Month: January 2018

Film About Kenya Terror Attack Up for an Oscar

Posted on by SeeAF

A movie produced by a German film student about the 2015 Mandera bus attack in Kenya has just been nominated for an Oscar. The short film, Watu Wote, or Swahili for “All of Us,” tells the story of how average Kenyans resisted Al Shabab. The film premiered in Nairobi Tuesday night and is based on the real-life events of December 21, 2015.

On that day, Al-Shabab militants attacked a bus headed from Nairobi to Mandera, a town at Kenya’s border with Somalia. The terrorists tried to coerce the Muslim passengers to identify the Christians. The passengers refused.

The film depicts the harrowing encounter.

German film student Katja Benrath directed the short film as her graduation project at the Hamburg Media School.

“We felt very good being nominated because this is a huge achievement being nominated, for us, for Gernany and for Kenya,” said Benrath. “It’s just great.”

Kenya, in particular the country’s border region, has been struck repeatedly by Al Shabab attacks in recent years. Watu Wote explores the tensions that have arisen in Kenya over that violence.

 

The film’s fictional protagonist is a woman named Jua. She is taking the bus to visit her sick mother. We see Jua get angry at a Muslim boy selling water. A Muslim passenger named Salah Farah later asks her why and Jua says her husband and child had been murdered by terrorists.

Later, during the attack, Salah defends the non-Muslim passengers. He challenges the terrorists on the virtues of what true Islam is all about. Finally they shoot him.

The real-life Salah Farah died from his injuries less than a month after the attack.

In the film, we see Jua sitting in the row behind Salah, her hand placed reassuringly on the injured man’s shoulder as the bus escapes.

Actress Adelyne Wairimu played the role of Jua.

“I started seeing life in a different way because it’s not every day you are attacked by terrorists and people have the courage to stand in and tell them you are not going to do this and that. It’s unbelievable,” said Wairium. 

28-year-old Abdulahi Ahmed played the role of the Al-Shabab second in command.

“It was hard acting as a terrorist, but the thing is I really wanted to spread the message that Muslims are not allowed to kill Christians and our religion doesn’t teach us to kill Christians,” said Ahmed. “In our Koran, we are told that our religion does not allow us to kill even an innocent ant without a reason.”

The short film has already swept up awards at film festivals in the United States and is now up for a prestigious Oscar award in the “Live Action Short Film” category.

The director, Katja Benrath hopes the message of the film will spread.

“I think prejudices are not the right way to live, so I think maybe this movie could help to start again, to look at the next person as a human being and not as a religion you don’t like or a culture you don’t like,” said Benrath. “I think this movie could really open up minds.”

The 90th Oscar awards ceremony will take place in Los Angeles on March 4.
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Former US Olympics Doctor Faces Sentencing for Sexually Abusing Gymnasts

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Former USA Gymnastics team physician Larry Nassar faces sentencing Wednesday after pleading guilty to sexually abusing female gymnasts, some as young as 10 years old.

A Michigan judge is expected to sentence Nassar to a lengthy prison term after pleading guilty in November to 10 counts of first-degree sex assault.

Prosecutors have requested a sentence of 40 to 125 years for Nassar, who is already serving a 60-year term on child pornography convictions.

About 160 of Nassar’s victims gave emotional statements at his sentencing hearing in a circuit court in Lansing, Michigan since it began on January 16.

U.S. Olympic gold medalists Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas and McKayla Maroney are among athletes who have said in recent months they were assaulted by Nassar during medical treatment.

Many victims have accused USA Gymnastics, the sport’s governing body in the U.S., of ignoring their complaints and the governing body of concealing them in an effort to avoid negative publicity.

Three high-ranking board members quit Monday amid ongoing criticism, following the resignation last March of the organization’s president and chief executive.

The 54-year-old Nassar served as the USA Gymnastics physician in four Olympic Games. Nassar was also the team physician for the Michigan State University gymnastics and women’s crew teams, and an associate professor at the university’s College of Osteopathic Medicine.
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Internet Access Booming in Least Developed Countries

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The International Telecommunication Union reports hundreds of millions of people in the world’s poorest countries now have access to the Internet and mobile devices.

It is increasingly difficult to function in this modern digital world without access to the Internet, a smart phone or other digital device. A new report by the International Telecommunication Union finds e-banking, e-commerce and other actions in cyberspace are no longer just the purview of the rich world.

It says all 47 of the world’s Least Developed Countries are making huge strides in increasing their Internet access. The ITU says more than 60 percent of LDC populations are covered by a 3G network, referring to a third generation or advanced wireless mobile telecommunication technology.

It notes by the end of last year, about 700 million people in LDCs had subscriptions to mobile phones, with 80 percent of their populations living within range of a mobile cellular network. Given this progress, the ITU reports LDCs are on track toward achieving the U.N. Sustainable Development Goal on universal and affordable Internet access by 2020.

ITU spokeswoman Jennifer Ferguson-Mitchell tells VOA having access to the Internet and mobile phones has a positive impact on peoples’ lives. She says digital connectivity can provide valuable knowledge and information to populations around the world.

“It gives farmers access to information on crops, when to plant their crops, weather patterns that are happening. It provides access to online education to communities,” she said. “It can make micro and small and medium sized enterprises be able to compete with larger businesses.”

The lTU says universal and affordable Internet access can help LDCs leap-frog in areas such as education, health, government services, trade and can trigger new business opportunities. While this is positive, the report identifies lack of digital skills as a key barrier to Information Communication Technology and Internet use in LDCs.

The report calls on policy makers, industry leaders, and educators to work together to increase digital skills across the Least Developed Countries.

 
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America’s Most Diverse Fighting Force Celebrates Its Differences

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For much of U.S. history, the American military’s fighting force was primarily white and male. But today, the force is as diverse as the country it serves to protect.

Fort Bragg, North Carolina, is home to the “All-American” 82nd Airborne, which calls itself the most diverse division in the United States.

Soldiers say despite perceived racial discord in the country — whether it be during the Charlottesville riots last August or the recent controversial comments from President Donald Trump on immigrants from Haiti and Africa — the fighting unit’s values remain unchanged.

“We were the first racially integrated unit in the U.S. Department of Defense,” said Lt. Col. Joe Buccino, communications director for the 82nd Airborne, “the first division to have female infantry commanders, and this was the first division that was organized with people from all over the country.”

The base has paratroopers from all 50 states, and more than 120 different nationalities.

Private First Class Irvin Andrean grew up in Indonesia before moving to the eastern U.S. state of Pennsylvania as a teen. He joined the Army as a mechanic and says he has never felt out of place.

“When I first got here, they all welcomed me,” Andrean said. “Like, they never treated me differently.”

Sgt. Selene Uribe grew up in the United States, but English was not her first language. She says joining the U.S. Army required some adjustment.

“Coming from a very small town, which is Richgrove, California, 99.9 percent Hispanic, it was a culture shock,” she said.

