Month: June 2017

Pessimism About CAR Peace Deal Widespread

Posted on by SeeAF

A new peace deal between the Bangui government and 13 major rebel groups in the Central African Republic is being met with criticism and skepticism domestically.

The agreement signed Monday in Rome promised an immediate cease-fire in exchange for political representation for the rebels.

The new accord followed a series of peace deals signed by armed groups in the CAR during 2014 and 2015. All fell apart.

“As one of the armed group representatives said, ‘We have signed a good paper,’ ” said Igor Acko, the U.S. Institute of Peace’s national program specialist in Bangui.  “But the only worry is that it can remain just a ‘good paper.’ ”

Acko received word of the new deal while in Bambari in central CAR, and said he went directly to members of the Union for Peace in the Central African Republic, one of the country’s major armed groups. The militia members told him they were not aware of the deal or its contents.

“So they are waiting for their representative to come back, and they will ask about the content, and they will think [decide] if they fully follow or they don’t,” Acko said.

Battle in Bria

Just hours after the accord was signed, fighting broke out in Bria, the country’s center of diamond mining, nearly 600 kilometers from the capital. The town’s mayor said more than 100 people were killed, and the medical charity Doctors Without Borders said 43 wounded people required hospital treatment.

With dozens of houses burned to the ground in Bria, more than 40,000 people are displaced and are relying on humanitarian assistance. Across the country, more than 100,000 people have been displaced since last month, when violence increased.

Since cycles of inter-religious and intercommunal violence began in 2013, hundreds of thousands of people have been uprooted from their homes in CAR, a former French colony that is one of the world’s poorest nations.

Lewis Mudge, who does research on the Central African Repulic for Human Rights Watch, said the fighting in Bria does not bode well for the accord signed in Rome. He noted that the previous deals all collapsed very quickly.

Members of civil society in CAR are most concerned about the new deal’s failure to discuss issues of justice and accountability arising from the conflict. Some are concerned this could be a first step toward granting amnesty to the rebels, which would be seen as an affront to the victims of months of escalating violence.

Need for justice is ‘clear’

Mathias Barthelemy Marouba, who runs the Central African Human Rights Observatory, said his group does not oppose a peace deal, but does not see the Rome accord as a substitute for justice.

“Those who committed these reprehensible acts must be brought to justice,” Marouba said. “That’s clear.”

The new deal calls for establishment of a truth-and-reconciliation commission, but that assurance failed to sway Mudge of Human Rights Watch.  

“Truth telling is all nice and good, but it can never come in the place of free and fair trials that hold perpetrators accountable,” he said. “If we can stop the fighting, that’s a very good thing, but I’m not convinced that this deal is putting accountability first.”

The only way to break CAR’s cycles of violence, Mudge said, is to “finally hold some of these individuals to account.”  

Marouba criticized U.N. peacekeeping forces in the country for not taking more aggressive action against rebel groups.

“Why aren’t they protecting the civilian population?” he asked. “They have all the means to neutralize these bandits. Why haven’t they done that?”  

On the streets of Bangui, maintenance worker Kevin Vreka, 35, agreed, and said the U.N. force, known as MINUSCA, should be doing much more to stop the rebels’ violent tactics.

U.N. peacekeepers “are there to secure the country,” Vreka said. “They are in the countryside, but they do nothing. The United Nations, what did it come to Bangui to do? They do nothing … except harass our women!”

‘Nothing is going to change’

Carlos Bunju, a translator for a Chinese company in the capital, does not expect the peace deal to accomplish anything.

“Whatever they do, nothing is going to change,” Bunju said. “Because some people, some armed groups, they want some part in the government, but other people, they’re not going to allow them. They’re going to fight over and over.”

The armed groups are battling over CAR’s natural resources, Bunju said: “That’s all they want. They don’t see the people. And even though they come and we allow them to be a part of the government, I don’t think there’s going to be any change. If they love this country, they’re not going to fight anymore.”

Iloua Banoua, 58, a tailor, had not heard about the new accord either, but for him, it’s simple: “We want peace. We don’t want violence. Peace is the purity of each country; without it, we can’t live.”
…

your ad here

US Would Welcome Effective Syrian Effort to Defeat IS, Military Says

Posted on by SeeUS

The U.S. military coalition fighting the Islamic State group would welcome a concerted effort by the Syrian government or its Iranian-backed partner forces to defeat IS in its remaining strongholds in eastern Syria, a U.S. spokesman said Friday.

Army Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the coalition, told reporters at the Pentagon that the U.S. goal is to defeat IS wherever it exists. If others, including the Syrian government and its Iranian and Russian allies, want to fight the extremists as well, then “we absolutely have no problem with that,” he said, speaking from Baghdad.

“If it looks like they are making a concerted effort to move into ISIS-held areas, and if they show that they can do that, that is not a bad sign,” Dillon said, referring to forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. “We are here to fight ISIS as a coalition, but if others want to fight ISIS and defeat them, then we absolutely have no problem with that.”

Washington severed diplomatic relations with Syria during the Obama administration, which insisted that Assad “must go.” More recently, Assad has strengthened his position, regaining key territory from weakened opposition forces.

Tight quarters

The battle space in Syria is getting more crowded and complex as IS-held territory shrinks, raising questions about how the various parties will interact with or avoid one another. Syrian government troops, for example, have reached the Iraqi border in an area where IS leaders have been gathering. The area is far from the main battle lines of Syria’s civil war.

The U.S. so far has shunned any cooperation with Assad and has partnered instead with local Arab and Kurdish forces in fighting IS. Those local forces, which the U.S. calls the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, are currently fighting to recapture the extremists’ self-declared capital of Raqqa.

Last weekend, for the first time, the U.S. shot down a Syrian fighter jet that had dropped bombs near the SDF. Two other times this month, the U.S. has shot down Iranian-made drones in southern Syria that were deemed to pose a threat to U.S. and partner forces.

Key remaining IS territory includes the cities of Deir el-Zour and Abu Kamal, along the Euphrates River valley.

Dillon said that as Syrian government forces move toward Abu Kamal, “if they want to fight ISIS in Abu Kamal and they have the capacity to do so, then that would be welcomed. We as a coalition are not in the land-grab business. We are in the killing-ISIS business. That is what we want to do, and if the Syrian regime wants to do that and they’re going to put forth a concerted effort and show that they are doing just that in Abu Kamal or Deir el-Zour or elsewhere, that means that we don’t have to do that in those places.”
…

your ad here

Paris Ups Its Game in 2024 Olympics Bid

Posted on by SeeEU

In preparation for a 2024 Olympic bid, Paris transformed the area around the river Seine into an Olympic park, hosting events on Friday and Saturday to make one final push for the rights to host the games.

The last time the French capital hosted the event would be 100 years earlier, in 1924.

Paris and Los Angeles are the only two cities competing to host the games. Los Angeles last hosted the event in 1984.

With the Eiffel Tower in view, Paris residents and Mayor Anne Hidalgo took to the water in canoes and kayaks to showcase what the 2024 games in Paris could look like.

“It’s a way of saying, look, how we want to celebrate with the whole world by hosting the games, we hope, and then Tony and I made a bet a while ago to kayak along the Seine so it will be a big first for me,” Hidalgo said.

Hidalgo kayaked in the river Seine near the Pont Alexandre III Bridge, alongside former Olympic gold medal canoeist Tony Estanguet, who is leading Paris’ bid to host the event.  

“This is a great opportunity for us to give a taster of what the games will be like here in 2024,” Estanguet said.

Paris last attempted to draw a bid for the Olympic Games in 2005, when it lost to Beijing for the rights to the 2008 games, sparking tears in the French camp as results were announced.

The winning city will be announced on September 13, in Lima, Peru.
…

your ad here

US Drops Reward Offer for Former al-Shabab Leader

Posted on by SeeAF

The U.S. State Department has withdrawn its reward offer for Mukhtar Robow, a former leader of the Somali militant group al-Shabab.

