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Thursday, October 16, 2014

Morsi appoints new Cabinet ministers

May 7, 2013

CAIRO, May 7 (UPI) -- Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi appointed nine new ministers Tuesday as part of a Cabinet reshuffle demanded by the opposition.

The appointments are for the Justice Ministry, Parliamentary Affairs, Petroleum Ministry, Antiquities Ministry, Ministry of Agriculture, Finance Ministry, Planning Ministry, Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Investment, Ahram Online said Tuesday.

Egyptian Prime Minister Hesham Qandil said Monday the Cabinet reshuffle was imminent and that 11 ministers would be appointed in accordance with a decision announced by Morsi two weeks ago, dailynewsegypt.com said.

Opposition parties, including the al-Nour Party and the National Salvation Front, had demanded that the entire Cabinet, including Qandil, step down and new ministers be appointed, dailynewsegypt.com said.

Omar Amer, Morsi's spokesman said earlier this month Qandil would remain in his post, Ahram Online said.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2013/05/07/Morsi-appoints-new-Cabinet-ministers/UPI-91261367920744/.

Egypt's president in Sudan to improve ties

By MOHAMED OSMAN
April 4, 2013

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — Egypt's president began a two-day visit to Sudan on Thursday aimed at boosting cooperation after deteriorating relations between the two nations under ousted leader Hosni Mubarak.

It was Mohammed Morsi's first trip to Egypt's southern neighbor since he took office nine months ago and the longest by an Egyptian president in decades. Mubarak, Egypt's longtime autocratic leader, who was toppled in a 2011 popular uprising, accused Sudan of harboring those suspected of trying to assassinate him in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa in 1995.

Morsi and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir share an Islamist background, and both countries see the rise of an Islamist to power in Cairo as an opportunity to improve ties. The two nations share a long border and the Nile River that runs through both.

Al-Bashir visited Morsi last year after the Egyptian elections. Now, Morsi is visiting al-Bashir even though the Sudanese president has been named in an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for his role in crimes committed during his rule in the war-torn region of Darfur. Egypt agrees with the African Union, which had dismissed the warrant as endangering Sudan's future and thinks al-Bashir enjoys immunity as a head of state.

A large official and business delegation accompanied Morsi, who faces an Egyptian economy in tatters following two years of unrest and dwindling foreign investment and tourism. Sudan, too, is facing hard economic times, following the separation of the south in 2011 and unresolved disputes with its new neighbor South Sudan over sharing oil wealth and borders.

The International Monetary Fund is urging both countries to adopt harsh austerity measures to meet dwindling government revenues.

"Undoubtedly, the internal and external challenges Egypt and Sudan face, and their aspiration for a better future makes it necessary that we work together to better use the resources and energies available to the two countries," Morsi told a gathering of officials and businessmen in Sudan's capital, Khartoum.

He said two land routes linking Sudan and Egypt would soon be inaugurated and new bilateral agricultural and industrial projects were underway.

Hundreds of Sudanese, waving Egyptian and Sudanese flags, lined a road from the airport to greet Morsi. One banner read: "We love you Morsi."

Sudan's foreign minister said Morsi's visit would "remove all impurities" that marked previous bilateral relations.

Both countries have vested interests in keeping intact a 1959 agreement that allocates the bulk of Nile River water to Sudan and Egypt, despite calls for a new agreement supported by nine countries such as Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda.

Egypt seeks Russia's natural gas

March 28, 2013

DURBAN, South Africa, March 28 (UPI) -- Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi is interested in exploring a natural gas relationship with the Russian government, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

Lavrov confirmed Thursday that Morsi discussed an energy relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the BRICS forum on South Africa.

"Morsi expressed interest in the deliveries of Russian gas," Lavrov was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying.

Egypt, since its 2011 revolution, has suffered energy shortages. In November, the government said it was inviting investors to help develop its refinery sector. Domestic production hasn't kept up with demand since the revolution and Egypt may become a net natural gas importer for the first time.

Russia is a leading natural gas exporter and producer.

Neither side offered an indication of volumes of export mechanism. The Russian report notes that Egyptian Oil Minister Osama Kamal in November said the country may import as much as 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day during the second half of the year.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2013/03/28/Egypt-seeks-Russias-natural-gas/UPI-43811364465945/.

