Persaingan Antara Amerika dan Perancis Dalam Memerangi Islam?

Mali negara Afrika barat yang berpenduduk 15 juta orang ini adalah negara kedelapan yang rakyatnya dibom dan dibunuh oleh kekuatan Barat setelah Irak , Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yaman, Libya, Somalia, dan Filipina. Belum termasuk berapa banyak tiran yang didukung oleh negara Barat di kawasan itu. Invasi ini semakin mengokohkan perang kolonial Barat terhadap dunia Islam.

Invasi ini sekali lagi membuktikan Dewan Keamanan PBB sekedar menjadi alat politik negara-negara Barat. Dewan Keamanan PBB Dewan Keamanan PBB pada Kamis (20/12/2012) dengan suara bulat telah menyetujui rencana intervensi militer di Mali dengan dalih yang menyesatkan yaitu “menyatukan kembali negara Afrika Utara yang berperang.”

Negara-negara Afrika Barat ingin mengirim pasukan berkekuatan 3.300 personil untuk mengusir kelompok-kelompok bersenjata yang memasuki wilayah gurun yang luas dan menerapkan hukum Islamsetelah terjadinya kudeta militer di Bamako Maret yang menciptakan kekosongan kekuasaan di negara itu.

Rencana untuk intervensi militer, awalnya disepakati oleh Masyarakat ekonomi Negara Afrika Barat (ECOWAS) dan tidak akan melibatkan intervensi langsung pasukan Barat. Resolusi diperkenalkan oleh Perancis – yang sebelumnya menjajah Mali – hingga disetujui oleh 15 anggota DK.

Namun Perancis mengambil inisiatif menyerang Mali tanpa legitimasi PBB. Sekjen PBB mengeluarkan dukungan justru setelah Perancis menyerang. Perserikatan Bangsa Bangsa (PBB) setuju dengan intervensi militer Prancis di Mali. Sekjen PBB, Ban Ki-moon, mengatakan aksi tersebut mendapat dukungan internasional dalam pernyataannya di Markas PBB, Senin (14/1), dan dilansir Reuters, Selasa (15/1).

Dalam membenarkan serangan militer ini, Perancis, Inggris dan negara Barat lainnya sekali lagi menggunakan label memerangi ‘terorisme’ dan melindungi rakyat Mali. Untuk mendapatkan simpati dari masyarakat Barat, media telah menekankan aspek ‘Islamis’ dari oposisi yang ingin menegakkansyariah Islam.

Mencegah Berdirinya Negara Islam ?

Ada kemungkinan beberapa motif kenapa Perancis menyerang Mali. Pertama adalah kekhawatiran Mali menjadi sebuah negara Islam. Satu hal yang sangat ditakuti Barat selama ini adalah berdirinya negaraIslam terutama daulah Khilafah Islam yang menerapkan syariat Islam dan menolak segala bentuk intervensi Barat.

Ketika Presiden Amadou Toumani Toure dilengserkan dari posisinya oleh seorang kader militer pada pertengahan Maret, Gerakan Nasional Bagi Pembebasan Azawad (MNLA) dan Gerakan Kesatuan andjihad di Afrika Barat (MUJWA) menguasai wilayah utara dan kota-kotanya termasuk Gao dan Timbuktu. Para mujahidin Mali bertekad untuk meraih kemenangan dan menerapkan syariah Islam.

Nicolas Sarkozy saat masih menjadi presiden Perancis telah memperingatkan tentang ancaman ini. Pada pada hari Jumat (13/4) dia menyerukan pentingnya melakukan segala upaya guna mencegah berdirinya sebuah negara yang dia sebut sebagai teroris atau Islam di wilayah pantai di Afrika Utara. Hal ini menyusul dominasi pemberontak Tuareg dan pejuang Islam di Mali utara. Saat itu dia telah mengingatkan kemungkinan Perancis melakukan intervensi.

Tampaknya presiden Perancis saat ini melanjutkan kebijakan dari Sarkozy yang dikenal sangat anti Islam. Sebutan teroris memang kerap kali dilabelkan oleh Barat untuk siapapun yang menolak penjajahan Barat dan menginginkan tegaknya syariah Islam. Terorisme kemudian menjadi label sakti untuk membenarkan apapun tindakan Barat meskipun melanggar hukum internasional yang mereka buat sendiri.

Warning Terhadap Mujahidin Suriah ?

Invasi Perancis ini juga bisa jadi merupakan warning bagi negeri-negeri Islam lainnya yang ingin menegakkan negara Islam apalagi Khilafah. Bahwa Barat akan melakukan intervensi mencegah hal keinginan mulia umat Islam ini.

Gelombang keinginan mendirikan negara Islam yang menerapkan syariah Islam secara menyeluruh memang sangat mengkhawatirkan Barat. Terutama melihat kondidi terkini Suriah sekarang. Semakin menguatnya pasukan mujahidin dan melemahnya rezim Assad menjadi ketakutan Barat.

