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SUZYMENKES
BALENCIAGA’S
YOUTHQUAKE
PAGE 9
|
FASHION PARIS
DANCE OF TIME
ROYAL BALLET,
TRANSCENDENT
PAGE 13
|
CULTURE
DAVID POGUE
COMPUTERS THAT
FIT ON THEWRIST
PAGE 20
|
BUSINESS ASIAWITH
..
THE GLOBAL EDITION OF THE NEW YORK TIMES
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013
GLOBAL.NYTIMES.COM
Samsung
plays it cool
in bid for
brand cachet
BARCELONA
For India,
a delicate
balance on
the budget
NEW DELHI
Emulating Apple, it
cultivates air of mystery
around its smartphones
Coming elections bring
pressure to spend, while
investors want constraint
BY KEVIN J. O’BRIEN
Samsung Electronics, which sells more
cellphones than any other company —
and, in some financial quarters, more
smartphones than Apple — is on top of
the industry.
But despite its top ranking, the South
Korean consumer electronics giant
lacks a key element that usually accom-
panies success: the lucrative brand
mojo of an Apple.
After all, you don’t hear anything
about Samsung fanboys, right?
But this year, at the Mobile World
Congress, the industry’s largest con-
vention in Europe, Samsung appears to
be taking a page fromApple.
In themobile phone business, success
seems to breed reticence. Apple has
never exhibited its products at the Bar-
celona event. Now, Samsung is becom-
ing less visible.
In the vast, blue-and-white Samsung
stand in Hall 3 of the Fira Barcelona
convention center, there are rows and
rows of digital cameras, laptop com-
puters, notepads, audio docking sta-
tions and even car infotainment sys-
tems.
As what seems like an afterthought,
there a few smartphones.
Anneka Patel, an executive at the
Edelman public relations firm who rep-
resents Samsung, said the company
was consciously taking a low profile
with its mobile phone line, preferring to
promote its other products. And instead
of seeking publicity, the company was
declining interview requests to discuss
its phone business, she said.
David Ffoulkes-Jones, the chief exec-
utive of WDS, a unit of Xerox in Poole,
England, that provides technical sup-
port for Samsung smartphones in Aus-
tralia and other markets, said Samsung
was intent on honing its brand image,
creating the same lasting, indelible con-
nection Apple has with its consumers.
The new low profile that Samsung is
seeking for its smartphone line appears
to be more a reflection of the company's
growing self-confidence, but it could
also be the first step toward building a
more exclusive image for its devices.
‘‘Samsung’s challenge is to have a
broader, deeper relationship with their
customers than they now do,’’ Mr.
Ffoulkes-Jones said.
One analyst said Samsung, which had
preferred brash product introductions
in Barcelona attended by dozens of em-
ployees, was reverting to its introspect-
ive, engineering roots.
‘‘My theory is that Samsung never
enjoyed having to promote its mobile
phone business,’’ said John Delaney, an
analyst at the market research firm In-
ternational Data Corp. in London, who
said he had also noticed Samsung’s soft-
BY JIM YARDLEY
Not too long ago, when India’s economy
was roaring amid predictions that the
country would enjoy high growth rates
for years to come, the finance minister
could have been forgiven for strutting
during budget week. He got tomarch in-
to Parliament carrying a ceremonial
briefcase bearing the budget as if he
were Santa with a fat bag of goodies.
But on Thursday, when the finance
minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram,
arrives in Parliament, the briefcase will
no doubt feel heavy, just as the mood
will be very different. Faced with slow-
ing growth, persistent inflation and sag-
ging investor confidence, the Indian
government is pinned between conflict-
ing pressures. Economists warn that
tough steps are needed to avoid long-
term fiscal problems, even with political
leaders leery of introducing unpopular
measures before important elections
this year.
For its part, the government sought
Wednesday to change the pessimistic
narrative, as the Finance Ministry re-
leased its annual economic survey and
projected that economic growth would
jump somewhere above 6 percent dur-
ing the next fiscal year, which begins in
April. It predicted that the downturn
was ‘‘more or less over and the economy
is looking up.’’ Some economists were
skeptical, as similar rosy predictions in
recent budgets have proved wrong.
‘‘Let me remind you that last year the
economic survey spoke of about 7.6 per-
cent projected growth — and what we
had was 5 percent growth,’’ said Ajay
Bodke, head of investment strategy and
advisory at Prabhudas Lilladher, a
Mumbai brokerage firm. ‘‘That is not
just a miss but a humongous miss.’’
MICHAEL KAPPELER/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY
A final general audience for the pope
Pope Benedict XVI arrived in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday to hold his final general audience as tens of thousands of be-
lievers gathered to ca
tch a glimpse of him a day before his resignation takes formal effect. ‘‘I felt that my powers were diminished,’’ he said in explaining hi
s resignation.
PAGE 5
Abuse scandal hangs over pope’s electors
His exit came as at least a dozen other
cardinals tarnished with accusations
that they failed to remove priests ac-
cused of sexually abusing minors were
among those gathering in Rome to pre-
pare for the conclave to select a suc-
cessor to Pope Benedict XVI. There was
no sign that the church’s promise to con-
front the sexual abuse scandal had led
to direct pressure on those cardinals to
exempt themselves from the conclave.
Advocates for abuse victims who
were in Rome on Tuesday focused par-
ticular ire on Cardinal Roger M. Ma-
hony, the former archbishop of Los
Angeles, and called for him to be ex-
‘‘Among bishops and cardinals, cer-
tainly the old guys who have been in-
volved for so long, sure they’re going to
have blood on their hands,’’ saidThomas
G. Plante, a professor of psychology at
Santa Clara University in California,
who has served on the U.S. bishops’ na-
tional abuse advisory board and has
written three books on sexual abuse.
‘‘So when Cardinal Mahony says he’s
being scapegoated, in some respects I
think he’s right. All the focus is on him,
but what about the other guys?’’
Among the many challenges facing
the church, addressing the wounds
Many accused of failing
to act on reports are
gathering for conclave
NEWS ANALYSIS
cluded from the conclave. But Cardinal
Mahony, who has vigorously defended
his record, was already in Rome, post-
ing on Twitter about the weather.
Even stalwart defenders of the
church point out that to disqualify Car-
dinal Mahony would leave many more
cardinals similarly vulnerable. Many of
the men who will go into the Sistine
Chapel to elect a pope they hope will
help the church recover from the bruis-
ing scandal of sexual abuse have them-
selves been blemished by it.
BY LAURIE GOODSTEIN
The resignation this week of the most
senior Roman Catholic cardinal in Brit-
ain, who stepped aside in the face of ac-
cusations that he made unwanted sexu-
al advances toward priests years ago,
showed that the taint of scandal could
force a cardinal from participating in
the selection of a new pope.
‘‘It’s a supercritical moment,
actually. If you get it right, and
this is a budget that can shore
up the government’s credibility,
they can turn it around.’’
BISHOPS, PAGE 5
Upstart par
ty makes Italy latest deadlock victim
ROME
BY RACHEL DONADIO
AND NICHOLAS KULISH
Asked what the upstart Five Star Move-
ment would do once inside the same
political system it was elected to upend,
Nicoletta Febbrano, 57, a self-described
‘‘flower child’’ elected to the regional
council of the Lazio Region outside
Rome, looked triumphant.
‘‘We will change everything,’’ she said,
as she arrived onTuesday in a hotel base-
The consequences of the budget plans
are especially high because India, once
a darling of global investors and an
anointed power-in-waiting,
ment in Rome to celebrate with other
newly minted politicians from the party
founded by the comedian Beppe Grillo.
In many ways, it already has. From
Italy to Israel to Greece, voters are in-
creasingly rejecting the major parties
and their business-as-usual platforms in
favor of loosely defined protest votes, in
movements that often drum up support
online.
The fragmented parliaments they
produce, however, are often too divided
or too weak to handle the pressing prob-
lems the countries face.
A vicious cycle has begun in which
traditional politicians with entrenched
interests are unable—or unwilling— to
address the root of the problems, mak-
ing voters even more contemptuous of
ITALY, PAGE 5
is strug-
gling to regain its lost luster.
India’s estimated growth rate for the
current fiscal year is 5 percent, com-
pared with 8 percent in 2010. Ratings
agencies have threatened to downgrade
the country’s investment rating to junk
status, or below investment grade.
Meanwhile, India’s political class has
spent more than three years enmeshed
in scandals, and a bickering Parliament
has accomplished almost nothing.
‘‘It’s a supercritical moment, actu-
ally,’’ said Rajiv Kumar, an economist
with the Center for Policy Research, a
research organization in New Delhi. ‘‘If
you get it right, and this is a budget that
can shore up the government’s credibil-
ity, they can turn it around.’’
For investors and business leaders,
the question is whether the government
will make tough calls to address the
country’s large fiscal and account defi-
cits, curb huge subsidies for diesel fuel
and other petroleum products, unclog
bureaucratic bottlenecks on stalled
manufacturing, energy and infrastruc-
ture projects and create incentives to
entice new investment.
Only a year ago, Pranab Mukherjee,
then finance minister, unveiled a budget
now regarded bymany analysts as a ma-
jormistake. Desperate to increase reven-
ues, the government gave broad latitude
to tax collectors to pursue multinational
INDIA, PAGE 17
ITALIAN VOTE REIGNITES EURO ZONE FEARS
The panic in financial markets this week
suggests the crisis is not over.
PAGE 16
ELECTION ADDSWORRIES FOR INVESTORS
The E.C.B.’s ability to help Italy is now
in doubt, Mike Dolan writes.
