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‘China will see
Chen Guangcheng
The activist gives his
first impressions of
the US and why he
wants to return home
Touch and go
Are consumers
interested in
mobile payments?
C
T
f
t
w
democracy’
LIFE & ARTS
PAGE 3
COMMENT
PAGE 7
L
Plus
Super high-end properties are still being built in Singapore
House & Home
|
Saturday September 22
/
Sunday September 23 2012
|
EUROPE
World Business Newspaper
Resentment
burns in
Pakistan
News Briefing
Spanish government bonds
10-year yield (%)
8
7
Vehicles on fire
in Karachi as
thousands of
protesters clashed
with police across
Pakistan in new
demonstrations
against portrayal
of the Prophet
Mohammed in
a trailer for an
obscure US film
Page 3
6
5
4
Jan
2012
Sep
Source: Thomson Reuters Datastream
Yields fail to pass 6 per
cent this week, Page 13
S Africa strife spreads
Wildcat strike begins at
gold mine over wage
demands.
Page 11
Summer fades away
The ECB­triggered rally
in European shares has
ended.
Page 15
Gorilla threat
Congo’s wildlife haven
struggles to cope amid
war.
Page 3
AFP
Romney bows to call for tax disclosure
Tricky EMI deal
Deal posed tough
dilemmas for Brussels.
Page 13
Move to rebut claims
of secrecy over income
Revelation comes as
fundraising falters
The Republican presidential
candidate also released his full
tax return for 2011, which
showed that he voluntarily paid
more tax than required by
reducing allowable deductions
for charitable contributions.
He had previously refused to
go beyond his promise to release
two years of full tax returns,
which Barack Obama’s cam-
paign has used to portray their
opponent as rich and out of
touch.
The announcement, which
came in the form of a blog post-
ing by Mr Romney’s lawyer,
came at the end of a difficult
week on the campaign trail,
launched with the leaking of a
video that showed Mr Romney
belittling the “47 per cent” of
Americans who did not pay fed-
eral income tax as “victims”.
His 2011 tax return showed
that he and his wife Ann paid
$1.9m in taxes on $13.7m in
income, which was derived
mostly from investments. That
put their effective tax rate at
14.1 per cent, according to the
post on Mr Romney’s campaign
website from Brad Malt, the
trustee of the Romney’s blind
trust and his lawyer.
They also donated $4m to
charity last year, nearly 30 per
cent of their income, but
claimed a tax deduction for only
$2.25m of this amount.
If he had claimed the full
deduction, his tax rate would
have been under 10 per cent,
something that would have put
him at odds with his own pro-
nouncements that he had paid
around 13 per cent of his income
in taxes over the past 10 years.
“The Romneys’ generous char-
itable donations in 2011 would
have significantly reduced their
tax obligation for the year,” Mr
Malt wrote in the blog post.
Under questioning about his
taxes this year, Mr Romney said
he would not be qualified to be
president if he paid more taxes
than were required.
“I don’t pay more than are
legally due and frankly if I had
paid more than are legally due I
don’t think I’d be qualified to
become president,” he told ABC
News in July.
Mr Romney had previously
revealed his 2010 tax return,
when he paid an effective tax
rate of 13.9 per cent, and an esti-
mate that he would pay federal
taxes of 15.4 per cent on income
of $20.9m for last year.
Mr Romney pays a relatively
low rate because most of his
income comes from dividends.
After months of intense pres-
sure from Democrats, the cam-
paign also released a letter from
PwC covering the Romneys’ tax
filings from 1990 to 2009, back-
ing up the candidate’s claim on
the campaign trail that he had
never paid less than 13 per cent
in tax. It said that the Romneys’
average annual effective federal
tax rate was 20.2 per cent over
the 20-year period, with the low-
est rate being 13.66 per cent.
Belarus stability test
Opposition withdraws
from vote and alleges
interference.
Page 2
Risk­on in London
Adoboli manager says
desk ‘more aggressive’
than in US.
Page 11
By Anna Fifield in Washington
and Richard McGregor in
Woodbridge, Virginia
Mitt Romney has released
details of 20 years’ worth of tax
payments in an effort to rebut
claims of secrecy over his per-
sonal income and steady his
stuttering presidential bid after
weeks of campaign mishaps.
Tapping Greek despair
Far­right party with a
violent reputation gains
in opinion polls.
Page 2
Romney struggles, Page 4
Christopher Caldwell, Page 9
Rise of the tech titans spurs moves to
breathe new life into venerable Dow
By James Mackintosh in London
Berkshire Hathaway is an
issue,” said David Blitzer, chair-
man of the index committee for
S&P DJ Indices. “This is an
issue that we’re just starting to
think through and debate.”
This year the Dow has risen
just 11.6 per cent while the S&P
500, the most widely followed
US benchmark that includes
Apple, Google and Berkshire,
has jumped 16.1 per cent.
Apple’s shares reached a high
of $704.75 yesterday and would
have a 30 per cent weighting if
included in the Dow, according
to Howard Silverblatt at S&P.
Inclusion of Berkshire Hatha-
way’s A shares, which trade at
more than $134,000 each, would
completely overwhelm the Dow
even though the market value
of Warren Buffett’s investment
company is lower than many
existing members.
Established in 1896. the Dow
is the second-oldest US market
index after its sister Dow Trans-
ports.
Both were created by Charles
Dow, founder of the Wall Street
Journal. It is widely followed as
a measure of the health of the
US market, although fund man-
agers have mostly moved on to
more inclusive indices based on
companies’ market values
rather than their share prices.
S&P expects to test investor
appetite for changing the Dow
at its next consultative meeting
with major index users.
“When I started my career the
Dow was much more relevant,”
said Mark Haefele, head of
investment at UBS Wealth Man-
agement. “But most institu-
tional investors have moved on
from the index.”
