, a suicide bomber was able to get into a heavily guarded compound in central Baghdad and detonate ex- plosives outside the offices of the Dubai-based al-Arabiya channel. The Iraqi Interior Ministry said the blast killed six people. — Ernesto Londoño
CAMBODIA
Khmer Rouge official sentenced to 35 years
A United Nations-backed tri- bunal in Phnom Penh sentenced the Khmer Rouge’s chief jailer to 35 years for overseeing the deaths of up to 16,000 people — the first verdict involving a senior mem-
ber of the “killing fields” regime that devastated a generation of Cambodians. Victims and their relatives burst into tears after learning that Kaing Khek Iev — also known as Duch — will serve only 19 years because of time served and other factors. He was con- victed of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The tribunal said it took into consideration the historical context of the atroci- ties: The regime was the product of the troubled Cold War era. — Associated Press
Police interview French heiress: Liliane Bettencourt, the 87-year- old heiress to the L’Oreal cosmet- ics fortune, was questioned Mon- day by French investigators in a probe into her finances that has embroiled President Nicolas Sar- kozy’s government.
Returned detainee indicted in Al- geria: Aziz Abdul Naji, a former detainee at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who was transferred to his native Algeria this month, has been indicted on charges that have not been re- vealed.
— From news services
dealing with Iranian companies. Moreover, they aim to block hold- ings of Iranian shipping compa- nies accused of helping the coun- try get around previous sanctions against goods helpful to the nu- clear development program. Because the new restrictions
threaten lucrative European trade with Iran, several governments were hesitant about imposing them, including those of Ger- many, Malta and Greece, accord- ing to reports in Paris and Brus- sels. But other European govern- ments, particularly France and Britain, were eager to see the E.U. sanctions stiffened as a way to convince Tehran that it must abandon its nuclear ambitions. The E.U.’s foreign policy repre-
sentative, Catherine Ashton, re- cently proposed resuming nu- clear discussions between Iran and the six-nation group seeking to set up controls: the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany. Brazil and Turkey, which have sought to work out a compromise, said Sun- day they also would be willing to participate if the talks resumed in September as suggested. Canada also on Monday im- posed new sanctions against Iran, including a ban on any new Cana- dian investment in its oil and gas sector and restrictions on export- ing goods that could be used in nuclear programs, the Associated Press reported.
codyej@washpost.com CHINA BHUTAN DAR YASIN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
A protester throws an effigy of Omar Abdullah, chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir state, during a recent protest in Srinagar, the summer capital. Indian-administered Kashmir has witnessed curfews and strikes for nearly a month after anti-India street protests surged.
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