PAGE 18
ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP
Pier Luigi Bersani’s Democratic Party
won in the lower house but not the Senate.
SAMSUNG, PAGE 17
A grueling ba
ttle in Japan— for day care
TOKYO
women elsewhere who despair of ‘‘hav-
ing it all.’’ The Japanese government
subsidizes thousands of day care cen-
ters nationwide for families of all in-
come levels, and it demands that care-
givers pass rigorous exams in child care
and development that usually require
two years of special schooling.
But the quality of the public day care
network — and a growing shortage of
slots as more women entered the work
force — has created its own set of seem-
ingly intractable problems. Increas-
ingly desperate women are forced into
an annual competition for day care slots
that is grueling enough to merit its own
name, ‘‘hokatsu,’’ and is said by some to
surpass the notorious, stress-filled job
hunt Japanese endure after college.
Ms. Okumura is now a weary veteran
of that day care campaign.
For months, as her stomach grew lar-
ger, the mother-to-be, then 30, trudged
from day care center to day care center,
some public and some private, in what
little time she could manage away from
her job, putting her name on waiting
lists that were sometimesmore than 200
names long.
By the time she gave birth to her
daughter, Ayane, late last year, she had
toured 44 sites in Tokyo — her last
scheduled visit was on her due date, but
she canceled when she started getting
contractions.
‘‘I’m going to lose my mind,’’ she said
as she walked one day from a child care
center squeezed between two high-
rises. ‘‘Why does finding day care have
Shortage of openings
seen as a crisis that could
undermine economic rise
BY HIROKO TABUCHI
Ayaka Okumura was barely pregnant
when she began fretting over how she
would hold on to the management job
that would have been out of reach just a
generation ago, when Japanese women
were often relegated to dead-end ‘‘office
lady’’ jobs pouring tea and greeting
guests.
From the start, Ms. Okumura had a
crucial advantage over many working
HONG KONG BUDGET CALLS FOR SUBSIDIES
Surplus funds are enabling the provision
of one-time payments that will mostly
benefit the poor and elderly.
PAGE 16
KOSUKE OKAHARA FOR THE NEWYORK TIMES
Women’s rights advocates say working mothers in Japan face two levels of hurdles: a new
demographic trend that works against them and an old bias toward stay-at-home mothers.
JAPAN, PAGE 4
CURRENCIES
STOCK INDEXES
WORLDNEWS
Asian vs. Asian in America
A potential race between two Asian-
Americans underscores the diversity
and emerging rivalries in the mainland’s
first majority-Asian district.
PAGE 8
BUSINESS ASIA
U.S. debates nuclear safety
Since Fukushima, U.S. regulators have
been studying whether to require
filters, costing as much as $45 million,
on boiling-water reactors.
PAGE 17
VIEWS
Thomas L. Friedman
One of the lessons of a resurgent Mexico
is that no matter how violent a country
becomes, people will adapt and take
risks to innovate or to make profits or
get to school or just to have fun.
PAGE 7
An unhelpful ally
The United States must beware of
doing the bidding of Sunni powers —
especially Turkey — that are advancing
sectarian agendas in Syria, writes Halil
M. Karaveli.
PAGE 6
ONLINE
Trauma in northern Mali
A top U.N. relief official just back from
northernMali says that desperation,
hunger and fear have pervaded the
region in the year since Islamist
militants seized control and that only $17
million of the organization’s appeal for
$373 million in emergency aid has been
donated so far. ‘‘People of the north are
traumatized by the past year,’’ said John
Ging, operations director of the Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs.
global.nytimes.com/africa
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IN THIS ISSUE
No. 40,424
Business 16
Crossword 15
Culture 12
Sports 14
Views 6
PAGE TWO
Giving voice to a rape scandal
VirginiaMessick is the first to speak
publicly since accounts of sexual abuse
at a U.S. Air Force base began to surface.
Algeria Din 175
Lebanon LP 4,000
Andorra ¤ 3.00
Morocco Dh 22
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..
2
|
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE
page two
A knotty tie
for Sri Lanka
and India
Indian cartoonists to portray the island
nationasateardropbeneath India’s
peninsular chin. This is an illogical de-
piction of Sri Lanka’s trauma because a
teardropisnot sorrowful; it is a con-
sequenceofsomeone’ssorrow. Some
caricatures that appearedinthe late
1980s and early 1990s, however, showed
the Indian Peninsula weeping and Sri
Lanka as the consequentteardrop.
This imagery had a strongerlogic. In-
dia’s history with Sri Lanka is, in a
way, about abumbling giant being hurt
byacunning dwarf.
Under the late PrimeMinister Indira
Gandhi,thetypeofstrategists who
imaginetheyare greatMachiavellian
characters, and love to add the prefix
‘‘geo’’ to ‘‘politics’’ to feelgoodabout
their advisory jobs,ensured that India
armed and financed the Tamil rebels. In
1984,whenshewas assassinated and
herson Rajiv Gandhi took over as prime
minister, Sri Lanka was engagedina
full-fledgedcivil war. Now, India wanted
to play gracious giant in the region and
bring peacetoSri Lanka. In 1987, it sent
troops to achieve thatend. Itwas a dis-
astrousmove and resultedinthe deaths
ofnearly 1,200 Indian soldiers and thou-
sands of Tamil fighters. In an actof ven-
geance, Mr.Prabhakaran made his
greatest strategic blunder:ordering the
assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.
On theearly morning of May 22, 1991,
as the news spread through Madras
(now Chennai) by phone and radio, I
saw people run out of their homesin
some kind ofdelirium to pick up the
newspapers from their porches. The
city had justwoken up to the improb-
able factthat asuicide bomber had
killed Mr. Gandhi the previous night in
a small townnot far fromChennai.Un-
til then,the southern state of Tamil
Nadu, whose capital is Chennai,was a
havenfor the Tamil Tigers. Bound by a
common language, the masses of Tamil
Nadu felt adeepcompassionfor the
struggleof Sri Lankan Tamils. But Mr.
Gandhi’s assassination was seenby
themasanactof war against India.
The chief minister of Tamil Nadu atthe
time, Muthuvel Karunanidhi,whowas
accused ofbeing a friend of the Tigers,
went around Chennai in an open-roof
van, standing with his palms joinedin
apology. Thatwas not good enough. In
the 1991 Tamil Nadu assembly elec-
tions, his party won only two seats.
But now, the plightof the Sri Lankan
Tamils has returned as a passionate
political issue in Tamil Nadu. Mr. Kar-
unanidhi is too old to stand anymore,
but evenasapatriarch whousesa
wheelchair, he is a usefulallyof the In-
dian National Congress party,which
heads the national government. He has
oftendemanded thatthe accomplices
of Mr. Gandhi’s assassin now ondeath
row in India be pardoned, and thatMr.
Rajapaksa betried on war crimes
charges. Last year,when theUnited
Statesintroducedaresolution against
Sri Lanka, India was reluctanttoback
it forstrategic reasons, including that it
has commercial interests in Sri Lanka,
which China is fast grabbing. But Mr.
Karunanidhi and public sentiment in
Tamil Nadu finally persuaded the Indi-
an governmenttosupport it.
Inafew days,when theUnited
Statesintroducesitsnew resolution
against Sri Lanka,the brute forces of
politics and practicality will ensure
thatthe Indian government ledbythe
Congress party,whose leaderisSonia
Gandhi,will join othernations in ask-
ing Sri Lanka to explain how exactly it
eliminated theorganization that made
herawidow.
Manu Joseph is editor of the Indian
newsweekly Open and author of the novel
‘‘The Illicit Happiness of Other People.’’
E-MAIL:
pagetwo@iht.com
Manu
Joseph
LETTER FROM INDIA
NEW DELHI
In the series ofphoto-
graphs shot in 2009, the bare-chested
boyisfirst shownseated onabench
watching something outsidethe frame.
Thenhe is seenhaving a snack. In the
third image he is lying on the ground
withbullet holes in his chest. The pho-
tographs,which were released last
weekbythe British broadcaster Chan-
nel4, appear to documentthe final mo-
mentsinthe lifeof12-year-old
Balachandran Prabhakaran,the
youngest son of the slain founder of the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam,Ve-
lupillai Prabhakaran.
The imagesare from the documenta-
ry film ‘‘No FireZone,’’ which tells the
story of Sri L
anka’s violent suppres-
sion of Mr.
Prabhakaran’s
equally violent revo-
lution,which had
comevery closeto
securing a separate
state for the Tamil
minority of Sri
Lanka.After26
years ofcivil war be-
tween the Tamils,who are chiefly
Hindus, and the Sinhalese majority,
who are chiefly Buddhists,the Sri
Lankan state wondecisively in 2009.
Human rightsactivistssaythat hun-
dreds of Tamil fighters, political lead-
ers and their families, including Mr.
Prabhakaran and his family, did not die
in actionbut wereexecuted. They esti-
mate that morethan 40,000 Tamil civil-
ians diedinthe final months of thewar.
Within itsborders,the Sri Lankan
government appears to wink at its Sin-
halese population to accepttheir con-
gratulations for ending thewar, but it
maintains a righteous indignation
when theworld accusesits army of
plannedgenocide.
‘‘No FireZone’’ includes video foot-
age and photographs shot onmobile
phones by Tamil survivors and Sin-
halese soldiers thatwere somehow
leaked. The film’s director, Callum
Macrae, told methat itwould be
screenedatthe 22nd session of the
U.N. Human RightsCouncil, now under
way in Geneva,wheretheUnited
States plans to introduce aresolution
asking Sri Lanka to investigate the al-
legations of war crimesbyits army.
