Tug-of-war between China, Turkey over suspected Uighurs in Thailand 

(Reuters) - A group of suspected Uighur Muslims has become the focus of a diplomatic tug-of-war in Thailand between China and Turkey, with both countries wanting to repatriate them and hundreds of other suspected Uighurs detained in Thailand as illegal immigrants.

The group of 17, all from the same family, were detained by Thai police in March 2014 after illegally entering overland from Cambodia, said their lawyer Worasit Piriyawiboon.

Two of the family's 13 children were born in custody.

The family, who use the name Teklimakan, have spent most of the past year in the main police immigration detention center in Bangkok.

 

 

The group claimed to be Turkish and, while still in detention, were issued with passports by the Turkish Embassy and granted permission to travel to Turkey.

China insists the 17 detainees are Chinese Uighurs who should be returned to the northwest Chinese region of Xinjiang, according to court documents seen by Reuters.

Hundreds of people have been killed in unrest in Xinjiang in the past two years, prompting a crackdown by Chinese authorities and small numbers of Uighurs to try and flee the country.

Hundreds, possibly thousands, have traveled clandestinely through Southeast Asia en route to Turkey.

Thai National Security Council secretary-general Anusit Kunakorn told Reuters that Chinaand Turkey have asked Thailand for help in repatriating those detained.

"Both China and Turkey have asked for our help in repatriating Uighurs," Anusit told Reuters, adding that he would not be drawn on whether Thailand sides with one country over the other. "Their nationalities need to be verified. Thailand is just on the receiving end."

On Tuesday, there was palpable tension in the Bangkok South Criminal Court where the case of the 17 suspected Uighurs was being heard. Representatives from the Turkish and Chinese embassies assembled to hear the case sat far apart.

"These are Turkish citizens. They have Turkish passports. These people want to go to Turkeyand we've already said they can," said Ahmet Idem Akay, a Turkish diplomat who attended the hearing.

Chinese officials who attended the hearing declined to comment.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she was not aware of the details of the case, but that China was willing to increase cooperation with Thailand, Turkey and other nations to fight illegal immigration.

The court will decide on Friday whether to order the group's release. Under Thai law, court approval must be sought for detention periods over seven days.

Rights groups, including the New-York based Human Rights Watch, have urged the Thai government not to forcibly repatriate the Uighurs to China, adding that many face severe persecution, including the threat of arrest and torture.

The Uighurs are a Turkic-speaking people officially regarded as "brothers" in Turkey, which already hosts large Uighur populations.

(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Writing by Andrew R.C. Marshall and Amy Sawitta Lefevre; Editing by Michael Perry)

Thailand Yingluck Shinawatra Thaksin Shinawatra Asia-pacific Former PM Yingluck to face trial over Thai rice scheme

• Thailand
• Yingluck Shinawatra
• Thaksin Shinawatra

Asia-pacific

Former PM Yingluck to face trial over Thai rice scheme 

 2015-03-19

Thailand's Supreme Court on Thursday ordered former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra to face trial for criminal negligence over a failed rice subsidy scheme in place while she was in power. Yingluck was ousted by the military in May last year.

"The panel [of judges] has decided that this case falls within our authority," said Judge Veeraphol Tangsuwan at Bangkok's Supreme Court, adding that the first hearing will be held on May 19.

If convicted, the charges could see the former premier jailed for up to a decade. Yingluck did not attend the Thursday court session but will be legally obliged to attend the hearing in May.

Yingluck was retroactively impeached and banned from politics for five years in January after the military-backed National Legislative Assembly found her guilty of dereliction of duty for failing to prevent widespread corruption relating to the rice scheme, which saw farmers in the rural heartland paid twice the market rate for their crops.

Shortly after her conviction, anti-corruption Commissioner Wicha Mahakhun told lawmakers that Yingluck was to blame for the graft. “Despite the warnings against it on several occasions, the prime minister, who should have stopped the damage, instead insisted on running the programme until the damage became even more devastating.”

Supporters say the rice programme was intended to benefit Thai farmers and reduce income inequality in the country. The policy propelled Yingluck to power in 2011.

But anger over the programme, which has cost the country billions of dollars, helped spark the protests that eventually led to Yingluck’s overthrow by the military.

