Month: February 2018

Minnie Driver Quits Oxfam After Sex in Crisis Zone Scandal

Posted on by SeeEU

Actress Minnie Driver has resigned from her role as an Oxfam celebrity ambassador and corporate backers demanded accountability as the aid organization sought to address allegations that senior staff members working in crisis zones paid for sex among the desperate people the group was meant to serve.

The star of “Good Will Hunting” said she will no longer support the organization following its response to a sex abuse scandal in Haiti after its 2010 earthquake. Britain’s top development official has savaged the leadership of Oxfam for its handling of the scandal.

Driver tweeted: “All I can tell you about this awful revelation about Oxfam is that I am devastated. Devastated for the women who were used by people sent there to help them, devastated by the response of an organization that I have been raising awareness for since I was 9 years old #oxfamscandal.”

The anti-poverty organization has been reeling since the Times of London reported last week that seven former Oxfam staff members who worked in Haiti faced misconduct allegations that included using prostitutes and downloading pornography. Oxfam says it investigated, but the government and charity regulators have criticized its lack of transparency in its handling of the matter.

U.K. Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt has warned that government funding to the group – some 31.7 million pounds ($43.8 million) – is at risk unless it comes clean about the allegations. Amid fears that sex predators have targeted aid organizations to get access to the vulnerable, Mordaunt told a conference in Sweden that she would be meeting with the National Crime Agency on Thursday to underscore her concerns.

“While investigations have to be completed and any potential criminals prosecuted accordingly, what is clear is that the culture that allowed this to happen needs to change and it needs to change now,” she said.

Oxfam’s corporate partners, including Mark & Spencer, Heathrow Airport and Waterstones, are asking questions. Visa, for example, which developed a partnership with Oxfam to help distribute funds to people hit by natural disaster, said it is watching closely.

“At Visa, we are committed to the highest standards of professional and personal conduct, and we expect the same from our partners,” the company said. “We are engaged with Oxfam to understand what steps have been taken to address staff misconduct and ensure alignment with our own standards and values.”
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Chile Sex Abuse Victim’s Credibility Praised, Challenged

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When a Vatican court convicted a Chilean predator priest of sex crimes, it went out of its way to affirm the credibility of his victims. Their testimony had been consistent and corroborated, while their motives in coming forward had been only to “free themselves of a weight that had tormented their consciences,” the tribunal said.

 

One key witness in the Rev. Fernando Karadima’s 2010 trial is preparing to testify again, this time in a spinoff case with potentially more significant consequences. Juan Carlos Cruz’s allegations of a cover-up raise questions about Pope Francis’ already shaky track record on preventing clergy sex abuse and concealment.

 

Cruz has accused Chilean Bishop Juan Barros of having been present when Karadima kissed and fondled him as a 17-year-old, and of then ignoring the abuse. One of Francis’ top advisers has privately called Cruz a liar who is out to destroy the Chilean church. Francis, who has called allegations against Barros slander, may have accepted the adviser’s take.

 

After his defense of Barros sparked an outcry during his recent trip to Chile, Francis did an about-face and asked Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna, a former Vatican sex crimes investigator, to gather testimony about Barros and then report back. Cruz, who now works in communications in the U.S., is his first witness Saturday.

 

“We’ve been giving this testimony for years and years, but finally it’s being heard,” Cruz told The Associated Press. “So when the pope says he needs evidence, he’s had it for a long time.”

 

Francis named Barros to head the diocese of Osorno, Chile in January 2015 over the opposition of some Chilean bishops. They were worried about fallout from the Karadima scandal, and had recommended that Barros and two other Karadima-trained bishops resign and take year-long sabbaticals.

 

Francis has said he rejected the recommendation because he couldn’t in good faith accept Barros’ resignation without any evidence of wrongdoing.

 

Barros has repeatedly denied witnessing any abuse or covering it up.

 

“I never knew anything about, nor ever imagined, the serious abuses which that priest committed against the victims,” he told the AP last month.

 

Dozens of former parishioners and seminarians have told Chilean and Vatican prosecutors about how public Karadima’s groping was, including of minors, within the tight-knit community where Barros was a top lieutenant of the now-disgraced priest. A handful of victims have also told the courts how, behind closed doors, Karadima would masturbate his young charges, and have them confess on their knees in front of his crotch.