Berbeda dengan Tunisia, Mesir, ataupun Yaman,hingga saat ini Barat belum mendapatkan penggganti yang legitimed untuk rezim bengis Assad yang kemudian tetap dibawah control Barat. Tidak hanya itu, para mujahidin yang dekat dengan masyarakat Suriah dan menjadi ujung tombak perlawanan terhadap Assad, dengan tegas menolak intervensi Barat, tawaran demokrasi meskipun dengan istilah negara madani (negara sipil). Para mujahidin dengan tegas akan menegakkan Khilafah Islam, membebaskan Al Quds dari penjajah Israel, menyelamatkan muslim Rohingnya dan negeri-negeri Islam lainnya.

Namun, Barat harus berpikir beribu kali kalau hendak menyerang Suriah kalau atas izin Allah SWT Khilafah akan tegak di sana. Rakyat Suriah bersama umat Islam dari negeri-negeri Islam lainnya akan bersatu melakukan jihad melawan intervensi penjajah. jihad yang dilakukan dan didukung oleh mayoritas rakyat Suriah, bukan hanya satu atau dua kelompok.

Menghadapi kelompok-kelompok mujahidin di Irak dan Afghanistan, saja Barat sudah kesulitan, apalagi menghadapi rakyat Suriah dalam perang semesta (total) melawan penjajah Barat. Disamping itu,amerika dan Eropa akan berpikir keras , mengingat intervensi militer pastilah membutuhkan dana yang besar. Sementara saat ini kondisi ekonomi mereka sedang dalam kesulitan.

Persaingan Amerika dan Perancis ?

Aroma persaingan amerika dan Perancis juga tampak dalam invasi ini sangat kental. Perancis tampaknya tidak ingin melepaskan Mali dari cengkramannya setelah selama ini benar-benar mengkontrol negara ini. Sementara amerika , mulai berusaha menanamkan pengaruhnya dengan mendukung kudeta militerterhadap Presiden Amadou Toumani Toure yang didukung oleh Perancis.

Dalam Soal Jawab tentang kudeta militer di Mali yang dikeluarkan Hizbut Tahrir (24 Maret 2012 M) dijelaskan bagaimana amerika belakangan mulai berkerja memperluas pengaruhnya di Mali dengan menggelar perjanjian dengan Mali untuk melatih militer Mali dengan dalih memerangi terorisme.militerMali memilih para perwira dan mengirim mereka ke amerika untuk mengikuti pelatihan.

Laman al-‘Ashru (24/3/2012) mengutip dari diplomat amerika yang meminta tak disebutkan namanya menyatakan: “pemimpin kudeta Kapten Amadou “Ahmadou“ Haya Sanogo dahulu dipilih diantara sekelompok perwira oleh kedutaan amerika untuk mendapat pelatihan militer untuk memerangi terorisme dan pelatihan itu bertempat di amerika Serikat“. Ia menambahkan bahwa “Sanogo beberapa kali pergi ke amerika dalam tugas-tugas khusus …“.

Sementara Perancis tidak mendukung kudeta itu. Prancis membekukan kerjasama politik, militer dan ekonominya dengan Mali. Begitu juga bantuan-bantuannya kepada Mali. Sebaliknya amerika bertindak sebaliknya. Juru bicara kemenlu AS Victoria Nuland menegaskan negaranya tidak mengambil keputusan membekuan bantuan-bantuan amerika ke Mali“ (Aljazeera, 23/4/2012). Bantuan amerika ke Mali mencapai 137 juta dolar per tahun.

Hal ini menunjukkan Amerikalah yang berada di balik kudeta militer yang terjadi di Mali. Tujuannya untuk menanamkan dan memperluas pengaruhnya di negeri Islam Mali itu. Negara Paman Sam ini berusaha menggantikan pengaruh Prancis sebagai penjajah lama Mali. Untuk itu amerika ingin menunda pemilu mendatang di Mali sebab lingkungan politik yang ada masih loyal ke Prancis. Melalui kudeta ini amerika membalik meja permainan atas para pemain dari antek-antek Prancis yang sangat memahami permainan sesuai politik Prancis.

Begitulah Mali menjadi terikat dengan amerika,melalui gerakan “militer“. Lingkungan politik lama yang dibangun Prancis sulit untuk menguasai situasi baru. Paling jauh yang mungkin terjadi adalah partisipasi yang tidak efektif di pemerintahan baru di bawah pengaruh amerika.

Invasi langsung terhadap Mali, adalah cara Prancis untuk mempertahankan pengaruhnya. Tanpa melalui persetujuan dewan keamanan PBB, negara ini langsung melakukan invasi. Setelah serangan, baru DK PBB menggelar pertemuan darurat atas permintaan Prancis pada Senin (14/1) di New York. Dubes Prancis untuk PBB Gerard Araud mengatakan pemerintahnya mendapat “dukungan dan pengertian” dari 14 anggota Dewan Keamanan PBB lain.

Prancis sebelumnya telah mengirim 550 tentara ke kota Mopti dan Bamako, dan setelah pekan lalu menurut seorang sumber Kementrian Pertahanan negara mode itu kepada kantor berita Reuters, jumlah kiriman pasukan kemungkinan akan bertambah menjadi 2.500 dalam beberapa hari.