Now Uribe and her colleagues from culturally homogenous areas say they embrace the differences within their division, and have grown from working with those from various backgrounds.

“I’ve met some very amazing people and it’s opened my eyes a lot,” said Specialist Vince Vest. “And I’ve gained a lot of wisdom through those people, and I’ve made life-long friends.”

Out in the civilian world, the United States is embroiled in a political debate over immigration and racism, recharged by controversial remarks made by President Trump.

While these soldiers at Fort Bragg say they haven’t experienced racial discrimination in the military, Master Sgt. Jose Colon worries about the day he retires and steps off the base and into non-military life.

“I don’t see any comeradery in the civilian world coming,” he said. “I don’t know what would trigger that, but we don’t seem to be getting any closer.”

Colon says the 82nd, and the entire U.S. Army for that matter, has an established a code of conduct that does not tolerate racism.

“You feel safe in some aspects by being in the military because you have these rules that help protect you and make it equal,” he said. “That’s why I love it. That’s kind of the reason why I joined.”

While the political debate surrounding diversity and racism dominates headlines, the Army continues to welcome recruits from throughout the world.

Staff Sgt. Alfred Kollie, who fled Liberia and lived most of his life in a Ghana refugee camp, now leads a 20-soldier fueling team for the 82nd.

“As a child in Africa, seeing all the chaos and death and destruction, I felt myself that I owe the world to be part of something good and not something evil,” Kollie said.

His goal, like the rest of the 82nd Airborne, is to serve and protect regardless of race, gender or ethnicity.
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Uganda President: ‘I Love Trump’

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U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments may have angered many African leaders, but not Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, who says he loves Trump’s blunt honesty, and thinks the United States has a great president. 

President Museveni got legislators from the East African Community laughing when he said he loved Trump.

Earlier this month, President Trump allegedly called Haiti and some countries in Africa an expletive, while discussing the subject of immigrants going to the United States.  While some African countries such as Nigeria and South Africa reacted by summoning U.S. ambassadors to explain the insulting comment, Uganda’s Museveni instead had praise for Trump.

 

“America has got one of the best presidents ever, Mr Trump.  I love Trump.  I love Trump because he tells Africans frankly,” said Museveni. “I do not know whether he is misquoted or whatever, but when he speaks I like him, because he speaks frankly.  The Africans need to solve their problems.  They need to be strong, in the world you cannot survive if you are weak.”

Museveni is not the only Trump fan in Uganda.  Local radio presenter James Onen, who is known for his controversial comments, says many Africans believe their countries are the word Trump used, because many of the best and brightest flee the continent for better opportunities.

He thinks, however, that Museveni’s comment was ironic.  After all, he says, if African countries are bad places to live, is not that the fault of those in charge? 

“So, it is almost an admission of his own failings,” said Onen. “But, secondly I think President Museveni also is being strategic, he understands that by being in the good books of Trump, it might mean better things and less problems for him down the road.”

Uganda’s representative to the East African Legislative Assembly, Susan Nakawuki, agreed with Museveni’s comments, but says the challenge with Africa is that it does not have opportunities such as Western countries.

“We should not leave outsiders to come and try to provide solutions to us.  Because when you give them that opportunity they come with their stringent conditions,” said Nakawuki. “So, all these people would come to us with all these favors and what not.  They expect something in return, maybe in terms of investments.  So, I entirely agree, Africa is full of very smart people, only that we do not have sometimes the opportunities that people in the first world do have.”

Museveni may have praised Trump for his comment, but Uganda’s Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga did not let the comment slide.

While meeting with U.S. Ambassador to Uganda Deborah Malac on Tuesday, she asked what Trump meant by his uncomplimentary remarks.  Ambassador Malac described the comments as disturbing and upsetting.   

 
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Pope Francis Denounces Fake News

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Pope Francis denounced “fake news” as evil and urged reporters to rediscover the “dignity of journalism” and search for the truth.

“Spreading fake news can serve to advance specific goals, influence political decisions and serve economic interests, the pope wrote in an annual message released Wednesday in advance of the Roman Catholic Church’s World Communications Day on May 13.

The document was the first released by a pope on the topic and came after months of ongoing debate about the effect of fake news stories on the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The pope’s message cited the difficulty people have of differentiating erroneous information from the truth due to their lack of exposure to information outlets that offer different opinions and perspectives.

“Disinformation thus thrives on the absence of healthy confrontation with other sources of information that could effectively challenge prejudices and generate constructive dialogue; instead, it risks turning people into unwilling accomplices in spreading biased and baseless ideas,” the pope wrote.

Francis called on journalists to pursue information that is “truthful and opposed to falsehoods, rhetorical slogans, and sensational headlines.”

The pontiff has had a contentious relationship with the news media, often complaining about what he has considered biased news reporting.

During his recent trip to Chile and Peru, media criticism of him was renewed for having appointed a bishop accused by victims of being participating in a cover-up for Chile’s most notorious pedophile priest. He was then heavily criticized in the Chilean media for accusing the victims of slander.

Francis touted educational efforts to make social media users aware of disinformation, as well as institutional and legal campaigns to expose those who use technology to hide their identities so they can anonymously plant lies to the public.

“None of us can feel exempted from the duty of countering these falsehoods,” he said.

 

The Catholic Church has been observing World Communications Day since 1967. The release of the pope’s message on January 24, coincides with the feast day of St. Francis de Sales, the patron saint of journalists.
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Russia’s Foreign Agent Law Has Chilling Effect On Civil Society Groups, NGOs

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Russia tightened its so-called “foreign agent” law last month to target overseas media operating in the country. It means the government can require media outlets to state that they are “foreign agents.” They also have to submit to intensive scrutiny of staffing and financing. Voice of America is among the media organizations to receive such a designation. 

Similar legislation was introduced in 2012 against civil society and non-governmental groups that receive any type of foreign financial support.

The human rights group Memorial has long been targeted for its efforts at documenting historical crimes in the Soviet era, as well as modern-day rights abuses. It was founded in the late 1980s by political dissidents, including the late Russian nuclear physicist Andrei Sakharov.

Memorial was designated a foreign agent in 2015 — accused of receiving funds from the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy and the European Commission, among others. The designation has seen a big increase in workload for the group’s legal director, Kirill Koroteev.

“The most significant problem is that we have to spend a great deal of time in court. We have to spend a lot of time defending ourselves, because we are under the tight control of the state. And that means that even the smallest possible fault, the way the state sees it, leads to a fine or a threat to be eliminated,” Koroteev told VOA in a recent interview.

WATCH: Henry Ridgwell’s report from Moscow

For many of those who fall foul of the designation, the law has echoes of Stalin-era denunciations of alleged anti-Soviet spies. Koroteev says even the term foreign agent appears to be copied from those times.

“This particular expression itself, let us say, is undoubtedly borrowed from the “Great Terror” period. Someone could just open any reasonable book on history, or even a dictionary of the Russian language. That is why the parallel is quite evident.”