 

Francis recently sparked an outcry when he called the accusations against Barros “calumny” and said none of Karadima’s victims had brought forth evidence to implicate the bishop.

 

The AP reported last week that Cruz did come forward with cover-up accusations against Barros. The pope’s top abuse adviser, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, hand-delivered to Francis an eight-page letter from Cruz in April 2015.

 

Cruz says Barros not only witnessed him being abused, but then tormented him with private information that Karadima had obtained from Cruz during confession.

 

“If Karadima felt that you were not being too dedicated to him in any way, he would ice you. He would not talk to you, but he would send these hatchet men, Juan Barros was one of them,” said Cruz, who after joining Karadima’s community went onto the seminary, only to leave after a few years.

 

The Vatican hasn’t commented on whether Francis read the 2015 letter.

 

Barros himself hasn’t been accused of sexually abusing anyone, and merely witnessing a superior kiss and grope minors isn’t a canonical crime. Perhaps Francis doesn’t consider it a fireable offense.

But Francis’ own sex abuse advisers, as well as many Osorno faithful, have argued that Barros’ failure to “see” Karadima’s abuse and his continued denial that it was around him raises questions about whether he can protect children in Osorno today.

 

Since Barros has not been charged with any wrongdoing, Cruz’s allegations against him have not been subject to legal scrutiny. However, Vatican and Chilean prosecutors both considered him to be a credible witness in cases against Karadima, during which he also testified about Barros’ presence while he was being groped. Other Karadima victims have said the same.

 

“The tribunal has acquired sufficient conviction to accept Cruz’s testimony as proof of the facts,” Chilean investigating Judge Jessica Gonzalez wrote in 2011. While Gonzalez dropped criminal charges against Karadima, she stressed it wasn’t for lack of proof but because too much time had passed.

 

In the decree sentencing Karadima to a lifetime of penance and prayer, the Vatican tribunal said it had acquired the “moral certainty of the truth” about Karadima’s guilt based on testimony from Cruz and other whistleblowers, even though many bishops, priests and laity insisted Karadima was innocent.

 

Some high-ranking church officials, though, have continued to question Cruz’s veracity and motives. Among them is Chilean Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz, a top adviser to Francis as a member of the pope’s “kitchen cabinet” of cardinals.

 

While Francis and Errazuriz have ideological differences, it would be natural for the pope to ask the head of the Chilean church about a Chilean bishop who had once worked for him. And Errazuriz and the Argentinian pope have known each other for decades, when both men served as archbishops in their neighboring countries.

 

Errazuriz publicly apologized in 2010 for not believing Karadima’s victims initially. Privately, he has called Cruz a liar and a “serpent” bent on destroying the Catholic Church in Chile, according to emails first published by Chilean online newspaper El Mostrador.

 

The emails Errazuriz exchanged in 2013 and 2014 with his successor as Santiago’s archbishop show him maneuvering to keep Cruz off the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors — Francis’ advisory panel on sex abuse — and from the list of speakers for an annual bishops’ gathering.

 

“We know the intention of Mr. Cruz toward you and the church in Santiago,” Cardinal Riccardo Ezzati, the archbishop of Santiago, wrote Errazuriz in April 2013. “I hope we can avoid the lies from finding a place with those in the same church.”

 

Errazuriz responded the next day: “May the serpent not prevail!”

 

“There’s no reason to invite Carlos Cruz, who will falsify the truth,” Errazuriz wrote. “He’s going to use the invitation to continue damaging the church.”

 

Errazuriz and Ezzati had a reason to try to discredit Cruz. After evidence emerged showing the Santiago archdiocese had received reports about Karadima for years but shelved an initial investigation, Cruz and two other victims sued the archdiocese in 2013 for an alleged cover-up.

 

The litigation, since dismissed for insufficient proof, was active in April 2015 when Cruz’s letter made its way to Cardinal O’Malley. A member of the Pontifical Commission, Marie Collins, gave it to O’Malley when she flew to Rome with three other commissioners to raise alarm at Barros’ appointment as bishop of Osorno.