The Dow’s history has been
punctuated by structural issues,
with companies remaining
members long after becoming
market relics and big new busi-
nesses often ignored for long
periods.
Mr Blitzer stressed, however,
that there was no timeframe for
making changes and the Dow’s
existing
The rise and rise of Apple is
creating problems in the arcane
world of index tracking, with
changes now being considered
to the venerable Dow Jones
Industrial Average, the world’s
most
Cameron to back
EADS­BAE deal
UK premier David Cameron
is prepared to champion the
€38bn combination of BAE
Systems and EADS, after
being convinced that the
deal would benefit the
British economy. German
chancellor Angela Merkel
and French president
François Hollande are to
discuss the merger today.
famous
stock
market
measure.
The Dow is supposed to be a
gauge of America’s industrial
titans, but does not include
Apple, Google or Berkshire
Hathaway, three of the 10 big-
gest groups by market value.
Standard & Poor’s, which took
control of the Dow Jones index
business two months ago, has a
problem bringing them in:
because the 30-stock index is
weighted by price, the three
companies’ soaring shares mean
that they would dominate it if
they were included.
“Not being able to deal with
Apple, Google or for that matter
www.ft.com/bae
Investor anger, Page 11
Heavy hitter: Apple would have a
30 per cent weighting in the Dow
methodology
could
remain unchanged.
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FINANCIAL TIMES
SEPTEMBER 22/SEPTEMBER 23 2012
WORLD NEWS
Madrid moves to reassure investors
Singh
seeks
backing
for India
reforms
Berlin stands firm
on additional aid
Audit could spark
new capital demand
Next week Spain will
unveil the final results of
an audit expected to show
the country’s lenders will
need about €60bn in new
capital, alongside a further
package of structural
reforms carefully negoti-
ated with the European
authorities as part of a
“proto-programme” of con-
ditions laid out before any
rescue request is made.
Mr Rajoy must also navi-
gate opposing pressures
from financial markets anx-
ious for a rescue request,
and a German government
reluctant for Spain to ask
for more than the maxi-
mum €100bn in aid already
agreed for its banks.
Wolfgang Schäuble, Ger-
man finance minister, yes-
terday in Berlin expressed
his “unshakeable convic-
tion” that the Spanish gov-
ernment did not need an
additional aid programme
from the eurozone’s rescue
fund. “What Spain needs is
to recover the confidence of
the financial markets, and
there
Spanish finance minister,
told eurozone finance minis-
ters last week that his gov-
ernment would not need to
draw the full €100bn, Mr
Schäuble told reporters.
Senior European officials
are divided over whether a
Spanish request for a bond-
buying programme would
settle financial markets or
turn the focus to the next
country in the line of fire,
Italy – a far bigger economy
with one of the largest debt
levels in the eurozone.
Top officials in Paris and
Brussels believe that with-
out a quick acceptance by
Madrid of European help
markets could quickly turn
on Spain, since expectations
of assistance has become
built into bond prices.
While Germany has indi-
cated its opposition to more
Spanish aid, officials who
have discussed the issue
with Berlin said their cur-
rent stalling appeared to be
part of a pattern where the
German government waits
until it gets its domestic
political support in order
before taking another step
towards
removed – in particular,
Germany’s constitutional
court has upheld the legal-
ity of the eurozone’s €500bn
permanent rescue system,
which is now scheduled to
start on October 8.
Senior EU officials have
been exploring ways to
structure Spanish assist-
ance to ease the political
cost for Ms Merkel, includ-
ing using funds from the
already agreed €100bn bank
bailout for a bond purchase
scheme. Some officials said
this could gain traction as
it would mean eurozone
parliaments would not need
to approve additional aid.
“solidarity”
with
struggling
southern
euro-
zone members.
Mr Schäuble yesterday
rejected speculation that he
was against a Spanish pro-
gramme because he was
afraid of the reaction of the
Bundestag, which must
vote on any new eurozone
rescue package. “The Bun-
destag is the freely elected
parliament of the Germans.
It takes its decisions very
sensibly. No one needs to be
afraid of it. That is just silly
talk in Brussels.”
Several other issues
weighing on German deci-
sion-making
By Miles Johnson in Madrid,
Quentin Peel in Berlin and
Peter Spiegel in Brussels
By Victor Mallet in New Delhi
and James Crabtree
in Mumbai
The government of Mariano
Rajoy is preparing to enter
the most critical week of its
nine months in office as
Madrid negotiates a frame-
work for a European finan-
cial rescue and tries to con-
vince investors it has
drawn a line under the
problems facing the Span-
ish banking sector.
Spain
really
has
a
problem,” he said.
Mr Schäuble said the
Spanish government also
argued that it did not need
another programme in addi-
tion to the funds it has been
offered by the European
Financial Stability Facility
to recapitalise its weakest
banks.
‘Spain needs to
recover confidence
of the financial
markets’
Wolfgang Schäuble
German finance minister
Manmohan Singh, India’s
prime minister, robustly
defended reforms to liberal-
ise the country’s economy,
appealing to its 1.2bn people
to ignore opposition parties
spreading
“fear
and
false
Markets, Page 14
Luis
de
Guindos,
have
been
information”.
“The time has come for
hard decisions,” he said in a
televised address to the
nation yesterday. “We have
much to do to protect the
interests of this country
and we must do it now.”
Mr Singh’s Congress-led
coalition has announced
reforms including a cut in
fuel subsidies and allowing
foreign
Fanning the flames
7%
Percentage of the vote
claimed by Golden Dawn
in Greece’s June election
investment
in
supermarkets
and
depart-
ment stores.
The changes angered
small shopkeepers and
leftwing parties but
delighted domestic and for-
eign investors after years of
delay and indecision.
