Month: June 2017

Germany Files Espionage Charges Against Alleged Turkish Spy

Posted on by SeeEU

German prosecutors have filed espionage charges against a man accused of spying for Turkish intelligence on a Kurdish politician and activists.

 

Federal prosecutors said Wednesday that the indictment against 32-year-old Mehmet Fatih S., whose full name wasn’t given in line with privacy laws, was filed in a Hamburg court.

 

The Turkish national was arrested in December. Prosecutors say that he had worked for a Turkish intelligence service since 2013 and was tasked in September 2015 or earlier with snooping on Kurds in Germany.

 

They say he focused on a Germany-based politician who at the time headed a Kurdish group in Germany, NAV-DEM, and now is part of the leadership of a Brussels-based Kurdish umbrella group, KCDK-E. He also allegedly photographed a Kurdish group’s demonstration in Bremen in May 2016.

 

 
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Russia Cancels Talks With US After New Sanctions

Posted on by SeeUS

Russian officials reacted to new sanctions unveiled by the U.S. by canceling upcoming talks between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon.

Ryabkov said that “the situation is not conducive to holding a round of this dialogue.”

The U.S. State Department expressed regret at the cancellation of Friday’s talks. “We regret that Russia has decided to turn away from an opportunity to discuss bilateral obstacles that hinder U.S.-Russia relations,” spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced additional sanctions on Russia and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.  The sanctions target 38 Russian and pro-Russian individuals and entities tied to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, including two high-level Russian officials, Deputy Economy Minister Sergey Nazarov and Russian lawmaker Alexander Babakov.

A Kremlin spokesman said the move was not constructive and said “various [retaliatory] options are being considered on an expert level.”

Russia-U.S. relations remain tense.  The White House has been considering a possible meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a Group of 20 meeting in Germany in July.
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Pope Pledges More than $500,000 in South Sudan Aid

Posted on by SeeAF

Pope Francis is offering 460,000 euros (more than $500,000) in aid for South Sudan to help finance two hospitals, a school and farm equipment.

 

Francis had hoped to visit South Sudan in October to draw attention to the plight of its people faced with starvation and civil war, but called off the trip because the conditions wouldn’t permit it.

 

“Since the Holy Father was unable to go to South Sudan in person, he wanted to concretely show the church’s presence and closeness with the suffering people,” Cardinal Peter Turkson, Francis’ point-man for peace and refugee issues, told a news conference Wednesday.

 

The money will go to help fund two hospitals run by the Combonian missionary sisters, a primary school run by a humanitarian group “Solidarity with South Sudan” and an agricultural project run by the Vatican’s Caritas foundation.

 

Combonian Sister Laura Gemignani, who works in one of the hospitals, said that aside from the tangible effects of new financial aid, the pope’s assistance helped alleviate the sense felt by many in South Sudan that theirs is in many ways a forgotten conflict.

 

“This gesture makes us feel part of the family, with the Holy Father as our father,” she said.
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EU Takes Lead in Campaign to Prevent Gender-based Violence

Posted on by SeeAF

The European Union is assuming the leadership of a global initiative to prevent gender-based violence during humanitarian crises.

Violence against women and girls is one of the most prevalent human rights violations in the world. The United Nations and many human rights organizations have documented tens of thousands of cases of rape, sexual abuse and exploitation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other places of conflict.

Violence during times of war and natural disasters also affects men and boys. So, the European Union’s Call to Action on Protection from Gender-Based Violence is inclusive of both sexes and all ages.

The EU says its mission is to strengthen awareness and encourage the humanitarian community to take stronger action to protect women, men, girls and boys in crisis zones.

Monique Pariat, director-general for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, says more must be done to prevent gender-based violence from occurring in humanitarian emergencies. She says many simple measures can be taken to mitigate violence.

“For instance, to have separate and properly illuminated toilets and washing facilities in camps. Safe access to water and food distribution points. Safe access to hospitals. That can have a very significant impact in preventing and reducing gender-based violence. We can do more also on the education to armed groups, to armies. There are a lot of activities we can promote that will reduce the risk and occurrence of these atrocities.”

Pariat says it is crucial to bring the Call to Action program to the field, adding it is there that these life-saving measures can have the biggest impact. Pariat also says preventive actions must be taken at the earliest onset of an emergency where victims and survivors are at greatest risk.
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Mayor: 100 Dead in Central African Republic Town

Posted on by SeeAF

Clashes between armed groups in the Central African Republic town of Bria have left at least 100 people dead in the wake of a peace agreement signed this week in Rome that called for an immediate cease-fire, officials said Wednesday.

Security remained so precarious that Red Cross teams could not venture into the streets to collect bodies for burial.

 

“For the moment, no one dares to go out as everything suggests that fighting can resume at any time,” said the Rev. Gildas Gbeni of the St. Louis Catholic mission in Bria. “Witnesses coming from different neighborhoods say they have had to climb over dozens of bodies that now litter the ground.”

 

Mayor Maurice Balekouzou and others put the preliminary death toll at around 100, while several dozen wounded were seeking treatment at the local hospital run by aid group Doctors Without Borders.

 

Witnesses said the fighting erupted early Tuesday between the anti-Balaka militia and rebels from the group known as FPRC who were once part of the Seleka movement.

 

The peace deal signed Monday in Rome among nearly all of the country’s armed groups had called for an immediate cease-fire. Many were skeptical, however, because previous agreements had quickly failed.

 

Central African Republic has faced deadly interreligious and intercommunal fighting 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.

 

The impoverished country saw a period of relative peace in late 2015 and 2016, but violence has returned in recent months, especially outside the capital. The Seleka group has splintered into factions, some of them fighting each other.

 

Bria has seen repeated clashes since May, leaving dozens dead. An estimated 41,000 people there have fled for their lives.

 

 
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France Softens Proposed UN Backing for Sahel Force to Appease US

Posted on by SeeAF

The United Nations Security Council is set to vote on Wednesday on a draft resolution to back a West African force to combat terrorism and arms, drug and human trafficking in the Sahel region after France weakened the language in a bid to appease the United States.