 

O’Malley was in Rome anyway for a meeting with the pope, Errazuriz and Francis’ other cardinal advisers. A Vatican statement issued after their meeting suggests that O’Malley may have raised the Barros case, just as he reported to Collins and Cruz.

 

During the meeting, O’Malley proposed creating procedures “to evaluate and judge cases of ‘abuse of office’ concerning the safeguarding of minors” by bishops and other church leaders, it said.

 

The pope and his advisers subsequently agreed to establish a tribunal inside the Vatican to hear evidence against bishops who covered up sex abuse. Francis authorized a budget to fund it for five years.

 

But the proposal lagged. Within a year, Francis had scrapped it entirely and instead issued a document essentially saying the church’s existing procedures were sufficient to handle alleged cover-ups.
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US Boosts Aid to Jordan Despite Trump Threats of Cuts

Posted on by SeeEA

President Donald Trump’s rhetoric on punishing countries that don’t agree with U.S. policy in the Middle East collided with reality on Wednesday as his administration announced it would boost aid to Jordan by more than $1 billion over the next five years.

 

Despite Trump’s repeated threats to cut assistance to such nations, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi signed the increased aid package, which represents a 27-percent increase over current levels and is two years longer than the existing one negotiated by the Obama administration.

 

Tillerson called the package “a signal to the rest of the world that the U.S-Jordan partnership has never been stronger.”

 

Jordan is a critical American partner in the volatile Middle East but has opposed the administration’s approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Jordan voted in December to condemn the U.S. for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and criticized the U.S. last month for withholding tens of millions of dollars in funding for Palestinian refugees, many of whom live in the country.

 

Nonetheless, Wednesday’s memorandum of understanding will provide Jordan with $1.275 billion in U.S. aid annually until 2022. That’s $275 million more per year than the current level. The annual amount includes $750 million in economic aid that will support Jordanian reform efforts and $350 million in military assistance.

 

Both Tillerson and al-Safadi acknowledged the disagreements but said the end goal of both countries remains the same.

 

“We have different views on Jerusalem but we share a commitment to peace,” al-Safadi said.

 

“We have differences as any countries may have from time to time, over tactics I think more than final objectives,” Tillerson said. “I think our final objectives are quite clear and are shared and those are unchanged. We may take different approaches but we consult and we know that what we’re trying to achieve at the end is still the same.”

 

Jordan, a longtime partner of the U.S and one of only two Arab nations to have full diplomatic relations with Israel, plays an instrumental role in the region and in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. Jordanian officials were disturbed by Trump’s Jerusalem announcement and said it could hurt efforts to forge a two-state solution to the conflict.

 

Al-Safadi said Jordan sees no alternative to a two-state solution and that his country looks forward to a peace proposal that the Trump administration has been preparing for release in the coming months.

 

Tillerson said the proposal is “fairly well advanced” but would not comment on when the administration might put it forward.

 

Wednesday’s aid announcement represents something of a victory for Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, both of whom argued against the Jerusalem decision and had lobbied to continue assistance to Jordan on national security grounds. Trump and the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, have both spoken in favor of cutting aid to nations that don’t back the administration’s positions.

 

Greeting Tillerson at his palace in Amman, Jordan’s King Abdullah II acknowledged the secretary’s stance in the administration’s decision. “Thank you, for I know that you played a very vital role,” he said.

 

In the wake of the U.N. General Assembly vote on the administration’s Jerusalem decision, Trump and Haley questioned whether aid to the Palestinians was worth the expense and whether the U.S should continue to assist countries that did not support the administration’s position.

 

“Let them vote against us,” Trump said at the time. “We’ll save a lot. We don’t care. But this isn’t like it used to be where they could vote against you and then you pay them hundreds of millions of dollars. We’re not going to be taken advantage of any longer.”

 

In January, the administration withheld more than half of a $125-milllion pledge to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which provides services to millions of Palestinians living in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan and Lebanon.

 

Jordan hosts almost half of the roughly five million Palestinian refugees and their descendants in the region. As such, it will be hit hard by the cuts because it depends on UNRWA welfare, education and health services for these people and is coping with an economic downturn and rising unemployment.

 

Tillerson said continued U.S. funding for UNRWA would depend in part on whether other donors step up their contributions.