In a statement on her Facebook page published shortly after the ruling on Thursday, Yingluck defended the controversial programme as one that "lifted the quality of life for rice farmers" and said the charges against her were politically motivated.

"Throughout my time as prime minister I worked honestly and I did my duties correctly according to the provisions of the constitution and the law in every respect," she wrote.

"The rice policy was one that the public trusted me to carry out."

Toppling a dynasty

As Thailand's first female prime minister, Yingluck is also the sister of exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra. The Shinawatras, or parties allied to them, have won every Thai election since 2001.

Yingluck’s supporters see the Supreme Court’s decision to bring her to trial as the latest step by the royalist, military establishment to eradicate the influence of her powerful political family – in particular that of her brother, who was toppled in a 2006 coup and convicted of corruption in absentia in 2008. He now lives in Dubai to avoid being jailed.

Thaksin’s influence in Thai politics remains significant, however, with parties allied to the Shinawatras still commanding loyalty in the rural north, as well as among urban working class voters, for their populist policies.

But the billionaire telecoms tycoon and former policeman is loathed by much of the country's royalist elite, which is largely backed by the military and judiciary.

"The conflict between the elite, or the royalist military establishment, and the Shinawatras is far from over," said Kan Yuenyong, an analyst at the Siam Intelligence Unit think tank.

He said the military had to "tread carefully" or the latest court case could become a catalyst for more protests.

The decision to prosecute Yingluck will "raise the political temperature" in the country, said Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a Thai academic at Kyoto University. He said activists might be inspired to mobilise over what they see as the “politicisation” of the courts.

Thai political analyst Puangthong Pawakapan of Chulalongkorn University said the charges against Yingluck were a case of history repeating itself. Multiple legal cases, including on charges ofterrorism, were also brought against her brother prior to his flight.

"It's quite clear the elite want to force out the Shinawatras from politics," Puangthong told AFP.

The military takeover last year was the latest coup d’état in Thailand's turbulent political landscape, which has seen 11 previous military coups since 1932 as well as seven attempted coups.

Thailand’s ruling junta has said it will hold fresh elections in early 2016, once reforms to tackle corruption and curb the power of political parties are codified in a new constitution.

But the draft charter has already raised deep concerns in the kingdom, and critics doubt whether it will be able to help bridge Thailand's deep political divisions.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS and AFP)
 

Date created : 2015-03-19

China executes Uighurs convicted of mass stabbing 

China has executed three accused separatists for their role in an attack that killed 31 people at a train station in the country's southwest last year.

Tuesday's announcement of the execution came six months after Iskandar Ehet, Turgun Tohtunyaz and Hasayn Muhammad, were sentenced to death after being convicted of homicide and leading a terrorist organisation.

A higher court later upheld the sentence, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The government has said the attack, in the city of Kunming, was carried out by knife-wielding separatists from the far western region of Xinjiang, which is located on the borders of Central Asia.

Police shot four other assailants dead during the knife attack, which injured 141 people on March 1, 2014.

Xinjiang, home to the Muslim Uighur minority group, has been plagued by unrest in recent years. Some Uighurs have chafed under Chinese restrictions on their culture and religion.

Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the exiled World Uyghur Congress, said the defendants were denied a fair trial.

"China's use of the death penalty as a political tool does not address the root of the problem," he said in an e-mail to the Reuters news agency.

"China continues to make use of this incident to incite discrimination against Uighurs."

The Chinese government denies accusations of official discrimination against Uighurs, and says all trials are carried out fairly and in accordance with the rule of law.

Rights groups have expressed concern about executions and mass-sentencings carried out regularly since an upswing in violence blamed in the restive province.

Another female attacker, Patigul Tohti, who was pregnant when she was arrested, received a life sentence, Xinhua said.

One year on, report offers few clues to MH370's disappearance 

Latest update : 2015-03-09

Exactly one year after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared without trace, investigators released a new report Sunday revealing little progress has been made on unravelling one of the biggest mysteries in aviation history.

The detailed 584-page report brought together vast quantities of factual information and data gathered by a multinational team of independent investigators over the past year.