The vast, arid region has in recent years become a breeding ground for jihadist groups – some linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State – that European nations, particularly France, fear could threaten Europe if left unchecked.

Last year, the Sahel nations – Niger, Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mauritania – proposed establishing special units, each of around 100 well-trained soldiers, which would be deployed in areas where jihadist groups are known to operate.

The United States did not believe a resolution was warranted and did not want the world body to help fund it, diplomats said.

The United States is one of five council veto powers, along with France, Britain, Russia and China.

French U.N. Ambassador Francois Delattre told reporters on Tuesday he was confident of “strong support” among the 15-member U.N. council after two weeks of negotiation on the French draft text, which he described as having reached a “successful conclusion.”

“The text that we have we believe is strong in itself and also stronger in terms of the political support it will bring to the force,” Delattre said.

Instead of authorizing the force to “use all necessary means” to carry out its operations, the draft resolution now “welcomes the deployment,” according to a copy seen by Reuters.

It no longer asks Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to report back on options for U.N. support for the force and instead notes that the West African states are responsible for ensuring the troops have adequate resources.

The draft resolution also encourages countries to also provide support. The European Union has already committed $56 million to the Sahel force.

The United States is trying to cut the cost of U.N. peacekeeping and is reviewing each of the 16 missions as they come up for Security Council renewal. Washington is the largest contributor, paying 28.5 percent of the $7.9 billion peacekeeping budget.

Special units proposed by the five Sahel nations would complement the efforts of regular armed forces, a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali and France’s Operation Barkhane, which has around 4,000 troops deployed across the region.

France intervened in 2013 to drive back militants who had seized northern Mali a year earlier. However, militants continue to attack in Mali and its neighbors.
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Russian Plane Comes Within Meters of US Jet Flying Over Baltic Sea

Posted on by SeeUS

An armed Russian fighter jet came within just a few meters of a U.S. military plane flying over the Baltic Sea, an official told VOA Tuesday.

The Pentagon said the American plane, an RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft, was unprofessionally “intercepted” in international airspace on Monday by a Russian SU-27 Flanker fighter jet.

“Due to the high rate of closure speed and poor control of the aircraft during the intercept, this interaction was determined to be unsafe,” Defense Department spokeswoman Army Lt. Col. Michelle Baldanza told VOA Tuesday.

She added that the action had the potential to cause serious harm and injury to all air crews involved. 

Pentagon officials stressed that the American reconnaissance plane “did nothing to provoke” the Russian jet’s behavior.

“The Russian military is within its right to exercise within international airspace, but they must respect international standards set to ensure safety and prevent accidents,” Baldanza said. 

Close encounters take place on a regular basis among military aircraft operating in international areas. The vast majority of encounters with American military planes are conducted in a safe manner, officials said.
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US Urges China to Change Calculus on N. Korea Ahead of Security Talks

Posted on by SeeUS

The United States is urging China to play a more prominent role in combating global terrorism and help “change the calculus” on North Korea, ahead of high-level security talks with Beijing.

The first round of the U.S.-China Diplomatic and Security Dialogue kicks off in Washington Wednesday.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense James Mattis will host a Chinese delegation led by State Councilor Yang Jiechi and General Fang Fenghui, chief of the People’s Liberation Army’s Joint Staff Department.

Senior U.S. officials say China has “taken a fairly limited profile” in counterterrorism efforts. It is not a member of the 68-nation global coalition countering the Islamic State militant group

“We would like to see them step up and take more responsibility,” Acting Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Susan Thornton told VOA on Monday.

Thornton said China has “a lot of interest in Iraq,” and the U.S. thinks it should be doing more to contribute to the efforts of the international coalition to defeat IS.

Killings concern China

Earlier this month, two Chinese citizens were killed by Islamic State militants after being kidnapped in southwestern Pakistan. In November 2015, IS said it killed Chinese national Fan Jinghui. Both cases triggered grave concern from Beijing.

“We have seen them [Chinese officials] become more interested over time,” added Thornton, noting the talks are “an early feeler” on getting China more involved.

On Tuesday, Chinese officials said both countries have been victims of terrorism.

“Cooperation is in the interests of both sides,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in Beijing.

Leveraging China’s ties to North Korea

On North Korea, the U.S. is looking for China to “change the calculus” of the isolated regime and exert its leverage as North Korea’s largest trading partner.

“The most urgent and dangerous threat to peace and security in the Asia-Pacific region is North Korea,” said Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia David Helvey on Tuesday. “We seek to deepen our cooperation to realize the outcome which is in the best interest of peace and security in the region and the world.”

The United Nations has blacklisted hundreds of North Korean entities, but many of them try to get business done though China, according to U.S. officials.

The issue is a sticking point between Washington and Beijing that experts say needs to be the focus of frank discussion.

“The Chinese remain unconvinced that the U.S. goal is not regime change. The U.S. side remains unconvinced that China’s goal is not to use the North Korean problem as leverage in the relationship,” Dennis Wilder from Georgetown University’s U.S.-China Initiative told VOA.

“This is a matter of strategic trust that can only be built through this type of dialogue at the most senior levels,” added Wilder, who served as the senior director for East Asian affairs at the National Security Council under former President George W. Bush.

’Freeze’ proposed

Rand Corporation senior defense analyst Derek Grossman notes the “last thing Beijing wants is a conflict that would end Kim Jong Un’s regime and unleash new power dynamics at its doorstep.”

Grossman said China’s perpetual security concern is reflected in its proposal that the U.S. and South Korea “freeze” routine joint exercises in exchange for Pyongyang suspending its missile and nuclear programs.

U.S. officials say they welcome actions by countries that have ramped up pressure on Pyongyang, including phasing out the use of North Korean laborers, and denying the landing rights and refueling privileges of North Korea’s national airline Air Koryo.

“A lot of the wages of these workers go to the regime and to fund unlawful programs in North Korea,” Thornton told reporters.