The organization Levada conducts social research and polling, aiming to gain an insight into Russian public opinion. But it, too, has also been designated a foreign agent and banned from operating during Russia’s upcoming election campaign season.

“Nobody is going to try to find out for themselves what the foreign money was used for — it does not matter. The most important thing is that the label was attached. Then, that makes it seem there is something murky. That label means one works for foreigners, and if he works for foreigners, that means he is against Russia,” says Levada’s Denis Volkov.

Russia’s government says the foreign agent law is aimed at stopping nefarious foreign interference in Russian politics. On the streets of Moscow, few wanted to discuss the topic. Those who did voiced support for the government.

“I stand for everything in the national interest, everything that is for us. That pleases me. Maybe I am a patriot, but I think that we shall survive without all those foreign things,” Moscow resident Larisa told VOA.

In its latest report for 2018, the group Human Rights Watch says the foreign agent law has had a chilling effect: By September 2017, Russia had designated 158 groups as foreign agents, and courts had levied crippling fines for those failing to comply. They estimate that approximately 30 civil society groups have shut down.
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UN Calls for Probe into Killings of Anti-Government Protesters in DRC

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The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights is urging the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo to investigate the alleged killings by security forces during anti-government protests Sunday.

The U.N. human rights office warns this latest crackdown by security forces in Democratic Republic of Congo indicates a recurring pattern of repression against political opponents of Congolese President Joseph Kabila.

It says U.N. monitors have recorded at least six deaths and 68 wounded during anti-Government demonstrations in the capital Kinshasa. They also report live ammunition has been used against protesters, 121 people have been arrested and tear gas has been fired into churches in various parts of the country.

U.N. human rights spokeswoman, Ravina Shamdasani, notes U.N. monitors also were attacked during the demonstrations. She says her office is calling on the government to investigate all incidents of alleged use of excessive force against demonstrators and U.N, personnel by security officers.

She tells VOA there is no certainty the government will heed this call, but adds the Congolese leadership has an obligation to investigate.

“People have been killed, people have been injured and arbitrarily arrested. It is the obligation of the government to ensure that security forces are handling protests in line with the law,” she said. “And, we will continue to call for this until it happens. There is an impact when we call on governments to cease carrying out serious human rights violations.”

Shamdasani says human rights workers will continue to monitor and report on events, and she says they will continue to ask the government to investigate. She also agrees the root cause of the country’s political tensions lies in the continued postponement of presidential elections.

Shamdasani says the High Commissioner’s office is urging the government to work constructively with civil society, religious leaders and political opponents to resolve this situation. If this is not done, she warns the violence and repression will continue.

 
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Syria, Russia Accuse US of Lying About Chemical Weapons Attacks

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Syria and Russia on Wednesday accused the United States of lying about chemical weapons attacks in the Syrian conflict as a way of derailing efforts to bring an end to the fighting.

Syria’s state-run SANA news agency carried comments from a Foreign Ministry source condemning what it called “lies and allegations” by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Interfax news agency that whenever peace efforts advance, the United States promotes “rigged, unverified reports” of chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

Those comments came a day after the United States joined its NATO allies in launching a pressure campaign against the use of chemical weapons in Syria, while singling out Russia for protecting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

“The recent attacks in East Ghouta raise serious concerns that Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian regime might be continuing its use of chemical weapons against its own people,” Tillerson said at a Paris conference hosted by Le Drian.

Tillerson said at least 20 people were killed Monday in an apparent chlorine gas attack in rebel-held East Ghouta, near Damascus.

 

“Whoever conducted the attacks, Russia ultimately bears responsibility for the victims in East Ghouta and countless other Syrians targeted with chemical weapons since Russia became involved in Syria,” he said.

Tillerson, along with foreign ministers from France, Germany and Turkey, were among those who launched the International Partnership Against Impunity for Use of Chemical Weapons on Tuesday. More than two dozen like-minded nations endorsed a political commitment to share information on combating the use of chemical weapons worldwide.

The U.S. secretary of state noted Russia’s failure to resolve the chemical weapons issue in Syria calls into question its commitment to the resolution of the overall crisis.

“At a very minimum, Russia must stop vetoing and at least abstain from future security council votes on this issue,” Tillerson said.

In November, Russia vetoed the renewal of an independent and technical group created by the U.N. Security Council, the so-called Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), to look into the perpetrators of chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

 

“When Russia killed the JIM, they sent a dangerous message to the world — one that not only said chemical weapons use is acceptable but also that those who use chemical weapons don’t need to be identified or held accountable,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said in a statement Tuesday.

Concern about Turkey’s Afrin offensive

 

Turkey’s offensive in the northern Syrian enclave of Afrin was also a focus of Tuesday’s talks in Paris, with Tillerson meeting with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu. A day earlier, during remarks in London, the top U.S. diplomat said the United States is “concerned” about the offensive against U.S.-backed Kurdish YPG fighters in Syria.

Turkish forces intensified military operations on Monday to push the Kurdish militia out of the Afrin area.

The Turkish operation is aimed at ousting from Afrin the Syrian Kurdish group that has controlled territory in northern Syria and proven effective in the U.S.-coalition-led fight against Islamic State militants.

Turkey considers the YPG to be a terrorist organization associated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party or PKK, which has fought for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey.

French Foreign Minister Le Drian on Tuesday joined Tillerson in expressing his concern about Turkey’s military operation in Afrin.

“I had the opportunity to tell my Turkish colleague that this offensive worries us,” Le Drian said.

“While we understand the concerns Turkey has about border security, we cannot but call on Turkey to show the greatest level restraint on this issue,” the French foreign minister added.

Turkey’s shelling into Afrin came after the U.S.-led coalition said it would form a 30,000-strong Kurdish-led border security force in northern Syria.

Washington later said the effort had been mischaracterized and that the United States was not creating a border force, but that the coalition would provide security to liberated areas, blocking escape routes for Islamic State militants.
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Europe’s Recovery Rolls On — And So Does European Central Bank Stimulus

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Europe’s economy is on a roll — raising the question of exactly when the European Central Bank will end its extraordinary stimulus efforts. Bank President Mario Draghi will be at pains this week to leave that point open.

No changes in stimulus settings or interest rates are expected at Thursday’s meeting of the bank’s 25-member governing council, which sets monetary policy for the 19 countries that use the euro.

Draghi’s post-meeting news conference, however, will be closely scrutinized for any hints of a change in the timetable for withdrawing a key stimulus component — a massive bond-buying program — later this year.

Here is a fast guide.

Where’s inflation?

Stubbornly low inflation is why Draghi and his ECB colleagues want to keep the stimulus program running.

The bank’s mission is to keep inflation consistently close to but below 2 percent. Usually that means fighting inflation, but in the case of this economic recovery, prices have been unusually slow to respond to a pickup in demand for goods. Annual inflation was just 1.4 percent in December. Excluding oil and food, it was even lower, at 0.9 percent. Meanwhile, the economy is expected to have grown 2.4 percent in 2017; unemployment has fallen from over 12 percent to 8.7 percent.