But it shed little new light on what happened to the jetliner after it vanished on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board

One of the few pieces of new information was that the battery of an underwater locator beacon had expired more than a year before the plane disappeared, potentially hampering efforts to locate the wreckage, believed to be somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean.

The report said that according to maintenance records, the battery on the beacon attached to the Flight Data Recorder expired in December 2012, but because of a computer data error it went unnoticed by maintenance crews.

“There is some extra margin in the design to account for battery life variability and ensure that the unit will meet the minimum requirement,” it said.

“However, once beyond the expiry date, the (battery’s) effectiveness decreases so it may operate for a reduced time period until it finally discharges.”

While it is possible the battery will operate past the expiry date, “it is not guaranteed that it will work or that it would meet the 30-day minimum requirement”, said the report.

However, the battery on the locator beacon of the cockpit voice recorder was working, it said.

Pilot’s backgrounds raise no red flags

As well as examining the aircraft’s service record and maintenance schedule, weather, communications systems and radar data, the report went into minute details of the crew’s lives, including their medical and financial records and training.

However, in all cases it found nothing unusual or suspicious.

Of the crew and pilots it said: "There were no behavioural signs of social isolation, change in habits or interest, self-neglect, drug or alcohol abuse.”

That the cockpit crew of pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah and his co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid had deliberately crashed the plane was one of the many theories put forward in the wake of the MH370’s disappearance.

Financial check also showed nothing abnormal about the gross monthly income and spending pattern of the pilots or crew, said the report.

The report was focused on air-safety issues related to MH370 and the investigators did not probe the passengers or the possibility of a hijack.

The investigative team was set up in the weeks after the plane's disappearance under International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) requirements and was required to submit its findings within one year of the disappearance.

The report stressed that the investigation was ongoing and that "new information that may become available may alter this information".

"The investigation team expects that further factual information will be available from the wreckage and flight recorders if the aircraft is found," it said.

‘Optimistic of success’

Despite the lack of progress on the search for MH370 to date, the prime ministers of Australia and Malaysia vowed Sunday to continue the hunt for the missing jet and said they were optimistic a breakthrough would eventually be made.

“The disappearance of MH370 is without precedent, and so too is the search -- by far the most complex and technically challenging in aviation history,” Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said in a statement.

“Together with our international partners, we have followed the little evidence that exists. Malaysia remains committed to the search, and hopeful that MH370 will be found,” he said.

His Australian counterpart Tony Abbott said Australian authorities, which are leading the hunt for the plane, were about 40 percent through scouring a priority 60,000-square-kilometre (23,000-square-mile) area of the southern Indian Ocean due to conclude in May, but intended to search further "as long as there are reasonable leads".

"We are reasonably optimistic of success, but if we don't succeed in this search, there is another search that we intend to make because we owe it to the families of the dead, we owe it to the travelling public to do whatever we reasonably can to resolve of this mystery," Abbott told reporters Sunday.

Meanwhile, some of the relatives of those on board have been holding vigils this weekend to mark the anniversary of the flight’s disappearance.

In Beijing, police scuffled with some family members offering prayers at a temple as they tried to talk to foreign reporters.

“I can’t sleep at night, each night I’m only getting about two hours, but I’m certain that my daughter is still alive and I’m going to get her back,” said one mother, who did not give her name, before being escorted away.

Family members have previously described harassment by police, who are nervous about any threats to social stability.

The Chinese government, however, says it will provide whatever help it can to the relatives and it offered its sympathies on the anniversary.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)

Date created : 2015-03-08

Police in Burma charge at student protesters 

Latest update : 2015-03-10

Hundreds of riot police charged at students protesting Burma’s new education law on Tuesday, pummeling them with batons and then dragging them into trucks, bringing a quick, harsh end to a weeklong standoff.

Authorities said 127 people were arrested after security forces threw stones and jumped over fences as they broke up the demonstration.

Student leader Honey Oo told the Associated Press dozens of students and monks were chased into a Buddhist monastery.

“Many people were beaten and several arrested,” she told AP by telephone.

After the crackdown, police were seen celebrating and shouting, “Victory! Victory!”

Information minister Ye Htut said 65 students, including two student leaders, were among those detained and that 16 police officers and eight demonstrators had been injured in the incident.