In June 2012, the State Department offered up to $5 million for information on Robow that brought him “to justice.” At the time, Robow was still considered a top leader of al-Shabab, having served periods as its spokesman, spiritual leader and military commander.

But soon afterward, Robow exiled himself from the group because of long-running disputes with its emir, Ahmed Abdi Godane. He spent recent years living in his hometown of Abal, south of Huddur, in Somalia’s Bakool region.

Robow has his own militias from his own clan in the area.

Godane was killed by a U.S. missile strike in 2014.

VOA State Department correspondent Nike Ching and Harun Maruf of VOA’s Somali service contributed to this report.
…

your ad here

Kenyan Court Says Polling Station Results Final

Posted on by SeeAF

A Kenyan appellate court, dismissing a complaint by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, ruled Friday that presidential election results announced at the polling station level are final.  

“The lowest voting unit and the first level of the declaration of presidential election results is the polling station,” said Justice William Ouko of the Kenyan Court of Appeal. “The declaration form containing those results is the primary document, and other forms subsequent to it are only tallies of the original and final result as recorded at the polling station.”

In April, the Kenyan High Court made a similar ruling, but the electoral commission asked the appeals court to overrule the judgment. The electoral commission questioned the integrity of its officers in charge of polling station returns.

Ouko dismissed that argument, calling it “hypocritical” for the commission to doubt its workers.

Disputes over the outcome marred Kenya’s last two presidential elections. The 2007 dispute triggered intercommunal fighting that killed more than 1,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands more from their homes.

‘Cure the mischief’

Felix Odhiambo, Kenya country director of the nonprofit Electoral Law and Governance Institute in Africa, said Friday’s ruling discourages tampering with election results.

“It will cure the mischief that has been identified in the past, where the electoral commission unilaterally alters and changes the election results at the national tallying center, and most fundamentally it gives credence to the finality and sanctity of the vote,” Odhaimbo said.

Ouko called on the electoral commission to hold a credible election in line with the country’s Constitution.

“The responsibility of the appellant to deliver a credible and acceptable election in accordance with the Constitution is so great, awesome, and it must approach and execute it with absolute fitness, probity and integrity,” he said.

Kenya is scheduled to hold a general election August 8.  President Uhuru Kenyatta is running for a second term against challengers who include former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
…

your ad here

Analysts: Russia’s Military Threats Mainly Bluster, but Conflict Risk Rising

Posted on by SeeEU

A series of close encounters this month over the Baltic Sea and U.S. shoot-downs of Russian allies’ aircraft in Syria have triggered concerns among defense analysts that any direct incident between Russia and the United States, even if accidental, could quickly spiral out of control.

Reports say a Russian fighter jet and a U.S. spy plane on Monday came within two meters of each other, a situation deemed “unsafe” by the U.S. military.

The Russian SU-27 flew at a high rate of closure speed and the pilot exercised poor control, said a Pentagon spokeswoman.

Risk of accidents

Russia’s Defense Ministry said the U.S. RC-135 reconnaissance plane made a provocative move toward the other jet.

Another close encounter came Wednesday. Moscow said a NATO fighter jet buzzed Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s plane as he headed to the Russian military enclave of Kaliningrad, nestled between NATO members Poland and Lithuania. Russian state media reported a Russian SU-27 fighter jet “chased away” the Polish F-16 and published video of the incident.

There’s a danger when a plane flies within meters of another, according to defense analyst Pavel Felgenhauer.

“But in the Baltics, that’s a kind of pure case of creating tension out of nowhere … by both sides,” he said. “So, it’s a bit of a dangerous game. But, in reality, no one wants to fight anyone.”

New ‘Cold War’

Russian probing of NATO member airspace has increased exponentially since Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and ongoing military support for pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine.

“It’s no doubt, at least for me, that Russia and the West are in the situation of [a] new Cold War,” said defense analyst Alexander Golts, deputy editor of Yezhednevny Zhurnal [Weekly Journal] in Moscow.  “[The] Cold War is a situation when you have a problem that cannot be solved … [not] diplomatically [or] militarily. This problem is Ukraine.”

Golts said the issue is that Russia, from its point of view, cannot pull back from its “secret war” in Ukraine, yet until it does so, NATO cannot restore cooperation. Meanwhile, saber-rattling on both sides risks escalation of military conflict.

The United States this week issued new sanctions against Russian entities over their involvement in Ukraine, while the EU agreed to extend its own sanctions against Moscow.

The added sanctions came as Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko visited President Donald Trump at the White House. Poroshenko later said the U.S. soon would sign some defense deals with Kyiv, but he gave no details. The U.S. so far has provided only training and nonlethal military equipment to Kyiv in an effort to stay out of any direct military conflict with Russia.  

Military buildup?

Shoigu said Russia would build up its military forces on its western borders, citing a worsening security situation due to what he called NATO’s “anti-Russia course.” The Russian defense chief said its military would form 20 new units on its western front this year in response to NATO drills in the Baltic states and Poland.

The formerly occupied and Soviet states raised concerns about Russian aggression after Moscow’s actions in Ukraine. NATO responded with stepped-up deployment of rotational defense forces. Meanwhile, in September, Russia and Belarus are holding large-scale military exercises that simulate a NATO invasion.

The NATO defense alliance deployment is modest compared with Russia’s response, said Golts. “And, what is real now — there is no gray zone between these forces. They stand up against each other. And, again, it means any accident can be continued with [a] big war.”

Thoughts have turned from potential U.S.-Russia cooperation back to reducing risks of new confrontation, Golts said.

“I think everybody has to forget, for [a] very, very long period of time, the possibility of some kind of cooperation with Russia,” he said. “It’s more or less clear [that] because of all this scandal with Russian interference in [the] American election, Trump will never approach Mr. Putin,” Golts said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Syria bluster

Meanwhile, a proxy war in Syria intensifies as Russia and Iran support their ally in Damascus against U.S.-backed Syrian rebels. All sides claim to be fighting Islamic State terrorists.

The U.S.-led coalition in Syria shot down a Syrian warplane this month, as well as two Iranian-made drones that were nearing American-backed troops. Russia condemned the action and said it would treat any plane or drone from the U.S.-led coalition flying west of the Euphrates River as a target.

Moscow also suspended, again, a memorandum aimed at avoiding accidents in the skies over Syria. The first such announced suspension occurred after a U.S. missile strike in April on a Syrian air base that Washington said Damascus used to launch chemical weapons attacks that had killed more than 80 civilians. Russia condemned the U.S. attack and blamed the chemical weapons on Syrian militants.

While many of Russia’s implied threats against the U.S.-led coalition in Syria appear to be bluster, the risk of direct conflict between the two sides is increasing, Golts said. “If you just repeat your complaints and your threats, sooner or later, nobody will pay attention. So, it’s a problem how to make statements tougher and don’t move at the same time closer to [a] condition of war.”
…

your ad here

EU Tackles Pressing Issues at First Summit Since Brexit Talks

Posted on by SeeEU

On the first anniversary of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, leaders from the bloc Friday concluded a summit in Brussels with questions about the residency rights of EU citizens in Britain once it exits the regional grouping.

Addressing the bloc this week, British Prime Minister Theresa May discussed the fate of the 3 million EU citizens who call Britain home. In an offer to guarantee their rights, May said, “I want all those EU citizens who are in the U.K., who have made their lives and homes in our country, to know that no one will have to leave. We won’t be seeing families split apart.”

The offer gives EU nationals who have been living in Britain for at least five years the same rights they now enjoy.

EU Council President Donald Tusk, however, said, “My first impression is that the U.K. offer is below our expectations and risks worsening the situation for our citizens.”

EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters the offer was “a first step” but that it was “not sufficient.”

Exit talks between Britain and the EU started Monday and must be concluded within two years. It was the first summit since Britain triggered Article 50, the official notification to leave the bloc, in March.