Negeri Islam yang Kaya

Mali adalah negeri Islam, lebih dari 90 % penduduknya muslim dan telah masuk Islam sejak ratusan tahun lalu. Pada akhir abad ke-19 penjajah Prancis menduduki Mali dan mengumumkan penggabungannya ke Prancis pada tahun 1904. Prancis memberikan kemerdekaan formalistik pada tahun 1960. Mali adalah negeri yang kaya bahan tambang berupa emas, phospat, kaolin, bauksit, besi, uranium dan banyak lainnya. Tidak mengherankan kalau Eropa khususnya Perancis dan amerika saling berebut kekayaan alam Mali.

Perancis sendiri sangat membutuhkan Mali, sebagai negara penghasil uranium di Afrika Barat. Dua pertiga listrik Prancis berasal dari tenaga nuklir, memerlukan impor uranium yang signifikan dari negara tetangga Niger. Sebagai produsen emas ketiga terbesar di Afrika Mali juga sangat menggiurkan.

Begitulah negeri Islam menjadi rampasan penjajah yang rakut. Semua itu tidak lain karena kaum muslimin terpecah belah, diperintah dengan selain Islam. Para penguasanya tidak memelihara urusan-urusan masyarakat, sebaliknya para penguasa kaum Muslimin itu justru memuluskan kepentingan-kepentingan kaum kafir penjajah. Sekali lagi disinilah relevansi perjuangan Hizbut Tahrir untuk mewujudkan kembali Khilafah untuk seluruh dunia Islam, yang menyatukan dan melindungi negeri Islamdari kebuasan penjajah Barat.(ts/Farid Wajdji/judul asli: Dibalik Invasi Militer Perancis ke Mali/hizbut-tahrir.co.id/diterbitkan Januari 2013 namun masih relevan dengan kekinian)

This article originally appeared in : Jangan Lupakan Kejahatan Perancis di Mali, Negeri Islam Kaya Yang Dijajah | eramuslim.com | Redaksi | Minggu, 15 November 2015 10:30 WIB

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After Paris attacks, Hollande urges grand coalition in Syria

French President Francois Hollande appealed on Monday for a single coalition including the United States and Russia to eradicate Islamic State militants in Syria after bloody attacks on Paris.

In a solemn address to a joint session of parliament in the Palace of Versailles that began with the words "France is at war", Hollande announced an increase in police recruitment, a halt to layoffs in the army, and a constitutional amendment to strengthen the fight against terrorism.

The attacks by gunmen and suicide bombers at restaurants, bars, a soccer stadium and a music hall that killed 129 people and wounded more than 350 people were ordered from Syria, planned in Belgium and carried out with the help of French people, he said.

Hollande said he would meet U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in the coming days "so we can unite our forces to achieve a result that has taken too long".

While Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could not be part of the solution to the crisis, "our enemy is Daesh (Islamic State)", Hollande said, while insisting that France was fighting terrorism and not another civilization. 

"We will eradicate terrorism," he declared at the end of a 50-minute speech. Lawmakers from all parties gave him a standing ovation and sang the "Marseillaise" national anthem.

The Socialist president said he had ordered air strikes on headquarters of Islamic State in the Syrian town of Raqqa overnight and would continue to wage war "mercilessly", sending an aircraft carrier to triple French air power in the region.

He also said France wanted more effective controls of the European Union's external borders to avoid a return to national border controls and the dismantling of the European Union.

Additional security spending would be needed and France would not let EU budget rules to get in the way, Hollande said.

He involved a mutual defense clause in the EU's Lisbon treaty, which requires member states to give each other assistance if they come under attack, but made no mention of the U.S.-led NATO military alliance's mutual defense clause. 

He said security forces had put more than 100 people under house arrest and raided 168 premises since he declared a state of emergency, which he asked parliament to extend for three months.

He also proposed measures to speed up the expulsion of foreigners considered a threat to public order, strip binational citizens who carry out acts hostile to national security of French citizenship, and bar binationals considered a terrorism risk from entering French territory.

It was the first time in more than six years that a president had addressed both houses of parliament convened in a so-called Congress at Versailles, a procedure reserved for constitutional revisions and major presidential speeches.

Former conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy last addressed the Congress at the former royal palace in 2009, at the height of the global financial and banking crisis.

The Congress took place in the spectacular Southern Wing of the former royal palace built by Louis XIV, in an ornate chamber decorated with allegorical paintings evoking war and peace.

(Additional reporting by Ingrid Melander and Michel Rose; Writing by Paul Taylor; Editing by Tom Heneghan) 

This article originally appeared in : After Paris attacks, Hollande urges grand coalition in Syria | Reuters | By Emile Picy | November 17, 2015

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Stories of those who died in the Paris attacks

French President Francois Hollande said Monday the attacks in Paris targeted "youth in all its diversity," killing at least 129. Here are some of their stories:

— Fanny Minot went straight from her job at a TV newsmagazine show to the Bataclan on Friday night. By Sunday, the show's host, Ali Baddou, would be mourning her death on-air.

Minot, 29, was an editor at the show, "Le Supplement." Artistic and free-spirited, she enjoyed making independent movies — and above all, enjoyed new experiences, her friend Stephen Fox told The Associated Press. He got to know Minot purely by chance, when she and a friend of hers were traveling in the U.S. about four years ago and came to stay with him and his then-roommate, courtesy of a free-stay website for self-declared couch-surfers.

