Results for "Afghanistan"

Lu dans Libé de ce jour:

Shosei Koda, routard naïf qui voulait voir l'Irak

Le Japon refuse de retirer ses troupes en échange de la liberté de l'otage enlevé mardi.

Par Michel TEMMAN vendredi 29 octobre 2004

Deux nouveaux otages. L'Armée islamique en Irak a annoncé qu'elle retenait en otage un Sri-Lankais et un Bangladais qui travaillent comme chauffeurs pour une entreprise koweïtienne en Irak, a rapporté la chaîne qatarienne Al-Jezira, montrant des images des deux otages.

Tokyo de notre correspondant

ardi, Setsuko Koda s'est effondrée en découvrant à la télévision les images de son fils, Shosei, 24 ans, en Irak, aux mains de trois hommes encagoulés membres d'un groupe allié d'Al-Qaeda mené par le Jordanien Abou Moussab al-Zarqaoui. «Je pars en Nouvelle-Zélande», a-t-il dit à ses parents en janvier 2004, à la veille de prendre l'avion pour un plan «travail vacances». Mais les décors grandeur nature du film le Seigneur des Anneaux n'ont pas comblé sa soif de voyage. Sans prévenir sa famille, qui le croyait toujours en Nouvelle-Zélande, le jeune Japonais originaire de Fukuoka (sud du pays) a poursuivi l'aventure. Direction : le Moyen-Orient. En Jordanie, à Amman, il a trouvé un petit boulot dans un hôtel. De quoi financer la suite du périple.

«Incrédulité», comme l'écrivent les médias à Tokyo ? «Naïveté», comme l'avance le quotidien Yomiuri ? Ou bien goût du risque ? De son plein gré, le jeune Shosei Koda a décidé d'aller en Irak. Y faire quoi ? Mystère. Contrairement aux précédents Japonais kidnappés en Irak au printemps, puis libérés, Shosei Koda n'est pas volontaire ou employé humanitaire. Il n'est pas non plus journaliste free-lance ou photo-reporter. Mais c'est un voyageur aguerri. Un globe-trotter. A Amman, il a pris un bus pour l'Irak, le 20 octobre. Il aurait alors été localisé par l'ambassade nippone à Bagdad. Un diplomate japonais aurait essayé, vainement, d'entrer en contact avec lui pour le convaincre de quitter le pays au plus vite.

Hier, les Japonais ont découvert à leur réveil, sur leur petit écran, le jeune Koda agenouillé, tee-shirt blanc, défait, terrorisé, l'épaisse chevelure tirée par un ravisseur, lisant en anglais et en japonais, dans une vidéo non authentifiée, un texte dicté. «Monsieur Koizumi, ils demandent le retrait des forces d'autodéfense (l'armée japonaise, ndlr). Ils ont dit qu'ils me couperaient la tête dans le cas contraire. Je suis désolé. Je veux rentrer au Japon...» Le groupe terroriste exige que le Japon retire «dans un délai de quarante-huit heures» ses troupes (550 soldats), déployées à Samawa (250 kilomètres au sud de Bagdad), pour une mission «humanitaire excluant tout combat».

Le Premier ministre n'a pas tardé à répondre. Assurant qu'il fera «tout ce qu'il est possible de faire» pour sauver le jeune otage, il a répété que le Japon ne peut pas «tolérer le terrorisme». «Nous ne céderons pas au terrorisme. Nous ne retirerons pas les forces d'autodéfense.» Bien que 63 % des Japonais, dans un sondage publié lundi, se disent contre le prolongement de la mission nippone en Irak.

Elément aggravant, les ravisseurs de Shosei Koda sont persuadés qu'il est «un des éléments appartenant aux forces japonaises». Les autorités à Tokyo répètent que «Koda est un civil qui n'a aucun lien avec les forces d'autodéfense».

http://www.liberation.fr/page.php?Article=249873

© Libération

I took a few days to get some fresh air outside the Schengen-NATO prison. Between March 18, 2026, and March 25, 2026, as shown by the passport stamps:



Borisoglebsk is the Russian border checkpoint after Kirkenes, on the road to Murmansk.

Kirkenes is a tiny town with a correspondingly small airport. Nothing has changed there: the minibuses to Murmansk wait on the right as you exit the airport. They’re synchronized with the two daily flights from Oslo—the SAS around 11:00 AM and Norwegian around 11:30 AM. They stop in Kirkenes at the corner of the Scandic for an hour, where other passengers can board, then head straight to the nearby border.