It is not clear what such a resolution
will achieve because Sri Lanka’s
powerfulpresident, Mahinda Ra-
japaksa,who has a rustic swagger
about him and a manly black mus-
tache, is thetriumphant faceof Sri
Lanka’s victory in thewar. The Sri
Lankan Army is unambiguously under
his control.Whatever theworth of the
resolution, India is expected to support
it moreenthusiastically than it did a
similar resolution lastMarch.
Over the years,the shape and loca-
tion of Sri Lanka have inspiredseveral
MAXWHITTAKER FOR THE NEWYORK TIMES
Virginia Messick was a 19-year-old from rural Florida, in her fifth week of basic training at Lackland Air Force Base, when she was assaulted by the man entrusted with her life.
The plight
of the Sri
Lankan
Tamils has
returned as a
political issue.
Giving v
oice to a rape scandal
an advanced training program in Mis-
sissippi, a friend from basic training
contactedher, reporting that Sergeant
Walker was sending explicit photos of
himself and demanding that she dothe
same. In the process, he had threatened
to ruin Ms.Messick’s military career.
Ms.Messick said shetold her friend that
the two had had sex, but did not de-
scribe it as rape. When air force investi-
gators looking into the instructor’scon-
ducttrackeddown the friend, shetold
themabout Ms.Messick.
After two and half hours ofquestion-
ing by the investigators,Ms.Messick
said she provideda‘‘watereddown’’
version of theepisodewithSergeant
Walker — acknowledging they had sex
but refusing to offerdetails. ‘‘I was
scared to death.And I kind ofblocked
out what happened,’ ’ she said. ‘‘It took
me along timetosay theword ‘rape.’ ’’
But in testifying at SergeantWalker’s
court-martial in 2012, she recalled, she
faced the instructor and accused him of
raping her. Col.Mark Hoover, an air
force lawyerinvolved with the Lackland
prosecutions, doesnot dispute Ms.Mes-
sick’saccount. But because she had not
disclosed the rape in pretrial interviews,
SergeantWalker was chargedinher
caseonlywithalessercountof engaging
in an unprofessional relationship in-
volving sodomy and sexual intercourse.
In July 2012, hewas convicted on28
counts, including rape, sexual assault
and aggravatedsexual contact in-
volving 10trainees. Joseph A. Esparza
,
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS
Former air force recruit
is first to publicly discuss
an attack by her trainer
BY JAMES RISEN
Afterher air forcetraining instructor
rapedVirginiaMessick, ayoung recruit,
hetold heritwas fun and thatthey
should do it again, she remembers.
Thenhethrew herclothesat her and
orderedher to take ashower.
Ms.Messick was unabletomove, cry
or scream. Shewas a 19-year-old airman
fromrural Florida, in herfifth week of
basic training at Lackland Air Force
Base, and she had just beenassaulted
by the man the air force had entrusted
withher life.
Ms.Messick completed basic training
after theApril 2011 attack, following or-
ders fornearly a monthmore from the
instructor.Afraid of the consequences,
she did not tell anyonewhat he had
done. ‘‘How am I supposed to go about
reporting something,’ ’ asked Ms.Mes-
sick, ‘‘when the personI’msupposed to
reporttois the person who rapedme?’’
Now, afterleaving the air force, Ms.
Messick is the firstvictim ofastill un-
folding sexual assault scandal at Lack-
land to speak publicly about what she
has endured. Since accounts ofsexual
violence atthe base began to surface in
late 2011, it has emergedasthe largest
such episode in U.S.Air Force history.
Ms.Messick, 21, is oneof62trainees
identifiedasvictims ofassaultor other
improperconduct by 32 training in-
structors from2009 to 2012 at Lackland,
a sprawling base outside San Antonio,
Texas,that servesasthe air force’sba-
sic training centerfor enlistedperson-
nel. So far, seven air force instructors
have beencourt-martialed, including
Staff Sgt. LuisWalker, now servinga20-
year sentence for crimesinvolving 10
women, including Ms.Messick. Eight
more court-martial casesare pending.
An additional 15 instructors areunder
investigation, and two senior officers
have beenrelieved ofcommand.
While air forceofficials say theyhave
takensteps to betterprotecttheir most
vulnerable personnel, including appoint-
ingafemale commander to oversee ba-
sic training and tightening supervision of
instructors, critics say theydo not go far
enough in addressing an issue across the
military: a high rate ofsexual assaults
that areoftennot reportedbecausewom-
enfear reprisals. Noneof thevictims at
Lackland told air forceofficials of the at-
tacks, and theepisodescametolightonly
whenafemaletrainee who had not been
assaulted disclosed what she knew.
The changes undertakenbythe air
force do not alterafundamental factof
military life: Commanders have final
say over whether criminal chargesare
brought in military courts, and victims
areexpected to report crimes to those
who oversee their careers.
In responsetothe growing outcry
about sexual violence, thePentagon
ordered last year that charging de-
cisions in sexual assault casesbe deter-
minedbymore seniorcommanders
than in the past, but the directive
stoppedshortof taking the decision out
of the chain ofcommand. Someother
nations, including Britain, have taken
steps to create amore independent mil-
itary judicial system, but experts onmil-
itary justice said thattheUnitedStates
has been unwilling to do so.
‘‘The military justice systemisnot
DREWANGERER FOR THE NEWYORK TIMES
Senior U.S. Air Force officials testified in Congress on sexual assault in the military.
only to judge innocenceorguilt, but is
also designed to help a commander en-
sure good order and discipline,’’ said
Dwight Sullivan, an appellate defense
counselfor the air force. ‘‘Thosethings
sometimescome into conflict.’’
While morethan 3,000 sexual assault
cases were reportedin2011 throughout
the military services, LeonE.Panetta,
the departing defense secretary, has said
the real figure could be as high as 19,000.
TheU.S. Defense Department has found
that about one in three military women
has beensexually assaulted, arate twice
as high as that among civilians.
‘‘It’sno mystery why theydon’t come
forward,’ ’ said Laura Leitch, a psychol-
ogistwho deals withassault casesinthe
military. ‘‘It is like going to yourboss to
reportthat you have beensexually as-
saulted. How realistic is that?’’
Air force commanders say theyhave
takenpreventive actionat Lackland.
‘‘Therewasn’t much supervision,’ ’ said
Maj. Gen. Leonard A. Patrick,who is in
chargeof the air force’s enlisted train-
ing. ‘‘But nowwe wanttoput more lead-
ership into theequation, and more ac-
countability.’ ’
Several female recruits said in recent
interviews thattheyfelt safeunder the
new system, in which instructors no
longerhave sole oversight foragroup of
traineesandabuddy system has been
institutedforfemale recruits. ‘‘The scan-
dal was kind ofinmymindwhen I signed
up, but Ihaven’t had any problems,’ ’ said
ChanlerMay, a19-year-old fromTexas.
But Ms.Messick is skeptical. ‘‘It’snot
like anything has really changed,’ ’ she
said in an interview.
Identifiedbythe newsmedia during
her assailant’scourt-martial only as
‘‘Airman 7,’’ Ms.Messick suffers from
post-traumatic stress disorder. She said
she decided to speak out because she
believesdoing sowill betherapeutic,
and she hopes to help change how the
military deals with victims ofsex-re-
lated crimes. ‘‘I don’t want anyoneelse
to gothrough this,’ ’ she said.
Whenshe joined the air force inMarch
2011,Ms.Messick was excited to leave
herhometown, Baker, Florida. Shewas
assigned to an all-female ‘‘flight’’ — a
training group — overseenbySergeant
Walker.About 25 percentof those in ba-
sic training arewomen;the air force has
the highest proportion, 19 percent, of
women onactive dutyinanyof theU.S.
services,Pentagonstatistics show.
Ms.Messick recalled that hergroup
rarely saw any supervisor other than
SergeantWalker. He quickly began to
single her out forspecial treatment.
He repeatedly allowedher to use his
office computer to check her e-mail, a vi-
olation of basic training rules.On oneof-
ficevisit, SergeantWalker grabbedher
and began to grope her,Ms.Messick
said. She demanded that he stop. ‘‘He
said, ‘I swear itwon’t happen again,’ ’ ’
she recalled.
But not long after that, Sergeant
Walker ordered Ms.Messick to deliver
towels to an emptyfloorinthetrainee
dorm. There, she said, he rapedher.
But later that year,while shewas in
‘‘There are some women
who can’t say what
happened to them. They
have nightmares. It takes
over your life.’’
oneofSergeantWalker’slawyers, de-
clined to comment, saying that his case
is on appeal.
After the court-martial,Ms.Messick
said she felt lost. Out of the air force be-
causeofaninjury, shewent hometo
Florida, but herpost-traumatic stress
disordergrew worse. One day she
smashedaflower vase and used the
broken shards to slice her hands. ‘‘I just
wanted to stophurting,’ ’ she said.
Hermother,Marla Simmons, called
the air force lawyer who had dealtwith
herdaughter. ‘‘I was really upset and I
told him he had to get hersome help,
right now, orsomebody is going to pay
for whattheyhave donetoher,’ ’ she said.
The lawyer arrangedfor Ms.Messick
to get into a therapy program at a
nearby Departmentof Veterans Affairs
hospital,which she said had helped.
Still, she said that herpost-traumatic
stress disorder often paralyzesher. She
added thatother Lackland womenare
also suffering from the disorder. ‘‘There
are somewomen who can’t say what
happened to them,’ ’ she said. ‘‘Theyhave
nightmares. Ittakes overyour life.’’
