Four dead in latest cartoon rage in Asia




AFP
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan
Petroleumworld.com 02 08 06

Muslim anger over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed boiled over in Asia again Tuesday when a mob attacked offices of Norway's NATO troops in Afghanistan, leaving four protesters dead.

It was the second day in a row that demonstrators were killed in Afghanistan as fury over the cartoons, first published in a Danish newspaper in September, swept the Islamic world and raised debate about the limits of free speech.

Up to 700 demonstrators rampaged through the northern Afghan city of Maymana Tuesday, throwing stones at a UN office and a compound of a reconstruction project led by Norwegian troops, witnesses and officials said.

When they tried to enter the compound, soldiers from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force used tear gas, prompting the crowd to hurl hand grenades.

The Norwegian government said six of its soldiers were slightly wounded.

A doctor at Maymana's main hospital said it had received four bodies and 15 injured. Witnesses said shots were fired by demonstrators, police and from the PRT camp.

It was not clear which had caused the casualties.

The Norwegian military said Afghan police "shot with live ammunition into the crowd" of protesters. Norwegian "military forces used tear gas, rubber bullets and warning shots," it said.

Thousands also marched Tuesday in several cities across Afghanistan, including the capital, to denounce the newspaper cartoons.

Three protesters were killed in the country on Monday and up to 20 wounded.

Muslims consider images of the prophet to be idolatry. The 12 cartoons, which have since been published in several other countries, include an image of the Prophet Mohammed wearing a bomb as a turban.

A decision by several New Zealand media outlets to publish the controversial cartoons put the country's people at risk, Prime Minister Helen Clark said Tuesday.

Three New Zealand newspapers and two television channels have reproduced the cartoons.

Clark said the country's newspapers had the right to publish what they wanted but called their decision "ill-judged" and "gratuitous".

After Denmark's embassies were torched in Lebanon and Syria, fury over the images has continued to spread, with protests staged in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, the Palestinian territories, Pakistan and Thailand.

In the Pakistani city of Peshawar nearly 3,000 people on Tuesday attended a rally called by the Islamist government of North West Frontier Province, shouting "Hang the cartoonists!"

In Pakistan's remote North Waziristan tribal area bordering Afghanistan, some 5,000 tribesmen and students held a protest march and burnt a Danish flag.

Demonstrators in Dhaka also burned a flag during a protest organised by the Jamaat-e-Islami, the second largest party in Bangladesh's four-party coalition government.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the violent reaction to publication of the cartoons was indefensible.

"If people do take offence at anything ... they've got a right to protest but they should not resort to violence," he told the Australian parliament.

"We regard the backlash as indefensible and urge people to desist and to remain calm."

Japan also called for calm in the Muslim world and said violence was not the way to vent legitimate distress. The foreign ministry called on all parties "to reduce tension and to refrain from any action or statement that might aggravate the situation".

In Malaysia, Muslims will march to the Danish mission after Friday prayers this week, an opposition Islamic party official said -- the first planned mass demonstration in the mainly Muslim country since the wave of protests erupted.

"We appeal to all Muslims to participate in the protest. We demand that the government of Denmark and the newspapers offer an apology to Muslims," Ahmad Sabki Yusof, youth secretary of the hardline Islamic Party, told AFP.

AFP 02/07/06

Copyright © 2006 AFP. All rights reserved

 

 

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