While there were no reported deaths, Tuesday’s violence served as a reminder of Burma’s history of authoritarian rule. A European Union delegation that has been training Burma’s police in crowd control issued a statement expressing deep concern over the use of force against protesters and calling for a formal investigation.

The nominally civilian government installed four years ago has been grappling with the consequences of newfound freedoms of expression. It has been especially sensitive about public protests, arresting hundreds of people since taking office for peacefully expressing their views.

In January, about a hundred students started marching from Burma’s second biggest city, Mandalay, to the old capital, Yangon, to protest a new law that puts all decisions about education policy and curriculum in the hands of a group largely made up of government ministers, which critics say undermines the autonomy of universities.

‘Beaten, punched and kicked’

The demonstrators were joined by monks and other activists, bringing their number to around 200 in the last nine days, when they were blocked by police and began a sit-in on a road near a monastery in Letpadan, about 140 kilometres north of Yangon.

Early Tuesday, the two sides had appeared close to reaching an agreement.

Police said the students could march to a nearby town and then be transported to Yangon in government-provided trucks, but then demanded that the protesters refrain from shouting slogans or waving flags.

Hundreds of police wearing helmets and camouflage fatigues formed a human chain several layers deep across the road while setting up barbed-wire barriers. The protesters, many wearing red T-shirts and bandanas, tried to push their way through. Some monks in maroon robes joined the students.

The police then abruptly turned on the students, chasing them with batons and sticks. Associated Press photographers said some protesters were beaten on the head, punched and kicked as they were dragged to the waiting trucks.

Several protests crushed

Student leaders rejected the suggestion that they had instigated the violence.
“It hurts my heart whenever they do this to us students, but for sure we will never use violence,” said Lin Htet Naing of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions.

Lin Htet Naing’s wife, a former political prisoner of the previous military regime, was among those arrested in Letpadan while he led a brief protest in Yangon on Tuesday.

Burma’s government is especially sensitive about protests in Yangon because the city was the scene of 1988 pro-democracy demonstrations largely led by students and brutally crushed by the former military junta, with an estimated 3,000 people killed.

Similar protests spread across the country, eventually leading to the collapse of the previous 26-year socialist military regime.

In recent days, however, the government has crushed several protests in and around Yangon, often by dragging demonstrators into trucks.

(FRANCE 24 with AP, REUTERS)

Date created : 2015-03-10

U.N. official calls China's crackdown on Uighurs 'disturbing'

(Reuters) - A U.N. human rights investigator criticized on Wednesday China's crackdown on Muslim Uighurs in the far western region of Xinjiang, citing "disturbing stories" of harassment and intimidation against the ethnic minority.

Xinjiang has been roiled by ethnic tension between Uighurs and majority Han Chinese. Uighur groups and rights activists say the government's repressive policies in Xinjiang, including controls on Islam, have provoked unrest.

Heiner Bielefeldt, special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, told a news briefing China's actions against the Uighurs were "a major problem".

"I heard, also, very disturbing stories about harassment, for instance, intimidation during Ramadan - children in schools were expected to break their fasting on Ramadan," he said, referring to the month-long religious holiday when observant Muslims do not eat during the day.

Some Xinjiang cities have placed restrictions on Islamic dress, including the capital, Urumqi, which banned the wearing of veils in public late last year.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, said the government paid great attention to freedom of religion and it was "baseless" to say there was any kind of repression on religious practices over important festivals.

Bielefeldt said there had been no progress on his office's request to conduct an official visit to China, which was last agreed on in 2004.

Bielefeldt also criticized China for wanting to control the reincarnation of Tibetan monks, saying Beijing was "really destroying the autonomy of religious communities, poisoning the relationship between different sub-groups, creating schisms, pitching off people against each other in order to exercise control".

His comments came two days after the Chinese-appointed governor of Tibet said the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama was profaning Buddhism by suggesting that he would not be reincarnated when he dies.

Activists have criticized China for using a campaign against militancy in Xinjiang to crack down on Uighurs. Hundreds have died in violence in recent years in predominantly Uighur parts of Xinjiang.

The government has blamed attacks in Xinjiang and elsewhere in China, including Beijing, on Islamist militants from the region. It says separatists there want to set up an independent state called East Turkestan.