Despite their different backgrounds, the guys from Shelbyville, Kentucky, and their visitors from France became such fast friends that the travelers stayed two extra days, and then the hosts drove six hours to Memphis, Tennessee, to spend another day with them. And a few months later, Fox went to France to visit Minot over New Year's Eve.

"She was such a loving, compassionate person, with such an adventurous view on life," said Fox, 27, who credits her energetic outlook with inspiring him to get his post-college life in gear by going to nursing school. "She was a very motivated, hardworking person, and she just loved life."

Over the years, they stayed in touch, speaking by Skype every few months. But perhaps the memory that most sears his mind is of their goodbye at the airport in Paris.

"We just stood there in silence, realizing it was going to be a long time before we saw each other again, and we said, 'We're not saying goodbye — we're saying: Until the next time,'" he recalled. "Which now kind of hurts, because that's taken away."

— Mohamed Amine Ibnolmobarak, 29, was an architect of Moroccan descent who studied and worked in Paris. He was killed at the Le Carillon restaurant in Paris while dining there with his new wife, according to a Facebook posting by his cousin Akram Benmbarek of San Diego. The wife, Maya Nemeta, was shot three times and was in critical condition at the hospital, the cousin wrote.

Ibnolmobarak was born in Rabat, Morocco, and had come to France to complete his university studies. Jean Attali, his professor at Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Paris Malaquais, where Ibnolmobarak also taught, wrote on Facebook that his young colleague was a "Muslim intellectual" whose thesis diploma focused on the pilgrimage to Mecca.

"Amine had found his place in our school and in the exercise of his profession of architect," Attali wrote. "Many of us... hoped for a great future for him."

The young architect had co-founded a cultural association focused on cities called New South. This month, the group's work — including that of Mr. Ibnolmobarak — was exhibited at the Galerie du CROUS in Paris. On its Facebook page, New South wrote a tribute to Ibnolmobarak: "His research process, based on intelligence, tolerance and love could not have been a better legacy against terror."

— Kheireddine Sahbi, 29, was an Algerian violinist who had come to Paris to perfect his art at the Paris-Sorbonne university. According to an announcement by the school, Sahbi was enrolled in the Masters of Ethnomusicology program and was involved in the university's traditional music ensemble.

The school says Sahbi died while returning home in the 10th arrondissement, where terrorists attacked a restaurant.

The young violinist was born on the outskirts of Algiers, the capital of Algeria, and was widely known as Didine. Mr. Sahbi's friend from Algeria Fayçal Oulebsir posted on his Facebook page: "Didine, my friend... You left us too young, dying in Paris so far away from us, taking with you your joy of living and so many hopes."

— On their wedding day in 2013, Anne and Pierre-Yves Guyomard struck the mayor of their Paris suburb, Emmanuel Lamy, as a couple "full of life and hope," Lamy recalled to the French newspaper Le Parisien .

Two and a half years later, their community, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, would be holding a moment of silence this week for them and others killed in Friday's attacks in Paris.

Among the crowd at the Bataclan, the Guyomards were particularly steeped in music. Pierre-Yves, 32, taught film scoring at a technical institute, and Anne, 29, had studied music before going to work at a child-care center, according to Le Parisien.

The two had lived for a time on the Indian Ocean island of Réunion, where Anne Guyomard's family told news outlet L'Info they had spent an agonizing day and a half wondering about the couple's fate, calling unanswered phones and appealing for word of the two via Facebook, before being told they had been killed.

Anne was "the daughter I would wish on all parents — one who's attentive, one who's full of life," and she loved children and people in general, brother-in-law Chris Hamer told L'Info. Pierre, meanwhile, was "an encyclopedia of music."

"Their shared pleasure was music," Hamer wrote on his Facebook page.

— Sebastien Proisy, 38, had launched a promising career in international business consulting that would never be fully realized. He died at a restaurant along Bichat street in Paris during the terrorist attacks when he was shot in the back, according to the Liberation newspaper website.

He was at a business dinner and accompanied someone at the table who wanted to take a smoke outside, according to his great uncle Daniel Senecaut, who was quoted by the La Voix du Nord news website.

Proisy had studied political science and later went to Florida with his Bulgarian wife and son. On their return, they settled in Noisy-Le-Grand on the outskirts of Paris, as the family told it. Proisy also served in staff positions at the European parliament in Bruxelles.

In the past year, he had gone into business in consulting for the Airbus Group. He had also worked as an executive for a company promoting French agribusiness abroad and another business doing market research in Iran and Central Asia, according to his LinkedIn profile. "He was very brilliant," La Voix du Nord quoted his grand aunt Jeanne Broutin as saying. She and Senecaut described their grandnephew as kind and charming, but also a workaholic.

— Helene Muyal, 35, of Paris, was a makeup artist and mother who died at the Bataclan concert.

Her husband, Antoine Leiris, posted a memorial on Facebook, telling the terrorists: "I won't give you the gift of my hatred. It's what you sought, but answering hate with anger would be to surrender to the same ignorance that has made you what you are."

He said the life of his 17-month-old child with his late wife, carried out in happiness and freedom, would forever be a challenge to the terrorists. "And you won't have his hatred either," Leiris concluded.