Mursi warning stirs fears in Egypt opposition

BY TOM PERRY
CAIRO
Sun Mar 24, 2013

(Reuters) - Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi threatened on Sunday to take unspecified steps to "protect this nation" after violent demonstrations against his Muslim Brotherhood, using vague but severe language that the opposition said heralded a crackdown.

In remarks following clashes outside the Brotherhood's Cairo headquarters on Friday, Mursi warned that "necessary measures" would be taken against any politicians shown to be involved in what he described as violence and rioting.

"If I am forced to do what is required to protect this nation, then I will do it. And I fear that I might be on the verge of doing it," Mursi said in a statement. He did not elaborate.

Mursi has faced increasing anger since the Brotherhood propelled him to power in a June election, and several spates of protest have turned into violent riots.

Mursi's opponents accuse him and the Brotherhood of seeking to dominate the post-Hosni Mubarak era and resorting to undemocratic police powers two years after autocrat Mubarak was brought down by popular protests.

The brotherhood accuses its secularist opponents of stirring trouble to seize power they could not win at the ballot box, and says the relentless civil unrest is wrecking efforts to salvage an economy driven to its knees by uncertainty.

"They are very scary comments," said Khaled Dawoud, a spokesman for the National Salvation Front (NSF), an alliance of non-Islamist parties formed late last year to oppose Mursi.

"I can see language that is heading towards taking some suppressive measures," he added.

Dozens of people were hurt on Friday when several thousand supporters and opponents of the Brotherhood fought near the Islamist group's headquarters.

RUNNING OUT OF PATIENCE

Dawoud said the NSF was not behind those protests, but added that some of its members may have decided to take part.

Mursi said everyone had the right to peaceful protest, but "what is happening now has nothing to do with the revolution".

"I urge all political forces not to provide any political cover for acts of violence and rioting. I will not be happy if investigations prove the guilt of some politicians," he said in the remarks, which were published on his Twitter account.

"Some are using the media to incite violence and those whose involvement is proven will not escape punishment," he added. "Anyone who takes part in incitement is a partner in the crime."

He also spoke of attempts to portray the state as weak but said these had failed: "The apparatus of the state are recovering and can deter any law breaker," he added.

Exactly what new steps Mursi is considering became the subject of speculation.

In late January, he declared a state of emergency rule in three cities near the Suez Canal to combat a wave of violence there. A declaration of a state of emergency elsewhere is unlikely, said Yasser El-Shimy, Egypt analyst for the International Crisis Group, adding arrests were more probable.

"My impression is that Mursi and the Brotherhood in general have had it with the violence that is taking place and they are running out of patience," he said.

"This is definitely the strictest he has spoken regarding the rioting," he added. "Now Mursi feels there is enough public opinion on his side to justify taking stricter measures."

One recent source of tension between Mursi and the opposition was his call for parliamentary elections based on a controversial election law. The vote, due to begin in late April, has been postponed by a court ruling and it is now not clear when it will happen.

Mursi's political supporters and opponents signed a document agreeing to renounce violence following riots in late January.

Mursi's opponents say they are committed to peaceful protest and have also accused the Brotherhood of using violence and inciting tension in the street. The Brotherhood says the opposition has done little to rein in its followers.

(Additional reporting by Omar Fahmy; Editing by Peter Graff)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/24/us-egypt-mursi-idUSBRE92N0H120130324.

Uighur scholar in China to appeal life sentence

September 24, 2014

BEIJING (AP) — A prominent scholar who championed China's Uighur minority plans to appeal his conviction and life sentence, citing what he calls his improper detention and the authorities' refusal to give his lawyers copies of evidence.

Ilham Tohti has denied prosecutors' charges that he encouraged separatism while speaking and writing about the discontent in his native western region of Xinjiang. A court in the regional capital of Urumqi sentenced him to life in prison on Tuesday and ordered the confiscation of his possessions.

One of Ilham Tohti's lawyers, Li Fangping, said his legal team had not decided yet when to submit the appeal. He said Ilham Tohti himself could do that from the court in Urumqi. Li released the first page of the 15-page document Wednesday. It cited several legal issues, including what it said was the failure of police to tell Ilham Tohti why he was being detained and the extracting of testimony after he went without proper food in jail for weeks.

