Category: Foreign

Agency Reporter

 

Unknown miscreants have vandalised a statue of Mahatma Gandhi outside the Indian embassy in the US with graffiti and spray painting, prompting the mission officials to register a complaint with the local law enforcement agencies.

The incident is reported to have taken place on the intervening night of June 2 and 3 in Washington DC.

The Indian embassy has informed the State Department and registered a complaint with local law enforcement agencies, which are now conducting an investigation into the incident.

On Wednesday, a team of officials from Metropolitan Police in consultation with the Diplomatic Security Service and National Park Police visited the site and are conducting inquiries.

Efforts are on to clean up the site at the earliest.

Vandalism of the statue of the apostle of peace comes during the week of nationwide protests against the custodial killing of African-American George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25.

Several of these protests have turned violent which many times has resulted in damage of some of the most prestigious and sacred American monuments.

In Washington DC, protesters this week burnt a historic church and damaged some of the prime properties and historic places like the national monument and Lincoln Memorial.

One of the few statues of a foreign leader on a federal land in Washington DC, the statue of Mahatma Gandhi was dedicated by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in the presence of the then US president Bill Clinton on September 16, 2000 during his state visit to the US.

In October 1998, the US Congress had authorised the government of India to establish and maintain a memorial to honour Mahatma Gandhi on Federal land in the District of Columbia.”

According to the Indian Embassy website, the sculpture of Mahatma Gandhi is cast in bronze as a statue to a height of 8 feet 8 inches. It shows Gandhi in stride, as a leader and man of action evoking memories of his 1930 protest march against salt-tax, and the many padyatras (long marches) he undertook throughout the length and breadth of the Indian sub-continent.

The statue, the design of which was created by Gautam Pal, is a gift from the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR). The pedestal for the statue of Mahatma Gandhi is a block of new Imperial Red also known as Ruby Red a block originally weighing 25 tonnes reduced to a size of 9’x7’x3’4″. It now weighs 16 tonnes.

The lead attorney for George Floyd’s family, Benjamin Crump, has said that the family is relieved to see new charges against police officers involved in the case, but believes that they should have been arrested earlier.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has announced that charges against Derek Chauvin, a police officer involved in the fatal arrest, have been upgraded to second-degree murder, and that new charges have been filed against three other officers involved.

“Well, they (Floyd family) are relieved … But we all believe that the officers should have been arrested on the first day after they offered no humanity to a man who was … in handcuffs, and held the knee on his neck, kept two knees on his back that our autopsy found could press his lungs,” Crump told MSNBC broadcaster.

One of the witnesses, who was on the scene compared Floyd to a “fish out of water”, Crump recalled.

“It was right to charge all of these officers … for disobeying their oath,” the attorney said, condemning police brutality.

The new second-degree murder charge alleges that there was an intent to kill, which could be punished by 40 years in prison.

READ ALSO: George Floyd for burial June 9

Commenting on this, Crump said that he and Floyd’s family believed that all the officers involved should respond to “the full extent of the law, whatever that is.”
“They treated him less than an animal. They should stay in prison for the rest of their lives,” Crump said.

The attorney stressed that he had confidence in Ellison, even though “it is difficult to convict white police officers for killing black people in America.”

On May 25, Floyd died in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after Chauvin pressed his knee to Floyd’s neck for over eight minutes, while the African American man was lying handcuffed face down on the street.

While lying pressed to the ground, the man repeated complained that he could not breathe.
Since then, the U.S. has been rocked by violent protests against police brutality and racism.

(Sputnik/NAN)

China on Wednesday accused Britain of having a “colonial mentality,” after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised Hong Kong residents a path to citizenship if China enacted planned national security laws.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Britain’s historical link to Hong Kong stemmed from “aggressive, colonial and unequal treaties.”

“We urge the British side to retreat from the cliff, abandon the Cold War mentality and colonial mentality, recognise, and respect the fact that Hong Kong has returned” to China, Zhao said, or else Britain risked “smashing its own feet with the rock it is lifting”.

The statement came after Johnson pledged to change Britain’s immigration law to offer Hong Kong residents a path to citizenship if Beijing enacted the national security laws for the financial hub.

READ ALSO: Hong Kong, China and Western hypocrisy

In an opinion piece published in the South China Morning Post, Johnson said Britain expected China to abide by international agreements, referring to the 1984 joint Sino-British declaration, which aimed to protect Hong Kong’s freedoms.

The former British colony of Hong Kong was handed over to China in 1997.

China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress, last week approved a plan to establish new laws in Hong Kong targeting subversion, secession and terrorism.

Critics say the laws will be the death of the “One Country, Two Systems” framework, which guarantees certain freedoms for Hong Kong until 2047.

On Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said China should “step back from the brink” regarding the law, which is expected to be rolled out as soon as August.

Meanwhile, protests have returned to Hong Kong, with police cracking down on anti-government demonstrators.

More disruption is expected on Thursday, when a bill that would outlaw mocking the national anthem will be decided in Hong Kong’s legislature.

