I N T E R N AT I O N A LMONDAY, JULY 24, 2017

KANDAHAR: Afghan police yesterdaylaunched a search for some 30 villagers stillmissing two days after a mass kidnappingblamed on Taleban militants in the southernprovince of Kandahar. Seventy people wereabducted Friday from their village along themain road in the south and seven of themwere found dead the following day along-side the highway, from the city of Kandaharto Tarinkot in Uruzgan province.

Around 30 people have been releasedwhile 30 others remain missing, Kandaharpolice spokesman Zia Durrani told AFP. Itremained unclear why the villagers wereseized. But some officials said they suspectedthe Taleban had kidnapped or killed them forsuspected cooperation with the Western-backed government which the militants arestriving to topple. The insurgents have a heavypresence in Uruzgan, a poppy-growing area.

Yesterday they denied involvement, whileconfirming they had attacked police check-points in the area. “Our mujahideen killed anumber of local police and pro-governmentmilitias there, also capturing 17 suspects whowere later released after interrogation. Wehave not killed or kidnapped any civilians,”the Taleban said in a statement. Civilians areincreasingly caught in the crosshairs ofAfghanistan’s worsening conflict as theTaleban step up their annual spring offensivelaunched in April.

Highways passing through insurgency-prone areas have become exceedingly dan-gerous, with the Taleban and other armedgroups frequently kidnapping or killing trav-elers. In July Taleban fighters closed a high-way connecting Farah to Herat city in thewest, stopping a bus and forcing 16 passen-gers off it. They shot at least seven of themwhile the remainder was taken hostage.

Elsewhere in the country, the Taleban yes-terday captured a district in the northernprovince of Faryab after an overnight attackthat triggered hours of heavy fighting, saidprovincial police spokesman Abdul KarimYourish. He said troops had retreated twokilometers from the centre of Kohistan dis-trict. There was no word on casualties.

Local media on Sunday also reported thatthe Taleban had overran Taywara district inthe central province of Ghor, though therewas no immediate official confirmation.There has been a surge in fighting in severalnorthern and southern Afghan provinces inrecent days, including in Helmand in thesouth where 16 Afghan police officers werekilled by a US air strike on Friday night.

The strike, the latest setback inWashington’s efforts to pacify the country, hita compound in Gereshk district, large partsof which are under Taleban control.

Afghan troops and police are battlinglargely alone on the ground against the

insurgency, after US-led foreign forces with-drew from most combat operations inDecember 2014.

The United States is actively consideringsending more troops to Afghanistan and UScommanders there have requested thou-sands of extra soldiers on the ground. The UScontingent now numbers about 8,400, andthere are another 5,000 from NATO allies, a

far cry from the US presence of more than100,000 six years ago. They mainly serve astrainers and advisers.

Taleban seize 2 districtsMeanwhile, Taleban fighters overran a sec-

ond district headquarters in as many days onSunday, this one in western Ghor province,the provincial police chief said. At least eight

police were killed in separate battles againstTaleban militants, who have stepped up theirattacks in the north and west of the countrylaying siege to district headquarters, saidMohammad Mustafa Moseni.

Moseni said the Taleban launched fourassaults on Ghor’s Taywara district headquar-ters early yesterday and “we had no choicebut to retreat.” He said police have taken uppositions about 8 kilometers (5 miles) fromthe district headquarters while they wait forreinforcements to launch a counterattack.After capturing Taywara district Talebanfighters stalked the corridors of the only hos-pital looking for wounded Afghan NationalSecurity personnel to kill, said provincialpublic health department director GhulamNabi Yaghana.