Today, she laments thatthe military
experience she had dreamed would
change her life has turned out to be such
abitter one.
‘‘Theyare not doing anything for the
peoplewho have been through it,’’ she
said of the air force’s treatmentof those
whowere assaulted. ‘‘Theyhaven’t
cometomeoranyof theother girls to
ask them whattochange. They basic-
ally have left metofend formyself.’ ’
ONLINE:
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Comparing China and India on rape
‘‘What has been achieved in China in terms of women’s rights during the last
six decades . . . to a society where today there are more female university
graduates than men is by all standards an amazing achievement.’’
ZHOUHAOCHEN, BEIJING
ihtrendezvous.com
IN OUR PAGES
✴
100, 75, 50 YEARS AGO
1913 Militant Outrages Reported
LONDON
FurtherallegedSuffragette
‘‘manifestations’’ are reported.Among
themisthatofawoman,whose identity
is not at present known, but who made
an unsuccessfulattempt yesterday [Feb.
27] to ruin theWimbledon All-England
tennis grounds. Fortunately shewas ar-
restedafter a chase. On the lawns was
found a parcelcontaining tins of paraffin
and fire-lighters and, incidentally, a
pieceof paper with theusual reference
to the vote.
1938 Role of Machinery Praised
DETROIT, MICH.
William J. Cameron,of
the Ford MotorCompany, speaking over
the Columbia Broadcasting System,ex-
plainedhowmodern machinery creates
employment by increasing thevolumeof
productionat costs which the con-
sumers are abletopay. He citedasan
exampletheexhibitwhich the Ford com-
pany is preparing for the New York
World’s Fair of1939, in which a man
pounding out ahubcapwith tools cost-
ing $24 will be contrasted withama-
chine costing $30,770 pressing out 2,160
hub caps in the same length of time.
1963 Russia Backtracks on Tritons
MOSCOW
Moscow radio resurrecteda
5,000-year-old salamander briefly and
painfully last night[Feb. 26]. The radio
had broadcast astory about two tritons,
or salamanders,which had allegedly
beenfound in Siberia and thawed back to
life after lying frozensolid for5,000 years.
Moscow radio later admitted the story
was based on a flimsily supportedarticle
in a three-month-old edition of the Lenin-
grad literary magazine ‘‘Neva.’ ’
ONLINE:
HONOR BETRAYED
In an exclusive interview, Virginia
Messick discusses her ordeal of being
sexually assaulted.
global.nytimes.com/us
BILLY CALZADA/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS, VIA THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Staff Sgt. Luis Walker at Lackland during his court-martial. He is serving 20 years in
prison for crimes involving 10 women. Six other instructors have been court-martialed.
..
Wor
ld News
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013
|
3
THE GLOBAL EDITION OF THE NEW YORK TIMES
asia-pacific
BRIEFLY
Asia-Pacific
No progre
ss on U.N. reply to North Korean test
a resolution during their tenure,’’ one
diplomat said. Members of the South
Korean Mission to the United Nations
did not respond to telephone messages
or e-mails regarding the status of a
North Korean resolution.
On Wednesday, Lim Sung-nam, the
chief South Korean envoy on the North
Korean nuclear issue, arrived in Beijing
tomeet with Chinese officials about pos-
sible Security Council actions.
‘‘Our position is that a right message
should be delivered so that North Korea
won’t attempt further provocations,’’ he
said in Beijing, according to the South
Korean news agency Yonhap.
North Korea has said it would regard
any new Security Council resolution as
a provocation.
China has shown increasing impa-
tience with North Korea, a destitute na-
tion that depends on China for vital eco-
nomic aid and trade. But on Tuesday,
China signaled its cautious approach on
a Security Council resolution. A Foreign
Ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying,
was quoted by Xinhua, the state-run
news agency, as saying the Council’s
discussions ‘‘should be conducive to the
denuclearization of the peninsula as
well as peace and stability in northeast
Asia.’’
There has been no public indication
that China would be willing to expand
the sanctions against North Korea,
which cover military and dual-use
goods, as well as luxury items for the
elite. Nor has China given any indica-
tion that it would be willing to stop trade
that helps keep its longtime ally afloat.
Diplomats and scholars of China-
North Korea history say that although
China increasingly regards North Ko-
rea as intransigent, it does not wish to
take any steps that would collapse
North Korea’s government.
Many expect to see another Security
Council resolution, which may have the
appearance of consequences, but noth-
ing that Chinawould regard as destabili-
zing. No clues have emerged onwhether
NorthKorea used plutoniumor uranium
to fuel the recent blast. The impover-
ished state is rich in uranium deposits,
and a switch to that fuel in theory could
speed the expansion of its arsenal since
Western intelligence officials believe
that its plutonium supplies are limited.
In the two weeks since the under-
ground test, Western states and a U.N.
agency have monitored winds for signs
of radioactive seepage that might an-
swer the question. No results have yet
been reported.
William J. Broad contributed reporting.
Choe Sang-Hun contributed reporting
from Seoul.
NEW YORK
BY RICK GLADSTONE
The international expressions of anger
and dismay that followed North Korea’s
announcement of a nuclear test a few
weeks ago, punctuated by a U.N. Securi-
ty Council pledge to immediately work
on ‘‘appropriate measures’’ in a new
resolution, appear to have given way to
slow-motion diplomacy and some frus-
tration that not even a draft has been
circulated among the Security Council’s
15 members.
U.N. diplomats said privately that the
process had become bogged down
mainly over bridging differences be-
tweenChina and theUnited States about
how forcefully to respond, in some ways
replicating a pattern that has prevailed
in deliberations taken previously in
dealing with North Korea’s defiant tests
of ballistic missiles and nuclear devices.
The frustration level, diplomats say,
has been most prominent in South Ko-
rea, which has just sworn in a new lead-
er, President Park Geun-hye. The frus-
tration has been amplified because
North Korea’s announcement of a nu-
clear test on Feb. 12, its third, coincided
with South Korea’s turn as president of
the Security Council under a monthly
r
otation system, giving South Korea a
HONGKONG
Intellectuals petition Beijing
to ratify human rights treaty
More than 100 Chinese scholars, jour-
nalists, lawyers and writers have
urged their national legislature to rati-
fy a major human rights treaty, the
latest challenge from intellectuals
seeking to curtail arbitrary Communist
Party power.
The petition calling on the party-con-
trolled National People’s Congress to
ratify the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights came a week
before the congress holds its annual full
session, which is to install Xi Jinping as
China’s president, succeeding Hu
Jintao. Ratification of the treaty would
‘‘promote and realize the principles of a
country based on human rights and a
China governed by its Constitution,’’
the petition said.
Copies of the document appeared
Tuesday on Chinese bloggingWeb sites
and Internet forums but were often re-
moved and sometimes reappeared. It
was unclear whether government cen-
sors had demanded the removals.
KABUL
U.S. says it erred in citing
decline in Afghan violence
U.S. officials, looking to quickly illus-
trate progress in Afghanistan, have in
the past fewmonths highlighted a 7
percent drop last year in what they call
‘‘enemy-initiated attacks.’’ Fewer at-
tacks, the reasoning went, meant
Afghans were safer and the Taliban
forces were weaker.
The problem: There was no decline.
The numbers were wrong.
The U.S.-led NATO coalition said
Tuesday that it had discovered a cleric-
al error in its reporting and that the
number of enemy-initiated attacks —
defined as attacks with guns, mortars,
rockets or improvised explosive
devices — remained constant from 2011
to 2012.
Former Guantánamo inmate
left Palau, ex-president says
The former president of Palau con-
firmedWednesday that one of six
former Guantánamo Bay detainees re-
leased to the Pacific Island republic in
2009 has resettled in Turkey. Reached
by phone, the former leader, Johnson
Toribiong, said that the former inmate,
Adel Noori, 43, left Palau last year.
Mr. Noori was among six Uighurs
from the Chinese region of Xinjiang
who were arrested in 2001 in Afghanis-
tan and Pakistan and held for nearly
eight years before being released to
Palau. The United States determined in
2008 they were not ‘‘enemy com-
batants,’’ but China says they are ter-
rorists and wants them returned.
(AP)
DAVID GUTTENFELDER/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Statues of the late leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang. Seoul said Wed-
nesday that ‘‘a right message should be delivered’’ to avoid ‘‘further provocations.’’
powerful measure of control over set-
ting its priorities.
There had been hope in South Korea
that a forceful Security Council resolu-
tion, expanding the economic penalties
already in place against North Korea,
would be completed and presented for a
vote before South Korea relinquishes
the presidential gavel at the end of
Thursday to Russia, the president for
March.
But given the lack of progress, that
prospect appears unlikely, diplomats
said. And Russia, like China, appears in
no hurry to take action that, in its view,
would further antagonize North Korea
and destabilize the Korean Peninsula.
‘‘The South Koreans would like to see
17 officers
are drugged
and killed in
Afghanistan
KABUL
Infiltration by Taliban
suspected in attack at
remote local police post
BY ROD NORDLAND
A group of 17 Afghan police officers
were drugged by their comrades while
on duty and then shot and killed in their
sleep early Wednesday in what appears
to be the worst episode in a string of
similar attacks, according to Afghan of-
ficials.
The attack took place at a remote
Afghan Local Police post in Ghazni
Province, south of the capital, according
to Gen. Zrawar Zahid, the Ghazni police
chief.