On Wednesday, Li also posted on his WeChat social media account messages that he said were from Ilham Tohti to his wife and family. "My wife, for our children, you have to be strong, do not cry!" one message read. "In not too long, we will embrace."

Another message asked his family to tell his mother that he had received only a five-year sentence. One of his students, Pahati, was pounding the door and moaning in the next cell, the message said, and he had heard the sound of ankle cuffs, raising the possibility that the student too had been sentenced. Still, the message said Ilham Tohti had slept more soundly that night than he had in eight months, since he was arrested in January.

"I never realized I had such a strong heart," the message read. Ilham Tohti's harsh sentence was the most severe in a decade handed down in China for illegal political speech and drew condemnation from the U.S. and the European Union.

President Barack Obama cited the scholar Tuesday among several people worldwide whom rights groups call political prisoners. "They deserve to be free," Obama said. "They ought to be released." When asked about the U.S. comments in a news briefing Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said some countries "made irresponsible remarks and brought up irrational requests in the name of so-called democracy and human rights, which were a harsh and unreasonable intervention over China's internal affairs and sovereignty."

She said China urged those countries to abandon "double standards and stop interfering in China's internal affairs." The official Xinhua News Agency also criticized a Twitter message posted by Chinese writer Wang Lixiong that China had created in Ilham Tohti "a Uighur Mandela," referring to late South African leader Nelson Mandela, who was jailed for 27 years before becoming president.

Xinhua said the analogy "displays not only a dangerous ignorance of history, but also a challenge to China's determination to keep its 56 ethnic groups united." Xinhua cited ethnic violence that has caused the deaths of both Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese in Xinjiang. It said Ilham Tohti used his online writings "to encourage his fellow Uygurs to use violence," an accusation the scholar has denied in court and in interviews.

"Their accusations against the court's ruling came as the warplanes of the United States and its allies bomb the 'Islamic State' militants in their anti-terrorism war," the editorial read. "It is only because of Western countries' double-standards on terrorism that a criminal was hailed as a hero."

AP videojournalist Isolda Morillo contributed to this report.

Lawyer: Uighur scholar in China gets life sentence

September 23, 2014

BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese court imposed a life sentence Tuesday on a moderate scholar who championed the country's Uighur minority, the most severe penalty in a decade for anyone in China convicted of illegal political speech.

The Urumqi People's Intermediate Court handed down the sentence after convicting Ilham Tohti of separatism in a two-day trial, lawyer Li Fangping said by telephone from outside the courthouse. The court didn't answer calls seeking information about the trial.

Li said the court also ordered the confiscation of all of Ilham Tohti's possessions. The 44-year-old defendant was calm during the session but shouted "I don't accept this!" when the sentence was read, Li said.

He is known as a moderate voice with ties to both the country's Han Chinese establishment and the Muslim Uighur ethnic group, which has long complained of harsh treatment by the government in the far western Xinjiang region. A Communist Party member and professor at Beijing's Minzu University, Ilham Tohti ran a website, Uighur Online, that highlighted issues affecting the ethnic group. Chinese authorities detained the scholar in January along with seven of his students.

"Of course, this life sentence is too much," Li said. "But he has said that no matter what the result, this should not lead to hatred. He has always said he wants to create a dialogue with the Han Chinese."

The life sentence will leave Ilham Tohti's wife, Guzulnur, with no means to take care of their two young children, Li said. The court ruled that Ilham Tohti had "bewitched and coerced" students into working for the website and had "built a criminal syndicate," according to the government's official Xinhua News Agency.

"Tohti organized this group to write, edit, translate and reprint articles seeking Xinjiang's separation from China," Xinhua said. "Through online instigation, Tohti encouraged his fellow Uygurs to use violence."

During the trial, prosecutors cited Ilham Tohti's lectures and online writings, including his discussion of the different roots of the Han Chinese and Uighur peoples. Speaking in his own defense Thursday, Iham Tohti denied that he had encouraged separatism while addressing Xinjiang's cultural and legal challenges, Li said.

Human rights activists said the harsh sentence demonstrated the government's intolerance of criticism from even the most conciliatory of voices. Political activist Wang Bingzhang was the last person to receive a life sentence for political speech when he was convicted in 2003 after starting a pro-democracy publication outside China and founding two opposition parties in the country.

