Dozens feared trapped in Rwanda building collapse

About 100 people are feared trapped in a collapsed four-storey building in north-eastern Rwanda, the government says.

"The tentative information we have indicates that debris fell on about 100 people," Rwandan minister Seraphine Mukantabana told AFP.

Rwandan police say three people have been confirmed dead and 21 people have been taken to hospital.

Construction workers are believed to be among those trapped in the building.

The four-storey building in Nyagatare, 60 miles northeast of the capital Kigali, was under construction when it came down.

As the building is located by the roadside, people who were on the street may also be trapped, Rwandan Minister of Disaster Management Seraphine Mukantabana says.

The number of people working in the building is unknown but sources say it could be more than 70 people, ministry spokesman Frederic Ntawukuriryayo told the BBC.

Tuesday 14 May 2013

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22528436

Using geophysical tools to search for clandestine graves

It’s very hard to convict a murderer if the victim’s body can’t be found. And the best way to hide a body is to bury it. Developing new tools to find those clandestine graves is the goal of a small community of researchers spread across several countries, some of whom are presenting their work on Tuesday, May 14, at the Meeting of the Americas in Cancún, Mexico, a scientific conference organized and co-sponsored by the American Geophysical Union.

“Nowadays, there are thousands of missing people around the world that could have been tortured and killed and buried in clandestine graves,” said Jamie Pringle, lecturer in geoscience at the School of Physical Sciences and Geography at Keele University in the U.K. “This is a huge problem for their families and governments that are responsible for the human rights for everybody. These people need to be found and the related crime cases need to be resolved.”

Mostly, people throw resources at the search for clandestine graves and try to see what works best, said Pringle. But he and his colleagues Carlos Molina and Orlando Hernandez of the National University of Colombia in Bogota are among those trying to refine the techniques for finding mass graves, so that eventually there might be a reliable toolkit for not only finding bodies, but discovering details like the time of deaths and burials–-all critical evidence for convicting murderers.

Previous studies on which Pringle has worked have involved simulated clandestine graves in the U.K. in which they buried pigs and then monitored soil gases, fluids and other physical changes over time. That research made it clear how much the detection of graves depends on understanding how corpses change in different soils and climates. This is being applied to active forensic cases throughout Europe.

International collaborations among forensic geophysicists have already proved helpful in cases such as the so-called IRA ‘Disappeared’ victims found on beaches in Northern Ireland and current work underway to detect Civil War mass graves in Spain.

In the latest project, being presented in a poster at the Cancún meeting, the researchers propose to bury pigs in eight different simulated clandestine mass grave scenarios in different soils and climates in Colombia. Then they will study the mass graves with geophysical methods like ground penetrating radar, electrical resistivity, conductivity and magnetometry among others. Their plan is to survey the graves every eight days during the first month, 15 days in the second and third months, and monthly until 18 months have passed.

The data they collect will be used to map the mass graves and compare them, adjusting for site variables like soil type and rainfall. They also expect to compare their results with other studies and forensic cases.

“The project’s integrated geophysical survey results will support the search for mass graves and thus help find missing people, bring perpetrators to justice and provide closure for families,” said Molina.

Tuesday 14 May 2013

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112844711/geophysical-tools-search-clandestine-graves-051313/

Mizoram landslide toll reaches 17

The toll in the Saturday Aizawl landslide incident has gone up to 17 today and 15 bodies have been recovered so far.

Eleven houses were totally damaged and as many as seven four-wheelers and nine two-wheelers were also damaged in the calamity.

Meanwhile, Mizo National Front (MNF), the principal Opposition party in Mizoram has demanded for an ‘independent judicial inquiry’ into the building collapse.

The landslide had swept away nine houses including a PWD office building at Laipuitlang in north Aizawl killing 17 people and leaving many others untraced.

A PWD office building, which had been vacated about a year ago after a crack developed on it, collapsed under the impact of the landslide and fell on nine houses below killing the people.

The MNF has demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla, who holds the PWD portfolio and his younger brother Lal Thanzara, Parliamentary Secretary for PWD, owning responsibility for the incident.

Meanwhile, Lal Thanhawla today convened a meeting with top government officials at his office chamber, in which they discussed measures to prevent further calamities in the State capital.

The meeting also discussed over setting up of a Magisterial inquiry and ex-gratia payment of Rs1.5 lakh each to the deceased’s families and Rs 35,000 grant each to the owners of the collapsed concrete buildings.