Other Afghan officials said the author-
ities had already arrested two police of-
ficers who they said were Taliban infilt-
rators who had carried out the attack.
Local officials said the attack in the vil-
lage of Muhib Godali in the Andar dis-
trict took place around 1 a.m., after the
police officers in the outpost had been
drugged during dinner and fallen asleep.
All were then shot at close range, and the
attackers stole their weapons and set a
police vehicle on fire before fleeing.
General Zahid said that 10 of the vic-
tims were Afghan Local Police officers
who had finished their training, and 7
others were recruits whowere undergo-
ing training. The A.L.P. program has
been controversial in many parts of Af-
ghanistan because of prominent insider
attacks as well as accusations of human
rights violations by the police officers.
The officers are vetted and trained by
U.S. Special Operations troops as self-
defense forces for their own communi-
ties and sometimes include groups of
armed men who had formerly sided
with the Taliban.
Khalil Hotaki, the head of a peace
group in Ghazni, complained that many
local officials had tried to interfere in re-
cruitment for the A.L.P. units, creating
opportunities for Taliban infiltration. He
MIKE SEGAR/REUTERS
Former President Johnson Toribiong of Palau.
CANBERRA
2 Muslim activists lose
case over free speech
The highest court in Australia narrowly
rejected onWednesday the case of two
Muslim activists who argued they had
a constitutional free-speech right to
send offensive letters to families of Aus-
tralian soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
One activist, Man HoranMonis, was
charged with 12 counts of using a postal
service in an offensive way and one
count of using a postal service in a har-
assing way over three years until 2009.
The other, Amirah Droudi, was charged
with aiding and abetting the offenses.
They face maximum sentences of 26
years and 16 years, respectively, if con-
victed.
(AP)
KOLKATA
At least 19 are killed in fire
at illegal plastics market
A fire broke out at an illegal six-story
plastics market in Kolkata earlyWed-
nesday, killing at least 19 people, police
officials said.
The blaze, which started before 4
a.m., was probably caused by a short
circuit, said Javed Khan, fire minister
for the state of West Bengal. The fire
was under control by mid-morning, he
said, but toxic gases being released by
the blaze were hampering rescue ef-
forts.
(AP)
WELLINGTON
Beachgoer killed by great white shark
ANew Zealand man was attacked and
killed by a great white sharkWednes-
day in a rare fatal shark incident in the
country. Police officers said they fired
shots at the shark after the man was
fatally bitten at Muriwai Beach, about
40 kilometers, or 25 miles, northwest of
Auckland.
(REUTERS)
The attack was the worst in a
series of such insider attacks.
said that a similar attempt to drug po-
lice officers had taken place a week
earlier in the same district, but the drug
had not been strong enough, and the vic-
tims were able to prevent an attack.
A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabiul-
lah Mujahid, e-mailed a statement to
journalists claiming responsibility for
the attack.
‘‘Locals in the area were tired of the
atrocities and crimes of these arbakais,
and their lives and property were not
safe,’’ Mr. Mujahid wrote, using the
Afghan term for irregular militias. ‘‘By
eliminating these 19 corrupt arbakais,
oppression has been weakened and de-
creased in the area.’’ He claimed 19 of
themwere killed.
The attack was just the latest in a
series of such insider attacks, often in-
volving the use of poisons or drugs to
subdue other police officers, who are
then shot while unconscious.
In January, an Afghan Local Police of-
ficer killed his commander and several
colleagues in that manner, in the Panj-
wai district of Kandahar Province.
In a 10-day period in December, there
were at least three such attacks by local
police officers or others, resulting in 17
deaths.
..
4
|
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE
world news
asia middle east africa
Officer dies
in clashes
over land
in Myanmar
For Japanese, a grueling battle to find day care
JAPAN, FROMPAGE 1
to bethis difficult?’’
In rapidly aging Japan, such hand-
wringing is no longer limited to parents.
Some governmentofficials have begun
to label the shortageofdaycare spotsa
crisis thatthreatens to undermine at-
tempts to re-energize Japan’s listless
economy by keeping its large pool of
young, highly educated womenfrom
paychecks that could help increase do-
mestic spending.
Moreworrisome, expertssay, is that a
lack of openings —especially at more
affordable public nurseries—could con-
vince morewomen thattheyshould
forgo havingmorethan one child orlead
them to have no childrenat all, depress-
ing a birthrate that is already among the
lowest in theworld.
But withapublic debt morethan
twicethe size ofits economy and a con-
centration ofpublic spending on the
growing ranks of elderly Japanese, it is
unlikely thatthe problem will be fixed
any time soon.Arapid succession of
governmentsinrecent years has not
helped; in just five years, 13 different
ministers have beenresponsible for
dealing with the low birthrate.
At the root of the problem,women’s
rightsadvocatessay, is thatworking
mothers now face two levels ofhurdles:
anew demographic trend thatworks
againstthem and an old bias toward
stay-at-home mothers.
‘‘I get asked: Is your work so impor-
tantthat you have to put your baby in
child care? Why are you being so self-
centered?’’ said Mariko Saito, who
works for a pharmaceutical company in
Tokyo and campaigns formore day care
options. ‘‘But I’mnot working formy-
self. I’m working to support my family,
just like my husband.’ ’
When Japan set upitsmodern public
day care systemafter World War II,the
authorities expectedittoserve people
who might have nowhereelsetoturn,
like single mothers. Foratime, analysts
say,thatwas good enough,especially as
well-paid ‘‘salarymen’’ were ableto
supporttheir familiesalone.
Then with the bursting of the ‘‘bubble
economy’’ in theearly 1990s, youngmen
found it harder to secure stable, high-
paying work.Wives who steppedinto
the breach,or were simply tired oflow-
level work, began to push the boundar-
ies of employment, finding jobs they
were less willing to partwithatthe first
sign ofapregnancy.
But young Japanese mothers had few
options unless their own parentscould
help. Few familiesfeelcomfortablewith
baby-sitters in a culture in which invit-
ing strangers into the home is unusual.
And with the hurdles to immigration
high, foreign-born nanniesare a rarity.
They turned instead to the govern-
ment-subsidized child care centers,
wheretheir collective needs led to ana-
tionwidewaiting listthat is now more
BANGKOK
Dozens are wounded
as villagers protest
confiscation of fields
BY THOMASFULLER
Bloody clashesbetween villagers and
Myanmar security orces over land
seizuresleftone policeofficerdead and
dozens of otherpeople injured,officials
andadoctorat alocal hospital saidWed-
nesday.
The clashes took place late Tuesday in
Maubin, a township in the Irrawaddy
Riverdelta, after the police soughtto
dispersevillagers protesting a com-
pany’s takeover of their land.
Itwas the second time in fourmonths
that a crackdownbythe police related to
land seizures turned violent. In Novem-
ber, dozens ofmonks were badly burned
whenriot policeofficers deployed what
agroup oflawyers has describedas
white phosphorus incendiary devices
usually reservedfor warfare.
OnTuesday, policeofficers appeared
to have sufferedsomeof the most
severe injuriesinthe clashes.
Dr.Myint Soe, the head of the hospital
in Maubin, said 27of the 46 peoplewho
arrivedatthe hospital late Tuesday
were policeofficers.Oneofficer was
transferred to a largerhospital in Yan-
gon and laterdied,the doctor said.
The issue of land seizures has dogged
the administration of President Thein
Sein,who tookpowernearly two years
ago afterfive decades of military rule.
A parliamentary committee set up to
investigate what are called ‘‘land
grabs’’ has beenpresented withnumer-
ouscases ofseizures that took place
during military rule.
TheMyanmar newsmedia reported
thatthe protestsinMaubin began last
week,whenseveral hundred farmers
gatheredat an agricultural project
ownedbyaMyanmar businessman,U
Myint Sein. Farmers say the land was
confiscatedduring military rule and
sold to Mr.Myint Sein.
‘‘We justwantour land back,’ ’ said
Khin Mar Win, 32, a villager. ‘‘All we
have is our land.’ ’
Ms.Mar Win said villagers were not
givencompensation when their land
was seizedbythe company. ‘‘Ofcourse
we feelrobbed,’ ’ she said.
Itwas unclear what set off the
protests,which theMyanmar newsme-
dia said continued Wednesday. The
seizures took place in 1996. Somevilla-
gers said only now did theyhave a
chancetoair their grievances.
The police could not be reachedfor
comment about how clashes onTuesday
started. But a video posted to Facebook
by TheVoice, a private weekly news
journal, appeared to show thattheywere
bracing foraconfrontation. Thevideo
showedapolice commander instructing
a lineofpoliceofficers in riot gear how to
beat peoplewith their batons.
‘‘Is there anyonewho feels scared?’’
thetrainershouted. ‘‘No,’’ theofficers
responded.
‘‘Whenyou beat, strike fromabove,
likethis,’ ’ the commander said. ‘‘Beat
any partsyou can reach.’ ’
The commander also gave this ad-
vice: ‘‘Keep in mind thatthey also have
hands — sothey will defend them-
selves.’ ’
Wai Moe contributed reporting from
Maubin, Myanmar.
KOSUKE OKAHARA FOR THE NEWYORK TIMES
Ayaka Okumura, right, and her husband, Masanori, visiting a day care center with their daughter, Ayane. Ms. Okumura had visited 44 sites by the time she gave birth to her child.
than 25,000 placeslong. The govern-
mentestimated thatthewaiting listsfor
all types ofdaycarewould betens of
thousands of nameslonger, but many
familieshave given up.