Walmart, the US super-
market group, is already
involved in wholesaling in
India and hopes to identify
sites
18
Number of seats in the
Greek parliament won by
the far­right group
22%
Percentage of people
expressing ‘positive
opinions’ about Golden
Dawn in a survey this week,
up from 12 per cent in May
for
retail
outlets
within 12-18 months.
“I don’t think India is a
hostile market,” Scott Price,
the group’s Asia president,
said, predicting that local
governments would be so
convinced of the benefits of
“modern retail” within a
few years that restrictions
on foreign direct invest-
ment would melt away. The
new rules allow foreign
groups to hold 51 per cent
of mass retail outlets.
Proponents of liberalisa-
tion, including Mr Singh,
argue that foreign invest-
ment would help farmers
avoid the depredations of
middle men, improve logis-
tics for food transport and
not even damage the inter-
ests of small traders given
the increasing population
and probable growth of the
economy. The Indian retail
trade is thought to be worth
about $450bn a year.
“I promise that I will do
everything necessary to put
our country back on the
path of high and inclusive
growth but I need your sup-
port,” Mr Singh said.
Earlier yesterday, the
government took more
steps to boost the economy.
Palaniappan Chidam-
baram, finance minister,
cut the tax on foreign bor-
rowings by Indian compa-
nies from 20 per cent to
5 per cent and approved tax
concessions for first-time
small investors in the stock
market,
10%
Poll result for the party in
Corinth, one of its highest
scores across the country
Golden Dawn supporters in
Thessaloniki this year. The
party entered parliament for
the first time after successes
in the June election
Getty Images
Two sides of Golden Dawn tap into Greek despair
a seat here at the election,”
Mr Pnevmatikos says.
Golden Dawn, which won
7 per cent of the vote in
June’s election and entered
parliament for the first
time, is on a roll, pulling
established parties to the
right – including Corinth’s
socialists.
The party is tapping into
the despair of many at the
country’s downward spiral,
offering an immediate out-
let – and target – for their
rage. But here in one of its
main strongholds, Golden
Dawn is also taking politi-
cally effective measures in
response to Greeks’ fear of
crime and to their poverty.
Polls suggest the party
has gained ground since the
election as anxiety deepens
over a possible Greek expul-
sion from the euro. One this
week showed a near dou-
bling in the number of peo-
ple expressing “positive
opinions” about Golden
Dawn, up from 12 per cent
in May to 22 per cent.
Thanos Veremis, a histo-
rian and political analyst,
says: “They address peo-
ple’s feelings of insecurity
in difficult times, they offer
the unemployed somewhere
to belong . . . and the immi-
grant
servative-led coalition gov-
ernment has been accused
of jumping on the racist
bandwagon by launching a
sweep of thousands of ille-
gal immigrants, detaining
them in closed camps to
await deportation. Nikos
Dendias, citizen protection
minister,
called “storm troopers” by
the party, roam immigrant
neighbourhoods under the
guise of preventing crime.
“People don’t usually get
much help when they go to
the police [about these
attacks],” says a restaurant
worker from Bangladesh
who gave his name as Hus-
sein. “It is very hard to give
a description of someone
who comes after you wear-
ing a crash helmet.”
Golden Dawn’s position
takes no account of Greek
legislation allowing immi-
grants to obtain residence
and work permits.
“There is no such person
as a legal immigrant,” says
Mr Kassidiaris, a former
Greek army commando
whose approval rating
soared after he slapped a
female Communist parlia-
mentary candidate on a tel-
evision talk-show.
This week, Mr Kassidiaris
revealed he had asked to be
stripped of his parliamen-
tary immunity from prose-
cution ahead of an appeal
court hearing of an armed
robbery case in which he is
accused of driving the geta-
way car. He denies involve-
ment in the robbery.
The case has highlighted
alleged connections
between Golden Dawn and
the Greek criminal under-
world. “We get reports their
members are involved in
protection rackets, some-
times in collusion with the
police,” Mr Damalos says.
Yet Golden Dawn has also
tried to build an image of
social responsibility,
through regular food distri-
butions to needy Greeks
registered with the party
and by providing a service
to accompany pensioners to
the bank in neighbourhoods
where muggings, which
they blame on immigrants,
are frequent.
Maria Tsalpatura, a 75-
year-old retired school-
teacher, says she calls
Golden Dawn every month
before she goes to collect
her pension. “They come on
time and they’re very
polite. I think they offer a
real service,” she says.
But the Corinth mayor
and his supporters found
themselves on the same
side as Golden Dawn last
month, when the govern-
ment decided to move a
group of immigrants into a
disused military camp on
the city outskirts.
Police clashed with angry
residents after 400 immi-
grants arrived in trucks to
live
Fascist threat
The party has a
violent reputation
but its assistance
to the needy is
helping its cause,
writes
Kerin Hope
issue
gives
them
momentum.”
Ilias Kassidiaris, the
party’s spokesman, denies
that Golden Dawn is neo-
fascist, despite its symbol
and the Nazi-style salute
with which members greet
Nikos Michaloliakos, its
leader. “We are pure Greek
nationalists,” he says.
In Corinth, where immi-
grants sacked from jobs in
local vineyards and winer-
ies because of the recession
are blamed for a rise in
crime against property, the
party polled almost 10 per
cent – one of its highest
scores across the country.
“They went round the vil-
lages saying that if they got
into parliament they would
call for every immigrant to
be deported,” says Panos
Damalos, an activist with
Anti-Racist Initiative, an
immigrant support group.
Since the election the con-
says
the
pro-
‘People don’t
usually get much
help when they go
to the police [about
these attacks]’
Alexandros Pnevmatikos
draws a line across his
throat with one finger,
mimicking a threat by a
member of the far-right
Golden Dawn party during
a recent protest.
The two-term socialist
mayor of the southern
Greek city of Corinth was
jostled, then pushed vio-
lently to the ground, by a
group of men in black
T-shirts bearing the party’s
swastika-like symbol. He
claims he was attacked for
declaring a few days earlier
that
at
the
base.