"Ilham Tohti worked to peacefully build bridges between ethnic communities and for that he has been punished through politically motivated charges," William Nee, a China researcher at human rights group Amnesty International, said in an emailed statement. "Tohti is a prisoner of conscience and the Chinese authorities must immediately and unconditionally release him."

Chinese writer Wang Lixiong said on Twitter that the government had created a "Chinese Mandela," referring to South African leader Nelson Mandela, who was jailed for 27 years before becoming president. Columbia University Tibet specialist Robert Barnett called the sentence "deeply shocking."

Tensions have run high and flared into violence in Xinjiang, where many of China's Uighurs live. Authorities said several explosions killed two people on Sunday in central Xinjiang but did not say who carried out the attacks.

In May, 43 people died when Uighur militants plowed two vehicles through a market street in the regional capital of Urumqi and hurled explosives, police said. Ilham Tohti's 20-year-old daughter, Jewher Ilham, said Tuesday in Indiana, where she is studying, that she will continue to fight for her father's release. Her father was arrested in January 2013 at Beijing's main airport as he was boarding a plane to take her to school in the United States.

"He wanted me to stay in a land that has freedom," she said. "I'm speaking out for him. I won't stop."

Associated Press writer Didi Tang and video journalists Isolda Morillo and Helene Franchineau contributed to this report.

Uighur entrepreneur confronts prejudice in China

Beijing (AFP)
Aug 28, 2014

Ambitious and apolitical, self-described "good Uighur" entrepreneur Abdulhabir Muhammad initially conceals his proud ethnic identity from his Chinese clients.

"After I solve everything I will tell them, 'Hey, I'm a Uighur, I'm from Xinjiang,'" he says, reveling in their astonishment even while poignantly aware of the prejudice it implies.

Violence is escalating in and beyond Xinjiang, the mostly Muslim Uighurs' homeland, blamed by the government on separatist "terrorists" -- with the executions of eight announced at the weekend.

In the rest of China Uighurs are generally stereotyped as happy ethnic dancers, curbside kebab-sellers or, increasingly, Islamist militants.

By contrast Abdulhabir -- the 24-year-old chief operating officer of an educational consulting company, and a Muslim who prays at a mosque every Friday -- epitomizes the authorities' preferred vision of Xinjiang's future.

"I'm very happy to work in Beijing to show a lot of people that Uighurs are great people and we can do big things," he says.

His father was a poor wheat farmer who rose to own a chain of supermarkets in the region, and Abdulhabir has come further still.

Aged 15, he was accepted into a Beijing high school where he mastered Chinese and English, and then earned a degree in accounting from Binghamton University in New York state, followed by an MBA in entrepreneurship.

Now his company, which helps Chinese study abroad, has around 20 employees, 15 of them Han, China's dominant ethnic majority, and his business partner is a Manchu woman.

Telegenic and confident, Abdulhabir has been featured in state media along with other young business people as positive examples of Uighur identity.

"You know the reason I'm in the media is because I am a good Uighur," he says. "And I want other Uighurs to see me as a good Uighur as well."

- 'Panic-stricken' -

Michael Clarke, an authority on Xinjiang at the Griffith Asia Institute in Australia, said there has long been an "accommodated majority" of Uighurs in the region willing to accept Beijing's rule as the government poured resources into development.

Now, though, that majority risks being eroded not just through "militant extremism, but also more broadly from the continuing pressures from state policy across a range of issues", he says.

Rights groups and analysts accuse China's government of cultural and religious repression against Uighurs -- such as discouraging veils for women and beards for men, as well as limits on fasting during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan -- fuelling the unrest.

A clash in the Yarkand area in late July left nearly 100 people dead, state media reported.

The government-appointed imam of the Id Kah mosque in Kashgar, China's largest, was stabbed to death and one of his alleged killers, a 19-year-old Uighur, was shown on state television this week confessing he had targeted him for "distorting religion".

"Local pro-China elements are panic-stricken," Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the exile World Uyghur Congress (WUC), said in an e-mail after the murder.

Amid the cycle of violence, Chinese state media announced Sunday that eight people had been executed for "terrorist attacks", including three it described as "masterminding" a shocking suicide car crash in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in October 2013.

- No guarantees -

Abdulhabir said that Uighurs should channel their energy into education, and avoid politics.

"I hate politics," he says. "And that's why our family are doing well, because we are far away from politics."