— Lola Salines of Paris, a young editor at Editions First-Gründ, died at the Bataclan concert hall. Her father Georges Salines and brother Clément Salines took to social media after the attacks to launch a desperate search for Lola, who did not respond to their calls. The family later posted on Twitter and Facebook that authorities had confirmed Salines, 28, was one of the victims.

The young woman also was a member of a Parisian roller derby league called 'La Boucherie de Paris.' Her team name was Josie Ozzbourne, #109, according to the group's Facebook page.

— Francois-Xavier Prevost, 29, was head of advertising at the French advertising agency LocalMedia and also worked recently for another communications company, Havas Media Group. He died at the attack on the Bataclan theater, according to Yannick Bolloré, the Havas Group CEO who mourned the young worker and several others via Twitter.

Prevost had also spent some time in the United States. The University of North Texas said Prévost had been an exchange student at UNT in the fall of 2007. And the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, a pro soccer team in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, said Prevost interned with the team in the summer of 2009.

— Marie Mosser's love of music brought her to the Bataclan concert hall where she died. The 24-year-old from the French city of Nancy worked for the label Universal Music, according to the "20 minutes" news website.

Mosser's Twitter profile said she worked in communication and digital marketing. Pascal Negre, president of Universal Music France, tweeted over her death and that of two other victims: "The Universal Music family is in mourning." Mosser's father is a manager in Nancy city government, "20 minutes" reported.

— Bertrand Navarret, 37, lived in the southern French community of Capbreton near the Spanish border and was just spending a few days in Paris with friends. They decided to take in a rock concert — where Navarret was killed at Bataclan hall. Starting on a family career path in law, Navarret had given it up for a new life in Canada, where he learned to work with wood. He eventually returned to France with new skills and remade himself as a carpenter and avid snowboarder, according to the Liberation news website.

— Guillaume Decherf, 43, had written about the latest album by Eagles of Death Metal late last month for French culture magazine Les Inrocks and was at the band's concert Friday night.

Vincent Boucaumont said he had known Decherf for about 25 years, since the two were in high school, when they would go down into the basement of Boucaumont's grandfather's house to play their guitars together. Both music lovers, they had a radio show focusing on hard rock and heavy metal music for two years after high school, he said.

"He was very sociable, very open to others, very curious, a pacifist and very kind," Boucaumont said, speaking in French by telephone. "He was someone who tried to understand things and who also shared with others."

A fellow music journalist, Thomas Mafrouche, often saw Decherf at concerts and was supposed to meet him Sunday. In a Facebook message to The Associated Press, Mafrouche said Decherf was extremely proud of his two young daughters. "I'm thinking about their pain, about their father, whom they will miss terribly," he wrote.

— Germain Ferey, 36, of Paris, was a photographer and film artist who loved rock music, according to his sister, Domitille Ferey. He was at the Bataclan concert hall Friday when gunfire rang out.

His sister said he shouted for his partner to run — but when she turned and looked behind her, Germain Ferey was not there. "We think he told her to run because he wanted her to protect herself for the sake of the little one," his sister told The Associated Press, referring to the couple's 17-month-old daughter who was with her grandparents. The partner was unhurt.

Ferey's sister said he started out working in a bank, but the work was not to his liking. He then sought training at ESRA, a French academy that specializes in cinema and photographic arts. That enabled him to pursue a career that he truly wanted, his sister said. His website hosts an array of creative projects, including a photo montage entitled "I (heart) NY: http://www.germain-ferey.com/

— Gregory Fosse, 28, of Gambais, France, died at the Bataclan concert hall. He worked for the D17 television station. The company put out a statement saying, "We all knew his kindness, his special smile, and his passion for music," according to the Liberation newspaper.

Gambais Mayor Régis Bizeau said the community was "deeply shaken," according to the "toutes les nouvelles" news website.

— Pierro Innocenti, 40, of Paris, was a manager at his family's Italian restaurant on the outskirts of the city. His last post on his Facebook page was a photo of the Bataclan's sign advertising the Eagles of Death Metal show, with a caption Innocenti added: "Rock!"

Innocenti (sometimes called Pierre) helped run Livio, a five-decade-old eatery known for attracting a star-studded clientele to its spot in a Paris suburb. French comedian and actor Smaïn, a relation of Innocenti's by marriage, said on his Facebook page he was "alive in body but bruised in my heart" on hearing of his death.

A friend, Olivier Cagniart, told Vanity Fair Italia that Innocenti had been tired and hadn't felt like a concert, but rallied and decided to go.

A surfer and skydiver, Innocenti looked at life as a constant challenge to do more, Cagniart told the magazine. "He always had a thousand new projects to carry out, experiences to have. Watching him in action made you want to hug him and tell him, 'Thanks for all your energy."

— Justine Moulin, 23, of Paris, had a passion for travel. She studied at the SKEMA Business School in Paris and planned to attend its satellite campus in Raleigh, N.C., according to The News & Observer newspaper in Raleigh.

Moulin was killed while having dinner at Le Petit Cambodge, her favorite restaurant, according to news reports.

"She was always smiling. She wanted to travel the world," friend Julie de Melo was quoted as saying in the News & Observer.

— Thomas Duperron, 30, of Alencon, France, died at the Bataclan concert hall. He worked as communications director for the Maroquinerie theater in Paris, according to its website and the news site les InRocks.

