Seven US Navy crew missing after crash

Sunday, 18 June 2017 03:33 Written by Heart of Asia Read 243 times

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Seven US Navy crew members are missing after their ship collided with a merchant vessel off the coast of Japan.

Among the injured is the USS Fitzgerald's commanding officer, who was taken to hospital by helicopter.

The destroyer collided with the container ship about 56 nautical miles (104km) south-west of Yokosuka.

Aerial images showed heavy damage to the Navy ship's starboard side after the collision at about 02:30 local time on Saturday (17:30 GMT Friday).

What happened?

The collision occurred near Yokosuka, a Japanese port city that is home to the US 7th Fleet, which comprises up to 80 submarines and ships and including the USS Fitzgerald.

It is unclear where the 154-metre (505ft) guided missile destroyer ship was heading at the time.

The ACX Crystal, a 222-metre (730ft) Filipino-flagged container ship, was travelling between the Japanese cities of Nagoya and Tokyo.

Marine traffic records suggest the ACX Crystal made a sudden U-turn roughly 25 minutes before the collision with the USS Fitzgerald. It is not clear why it changed course.

Marine traffic records suggest it was travelling at 14.6 knots (27km/h) at the time of the collision.

Problems facing election; the threat to its legitimacy

Problems facing the parliamentary and district council election are beginning to surface. The developments unfolded following the launch of voter registration process by the Independent Election Commission (IEC) are upsetting. According to reports, the number of people who have visited the voter registration centers over the past few days is very low, and if it continues as now, it is impossible for IEC to register more than one million voters in two months. This comes as the process has begun from provincial centers, where people are more willing to go to polls, and security is relatively good. These reports suggest that the number of people turning out at voter registration centers in districts and rural areas may further drop.
Furthermore, there are reports that certain circles are out from now to create barriers to election. The security situation of some districts in northern Balkh province, which were relatively safe, has reportedly deteriorated in recent days. The residents of these districts claim that there are secrete hands working behind the scene to destabilize some areas so that their residents cannot participate in election.
This is a major challenge the government must address. As citizens of the country, all eligible voters reserve the right to take part in election, and depriving them of this right is a big injustice.
There were similar concerns about the previous parliamentary election. Certain areas of some provinces were destabilized in the run-up to the election, preventing the residents of those areas from participating in the polls. As a result, they were not able to pick their representatives for Wolesi Jirga. Ghazni province is an example. Although the majority of residents of the province are ethnic Pashtuns, none of the public representatives who found way to Wolesi Jirga was Pashtun.
The point of discussion here is not the ethnicity, but rather the representation of people. Election should provide the masses with the opportunity to have equitable representation. This is the existential philosophy of election, without which the results of election will not be legitimate.