This is the least hassle Frontex/Schengen border. The Norwegian agent quickly scans your passport, and that’s it. No customs, since Norway is Schengen but not in the EU. On the Russian side, there’s a passport check and a quick customs inspection. All in all, crossing both the Norwegian and Russian checkpoints takes about 15 minutes.

A paper visa is required; e-visas aren’t accepted.

Two companies run the route: Avto Ekspress and Borodin: https://ae51.ru/routes/kirkenes-murmansk/ https://borodinbus.com/

The one-way fare is 5,500 ₽. You can either buy it online in rubles with a MIR card or make a formal reservation and pay in NOK cash to the driver. I took Borodin, and the price in NOK was much more expensive than in ₽.

=========================

On March 25, I left from Pskov via the Estonian border post at Luhaama. I spent three days in Murmansk, flew to St. Petersburg (SPB), stayed there for two days, then took an evening train to Pskov.

Since the end of February—and reportedly until the end of May—the Estonians have restricted the opening hours of the two border crossings near Pskov: Koidula (Pechory on the Russian side) and Luhaama (Izborsk on the Russian side). They’re closed at night between 7:00 PM and 7:00 AM. Right now, there’s a bus from Pskov at 7:00 AM to the border. It drops you off at the end of the road where truckers—many Kazakh and Serbian—are parked on the side. You finish the rest on foot to the barrier, where there’s a quick initial check for Ukrainian stamps in passports. Then you walk to the customs building, followed by passport control at the kiosk for motorists. After that, it’s a 500-meter walk to the Estonian checkpoint. At the moment, things seem calmer. Passport control is quick. The usual silly questions in English: "Where were you? Where are you going?" I just gave my most clueless smile: "Sorry, I don’t understand." Yeah, right—I don’t speak English, especially not at an Estonian border with a French passport. If they’re in a mood, though... A very quick bag inspection. Once you exit the Estonian post, walk to the bus stop sign by the road where another coach takes you to Riga.

The catch: in my case, last Wednesday, there were two passengers (Russians) with old Ukrainian stamps in their passports. The bus from the Estonian post to Riga was supposed to leave around 9:30 AM. We ended up leaving around noon after the two were grilled by the FSB. Since it was a weekday outside of holidays, the bus was half-empty. The fuller the bus and the more people with Ukrainian stamps, the worse the nightmare. Don’t book a same-day flight from Riga. I had a flight at 6:00 PM, so it worked out.

=============

The Kirkenes-Murmansk route is still clearly the easiest and fastest. But it’s not the most convenient since it’s way up north.

Next, I’d say the Gdansk-Kaliningrad route in the middle of the week. Avoid weekends and holiday departures/returns.

Avoid the Narva-Ivangorod route during Christmas, Easter, May 9, and *all* summer.

==============

About flights from Murmansk to St. Petersburg: prices are good. I bought my ticket the day before departure on Rossiya for 7,500 ₽, including 10 kg of luggage + a handbag.



It’s the tail end of the northern lights season, and there were still crowds of Chinese tourists.



By the way, Murmansk is twinned with Harbin:



Chinese tourists are the largest foreign group, followed by Indians, then a mix of others from the Far East, Turks, Arabs, etc. Brochures are bilingual—Russian and Chinese:



============================

But let’s talk practical stuff. --

My domestic SIM card was restricted for SMS and internet for 24 hours. After that, if you want to keep using SMS, don’t turn off your phone—restarting triggers another 24-hour purgatory.

My Russian SIM cards (Megafon, MTS, Beeline) were activated as soon as I logged into their respective apps with my credentials.

Internet --

Telegram is heavily slowed down by authorities. To use it, you need to connect through proxy servers, which you load into the latest version of the app. Traffic is then rerouted internally within Telegram to servers outside Russia (Germany, Poland, Sweden, etc.). You can find these proxies on various channels. One is ChatVPN—check their website too.

For general internet use, like browsing the web, VPNs that work right now use the VLESS protocol. You can find several on Telegram by searching "VPN." A few free days, then payment in rubles or crypto.

Rozkomnadzor’s team are experts at this, so things can change. It’s a constant cat-and-mouse game.

Pskov is a special case. The city is near Estonia and has a large military base. Depending on NATO drone swarms launched from the Baltics, Wi-Fi can be completely suspended except for the most essential mobile apps. The drone swarms use the 4G network, and the powerful electronic jamming and drone suppression systems cause periods without Wi-Fi—including in hotels. Wired connections aren’t affected.