Despite challenges facing the EU, such as the rise of Eurosceptic movements that oppose more power for the bloc, and the recent election in Britain where conservatives failed to get a stronger mandate for a hard Brexit,

EU leaders say things appear to be looking up. That assessment came as the European Central Bank informed them that after years of stagnation, the economy is growing, investments are increasing and millions of jobs have been created.

Terrorism and migration, however, still concern both EU leaders and citizens. Days before the summit, authorities thwarted a terrorist attack on the central train station in Belgium’s capital city, highlighting once again the ongoing threat of what EU Council President Tusk called “home-grown radicalization.”

On migration, Tusk said that a review was needed on the issue of central Mediterranean Sea crossings, saying the situation remains critical. Migrant arrivals to Europe have increased by 26 percent since last year, said Tusk and that close to 2,000 people have lost their lives since the start of this year.

At the same time, the EU had to start infringements procedures against Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary for not taking part in a migrant relocation plan.

Tusk said, “The only result that matters to us is to put a definitive end to this tragic situation. Leaders agreed that everyone will work harder in the coming weeks to better coordinate our efforts and support Italy more.”

With financial support from the EU, the Libyan coast guard is being trained to limit the number of people crossing by boat; but, a United Nations Security Council report released this month said the Libyan coast guard is directly involved in abuses and human rights violations against migrants.

Villads Zahle of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles says it’s disturbing that the EU would leave migrants at the mercy of the Libyan coast guard.

“We have moved from a place of how to protect people to how to escape responsibility. We know what the solutions are; it’s not rocket science; but, as long as we are seeing a race to the bottom, how can we make it as hard as possible to accommodate these people — then we are not moving towards a solution,” he said.

EU leaders also agreed to a permanent defense structure and investment of $1.6 billion a year. French President Emmanuel Macron called the common defense plans “historic.” Britain always opposed the idea, preferring the NATO alliance; but, with Britain set to leave the EU, efforts for more EU defense integration have accelerated.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said during the summit that the new defense structures will not undermine NATO, but collaborate with it and that it creates an opportunity for better integration within the EU for “those member states that are not members of NATO.”

The leaders also decided that Britain-based EU agencies would be relocated to another country in the bloc, and to extend sanctions on Russia for six months because of the crisis in Ukraine and the deadlocked Minsk peace process aimed at ending hostilities there.
…

your ad here

‘Digital Democracy’ Turns Average Citizens into Influencers in Africa

Posted on by SeeAF

From cashless payments to smartphone apps offering everything from taxis to take-out food – Africa’s digital revolution is gathering pace as average citizens take an active role in public discourse.

“You’re seeing a lot of the people changing the way they live their lives,” says Maria Sarungi, founder of the #ChangeTanzania platform. “And also creating for themselves wealth, jobs, opportunities. But also to engage politically on a very different level.”

Sarungi’s #ChangeTanzania platform began as a social media hashtag but ballooned into an online social movement with an app and website listing dozens of petitions and initiatives ranging from demands for security cameras at bus stops to a community beach clean.

“Before [it] used to be people sitting on the streets just talking a lot about politics,” says Sarungi. “But today they have become influencers. With the social media platforms, your voice can be amplified.”

In Uganda, the website Yogera, or ‘speak out,’ offers a platform for citizens to scrutinize government, complain about poor service or blow the whistle on corruption.

Kenya’s Mzalendo website styles itself as the ‘Eye on the Kenyan Parliament,’ profiling politicians, scrutinizing expenses and highlighting citizens’ rights.

But the new platforms for political engagement also risk a backlash.

“We are seeing governments trying to control as much as they can the virtual space,” says Sarungi.

The founder of whistleblowing website Jamii Forums last year fell afoul of Tanzania’s Cybercrimes Act and was charged with failing to disclose users’ data.

“We are not against the government, nor judges, nor the police forces,” says Maxence Melo, co-founder of Jamii Forums. “What we are against is the Cyber Crimes Act, which seems to oppress the people.”

Melo’s trial is due to take place next month.

Meanwhile, authorities in Cameroon cut off internet access for millions of people earlier this year following anti-government protests in English-speaking regions on the country. The French campaign group Internet without Borders warns that African governments are increasingly using internet blackouts to stifle political opposition.
…

your ad here

‘Digital Democracy’ Gathers Pace Across Africa As Citizens Engage Online

Posted on by SeeAF

It’s been dubbed ‘digital democracy’ – a whole new way of scrutinizing the government and those on the public payroll. Across Africa websites and mobile apps are offering citizens the chance to engage more closely in politics – everything from complaining about poor service to whistleblowing on corruption. Henry Ridgwell has more.
…

your ad here

Russia Fires 6 Cruise Missiles on IS in Syria

Posted on by SeeEA

Russia’s Defense Ministry says it has fired cruise missiles from the Mediterranean Sea on positions of the Islamic State group in Syria.

 

The ministry said in a statement on Friday that two frigates and a submarine launched six cruise missiles on IS installations in the Hama province in Syria, destroying command centers and ammunition depots.

 

It did not say when the missiles were launched.

 

Russia is one of the strongest backers of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government and has been carrying airstrikes in the country since September 2015. 

 

Moscow had fired missiles in the past from the Mediterranean at militants’ positions in Syria.
…

your ad here

Neighbors Hand Qatar Their List of Demands

Posted on by SeeEA

Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries that have cut ties to Qatar issued a steep list of demands Thursday to end the crisis, insisting that their Persian Gulf neighbor shutter Al-Jazeera, cut back diplomatic ties to Iran and sever all ties with the Muslim Brotherhood.

In a 13-point list, presented to the Qataris by Kuwait, which is helping mediate the crisis, the countries also demand an end to Turkey’s military presence in Qatar. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the list in Arabic from one of the countries involved in the dispute.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain broke ties with Qatar this month over allegations the Persian Gulf country funds terrorism, an accusation that President Donald Trump has echoed. Those countries have now given Qatar 10 days to comply with all of the demands, which include paying an unspecified sum in compensation.

Tillerson’s warning

Qatari officials in Doha did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the AP. But the list included conditions that the gas-rich nation had insisted would never be met, including shutting down Al-Jazeera. Qatar’s government has said it won’t negotiate until Arab nations lift their blockade. The demands were also likely to elicit Qatari objections that its neighbors are trying to dictate its sovereign affairs by imposing such far-reaching requirements.

Only a day earlier, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had warned the demands must be “reasonable and actionable.” The U.S. issued that litmus test amid frustration at how long it was taking Saudi Arabia and others to formalize a list of demands, complicating U.S. efforts to bring about a resolution to the worst Gulf diplomatic crisis in years.

According to the list, Qatar must refuse to naturalize citizens from the four countries and expel those currently in Qatar, in what the countries describe as an effort to keep Qatar from meddling in their internal affairs.

They are also demanding that Qatar hand over all individuals who are wanted by those four countries for terrorism; stop funding any extremist entities that are designated as terrorist groups by the U.S.; and provide detailed information about opposition figures that Qatar has funded, ostensibly in Saudi Arabia and the other nations.

Qatar allows in some extremists

Qatar vehemently denies funding or supporting extremism. But the country acknowledges that it allows members of some extremist groups such as Hamas to reside in Qatar, arguing that fostering dialogue with those groups is key to resolving global conflicts.

Qatar’s neighbors have also accused it of backing al-Qaida and the Islamic State group’s ideology throughout the Middle East. Those umbrella groups also appear on the list of entities whose ties with Qatar must be extinguished, along with Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the al-Qaida branch in Syria, once known as the Nusra Front.

More broadly, the list demands that Qatar align itself politically, economically and otherwise with the Gulf Cooperation Council, a regional club that has focused on countering the influence of Iran. Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-led nations have accused Qatar of inappropriately close ties to Iran, a Shiite-led country and Saudi Arabia’s regional foe.