 

 
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Libyans Observe Bittersweet Anniversary

Posted on by SeeEA

Anniversaries have come and gone to mark the start of the February 2011 uprising to topple Libyan autocrat Colonel Moammar Gadhafi and to remember his gruesome death on a desert road outside the coastal city of Sirte months later. Hope has slowly given way to sobering experience and the north African country is no closer to resolving a multi-sided conflict dividing regions, towns and militias.

On Thursday, Libyans will start marking the seventh anniversary of a revolution that still hasn’t met their expectations and the consequences of which are still fracturing a country ensnared in dispute and violence.

“For some Libyans, this year’s anniversary will be more bitter than sweet,” says Mary Fitzgerald, a researcher specializing in the country who witnessed the anti-regime protests in Benghazi in late February 2011 that quickly spread to the rest of the country.

“Seven years on Libya’s divisions run deep as a result of post-Gadhafi power struggles that tipped into years of armed conflict in 2014 and still paralyze the country today. Tellingly, elements associated with the former regime are more confident now than at any time since Gadhafi’s ousting.

“Others dream of military rule. Caught in between are ordinary Libyans struggling to make ends meet who feel the promise of their revolution has been betrayed. A growing number of Libyan youth are taking the smugglers’ boats to Europe,” she adds.

Six and a half years ago this VOA correspondent reported from Libya on the first and second anniversaries of the February 15 protests and the February 17 uprising. Back then Libyans quelled their doubts about the future. Gadhafi’s ouster was fresh and the freedom to say what they liked was still novel, the most obvious fruit of the uprising. Confidence remained amid the crackle of fireworks, blaring patriotic music and militiamen letting off bursts of automatic gunfire. People never tired of predicting that Libya one day would become a “Dubai on the Mediterranean.”

In Tripoli’s Martyrs’ Square the young especially were ebullient celebrating those early anniversaries. I remember a bright-eyed 22-year-old student, Nabila, who was celebrating with her friends, telling me, “today means everything for Libyans, especially for me. I am so happy for this day. Because everybody is going around with flags celebrating the revolution, this is the freedom for Libya.”

But away from the scenes of mainly youthful revelry with young men and women seizing rare opportunities to mingle casually and unsupervised, many Libyans were worried about rising lawlessness, a surge in drug use and crime, the machinations of warlords and militia chiefs and the remaining resentment of Gadhafi supporters.

The early governments appeared ham-fisted and all too often incompetent — ministries existed only in name having been hollowed out and ignored by Gadhafi. A series of prime ministers came and went, with unrealistic plans remaining unfulfilled. As one lawmaker complained to me in 2014: “All these foreigners arrive with different model constitutions we should adopt and they have grand ideas about governance, but they forget we are a conservative nation lacking in basic expertise and we need someone to explain the mechanics and how simply to get from A to B.”

And each successive year since Gadhafi’s ouster the transition from autocracy to democracy has proven a far more arduous road than the original revolutionaries — and their NATO backers —foresaw with the emergence of jihadists, the arrival of an Islamic State affiliate, a split between the east and west of the country and rivalry between competing governments, at one time three of them. Powerful human trafficking gangs have emerged, linked to various militias.

Looming over the chaos is the polarizing figure of General Khalifa Haftar, a renegade general who heads the ‘Libyan National Army’ and has made little secret of his ambition to become Libya’s next strongman. He has only recently offered conciliatory statements about a UN-sponsored push to hold nationwide elections this year. He has frequently claimed in the past that Libya is not ready for democracy and Western powers are warning him now not to sabotage an election process that has already seen the assassinations of a string of self-declared electoral candidates.

Five United Nations envoys have tried to oversee a deal between warring factions but to little avail. Emadeddin Muntasser, a Libyan human rights activist and political analyst, fears the latest U.N. plan backed by Western powers will crash and that nationwide elections scheduled for later this year are unworkable.

“The 2011 Libyan revolution promised to bring freedom and democracy to a region that endured a brutal dictatorship for almost half a century, “ he argues in a policy paper published Tuesday on the web-site of the Atlantic Council, a New York-based think tank. “With tribes, Islamists, anti-Islamists, extremists, and pro-Gadhafi oligarchy all competing for power and claiming legitimacy, Libya is now at a critical crossroads,” he says.