On Thursday, the head of China's Supreme Court said 712 people had been sentenced last year for "separatist activities" or participating in terror attacks, up 13.3 percent on 2013.

"We will actively participate in the fight against terrorism and separatism (and) severely punish violent terrorist crimes according to the law," Chief Justice Zhou Qiang told the annual meeting of parliament.

Bielefeldt said he believed the crackdown on freedom of religion stemmed from nervousness on the part of an "authoritarian" government about people coming together "outside of official channels".

(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard and Michael Martina in BEIJING; Editing by Larry King, Paul Tait and Robert Birsel)

Maldives police drag former president into court 

Police in the Maldives have dragged the country's former president into a court which had ordered his detention while he is tried over his decision to arrest a top judge three years ago.

Mohamed Nasheed, now an opposition leader, fell to the ground after police pushed him in attempts to stop him from speaking to journalists gathered outside the Criminal Court in Male before his first hearing on Monday.

Nasheed was arrested on Sunday and charged under an anti-terrorism law for abusing his powers while president in 2012 by illegally using the military to arrest Criminal Court Judge Abdulla Mohamed. 

The three-judge panel gave Nasheed three days to name his lawyers.

The government says the anti-terrorism law covers not only violent terrorism, but a wide array of actions against the state.

Nasheed resigned as president in 2012 following weeks of public protests against his order to arrest Mohamed.

The judge was arrested after he released a detained opposition politician, and Nasheed's administration accused him of political bias and corruption.

Mohamed was later released from detention.

Court ignored

Nasheed became the country's first democratically elected leader in 2008, defeating Maumoon Abdul Gayyoom, who had ruled for 30 years.

Nasheed then lost to Gayyoom's half-brother, Yameen, in the 2013 presidential election.

The former president's detention comes weeks after a key ally defected from Yameen's ruling coalition to align with Nasheed's opposition Maldivian Democratic Party.

The party accuses the government of repeatedly violating the constitution.

Nasheed is also accused of detaining Mohamed for weeks without trial or legal counsel and ignoring a Supreme Court order to release him.

Dozens of Burma troops killed in clashes with rebels 

Latest update : 2015-02-14

Heavy fighting between Burma’s army and rebels near the border with China in the past few days has killed 47 soldiers, state-backed media said Friday, overshadowing hopes of forging ceasefires in the country's many ethnic minority conflicts.

Burma has informed Beijing about the clashes, which have raged since February 9, according to the Global New Light of Myanmar, marking a dramatic resurgence of conflict with largely ethnic Chinese rebels in the Kokang region in Shan State.

China has expressed concern about the clashes which have forced civilians to flee across the border.

Kokang fighters with "heavy weapons including anti-aircraft machine guns" attempted to capture the Kokang region's capital Laukkai, just a few miles from the Chinese border, but were repelled by the army, it said.

"So far, the fighting has left government forces with 47 dead, 73 wounded and five vehicles destroyed," the English language report said.

Since the fighting started, there have been more than13 clashes.

The resurgence of conflict in the Kokang area of Shan state, which had been largely dormant for nearly six years, is an ominous sign for the government as it attempts to forge a comprehensive ceasefire deal with the country's myriad ethnic armed groups.

According to the state media report, a 200-strong force of Kokang rebels attacked a military base in the Kongyan area on Thursday, shelling the headquarters. The army has carried out five airstrikes in retaliation.

Independent analyst Richard Horsey said attacks by the Kokang rebels appeared "quite audacious", adding that fighting was likely to continue.

"Having suffered such significant loses, local commanders are not going to want to give up on this one," he said.

He added that the description of the rebels as "renegades" in state media reporting could be an effort by the government to draw a distinction between the Kokang fighters and the ethnic armed groups taking part in ceasefire negotiations.

Ceasefire search undermined

Burma's quasi-civilian regime, which took power in 2011 after decades of military rule, has put ending the country's ethnic minority conflicts at the heart of its reform drive.

But conflict between the military and armed ethnic minority groups is also raging in other parts of Shan and northern Kachin states, casting doubts on the government's long-sought nationwide ceasefire deal.

It had hoped to sign a deal on Thursday, as the country celebrated its annual Union Day celebrations in Naypyidaw.