The Iran provisions in the document say Qatar must shut down diplomatic posts in Iran, kick out from Qatar any members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard, and only conduct trade and commerce with Iran that complies with U.S. sanctions. Under the 2015 nuclear deal, nuclear-related sanctions on Iran were eased but other sanctions remain in place.

Cutting ties to Iran would prove incredibly difficult. Qatar shares a massive offshore natural gas field with Iran, which supplies the small nation that will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup its wealth.

Al-Jazeera popular

Not only must Qatar shut down the Doha-based satellite broadcaster, the list says, but also all of its affiliates. That presumably would mean Qatar would have to close down Al-Jazeera’s English-language sister network.

Supported by Qatar’s government, Al-Jazeera is one of the most widely watched Arabic channels, but it has long drawn the ire of Mideast governments for airing alternative viewpoints. The network’s critics say it advances Qatar’s goals by promoting Islamist movements like the Muslim Brotherhood that pose a populist threat to rulers in other Arab countries.

The list also demands that Qatar stop funding a host of other news outlets including Arabi21 and Middle East Eye.

If Qatar agrees to comply, the list asserts that it will be audited once a month for the first year, and then once per quarter in the second year after it takes effect. For the following 10 years, Qatar would be monitored annually for compliance. 
…

your ad here

Indonesia Says It Safeguards Rights of All, Including LGBT Citizens

Posted on by SeeUS

Faced with growing criticism over recent anti-LGBT actions in Indonesia, the Jakarta government has told VOA it will safeguard the rights of all minority groups while taking into account “religious and cultural values that must be upheld.”

A statement released by the Indonesian Embassy in Washington responded to a letter last week from 36 members of the U.S. Congress that condemned the Jakarta government’s alleged disregard for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The European Parliament has raised similar concerns.

“For the Indonesian government, the letter expresses U.S. Congress members’ compassion with Indonesia as a democratic, tolerant country with the largest Muslim population in the world and the United States’ important partner in the region,” said the statement, released Tuesday.

Embassy officials declined requests for further comment.

Putting Indonesia ‘on notice’

U.S. Representative Sean Patrick Maloney, who commissioned the letter, said it responds to “a growing pattern of a basic disrespect for human rights” and aims to mitigate the persecution of minority groups in Indonesia.

“By raising the profile of this issue, and simply putting the government on notice, we will see some positive effect,” he told VOA. The New York Democrat, who is a co-chair of the House LGBT Equality Caucus, added: “If we don’t, we’ll take the next step.”

Last month there were several high-profile raids of saunas and “sex parties” in Indonesia, including one that resulted in the arrest of more than 140 men in Jakarta. In West Java, Indonesia’s most populous province, officials have announced the creation of an anti-LGBT “task force,” and a gay couple was publicly caned in conservative Aceh province, in the first application of a 2015 sharia or Islamic law.

Maloney cited the blasphemy case of former Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, who was sentenced to two years in prison in May, as an example of the deteriorating state of tolerance and pluralism in the country.

The letter from the lawmakers also reflected efforts in the United States to reinforce existing federal laws, such as by adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Maloney said.

“If we’re entering a period where the Trump administration is going to downplay the importance of human rights in American foreign policy, then I think it’s even more important that members of Congress make their voices heard,” he added.

His remarks on human rights in Indonesia came a day after the European Parliament adopted a resolution voicing similar sentiments.

The EP resolution also targeted Indonesia’s use of capital punishment and the practice of female genital mutilation.

Ignatius Puguh Priambodo, first secretary at the Indonesian Embassy in Brussels, told VOA the resolution “does not give Indonesia a chance to respond to the issues addressed in it” and ignores Indonesia’s efforts to forge constructive dialogue with the EP.

‘Childish’ response

Andreas Harsono, who tracks Indonesia for Human Rights Watch, said international criticism of Indonesia’s human rights stance would undermine Jakarta’s global standing.

Harsono told VOA that Indonesia’s “childish” response toward the EP resolution avoided directly addressing human rights issues. “This is a request from Indonesia’s allies that Indonesia must pay attention to,” he added.

Yuli Rustinawati, one of the founders of Indonesian LGBTQ advocacy group Arus Pelangi, said anti-LGBT violence had become widespread, and that there had been no adequate response to the problem from the government.

Over the past two years, Rustinawati said: “I don’t think [the government] has responded — no dialogues. That there is violence is a fact; that this must be discussed is a must.”

This report originated on VOA Indonesia.
…

your ad here

Q&A: Putin Critic Weighs in on ‘Putin Interviews’ Series

Posted on by SeeUS

As the dust from Oliver Stone’s politically explosive (or not, depending upon which American you ask) “Putin Interviews” begins to settle, Russian viewers were just finishing the concluding episode Thursday.

In the United States, where the controversial series — four hourlong episodes — was made available to Showtime subscribers June 12-15, critics largely panned it as blatantly hagiographic.

“Natural Born Buddies: The Shared Ideology of Oliver Stone and Vladimir Putin,” wrote the left-leaning New Republic; “Oliver Stone stinks” was the blunt summation of conservative Daily Caller blogger Jim Treacher, who described it as one of the only times he saw eye-to-eye with Stephen Colbert, whose nationally televised grilling of the legendary filmmaker for being overly deferential to Putin became a story unto itself.

In Russia, however, where the documentary held consecutive prime-time slots June 19-22 on state-run Channel One public access television, the response has been more muted. Putin supporters learned little new information, while detractors predictably took to the blogosphere to castigate Stone — whose son Sean works for RT, they repeated several times — as an instrument of the Kremlin’s PR machine.

Putin critic

Karen Dawisha is not known for putting softball questions to Russia’s leadership. Her 2014 book, Putin’s Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia, was dropped by Cambridge University Press when the London publisher announced it couldn’t afford the legal risk of putting it into circulation. The book, her sixth major published work on Russian policy and leadership since 1979, traces a deeply intertwined network of Russian secret police, Mafiosos and powerful oligarchs to the twilight of Soviet empire.

Dawisha spoke with VOA’s Oleg Sulkin about how to gauge the impact of Stone’s work.

Editor’s note: Whether language translation was the only editorial distinction between respective versions of the documentaries aired in the United States and Russia has yet to be confirmed. The following transcript has been edited for brevity and concision.

Q: You watched the entire series?

A: I did watch all four, although the third one, when Stone said that he wanted to have a lengthy discussion about Ukraine, and Putin said, “Well, for this, I need to start from the beginning…” That’s it. I immediately fell asleep. You tell me, did he say anything new or interesting about Ukraine?

Q: Nothing surprising, which seems to characterize the whole project. There were no challenging questions put to the statesman, and I wonder if you think it’s appropriate for an American filmmaker and observer to be so toothless in the face of such an unusual opportunity.

A: Well, look, Oliver Stone has a reputation for always, no matter what the circumstances, finding the United States as the villain. So it makes for not very interesting viewing, unless you’re someone like [she names a well-known U.S. scholar sometimes seen as being supportive of Putin], and then you are very excited that Oliver Stone has basically hit the United States with some big revelation. I watched it because I think people should watch these things. [Stone] got four nights on American television, and that’s not so bad. But, boy, he didn’t produce anything that was very earth-shattering at all.

Q: Stone has described softball questions as a strategically efficient way to deal with people like Putin. To start with soft, complimentary questions that get the subject to open up before setting in with more incisive questions. But do you think it worked?

A: Well, I mean certainly, in foresight, that day when he went again and again to the subject of the hacking of the election, it did seem that Stone had this approach. But he also didn’t push him, so I came away thinking, “It’s just the same thing, there’s no major revelations. … What did we learn about hacking that I couldn’t learn from reading The Washington Post?”

Q: But some people commend Stone for these Putin interviews for securing some new minor details about one of the most influential and dangerous people in the world. For example, it was the first time Russia found out that he is a grandfather, which sheds some new light on the dictator’s inner world.