U.S. officials said Wednesday’s Diplomatic and Security Dialogue is a departure from the Strategic and Economic Dialogue of years past that covered a wide range of issues. Instead, they say this week’s discussion reflects a “streamlined approach” and will “more narrowly focus on key security issues.”

South China Sea

Another area in which Washington hopes to make headway is the disputed South China Sea, where Beijing’s island building has raised concerns.

U.S. officials are calling for a binding code of conduct to resolve differences.

“All parties should freeze any construction or militarization of features that they have outposts on in this space and make room and create the conditions for diplomacy,” said Thornton.
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US State Department Questions Gulf Motives on Qatar Boycott

Posted on by SeeEA

The U.S. State Department bluntly questioned on Tuesday the motives of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for their boycott of Doha, saying it was “mystified” the Gulf states had not released their grievances over Qatar.

In Washington’s strongest language yet on the Gulf dispute, the State Department said the more time goes by, “the more doubt is raised about the actions taken by Saudi Arabia and the UAE.”

“At this point, we are left with one simple question: Were the actions really about their concerns regarding Qatar’s alleged support for terrorism or were they about the long-simmering grievances between and among the GCC countries,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said, referring to the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council.

The State Department’s comments came in contrast to the language taken by U.S. President Donald Trump who has accused Qatar of being a “high level” sponsor of terrorism.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar are key American allies. The fact the State Department bluntly questioned Riyadh and Abu Dhabi’s actions in public suggests Washington was keen for the parties to end the dispute.

“We’ve just said to the parties involved: Let’s finish this. Let’s get this going,” Nauert said.

Qatar hosts a vital U.S. military base, Al Udeid, to which more than 11,000 U.S. and coalition forces are deployed or assigned and from which more than 100 aircraft operate.

The United Arab Emirates, which along with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain imposed the measures to isolate Qatar, has said the sanctions could last for years unless Doha accepted demands that the Arab powers plan to reveal in coming days.

The State Department, headed by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, was encouraging “all sides to de-escalate tensions and engage in constructive dialogue,” Nauert said.

A U.S. official said Washington is urging Qatar to take steps to defuse the crisis, including signing on to proposals being drawn up the Treasury Department to strengthen controls against financing of militant groups.

But this official and a second U.S. official said it was inaccurate to single Qatar out, and that the Saudis, Emiratis and other Gulf states face similar challenges in countering terrorist financing.

Qatar’s foreign minister, who is expected to travel to Washington next week, said Doha would not negotiate with its neighbors to resolve the Gulf dispute unless they first lift the trade and travel boycott they imposed two weeks ago. He added that Doha still believed a solution was possible.

“Now that it has been more than two weeks since the embargo started, we are mystified that the Gulf states have not released to the public nor to the Qataris the details about the claims that they are making toward Qatar,” Nauert added.

There was no immediate comment from Riyadh or Abu Dhabi.

Qatar’s ambassador to the United States, Meshal Hamad al-Thani, welcomed the State Department’s statement, tweeting: “We are confident in the ability of the U.S. to resolve this crisis.”

Qatar has denied accusations by its neighbors that it funds terrorism, foments regional instability or has cosied up to their enemy Iran.

The first U.S. official said the dispute is driven more by economic rivalries, historical tensions and the personal dynamics of Gulf leaders than by the specific demands the Saudis and Emiratis are making on Qatar.

The dispute has opened a rift among some of the main U.S. allies in the Middle East. Since the dispute erupted, Trump has taken a tougher stance against Qatar, while the State Department had sought to remain neutral.

Nauert said Tillerson had three phone calls and two in-person meetings with the Saudi foreign minister. Tillerson also spoke by phone three times with Qatar’s foreign minister and with the Qatari emir.

The UAE’s ambassador to the United States said last week a list of demands for Qatar was being compiled and would soon be handed to the United States.

He said they would broadly address support for terrorism, meddling in the internal affairs of these countries and attacks through Qatari-owned media platforms.

The Pentagon has said the boycott was hindering U.S. ability to plan for long-term operations in the region. Al Udeid is where command for the anti-Islamic State air campaign takes place.

Meanwhile, Qatar’s attorney general said on Tuesday his country has evidence that the hacking of Qatar’s state news agency was linked to countries that have severed ties with Doha.
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Turkish Opposition Leader Accuses ‘Dictator’ Erdogan of Judicial Interference

Posted on by SeeEA

Turkey’s main opposition leader accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday of meddling in the judiciary and called him a “dictator,” as he extended his cross-country protest march against the jailing of a parliamentary ally into a sixth day.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, 68, head of the secularist Republican People’s Party (CHP), set out last week from the capital Ankara on a 425-kilometer (265-mile) march to Istanbul after fellow party member Enis Berberoglu was jailed for 25 years on spying charges.

Berberoglu was the first CHP lawmaker to be imprisoned in a government crackdown that followed the abortive military coup in July 2016. More than 50,000 people have been jailed and more than 150,000 sacked or suspended from their jobs.

“I will always be on the side of justice. If someone tells me my rights are a favour, I will speak of his dictatorship. I say you [Erdogan] are a dictator,” Kilicdaroglu said in a speech after stopping at a national park near Camlidere, a rural area about 100 km outside of Ankara.

His comments were an apparent response to criticism from Erdogan over the weekend in which the president said justice should be sought in parliament and the CHP was only being allowed to march as a favor from the government.

Erdogan has likened the protesters who came out in support of Kilicdaroglu in Ankara and Istanbul to those who carried out the attempted coup, and said, “You should not be surprised if you receive an invitation from the judiciary.”

Kilicdaroglu responded on Tuesday by accusing the president of attempting to influence the judiciary. “If I prove that your government sends notices to the courts and gives them orders, will you resign your post like an honorable man?” he said.

Rights groups and government critics, including members of Kilicdaroglu’s CHP, say Turkey has been sliding toward authoritarianism since the coup bid. The government says its crackdown is necessary given vast security threats it is facing.

“I have been participating in the march since the beginning,” said one woman, 59, who declined to give her name. “We want justice for our children. This is the only reason we are marching.”