Golden
Dawn
members
joined
in
the protest.
Mr Pnevmatikos ordered
the water supply to the
camp cut off for several
hours in protest against the
decision.
“There’s a big backlash in
the city because of fears of
a mass escape by immi-
grants trying to get to the
port and on to a ship for
Italy . . . They shouldn’t be
staying here.”
Mr Michaloliakos, the
Golden Dawn leader, echoes
the Corinthians’ reaction.
“Why should Greek taxpay-
ers subsidise a fully catered
stay in a holiday camp for
people we don’t want?”
“to
promote
an
‘equity culture’ in India”.
Indian financial markets
have risen strongly on the
back of the reforms and an
influx of foreign capital yes-
terday pushed the bench-
mark Sensex index of lead-
ing shares to its highest
level for more than a year.
The newly optimistic
mood bolstered the coun-
try’s battered currency. The
rupee closed the week at its
highest level since May.
Additional reporting by
Enid Tsui in Hong Kong
gramme will continue until
the end of the year.
Greece has also tightened
security along its border
with Turkey, citing fears of
a big inflow of refugees
from the conflict in Syria.
Golden Dawn members
have been accused by anti-
racist groups of beating up
immigrants in late-night
attacks in central Athens.
Small
“fascism
will
never
prevail in Greece”.
“Golden Dawn have taken
to throwing their weight
around ever since they won
groups
of
bikers,
Fragile stability in Belarus tests rise in support for Lukashenko
Janukevich, chairman of
the opposition Belarusian
Popular Front, speaking in
a small, dank basement
with peeling wallpaper that
serves as the party’s head-
quarters.
The Popular Front has
withdrawn its candidates
and, to the government’s
fury, is urging a boycott,
complaining that the oppo-
sition has been blocked
from campaigning and that
it is concerned about elec-
tion fraud.
Mr Lukashenko appears
to be firmly back in control
of the former Soviet repub-
lic of 9.5m people, after a
year that saw his rule
tested by political and eco-
nomic crises that forced
him to turn to Russia for
rescue. But the current sta-
bility could be fragile.
Svetlana Kalinkina, editor
of Narodnaya Volya, the
country’s largest independ-
ent newspaper, sifts
through piles of letters on
her desk, many of which
she says express frustration
with the government and
tell of strikes and disputes
in regions far from the rela-
tive prosperity of Minsk.
“This could turn into larger
discontent if the situation
worsens,” she warns.
Mr Lukashenko has suc-
ceeded in crippling the for-
mal opposition following a
crackdown after presiden-
tial elections in 2010, when
tens of thousands of people
took to the streets to pro-
test about voting fraud.
Hundreds of opposition
activists were arrested and
about a dozen are now in
prison; many leaders have
emigrated and public pro-
tests are now a rarity. The
2010 elections also set off an
economic crisis, fuelled by
Mr Lukashenko’s bid to buy
support by raising salaries,
which hit an average of
$530 a month at the end of
the year.
Belarus then suffered
severe inflation and a bal-
ance of payments crisis that
saw hard currency almost
disappear and imported
goods vanish from shops.
Minsk had to turn to Mos-
cow after access to western
funds was cut off in reac-
tion to political repression.
As well as slashing spend-
ing and allowing the rouble
to depreciate by almost two-
thirds against the dollar,
Belarus negotiated a $3bn
bailout from the Russian-
dominated EurAsEC
regional organisation. In
return, Belarus sold one of
its prime assets to Russia’s
Gazprom energy company,
its share of the Beltransgaz
gas pipeline running across
its territory to the EU.
“Things are a bit better,
but I’m certainly poorer
than I was two years ago,”
says
“That is the cost of social
stability – we had to make
up for last year, which was
a difficult one,” said Sergei
Dubkov, deputy governor of
the central bank.
Slowed by the global cri-
sis to 2.5 per cent this year,
the economy is not growing
as quickly as expected.
Government revenues are
also likely to fall after Mos-
cow insisted that Minsk
paid duties on re-exports of
refined Russian fuel prod-
ucts. Belarus is under pres-
sure to fulfil a promise to
sell more than $7bn in state
assets – but little has been
sold aside from the pipeline
last year.
Next year Belarus will
have to start repaying a
$3.5bn IMF loan that saved
the economy in 2009, but Mr
Lukashenko has little
chance of additional assist-
ance unless he can con-
vince the fund he is serious
about tackling economic
reforms. Lukashenko is
reluctant to sell more as the
only realistic buyers are
Russian, which will further
erode Belarus’s already
frayed independence.
Parliamentary vote
Parties withdraw
candidates after
alleging they have
been blocked from
campaigning,
writes
Jan Cienski
Number One Southwark Bridge, London SE1 9HL
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Finding signs of tomorrow’s
parliamentary elections
along Minsk’s central boule-
vards takes some doing. A
few government get-out-the-
vote advertisements are
tucked discreetly into shop
windows and there’s a tat-
tered announcement board
with photographs of four
candidates – that’s about it.
This is because the vote is
a foregone conclusion. Sup-
porters of Alexander
Lukashenko, Belarus’s
authoritarian leader for the
past 18 years, are likely to
win all the seats in an elec-
tion boycotted by the lead-
ing opposition parties.
“If I believed we’d have
the chance of winning even
a single seat we would have
stayed
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pensioner.
“Still, the government
has raised my pension a few
times this year, so my situa-
tion is getting better. I
think the president is really
trying to help us.”
In a bid to rebuild sup-
port, Mr Lukashenko has
also promised to increase
salaries to an average
equivalent of $500 a month
– almost double what they
were at the beginning of the
year – which risks setting
off the same inflation and
depreciation spiral that
almost sank the economy a
year ago.