ECB officials say that eventually growth will lead to higher wages as unemployment falls and labor becomes scarcer. But inflation has taken its time to show up.

Stimulus settings

So Draghi has been urging patience. The bank lowered its bond purchases to 30 billion euros ($37 billion) a month at the start of the year, from 60 billion euros, and has said they will run at least through September — and longer if necessary. The purchases, started in March 2015, pump newly printed money into the economy, which should raise inflation and make credit easier to get.

Much of the speculation in markets has centered on whether the purchases will stop in September, or be continued, perhaps at a lower level. Draghi and the governing council majority have so far resisted stimulus skeptics on the board, such as Germany’s Jens Weidmann, who say it’s time to head for the exit from stimulus.

Promises, promises

A key point to watch is the wording the bank uses to manage expectations of its future actions. Right now, the bank has included wording in its policy statement that it could increase the bond purchases if necessary. Dropping that phrase would be a first step to prepare markets for an end to the stimulus. This week’s meeting might be too early for that tweak, but the wording is being watched in the markets.

The bank has also promised it won’t raise interest rates — its benchmark rate is currently zero — until well after the end of the bond purchases. That puts a first rate increase well into 2019.  

Why you should care

The withdrawal of the stimulus by the ECB and other central banks such as the U.S. Federal Reserve will have wide-ranging effects on the finances of ordinary people.

Higher interest rates will mean more return on savings accounts and an easier time funding private and public pension plans. They could also mean trouble for “zombie companies” that might not have any profits if they had to pay higher rates to borrow. Such bankruptcies would be painful in the short term, but would free investment for more profitable uses.

More interest earnings on conservative holdings such as bonds and time deposits would make riskier assets — like stocks — relatively less attractive, and ease the pressure on investors and savers to rummage for returns in riskier holdings.

Down, euro, down

Market reaction is a key concern for Draghi, particularly when it comes to the euro’s exchange rate. The euro has risen in the past several weeks, to around $1.22, in part because markets are anticipating an end to the stimulus. Monetary stimulus can weaken a currency, so investors are bidding the euro up on speculation that the stimulus might come to an earlier end due to the strong economy.

A stronger euro, however, can hurt Europe’s many exporters and further weaken inflation.

Here’s the take from analyst Florian Hense at Berenberg Bank: “The ECB should and will likely stop asset purchases after September: Recent hawkish comments, including the minutes of the last meeting, point in that direction.

“However, in order to not trigger a further appreciation of the euro, the ECB will likely change its communication only cautiously and gradually — and not in January already.”
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Congo Is Becoming Like a Prison Under Kabila, Says Combative Cardinal

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The head of Congo’s Catholic church condemned the government of President Joseph Kabila on Tuesday for a deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, suggesting his country was becoming like a prison.

Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo has been ratcheting up a conflict between the government and one of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s most powerful institutions, as the church increasingly becomes a focal point for opposition to Kabila’s efforts to stay in power with no mandate.

Security forces shot dead at least six people and wounded dozens more as they fired tear gas to disperse a protest on Sunday that the Catholic church had organized, triggering widespread international condemnation.

“We were dispersed by tear gas, stun grenades and live bullets. We have again seen deaths, injuries, priests being arrested, and the theft of citizens’ property,” Monsengwo said at the church in the capital Kinshasa.

“Christians were prevented from praying. Others were prevented from leaving by … police and military who were armed as if they had been on a battlefield,” he said.

A military spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Kabila’s refusal to step down at the end of his mandate in December 2016 has triggered a series of street protests in which scores have been killed in Kinshasa. It has also emboldened armed rebel groups in different parts of Congo. 

“How can you kill men, women, children, youths and old people all chanting religious songs, carrying bibles, rosaries and crucifixes?” Monsengwo continued. “Are we now living in an open prison?”

Congo’s influential Roman Catholic Church has emerged as a flashpoint for opposition to Kabila, while his political opposition remains flimsy and divided.

Sunday’s violence was an echo of similar bloodshed on New Year’s Eve, when Congolese forces killed at least seven people in the capital during a protest by Catholic activists.

Kabila blames delays in an election meant to replace him — it will not happen until the end of this year at the earliest — on logistical problems registering voters.

But the resulting instability has stoked fears that the vast, mineral-rich country could slide back into the wars that killed millions in the 1990s, mostly from hunger and disease.
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US Stresses Lebanon Must Cut Hezbollah from Financial System

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Lebanon must cut Iran-backed Hezbollah from the financial sector, a U.S. official on combating illicit finance said Tuesday, two weeks after Washington began a new push to disrupt the militant group’s global financing routes.

On a two-day visit to Lebanon, the U.S. Treasury’s Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing Marshall Billingslea “urged Lebanon to take every possible measure to ensure [Hezbollah] is not part of the financial sector.”

Billingslea also “stressed the importance of countering Iranian malign activity in Lebanon,” a statement from the United States embassy in Lebanon said.

The Iran-backed, Shiite Hezbollah is classified as a terrorist group by Washington, but sits in Lebanon’s delicate national unity government.

U.S. officials say Hezbollah is funded not just by Iran but by global networks of people, businesses and money laundering operations.

The U.S. Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Acts of 2015 and 2017 aimed to sever the group’s funding routes and a number of people linked to Hezbollah are on sanctions lists.

The United States has had to balance its targeting of Hezbollah funding routes with the need to maintain Lebanon’s stability. Lebanese banking and political authorities have lobbied Washington to make sure its anti-Hezbollah measures do not destroy the banking system underpinning the economy.

In his meetings with President Michel Aoun, Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri and other banking and political figures, Billingslea said the U.S. government was committed to work with Lebanon to protect its financial system and support a “strong, stable and prosperous Lebanon.”

Billingslea also said Washington would help Lebanon protect its financial system from Islamic State and other militants.

Two weeks ago, the Trump administration set up a team to reinvigorate U.S. investigations into Hezbollah-linked drug trafficking.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah last week denied any involvement in drug trafficking and said Hezbollah had a very clear religious and moral stance which forbids drugs and drug trading.
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NY Man Pleads Guilty of Trying to Join IS

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A New York man has pleaded guilty of trying to help Islamic State by traveling to Turkey with the goal of entering Syria and fighting for the militant group, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

Arafat Nagi, 47, entered his plea Monday before U.S. District Judge Richard Arcara in Buffalo, New York, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

“The plea gives the court wide sentencing latitude and we trust the judge to be fair,” Jeremy Schwartz, Nagi’s lawyer, said in an email. “Mr. Nagi never engaged in violence and he does not wish harm to the United States.”

Nagi, of Lackawanna, New York, is scheduled to be sentenced May 7. He faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison, according to prosecutors.

