TOKYO – A Vietnamese man held in a solitary cell at an immigration detention centre in Japan died on Saturday, raising fresh questions over the monitoring of individuals in the country’s detention system.

The man died at the East Japan Immigration Center in Ibaraki prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, a spokesman for the centre said on Monday.

Two men, one of whom was also held in a solitary cell, died at the same facility in 2014.

The dead man, Van Huan Nguyen, was one of more than 11,000 refugees taken in by Japan over the three decades to 2005 in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, two people who knew him said.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the man’s identity.

Nguyen did not have relatives in Japan but had many friends, said one of the people.

“He was a bright, fun person,” she said. “I can’t believe he died.”

The East Japan Immigration Center said a guard found a Vietnamese man in his forties lying unconscious in his cell at around 1 a.m. on Saturday.

The guard called an ambulance and performed cardiac massage on the detainee before he was sent to hospital, where his death was confirmed around 80 minutes later.

The centre said the cause of death was not yet known and the authorities would hold an autopsy.

It declined to say why the man had been detained, or for how long.

“The fact that someone died in a detention centre should be taken seriously,” Kiyoshi Yasutomi, chairman of a watchdog that monitors the centre, told Reuters, but declined further comment, because he did not know the cause of death.

A Reuters investigation last year into the death of a Sri Lankan held in a solitary cell at a different facility in Tokyo revealed serious gaps in medical care and monitoring in Japan’s immigration detention system.

The Vietnamese man’s death takes to 13 the toll of deaths in Japan’s immigration detention system since 2006.

Four of the cases before the most recent death were suicide.

Mental health problems are rife in Japan’s immigration detention system, psychiatrists working at the centres and detainees have told Reuters.

Many detainees are held for months and even years without knowledge of when they will be released, and many develop depression, anxiety and insomnia.

GORONTALO, INDONESIA – Indonesian toddler Salsa Djafar was wearing a glittering golden crown decorated with ribbons and a shiny purple dress to mark a special occasion – her circumcision day.

At the celebrations attended by relatives, shrieks filled the modest, yellow-walled house in remote Gorontalo province as a traditional healer covered the 18-month-old girl with a white sheet and sliced skin off her genitals.

The healer used a knife to remove a tiny piece of skin from the hood that covers the clitoris – which she said looked like a “garlic skin” – then stuck the knife into a lemon.

It marked the end of a procedure supposed to rid the child of sin and signal she was now officially a Muslim.

“It’s hard to see her crying like this, but it is tradition,” her father Arjun Djafar, a 23-year-old labourer, told AFP at last month’s ceremony.

Female circumcision – also known as female genital mutilation or FGM – has been practised for generations across Indonesia, which is the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country, and is considered a rite of passage by many.

The United Nations condemns the practice and the government once sought to ban it, but opposition from religious authorities and its widespread acceptance mean FGM has been impossible to stamp out.

Nowhere is it more common than Gorontalo, a deeply conservative area on the central island of Sulawesi, where the procedure is typically accompanied by elaborate rituals and celebrations.

A government survey estimated over 80 per cent of girls aged 11 and under in Gorontalo had been circumcised, compared to about 50 per cent of girls in the same category nationwide.

An obligation

Despite the pain it causes and growing opposition inside and outside Indonesia, residents of Gorontalo, mostly poor rice farmers, consider female circumcision an obligation.

The healer, Khadijah Ibrahim, who inherited her job from her mother when she passed away several years ago, said that girls who were left uncut risked developing “mental problems and disabilities”.

Local healers say the practice prevents girls from becoming promiscuous in later life, while there is also a widespread belief that uncircumcised Muslim women’s prayers will not be accepted by God.

But the practice is not limited to far-flung parts of the archipelago.

It remains common among Muslim families even in Jakarta, although doctors there typically carry out a less extreme form of the procedure that involves pricking the clitoral hood with a needle.

In an effort to accommodate cultural and religious considerations, the government has moved away from previous attempts to ban the practice entirely and has instead sought to stamp out the more harmful methods and ensure safety.

Authorities insist the methods most commonly used in Indonesia – usually involving a pin prick – do not amount to female genital mutilation.

The methods used in Indonesia are generally less harsh than the most brutal forms of FGM found mainly in African and Middle Eastern countries, that can go as far as total removal of the clitoris.

The UN however disagrees with the Indonesian government’s stance, classifying FGM among “harmful procedures to the female genitalia for non-medical purposes” and has passed two resolutions aimed at stopping it worldwide in recent years.

The global body says FGM has no health benefits and can cause many problems, such as infertility and an increased risk of childbirth complications.

‘Not in Quran’

Debate within Indonesia has been heating up in recent times, with activists and even a major Muslim organisation arguing against female circumcision, saying it violates a woman’s right to do as she wishes with her body.

“I believe there are no verses in my religion that allow female circumcision – it is not in the Quran,” Khorirah Ali, a member of the government-backed national commission on violence against women, told AFP.

The country’s second-biggest Muslim organisation, Muhammadiyah, discourages its followers from partaking in circumcision but the largest, Nahdlatul Ulama, and the country’s top Islamic authority the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) are still in favour.

The issue is a hot potato and the government has flip-flopped in recent years.

In 2006, the health ministry banned doctors from carrying out female circumcision, saying there was no medical benefit – but the MUI hit back with a fatwa saying that women who undergo the procedure would be considered noble.

The government backtracked several years later and said licensed medics could conduct the procedure as long as it was only “scratching the clitoral hood”, only to later void this measure in favour of asking a specially appointed council to issue safety guidelines.