“With elections only a few months away, the U.N. has not addressed the lack of security or the lack of basic freedoms in areas controlled by various warlords,” he adds. He says the best way forward would be for incremental elections to be held with towns signing up as they see fit and sending representatives to a new parliament that slowly emerges and starts in an evolutionary way to stabilize the country.

Michel Cousins, a co-owner of the English-language newspaper Libya Herald, and who stepped down as its editor last month, also believes that the only way forward is a de facto political evolution. He told readers that he has “little confidence in the current political process in Libya.” But he added that he remains upbeat: “Yet, despite the stalemate and despite the fact that Libya has been listed by Forbes Magazine as the second worst country in the world to do business, there is light at the end of the tunnel.”

There are islands of functionality in the country, he argues. “There are opportunities, in particular at the local level where life continues as normal. There is a small handful of exceptions to this, but go to Misrata, to Zintan, to Tobruk, Beida, Gharyan, Khoms, Zuwara and so many other towns and cities, and they are functioning relatively normally. Libya is effectively now a decentralized state where local municipalities have learned that if anything is to happen they are the ones who have to do it.”

But that approach also remains uncertain. The risks are high for the islands of stability being sucked into spiraling conflict. Awash with guns and bombs, the violence continues. Even Haftar, who declared last July that his forces had succeeded in their goal of bringing stability to the eastern city of Benghazi and clearing it of jihadists, has little control of events on his patch. On January 23 a double car bombing ripped through Benghazi killing at least 33 people. The first blast was outside a mosque frequented by Haftar’s own fighters.

Amid the wrecked hopes there is a major irony. There is more speculation nowadays that Gadhafi’s second son, Saif al-Islam, may one day stage a political comeback, and some ordinary Libyans are pinning their hope on him emerging as the country’s leader. Freed last June after six years as a prisoner of a militia in the town of Zintan, he has been maneuvering behind-the-scenes. He could have saved his country a lot of pain, if he had split from his father seven years ago on the eve of the uprising, which some friends say he did seriously consider. If he had, it would have likely brought his father down without any fighting.
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Netanyahu Says Government Stable Despite Bribery Scandal

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Israel’s longtime leader is defiant in the face of a deepening corruption scandal that has sparked calls for his resignation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his coalition government is stable, a day after police recommended his indictment in two corruption cases.

He described the allegations as “biased, extreme, and full of holes like Swiss cheese” and vowed to remain in office.

Police accuse Netanyahu of bribery and breach of trust in two corruption cases and say there is sufficient evidence to indict him. Police investigators allege Netanyahu accepted nearly $300,000 in gifts from two billionaires, including fine Cuban cigars, champagne and jewelry. He also allegedly bargained with an Israeli newspaper publisher for more positive news coverage. Police say that in exchange, he promised to advance the interests of his benefactors.

Israeli opposition leaders are demanding Netanyahu’s resignation, saying he is corrupt and unfit to lead the nation.

“This is a very sad day for the Israeli people. It’s not a pleasant day when the police recommend such recommendations against the prime minister of Israel,” said Isaac Herzog of the Zionist Union party.

But Netanyahu is in no immediate danger of being toppled from power, says Israeli analyst Avraham Diskin.

“From a political point of view, all the members of the present coalition support Netanyahu; and because of that, for the time being, as far as changes in the political arena, I don’t see that yet,” said Diskin.

From a legal point of view, Netanyahu is not required to resign. The final decision on an indictment rests with the attorney general, and that could take up to a year. Until then, Netanyahu is poised to live up to his image as a political survivor.
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Dutch Foreign Minister Resigns After Admitting Lie

Posted on by SeeEU

Dutch Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra resigned Tuesday after admitting he had lied about attending a 2006 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Zijlstra went before members of parliament and said he had decided to step down because the foreign minister’s credibility must be “beyond doubt.”

He held the position for about four months.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte faced questions about why he had not made the lie public despite having known about it for several weeks. He said he underestimated the impact it would have.

Parliament held a no-confidence vote Tuesday, but Rutte easily survived.