Nagi, who was born in the United States to Yemeni parents, was arrested in July 2015 and charged with attempting to  materially aid Islamic State. Prosecutors said he pledged allegiance to the group and traveled to Turkey twice, in October 2012 and July 2014, to meet Islamic State supporters.

Prosecutors said at the time that the arrest followed a Federal Bureau of Investigation probe prompted by a tip from one of Nagi’s neighbors in Lackawanna, which is near Buffalo.

The neighbor told the FBI that Nagi regularly argued with local residents about his beliefs, which included support of Islamic State, and was planning to travel to Turkey again, according to prosecutors.

Upon searching Nagi’s apartment, law enforcement found military equipment, including body armor, a machete and night vision goggles, prosecutors said.

Lackawanna drew national attention as the home of the so-called “Lackawanna Six,” a group of young American men of Yemeni descent who pleaded guilty of providing material support for terrorism by attending al-Qaida’s Al Farouk training camp in Afghanistan in early 2001.

Multiple people are currently facing charges of aiding Islamic State in New York federal courts, including Sayfullo Saipov, accused of killing eight people by driving a truck into a New York bicycle path, and Akayed Ullah, accused of trying to detonate a homemade bomb in a Manhattan subway station.
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NAFTA Negotiators Open Key Round of Talks; Trump Cites Progress

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U.S., Canadian and Mexican officials opened a key round of negotiations to modernize NAFTA on Tuesday as President Donald Trump, who has regularly threatened to quit the trade pact, said the talks were going “pretty well.”

Trump, vowing to undo what he portrays as disastrous trade deals, has in recent days expressed different views of the North American Free Trade Agreement, stoking investor worries that one of the world’s largest trading blocs may be disrupted.

With time running out to address U.S. demands for major changes to the 1994 deal, officials met in a Montreal hotel for the sixth and penultimate round of talks, which are to conclude by the end of March to avoid a clash with Mexico’s elections.

“We have come to Montreal with a lot of new ideas, a lot of creative strategies to try to bridge some of the gaps in the negotiations,” Canadian chief negotiator Steve Verheul told reporters, adding that he had “high hopes” of progress.

Trump offers positive comment

Insiders say the Canadian and Mexican governments are prepared to be flexible on a U.S. demand that the amount of North American content in autos be boosted to qualify for duty-free status in NAFTA.

But Ottawa and Mexico City strongly oppose the proposal that autos produced on the continent should have 50 percent U.S. content. Differences also remain over how to address the U.S. push for changes to various dispute resolution mechanisms.

Trump, who has blamed NAFTA for the loss of U.S. jobs, told White House reporters on Tuesday the talks were going “pretty well.”

The Mexican peso immediately pared losses on his comments.

Mexico’s chief negotiator Ken Smith said he hoped progress could be made on less contentious areas such as telecommunications, anti-corruption and sanitary and phytosanitary measures.

Canada unsure about US

Many Canadian officials, however, are downbeat about the talks amid uncertainty over whether Washington really wants to negotiate.

“If you’re unsure where the other side wants to go it is really difficult to know what would please them unless you capitulate, and that’s not going to happen,” one person briefed on Ottawa’s negotiating stance said on condition of anonymity.

With NAFTA’s future up in the air, Canada is taking steps to diversify its trade. Canada currently sends 75 percent of its goods exports to the United States.

Canada joins TPP

Earlier on Tuesday, Canada and 10 other nations agreed to sign a reworked Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact. The United States pulled out of an earlier version of that deal.

Paul Ashworth, chief North America economist at Canada Economics, said the TPP deal might give Canada “a slightly stronger hand to play in the current NAFTA negotiations.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is currently attending the World Economic Forum meeting in Switzerland to drum up investment. Next month he will spend five days in India, which Canada sees as potentially a bigger trading partner.
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At College Speech, Gorsuch Stresses Need for Civil Discourse

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A return to civics and civility is crucial to the continued flourishing of the American experiment, Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch told an audience of college students Tuesday before delving into his judicial philosophy of orginalism and the rituals required of new justices.

Gorsuch also drew chuckles with his impression of former Justice Byron White, the college football star-turned-judge for whom he clerked. He characterized White as “a combination of George Washington and John Elway,” referring to the former Denver Broncos quarterback. 

A return to civility is essential for the republic to remain stable, Gorsuch said at Stockton University in southern New Jersey. His remarks lasted about 20 minutes, followed by a 40-minute question-and-answer session with pre-submitted questions.

“To preserve our civil liberties, we have to work on being civil with one another,” he said. When others act uncivilly, “you will be tempted to respond in kind; it’s easy to fall into the trap” he added. “But it is possible to disagree without being disagreeable. At the end of the day, your character is the most important thing in your possession.”

On his judicial philosophy of originalism, the strict adherence to the intent of the framers of the Constitution, Gorsuch said the role of judges is to “apply the law as it is, not as they wish it were.”

“When I’m interpreting the Constitution, I’m looking at sources that are external to myself,” he said. “I look to what the founders understood, what the original public meaning of that document was, and I take great care to pay attention to the words on the page.”

He added that a good way to measure a country’s commitment to freedom and the rule of law is how often its government loses in court.

“I have no problem ruling against the government. None of my colleague has,” he said.

The speech was sponsored by the university’s William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy, named after the former New Jersey congressman and U.S. ambassador. Gorsuch has been friends with Hughes’ son since their prep school days. 

Gorsuch jokingly called the Supreme Court “like high school” for its practice of ringing a buzzer five minutes before a conference or a hearing is to begin. The newest justice is assigned to the cafeteria committee, he said, and his first act was to weigh in on a problem with the meatball subs.

“The marinara sauce had been replaced by shrimp cocktail sauce,” he said. “We got that fixed.”

White had a tremendous influence on him, Gorsuch said, and referred to him as “the smartest man I ever knew.” Asked why he pursued law, Gorsuch showed a self-deprecating side.

“Because I was good at absolutely nothing else,” he said to laughs. “It was either that or giving it up and being a ski bum or a fly fishing guide. I’m sure some people wish I had.”
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Biden Calls for Action to Stop Russian ‘Assault’ on Western Democracy

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Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday called for international action to resist Russian government assaults on the foundations of Western democracy.

“This is just basically about a kleptocracy protecting itself, he said, adding that the Russian government is seeking to distract from misery and decline at home by attacking the West.

“And so I’m vastly oversimplifying, but I think there’s a basic decision that they cannot compete against a unified West. I think that is [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s judgment. And so everything he can do to dismantle the post-World War II liberal world order, including NATO and the EU, I think, is viewed as in their immediate self-interest,” Biden said.

Biden and Michael Carpenter, senior director of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, spoke at a Council on Foreign Relations forum in Washington, D.C.  

Carpenter said Russia has found an insidious way to try to weaken and subvert western democracies from the inside.