In Facebook postings, his brother Nicolas called Duperron's death a "horrible tragedy" and his parents thanked all the friends who tried to find him after the attacks, saying they were "so much there for him."

— Matthieu Giroud, 38, of Jarrie, France, was killed at the Bataclan concert hall. He taught geography at Paris-Est-Marne-la-Vallee university, where he specialized in urban development. A university news release said the institution was both "crushed and outraged."

Giroud leaves behind a pregnant wife and three-year-old son, according to the Liberation newspaper.

— Nick Alexander, 36, of Colchester, England, was working at the Bataclan concert hall selling merchandise for the performing band, Eagles of Death Metal. "Nick was not just our brother, son and uncle, he was everyone's best friend — generous, funny and fiercely loyal," his family said in a statement. "Nick died doing the job he loved and we take great comfort in knowing how much he was cherished by his friends around the world."

— Thomas Ayad, 32, was a producer manager for Mercury Music Group and a music buff who was killed at the Bataclan. In his hometown, Amiens, he was an avid follower of the local field hockey team. Lucian Grainge — the chairman of Universal Music Group, which owns Mercury Music — said the loss was "an unspeakably appalling tragedy," in a Saturday note to employees provided to the Los Angeles Times.

—Elodie Breuil, 23, a design student, had gone to the Bataclan concert hall with about a half-dozen friends, said her brother, Alexis, who confirmed his younger sister's death to Time magazine. The friends scattered in the shooting. Alexis told the magazine that his sister and mother had marched in Paris after the attack early this year on the office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. "They did it to show their support," he said.

— Asta Diakite, was the cousin of French midfielder Lassana Diarra, who played against Germany in Friday's soccer match at Stade de France, during which three suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the stadium Friday night. Diarra, who is Muslim, posted a message on Twitter after his cousin was killed in the shootings, saying that "She was like a big sister to me." He added: "It is important for all of us who represent our country and its diversity to stay united against a horror which has no color, no religion. Stand together for love, respect and peace."

— Elif Dogan, 28, a Turkish-born Belgian national, lived in Belgium but made monthly business trips to Paris, said her father, Kemal Dogan. She was staying at an apartment near the concert hall, but he told Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency that she was not at Friday's concert and he was not sure where his daughter died. He said her death was confirmed by Belgian officials. He said his daughter had been involved in charity work since her school days, distributing food to the poor or teaching French in Nigeria.

— Fabrice Dubois worked with the publicity agency Publicis Conseil. The agency said in a statement on Facebook that he was killed at the concert hall. "He was a very great man in every sense of the word. Our thoughts are with his family, his wife, his children, his friends, those with whom he worked."

— Michelli Gil Jaimez, of Tuxpan in the Mexican state of Veracruz, had studied at a business school in Lyons, France, and was currently living in Paris. She had just gotten engaged to her Italian boyfriend, according to her Facebook page. Mexican officials did not give her age or say where she was killed. She also held Spanish citizenship.

— Nohemi Gonzalez, 23, a senior at California State University, Long Beach, was attending Strate College of Design in Paris during a semester abroad program. Gonzalez, from El Monte, California, was in the Petit Cambodge restaurant with another Long Beach State student when she was fatally shot, Cal State officials said in a news conference Saturday.

Her mother, Beatriz Gonzalez, said Nohemi graduated from high school early and couldn't wait to go to college. "She was very independent since she was little," she said. Design professor Michael LaForte said Gonzalez stood out at the California university. "She was a shining star, and she brought joy, happiness, laughter to everybody she worked with and her students, her classmates."

— Alberto Gonzalez Garrido, 29, of Madrid, was at the Bataclan concert. The Spanish state broadcaster TVE said Gonzalez Garrido was an engineer, living in France with his wife, also an engineer. They both were at the concert, but became separated amid the mayhem.

— Mathieu Hoche was a cameraman for France24 news channel, which said he was 37. He was killed at the concert. A friend, Antoine Rousseau, tweeted about how passionately Hoche loved rock 'n' roll. Gerome Vassilacos, who worked with Hoche, told the AP that his colleague was fun, easygoing and great to work with. "Even though he laughed easily and joked around, he worked hard."

Hoche had a 9-year-old son whom he had custody of every other weekend, so he lived a bit of a bachelor lifestyle, Vassilacos said. He and Hoche would go out for beers and chat up women, and Vassilacos said he recently thought they should hang out more often because they had so much in common.

— Djamila Houd, 41, of Paris, was originally from the town of Dreux, southwest of the capital. The newspaper serving Dreux — L'Echo Republicain — said Houd was killed at a cafe on the rue de Charrone in Paris. According to Facebook posts from grieving friends, she had worked for Isabel Marant, a prestigious Paris-based ready-to-wear house.

— Cédric Mauduit was director of modernization of the French department of Calvados. The department issued a statement announcing his death at the concert hall, saying that Mauduit "found it a joy to share this concert with his five friends" and said the sadness of those who knew him was "immense." Anyone who worked with Mauduit, the statement said, could appreciate both his skills and his humanity.