Increasingly, families try private, un-
subsidizeddaycare centers,which can
betwice as expensive despite some-
times offering lowerstandards ofcare.
But in Japanese cities,even private cen-
ters are oversubscribed.
Some familiesare so desperate to get
into public day carethatthey upend
their lives, moving to districtsknown to
have the shortestwaiting lists.Ms.Oku-
mura’s‘‘hokatsu’’ quest followedafa-
miliar path,evenifthe number ofcen-
ters shevisited was slightly higher than
the norm.
First she applied to herlocal govern-
ment, which like many usesapoint-
basedrating system to try to ensure
everyone has an equal shot at subsi-
dizeddaycare.
She and herhusband,Masanori, re-
ceivedaperfect base scoreof40 be-
causetheybothhave full-time jobs.
Single-parent households earn an extra
six points, as dothosewithspecial-
needs children, but theOkumuras at
least lost no points. Having grandpar-
entsnearby who could care for Ayane
would have been a handicap.
Still,officials in Shinagawa,theOku-
muras’ city ward onTokyo’s waterfront,
told them their chances were slim.
So began Ms.Okumura’sslog through
the city’s private day care centers, past
endless rows ofcubiclesfor tiny shoes
(removedatthe door), piles of napping
futons and gaggles of small children.(Al-
most all ofher visits were alone because
ofherhusband’s work schedule.) If she
was turneddownforpublic day care, her
plan was to return to these nurseries,
joining a yearly stampedeof anxious
mothers who lookfor private spots to
open up oncethe lucky winners ofsubsi-
dizedslotsdropfrom the competition.
Slowly, she began to harboranew
worry; because private day care centers
begin their ‘‘schoolyear’’ in April, coin-
ciding with the announcements ofpublic
admissions, she faced a painfulchoice.
Evenifher family got lucky enough to
gain acceptance at anursery,Ms.Oku-
mura would be forced to cut short herle-
gally entitledmaternityleave by eight
months and leave Ayane in child care
when the baby was just 4months old. If
Ms.Okumura extendedherleave until
the following April, morethanayear
aftershe gave birth, sheworriedit could
jeopardize herjobat an accounting firm.
She chidedherself fornot having
timedherpregnancy to give birthsoon
after April to get a high spot on waiting
lists—astrategy recommended on chat
sites filled with earnest posts on
strategies to get into day care.
Shinzo Abe, the newly appointed
prime minister, has promised to create
new day care centers, but it is unclear
how much he can accomplish givenJa-
pan’sgrowing and politically active el-
derly population.Almost70percentof
Japan’ssocial welfare spending is di-
rectedat people 65 or older,while less
than 4 percent supports children and
families, according to agovernment-af-
filiatedresearch group.
‘‘It’sbecome a viciouscycle,’’ said
Hiroki Komazaki,the founder ofseveral
nurseries. ‘‘We don’t invest in future
generations, inevitably bringing onan
aging society.’ ’
Those priorities were apparent at a
recent CityCouncil meeting in Tokyo’s
Setagaya ward,which has oneof the
country’slongestwaiting listsfor child
care. Only after a drawn-out discussion
on the distribution ofadult diapers did
talk turn to day care. Thenno actionwas
taken, disappointing mothers in the
audience.
In theend, an exhausted Ms.Oku-
mura got lucky, recently winning theof-
fer ofacovetedpublic day care spot. But
she cannot yet bring herself to accept it.
‘‘I wish I could stay withmydaughter
forlonger,’ ’ she said. ‘‘I’mfilled withso
much worry, and completely spent.’’
Hisako Ueno contributed reporting.
U.S. considers sharing
drone data w
ith Algerians
Modest progr
ess reported in Iran talks
ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN
Tehran agrees to return
for more negotiations
on its nuclear program
tions. But no decision appears to have
beenreached on whether to make afor-
mal proposal to theAlgerians.
The idea of taking strongeractionin
the region has beensupportedinrecent
months by MichaelSheehan,the senior
counterterrorism official atthePenta-
gon, and DanielBenjamin,whountil
December was the seniorState Depart-
ment counterterrorism official. In the
past, State Department lawyers have
questioned whether the military action
approvedbyCongress againstAl Qaeda
after the attacks ofSept. 11, 2001, author-
ized efforts to target extremists who
were not clearly linked to the group. But
according to someofficials,those legal
argumentshave recently been over-
come.
TheUnitedStates has long soughtAl-
geria’scooperationinanti-terrorism ef-
forts, and sharing information witha
governmentthat has jealously guarded
itssovereignty would be a significant
step toward that goal. During the siege
of the gas plant at In Amenas,Algeria
permitted theUnitedStates to fly a
Predatorsurveillance drone over the
complex,though it insisted thatthe
drone bewithdrawnafter the assault
was over.
Mr.Obama announced lastweek that
about 100 U.S.troops had arrivedinNi-
gerinWestAfrica, nexttoMali,toset up
anew drone basetoconduct surveil-
lance flightsinthe region.
U.S.officials also sense apossible
changeofheart by Algerian officials to
move away from their longstanding
policy not to conduct military opera-
tions outsidethe nation’sborders.Alge-
rian officials recently told theUnited
States thatthey were prepared to con-
ductoperations in borderareas,one
U.S.official said.
Mr. Belmokhtar, 40—sometimes
known as ‘‘Laaouar,’ ’ or theone-eyed,
afterhe lost an eyetoshrapnel —was
deemed to be amenace long before he
drew international attentionfor the at-
tack last month.As theAlgerians
pressed their campaign againstthe mili-
tants, he tookrefuge in Mali,where he
engagedinsmuggling and kidnapped
foreigners for ransom, including Robert
R. Fowler, a Canadian diplomat and U.N.
special envoy whowas abductedin2008
.
Mark Landler contributed reporting
fromWashington and AdamNossiter
from Lagos.
WASHINGTON
Stronger action to fight
militants gains support
after attack on gas field
BY STEVEN ERLANGER
Two days of talks between six world
powers and Iran overitsnuclear pro-
gram ended Wednesday withspecific
agreement for urthermeetings in
March and April overaproposal that
would sharply constrain Iran’sstockpile
of the most dangerous enriched urani-
uminreturn foramodest lifting ofsome
sanctions.
But the six powers dropped their de-
mand that Iran shut downits enrich-
ment plant at Fordo, built deepinto a
mountain, instead insisting that Iran
suspend enrichmentwork there and
agree to unspecifiedconditions that
wouldmake it hard to quickly resume it.
The six also agreed, in another apparent
softening,that Iran could produce and
keep a small amountof20 percenten-
riched uraniumfor use inareactor to
produce medical isotopes.
The two sides agreed thattechnical
experts would meet to discuss the pro-
posal on March 18 and 19 in Istanbul,
whilethe negotiations atthis higher
political level would resume, again inAl-
maty,on April 5 and 6.
The chief Iranian negotiator, Saeed
Jalili, called the meeting this weekposi-
tive, saying thatthe six powers, repre-
senting the permanent members of the
U.N. SecurityCouncil plusGermany,
had offeredarevisedproposal thatwas
‘‘more realistic’’ and ‘‘closer to the Ira-
nian position.’ ’ Mr. Jalili,whose news
conferencewas notably shortof the ag-
gressive rhetoric he has usedinthe past,
called the meeting ‘‘a turning point.’’
But senior Western diplomats were
less enthusiastic, saying that Iran had
not in fact responded to the six powers’
proposal and that real bargaining had
not yet begun.Asenior U.S.official
called the meeting ‘‘useful,’ ’ refusing to
call it positive, and emphasizing that it
was ‘‘concrete results’’ that count, not
atmospherics.
A seniorEuropean diplomatwas even
more skeptical than theU.S.official, say-
ing thatthetechnical meetingwas essen-
tially to explain the proposal to the Irani-
ans once again, and that Iranmight come
back in April withanunacceptable coun-
terproposal that swallowed the ‘‘car-
BYMICHAEL R. GORDON
AND ERIC SCHMITT
TheU.S. ambassador to Algeria and se-
niorcounterterrorism officials have
proposed sharing more information
with Algerian securityforces to help
them kill orcapture militantsintheir
owncountry and in areas just across
their borders.
Their approach reflects the growing
supportwithin theObama administra-
tionformore forcefulaction againstex-
tremistsinthe area sincethe attack ona
gas field in eastern Algeria last month
left 37 dead, including 3 Americans, and
focusednew concerns on terrorist activ-
ityinAfrica.
Under one plan, informationfromU.S.
surveillance drones would be provided
to Algerian forces to enablethem to en-
gage in operations both insideAlgeria
and possibly, in a limited way, across its
borders. TheUnitedStatesisalready
providing surveillance information to
the French-led military operationin
Mali to help combat militants therewho
seized the northern half of the country
last year.
Inacabletothe StateDepartment last
week, according to U.S.officials, Henry
S. Ensher,theU S.envoyinAlgiers,
urged thatthe pursuitof theAlgerian
militantM khtar Belmokhtar, he
mastermind of the gas field attack, be
made a priority. Toward thatend, he re-
commended thattheObama adminis-
tration tell theAlgerians that if theyal-
lowed theUnitedStates to fly unarmed
drones over the borderarea of Algeria
as well as over Mali,theAmericans
would sharethe informationwith theAl-
gerian government.
Therewas broad agreement among
policy makers and intelligenceofficials
at ameeting of President Barack
Obama’s topnational securitydeputies
attheWhite House lastweek thatMr.