“And so what Russia has essentially done is it’s taken the fight from what was originally just contained to the post-Soviet space and taken that fight now to Europe, to the United States, by subverting our institutions internally, by using sometimes hard power, but more often corruption, energy, information, and cyber to be able to undermine these democratic institutions, as I said, internally.”

Russia has denied that its government interfered in the U.S. and other elections, and has accused the U.S. of trying to influence Russian elections in the past to bring about “regime change.”

Biden said it is hard to imagine, but he said as far as he can tell, there is no system-wide analysis going on right now within the Trump administration to protect the U.S. from a repeat of Russian interference in the elections this coming November.

Harvard Professor Emeritus and veteran Russia expert Marvin Kalb told VOA the Trump administration is not working on a major strategy plan to combat Russian interference.

“According to a recent congressional report, the Trump administration has no plan to contest anticipated Russian interference in US elections later this year.  This should be no surprise, since the president regards all talk of Russian interference in 2016 to be a ‘hoax.’  This strikes me as woeful neglect and probable incompetence.”

Biden was also asked if the Obama administration did enough to warn American voters about Russian cyberattacks and disinformation ahead of the 2016 presidential elections.  He said it is something that he and former President Barack Obama agonized over, but they were concerned it would appear they were trying to help Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

“Could you imagine if the president of the United States called a press conference in October with this fellow [then Republican nominee Donald Trump], and [his advisor Steve] Bannon and company, and said: ‘Tell you what. The Russians are trying to interfere in our elections and we have to do something about it.’ What do you think would have happened?”

Biden said he tried to enlist the help of Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to issue a bipartisan warning about Russian interference, but McConnell refused for political reasons.

Kalb argues that the Obama administration should have done more.

“The Obama administration waited much too long to alert the American people the danger of Russian interference.  They offered excuses, but none seemed persuasive.”  

Biden and Carpenter called on Washington and its western partners to impose meaningful costs on Russia for its attacks.
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New Rules Make Italy’s Coming Election Unknown Territory

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Italy holds national elections on March 4 under a new, complicated electoral system that mixes proportional representation with first-past-the-post balloting.

Unlike the previous electoral system, the new law does not provide any bonus to the first-placed party or coalition.

Pollsters estimate that the winner this time around will need at least 40 percent of the vote, and probably more, to govern.

No party or coalition has taken 40 percent of the vote in an opinion poll for months. Here are some of the more likely scenarios following the vote:

​The president’s government

President Sergio Mattarella is the supreme arbiter of Italian politics and will play a central role if, as polls suggest, the ballot box delivers deadlock. One scenario would see him try to engineer a cross-party deal to create a government with a clearly defined policy program. Such an administration could be led by a technocrat.

The grand coalition

A variation of that scenario would see the mainstream center-right and center-left parties, led respectively by former prime ministers Silvio Berlusconi and Matteo Renzi, agree to forge the sort of “Grosse Koalition” that is taking shape in Germany. This would have a more ambitious remit than the so-called “president’s government.”

Both parties currently rule out such an alliance, but they managed to work together, briefly, after inconclusive 2013 national elections. However, recent polls suggest they will not have enough seats to govern, meaning they would have to try to get other groups onboard, complicating any coalition negotiations.

​Center-right victorious

Berlusconi’s center-right bloc has been inching up in the polls and currently stands at around 37 percent. Berlusconi says he is aiming to win 45 percent, which would enable the alliance to govern alone. His Forza Italia (Go Italy!) and Matteo Salvini’s anti-immigrant League are the two main parties in the alliance. They have agreed that whoever gets more votes will name the prime minister.

Forza Italia has a five-point lead against the League at present and Berlusconi, who is barred from holding public office because of a tax fraud conviction, has yet to say who he would nominate to head the coalition government.

Swift new elections

If no workable government can be created after March 4, some politicians have suggested Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni’s center-left government should stay in office until new elections are held, as happened in Spain, which went to the polls twice within six months between 2015 and 2016.

Some analysts have suggested that parties might give Gentiloni a limited mandate to re-write the electoral laws again, but it is hard to see consensus forming on this issue any time soon.

5-Star to the fore

The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement has backed away from its long-standing refusal to form alliances with other parties and is likely to emerge as Italy’s largest single party, with polls putting it on around 27 percent. It says this means it should get the first nod to try to form an administration and has suggested it would seek a deal based on line-by-line policy items to be carried out, rather than a formal coalition.

The 5-Star is a bitter enemy of both Berlusconi and Renzi, but some analysts have speculated it could forge a coalition with either Salvini’s rightist League, or the leftist Free and Equal group. It is unclear whether either party would have enough seats to make this a feasible option. A three-way tie-up would never happen.
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Trump to Host State Visit for France’s Macron

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U.S. President Donald Trump has invited French President Emmanuel Macron to pay a state visit to the White House later this year.

This will be the first state visit Trump has hosted since taking office. A state visit, in which one head of state hosts another, is considered the most formal and most prestigious type of diplomatic visit. It indicates friendly relations between two sovereign states.

The Macrons are scheduled to visit the White House in late April.

In July last year, the Macrons hosted the Trumps in Paris for a private dinner in the Eiffel Tower and the annual Bastille Day parade. That event was considered a less formal visit than dining at the presidential palace would have been.

Trump and Macron have managed to stay on friendly terms despite disagreeing on some key issues, most notably the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement.

Macron spoke out after Trump was quoted earlier this month using profanity to describe African nations and Haiti. Macron said he was “outraged” by the remarks, calling them inappropriate and counterproductive.
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Poland Charges Neo-Nazis for Marking ‘Hitler’s Birthday’

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Polish prosecutors on Tuesday charged three men for allegedly propagating Nazism after hidden camera footage of a group celebrating Adolf Hitler’s birthday sparked uproar in the country, still grappling with the memory of Nazi occupation.

The footage, filmed in southwestern Poland and aired on news channel TVN24 this weekend, shows a group of men wearing Nazi-inspired uniforms performing Nazi salutes.

Among those caught on camera was a man identified in the report as Mateusz S., the leader of neo-Nazi group Pride and Modernity (DN).

He appears to have been speaking at an event marking 128 years since the birth of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, held on a hill near the southwestern Polish village of Wodzislaw on an undisclosed date.

Poland’s Internal Security Agency on Tuesday arrested him and two other men identified only as Adam B. and Thomas R. for legal reasons.

A search of their residences turned up Nazi paraphernalia, including uniforms, flags and literature along with an illegal firearm.

They face charges of publicly propagating Nazism for having organized the event which “praised and affirmed this type (Nazi) of government with emblems, recordings and texts as well as other gestures referring to Nazi symbolism,” Ewa Bialik, spokeswoman for the national public prosecutor’s office, told the Polish PAP news agency.

Totalitarian ideologies like fascism or communism and ethnic or racial hatred are banned in Poland, and carry a penalty of up to two years behind bars.

Poland’s deputy justice minister Patryk Jaki on Tuesday asked the national public prosecutor’s office to ban the Pride and Modernity group.