— Aurélie de Peretti had posted on Facebook that she was going to the Bataclan on Friday night, said her older sister, Delphine, who with her father, Jean-Marie, confirmed her death to Time magazine after a call from Paris police. Delphine said she posted a joking response "saying 'enjoy your great evening listening to that crap music.'" While Delphine lives in London, Aurélie had stayed closer to their hometown of Saint Tropez in the south of France and worked at a beach resort in the summer. "I left 13 years ago, and yet somehow we got closer and closer over the years," her sister said.

— Valentin Ribet, 26, a lawyer with the Paris office of the international law firm Hogan Lovell, was killed in the Bataclan. Ribet received a master of laws degree from the London School of Economics in 2014, and earlier did postgraduate work at the Sorbonne university in Paris. His law firm said he worked on the litigation team, specializing in white collar crime. "He was a talented lawyer, extremely well liked, and a wonderful personality in the office," the firm said.

— Patricia San Martin Nunez, 61, a Chilean exile, and her daughter, Elsa Veronique Delplace San Martin, 35, were attending the concert at the Bataclan with Elsa's 5-year-old son, who Chilean officials say survived. San Martin Nunez had been exiled from Chile during the dictatorship of Gen Augusto Pinochet, and her daughter was born in France.

In a statement, Chile's Foreign Ministry described them as the niece and grandniece of Chile's ambassador to Mexico, Ricardo Nunez. "They were taken hostage, and so far we know they were killed in a cold and brutal manner," Nunez told Radio Cooperativa on Saturday. He said two people with them escaped alive.

— Valeria Solesin, 28, an Italian-born doctoral student at the Sorbonne, had lived in Paris for several years. She had gone to the concert at the Bataclan with her boyfriend. They lost track of each other as they tried to escape. Her mother, Luciana Milani, told reporters in Venice, "We will miss her very much, and she will be missed, I can also say, by our country. People like this are important."

Solesin had been working at the Sorbonne as a researcher while completing her doctorate. While at a university in Italy, Solesin had worked as a volunteer for the Italian humanitarian aid group Emergency. "It is tragic that a person so young, who is trying to understand the world and to be a help, find herself involved in such a terrible event," said Emergency regional coordinator in Trento, Fabrizio Tosini.

— Luis Felipe Zschoche Valle, 33, was a Chilean-born resident of Paris. Chile's Foreign Ministry said he had lived in Paris for eight years with his French wife and was killed at the Bataclan, where he had gone with his wife. He was a musician and member of the rock group Captain Americano.

Associated Press writers Cara Anna in New York; Pamela Sampson in Atlanta; Jeff Donn in Plymouth, Mass.; Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey; Colleen Barry in Milan; Maria Verza in Mexico City; and Steven R. Hurst in Washington contributed to this report.

This story has been corrected to change the last name of Antoine Rousseau and the first name of Guillaume Decherf.

This article originally appeared in : Stories of those who died in the Paris attacks | Associated Press | By KATE BRUMBACK, JENNIFER PELTZ and GOSIA WOZNIACKA | November 17, 2015

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Tertangkap Kamera, Ternyata Harimau Jawa Belum Punah?

Harimau Jawa (Panthera tigris sondaica) dilaporkan telah punah oleh World Wildlife Fund pada 1994. Pasalnya, sepuluh kamera jebakan sistem injak yang dipasang WWF di Taman Nasional Meru Betiri, Jawa Timur, tidak berhasil mendapati foto harimau Jawa. Kajian tentang kepunahan harimau Jawa lantas dipertegas oleh Direktorat Jenderal Perlindungan Hutan dan Pelestarian Alam, Kementerian Kehutanan.

Namun, seperti dilansir Mongabay Indonesia pada Senin pekan ini, 2 Juni 2014, Didik Raharyono, peneliti harimau Jawa yang meyakini spesies itu belum punah, dikejutkan oleh kiriman foto harimau Jawa di dinding Facebooknya dari akun bernama Mas Appen. "Ini jenis subspesies apa Mas?" tanya pemilik akun dalam keterangan fotonya.

Dari perbandingan morfologi dasar antara kepala dengan leher dan tubuh harimau itu, Didik menganalisis bahwa obyek dalam foto itu merupakan harimau Jawa. Didik pun menyakini harimau Jawa itu berjenis berjenis kelamin betina dan diduga baru melahirkan. 

Keterangan senada juga dikatakan oleh Wahyu Giri Prasetya, peneliti harimau Jawa dari Jember, dalam keterangannya kepada Mongabay Indonesia. "Secara bentuk tubuh memang mengarah pada harimau Jawa," kata Wahyu Giri.

Lokasi pengambilan foto itu, Wahyu menjelaskan, masih belum bisa dipastikan. "Lokasinya masih belum diketahui. Apakah di Jawa Tengah atau di dekat perbatasan dengan Ujung Kulon," ujarnya. 

Ia kemudian memberi catatan agar perlu pendalaman lebih lanjut dengan foto pembanding untuk memastikan temuan spesies tersebut. "Ada ciri khusus manakala harimau tertangkap kamera jebakan saat melintas. Misalnya, bagian mata tidak menjadi putih atau muncul tanggal pengambilan foto," kata Wahyu. 

Maka, ia mengatakan foto pembanding menjadi penting untuk menganalisis detil bagian tubuh harimau sehingga laporan menjadi valid.