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The president’s portrait oversees early voting
in,”
said
Alaksej
AFP
   FINANCIAL TIMES
SEPTEMBER 22/SEPTEMBER 23 2012
★
†
3
WORLD NEWS
Gorillas in
the midst
of Congo
conflict
Protests across Pakistan over
anti­Islam film claim 15 lives
By Farhan Bokhari in
Islamabad and Borzou
Daragahi in Cairo
erners who cherish freedom
of expression. They are also
the result of internal politi-
cal machinations by groups
or governments tapping
into anti-western senti-
ments to rally popular sup-
port against domestic and
international rivals.
The Obama administra-
tion has purchased adver-
tisements on half a dozen
Pakistani television stations
disavowing the low-budget
film,
The Innocence of Mus-
lims
. In an apparent
attempt to persuade Mus-
lims to stay at home, a
nervous Pakistani govern-
ment declared yesterday a
“day of renewing love for
Prophet Mohammed,”
announced a public holiday
and severed mobile phone
service in 15 cities. But
demonstrations broke out
after Friday prayers.
In Peshawar, the last
northern frontier city
before the Afghan border,
protesters torched two local
cinemas and attacked the
offices of the local business
chamber. In Karachi and
Lahore big protests were
led by Muslim clerics.
Twelve of the deaths were
in Karachi, Associated
Press reported, citing gov-
ernment officials.
Raja Pervez Ashraf, Paki-
stan’s prime minister, urged
Muslims to remain calm. He
called the film an “unac-
ceptable” attack on the
world’s 1.5bn Muslim peo-
Askari Rizvi, a political
commentator. “But deep
below there is also growing
resentment against the way
Pakistan is being run.”
In the Sri Lankan capital
of Colombo, about 2,000
Muslims burnt effigies of
Mr Obama and American
flags at a protest near the
US embassy. In Bangladesh,
more than 2,000 people
marched through the
streets of Dhaka. Small and
mostly orderly protests
were also held in Malaysia
and Indonesia.
Iran’s political leaders
and senior clergy have con-
demned the film but there
have been no demonstra-
tions by ordinary Iranian
people. Instead, small
groups of regime loyalists
have joined state-sponsored
gatherings. Tunisia’s gov-
ernment yesterday banned
protests. In Cairo, hundreds
of riot police oversaw a
small protest outside the
French embassy.
Additional reporting by
Najmeh Bozorghmehr in
Tehran. This report includes
copy used by agreement with
the Washington Post
At least 15 people were
killed and dozens injured
when thousands of Muslim
protesters yesterday
clashed with riot police
across Pakistan’s largest
cities, in the latest demon-
strations against the por-
trayal of the Prophet
Mohammed in a trailer for
an obscure US video film.
Smaller and peaceful pro-
tests also took place
throughout the Middle East,
north Africa and south Asia
against publication this
week of caricatures of the
prophet by a French satiri-
cal weekly.
Unlike in Pakistan, the
protests in the Arab world
were subdued, with domi-
nant Islamist parties in gov-
ernment mostly refusing to
endorse demonstrations or
banning them outright.
The sometimes unruly
protests illustrate the gulf
between pious Muslims who
value the sanctity of public
space, including globalised
electronic media, and west-
The government
declared yesterday
a ‘day for renewing
love for Prophet
Mohammed’
the M23 rebels, say Mr de
Merode and M23. “We have
to stay very neutral – we
risk losing the park if we
play that game,” says Mr
de Merode. “Our job is to
keep the park going
through this conflict . . .
and we’ve already lost our
revenues from the
suspension of tourism.”
But the presence of the
rebels makes it difficult to
monitor the gorillas.
Mr de Merode also has
“successive reports” the
rebels are taking tourists
in from Uganda to see the
gorillas at $300 a throw,
less than half the rates
charged elsewhere in the
region. Official permits to
visit the gorillas are in
high demand because visits
and group sizes are limited
to safeguard their welfare.
“We’ve told them [the
rebels] it’s dangerous,
extremely irresponsible and
potentially very destructive
for the gorillas . . . they
want the money basically,”
he says.
Rebels dismiss these
claims as false. “We have a
good relationship with
[park authorities]. Col
Makenga has already
authorised monitoring and
the park is protected,” says
Lt Col Vianney Kazarama,
M23 spokesman.
For the commando-
trained rangers, armed not
only with Kalashnikovs
but also rocket-propelled
grenade launchers and
heavy machine guns, the
risks are high. More than
130 rangers have been
killed since 1996, in efforts
to stop everything from
rebel attacks to elephant
poaching and illegal
charcoal burning.
The latest batch spent
six months training under
former Belgian
commandos, making them
among the best fighting
forces in a country beset
by vicious militias, rebel
groups and ill-disciplined
national troops.
“We are organised like
an army,” says 35-year-old
Desiré Sekibibi, one of 273
rangers. André Bauma
says: “We’ve given
ourselves to nature
conservation – I’m afraid I
will be killed but it’s my
vocation. If you see how
we have kept these baby
gorillas since their mother
was killed, you see they
are our children.”
Mr de Merode insists
Congo could one day
overtake Rwanda’s gorilla-
led tourism sector, the
country’s highest foreign
exchange earner, at $252m
last year. “It’s very similar
to what Rwanda had in the
late 90s: [people] were
saying ‘But you’ve just
come out of a genocide’.”
Park officials say the
choice throughout
Virunga’s nearly 2m acres
beats anything else in
Africa, including Kenya’s
Masai Mara or Botswana’s
Okavango Delta. It is home
not only to lowland and
mountain gorillas, but also
chimps, lions, and an
active volcano with a
tented camp on its rim
that peers into the world’s
biggest lava lake.
“It’s the rebuilding of a
country and the thing
about tourism is that it
creates jobs within the
local population and small
businesses,” says Mr de
Merode, who says that the
park is still investing in
three tented camps to be
delivered by the end of
the year.