A: But grandkids by whom? Which daughter?

Q: We don’t know. We learn only that he doesn’t have enough time to play with the grandkids.

A: Exactly. We learned this, and the Russian press is very happy for this small revelation. But this shows you how little we know about Putin. That he didn’t give us any revelations about any other aspect of his life. I reckon that I did find it interesting [to see] his physical surroundings. The pictures of him in Sochi, the picture of him in the Kremlin.

Q: But as an expert researcher, aren’t even small new details useful for composite assessments? More specifically, do you think it will help create a more favorable impression of Putin among American viewers?

A: Well, I haven’t seen any information about how many people turned it on. … But clearly there will be more people in Russia who watch [because it’s on public access television] than watched in America. But it shows you that, on the whole, Putin was very happy with the propaganda aspect of this series. And look, Stone is a very good filmmaker, so these four interviews were visually very pleasant. I mean, there are good shots; no one can complain that he doesn’t know how to make a film. But as we’re getting ready for [Russia’s] next presidential election, don’t you think this will be very helpful to Putin? To have Oliver Stone legitimize his rule? I think that it’s not bad for Putin.

Q: You feel it would have been more appropriate to feature people who could argue with Putin? Like the opposition leaders who could counter Putin’s statements about Russian freedom, such as his claims about the freedom of Russia’s press, and so on?

​A: Well, yeah. But would Putin have agreed to such terms? [Currently detained Russian lawyer, activist and presidential opposition candidate Alexei] Navalny is infinitely more interesting on television than Putin. But would Putin agree to interview on those terms? I don’t think so.

Q: And we can only speculate about whether there was some kind of a confidential deal that would allow Putin’s camp to have a hand in the final edits. Only four of 25 hours of footage is seen. Otherwise, would Stone have even been granted this level of access?

A: Exactly. I mean, they made a big deal of the fact that there was no limitation on what questions Stone could ask. But that doesn’t mean at all that there were no limitations of any kind. So, why did Putin agree at all to this? Certainly not because he wanted to debate Navalny and win against Navalny. I don’t think that would have for a second been possible, not for a second. He would never agree.

Q: Which touches on a very important question: Why did Putin agree in the first place?

A: Yeah. I mean, Stone doesn’t get this at all.

Q: But why would Putin even agree? What’s your personal assessment?

A: My own assessment is that Putin has a big problem with his image in the West. He has a huge problem with multiple rounds of sanctions, and now [very likely] a third set of sanctions. He needs to do something to get his sanctions lifted, because they are really hurting his economy. And what Stone said … [about] how well the Russian population is doing under Putin, that’s completely wrong. And of course Putin was thrilled that Stone should come up with these numbers, because they don’t reflect at all what Russia’s actual figures are. … Russia is doing much worse than [Stone’s] figures would suggest. And we saw that in the recently aired, annual call-in program. … the Russian population was very blunt and very forward in calling out Putin on how poorly they were doing in terms of wages and salaries, and saying things that were put up on the board behind him. Like a question: “Why is it that you are on the throne for 16 years? That’s too long!” … Stone talked about the overall figures for Russia’s wealth — $29,000 a year average income. But that doesn’t account for the fact that most Russians are earning way below $29,000. They’re earning more like $12,000. Teachers, health workers, all of these people who are at the lower end of the scheme. They earn poverty wages.

​Q: Regardless of whether that misinformation is deliberate or incidental, it inevitably advances an apologetic view of the Kremlin. So, for Stone, was it all a vanity play? To show he’s on friendly terms with the most powerful people in the world? Some would argue Stone used that same obsequious approach with Fidel Castro, Evo Morales, Hugo Chavez.

A: The thing that I noticed, especially in the first interview, was that Putin was constantly being polite, not saying anything very negative about the United States. After all, his No. 1 goal is to get the sanctions lifted. He’s not going to give a very robust criticism of the United States under these circumstances. But what did Stone do? He basically offered to Putin the anti-American answer, [saying], “It was the intelligence services of the United States, they’ve made this all up.” Stone was offering up a kind of leftist argument to Putin, and Putin is no leftist. He doesn’t have an interest in this kind of response, you know? He has an interest in getting Trump to open up his channel of communications between the United States and Russia.

Q: On NATO, Putin spoke about the dangerous course of politics they’re pursuing. Do you think it gives an idea of his real concerns or is it just a way to argue with the United States?

A: I think it’s his real concern. Look, he stated once that the Soviet Union collapsed [because of] American military spending. Basically, that was his point of view. Well, why might Russia collapse now? American military spending. He stated several times, and it’s true, that the United States spends more on its military than all other countries combined. So the essence [of Putin’s argument] is that NATO’s new military systems positioned close to the Russian border and its commitment to Article Five, are dangerous steps. Having said that, the Russians have behaved in a very reckless manner. You know, their behavior in Georgia, their behavior in Ukraine was reckless. Although, I will say Russia has a situation in which in both Georgia and Ukraine are now territorial problems, making it so that neither country would be qualified to join NATO, because they have active territorial disputes. So NATO creeping toward the Russian border is a huge issue for Russia.

Q: These hearings about Russian meddling in U.S. elections: What’s the bottom line? Are Stone’s interviews just a propaganda trick? Is Stone just following the Kremlin’s discourse?

A: There is a completely different training of world events in Moscow as compared to Washington. When I watched the fourth part, I understood very clearly that Moscow has its point of view, and it’s pretty much in accord with Stone’s point of view. … There are people in the West that agree with Putin … [including] specialists on Russia, like former [U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union] Jack Matlock and [the aforementioned U.S. scholar]. They really think that America is in the wrong, and that it is imperative that the United States improve its relations with Russia, and that there is no way that the United States is right. I listened to a Jack Matlock lecture on the radio here in Cincinnati yesterday, and one of the things he said was that the intelligence community of the United States was wrong. And I really couldn’t believe it. That the 17 intelligence services were all wrong and made this up. You have to have a very extreme point of view to think that 17 intelligence services are in collusion to make this up. But there are people in the United States who have this point of view.

This report originated in VOA’s Russian Service.
…

your ad here

Spiraling Violence in Central African Republic Isolates Neediest

Posted on by SeeAF

Escalating violence between rival armed factions in Central African Republic is cutting off humanitarian access to civilians most needing help, while emboldened fighters are now infiltrating camps for the displaced, agencies said on Thursday.

As many as 100 people may have been killed on Tuesday in the diamond-mining town of Bria, 580 km (360 miles) northeast of the capital Bangui, one day after militias signed a peace deal aimed at ending years of bloodshed.

Thousands have died and about a fifth of the former French colony’s 5 million people have fled their homes in a conflict that broke out after mainly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power in 2013, provoking a backlash from Christian anti-balaka militias.

Recent fighting in Bria and the towns of Bangassou and Alindao has uprooted more than 100,000 people, in the worst displacement since the nation plunged into chaos four years ago.

Militias emboldened

Armed with heavy weaponry and destroying bridges and roads, the militias are becoming emboldened and unpredictable, spreading fear among civilians and making it harder to support the displaced and those most in need, aid agencies say.

“Access is the main humanitarian issue … it not possible to reach many of those people who are suffering the most,” Donaig Le Du, spokeswoman for the U.N. children’s agency (UNICEF), told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.

The U.N. agency this month had to deliver aid by plane to Bangassou — a more costly and complicated option than using trucks — as it could not find any drivers willing to travel by road due to fear of attack, Le Du added.

Tuesday’s clashes in Bria broke out near a camp for people who had been forced to flee previous violence, while aid agencies’ offices were looted during the fighting, said the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

A dangerous country

“Armed groups are targeting and even infiltrating IDP  (internally displaced persons) camps … it is becoming a very serious concern,” said Joseph Inganji, OCHA’s country director.

“We are worried that many of the country’s IDP camps (more than 90) are losing their civilian character,” he added.