"Pemerintah harus terlibat dalam proses verifikasi tersebut karena jika keberadaan harimau Jawa dalam foto tersebut valid, maka harus segera dilakukan upaya perlindungan hutan," kata Wahyu.

This article originally appeared in : Tertangkap Kamera, Harimau Jawa Belum Punah? | TEMPO.CO | RABU, 04 JUNI 2014 | 10:06 WIB

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The Woman in Black

A haunted mansion. Creaky floors. Creepy toys. The Woman in Black is a good old-fashioned scary movie - Horror is a highly citational genre. Scary movies love to pay tribute to their stylistic predecessors, whether with nostalgic affection (homage), sly irony (spoof), or artful imitation (pastiche). Indeed, it seems like every horror movie that comes out these days self-consciously incorporates at least one of these approaches (or, more often, combines them all into a tonally incongruous mishmash). But coming across a horror film that’s just plain old-fashioned—not retro but square—is unusual. The Woman in Black, Daniel Radcliffe’s first post-Harry Potter outing, is as square as they come.

“Square” doesn’t necessarily mean “dull,” although to audiences weaned on the one-gory-death-per-15-minutes model of the postmillennial slasher film may find this melancholy ghost story laughably action-free. But there’s something to admire in The Woman in Black’s stouthearted commitment to the time-honored trappings of Gothic spookiness. In order to enjoy this film, the viewer needs to enjoy some scary-movie tropes that, for sophisticated viewers of the genre, may be too cliché to own up to. For example, how do you feel about a child’s nursery full of Victorian-era windup toys that suddenly, for no apparent reason, start jingling out their innocent, eerie tunes in a dark, empty mansion in the English countryside? If that sounds too corny and played-out to evoke even a faint shudder, The Woman in Black may not be for you. If, on the other hand, you’re not above acknowledging the trans-historical creepiness of a good dusty windup-doll shelf (Come on! It includes one of those hyper-realistic monkeys playing the cymbals!), this pokey, modestly budgeted thriller isn’t without its shivery delights.

Daniel Radcliffe plays a young widower in The Woman in Black

The fusty haunted mansion in question is the wonderfully named Eel Marsh House, and the man being unsettled by the cymbal-clanking chimp is Arthur Kipps (Radcliffe), a widowed lawyer who’s been sent to go through the papers of the house’s now-dead proprietress. From the minute he arrives in the forbiddingly glum village of Crythin Gifford, something is off——pale, hollow-eyed children seem to peer at him from every window, and the proprietor of the town’s only inn insists that there’s no room available and Arthur must return to London at once.

But Arthur—who’s been slacking off at work since his beloved wife died giving birth to their son—has been warned he’ll be sacked if he doesn’t come back with the estate’s papers in order. So he accepts an offer of lodging from the town’s wealthiest man, Samuel Daily (Ciarán Hinds), a free-thinking skeptic who scoffs at the village superstition about a female ghost whose appearance always presages the death of a child. Oddly enough, though, Daily himself long ago lost a son—a tragedy that’s left his wife (Janet McTeer) prone to sudden spiritualist trances and bouts of automatic writing.

All it takes is one night alone at Eel Marsh House—a long, nearly dialogue-free, and wonderfully effective set piece involving bloody footprints and twisting doorknobs and seemingly sentient rocking chairs—to convince Arthur that something is indeed amiss in Crythin Gifford. But he has only hours to figure out who the storied “woman in black” is and what she wants, because his own son is arriving with his nanny on the morning train …

Based on a 1983 novel that was later adapted into a long-running West End play, The Woman in Black is one of the early films (along with the well-received 2010 vampire remake Let Me In) to emerge from the recently relaunched Hammer Studios, a production company best known for high-style, low-budget monster movies like The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and the Christopher Lee Dracula films of the 60s and 70s. This film, scripted by Jane Goldman (The Debt, X-Men: First Class) and directed by James Watkins (Eden Lake), not only harks back aesthetically to its classic Hammer predecessors but at times appears to have been shot on their leftover sets. Cobwebs, velvet curtains, and forbidding oil portraits of stern ancestors figure largely in the Eel Marsh House decorating scheme. But The Woman in Black’s thematic concerns hark back to even older ghost stories like Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, in which the moaning revenants double as figures for the protagonist’s repressed grief and longing. We know from early on that Arthur’s encounter with the woman in black—as real or imagined as she may be—will also represent an encounter with the memory of his dead wife; this movie’s symbolism, unlike its titular ghost, isn’t veiled. But that knowledge only makes the hero’s journey into the terrors of Eel Marsh (at one point he literally dives headlong into the marshy muck, plumbing the depths of bog and psyche alike) all the scarier.

Even if Radcliffe’s role here is largely passive and reactive—those blue-headlight eyes opening a fraction wider at each new supernatural shock—the erstwhile wizard is surprisingly believable as a grieving young father, and Hinds and McTeer provide classy backup. The movie’s final scene will strike some viewers as a gentle, poetic twist, others as a wussy cop-out. I’m well aware that The Woman in Black’s embrace of old-school creaky-floorboards scare tactics may leave hard-core horror aficionados scoffing. All I know is, when I had to walk down a dark hallway at home the night I came back from seeing it? Reader, I ran. ( slate.com )

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