He said he received reports that theykilled four or five patients. The area is remoteand telephone communication is sporadic, hetold The Associated Press in a telephoneinterview from the provincial capital ofFerozkoh. He said Taleban entered the 20-bedhospital early yesterday. It’s believed all thedead are military or police personnel, he said.The Taleban, in a statement to the media,announced the capture of Taywara districtheadquarters. The statement, however, said46 Afghan government security forces werekilled. The Associated Press could not inde-pendently verify either death toll. — Agencies

Afghan police search for villagers after kidnapping

KABUL: In this photograph taken on July 21, 2017, Afghan Shiite mourners gatherto offer prayers for their relatives, members of the ‘Enlightenment Movement’,buried in a graveyard on the outskirts of Kabul. — AFP

CARACAS: Venezuela’s opposition has called a fresh 48-hour general strike against embattled President NicolasMaduro’s plans to have the constitution rewritten givinghim broader powers. The walk-out comes as violent andsometimes deadly protests continue amid a political andeconomic crisis that has led to shortages of basic goodsand soaring inflation. “We are calling out the entire people,all groups in society, for a 48-hour strike” Wednesday andThursday, lawmaker Simon Calzadilla said.

Calzadilla said that the strike would be capped onFriday with a march demanding that Maduro officiallyscrap his Constituent Assembly vote scheduled for July 30.Earlier on Saturday, police on motorcycles fired tear gas tobreak up an opposition march on the Supreme Court topress demands that elected socialist Maduro leave office.That rally was also meant as a show of support for a slate of33 magistrates-a so-called shadow supreme court-whosenames were put forward Friday by the opposition toreplace Venezuela’s current high court, which is closelyallied with Maduro and frequently rules in his favor.

Emboldened by a nationwide strike on Thursday thatparalyzed parts of the capital Caracas and otherVenezuelan cities, opposition leaders held a mock swear-ing-in ceremony Friday for the shadow court ’s new“judges.” Many of the actual court’s justices were hastilyappointed shortly before Maduro’s ruling party lost itsmajority in congress. “Everyone has given their backing tothe new Supreme Court,” tweeted Freddy Guevara, a leaderof the opposition-led congress.

‘They won’t frighten me’ “We support the new judges because they will restore

independence to the Supreme Court,” said 43-year-olddemonstrator Luis Torrealba, marching with his wife andteenage son. Their swearing in was condemned by thegovernment as “incitement to subversion” and an act of“treason,” and officials threatened to throw the dissidentsinto prison. One of the judges was arrested by intelligence

services, the National Assembly said on Twitter. Madurosaid the opposition’s bid to derail the constitutional assem-bly would fail. “We are going to be implacable if they try touse violence to stop what cannot be stopped,” the presi-dent warned on television.

In Saturday’s march, hundreds of people took to a keyCaracas motorway to head downtown toward the courtbuilding. But uniformed National Guard troops ridingmotorcycles fired tear gas to disperse them. Wuilly Arteaga,a violinist who has gained celebrity for playing at manymarches, was injured and taken to a clinic. The 23-year-oldwas seen with blood pouring from cuts on the left side ofhis face. He said later he had been struck with buckshot.

“They are not going to frighten me,” Arteaga said in avideo he posted on Twitter. The musician became an iconof the protest movement when he was pictured calmlyweaving through tear gas with his violin on his shoulder,playing the classic Venezuelan folk song “Alma Llanera.”Immortalized in photographs from that performance dur-ing a demonstration on May 8, he said he meant it as a“message of peace.”

Deadly marches With the situation already inflamed, the stakes have

risen further, after the United States threatened economicsanctions if Maduro proceeds with his controversial votefor a body to rewrite the constitution. The president hasvowed to maintain the election of 545 members to theConstitutional Assembly. Saturday’s demonstrations, likemany others since April, were organized by the DemocraticUnity Roundtable, a coalition of political oppositiongroups. The number of deaths in protests across the coun-try since April has reached 103 — about one fatality perday. Datanalisis surveys have shown that more than 70 per-cent of Venezuelans reject Maduro’s leadership. But thepresident has brushed aside moves to oust him because hecan count on the loyalty of the Venezuelan military, whichhas been given control of swaths of the economy. — AFP

CARACAS: Opposition activists hide behind shields as they clash with the police during a march towards the SupremeCourt of Justice (TSJ) in an offensive against President Maduro and his call for Constituent Assembly. — AFP

Venezuelan opposition

readies fresh strike

Plans to have the constitution rewritten

PARIS: A poll out yesterday shows the popularity ratingof France’s new President Emmanuel Macron hasslumped 10 points to hit 54 percent over the past month.While Macron has made a strong start on the world stageand won a solid majority in parliament, his first threemonths in power have not been completely trouble-free.