‘No tolerance’

Undercover journalists also filmed large red flags with Nazi swastikas hanging on trees and an altar with a portrait of Hitler.

Participants in the event set fire to a large wooden swastika soaked in flammable liquid that was fixed to a tree as they played a soundtrack of Nazi military marches.

Referring to the neo-Nazi event, Poland’s right-wing Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Monday on Twitter that “there is no tolerance for these kinds of behaviors and symbols.”

World War II erupted when Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September 1939.

Some six million Polish citizens, half of whom were Jewish, perished under the Nazi occupation that lasted until 1945.

In November, leaders of the governing right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party spoke out against xenophobia after a controversial Independence Day march organized by far-right and nationalist groups that drew 60,000 participants and a chorus of condemnation from around the globe.

While many marchers denied membership of or sympathy for extreme right groups, the event also drew representatives of far-right parties from across Europe.
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Russia Cancels Release of ‘Insulting’ Film About Stalin’s Death

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Russia said on Tuesday it had canceled the release of Death of Stalin, a dark, satirical movie from British director Armando Iannucci, saying many

Russians would find it an insulting mockery of the country’s Soviet past.

The film, which focuses on backstabbing and infighting among the Soviet leader’s closest allies as they vie for power immediately after his 1953 death, had been privately viewed by culture ministry officials and advisers.

Vladimir Medinsky, the culture minister, said Tuesday that his ministry had received a number of complaints after the showing, which had prompted him to withdraw its general release license.

He said he had asked legal experts to make extra checks on its content.

“Many people of the older generation, and not only, will regard it as an insulting mockery of all the Soviet past, of the country that defeated fascism and of ordinary people, and what’s even worse, even of the victims of Stalinism,” Medinsky said in a statement.

He said his ministry had told the film’s distributor that it was inappropriate to release the film on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the victorious World War II Battle of Stalingrad, in which so many Soviet soldiers died fighting for a

city that bore Stalin’s name.

But he said the distributor had not heeded the warning.

“We don’t have censorship,” said Medinsky. “We are not afraid of critical and unpleasant assessments of our history. But there is a moral line between the critical analysis of our history and desecrating it.”

Russia holds a presidential election on March 18 that incumbent Vladimir Putin is expected to easily win. Putin, who has dominated Russian politics for the last 18 years, has put patriotism at the center of his rule.

​’A complex figure’

Stalin was repudiated by the Soviet Union after his death. He is recognized as responsible for the deaths of millions, from policies that included the forced collectivization of farms that caused famine, and from a succession of purges that saw mass executions and imprisonment at an archipelago of camps.

But the wartime Soviet leader is still associated by many Russians with the country’s greatest achievements. Putin has called Stalin “a complex figure” and has said attempts to demonize him were a ploy to attack Russia.

Some of the people who attended the film’s private viewing told Reuters they were disgusted.

“It’s a despicable film,” said Nadezhda Usmanova, head of the Russian Military Historical Society’s department of information. The group was involved in organizing the pre-release screening.

“It’s a bad film, it’s a boring film, and it’s vile, repugnant and insulting,” Usmanova told Reuters.

Elena Drapeko, deputy head of the culture committee in the State Duma, the lower house of Parliament, said she found “extremism” in the movie.

“It’s an effort to breed bad blood into the social harmony that has been reached in Russian society,” said Drapeko, who earlier in her career was a popular Soviet and Russian actress.
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Tension in East Africa Ticks Up Over Nile, Gulf Power Struggle

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Tension in East Africa is rising after Ethiopia’s prime minister this weekend rejected Egypt’s suggestion the World Bank arbitrate ongoing disagreements over the construction of a dam on the Nile River.

The stakes are high for both countries.  Ethiopia says the $5 billion hydroelectric dam will provide power to millions in desperate need of electric power.  Egypt says it will disrupt the flow of water from the Nile, jeopardizing agriculture in the country.

Ethiopia anticipated the dam, now in its seventh year of construction, would be completed last year, but the project is only about 60 percent complete, according to the Associated Press.   

The nixed arbitration is the latest setback in a months-long dispute between the regional powers.  It’s also one of many regional conflicts heightened by a growing power struggle among Gulf states that continues to spill into East Africa.

If diplomatic tensions go unresolved, they could morph into military confrontations and proxy wars, say experts who closely watch the region.

Gulf crisis

East Africa has long faced a volatile mix of internal and external pressures, but Middle East states that see potential alliances in East Africa have complicated diplomacy in the region, according to Rashid Abdi, Horn of Africa project director at the International Crisis Group.

A major competition has emerged between several Arab parties, with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on one side and Qatar and Turkey on the other.

“The Gulf crisis has simply, I think, brought out the long-simmering tensions between these regional powers.  It is not the primary cause, but it is actually a potent catalyst of many of those fault lines, especially over the Nile waters,” Abdi said.

Turkey’s expanding role has had an especially destabilizing effect, he added.  Turkey plans to build a naval dock in the Sudanese port city of Suakin, Sudan’s foreign minister said in December.

Last year Turkey built a military base in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, to help train Somali soldiers in their fight against militant group Al-Shabab.

Emerging powers

While Egypt and Ethiopia command most of the diplomatic clout in the region, other players see opportunities to assert themselves amid fresh tensions and a growing Arab presence.

Ethiopia and Sudan have developed a strategic alliance in the past year.  Egypt and Eritrea have also grown close, with unconfirmed reports in recent weeks of Egyptian soldiers at the Sawa military base in Eritrea.  Those reports might have been part of a “diversionary crisis” manufactured by Sudan, Abdi said.

 

Earlier this month, Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo to discuss mutual interests. 

For Sudan and Eritrea, the tension between Egypt and Ethiopia represents a chance to gain new footing and forge beneficial partnerships.  Sudan faces a difficult road toward rebuilding its economy in the wake of lifted U.S. sanctions.  Eritrea, still under sanctions, sees an opportunity to emerge from isolation and cope with its own vulnerabilities and migration issues, according to Abdi.

Hope for solutions

It’s unlikely Egypt and Ethiopia will go to war, Abdi said, as long as the countries use diplomatic channels and stay at the bargaining table.  

“The destabilizing potential of the Gulf crisis can be discussed, but I think the more these discussions are in the open, [the more] that can probably modify behavior,” Abdi said.

But the possibility of military conflict persists.

“Unless, I think, there is an urgent understanding of the risks and also attempts to diffuse these tensions, I think there’s a likelihood we may see conflict, not immediately, but at some point,” Abdi said.  “And I’m not necessarily talking about an open conflict between states but largely an escalation of proxy conflicts.”
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Zimbabwe Leader Orders Top Officials to Declare Assets

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Zimbabwe has given cabinet ministers and senior government officials until the end of February to declare their assets as new President Emmerson

Mnangagwa seeks to foster transparency and fight corruption.

Mnangagwa, 75, took power after Robert Mugabe was toppled by the military. He immediately promised to tackle corruption, especially in public institutions.