Belmokhtar andmembers of Al Qaeda in
the Islamic Maghrebshould be aggres-
sively pursued, according to one senior
U.S.official who insisted onanonymity
so he could discuss internal delibera-
BRIEFLY
Middle East
SHAMIL ZHUMATOV/REUTERS
The E.U. foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, spoke for the six nations in Kazakhstan.
rots’’ of the six and demandedmore.
The senior U.S.official said that as a
first step toward confidence-building
and reducing theurgency around the is-
sue, the six were demanding that Iran
‘‘significantly restrict’’ itsaccumula-
tion of uranium enriched to 20 percent
—which can quickly beturnedinto
bomb-grade materiel — and limit its
those involving oil or financial transac-
tions,which arethe harshest, andwould
promise not to vote new sanctions
through the SecurityCouncil or the
European Union.
‘‘What matters are concrete results
on the mosturgent issues,on20 percent
enrichment and onFordo,’’ theofficial
said, adding thatthosewere ‘‘the most
destabilizing and urgentelements of
Iran’snuclear program.’ ’
Theofficial denied thattherewas any
‘‘softening of ourposition,’ ’ citing fur-
therconstraints onIran, but conceded
that Iran was being offeredmore sanc-
tions reliefinresponsetoitsconcerns
and in an effort ‘‘to gain tractionfor
thesetalks.’ ’
Thewillingness ofIranto agree so
quickly to anew set ofmeetings and
venues was also a marked change, indi-
cating some senseof urgency and also a
political need to show Iranians that pro-
gress was being madetoreducethe
pain of sanctions.
Western officials said the tough sanc-
tions regimewas working to put pres-
sureon the governmenttonegotiate.
‘‘There isacosttoIran and itspeople
every day theydon’t solve this prob-
lem,’ ’ one senior Western official said.
‘‘And that costwill goup.’ ’
Diplomats had said thatthe meeting
this weekwould be alow-levelsuccess if
it producedaspecific agreementto
meet again soonsothattherewould be
an elementofmomentum to the negoti-
ations.
CAIRO
Ousted Yemeni leader urges
forgiveness for past events
In his first public speech in morethan
18 months,Yemen’s oustedautocratic
leader,Ali Abdullah Saleh,on Wednes-
day calledfor ‘‘forgiveness of the past’’
amid calls forprosecution of those re-
sponsible for the deaths ofprotesters
during the 2011 uprising.
His speech in theYemeni capital,
Sana, cameone year afteratransfer of
power that followedhuge protests and
sit-ins. Tens of thousands of Salehsup-
porters gatherednear the presidential
palace, chanting, ‘‘The peoplewantAli
Abdullah Saleh.’ ’
Mr. Saleh’sspeech appeared to be in
defianceofaU.N. SecurityCouncil
warning that sanctions would be im-
posed upon him if he continued to
hinderdemocratic transition.
(AP)
JERUSALEM
Shell from Syria hits Golan Heights
Amortar shell firedfromSyria ex-
plodedinthe Israeli-controlledGolan
Heights onWednesday, falling in an
openarea and causing no casualties,
the Israeli military said.Military offi-
cials said the shell landednear an Israe-
li village closetothe Syrian border.
(AP)
Senior diplomats said the
meeting would be a low-level
success if it produced a specific
agreement to meet again soon.
production to what is neededforfuelfor
the small Tehran Research Reactor to
make medical isotopes.
Iran must also ‘‘suspend enrichment
at Fordo,’’ a plant deep inside amoun-
tain that is difficulttoattack from the
air, and accept conditions that ‘‘con-
strain the ability to quickly resumeen-
richmentthere,’’ theofficial said.
Third, Iran must allow more regular
and thorough access to monitors from
the International Atomic Energy
Agency to ensurethat it keeps itsprom-
ises and cannot suddenly ‘‘break out’’
quickly to create anuclear warhead, so
thatthere is ‘‘early warning ofanyat-
tempttorapidly orsecretly abandon
agreed limits and produceweapons-
gradeuranium,’ ’ theofficial said.
In return,theofficial said,the six
would suspend some sanctions, but not
..
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013
|
5
THE GLOBAL EDITION OF THE NEW YORK TIMES
europe
world news
Many electors tainted by abuse scandal
BISHOPS, FROMPAGE 1
Giving final audience,
pope explai
ns his exit
VATICAN CITY
BY RACHEL DONADIO
AND ALAN COWELL
In the waning hours of his troubled
papacy, Pope Benedict XVI held his fi-
nal general audience in St. Peter’s
Square on Wednesday, telling tens of
thousands of believers in an unusually
personal public farewell that his nearly
eight years in office had known ‘‘mo-
ments of joy and light but also moments
that were not easy’’ when it seemed
‘‘the Lord was sleeping.’’
The audience came a day before Be-
nedict’s resignation takes formal effect
and was one of the last public appear-
ances scheduled before he withdraws
from public life to assume what Vatican
officials have depicted as a cloistered
life of prayer and meditation.
In his homily, the pope cited the biblic-
al voyage of St. Peter and the apostles on
the Sea of Galilee, saying God had given
him ‘‘so many days of sun and light
breezes, when the fishing was abund-
ant. But there were times when the wa-
ters were choppy and, as throughout the
history of the church, it looked as if the
Lord was sleeping. But I have always
known that the Lord was in that boat,
that the boat was not mine or ours, but
was his and he will not let it founder.’’
His reference was to a passage in the
Bible where Jesus falls asleep in a boat
with his disciples on the Sea of Galilee.
Explaining his decision to resign— the
first pope to withdraw voluntarily in six
centuries—he said that in recentmonths
‘‘I felt that my powers were diminished.
And I asked the Lord insistently, in pray-
er, to illuminateme with his light tomake
me take the right decision, not for my
good but for the good of the church.’’
He added: ‘‘To love the church also
means having the courage to take diffi-
cult decisions.’’ His words were fre-
quently interrupted by applause.
The pope recalled the day inApril 2005
when he assumed the papacy, and, pos-
sibly in a message to his successor, said
that whoever succeeds him ‘‘no longer
has any privacy. He belongs forever and
totally to everyone, to all the church.’’
‘‘My decision to renounce the active
exercise of the ministry does not change
that. I am not returning to private life, to
a life of travel, meetings, receptions, con-
ferences, et cetera. I am not abandoning
the cross, but I remain close to the cruci-
caused by sexual abuse is among the
top priorities, church analysts say.
When Pope Benedict was elected in
2005, many Catholics hoped that his pre-
vious experience at the helm of the Vat-
ican office that dealt with abuse cases
would result in substantive changes.
Benedict has repeatedly apologized to
victims and listened personally to their
testimonies of pain. After the abuse
scandal paralyzed the church in Europe
in 2010 and began to emerge on other
continents, Benedict issued newpolicies
for bishops to follow on handling sexual
abuse accusations, and he held a confer-
ence at the Vatican on the issue. But de-
spite calls frommany Catholics, he nev-
er removed prelates who, court cases
and documents revealed, put children at
risk by failing to report pedophiles or re-
move them from the priesthood.
It is not that these cardinals behaved
so differently from the others, or that
they do not have achievements to their
names. It is just that they come from
pinpoints on the Catholic world map
where long-hidden secrets became pub-
lic because victims organized, govern-
ment officials investigated, lawyers
sued or the news media paid attention.
They include cardinals fromBelgium,
Chile and Italy. They include the dean of
the College of Cardinals, Angelo
Sodano, who is accused of taking large
monetary gifts from a religious order,
the Legion of Christ, and halting an in-
vestigation into its founder, the Rev.
Marcial Maciel — who was later ex-
posed as a pathological abuser and liar.
They also include cardinals reviled by
many in their own countries, like Car-
dinal Sean Brady, the primate of All Ire-
land, who survived an uproar after gov-
ernment investigations revealed
endemic cover-ups of the sexual and
physical abuse of minors.
‘‘There’s so many of them,’’ said
Justice AnneM. Burke, a judge in Illinois
who served on the U.S. bishops’ first ad-
visory board 10 years ago. ‘‘They all have
participated in one way or another in
having actual information about criminal
conduct and not doing anything about it.
What are you going to do? They’re all not
going to participate in the conclave?’’
Even one cardinal frequently men-
tioned as a leading candidate for pope
has been accused of turning a blind eye
toward abuse victims. Cardinal Marc
Ouellet of Canada issued apologies to
the many victims of abuse in church
boarding schools in Quebec but left be-
hind widespread resentment when he
fied Lord in a newway,’’ he said.
‘‘I’ve never felt lonely while carrying
the burden and the joy of Peter’s min-
istry,’’ the pope also said. ‘‘Many people
have helpedme, the cardinals with their
advice, wisdom and friendship, my col-
laborators, startingwith the state secre-
tary and thewhole Curia, many of whom
lend their service in the background,
and all of you,’’ he said.
‘‘The pope is never alone and I can
now feel it in such a great way that it
touches my heart,’’ he added.
Vatican officials said 150,000 people
packed into the square and the avenue
leading to it to hear the pope speak, al-
though other estimates put the figure
lower.
The pope, who is 85, sent shock waves
around the Roman Catholic world on
Feb. 11 when he announced he would
resign on Thursday.
Dressed in white, the pope rode in a
covered vehicle known as the popemo-
bile flanked by security guards, weav-
ing through the crowd. Several times,
the pope halted to kiss babies handed to
him from the throng.
‘‘We came to give the pope our sup-
port,’’ said Giovanni Sali, 25, a student
who had traveled from central Italy.
‘‘We want him to know we are close to
him.’’