Campaigners say the constant changes have created confusion about what is allowed and more harmful practices – such as those used in Gorontalo – continue to exist.

Despite the opposition, the practice is unlikely to end soon in the country of 255 million people.

Jurnalis Uddin, an expert on female circumcision from Jakarta-based Yarsi University, and a member of the government’s advisory council, said the focus should be on encouraging the less harmful methods.

“To get rid of the practice completely is like swimming against the current,” he told AFP.

NEW DELHI – Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday said India plans to seal international borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh soon.

“India is planning to seal the international boundaries with Pakistan and Bangladesh as soon as possible. This could be India’s major step against terrorism and the problem of refugees,” Singh said while addressing the passing out parade of the Border Security Force Assistant Commandants at the BSF Academy in Madhya Pradesh’s Tekanpur area.

The home minister assured that the border with Pakistan would be sealed by 2018.

The decision has been taken in the wake of an increase in infiltration attempts, he said.

“The project will be periodically monitored by the Home Secretary at the central level, the BSF from the security forces’ perspective and the chief secretaries at the state-level,” Singh said, adding that the government would apply technological solutions for sealing the border in difficult terrains.

Lauding the BSF personnel, the home minister stated that the force has changed the rules of engagement at international borders which have made it a known entity in the neighbouring countries.

“The BSF has changed rules of engagement at international borders. Now, the BSF is a known entity even in neighbouring countries,” Singh said.

He also spoke about the planning for an effective grievances redressal mechanism in the forces which will be implemented soon.

“We are planning for an effective grievances redressal mechanism in the forces. The forces are coming forward with such mechanism,” Singh said.

Tepid participation of residents in Luzon, despite enthusiastic participation by people in the Visayas and Mindanao, resulted in power plants working more during Earth Hour on Saturday than they were in last year’s 60-minute power switch-off campaign.

Earth Hour is an international campaign encouraging people and businesses to turn off lights and other electrical appliances in support of global call for action on climate change.

The Empire State Building and United Nations headquarters in New York, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Kremlin in Moscow, the Acropolis in Athens, Sydney’s Opera House and other iconic buildings and monuments around the world dimmed their lights as millions of people from some 170 countries and territories took part in Earth Hour.

In the Philippines, however, the maximum load in the country’s power grid was reduced by only 165 megawatts on March 25, or 4 per cent lower than the 172-MW decrease observed in 2016, according to data from National Grid Corp.

“There were [fewer] participants this year (especially in Luzon),” said Energy Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella.

During Earth Hour, between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, the maximum load for the Luzon grid was 77 MW lower than usual. In 2015, the load reduction was 136 MW.

In contrast, relief for the Visayas grid was 44 MW, an improvement from the 29.8 MW in 2016 and 34.6 MW in 2015, but it was lower than the 87 MW recorded in 2011’s observance of Earth Hour.

One MW is enough to power 1,000 homes.

Consumers in the Mindanao grid performed best, posting a reduction of 44 MW-more than seven times the 6 MW saved last year.

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2017-03-27 12:35:23

Photo Gallery

Landmarks around the world go dark for Earth Hour

Source:

The Straits Times

Reuters

AFP

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Neon lights

At a mall in Cauayan City in Isabela province on Saturday, 500 residents formed the No. 60 and a plus sign using neon tubes sealed in bottles to highlight their participation in the 60-minute power switch-off campaign.

By turning off lights and gadgets from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., they helped drive the global campaign to fight the impact of climate change, said Cauayan City Mayor Bernard Faustino Dy.

Recycling is a solid waste management practice all Cauayan residents can adopt to mitigate climate change, aside from planting trees that helps in the emission of carbon dioxide, said city environment officer Alejo Lamsen.

Companies like SN Aboitiz Magat and National Grid Corp. in Cagayan Valley, as well as national government offices, also observed Earth Hour.

In Cabanatuan City, residents, local officials and members of civic groups gathered at two malls to commemorate Earth Hour, which was highlighted by a lightbulb centerpiece.

Participants wore panda masks made of recycled paper.

In Baguio City, street dancers garbed in colorful attire performed in the downtown area at 7 p.m. to draw attention to Earth Hour.

A ceremonial switch-off programme was held at City Hall and nearby city jail.

At 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, the SM Mall of Asia (MOA) Complex in Pasay City, particularly the MOA Eye Ferris wheel and the MOA Globe, turned dark.

During the one-hour no-lights event, teen actors Janine Gutierrez and Andre Paras joined the attendees in taking turns pedaling stationary “bambikes” (bamboo bikes) attached to power generators, lighting up the Earth Hour logo in the middle of the stage.

“It sends the message that when willing, human power can shine a light on climate action,” said World Wide Fund-Philippines National Youth Council.

Fire dance

In Cebu City, the Earth Hour celebration started with a play from Pagtambayayong Foundation on the need to use renewable energy and to stop using coal-fired power plants.

A fire dance presentation followed the switch-off. At least 3,000 bikers pedaled to call attention to a campaign for clean air.

The bikers covered a six-kilometer route.

In Iloilo City, lights were dimmed in government buildings and business establishments.

Residents of Savannah Iloilo Subdivision also joined the Earth Hour observance and gathered at the community’s rotunda.

In Ormoc City, lights of government offices and business establishments were also turned off for an hour.

Bikers pedaled their way around the city in the darkness.

Among the towns that joined the observance was Palompon in Leyte province, which marked Earth Hour for the first time.

In Tacloban City, lights in government offices and residences were also switched off.