“Even if it seems a bit
crazy right now we’re
absolutely convinced it will
work,” he adds.
News analysis
Rangers are
struggling to cope
after war forced the
closure of a wildlife
haven, writes
Katrina Manson
ple. The government also
summoned the US acting
ambassador in Islamabad to
protest against the film.
The demonstrations have
been fuelled by rising pub-
lic discontent. The govern-
ment of Asif Ali Zardari,
president, appears to have
become increasingly unpop-
ular in the face of allega-
tions of corruption.
“These protests may have
been triggered as a reaction
to the film,” said Hasan
A call to say that one of
his trucks has been looted
barely ruffles Gilbert Dilis.
The former Belgian
commando who runs
security at Virunga
National Park, home to
some of the world’s last
mountain gorillas, has
much more to worry about.
The nearly 300 rangers
under his command risk
death to do their job.
“Most of the time it’s
ambushes from different
rebel groups; they [park
rangers] know how to fight
but nobody is invincible,”
says Mr Dilis.
The park in eastern
Democratic Republic of
Congo, parts of which have
been over-run by rebel
groups for years, was just
beginning to enjoy record
arrivals of tourists when
war broke out earlier this
year, forcing it to close
and endangering both the
gorillas and the rangers
who police the reserve.
“In 20 years in Congo it’s
by far the most violent
period I’ve ever known,”
says Emmanuel de Merode,
the Belgian park director
who says arrivals were set
Gun law: A rebel from the M23 mutineers who hold much of
Rutshuru territory north of Goma, the provincial capital
Getty
‘In 20 years in
Congo it’s by far
the most violent
period I’ve known’
Emmanuel de Merode
park director
to double to 6,000 this year
and pull in a record $2m.
The world’s last 800
mountain gorillas live on
the borders of Congo,
Rwanda and Uganda and
are a draw for wealthy
tourists. “It was looking
very, very promising and
unfortunately we came a
cropper on the political
situation,” Mr de
Merode adds.
Army mutineers, known
as M23, now hold much of
Rutshuru territory north of
Goma, the provincial
capital. Park turf under
their command includes
the part that is home to
200 mountain gorillas, as
well as a new $1.2m luxury
lodge whose wine cellar
doubled as a bunker for
unarmed civilians when
fighting spilt into the park.
For now, an uneasy
relationship exists between
the environmentalists who
run the park and rebels
accused of war crimes
including summary
executions, rape and forced
recruitment of child
soldiers.
UN experts say Rwanda
has supplied weapons and
recruits to the rebels
through the gorilla section
of the park, claims denied
by both Rwanda and M23.
Park officials say they
have no direct evidence of
this.
Colonel Sultani Makenga,
M23 leader, accepts the
presence of park officials,
say Mr de Merode and M23.
“He [Col Makenga] came to
see us,” Mr de Merode
says. “We’re not a threat
to them and we have to
keep the park going and
we can’t leave; he accepted
that.”
The park has not paid
any protection money to
DEMOCRATIC
REPUBLIC OF
CONGO
Lake
Edward
UGANDA
Virunga
National
Park
Rutshuru
Rumangabo
Goma
Goma
RWANDA
Lake
Kivu
ke
iv
Virunga is home to some of
the last mountain gorillas
50 km
   4
★
FINANCIAL TIMES
SEPTEMBER 22/SEPTEMBER 23 2012
WORLD NEWS
Romney struggles to raise campaign energy levels
executed convention to his
awkward critique of the
president after the death of
American diplomats in
Libya, seemed to culminate
in the release of the now
infamous “47 per cent”
video. But instead of seizing
the developments with a
sense of urgency, on the
road the campaign often
seemed fatigued.
There were moments
when Mr Romney seemed
eager to sound like the
moderate governor of Mas-
sachusetts he once was. He
opposed President Barack
Obama’s plan to temporar-
ily stop deporting young
people who had entered the
country illegally because
“these kids deserve some-
thing better”. But he
stopped short of offering an
alternative.
At a rally a short while
later, and after first stop-
ping at a fundraiser, Mr
Romney stood and looked
on as his son, Craig, intro-
duced him to a rowdy
crowd in a not quite full
auditorium. Using English
and his fluent Spanish
(learned during Mormon
missionary work in Chile)
Craig recalled the trepida-
tion he felt when his father
made the decision to run
for president.
“I know my dad. He’s a
man of incredible integrity
and incredible experience.
But I was concerned that
the voters wouldn’t get to
know him like that,” the
younger Mr Romney said,
suggesting it was a fear
that had been realised.
It was a sentiment left
lingering in the room, even
as the festive crowd
cheered, holding their “Jun-
tos con Romney” placards,
and a band played “Guan-
tanamera”.
Unlike other candidates
who seem visibly energised
by crowds, Mr Romney
enters and exits relatively
quickly, making what feels
like perfunctory stops on
his path to the White
House. It was only when a
man yelled “Free Cuba”
that Mr Romney mentioned
the nation 90 miles away,
praising the “brave” indi-
viduals who had engaged in
a hunger strike. He then
moved on, as if he had
checked it off his list.
It is that apparent lack of
energy that drives growing
concerns among Republi-
cans about what they say is
a lifeless and poorly-run
Romney campaign.
One Republican insider,
who was close to the cam-
paign, said it had become
“severely” insular in the
past three weeks. The
“painful transition”
between speeches by Mr
Romney’s wife Ann and
New Jersey governor Chris
Christie at the convention
in Tampa, the person said,
“was the first indication
that they didn’t have their
act together”. “It shook the
pros and nothing since then
has restored confidence.”
Since then, the campaign
seems to have gone under-
ground, focused on prepara-
tion for the presidential
debates, which are a poten-
tial “game changer” for Mr
Romney, and fundraising.
Mr Romney has held just 13
public campaign events in
the past three weeks and 13
fundraisers.