Lucilla Martino, from Rome, said she
had been surprised when the pope an-
nounced his resignation, but it had been
a ‘‘positive shock’’ and ‘‘the right thing
to do.’’
The resignation left officials scram-
bling to deal with the protocols of his de-
parture as he ceases to be the leader of
the world’s 1.1 billion Roman Catholics.
Only on Tuesday did the Vatican an-
nounce that hewill keep the name Bene-
dict XVI and will be known as the Ro-
man pontiff emeritus or pope emeritus.
He will dress in a simple white cas-
sock, forgoing the mozzetta, the elbow-
length cape worn by some Catholic cler-
gymen, the Vatican spokesman, the
Rev. Federico Lombardi, told reporters
at a news briefing Tuesday.
And he will no longer wear the red
shoes typically worn by popes, symbol-
izing the blood of the martyrs, Father
Lombardi said, opting instead for a
more quotidian brown.
Alan Cowell reported fromParis. Gaia
Pianigiani contributed reporting from
Vatican City.
LUCA BRUNO/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, the former archbishop of Los Angeles, at the Vatican on Wednesday. He has vigorously defended his record.
reportedly refused to meet with them.
Much of the attention has been fo-
cused on Cardinal Mahony. Last month
a court ordered the release of 12,000
pages of internal church files on abusive
priests, includingmany damaging docu-
ments with his signature. The docu-
ments reveal, among other things, that
he advised priests to stay out of Califor-
nia to avoid arrest and prosecution.
Other Americans who have failed to
remove priests accused of abuse, but re-
ceived less attention, include Cardinal
Justin Rigali, the retired archbishop of
Philadelphia, and Cardinal Francis
George, the archbishop of Chicago, ac-
cording to Terence McKiernan, co-di-
rector and president of BishopAccount-
ability.org, a Web site that tracks abuse
cases.
Cardinal Bernard Law, who resigned
from the archdiocese in Boston in 2002
at the height of the U.S. scandal and
moved to Rome, where he was assigned
to preside at a majestic cathedral, is too
old to vote in the coming conclave.
However, he is eligible to participate in
conclave.
The senior British prelate who
resigned Monday, Cardinal Keith O’Bri-
en, said he would not attend the con-
clave. Three priests and a former priest
accused him of making sexual ad-
vances. Although the men were not
minors at the time, he held a position of
authority as their church superior.
At a news conference in Rome on
Tuesday, David Clohessy, the national
director of the Survivors Network of
those Abused by Priests, a U.S. group,
said that coming to gripswith the sexual
abuse crisis should be a priority for the
next pope.
‘‘From the new pope, we’d simply ex-
pect courage,’’ he said. ‘‘We long for the
day when church officials announce
that this cardinal or this bishop is being
demoted because church officials have
found proof of wrongdoing and church
officials want to clean things up.’’
Pascale Bonnefoy contributed reporting
from Santiago, Ian Austen fromOttawa,
and Gaia Pianigiani fromRome.
‘‘They all have participated in
one way or another in having
actual information about
criminal conduct and not
doing anything about it.’’
the general congregation meetings that
precede the conclave.
In Chile, sexual abuse survivors and
their advocates have aimed the spot-
light on Cardinal Francisco Javier
Errázuriz, a former archbishop of Santi-
ago. They say that for years he ignored
their accusations against one of the
country’s most prominent and influen-
tial priests, the Rev. Fernando
Karadima, and refused to meet with the
victims or to conduct an investigation.
After the victims publicized their
claims, court and church investigations
against Father Karadima found him
guilty of the abuses, and in early 2011,
the Vatican ordered him to retire to ‘‘a
life of prayer and penitence.’’ But Car-
dinal Errázuriz is expected to vote in the
Protest votes produce deadlock
ITALY, FROMPAGE 1
them. And the newupstart parties being
elected appear to have no real solution,
either, aside from turning over an old
system that has fed the distrust of the
political class on the whole.
‘‘There’s a sense that the old politics
in whatever formand whatever country
have reached the limits of their ability to
cope with a world that seems to be
spiraling out of control,’’ said Yossi
Klein Halevi, a senior fellow at the Sha-
lom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.
‘‘The crazier things get, the less absurd
it seems to vote for a party which under
normal circumstances would seem
quaint or irrelevant or absurd.’’
Blindsided by the Five Star Move-
ment, Italy’s leading political parties
struggled Tuesday to find a governing
coalition. The front-running center-left
Democratic Party of Pier Luigi Bersani
won in the lower house but does not con-
trol the Senate, where a comeback by the
center-right party of former Prime Min-
ister Silvio Berlusconi blocked its gains.
A fledgling civic movement of the
caretaker Prime Minister Mario Monti
placed fourth, with about 10 percent of
the vote, not enough for it to form a gov-
erning alliance with the Democratic
Party. Complicating matters, Mr. Grillo
has said that his movement will not
form alliances with the mainstream
parties it was elected to repudiate.
The same cycle may be in evidence in
Washington, analysts say, where the
failure of Democrats and Republicans to
come to an agreement on how to trim
the national budgetmay set off automat-
ic cuts that are increasingly unpopular.
But the gridlock is particularly pro-
nounced in Italy andGreece, whose polit-
ical cultures are based on state-financed
patronage, and where austerity mea-
sures set by Europe to reduce those
countries’ debts have sent the real econ-
omies into recession. That, in turn, has
weakened themain parties andmade fer-
tile ground for anti-establishment votes.
European leaders are shaken. ‘‘I hope
we are not going to follow the tempta-
tion to give in to populismbecause of the
results in one specific member state,’’
José Manuel Barroso, the European
Commission president, said Tuesday.
Gripped by economic and social mal-
aise, voters are going negative. More
andmore people are casting their ballots
against mainstream parties and choos-
ing protest parties evenwhen they know
that they will not govern better, said
Peter Filzmaier, professor for democra-
cy studies and political research at
Danube University Krems, in Austria.
‘‘We are experiencing a phase where
it is enough for a party to be different for
it to win votes,’’ Mr. Filzmaier said. ‘‘It
could be the Pippi Longstocking party.
It makes no difference.’’
As a result, it is hard for parties to come
up with a coherent program that can lift
them out of a deep and persistent slump.
YARA NARDI/REUTERS
Supporters of the Five Star Movement in Rome celebrating the group’s electoral suc-
cess, which left Italy’s main political parties struggling to find a governable majority.
In Greece, where austerity measures
imposed by foreign lenders have helped
collapse the real economy and push un-
employment to 25 percent, the leftist
Syriza party nearly won national elec-
tions last May, prompting a second
round of elections in which European
leaders sent a strongmessage toGreece
that if they elected Syriza, the country
would be kicked out of the euro zone.
Neither happened. Today, Europe has
put in place more mechanisms to protect
the single currency, and Syriza, with its
charismatic young leader, Alexis Tsipras,
is almost neck-and-neckwith the govern-
ing center-right New Democracy party
in opinion polls. The party has a strong
anti-austerity line and has called out the
more established parties as corrupt.
Changing technologies have made al-
ternative parties easier to organize and
raise funds. ‘‘Moods are converted into
votes faster and faster, and suddenly
these small parties appear,’’ said Eck-
hard Jesse, professor of political sys-
tems and institutions at Chemnitz Uni-
versity of Technology, in Germany.
The Five Star Movement began in
2008, an outgrowth of Mr. Grillo’s blog.
Its first candidates ran in some local elec-
tions last spring but made their mark na-
tionally in October, when the party
placed first in regional elections in Sicily
after Mr. Grillo swam across the strait of
Messina and campaigned in piazzas.
Corruption scandals involving the
Democratic Party and People of Liberty
party helped erode voter confidence in
the system before elections. But it re-
mains to be seen how the Five Star
Movement’smembers, who have little in
common, will align themselves inParlia-
ment. Already, Mr. Grillo has been criti-
cized as being an autocratic leader of a
party that has no centralized structure.
The consensus was that the Continent
faced a long, hard slog, but that the
worst of the acute period of the debt
crisis may have been over. Just as mar-
ket pressure was lifting from the euro
zone and signs were beginning to ap-
pear that the European economy could
get back on track, the Italian election
has resulted in gridlock.
Exacerbating the link between eco-
nomic and political malaise is Italy’s
electoral system, which gives a bonus to
the largest political bloc in the lower
house and a different bonus in the Senate
based on regional showings. That raises
the likelihood of split houses and ungov-
ernability, as happened onMonday.
The leaders of the political parties,
Mr. Bersani, Mr. Berlusconi and Mr.
Grillo, will now begin consultations to
attempt to form a coalition government.
While no two parties have anything in
common ideologically, analysts said
they may form a short-lived coalition in
order to change Italian electoral law.
Analysts said that Italy failed to pro-
duce a coherent coalition because the
center-left did not appeal to younger,
post-communist independent leftists,
especially after Mr. Bersani defeated
Matteo Renzi, the 38-year-old mayor of
Florence, in the party’s primaries, and
because Italy is effectively a right-lean-
ing country whose only center-right
party since the collapse of the Christian
Democrats 20 years ago is Mr. Ber-
lusconi’s charismatic movement.
As he sat outside in central Rome
reading a newspaper, Fulvio Fassio, 77,
a former manager who is now a farmer,
said that Mr. Grillo filled a void.
‘‘The old parties, with a strong ideolog-
ical connotation, have lost their real
nature and, in their place, a strong center
based on political apathy has flourished,’’
he said. ‘‘Many Italians believe that it’s
all the same, politicians are all the same,
so what difference does it make?’’
Gaia Pianigiani contributed reporting
fromRome.
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