But a good education is no guarantee of success for Uighurs in China, and even those who find acceptance can end up in trouble.

Rebiya Kadeer, once a prominent businesswoman, ran afoul of authorities and now leads the WUC from exile. Ilham Tohti, a university professor critical of government policies in Xinjiang, has been charged with separatism, which can carry the death penalty.

Reza Hasmath, lecturer in Chinese politics at Oxford University, says Uighurs are hamstrung in securing coveted jobs due to difficulty accessing Han social networks, with the two groups distrusting each other.

"What we're seeing in Xinjiang is that Hans dominate all the high status, high paying jobs, whereas minorities, and particularly Uighurs, are dominating the more low status, low paying jobs," he said, even when education levels are comparable.

"These penalties in the labor market increase tensions," he said in a presentation in Beijing, leading some to seek solace in their own ethnic traditions.

"For some minorities who are not doing very well in the labor market, they go to religion, they rediscover their own culture," he said.

On a wall in Abdulhabir's office, a pair of colorful Uighur doppa, or traditional hats, are surrounded by pennants and emblems from American institutions to which he has sent students, among them Wharton business school.

There are tensions surrounding culture and religion, he acknowledges, but says violence and killing imams are not the answer.

"I want people to become more open-minded and solve the problem together peacefully," he said.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Uighur_entrepreneur_confronts_prejudice_in_China_999.html.

Uighur imam 'murdered after morning prayers'

31 Jul 2014

The government-appointed head of a China's largest mosque has been murdered after conducting morning prayers, the local government in the far western region of Xinjiang has said.

State media report on Thursday that Jume Tahir, the Uighur imam of the 600-year-old Id Kah mosque in the city of Kashgar, was killed Wednesday by "three thugs influenced by religious extremist ideology", the Xinjiang state website Tianshan said.

Police launched an all-out investigation and shot dead two of the alleged assailants while capturing the other, Tianshan said. Tianshan said Tahir's killing was "premeditated" and that the suspects  intended to commit a "ruthless murder".

Tahir was found dead in a pool of blood outside the mosque's prayer house, Radio Free Asia reported earlier on its website.

The death comes days after possibly one of the deadliest incidents in Xinjiang in years, where rebel Muslim Uighurs have been fighting for independence.

Deadly attack

On Monday, the government said a gang armed with knives and axes killed or injured dozens of people in Shache county near Kashgar. Police returned fire, with the death toll estimated to be as high as 200.

Neither Tahir's murder nor Monday's violence could be independently verified.

Tahir's high-profile support for the government - the report referred to him as a "patriotic religious personage" - and his criticism of violence in Xinjiang likely made him a target or rebels.

The official reports identified the three suspects as Tuergong Tuerxun, Maimaiti Jiangremutila, and Nuermaimaiti Abidilimiti, the Chinese renderings of Uighur names.

The reports said the suspects attempted to resist arrest with knives and axes. The reports did not say which of the three were killed.

Source: al-Jazeera.
Link: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2014/07/china-kills-suspects-uighur-imam-murder-2014731143855645225.html.

'New Silk Road' rail line to link E. Turkestan and Turkey

05 July 2014 Saturday
World Bulletin

A Chinese firm announced that is it preparing to spend up to $150 billion on a huge high-speed rail project which will link China's autonomous province of East Turkestan (Xinjiang) to Turkey across Central Asia.

CSR chairman Zhao Shiaoyang said that the 6,000 kilometer-long train line will cut across Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Iran all the way to Turkey, the China Daily newspaper reported.

Saying that most of the line will be open to service by 2020, the CSR chief said it would be complete by 2030, calling the project the 'New Silk Road'.

The line will enable commuters to travel up to 200 kilometers an hour across the Asian continent, while freight trains will have a speed to 160 kilometers an hour.

While experts noted that financiers in Pekin would be very generous in supporting the project, they also noted that geo-political compromise would need to be achieved between central Asian states in order for the project to become a reality.

Currently China exports around $4 trillion of goods annually, half of which is imported by Europe, the Middle-East and central Asia. However, the trade is largely dependent on sea routes.

However, China has been involved in a dispute with neighboring countries Japan, Philippines and Vietnam over territorial waters in the Pacific, as increased co-operation between the far-eastern US allies threatens China's sea borders.