Central African Republic is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for aid agencies, with at least 33 attacks on aid workers in the first quarter of 2017, OCHA says.

 
…

your ad here

DC Roundup: No Comey Tapes, Senate Bill, Technology Week at WH

Posted on by SeeUS

Developments in Washington, D.C., on Thursday include President Donald Trump saying he did not tape discussions with fired FBI Director James Comey, questioning why former President Barack Obama didn’t stop Russian meddling in the 2016 election, Senate Republicans releasing their version of a health care bill for the country, as well as drone and technology experts at the White House.

Trump Tweets He Has No Comey Tapes — U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he did not record his conversations with former Federal Bureau of Investigation chief James Comey. Comey has said the president urged him to curb the agency’s investigation into Russia’s meddling of the 2016 presidential election, which Trump denies. Trump wrote on Twitter: “With all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts, unmasking and illegal leaking of information, I have no idea whether there are ‘tapes’ or recordings of my conversations with James Comey, but I did not make, and do not have, any such recordings.”

Trump Questions Why Obama Administration Didn’t Thwart Russian Election Meddling — Trump is questioning why his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, and his administration didn’t block Russia from meddling in last year’s presidential election. In a Twitter comment Thursday, Trump posed a question: “By the way, if Russia was working so hard on the 2016 Election, it all took place during the Obama Admin. Why didn’t they stop them?”

Senate Republican Health Care Plan Draws Criticism — After weeks of closed-door negotiations, Senate Republicans unveiled a draft bill to overhaul America’s health care system and replace “Obamacare,” drawing criticism from Democrats and expressions of concern from some moderates as well as conservatives in their own party. In what is seen as an attempt to make good on a longstanding Republican pledge to voters, the legislation would end the health care law’s requirement that most Americans buy health insurance, phase out federal subsidies for purchasing a plan, and scale back funding for Medicaid, which covers health care costs for the poor and disabled.

Drones, 5G Internet Dominate Talks as Tech Execs Visit White House — Ubiquitous drones and a faster Internet are coming sooner than you might think, and governments are staring into the unknown as they face the prospect of regulating the coming technological revolution in a way that fosters innovation, while at the same time protecting the often conflicting interests of consumers, entrepreneurs and the general public. It’s Technology Week at the White House, and top industry executives huddled together Thursday with Trump to show off their wares and talk about what government’s role should be in regulating, and at the same time encouraging the pace of change. The discussion was all about “next generation” lightning-fast 5G wireless services and the exponential growth of drone-related technologies.

New Trump Executive Order May Increase US Visa Wait Times — The wait for visitor visas to the United States could get a little longer. White House and State Department officials said Thursday that a new executive order revoking an Obama-era guideline on processing times at consulates was made in the interest of “vetting” and national security. It was not immediately clear how much much longer the process will take for the millions of tourist, student, and business visa seekers who apply to travel to the country every year.

Trump Basks in Cheers of Iowa Supporters — Trump Wednesday basked in the cheers of his supporters in the rural heartland of America. At a campaign rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Trump told the crowd of admirers, “It’s always terrific to be able to leave that Washington swamp and be able to spend time with the truly hardworking people. We call them American patriots.”

Minnesota to Still Engage With Cuba Despite Trump Setback — Minnesota’s government and businesses will continue to engage with Cuba in the areas they can, like agricultural trade, despite Trump’s partial rollback of the detente, Lieutenant Governor Tina Smith said on Thursday. The first U.S. state representative to make an official visit to Communist-run Cuba since Trump’s announcement on Friday, Smith said authorities there were worried about the setback to bilateral relations.

US, EU Urge China to Limit Food Import Control — Food exporters including the United States and European Union are stepping up pressure on China to scale back plans for intensive inspections of imports that they say would hamper access to its fast-growing market. The group, which also includes Japan and Australia, sent a joint letter to Chinese regulators asking them to suspend a proposed requirement, due to take effect Oct. 1, for each food shipment to have an inspection certificate from a foreign government. They say that would disrupt trade and ask Beijing to follow global practice by applying the requirement only to higher-risk foods.
…

your ad here

Report: Top Threat to African Cities is Lack of Good Government

Posted on by SeeAF

Residents of Karonga, a lakeside city of about 60,000 in northern Malawi, face no shortage of risks.

Flooding is an annual problem that’s worsening with climate change and poor maintenance of the channels that carry out the excess water. Only 17 percent of households have piped water, and half of the people use water tainted with sewage, leading to cholera and other disease deaths.

But the worst challenge facing the fast-growing city, which records everything from crocodile attack to sexual assault as regular problems, is that there’s no real city government.

Risks rising faster

Instead, the community operates under the authority of an outdated rural council that is “lacking in transparency and unable to cope with the complex nature of Karonga urban life,” according to a report by Urban Africa Risk Knowledge, a British aid-funded program focused on helping fast-urbanizing sub-Saharan Africa reduce its growing risks.

“There are no systems present in small centers” like Karonga, said Mtafu Manda, a researcher with Malawi’s Mzuzu University and the lead author of the report. “Or if they exist, it is only on paper.”

Disaster risks are arguably rising faster in sub-Saharan Africa than anywhere else, said Arabella Fraser, a risk and resilience researcher at the London-based Overseas Development Institute (ODI).

That’s in part the result of surging urban populations, a quickening pace of climate-related problems, such as flooding and drought, and an inability to beat back those risks because of poverty, poor data, lack of training and badly run government, she said at a discussion held at ODI Thursday.

Solutions are emerging

But plenty of ideas are emerging about how growing African cities can cut their risks.

Among them: organize slum dwellers to improve the infrastructure or simply sort out which risks are the key ones and focus on those first, experts at the discussion said.

These days, “one of the most difficult jobs in the world is being an African mayor,” said Meggan Spires of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), which is based in Cape Town.

“The challenges are vast, complex and immediate, and many are day to day,” said Spires, who formerly worked on climate change issues for the South African city of Durban.

Finding time to deal with demands to be proactive and work toward greater sustainability, in line with international agreements like the Sustainable Development Goals or the Paris Agreement on climate change, is a heavy burden, she said.

Resilience based on community, not donors

One thing that can help, she said, is ensuring that efforts to build urban resilience are not just short-term, donor-funded projects but are based on community demand and then built into city plans, often with innovative funding.

Donors aiming to improve resilience in Africa need to “be humble and recognize that Africans know their cities best. We should listen to them rather than imposing solutions on them.”

One way to get effective change underway is to harness organizations of slum dwellers, who make up large parts of the population in many African cities, said David Satterthwaite, an urban specialist with the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development.

About 18 slum dweller federations have formed in Africa, with about 15 of them collecting data door to door on everything from health care to schools, drainage to eviction threats.

Satterthwaite called it “an information base that provides a new possibility for local governments … to form, drive and implement new risk-reduction efforts.”

Get good data and use it

One thing that’s clear from data collected in cities such as Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam, for instance, is that health threats kill many more people each year than floods, even though residents see those as the biggest risk, he said.

That means investments in things, such as sanitation systems and clean water, may have the biggest payoff — though getting funding can be tough when donors focus on climate change adaptation or disaster risk reduction efforts, Satterthwaite said.

Manda, of Malawi, said keeping politics in mind is also key to making progress in Africa’s cities, and small cities have the toughest challenges of all, he said.

Political leaders “don’t think about the small towns, partially because they don’t live there but also because they want to benefit from the chaos,” he said. “When there is a disaster, when they go there as some kind of savior, they are seen to be very good,” he said. “And because of that, the risks in these small towns will escalate.”
…

your ad here

Turkey to Move More Troops, Food to Qatar

Posted on by SeeEA

Turkey has deployed 23 additional military personnel to Qatar and sent a cargo ship carrying food to the tiny Gulf state.

 

Three weeks ago, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates cut diplomatic and economic ties with Qatar over concerns that the nation was supporting terrorist groups – accusations Qatar denies.