In Sarasota, where he
gave a quick speech in the
tropical heat to a crowd of
mostly elderly voters, Mr
Romney accused Mr Obama
of flying “the white flag of
surrender” after the presi-
dent said he could not
“change” Washington from
the “inside”. A man repeat-
edly shouted “send him
back to Kenya” whenever
Mr Romney mentioned Mr
Obama and no one flinched.
Mr Romney spent longer
than usual shaking hands
before heading back to the
airport. As he approached
the plane ready to take him
to a fundraiser in Palm
Beach, a reporter asked
whether he would be cam-
paigning a little harder
from now on.
“Ha ha. We’re in the
stretch aren’t we?” Mr Rom-
ney responded. “Look at
those clouds. It’s beautiful,”
he said, pointing to the sky.
“Look at those things.”
US election
Candidate remains
hopeful presidential
debates are potential
‘game changer’,
writes
Stephanie
Kirchgaessner
Mitt Romney touched down
in southern Florida at the
end of the two most chal-
lenging weeks of his presi-
dential bid selling his usual
five-point plan to save the
US economy. But as he jet-
ted from a forum with Lati-
nos in Miami to a rally in
Sarasota and then a fund-
raiser in Palm Beach, his
campaign was struggling to
regain momentum.
This week started with a
promise by a top campaign
adviser, Ed Gillespie, that
Mr Romney would begin
giving more details about
his plans for the nation –
details the campaign said
voters wanted to hear.
But as Mr Romney stood
before Latino voters in
Miami at a forum sponsored
by Spanish-language broad-
caster Univision, his skin
looking a peculiar orange
under the television lights,
he struggled to present a
fresh argument to a critical
demographic
Mitt Romney arrives in West Palm Beach, Florida, for a fundraising event yesterday after a challenging week for the Republican nominee
AFP
Pollsters that reach mobile phones give incumbent a bigger lead
Barely a day goes by
without another raft of polls
showing Barack Obama is in
the lead, even if only slightly,
over Mitt Romney, his
Republican challenger for the
White House,
writes Anna
Fifield in Washington
.
With 45 days until the
election, the flood of polls
will become faster. It will
also become more reliable,
as more rigorous polling
methods are used in the
swing states that will
determine the result.
That could see Mr Obama
extending his lead over Mr
Romney, building on a new
burst of momentum as
November 6 approaches.
The reason? Not all polls
are created equal, and the
upper crust of polls give Mr
Obama a much wider lead.
Some pollsters, such as the
Pew Research Center and
those used by the large
broadcast networks, do live
interviews with voters, calling
them on landlines and
mobile phones. But other
polling outlets, such as the
conservative Rasmussen
Reports and the Democrat­
aligned Public Policy Polling,
use a cheaper automated
dialling system. These “robo­
polls” are prohibited by law
from calling mobile phones,
meaning that their results
are automatically skewed
because they exclude 30­
40 per cent of voters.
“One­third of the adult
population only has mobile
phones, so reaching them is
really critical,” said Michael
Dimock, a pollster at Pew,
who this week gave Mr
Obama an eight percentage
point lead over Mr Romney.
People with only mobile
phones are much more likely
to be young or from an
ethnic minority, which makes
them more likely to vote
Democrat. In polls that call
mobile phones, which are
therefore more
representative of the
population, Mr Obama has a
much clearer lead than in
those that do not.
An average of the polls
that call landlines and
mobile phones – calculated
by Charlie Cook, a veteran
non­partisan political
forecaster – gives Mr
Obama a 4.2 point lead over
Mr Romney. That gels with
the 4­5 point lead seen by
parties’ private pollsters.
Real Clear Politics, which
aggregates live and robo­
polls, puts Mr Obama’s lead
at 3.9 per cent, although its
average has leapt a whole
point in the past three days.
The difference has been
more pronounced in the
swing states, because local
polling has until now been
almost entirely automated.
As the race enters its final
stretch bigger pollsters and
media companies are
starting to conduct live polls
in the swing states. With the
exception of North Carolina
and New Hampshire, Mr
Obama is leading in the
battlegrounds. New polls
from Marist – which
conducts live polling on
mobiles and landlines –
yesterday gave Mr Obama a
five­point lead in Wisconsin
and Colorado and an eight­
point margin in Iowa.
Mr Dimock said there had
been an increase in
Democratic enthusiasm.
While Republicans have been
engaged for months, thanks
to primaries, Democrats
have only become involved
more recently.
about
his
immigration policies.
Instead, he started on the
defensive. In a broadcast
less than an hour long, he
repeated four times that his
campaign was about help-
ing “100 per cent” of Ameri-
cans. The repetition was a
painful recognition of the
damage done by this week’s
release of a secret recording
in which he offered a dis-
paraging appraisal of “47
per cent” of the population
as government-dependent,
self-described victims to a
group of wealthy donors,
arguing, “my job is not to
worry about those people”.
Yesterday capped the
most difficult week in Mr
Romney’s bid for the presi-
dency, where every mis-step
and mistake of the previous
weeks, from the poorly
Poll position
US presidential election
polling preferences
(10-day rolling average)
52
Obama
Romney
50
48
46
44
42
40
38
Nov
2011
2012
Sep
Source: Real Clear Politics
Japanese nationalists seize on
tensions with China over islands
a former defence minister,
this week accused China of
waging legal, informational
and psychological warfare
against Japan.
Shinzo Abe, a former
prime minister and another
LDP leadership candidate,
has declared that Japan
must “make clear to the
Chinese government our
strong intention not to
allow Chinese ships to enter
[Japan’s territorial waters]”.
Many Japanese share a
desire for a stronger line
from Japan’s leadership.
“Japan is so meek. If
China takes advantage of
that we should stand firm
against them,” says Emi
Yamagata,
the Japanese government to
be stronger,” she says.
“Security should be stepped
up, for example, by increas-
ing the [number of] coast-
guard ships.”