Elsewhere, five persons were injured and around 40 houses were damaged in Serchhip district in Mizoram due to pre monsoon rain and storm.

Tuesday 14 May 2013

http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/detailsnew.asp?id=may1413/oth06

'Haunted' Ryogoku Kokugikan frightens even the Sumo champions

Former yokozuna Kitanoumi doesn't scare easily, but even the big man avoids a dark area of Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan.

The Japan Sumo Association chairman enjoys going for a stroll in the Kokugikan even when sumo tournaments are under way. However, he always avoids the "muko-jomen" (opposite side of the main entrance) in his wanderings.

Asked why, Kitanoumi said, “That’s because … You know the reason, don’t you?”

Many people, including myself, have had frightening experiences in the area. However, the reason for the mysterious occurrences is still unknown.

In the Kokugikan, sumo wrestlers’ dressing rooms are located on the muko-jomen. The passageways to the dressing rooms from the sumo ring are called, “hanamichi” (flower roads). A press room is located at the end of the eastern hanamichi.

One night in December 2010, I was the last person to leave the press room, shortly after 8 p.m.

According to the rule of the press room, the last person to leave has to lock the door. After leaving, I remembered the rule and returned there. Taking the key and locking the door, I again began to walk from the room.

After a few steps, I felt a shove in the back by what seemed to be a big, round and resilient thing—like a volleyball. As the push came suddenly, I stumbled.

Thinking that someone was pulling a prank on me, I shouted, “Hey!” and looked back. But no one was there.

Holding my bag firmly, I ran at top speed along the sumo ring and ducked into a clerks’ room where several people were working overtime.

Seeing the look of fear on my face, office clerks and security guards gathered around me. When I explained the terrifying experience to them, however, none were surprised. They only nodded calmly with their arms crossed.

Then, one of them said, “It is the first time that an incident took place in the eastern hanamichi, isn't it?” The remark apparently meant that similar incidents have occurred in other parts of the building in the past.

“What?” I shouted.

According to them, many people have experienced unexplainable incidents around the muko-jomen.

One of them said, “When I was urinating in a lavatory, I was pulled from behind.”

Another said, “Sounds of 'keiko' (exercise) were heard from a dressing room despite the fact that no one was in there.”

Those experiences do not have any similarities except that they have taken place in the Kokugikan. The reasons for the incidents are not clear, either. Some people only laughed when they heard about the mysterious stories.

However, even security guards do not approach the muko-jomen at night except for when they are on their patrols.

The areas around the Kokugikan sumo arena, located in Ryogoku district of Sumida Ward, have repeatedly suffered disasters in the past, including earthquakes and wartime air raids. Among those disasters, one that is closely related to sumo is a fire in 1657, which is called the “Meireki no Taika” (Great fire of Meireki period).

The fire destroyed most of the downtown areas in Edo (modern-day Tokyo), including Edo Castle. As many as 100,000 people may have perished in the disaster. It is believed that the area around the current Kokugikan site was one of the places where unidentified bodies were placed.

The Ekoin temple, located near the Kokugikan, was constructed to hold memorial services for the victims of the great fire. Fund-raising sumo championships that started in the temple have led to the current sumo wrestlers’ tournaments held in the Kokugikan and other arenas across the nation.

The history is known only among those who are well-versed with sumo. When thinking about the history, some people may have been under an illusion in the stately atmosphere of the Kokugikan that mysterious incidents have occurred.

A staff member of the Kokugikan said, “I have heard about the (terrifying) stories. But I don’t have any such experiences.”

Then, he added, “If some people may have had such experiences, the incidents were probably caused by someone like a guardian god of sumo. I can say so because we have conducted traditional Shinto rituals for purification many times.”

Tuesday 14 May 2013

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/sports/sumo/AJ201305140012

Boats carrying scores of Rohingya capsize in Myanmar, U.N. says

Three boats carrying as many as 150 people are believed to have capsized near the western coast of Myanmar as local residents scrambled to avoid a storm that's approaching the area, a U.N. agency said Tuesday.

The boats ferrying Rohingya, a long-suffering Muslim minority, are reported to have hit rocks and turned over on Monday night as they traveled from Pauktaw township in Myanmar's Rakhine state, said Kirsten Mildren, a spokeswoman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Bangkok.

One of the boats was towing the two others, and between them they were believed to be carrying 100 to 150 people, she said, noting that the exact number on board remained unclear.