The slight, bespectacled Kilicdaroglu has so far clocked up a little more than 100 kilometers, trudging along a highway westwards from Ankara and at times carrying a sign that says “Justice.”

CHP officials said he was eating only soup in the morning and over the course of the day the same food given to the roughly 1,000 other supporters marching with him.

He alternates between two pairs of trainers and at night massages his feet with salt to soothe the swelling. He sleeps overnight in a caravan specially prepared for him.

Kilicdaroglu, who aims to march to the jail where Berberoglu is being held, on Tuesday condemned the government’s purges, naming academics he said had been stripped of their posts for no reason and asking why journalists were being jailed.

Some 160 journalists are imprisoned in Turkey, according to the journalists union, and authorities have shut down 130 media outlets since the failed coup.

“Shoulder-to-shoulder against fascism,” and “justice, justice” chanted the crowd of around 1,000 on a hillside who listened to his speech. Some carried a banner that said: “You’ll never walk alone.”

The march is expected to last around 25 days, with participants walking some 16-20 kilometers daily.
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Police: Suspected Boko Haram Militants Kill 2 in Police Ambush

Posted on by SeeAF

Suspected Boko Haram militants killed two people and wounded six others in an ambush on a police convoy in northeast Nigeria’s Borno state on Tuesday, a police spokesman said.

Borno has been the state worst hit by the eight-year insurgency by Boko Haram that has killed more than 20,000 people and forced some 2.7 million people to flee their homes in its bid to create an Islamic caliphate.

The raid was the latest in a spate of attacks in the state, birthplace of the insurgency, over the last two weeks. Suicide bombings killed 12 people on Monday and 14 people died in an attack on state capital Maiduguri on June 7.

Borno state police spokesman Damian Chukwu said vehicles including a police patrol convoy and a funeral procession were ambushed on a road around 30 kilometres from Maiduguri. Two people were killed – a policeman and a commercial driver.

Boko Haram has been pushed out of most of the territory that it controlled in early 2015 – a swathe of land around the size of Belgium – by Nigeria’s army and troops from neighboring countries.

But insurgents continue to carry out suicide bombings and raids in northeast Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger.
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Political Spotlight on Trump Son-in-law Gets Brighter

Posted on by SeeUS

Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior aide, has been front and center at the White House this week, making his speaking debut before a high-powered gathering of tech executives and heading off on a sensitive diplomatic mission to the Middle East.

Kushner, 36, a New York real estate magnate, was close by Trump’s side throughout last year’s political campaign, and he and his family moved to Washington in the first days of the new administration. But he has now moved even more into the political spotlight, leading some critics of Trump to suggest this may be an attempt to divert attention from the leaks and legal troubles that have beset the administration.

When novice diplomat Kushner touches down Wednesday in Tel Aviv, he will join the administration’s special representative for international negotiations, Jason Greenblatt, in a bid to revive direct Israel-Palestinian talks. Kushner and Greenblatt, formerly a lawyer for the Trump Organization in New York, are due to meet with both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

‘Furthering Middle East peace’

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the U.S. envoys’ visit to Israel is a follow-up to Trump’s stopover in the region in May and is intended “to further Middle East peace and make incremental changes in the right direction.” Kushner and Greenblatt, who are both Orthodox Jews, accompanied the president during those earlier meetings with both Abbas and Netanyahu.

Kushner’s more prominent role in the Trump White House is seen by some an an attempt by the administration to right itself after a number of bruising body blows, such as speculation about who may be targeted by a special prosecutor investigating the nature of contacts between the president’s campaign organization and the Russian government. The swirling allegations of possible inappropriate or even illegal behavior — and the vociferous denials coming from Trump himself during his broadsides to the world over Twitter — have sparked rebukes even from senior lawmakers within the president’s Republican Party.

However, Kushner himself has come under scrutiny for his own contacts with Russian officials during the presidential campaign. Last week, The Washington Post reported the son-in-law’s business dealings were under investigation by the office of Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller.

Kushner has said he will cooperate with both congressional and FBI inquiries, and he recently hired a prominent Washington lawyer to represent him.

Background ‘problematic’

 

His role in the Trump White House is coming under increasing scrutiny from presidential scholars and students of public management.

Elaine Kamarck, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, a policy research group in Washington, and author of Why Presidents Fail, said Kushner’s lack of any background in public or foreign affairs is “particularly problematic.”

“Jared Kushner knows even less about the world of government and policy than the president himself does,” Kamarck said. “This president, more than any other recent president, needs the assistance of somebody familiar with government, and that is not Jared Kushner.”

Administration officials say Kushner is not new to Middle East issues, nor is he a stranger to the Israeli prime minister. His family is known to be close to Netanyahu, who once stayed in the Kushner home during a visit to the United States.

However, Brookings’ Kamarck said Kushner’s inexperience in statecraft will be a severe handicap if he expects to resolve a dispute that has stymied the world’s most talented diplomats for generations.

“There have been years and years of American intervention in Arab-Israeli dialogue,” Kamarck told VOA. “People who have had great expertise in this area have been unable to come to conclusions.”

Breakthrough seen unlikely

“Maybe Kushner will learn something on this trip that will help him down the road, but do not expect a peace breakthrough in the near future,” she added.

The president’s son-in-law tested his hand as a senior administration official and his public speaking skills this week. Though Kushner has been at Trump’s side, or just steps away, for almost every presidential appearance, White House reporters said this was the first time they had ever heard him speak. Reviews were mixed.

Reading from prepared remarks at a White House gathering of high-powered technology executives, Kushner spoke of the need to gather ideas for modernizing government.

“We will unleash the creativity of the private sector to provide citizen services in a way that has never happened before,” Kushner told the group, which included Apple CEO Tim Cook and Alphabet chief Eric Schmitt. Both have been outspoken in opposing administration positions on issues such as climate change and immigration.

As Kushner headed to Israel, news reports said China has invited him and his wife, Ivanka Trump, to visit later this year.  Bloomberg News called it the latest sign of the extended first family’s growing influence over foreign affairs.