Yet a more nationalist
government policy would be
likely to deepen tensions.
Mr Abe’s questioning of
past Japanese apologies to
neighbouring countries for
brutality during invasions
in the 1930s and 1940s infu-
riates China and South
Korea.
The latest dispute over
the Senkakus was triggered
when Shintaro Ishihara, the
nationalist Tokyo governor,
tried to buy three of the
islands from their private
owner for development. To
forestall the move, the cen-
tral
them, but China was still
outraged.
And many Japanese show
little interest in a national-
ist calls to arms. A poll by
the Nikkei newspaper last
month showed that 48 per
cent of respondents thought
Japan should respond
firmly to Chinese moves on
the Senkakus, while 45 per
cent
Embassy march
Dispute sparks calls
for government to
have more assertive
foreign policy, write
Michiyo Nakamoto
and
Mure Dickie
thought
the
issue
Public displays of anti-
Chinese sentiment in Japan
are generally restricted to
ultra-rightwing groups blar-
ing nationalist slogans from
loudspeakers on their black
vans.
But this weekend one
group of nationalists hopes
to seize on tensions created
by a bitter dispute over
the Japanese-controlled
Senkaku Islands in the East
China Sea with a rare dem-
onstration of grass-roots
hostility towards China.
“Ganbare Nippon”, a
rightwing group whose
name can be translated as
“Go for it, Japan!” is organ-
ising a march past the Chi-
nese embassy in Tokyo “to
prevent the Chinese from
invading the Senkaku”.
Japanese nationalists
believe China’s claims to
the Senkaku, which Beijing
calls the Diaoyu, under-
score that Japan must be
more assertive in its foreign
policy. Rightwing views
that China’s growing power
threatens Japan have been
given ammunition by days
of fierce anti-Japan protests
in cities across China,
including the looting and
burning of some Japanese
companies’ premises.
The Sino-Japanese dis-
pute comes just as Japanese
politics are likely to a take
a shift to the right. The cen-
tre-left ruling Democratic
party is deeply unpopular
and on course to lose a gen-
eral election most analysts
expect by early next year.
The election looks set to
boost Toru Hashimoto, a
regional politician and
vocal nationalist, and the
former ruling right-of-cen-
tre Liberal Democratic
party. Candidates for an
LDP leadership election this
month are already honing
their message to appeal to
growing public nationalism.
According to the Asahi
newspaper, Shigeru Ishiba,
should
be
dealt
with
through dialogue.
Many Japanese say the
recent protests are not rep-
resentative of the Chinese
public. Ms Yamagata, who
recently returned from a
trip to China, says people
she met there, including
strangers, were very nice to
her. “It was as if the
Senkaku issue did not exist
at all,” she says.
Many Japanese also con-
sider the violence in China
to be a reflection of the per-
petrators’ lack of informa-
tion, their propaganda-
fuelled education system
and their frustration with
their livelihood and the
growing income disparity in
China.
“The looting shows that
they are not happy people,
which makes me feel sorry
for them,” says Miki Hanba,
a housewife in Yamanakako
town, near Mount Fuji.
Despite wanting a more
robust response from the
government, Mrs Kaneko
worries about the repercus-
sions. “I want the Japanese
government to be stronger,
but at the same time I think
we should keep calm
because it’s better not to
fuel anti-Japan emotions,”
she says.
Even nationalist activists
are hardly as fired up as
Chinese demonstrators,
whose recent slogans have
included derogatory lan-
guage about the Japanese
as well as calls for all-out
war and even a nuclear
attack against Japan.
In its call for today’s anti-
China march, Ganbare Nip-
pon says banners that
“express racial discrimina-
tion” are prohibited.
“Let’s show the Chinese
that we are much more
sophisticated than them by
demonstrating in an orderly
manner, with enthusiasm,”
says Satoru Mizushima, the
group’s leader.
an
interior
designer.
Aki Kaneko, a Tokyo
housewife, agrees. “I want
government
bought
Azumi warns of economic damage
Jun Azumi, Japan’s finance
minister, described reports
of customs hold­ups for
Japanese companies in
China as “a matter of grave
importance”, warning of the
potential of the islands
dispute to damage both
economies,
write Ben
McLannahan in Tokyo and
Kathrin Hille in Beijing
.
The comments, backed
by a pledge to investigate
delays, suggest that Tokyo
fears Beijing has begun to
apply diplomatic pressure
through trade channels,
having called a halt this
week to most public
demonstrations against
Japan. China appeared to
employ a similar tactic this
year when it blocked
imports of bananas from
the Philippines, in a move
many saw as linked to a
maritime dispute.
“If this issue spills over to
economic relations, it would
be bound to have a
negative impact on the two
countries’ economies,” Mr
Azumi said.
Chinese customs officials
refused to comment.
Yusen Logistics, Japan’s
third­biggest freight­
forwarding company, said
on Thursday it had
experienced “severe”
inspections of documents in
the cities of Qingdao and
Zhengzhou.
Kintetsu World Express,
the second biggest, also
warned customers of delays
caused by “worsening
relations” between Asia’s
top two economies.
Japanese businesses are
resuming operations in
China after demonstrations
swept the country, forcing
many of them to shut
down. The unrest was
triggered by Japan’s
decision to nationalise three
islands in the South China
Sea, known as the Diaoyu
in Chinese and the Senkaku
in Japanese.
Many companies are now
reviewing exposure to
China. Japan Airlines said
yesterday that it would
scale down its services to
Beijing and Shanghai next
month, after tens of
thousands of cancellations.
Additional reporting by
Mitsuko Matsutani in Tokyo
and Leslie Hook and Simon
Rabinovitch in Beijing
Jun Azumi: ‘a matter of
grave importance’
 FINANCIAL TIMES
SEPTEMBER 22/SEPTEMBER 23 2012
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