Misheck Sibanda, chief secretary to the president and cabinet, said in a statement that it was now mandatory for cabinet ministers, their deputies, senior government officials and bosses of state-owned businesses to declare their assets.

The officials will be required to disclose details on their real estate, other property valued above $100,000, and shareholdings in businesses by Febraury 28.

“The president expects the full and urgent cooperation of all the affected office bearers,” Sibanda said.

Mnangagwa, who is attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, the first time by a Zimbabwean president, is trying to break with past policies of Mugabe in a bid to lure foreign investment and end the country’s international pariah status.

Under Mugabe’s nearly four-decade rule, few government officials were arrested for corruption.

When the military announced it had put Mugabe under house arrest on November 15, it said it was targeting criminals who surrounded the 93-year-old leader.

Since then, three former government ministers and allies of Mugabe have been arrested and charged with criminal abuse of office. The three deny the charges and say they are being persecuted for supporting Mugabe and his wife, Grace.
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US: Russia ‘Bears Responsibility’ for Syrian Regime’s Chemical Attacks on Civilians

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The United States joined its NATO allies Tuesday in launching a pressure campaign against the use of chemical weapons in Syria, while singling out Russia for protecting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

“The recent attacks in East Ghouta raise serious concerns that Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian regime might be continuing its use of chemical weapons against its own people,” U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in Paris.

Tillerson said at least 20 people were killed Monday in an apparent chlorine gas attack in rebel-held East Ghouta, near Damascus.

He singled out Russia and its support for the Assad regime.

“Whoever conducted the attacks, Russia ultimately bears responsibility for the victims in East Ghouta and countless other Syrians targeted with chemical weapons since Russia became involved in Syria,” said Tillerson during a conference hosted by French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on an initiative to target those responsible for chemical attacks.

Tillerson, along with foreign ministers from France, Germany and Turkey, were among those who on Tuesday launched the International Partnership Against Impunity for Use of Chemical Weapons. More than two dozen like-minded nations endorsed a political commitment to share information on combating the use of chemical weapons worldwide.

The U.S. secretary of state said Russia’s failure to resolve the chemical weapons issue in Syria called into question its commitment to the resolution of the overall crisis.

“At a very minimum, Russia must stop vetoing and at least abstain from future security council votes on this issue,” Tillerson said.

Russia used its council veto last year three times to prevent the so-called Joint Investigative Mechanism, or JIM, from carrying out its mandate to find out who had perpetrated chemical weapons attacks in Syria. Its third veto, in November, effectively killed the mechanism.

In New York, the Russians hastily called a Security Council meeting Tuesday afternoon. 

Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia criticized the JIM as a “complete failure” and a “mechanism of political manipulation.” He said Russia was circulating a draft resolution proposing a new mechanism.

“We wish to rise above these differences and to propose the establishment of a new international investigative body, which, on the basis of irreproachable and corroborated information received from transparent and credible sources, would be able to establish evidence for the Security Council to identify perpetrators in the use of chemical weapons or chemical warfare agents,” Nebenzia told council members. “This mechanism needs to be professional, and it must be an apolitical mechanism.”

But U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley appeared to reject the Russian proposal.

“We’re not going to accept any Russian proposal that undermines our ability to get to the truth or that politicizes what must be an independent and impartial investigation,” she said. “If they want to work in good faith toward that goal, we are ready to re-establish the JIM, with its original independent and impartial mandate, right now. But anything less is unacceptable.”

Haley criticized Russia for accepting the JIM’s conclusions when they pointed to Islamic State militants being responsible for gas attacks, but not when they found the Assad regime culpable.

Turkey’s Afrin offensive

Turkey’s offensive in the northern Syrian enclave of Afrin was also a focus of Tuesday’s talks in Paris, with Tillerson meeting with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu. A day earlier, during remarks in London, the top U.S. diplomat said the United States was “concerned” about the offensive against U.S.-backed Kurdish YPG fighters in Syria.

Turkish forces intensified military operations Monday to push the Kurdish militia out of the Afrin area.

The Turkish operation is aimed at ousting from Afrin the Syrian Kurdish group that has controlled territory in northern Syria and proven effective in the U.S.-coalition-led fight against Islamic State militants.

Turkey considers the YPG to be a terrorist organization associated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has fought for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey.

French Foreign Minister Le Drian on Tuesday joined Tillerson in expressing his concern about Turkey’s military operation in Afrin.

“I had the opportunity to tell my Turkish colleague that this offensive worries us,” Le Drian said.

“While we understand the concerns Turkey has about border security, we cannot but call on Turkey to show the greatest level of restraint on this issue,” the French foreign minister added.

Turkey’s shelling into Afrin came after the U.S.-led coalition said it would form a 30,000-strong Kurdish-led border security force in northern Syria.

Washington later said the effort had been mischaracterized and that the U.S. was not creating a border force, but that the coalition would provide security to liberated areas, blocking escape routes for Islamic State militants.

VOA’s Margaret Besheer contributed to this report from the United Nations.
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UNICEF: Condition of Millions of Children in South Sudan Worsening

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The new executive director of the U.N. Children’s Fund, Henrietta Fore, warns conditions for millions of children in war-ravaged South Sudan are seriously worsening, as children face hunger, illness and possible death.

Fore has been on the job as UNICEF chief for only 23 days. Yet, she thought it important to visit South Sudan, one of the biggest humanitarian crises in the world, to assess the situation and see what can be done.

She describes conditions as abysmal. She says the country is experiencing the worst food shortages in years, acute child malnutrition rates that already are above the emergency threshold of 15 percent, and escalating gender violence by all warring parties.

“Seventy percent of the children are out of school,” she said. “One-third of those schools are closed either due to violence or teachers running away or villagers running away, so that there is no school. And, there is, as many of you know, 17 percent literacy in the country. It is just too low for any of us to feel that you can have a well-governed country or citizens that really will be able to govern their country.”

South Sudan’s government and rebels signed a cease-fire agreement in December. Fore says this gives her hope that people can move toward reconciliation and peace.

Another hopeful sign, she says, is the government’s intention to release some child soldiers in the coming weeks. UNICEF reports more than 19,000 children have been recruited to fight by all the armed groups.

She says UNICEF is working hard to provide education, health, water and sanitation, and protection for children against violence. But, she says funding is not keeping pace with the needs.

Most contributions come from governments. Fore tells VOA in addition to this source, UNICEF is exploring new partnerships in the private sector.

“We really are reaching out to corporations and foundations and individuals across the world,” she said. “We think everyone should care about children and their lives and should care about young people.So, our purview is the ages from birth through 18 years old. And, that is a very critical element of all of our world.”

The humanitarian crisis in South Sudan has gone on for so long, the UNICEF chief says she worries it is sometimes forgotten by the world at large. She urges nations to remain alert to what is happening there, as so many lives hang in the balance.
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