Instead, the government, military and some ethnic groups signed a commitment to continue talks, laying out an aim to build a union "based on democratic and federal principles".

Observers say the inclusion of the federal ideal, a key demand of ethnic minorities who have long fought for political autonomy, marks a watershed in the negotiations because the army had resisted signing up to any deal on federalism until now.

In Kachin state, some 100,000 people have been forced into displacement camps by heavy fighting between local rebels and the national army, which erupted in 2011 when a 17-year ceasefire crumbled.

The unrest has increasingly spread to various parts of northern Shan state, where last week the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) also accused Burma's army of using helicopter gunships to attack its positions.

Burma, which has more than 130 recognised ethnic minorities, has suffered the world's longest civil war, with pockets of unrest breaking out across the country soon after independence from colonial rule in 1948.

Burma's army, which seized power in 1962, used the unrest as a justification for its iron-fisted rule and has been accused of a litany of humanitarian abuses in border areas, where tussles over abundant resources have also added fuel to the fighting.

(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP)

Date created : 2015-02-13

Bangladesh launches probe into deadly ferry sinking 

The Bangladesh government has ordered an investigation a day after a passenger ferry collided with a cargo ship in the Padma river, northwest of the capital Dhaka, killing at least 70 people.

Speaking at the scene in Manikganj, Shajahan Khan, the shipping minister, said on Monday that an investigation had been launched into the sinking of the twin-deck MV Mostofa, which was carrying at least 140 people.

Police have seized the cargo ship that hit the ferry and arrested the captain and his two crew, police said.

More than half the 70 bodies retrieved from the river were women and children. At least 50 people survived the accident. 

Al Jazeera's Tanvir Chowdhury, reporting from Manikganj, said at least five people are still missing. Rescuers told Al Jazeera that is is unlikely that they will be found alive.

Chowdhury said that survivors of the accident blamed overcrowding as the major cause of the high death toll.

Nanu Shiekh, one of the survivors, told Al Jazeera that he, along with four others, escaped through a narrow hole in the boat when it flipped upside down. Some of the victims were trapped in the lower deck of the boat.

Our correspondent said hundreds of people were waiting outside a makeshift morgue to claim the bodies of their relatives.

"It's a familiar scene in Bangladesh, where passenger boat accidents are a common phenomena," he said.

A similar accident on February 13 killed at least seven passengers in southern Bangladesh.

Low-lying Bangladesh, with extensive inland waterways and slack safety standardrs, suffers regular ferry disasters, with death tolls sometimes running into the hundreds.

TransAsia Airways Faces Scrutiny After 2nd Fatal Crash 

 HONG KONG — The crash of a passenger plane into a river in Taiwan on Wednesday, which killed at least 31 people, has renewed questions about the safety of the airline, TransAsia Airways. It was the carrier’s second deadly accident in less than seven months.

On Thursday, Taiwan’s aviation regulators ordered inspections of all aircraft from ATR, the maker of the plane that crashed Wednesday shortly after takeoff from the capital, Taipei. The regulatory agency, the Civil Aeronautics Administration, said the inspections would be completed Thursday for TransAsia’s aircraft and Friday for ATRs flown by Uni Air, the only other carrier in Taiwan to operate the French- and Italian-made turboprops.

Inspectors would focus on the aircraft’s engines, fuel systems and propeller controls, among other systems, the agency said in a written statement.

The ATR-72-600 that crashed Wednesday was bound from Taipei Songshan Airport as Flight 235 to the outlying island of Kinmen, near the mainland Chinese province of Fujian. The crash was caught on dashboard cameras of cars traveling on Huandong Boulevard, on the east side of the capital, in terrifying scenes of the plane flying low past apartment buildings, its left wing dipping and striking the roadway before it plunged into the Keelung River.

Continue reading the main storyThe ATR-72-600 that crashed Wednesday was bound from Taipei Songshan Airport as Flight 235 to the outlying island of Kinmen, near the mainland Chinese province of Fujian. The crash was caught on dashboard cameras of cars traveling on Huandong Boulevard, on the east side of the capital, in terrifying scenes of the plane flying low past apartment buildings, its left wing dipping and striking the roadway before it plunged into the Keelung River.