Bloomberg, quoting an unidentified U.S. official, said the Kushners hosted a dinner Sunday for the newly confirmed U.S. ambassador to China, Terry Branstad, who will leave to take up his new post in Beijing this week.
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UN Envoy: Israel Flouts UN Security Council Settlement Demand

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Israel is flouting a United Nations Security Council demand to halt settlement building on occupied Palestinian land, while both parties are ignoring a call to stop provocation, incitement and inflammatory rhetoric, a senior U.N. envoy said on Tuesday.

U.N. Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov made the assessment in his second quarterly report to the 15-member council on the implementation of a Dec. 23 resolution adopted with 14 votes in favor and a U.S. abstention. Then U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Israel had urged Washington to wield its veto.

“The policy of continued illegal settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territory contravenes resolution 2334,” Mladenov said.

“The large number of settlement-related activities documented during this period undermine the chances for the establishment of a viable, continuous Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution,” he said.

Israel for decades has pursued a policy of constructing Jewish settlements on territory captured by Israel in the 1967 war with its Arab neighbors. Most countries view Israeli settlement activity as illegal and an obstacle to peace. Israel disagrees.

The Palestinians want an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

Refrain and condemn

The December resolution calls on both parties to refrain from acts of provocation, incitement and inflammatory rhetoric, and to condemn all acts of terrorism. “Regrettably, such calls continued to go unanswered,” Mladenov said.

Mladenov again warned the council that Gaza, controlled by the Islamist Hamas movement, was a “tinderbox.”

“Two million Palestinians in Gaza can no longer be held hostage by divisions,” he said. “For a decade they have lived under the control of Hamas. They have had to deal with crippling Israeli closures, Palestinian divisions and have lived through three devastating conflicts.”

Haley: Hamas a serious threat

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who has accused the Security Council of “bashing Israel,” called on the body to address the threat of Hamas.

“Every ounce of what we do should be against Hamas. They are a dangerous actor who has no care for the Palestinians, no care for the Israelis, and they are determined to destroy everything in their path,” Haley said.

The United States traditionally shields Israel, Washington’s long-time ally that receives more than $3 billion in annual U.S. military aid, from council action. The five council veto powers are the United States, Russia, France, Britain and China.

The December resolution, put forward by New Zealand, Malaysia, Venezuela and Senegal a day after Egypt withdrew it under pressure from Israel and Trump, was the first adopted by on Israel and the Palestinians in nearly eight years.
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US Expands Sanctions Against Russia, Ukraine Separatists

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The United States Treasury Department announced additional sanctions Tuesday against Russia, pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, and individuals and companies associated with them.

The move comes on the heels of a White House meeting Tuesday between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

The increased sanctions is in response to continued Russian support for pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. Prior to his meeting with Trump, Poroshenko stressed the importance of taking such action before the U.S. president’s meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

The sanctions will target 38 individuals and business entities linked to the continuing conflict in eastern Ukraine. The penalties will remain in place until Russia meets the terms of 2014 and 2015 peace accords reached in Minsk, Belarus.

“These designations will maintain pressure on Russia to work toward a diplomatic process that guarantees Ukrainian sovereignty,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement. “There should be no sanctions relief until Russia meets its obligations under the Minsk agreement.”

Among those sanctioned are two high-level Russian officials, Deputy Economy Minister Sergey Nazarov and Russian MP Alexander Babakov.

Nazarov, who oversees Russia’s humanitarian aid programs in separatist-controlled areas of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions, has been designated for materially assisting and sponsoring the separatist campaigns and advocating international investment in Crimea.

Babakov, Putin’s special liaison for expatriates, voted in favor of annexing Crimea in 2014 on the grounds that Moscow is obligated to represent ethnic Russians living abroad.

Russia’s largest arms producer, Kalashnikov Concern, has been designated along with a number of small Russian-owned banks for operating in Crimea, along with Oboronlogistyka, a Russian Defense Ministry subsidiary in charge of procurement and provisioning for the annexed Black Sea peninsula.

KPSK, one of Russia’s top corporate property underwriters, has been designated for insuring the Kerch Bridge project, which, if completed, would link Crimea and mainland Russia.

The action follows moves by lawmakers last week to pass a bill to limit the White House’s authority to lift sanctions against Russia without congressional approval. The bill passed with 98 votes in the Senate and now moves on to the House of Representatives.

The Trump administration had pushed back against the Senate bill.

“I would urge Congress to ensure any legislation allows the president to have the flexibility to adjust sanctions,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told lawmakers last week.

Ukrainian President Poroshenko said he received strong assurances of U.S. support for his country from Trump during Tuesday’s meeting.

Trump is expected to meet with Putin at the upcoming Group of 20 (G-20) summit slated for July 7-8 in Hamburg, Germany, under the theme “Shaping an Interconnected World.”

Oksana Bedratenko and Oleksiy Kuzmenko of VOA’s Ukrainian Service contributed to this article.
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McConnell: GOP Getting Ready for Senate Health Care Vote

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Republicans are getting ready for Senate votes on legislation scuttling former President Barack Obama’s health care law, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday among growing indications that the climactic vote could occur next week.

 

“The Senate will soon have a chance to turn the page on this failed law,” said the Kentucky Republican. He said GOP senators have had “many productive discussions” on the measure and added, “We have to act, and we are.”

 

On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said GOP senators will be briefed on the emerging bill Wednesday and he expects to see the legislation the next day, about a week before a vote occurs.

 

Even so, lobbyists said final decisions had yet to be made on some issues, including how to make sure that health care tax subsidies Republicans would provide cannot used to buy insurance that covers abortion. That’s a crucial problem for the GOP because many conservative Republican senators are demanding such restrictions.

 

Lacking the votes to stop it, Democrats are criticizing the still-evolving bill as a stealthy measure that GOP leaders want to rush through the chamber before anyone knows what’s really in it.