Turkey has stood behind Qatar during the dispute, providing the desert nation with food and pledging military support. After an initial run on grocery items in Qatar, Turkey stepped in to fill the shelves.

In the last three weeks, 105 Turkish cargo planes filled with food have made the trip to Qatar. The cargo ship leaving Thursday carries 4,000 tons of dry food, fruits and vegetables, and is expected to reach Doha in about 10 days.

111 Turkey forces in Qatar

Turkey has maintained a military presence in Qatar since 2014. On June 7, the Turkish parliament approved legislation to allow more troops to be stationed in Qatar.

Thursday’s deployment of 23 soldiers and five armored vehicles brings the number of Turkish military personnel in Qatar to 111. Turkey eventually could place more than 1,000 troops in the country, according to the Hurriyet newspaper.

Erdogan makes the call

In backing Qatar, Turkish officials tried to avoid threatening other Arab states.

“We don’t want any sort of tension with any Gulf state,” Erdogan spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin said on Thursday. “In other words, if two of your friends — two neighbors — are disagreeing with each other and if there is something you can do about this, it is perfectly natural to go into action.”

 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke with Saudi Arabia’s King Salmon on the phone the day before the decision was announced. A source in Erdogan’s office told Reuters that an “agreement was reached on increasing efforts toward ending tension in the region related to Qatar.”

 

The two leaders agreed to hold a face-to-face meeting next month at the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.
…

your ad here

US Strike in Yemen Kills 3 Al-Qaida Militants

Posted on by SeeEA

A U.S. airstrike has killed three al-Qaida militants in Yemen, the Pentagon said Thursday.

The strike on June 16 targeted Abu Khattab al-Awlaqi, the terror group’s emir in southern Yemen’s Shabwah Governorate, and two of his associates.

The Pentagon said al-Awlaqi was responsible for planning and carrying out terrorist attacks against civilians. He also led efforts to promote instability in the war-torn country.

The strike was carried out “with full support of the government of Yemen,” according to a statement from U.S. Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East.

The United States has long considered al-Qaida’s affiliate in Yemen, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a major terror threat.

“Senior AQAP leaders seek safe haven in places like Shabwah Governorate to plot attacks against the U.S., our interest, and our friends and allies across the world,” U.S. Central Command said.

AQAP attempted to send explosives-laden packages to the United States in 2010, and the year before, a Nigerian-born recruit of the group attempted to detonate a bomb hidden in his underwear on a flight bound for Detroit.
…

your ad here

Minnesota to Still Engage With Cuba Despite Trump Setback

Posted on by SeeUS

Minnesota’s government and businesses will continue to engage with Cuba in the areas they can, like agricultural trade, despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s partial rollback of the detente, Lieutenant Governor Tina Smith said on Thursday.

The first U.S. state representative to make an official visit to Communist-run Cuba since Trump’s announcement on Friday, Smith said authorities there were worried about the setback to bilateral relations.

Leading a bipartisan trade delegation from Minnesota, she said she was therefore glad to carry the message that there was still plenty of support for continuing to normalize relations.

“There is no denying the actions Trump took last Friday are a real setback,” Smith, a Democrat, said in an interview in the gardens of Havana’s iconic Hotel Nacional. “But the important thing to me is that there is bipartisan support at the federal level for normalizing and modernizing our relationship.”

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, in May led a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers, including Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, to introduce legislation to lift the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba.

Minnesota is one of the largest U.S. farming states, and Smith’s delegation included its agriculture commissioner and the head of its corn growers association. The delegation hopes to improve ties with and promote exports to Cuba.

U.S. farm groups have been particularly critical of the decision by Trump, a Republican, to retreat from Democratic predecessor Barack Obama’s opening toward Cuba, saying it could derail huge growth in agricultural exports that totaled $221 million last year.

U.S. law exempts food from a decades-old embargo on U.S. trade with Cuba, although cumbersome rules on executing transactions have made deals difficult and costly.

While Trump’s new Cuba policy does not directly target agriculture, it damages improved relations, the farm groups say.

Trump ordered tighter restrictions on Americans traveling to Cuba and a clampdown on U.S. business dealings with the island’s military, which manages much of the economy.

The Minnesota delegation met this week with officials of the Cuban ministries of foreign affairs and agriculture, while also visiting a cooperative and local food markets.

But the tour did not include the usual trip to the Mariel port and special development zone, which Cuba hopes will attract foreign investment and become a major shipping hub in the Caribbean. It is controlled by a military-affiliated company.

“In Minnesota we don’t have a lot of cocoa or coffee or pineapples, but we do have a lot of corn and beans,” Smith said. “We need each others’ products.”

Cuba invited the Minnesota delegation to a trade show later in the year, Smith said, while Minnesota invited Cuban officials to visit.

“I am very hopeful all of those things will lead us to a place where we can move forward.”
…

your ad here

Female Passenger Wins Gender Bias Case Against Israeli Airline

Posted on by SeeEA

An 83-year-old Holocaust survivor has won a lawsuit against Israel’s national airline after being asked to change her seat on a trans-Atlantic flight because an ultra-Orthodox man did not want to sit next to her.

A Jerusalem court ordered El Al Israel Airlines to pay Renee Rabinowitz $1,860 and ruled the airline can no longer ask female passengers to move seats to accommodate men.

Rabinowitz, a retired lawyer, a l did not set out to make legal history when she took her business-class seat on a flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Tel Aviv in December 2015.

She told NBC News that within minutes of settling in, a male flight attendant spoke to a Haredi (Orthodox) man who was seated next to her. Soon afterward, the attendant returned, Rabinowitz said, and asked her to move to what he claimed was a better seat.

Rabinowitz then confronted her fellow passenger, saying, “I’m an 81-year-old woman. What’s your problem?” He responded that religious law dictated that men should avoid any contact with women that could be construed as immodest.

“I interrupt him, and I say, ‘Well, I am sure it doesn’t say anything about sitting next to a woman,’ ” said Rabinowitz, an observant Jew.

‘Deep humiliation’

Haredim are members of various Orthodox Jewish sects that adhere strictly to traditional forms of Jewish law and reject modern secular culture.

Rabinowitz did agree to move to another seat but later sued El Al, arguing she had felt “deep humiliation,” the Israel Religious Center, which represented her, said in a statement.

“I feel good about the fact that [El Al] will now be required to tell … haredim who want women to move that they can’t do it, that El Al flight attendants can’t do it,” Rabinowitz said on Israel Radio.
…

your ad here

Drones, 5G Internet Dominate Talks as Tech Execs Visit White House

Posted on by SeeUS

Ubiquitous drones and a faster Internet are coming sooner than you might think, and governments are staring into the unknown as they face the prospect of regulating the coming technological revolution in a way that fosters innovation, while at the same time protecting the often conflicting interests of consumers, entrepreneurs and the general public.

It’s Technology Week at the White House, and top industry executives huddled together Thursday with President Donald Trump to show off their wares and talk about what government’s role should be in regulating, and at the same time encouraging the pace of change. The discussion was all about “next generation” lightning-fast 5G wireless services and the exponential growth of drone-related technologies.

“This meeting comes at an important time because we’re on the precipice of moving to 5G and bringing about the Internet of Things,” said Mike Sievert, Chief Operating Officer of T-Mobile, a leading cellphone service provider. “The position that the government takes is going to determine whether or not America continues to lead in technology.”

Sievert was joined by a Who’s Who of top executives from venture capitalists and firms such as Sprint, AT&T, General Electric, Honeywell, Verizon, and Microsoft. Also attending were entrepreneurs from drone industry leaders like AirMap, which produces a platform for drone mapping that is in use at most U.S. airports; and Precision Hawk, which analyzes data gathered by advanced drone technology and sensors for the energy and agriculture industries.

Trump told the group he is committed to keeping the government out of the way to allow the tech companies to grow and prosper.