(dpa/NAN)

The recent death of Hana Kimura, a bubbly, pink-haired 22-year-old wrestler and reality TV show star, has spotlighted a rise in cyber bullying in Japan and prompted swift official pledges to do more to protect victims.

Kimura, a cast member on the popular programme “Terrace House,” was found dead at her home on May 23 from an apparent suicide after being deluged with negative comments on her social media feeds.

Acutely aware of the public debate spurred by her death, Japan’s ruling party is holding hearings from this week to consider legal changes that will help cyber bullying victims seek justice.

“People must understand where the line between constructive criticism and abuse lies,” Junko Mihara, a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, who is leading the party’s team on online harassment, told Reuters.

Kimura’s death has been a lightning bolt as many Japanese spend more time online because of coronavirus lockdown measures.

Celebrities, politicians and companies have all weighed into the debate.

In a 2018 Ipsos poll, Japan ranked the highest among 28 countries saying cyber bullying prevention measures were insufficient, but among the lowest for public awareness about online abuse.

Google data showed the number of reported cyber bullying cases at schools more than doubled in the four years to 2018.

Yet the legal recourse for victims – a lengthy court process to impel internet service providers to identify anonymous posters before those posters can be sued – has not changed since a law was established in 2001, before Twitter or Facebook were created.

Experts and victims have welcomed the political momentum to update the law.

“On the internet, the balance between freedom of speech and dignity is completely skewed, with no protection in place for personal dignity,” said Daisuke Tsuda, an author of several books about online media.

But Tsuda cautioned against knee-jerk regulation that could allow authorities to regulate content on social media, preferring changes to legislation that would expedite the process of identifying anonymous posters.

Indonesian-Japanese Kimura was a cast member on the latest season of “Terrace House,” a show produced by Japan’s Fuji Television Network and distributed globally by Netflix, which put six young people in a home together and let viewers watch their daily interactions.

Unlike the globally franchised “Big Brother” there’s no end goal or major prize and the series became known for its gentler story lines and general lack of high drama.

But some critics claim it did have a darker side, particularly via a panel of celebrity watchers who provided sometimes biting commentary on the house members.

Kimura, who was introduced as a fun-loving jokester, attracted increased negative attention online after upbraiding a housemate for ruining one of her wrestling costumes.

READ ALSO: Don Jazzy as victim of cyber bullying

Kimura was also attacked for her appearance, with many posts calling her ugly and a few calling her a “gorilla,” an apparently racist reference to her Indonesian heritage.

On May 23, she posted images of bloodied, apparently slit wrists on Twitter and wrote that she was hurt by posts telling her to “die” and “disappear.”

“I wanted to be loved. I’m sorry for being weak,” she wrote just hours before her death. Authorities have not formally announced the cause, but police investigators reportedly found a suicide letter at her house.

Fuji TV president Ryunosuke Endo said he was sorry for not giving Kimura the “delicate and consistent” support she needed.

The network has deleted several tweets linked to the current season, including one promoting the costume incident, and cancelled the rest of the current season. It said it had no plans to make a new series.

Netflix extended “sincere condolences” to Kimura’s family in a May 23 tweet, and declined to comment further. The season remains available on the streaming service’s Japanese platform.

Along with lawmakers, internet service providers have sensed the mood around Kimura’s death.

Yahoo Japan has said it would share its technology with other social media to detect abusive posts, and launch a review panel including legal experts this month.

Twitter said it “would like to take action as soon as possible” against online abuse, while Instagram urged customers to use its reporting tools and contact emergency services.

Smiley Kikuchi, a comedian who has long received online abuse stemming from a false rumour he was involved in a murder case, said the internet had moved faster than legislation.

“People are getting the abuse I got over 20 years in just six months now. That’s how quick and devastating the damage is. And yet the law has barely,” he told Reuters.

(Reuters/NAN)

Over 19,000 people demonstrated in Paris on Tuesday evening, calling for justice over the death of black Frenchman, Adama Traore, in police custody in 2016, according to a police source quoted by BFM television.

The demonstrators started gathering in the late afternoon in front of the Paris Court near the ring road in the north of the capital, brandishing slogans such as “Black Lives Matter” and “I can’t breathe”, which echoed protests over the death of George Floyd, an African American, who died in police custody last week, in the United States.

The rally turned violent hours later, as some demonstrators set fires and put up barricades, with the traffic of the section of the ring road blocked.

Traore lost consciousness in a police vehicle and died at a police station in July 2016 after he was arrested for a dispute over an identity check, according to French media, with many reports pointing out that the man had no previous criminal record.

READ ALSO: George Floyd death: Trump threatens to send in army to end unrest

State investigators exonerated three police officers from an accusation of heavy-handedness in the arrest of Traore, saying that the 24-year old black died of a heart attack due to pre-existing medical condition.

His family said he died from asphyxiation from police tactics.

On Tuesday morning, Paris Police announced that the demonstration was not authorised, as public gatherings of more than 10 people are prohibited due to the coronavirus epidemic.

(Xinhua/NAN)