Hindered by heavy rain and choppy waters, rescuers found a lot of bodies floating near the scene of the disaster but no survivors, according to the reports received by the OCHA.

The boats were part of an effort to relocate people in Rakhine away from low-lying areas, Mildren said, ahead the potential arrival of Cyclone Mahasen, a storm that may hit parts of Myanmar and Bangladesh later this week.

A community at risk

The advocacy group Human Rights Watch has expressed concerns about the safety of tens of thousands Rohingya and other Muslims who were driven from their homes and into camps during sectarian attacks by Buddhists in Rakhine last year.

Human Rights Watch estimated that half of the roughly 140,000 displaced Muslims are now "living in flood-prone paddy fields and coastal areas that may be hit by storm surges associated with Cyclone Mahasen."

"If the government fails to evacuate those at risk, any disaster that results will not be natural, but man-made," Brad Adams, the group's Asia director, said in a statement Tuesday.

The OCHA said Myanmar authorities had begun late Monday to carry out a plan to move 138,000 displaced people to higher ground ahead of the storm.

The boats that capsized were part of that operation, Mildren said. They were traveling from Pauktaw, where thousands of Rohingya live in camps, to other Muslim communities in the area that were to provide shelter to the passengers, she said.

Pauktaw sits on a network of waterways near the coast of Rakhine, on the Bay of Bengal.

"Most of the Rohingya there in the camps are in bad conditions to begin with," Mildren said. "Their shelters are not in any way cyclone-proof and these low lying areas where they are sheltering will flood."

Cyclone Mahasen is currently expected to make landfall Thursday near Chittagong, in southeastern Bangladesh. The Bangladesh border with Rakhine is a little over 100 kilometers south of Chittagong.

Recent violence

Relocating the displaced Rohingya to safer areas in Rakhine comes with particular difficulties related to their troubled history.

"Some of the IDPs are reportedly afraid of the security personnel in charge of the relocations in some of the sites," the OCHA said in a report on the situation Monday, using the abbreviated term for internally displaced people.

The Rohingya are a stateless Muslim minority -- thought to number between 800,000 and one million -- who suffered during decades of military rule in Myanmar.

Though many Rohingya have only known life in Myanmar, they are viewed by Rakhine's estimated three million Buddhists as intruders from neighboring Bangladesh. Myanmar does not consider them citizens or one of the 135 recognized ethnic groups living in the country.

In a report last month, Human Rights Watch accused Myanmar security forces of involvement in a Buddhist campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya in Rakhine last year.

The group alleged that crimes against humanity were committed by in the attacks on the Rohingya in which scores of people were killed.

The report said that while local Arakanese Buddhists were also killed and displaced in the unrest, the Rohingya suffered by far the worst of the violence.

The Myanmar government dismissed the report as "one-sided."

With the storm approaching this week, Human Rights Watch is again drawing attention to the precarious situation of the Rohingya and other Muslims in Rakhine.

"Vulnerable Muslim populations are at risk not only from the cyclone, but from violence at the hands of ethnic Arakanese communities and the very local security forces who were responsible for their displacement in the first place," Adams said.

Tuesday 14 May 2013

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/14/world/asia/myanmar-boats-capsize/?hpt=hp_t3

Myanmar must avert further humanitarian disaster as cyclone approaches

Heavy monsoon rains and a tropical cyclone threaten the lives of tens of thousands of displaced persons in western Myanmar unless the authorities immediately step up efforts to protect them, Amnesty International said.

More than 140,000 individuals – mostly from the Rohingya Muslim minority – are currently displaced across Rakhine state and have been living in temporary shelters since violence erupted between the Buddhist and Muslim communities in Rakhine state in June 2012. Around half are located in low-lying areas prone to flooding.

According to information released by the US military, cyclone “Mahasen” is expected to reach the area by late Wednesday or early Thursday morning.

“The government has been repeatedly warned to make appropriate arrangements for those displaced in Rakhine state. Now thousands of lives are at stake unless targeted action is taken immediately to assist those most at risk,” said Isabelle Arradon, Amnesty International’s Deputy Asia Pacific Director.

Authorities in Myanmar are said to have taken some measures, including identifying evacuation sites and broadcasting announcements in and around the coastal town of Sittwe to warn residents of the impending storm.

However, several of the identified evacuation sites are within already established camps for internally displaced persons or fail to have adequate storm-ready structures, and storm warnings have not been provided to all at-risk displaced communities outside of Rakhine state’s capital city, Sittwe.