The scandal involving Zijlstra risks undermining Dutch foreign policy at a time when diplomatic ties between the Netherlands and Russia have deteriorated, largely over the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over Ukraine, allegedly by pro-Russian separatists. Most of the 298 people who died in the crash were Dutch. 
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Top US Intelligence Officials: US Elections Again "Under Attack" From Russia

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Top U.S. intelligence officials say Russian President Vladimir Putin is targeting the U.S. midterm elections this November. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told the Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday the United States is “under attack,” with Russia and other adversaries engaging in cyber warfare to degrade American democratic institutions. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.
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Syrian Civilian Rescue Force Urges More Action From US, Europe in Securing Cease-fire

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A top member of a Syrian civilian rescue group called Tuesday for more action from the United States and other Western governments to stop what appears to be intensifying violence in Syria.  

Abdulrahman Almawwas described dire conditions in the rebel-held Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta where roughly 400,000 civilians are under siege.

Speaking to reporters in Paris, the vice president of the Syrian White Helmets rescue force warned of a humanitarian crisis similar to that in Aleppo during a government offensive to retake the city in 2016. It was time, he said, for U.S. President Donald Trump and European leaders to do more, including ensuring a real cease-fire.

“We hope from him (Trump) to do more against (the Syrian regime),” said Almawwas. “They can do more than this. Back to international humanitarian law. There is war crimes — maybe they can count the criminals.”

Almawwas was in Paris to take that message directly to French authorities. He said red lines outlined by President Emmanuel Macron among others— in terms of chemical weapons and humanitarian corridors in Syria — had long been crossed.

Macron said Tuesday that France would strike in Syria if chemical weapons are used against civilians, but that there was no proof of this to date.

“When we speak about the chemical attacks or targeting hospitals, this is a war crime,” said Almawwas. “And here, should do something. If we go to the Security Council there is a court and many (files) about the war crimes in Syria. And there is international humanitarian law. And nobody does anything about it.”

Observers warn the multi-dimensional Syrian crisis threatens to widen. The United Nations said Saturday that Syrian and Russian airstrikes killed 230 civilians over the previous week alone in Eastern Ghouta and Idlib, in northwestern Syria.

Almawwas said food was scarce in Eastern Ghouta and rescue workers had few means to respond to airstrikes.

“We were there with vans. We don’t have any ambulances in Al Gouta,” Almawwas said. “We work with our hands, with shovels, with basic extinguishers. We don’t have enough fire engines for the whole area.”

The White Helmets are said to have rescued thousands of civilians in opposition-held territory, although some challenge their claims.

Almawwas says foreign government donations for the group plummeted this past year. But as the Syrian conflict enters its eighth year, he says more and more Syrians are becoming White Helmets to reach about 3,700 current members.
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Pilot Error, Iced Sensors Blamed for Russia Plane Crash

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Pilot error as well as malfunctioning sensors likely caused a passenger jet to crash in Russia, killing all 71 people on board, investigators say.

After studying An-148’s flight data recorder, the Interstate Aviation Committee said that Sunday’s crash near Moscow occurred after the pilots saw varying data on the plane’s two air speed indicators.

The flawed readings came because the pilots failed to turn on a heating unit before the takeoff, the committee said. 

The plane’s captain reportedly didn’t want to defrost the aircraft before flying.  The procedure is optional and the crew’s decision is based mainly on the weather conditions.

The committee said it is continuing to study the data, but noted that “erroneous data on the pilots’ speed indicators may have been a factor that triggered the special flight situation.”

It said the flawed speed data resulted from the “icing of pressure measurement instruments that had their heating systems turned off.”

The Saratov Airlines Antonov An-148 took off Sunday from Moscow’s Domodedovo airport for a flight to the city of Orsk and went down in a field about 40 miles southeast of the capital.
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South Sudan Bulldozes Houses in Bor; Residents Flee Fighting in Yei River

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Hundreds of residents of the Jonglei State capital of Bor are sleeping under the stars after local authorities demolished their houses Tuesday to make way for new roads.

Residents awoke to the sound of a bulldozer destroying their houses in the Marol area, where many South Sudanese had settled illegally after fighting forced them from their homes. The displaced say they have nowhere to go and want the government to give them land on which to settle.