This has consequently added importance to the central Asian rail project, which is likely to join with Turkey's own national high-speed train project which will reduce traveling time between the capital Ankara and biggest city Istanbul to just 3.5 hours.

The Ankara-Istanbul line is due to open on July 11 after two delays and technical problems during testing.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/world/140101/yemen-extradites-opposition-leader-to-ethiopia.

China bans Ramadan fast in Xinjiang region


Al Arabiya News
Wednesday, 2 July 2014

Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region working as civil servants, students and teachers have been banned from fasting during the holy month of Ramadan on Wednesday.

The move has sparked condemnation from an exile group.

Xinjiang is a mainly Muslim region, home to the Uighur minority. For years China's ruling Communist party has restricted fasting in the region, which has seen sees regular and often deadly clashes between Uighurs and state security forces.

Beijing has blamed recent deadly attacks elsewhere in China on militants seeking independence for the resource-rich region.

According to Agence France-Presse, the state-run Bozhou Radio and TV university said on its website that it would "enforce the ban on party members, teachers, and young people from taking part in Ramadan activities."

"We remind everyone that they are not permitted to observe a Ramadan fast," it added.

A weather bureau in Qaraqash county in western Xinjiang said on its website that "in accordance with instructions from higher authorities", it "calls on all current and retired staff not to fast during Ramadan".

A state office which manages the Tarim River basin posted pictures of its staff wearing traditional Uighur "doppa" caps tucking into a group meal on Saturday.

"Although the meal coincided with the Muslim festival of Ramadan, the cadres who took part expressed a positive attitude and will lead the non-fasting," it said.

Meanwhile, the commercial affairs bureau of Turfan city said on its website Monday that "civil servants and students cannot take part in fasting and other religious activities."

China has in the past said that restrictions on fasting are meant to ensure the health of government employees, according to AFP.

Home inspections

The month of Ramadan began this weekend. During the holy month, the faithful fast from dawn to dusk and strive to be more pious.

On Monday, Chinese authorities reportedly encouraged Uighurs to eat free meals on Monday, and inspected homes to check if the fast was being observed, Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the exiled World Uyghur Congress, told AFP citing local sources.

"China taking these kind of coercive measures, restricting the faith of Uighurs, will create more conflict," he said.

"We call on China to ensure religious freedom for Uighurs and stop political repression of Ramadan."

Source: al-Arabiya.
Link: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2014/07/02/China-bans-Ramadan-fast-in-mainly-Muslim-Xinjiang.html.

Brunei embraces strict Islamic laws

May 01, 2014

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei (AP) — Brunei on Thursday embraced a form of Islamic Shariah criminal law that includes harsh penalties, a move slammed by international rights group as a step backward for human rights.

The tiny Southeast Asian nation began phasing in a version of Shariah that allows for penalties such as amputation for theft and stoning for adultery. Most of the punishments can be applied to non-Muslims, who account for about one-third of the 440,000 people in the oil-rich country.

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah has introduced the law as a "great achievement" for Brunei. "The decision to implement the (Shariah penal code) is not for fun but is to obey Allah's command as written in the Quran," he said in a speech Wednesday to announce the launch first phase of the law.

From Thursday, Brunei citizens can be fined or jailed by Islamic courts for offences like not performing Friday prayers, pregnancy out of wedlock, propagating other religions and indecent behavior. More severe punishments such as flogging, amputation of limbs and stoning for offences such as theft, adultery and sodomy will be introduced in phases over the next two years.

Human Rights Watch said the move was a "huge step backward for human rights" in Brunei. "It constitutes an authoritarian move toward brutal medieval punishments that have no place in the modern, 21st century world," said its deputy Asia director, Phil Robertson.

The US-based Human Rights Campaign, which promotes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality, condemned the changes as "draconian," saying the death penalty for gay sex, the eighth nation in the world to have such a law, was "horrific and sickening."

Bolkiah has said he didn't expect the international community to accept the law but urged them to respect Brunei's decision. Brunei is a conservative country where alcohol is banned and Muslim courts already govern family affairs.

Muslims in next door Malaysia are subject to a limited form of Islamic law that doesn't include amputation or capital punishment, as does Aceh province on the western tip of Indonesia. In general, the interpretation and practice of Islam in Southeast Asia is more liberal than in parts of the Middle East and South Asia.