The authorities also continue to impose restrictions on freedom of movement for Rohingya in Rakhine state, including those who are confined to ill-equipped camps.

“The government must facilitate assistance without discrimination, including by lifting any restrictions on movement and ensuring humanitarian groups have access to all individuals in need. The freedom for Rohingya to seek higher ground may be their only chance to avoid potential flooding from heavy rains,” said Arradon.

The Rohingya have faced discrimination for decades in Myanmar. They are not recognized as an official ethnic group and continue to be denied equal access to citizenship rights. Their rights to study, work, travel, marry, practise their religion, and receive health services are restricted to various degrees.

Since the violence last June, Buddhist and Muslim communities have been living largely segregated from each other and tensions remain high.

“Considering continuing tensions between Buddhist and Muslim communities in Rakhine, the authorities need to prepare for the possibility of violence during an evacuation situation or in the aftermath of a storm. Addressing the discrimination of the Rohingya community and taking urgent steps towards accountability for last year’s violence will be crucial to prevent future abuses,” said Arradon.

State security forces carried out human rights violations during last year’s violence in Rakhine state and failed to protect people from attacks, including Rohingya.

Tuesday 14 May 2013

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/myanmar-must-avert-further-humanitarian-disaster-cyclone-approaches-2013-05-13

Bangladesh factory collapse: Search for bodies ends as death toll reaches 1,127

Nearly three weeks after a Bangladesh garment-factory building collapsed, the search for the dead ended Monday at the site of the worst disaster in the history of the global garment industry. The death toll: 1,127.

Mohammed Amir Hossain Mazumder, deputy director of fire service and civil defence, told The Associated Press the search for bodies from the April 24 collapse was called off at 6 p.m. “Now the site will be handed over to police for protection. There will be no more activities from fire service or army,” he said.

Bulldozers and other vehicles have been removed from the building site, which will be fenced with bamboo sticks. Red flags have been erected around the site to bar entry.

The last body was found on Sunday night. A special prayer service will be held Tuesday to honour the dead, he said. For more than 19 days Rana Plaza had been the scene of frantic rescue efforts, anguished families and the overwhelming smell of decaying flesh.

"We have reached the end of our salvage operations here," an army spokesman at the collapse site here on the outskirts of capital city Dhaka told reporters.

He said commander of the army-led salvage campaign Maj Gen Chowdhury Hassan Sarwardy was expected to call a press conference at the site of the collapsed building which housed five garment factories, 300 shops and a branch of a private bank.

The spokesman's comments came as a senior army officer familiar with the rescue operations said they nearly wrapped up searches for more bodies under the concrete ruins after rescuers only found few limbs of human corpses in the past two days.

Army troops, fire fighters and ordinary volunteers rescued 2,444 people alive as the country simultaneously exercised its biggest ever salvage campaign earning high appreciations alongside the criticism for lack of safety standards blamed for the disaster.

Officials said 827 bodies were taken away by relatives while 200 bodies which could not be detected by relatives were buried as undetected bodies after their DNA test was carried out."We have handed over 33 bodies to Anjuman-e-Mafidul Islam alone today after their DNA tests for their burial," a doctor at the state-run Dhaka Medical College Hospital told PTI.

Witnesses at the collapse site said truck loads of debris were being carried to two nearby locations, one on the bank of the local Bangshi River where government inspectors were searching out valuables to be kept at the government warehouses."The ruins were expected to be completely removed in next few days, but the army is expected to hand over the charge of the salvage campaign to the local administration," an official of Dhaka's district administration said.

Miracles were few, but on Friday, search teams found Reshma Begum, a seamstress who survived under the rubble for 17 days on dried food and bottled and rain water.

Begum spoke to reporters Monday from the hospital where she is being treated in a Dhaka suburb. She told them she never expected to be rescued alive and she vowed, “I will not work in a garment factory again.”

It is still unclear how many people were in the illegally constructed Rana Plaza on April 24 when the structure collapsed, a day after a huge crack was spotted.

Tuesday 14 May 2013

http://www.thestar.com/business/2013/05/13/bangladesh_factory_collapse_search_for_bodies_ends_as_death_toll_reaches_1127.html

http://www.business-standard.com/article/international/bangla-army-to-end-salvage-campaign-as-collapse-toll-hits-1127-113051300533_1.html