 

Democrats concede that Obama’s prized statute needs changes to shore up some regional markets where insurers are losing money. But they praise its impact on providing coverage to around 20 million additional people and forcing insurers to provide more generous benefits.

 

They held the Senate floor for several hours late Monday and promised to use procedural tactics to slow the Senate’s work in an effort to focus attention on the Republican effort. They also forced McConnell to turn aside requests to require Senate committees to debate and vote on the measure, a step in the legislative process that GOP leaders have foregone.

 

“The combination of secrecy and speed are a toxic recipe,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.

 

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., called the secrecy of the GOP effort “an insult to the American people.”

 

Democrats’ largely symbolic effort was likely to have little or no impact on how McConnell handles the measure, which he’d like the Senate to approve by the end of next week. But they were hoping it would have at least two effects — scare off Republicans wavering over whether to back the measure, and show liberal activists that Democrats are aggressively trying to thwart the legislation, even though they lack the votes to derail it.

 

McConnell is using closed-door meetings among Republicans to write the bill. In these sessions lawmakers are trying to resolve internal disputes over how to reduce the insurance coverage standards that Obama’s law requires, cut the Medicaid health care program for the poor and eliminate taxes Obama levied on higher earners and the medical industry.

 

Democrats are increasingly worried that McConnell will jam the bill through the Senate with little debate, limiting their chance to scrutinize the bill and whip up opposition against it.

 

Under special rules, each party will have just 10 hours of debate on the measure before the chamber begins a vote-a-rama, a series of quick amendment votes with little discussion. Democrats have even suggested a scenario in which Senate debate begins on a preliminary version of the GOP measure and McConnell offers the final package as a late amendment, giving Democrats little or no time to criticize it.

 

As Democrats made a series of motions that McConnell turned aside, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., twice asked the GOP leader to ensure Democrats will have more than 10 hours to study and debate the bill before the vote.

 

“I think we’ll have ample opportunity to read and amend the bill,” McConnell answered each time.

 

The procedures McConnell will use will let Senate Republicans pass the bill as long as no more than two of the 52 GOP senators oppose it. It remains uncertain McConnell will be able to do that, but both parties respect his ability to keep his party unified and count votes.

 

Democrats are trying to capitalize on the secrecy and contrast it with the numerous committee meetings and votes that produced Obama’s 2010 statute. They say they will slow work on bills by refusing to let the Senate bypass time-consuming procedural steps, which it customarily does on most legislation.
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Deadly Clashes Erupt in Central African Republic Despite Cease-fire

Posted on by SeeAF

Bodies lay in the streets and at least 35 people were wounded on Tuesday in fighting in Central African Republic a day after a peace deal was signed to end years of bloodshed, aid workers and witnesses said.

Thousands have died and a fifth of Central Africans have fled their homes in the conflict that broke out after mainly Muslim Seleka rebels ousted President Francois Bozize in 2013, provoking a backlash from Christian anti-balaka militias.

Thirteen of the country’s 14 armed groups along with representatives from the government signed Monday’s accord in Rome. The deal, brokered by the Roman Catholic Sant’ Egidio peace group, called for an immediate cease-fire.

But clashes between former Seleka members and anti-balaka fighters erupted early in the morning in the town of Bria, around 580 kilometers (360 miles) northeast of the capital Bangui.

“There are bodies strewn across the streets. There are also fires and looting of houses taking place,” said one aid worker present in the town, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals.

An official death toll was not immediately available, but the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said it was treating those wounded in the clashes.

“Intense shooting started at 6 a.m. (0500 GMT) today. At 9:30 a.m. we already received 35 wounded at the hospital, mostly (with) gunshot wounds,” said Mumuza Muhindo Musubaho, MSF’s project coordinator in Bria.

Flashpoint

The presence of rival factions in Bria has made the town a regular flashpoint, including during fighting that killed around 300 people and displaced 100,000 last month.

Tuesday’s clashes broke out near a camp housing people who had been forced to flee previous bouts of violence, according to the country’s U.N. peacekeeping mission, MINUSCA.

“We regret the presence of armed elements in IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps, which causes problems not just in Bria but also in other locations. It’s a reality,” said MINUSCA spokesman Vladimir Monteiro.​

Monday’s peace deal is only the latest in a series of agreements aimed at putting an end to the conflict in Central African Republic, which has in recent months witnessed some of the worst bloodshed in years.

 The office of President Faustin-Archange Touadera, who was elected last year, applauded on Tuesday what it said was “an historic accord”. However, other reactions in the capital Bangui were less optimistic.

“[This accord] simply follows the same scenario repeated over and over,” said Joseph Bindoumi, president of the Central African League of Human Rights. “Those who signed are mocking the people.”
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Pentagon Confirms Death of Islamic State ‘Grand Mufti’

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The Pentagon has confirmed the death of one of Islamic State’s leading ideologues in a coalition strike late last month.

Turki al-Binali, the terror group’s so-called “Grand Mufti,” or chief cleric, was killed May 31 in an airstrike in Mayadin, Syria, Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis told reporters Tuesday.

Al-Binali was central in recruiting foreign fighters to Islamic State and was a close confidante of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

“He provided propaganda to incite murder and other atrocities,” Davis said. “His recruiting efforts for the terror group also included multiple recorded lectures attempting to justify and encouraging the slaughter of innocents.”

Reports say al-Binali also provided religious justification for the enslavement of hundreds of women from Iraq’s Yazidi minority.

Before Tuesday’s confirmation, some reports had said the Bahraini cleric died in an airstrike in Deir-Ez Zur, Syria, while other supporters claimed he died in the group’s de-facto capital, Raqqa.

The death signifies a major blow to the group as it struggles with intensified attacks in Iraq and Syria.

Officials say some IS leaders have fled to Mayadin as the group comes under attack in Raqqa and Mosul, Iraq.
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Turkey Feels Strain as World’s Largest Host of Refugees

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This U.N. World Refugee Day sees Turkey designated for the third consecutive year as the country that hosts the most refugees.While Ankara continues to stand by its policy of welcoming refugees, tensions within the country appear to be on the rise.

