Philippines, China Trade Accusations over South China Sea Collision

This frame grab taken from video footage released by the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) via AFPTV on December 9, 2023 shows a Chinese Coast Guard ship (R) using a water cannon on a Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) vessel near Scarborough Shoal in the disputed South China Sea. (Photo by Handout / Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) / AFP)
This frame grab taken from video footage released by the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) via AFPTV on December 9, 2023 shows a Chinese Coast Guard ship (R) using a water cannon on a Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) vessel near Scarborough Shoal in the disputed South China Sea. (Photo by Handout / Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) / AFP)
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Philippines, China Trade Accusations over South China Sea Collision

This frame grab taken from video footage released by the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) via AFPTV on December 9, 2023 shows a Chinese Coast Guard ship (R) using a water cannon on a Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) vessel near Scarborough Shoal in the disputed South China Sea. (Photo by Handout / Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) / AFP)
This frame grab taken from video footage released by the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) via AFPTV on December 9, 2023 shows a Chinese Coast Guard ship (R) using a water cannon on a Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) vessel near Scarborough Shoal in the disputed South China Sea. (Photo by Handout / Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) / AFP)

The Philippines and China traded accusations on Sunday over a collision of their vessels in disputed waters of the South China Sea as tensions over claims in the vital waterway escalate.
The Philippine coast guard accused China of firing water cannons and ramming resupply vessels and a coast guard ship, causing "serious engine damage" to one, while China's coast guard said the Philippine vessel intentionally rammed its ship, Reuters said.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce, including parts claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. The Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016 said China's claims had no legal basis.
Beijing and Manila have been playing cat-and-mouse around the uninhabited Second Thomas Shoal in the Philippines' exclusive economic zone when the Philippines deploys resupply missions for Filipino soldiers living aboard an aging warship deliberately run aground in 1999 to protect Manila's maritime claims.
The shoal is part of what are known internationally as the Spratly Islands.
On Saturday, the Philippines accused China of "illegal and aggressive actions" by China for firing water cannon at a civilian-operated government fishing vessel, a move Beijing called legitimate "control measures".
In Sunday's incident, China's coast guard said in a statement that two Philippine vessels, ignoring repeated warnings, had "illegally entered the waters adjacent to Ren'ai Reef in the Nansha Islands without the approval of the Chinese government."
It said the Unaizah Mae 1 "made an unprofessional and dangerous sudden turn, intentionally ramming into China Coast Guard vessel 21556." It said the Philippine side bore full responsibility.
Philippine coast guard spokesperson Jay Tarriela posted on the social media platform X that the "M/L Kalayaan suffered serious engine damage. Contrary to China Coast Guard disinformation, UM1 rammed by CCG vessel."
A Philippine government task force condemned "China's latest unprovoked acts of coercion and dangerous maneuvers against a legitimate and routine" resupply mission. China's action "puts into question and significant doubt the sincerity of its calls for peaceful dialogue", it said in a statement.
The National Task Force-West Philippine Sea said a coast guard ship was towing the Kalayaan back to Palawan province and that coast guard vessel BRP Cabra had "suffered damage to its mast after being directly targeted by the full strength of the water cannon".
US Ambassador to Manila MaryKay Carlson posted on X that China's "aggression undermines regional stability in defiance of a free and open Indo-Pacific".
Around 200 Philippine fishermen, youth leaders and civil society groups have joined a Christmas mission to the area, organized by the Atin Ito ("This is ours") a civilian-led network asserting the country's rights in the South China Sea.
Ten fishing boats have decided to pull out as they "erred on the side of caution", the group said on Sunday.



Bangladesh Protest Leaders Taken from Hospital by Police

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
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Bangladesh Protest Leaders Taken from Hospital by Police

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)

Bangladeshi police detectives on Friday forced the discharge from hospital of three student protest leaders blamed for deadly unrest, taking them to an unknown location, staff told AFP.

Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud and Abu Baker Majumder are all members of Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organizing this month's street rallies against civil service hiring rules.

At least 195 people were killed in the ensuing police crackdown and clashes, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals, in some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's tenure.

All three were patients at a hospital in the capital Dhaka, and at least two of them said their injuries were caused by torture in earlier police custody.

"They took them from us," Gonoshasthaya hospital supervisor Anwara Begum Lucky told AFP. "The men were from the Detective Branch."

She added that she had not wanted to discharge the student leaders but police had pressured the hospital chief to do so.

Islam's elder sister Fatema Tasnim told AFP from the hospital that six plainclothes detectives had taken all three men.

The trio's student group had suspended fresh protests at the start of this week, saying they had wanted the reform of government job quotas but not "at the expense of so much blood".

The pause was due to expire earlier on Friday but the group had given no indication of its future course of action.

Islam, 26, the chief coordinator of Students Against Discrimination, told AFP from his hospital bed on Monday that he feared for his life.

He said that two days beforehand, a group of people identifying themselves as police detectives blindfolded and handcuffed him and took him to an unknown location.

Islam added that he had come to his senses the following morning on a roadside in Dhaka.

Mahmud earlier told AFP that he had also been detained by police and beaten at the height of last week's unrest.

Three senior police officers in Dhaka all denied that the trio had been taken from the hospital and into custody on Friday.

- Garment tycoon arrested -

Police told AFP on Thursday that they had arrested at least 4,000 people since the unrest began last week, including 2,500 in Dhaka.

On Friday police said they had arrested David Hasanat, the founder and chief executive of one of Bangladesh's biggest garment factory enterprises.

His Viyellatex Group employs more than 15,000 people according to its website, and its annual turnover was estimated at $400 million by the Daily Star newspaper last year.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police inspector Abu Sayed Miah said Hasanat and several others were suspected of financing the "anarchy, arson and vandalism" of last week.

Bangladesh makes around $50 billion in annual export earnings from the textile trade, which services leading global brands including H&M, Gap and others.

Student protests began this month after the reintroduction in June of a scheme reserving more than half of government jobs for certain candidates.

With around 18 million young people in Bangladesh out of work, according to government figures, the move deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis.

Critics say the quota is used to stack public jobs with loyalists to Hasina's Awami League.

- 'Call to the nation' -

The Supreme Court cut the number of reserved jobs on Sunday but fell short of protesters' demands to scrap the quotas entirely.

Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Her government is also accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.

Hasina continued a tour of government buildings that had been ransacked by protesters, on Friday visiting state broadcaster Bangladesh Television, which was partly set ablaze last week.

"Find those who were involved in this," she said, according to state news agency BSS.

"Cooperate with us to ensure their punishment. I am making this call to the nation."