“[There have been] too many years of excessive government regulation,” Trump told the drone executives. “We’ve had regulation that’s been so bad, so out of line, that it’s really hurt our country. On a daily basis, we’re getting rid of regulation.”

Enabling innovation

Trump’s message did not appear to go down well with the entrepreneurs, however. Precision Hawk CEO Michael Chasen explained to the president the need for government to take a lead role in establishing rules and standards for the drone industry.

“This is the one industry where we need a little bit more regulation,” Chasen told Trump. “Because the default [present state of affairs] is limiting what drone technology can do and we need the FAA and other regulatory bodies who have the power to regulate [to open] up those opportunities so we can stay competitive with other countries.”

Trump said his government wants to provide an environment where innovators can dream big.

“We’re on the verge of new technological revolutions that could improve virtually every aspect of our lives, create vast new wealth for American workers and families and open bold new frontiers in science, medicine and communications,” said the president.

Drone industry experts say sales growth has been phenomenal.

“In the past eight months, nearly 850,000 drones were registered by the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration],” said Brett Velicovich, president of a Washington area drone firm and author of the new book Drone Warrior. “That compares to only 350,000 airplanes sold over the past 100 years.”

Drone concerns

Velicovich said his greatest worry is that governments such as the United States don’t seem to fully appreciate the potential security threat posed by the new generation of cheap, powerful drones in the hands of terrorists.

“Groups like ISIS see how cheap this technology is and how capable it is and how far they can fly away from the remote and the type of payloads you can put on it and so the security implications come from these people and organizations that would try and do us harm,” he told VOA. “They see how readily available the technology is, how cheap it is, and how far it’s come just in the last few months.”

The United States has long been a leader in the use of military drones, and a multi-billion-dollar drone sale is reported to be up for discussion early next week when India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi pays a visit to the White House.

Reuters reports that India is pushing to buy a naval variant of the Predator drone, which manufacturer General Atomics says can be used for wide-area, long-endurance maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions. It can stay in the air for up to 27 hours and can fly at a maximum altitude of 15,000 meters.
…

your ad here

South Sudan Famine Eases, but Millions Still Food-insecure

Posted on by SeeAF

Famine has eased in the Leer and Mayendit counties of South Sudan’s Unity state, but Oxfam America warns that 45,000 people in the two counties and parts of former Jonglei state are still facing famine-like conditions, while 6 million people — half of the country’s population — are severely food-insecure.

Noah Gottschalk, senior humanitarian policy adviser for Oxfam America, a nonprofit anti-poverty organization based in Boston, Massachusetts, said that although there have been pockets of improvement, the overall picture remains bleak, judging from the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report

Even though the most severe forms of food insecurity may fall short of a famine designation, “no one would want to live in those types of circumstances,” Gottschalk told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus on Thursday.

Nearly 4 million South Sudanese have been displaced from their homes since the country’s internal conflict began in December 2013. Half are refugees in six nearby countries; the other half are living in camps and other makeshift circumstances inside the country.

The latest IPC report, released this week, said armed conflict continues to disrupt agriculture and markets around the country, making food difficult to obtain.

Gottschalk said the onset of South Sudan’s rainy season would make conditions worse by making roads impassable and bringing on waterborne diseases.

So far, more than 30,000 people in Leer have received the oral cholera vaccine this year. Gottschalk said that controlling illnesses like cholera goes hand in hand with combating food insecurity.

“When people have cholera, there is increased diarrhea and vomiting, which means that even if you are able to access food … you are not absorbing the nutrients, and that means that a malnourished population that has limited access to clean water is especially vulnerable,” he said.

It is not just about getting food to people, Gottschalk added. “It is about clean water and sanitation and hygiene.”

Gottschalk said he was worried that the end of famine conditions could slow down the response needed to save lives.

“It is important that donors and the aid community, and really, the international community, don’t get complacent now, just because there has been this small bit of improvement,” he said. “We need to be redoubling our efforts and doing a lot more to make sure people get the assistance they need — and more importantly, that this conflict comes to an end.”

The latest IPC projection made the same point. “Should humanitarian assistance be compromised,” it said, “the areas could easily slip into famine again.”
…

your ad here

People With Disabilities at Risk in Central African Republic

Posted on by SeeAF

Simplice Lenguy told his wife to leave him behind as people fled when fighting broke out in Central African Republic’s capital.

 

“I said, ‘Take the children. You go to the camp. I am handicapped. I can’t flee like the others. If something happens to me, at least my family will be safe,'” Lenguy, who is disabled from polio, recounted in an interview with The Associated Press. His wife refused and forced him to come with her, even when he lost consciousness because of the pain.

 

For years Central African Republic has seen widespread violence that has displaced more than 500,000 people.

This week at least 100 people were killed in fighting in the town of Bria. Those with disabilities are a “forgotten people within a forgotten crisis” at high risk during attacks and forced displacement, facing neglect in an ongoing humanitarian crisis, according to Lewis Mudge, a researcher with Human Rights Watch, which released a report this week on their challenges.

 

The country has faced deadly violence since 2013, when predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power in the capital, Bangui. Mostly Christian anti-Balaka militias fought back, resulting in thousands of people killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.

 

It is not known how many of the displaced are people with disabilities, but Human Rights Watch said conditions at camps are not conducive for them. Some have trouble getting food during distributions, while others have challenges using showers and toilets that lack ramps.

 

The new report said one man with a physical disability was killed in November 2014 while trying to crawl away from attacking Seleka fighters in the town of Bolo. And when anti-Balaka forces attacked the village of Ngbima the same month, they killed 28 civilians, including a 25-year-old woman with a bad foot who could not move quickly. She was burned alive inside her home, said the report.

 

With half of Central Africa Republic’s population in need of humanitarian assistance, Mudge said people with disabilities do not get the “protection and assistance they desperately need.”

 

Human Rights Watch called on the U.N. peacekeeping mission and other U.N. agencies to monitor and report abuses against people with disabilities and commit resources to improving humanitarian aid.

 

In 2015, the U.N. Security Council’s mandate for the peacekeeping mission expressed “serious concern about the dire situation of persons with disabilities in the CAR including abandonment, violence and lack of access to basic services.” However, when the mandate was renewed by the U.N. Security Council in 2016, no language on people with disabilities was included.

 

The human rights chief for the U.N. peacekeeping mission had “no statement” on why the language wasn’t included. However, Musa Yerro Gassama said the U.N. continues to work on the issue with aid groups.

 

Central African Republic’s government doesn’t have the capacity to support people with disabilities, Mudge said. And U.N. officials say humanitarian funding for the country is only at 28 percent.

 

Once Lenguy recovered from his journey to the camp for those displaced in Bangui, he started organizing others with disabilities into a group to demand more aid. They seek support to replace lost canes and tricycles, rebuild homes and provide vocational assistance.

 

Despite the challenges, the 40-year-old Lenguy said he’s “very optimistic.” He said he wants people with disabilities to have a role in the government and play a role in their country’s future.

 

“We, people with disabilities, are ready to help the country to develop,” he said.

 

 
…

your ad here

8 Killed in Latest Mogadishu Car Bomb

Posted on by SeeAF

At least eight people were killed and four others wounded Thursday when a car filled with explosives hit a police station in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

 

A reporter for VOA’s Somali Service, Ahmed Hassan Olad, says the attack targeted the Waberi police station along the busy Maka al-Mukaramah road.

 

Olad, who was near the police station when the attack occurred, says he saw a man driving a Toyota Surf speeding toward the station.

 

Emergency teams are at the scene trying to help the wounded people.

 

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but militant group al-Shabab regularly attacks government buildings and places where government officials are known to congregate.

 

On Tuesday, an al-Shabab car bomber attacked a local administration building in the Wadajir district, killing at least 10 people.

 

On June 15, al-Shabab fighters assaulted two popular Mogadishu restaurants. The attack claimed 29 lives, including those of the six assailants.
…

your ad here