On Sunday, a factory dispute involving the factory owner and Syrian employees triggered rising hostilities between Syrians and Turks, along with violence that raged into the night in a suburb of the western city of Sakarya.

3 million Syrians in Turkey

There appears to be little remorse among some of those who took part in the violence.

“These Syrians attacked the factory buses and burned down cars,” explained one young man who was on the scene. “We also heard that the Syrians harassed girls, so me and a number of Turks came together, walked to a Syrian neighborhood and started to beat whomever came our way. Then we went to another area and beat more people. Some had their faces really quite damaged. Then the police came and we got beaten by them.”

The majority of the 3 million Syrians in Turkey live outside refugee camps. Many eke out a living in the main cities and the more prosperous western provinces.

Open threats to Syrians

Most cities and towns now have large Syrian populations and in many of them, tensions have been rising for some time.

“We have witnessed in different neighborhoods in Istanbul, but also in the south of Turkey, where the Syrians are concentrated, in fact, there are very open threats to the Syrians,” warned Professor Ahmet Icduygu, an expert on migration at Istanbul’s Koc University. “There were fights going and discrimination going on. And there is already debate, like in other Western countries, that they are taking our jobs, and also quite direct attacks to the Syrians, etcetera, still there … a kind of tension growing.”

Ankara’s policy of providing welfare to the refugees, including free health care and education, also has added to the resentment.

“They [Syrians] are getting some privileges that Turks don’t get, such Syrian students can go directly to university without paying,” notes Icduygu. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the cost to Turkey of hosting the refugees had surpassed $25 billion.

Tensions are now being exacerbated by rising unemployment — particularly among the young — running at more than 23 percent, which is close to being decade high.

Stabbing death results in riots

Last month, Istanbul, which is home to the largest Syrian population, witnessed some of the worst violence. Days of violent clashes against Syrians in an Istanbul suburb occurred after Syrian and Afghan refugees allegedly stabbed to death a Turkish youth who was trying to prevent the youngsters from harassing a girl. The violence was only quelled by a large police intervention involving water-cannon trucks and armored cars, and the evacuation of scores of Syrians from the district.

Salih Arslan, the uncle of the murdered Turkish youth, voiced frustration that the concerns of Turkish residents are being ignored.

“These incidents and events happen all the time, though we always make complaints, nobody stops them,” said Arslan.

“On Sundays we can’t go and sit in the parks with our families. Syrians come in groups of 20 to 30 and then you feel yourself in the middle of an Arab country. They stabbed the heart of my young nephew. And those who commit these crimes go without punishment because these people don’t even have registration papers,” he added.

Arabic signs removed

In the southern city of Adana, authorities have removed many Arabic signs in a bid to lower the visible presence of Syrians, but the government defends its policy of offering sanctuary, with Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu vowing no change in policy.

Erdogan’s foreign affairs spokesman tweeted, “On this #WorldRefugeeDay, Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees in the world. This is not a burden but a badge of honor for us.”

But with thousands of refugees returning to Syria, albeit temporarily for the coming Eid religious holiday, analysts suggest that Ankara is hoping this could be a sign the burgeoning refugee crisis might be starting to ease.
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UN, AU Call for Restraint Along Eritrea-Djibouti Border

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The U.N. Security Council is calling on Eritrea and Djibouti to peacefully resolve a land dispute along their border.

Djibouti accused Eritrea of deploying troops to occupy the contested area, known as Ras Doumeira, after a contingent of 450 Qatari peacekeepers departed last week. If true, the move could threaten a return to war for the first time since the countries fought over the land in 2008.

In a news conference Monday, Sacha Sergio Llorenty Soliz, the permanent representative of the president of the U.N. Security Council, said that council members supported an African Union initiative to deploy a fact-finding mission to the border and that all parties should work to “maintain an atmosphere of calm and restraint.”

The U.N. assistant secretary-general for political affairs, Taye-Brook Zerihoun of Ethiopia, held a briefing for members to discuss the matter. Soliz said members were considering “future confidence-building measures.” He added that members would continue to follow the situation closely.

Ethiopia, which fought a war against Eritrea from 1998 to 2000, currently holds a two-year nonpermanent seat on the Security Council.

No ‘speculative analysis’

On Friday, the Eritrean government issued a statement saying it would wait to get more information and not “engage in speculative analysis at this stage.”  Eritrea’s ambassador to the African Union, Araya Desta, told The Associated Press his government didn’t want to take any land from Djibouti, and “the last time, we had some skirmishes. It was unnecessary.”

Djibouti officials agreed that the only way to resolve border tensions is through peaceful means. “We urge Eritrea to resolve the border dispute peacefully with Djibouti, as we’ve always said as a matter of priority and in a manner consistent with international law,” Djibouti’s ambassador to the United Nations, Mohamed Siad Doualeh, told VOA last week.

Ebba Kalondo, African Union spokesperson, told VOA’s DayBreak Africa that the AU was ready to help resolve the matter.

“The chairperson of the AU Commission [Moussa Faki] also stands ready to assist Djibouti and Eritrea to normalize the relationship and promote good neighborliness within the framework of the relevant and current AU instruments,” Kalondo said.

The International Authority on Governmental Development, an East African trade bloc, also threw its weight behind talks, saying it would “relentlessly work towards bringing peace” between the two countries.

Friction in 1996

Ras Doumeira has been a source of tension since 1996, when a Djiboutian official accused Eritrea of shelling the area. Tensions continued in 1999 when Eritrea accused Djibouti of supporting Ethiopia.

Djibouti also has accused Eritrea of hosting Djiboutian rebels. In 2008, the two countries had a skirmish resulting in an unknown number of dead and wounded.

Tensions appeared to be easing last year when Eritrea released four Djiboutians who had been held as prisoners of war for eight years.

VOA’s James Butty and Abdulaziz Oman contributed to this report.
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Germany Touts Africa Investment as Signature Issue at G-20 Meeting

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A new approach to foreign investment and aid in Africa by the world’s richest nations is being called for by Germany’s chancellor, before she hosts a meeting of the world’s 20 wealthiest nations next month. The so-called “Merkel plan” calls for more investment in Africa, as a way of stemming African migration to Europe.