He was widely criticized by opponents and the pressas heavy-handed after a row over budget cuts that end-ed with the resignation of a highly-regarded militarychief. The 39-year-old leader has also backed a contro-versial bill to toughen France’s security laws that includesmeasures some rights groups have branded as dracon-ian. His majority in parliament has drawn concern, withopponents and several newspapers expressing concernover the concentration of power in the presidency.

According to an Ifop poll carried out for Journal duDimanche newspaper, the number of French people sat-

isfied with his performance fell 10 points from 64 per-cent in June. Macron’s Prime Minister Edouard Philippemarked an eight point drop to hit 56 percent of Frenchpeople happy with him, said the poll of 1,947 adults car-ried out from July 17-22. France’s youngest-ever presi-dent, who has sought to project an image of authoritysince taking office in May, made clear during the rowwith the military boss that he would brook no insubordi-nation as commander-in-chief.

The leftist Liberation newspaper said Macron’s “littleauthoritarian fit” could be a sign he was drunk on powerand said it was time for him “to grow up a bit”. A relativenewcomer to politics who won election on a tide of dis-affection with mainstream politics, Macron has enjoyed ahoneymoon with voters, drawing particular praise forstanding up to US President Donald Trump and Russia’sVladimir Putin. — AFP

Popularity tumbles for

France’s Macron: Poll

JOHANNESBURG: A new book by a for-mer South African military doctor thatdocuments Nelson Mandela’s medicaltreatments before his 2013 death vio-lates doctor-patient confidentiality,according to some relatives of the anti-apartheid leader and Nobel laureate.

But the retired doctor, VejayRamlakan, said in an interview thisweekend on the eNCA news channelthat the Mandela family had requestedthat the book be written. WhileRamlakan declined to say which familymembers had given permission for thebook, his remarks could indicate contin-uing rifts in a family whose membershave feuded over the years on issuessuch as inheritance.

The book, “Mandela’s Last Years,” cov-ers Mandela’s health while he wasimprisoned during white minority rule,during his tenure as South Africa’s firstblack president and in retirement. It alsofocuses on the dramatic final months ofMandela’s life, when he was suffering alung infection and other ailments before

dying at age 95. “It documents the com-plex medical decisions; disputesbetween family members and staff; mili-tary, political, financial and securitydemands; constant scrutiny from thepress; and the wishes of Mandela him-self, all of which contributed to what heand those closest to him would experi-ence in his final days,” according toPenguin Random House, the publisher.

Mandela’s widow, Graca Machel, said sheis considering legal action and will con-sult with the executors of Mandela’s will,South African media reported.

“We are deeply disappointed that thedoctor appears to have compromisedhimself and the man whom he had theprivilege to serve,” Nkosi Mandela, agrandson of the anti-apartheid leader,said in a statement. He said the bookmight contain ethical violations. In theeNCA interview, Ramlakan said he hadpermission to write the book and that“all parties who needed to be consultedwere consulted.” Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Mandela’s ex-wife and a promi-nent figure in the anti-apartheid move-ment, was with her former husbandwhen he died, according to Ramlakan, aformer surgeon general of South Africawho headed Mandela’s medical team.“She’s the one who was there when hepassed on,” he said. “I think Mrs. Machelwas in the house or busy with otherissues. But I have no idea because I wasfocusing on my patient.” — AP

Nelson Mandela’s book on

his treatment stirs dispute

JOHANNESBURG: In this Jan 31, 2006file photo former South AfricanPresident Nelson Mandela smilesduring his meeting. — AP