 

This week, German Foreign Minister Gerd Muller said he fears 100 million African refugees might come to Germany if nothing is done.

 

So, Chancellor Angela Merkel has vowed to invest some $335 million to attract foreign investors to Africa, and will try to convince the other 19 nations attending the G-20 summit to show greater commitment to the continent’s struggling economies.

Germany has identified four countries as its focus: Ivory Coast, Morocco, Rwanda and Tunisia, but has also had discussions with other African leaders.

 

Talitha Bertelsmann-Scott heads the Economic Diplomacy Program at the South African Institute of International Affairs, and says Germany has worked hard to overcome its violent African colonial past and emerge as a business leader.

 

“Germany has given so much, has been very inspiring in terms of how it emerged after the Second World War as this leading manufacturing powerhouse,” she said. “And Africa is really looking towards ways they can industrialize. And Germany does give leadership here.”

But she said she has some reservations about the plan outlined by Germany’s Finance Ministry, which she says did not involve consultation with African nations.

 

German business: all in the family

Marc Zander leads business consultancy Africon, a German-based company that focuses on helping businesses set up in sub-Saharan Africa.

He says German companies are looking to make serious, long-term investments and more are looking each day.

“A lot of German companies are still family-owned so their approach to the African region might be on the one side be very cautious, but on the other side, a lot of German companies do properly work on the the strategies and also think-long term,” he said from Stuttgart, Germany.

Christoph Kannengiesser, CEO of the Berlin-based German-African Business Association says 600 German companies are already working on the continent and he expects that number to grow. The continent’s booming population and growing consumer base make it an attractive business destination, he says.

“The new German approach to Africa is first of all to accept and to take into consideration much more that Africa is a political and economic factor, and that Germany should strengthen the ties to Africa and build up more and more intensive relations to Africa in general and to important African countries,” he said. “And I think the second aspect is that we recognize Africa as a continent of economic opportunities and that we should engage as well.”

The two-day summit will be held July 7 and 8 meet in Hamburg.
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Rape, Domestic Abuse Among Traumas South Sudan Refugees Carry to Camps

Posted on by SeeAF

The nearly 1 million South Sudanese refugees in Uganda face shortages of food, water and medical care, but they have also brought with them the trauma of the war they fled. Aid agencies are struggling to meet the need for counseling for survivors of gender-based violence.

She was attacked in South Sudan six months ago, but she is still afraid to answer the door. VOA met this 35-year-old woman at the Pagirinya refugee settlement in Uganda. She spoke through a translator.

 

She said she doesn’t know if it was government soldiers or rebels. She says there were four of them who walked into my house and one of them started raping me. The other three stood guard. After that, she says, they asked me for money. They started looking around and took 500 South Sudanese pounds and left.

 

She said when her husband came home, she told him what had happened. He told her to leave or he would kill her. She arrived in Uganda in February.

 

Insufficient trauma counseling

U.N. human rights officials said earlier this year that rape had reached “epic proportions” in the conflict in South Sudan. The impact is felt in the refugee settlements, though U.N. officials say funding for trauma counseling is insufficient.

“We have about 20,000 women that have visited our center,” said Alain Sibenaler, the Uganda Country Representative for the UNFPA. “Those are women that report abuse, that talk about, and that’s of course very difficult to estimate how many more there are who have been silent, but it’s important to know that, before they cross the border, there is already a large amount of violence that they have been subjected to. Now, that violence sometimes continues on their way to the settlement or is even perpetrated within the settlement.”

 

VOA spoke to a community facilitator working with abused women in the settlements. He said he sees food shortages intensifying domestic violence.

 

Domestic violence

One 30-year-old refugee from East Equatoria told VOA about the abuse she faces. She has seven children, two of them from her previous marriage. She said her husband beats her when he sees her feeding them from the family’s rations.

 

She says “he used a bamboo stick to beat me. He hit my hand and broke my wrist. He also hit my back, I am always in pain.” She says the day I returned from the hospital, he raped me and while at it he said ‘I want to see who will come and rescue you. You are my wife.'”

 

She says she threatened once to report him to Ugandan police, but he told her he would cross back into South Sudan to evade capture.

Uganda’s government says it is aware of the problem of violence against women in the settlements.

 

“When they struggle for resources in the areas that we give them, say, like water points, they become susceptible to all sorts of abuses,” said Minister for Refugees Musa Ecweru. “I have had to go sometime as a minister responsible to speak very strongly to refugees, that some of you may have run from countries where law enforcement was weak, you have now run to a country where we take rights of others very strongly.”

 

However, the minister said there have not been any recent arrests or prosecutions related to gender-based violence in the settlements. He said the government has placed priority on counseling survivors of abuse.
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Muslim Americans Express Fear as Anti-Islam Sentiments Surge

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Muslims in some parts of the U.S. say they are worried about their security, as hate crimes targeting Muslim-Americans are on the rise. The recent anti-Sharia marches held by right-wing extremists added to the fear that many Muslims are feeling. VOA’s Abdulaziz Osman reports.
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World Marks UN Refugee Day

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The United Nations Refugee Day (June 20) seeks to bring attention to the unprecedented number of refugees worldwide. More than 65 million people have been displaced from their homes, mostly by war and violence, and more than 22 million of them are refugees. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports that refugees are supported largely by donations, and those are growing short.
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Two Americans From Ohio Detained in North Korea With Different Paths Home

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Otto Warmbier, the U.S. college student released by North Korea in a coma last week, died Monday in a Cincinnati, Ohio hospital. He was 22 years old. Warmbier had been held by Pyongyang for 17 months, having tearfully confessed to trying to steal a propaganda banner while on a on a tour of the secretive country. In the winter of 2016, as news spread of Warmbier detention, another American living nearby in Ohio watched news reports intently as the incident unfolded. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh has more.
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