Alek Majok Ayuen sat under a tree beside her three children and a few household belongings as a bulldozer smashed their house.

“They are crashing people’s houses and shops. Now the [price of] iron sheets are very high, the [prices of] timbers are very high, [the price of] everything is very high. I don’t know how this condition will be with people. That thing is not OK. You can see yourself, now things are outside on the road. Even children, I don’t know where they will sleep,” Ayuen told South Sudan In Focus.

Resident Mary Adit Deng also watched Tuesday as her house was demolished.

“We came to this place when it was still a forest in 2006, after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. We settled here and it became our home. A few years ago, the government surveyed the area but we were not allotted any land to resettle. Now they say that I have to move away from here because the road they want to build will pass through my home. Where should I go?” Deng asked.

Bor resident John James says he welcomes the government’s decision to relocate people to make way for a road, but he says officials should compensate residents.

“We have to be shown where to relocate our families first, so that you can move your materials and children,” he said. “Now they are destroying houses with timbers and iron sheets. This is not fair whatsoever; it’s an attack on families.”

Mayor: No compensation

Bor town Mayor Gai Makhor said the town has no intention of compensating residents for the destroyed houses because those people failed to heed his earlier order to relocate.

“These are temporary structures. When you are allotted land that this is your residence, you will be compensated. But when you work on your own without any allotment, how we can compensate you?” Makhor asked South Sudan in Focus.

Makhor said the roads are being constructed to improve development and service delivery. He said legal residents will be allocated new plots.

“We want to make sure our town looks like a town,” he said. “I have a list of 199 households which are affected. Very soon, within two months, we are going to give them their new residential area.”

Makhor warned residents that security operatives will arrest anyone who obstructs the construction of roads in Bor town.

‘Inhumane’

Alfred Zulu, a human rights officer in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan field office in Bor, condemned the mass displacement of people caused by the demolition. He said the government should have designated alternate land before displacing the residents.

“Two hundred households comprising over 1,000 persons, including children, have been thrown out into the streets and they have nowhere to go. This is a violation of their rights, this is inhumane,” Zulu told South Sudan in Focus.

Yei River state

Meanwhile, local leaders and witnesses in Yei River state’s Mukaya County say hundreds of civilians were forced to flee their homes after fighting broke out late last week and continued through Monday between SPLA-IO rebels loyal to Riek Machar and a group loyal to former Western Equatoria state governor Joseph Bangasi Bakasoro.

Local officials and witnesses say both parties burned down houses and looted civilians’ property. Villagers who fled Mukaya County took shelter at a primary school in Hai Jezira, two kilometers northeast of Yei town.

Many appeared tired and weak after walking more than nine miles from Mukaya to Yei town. Children could be seen crying on their mothers’ laps.

Mukaya County elder Alfred Lasuba says there was heavy fighting Monday in Lorega Boma.

“We fled here to escape the suffering there. They searched homes and beat up some of the villagers. They looted property, including [taking our] goats. We were forced to stay in the bushes. That’s why we thought it wise to come into the town,” Lasuba told South Sudan in Focus.

Lasuba says hundreds of others, especially women and children, remain stranded in the bush without food or water.

Villager Grace Roba says she and five members of her family walked from Mukaya County in the bush the entire night before reaching Yei County on Tuesday morning. Women are tired of the war, she said, while holding back tears.

“This fighting is causing us a lot of pain, and yet we civilians have nothing to do with it. Life was better during the 21-year-old war with Khartoum than during this current war. While people are expecting peace, the armed groups have started fighting again,” Roba told VOA.

Thomas Bidali also fled to Yei County. He said the rebels burned down his house.

“My home was set on fire and I decided to run. We fled as a group through the bush yesterday until we reached Yei,” Bidali told VOA.

Appeal for help

Internally displaced persons, or IDPs, are appealing to the government and aid agencies for emergency food and water. Peter Butili Parajallha, head of the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission in Yei River State, says his office has registered up to 300 IDPs who fled Mukaya County.

“There are 67 households with a total population of 307, mostly children, women and old people,” Parajallha said. “They are tired, hungry and walked the whole night without food. We at RRC gave them a bag of rice for the children, with two big tents to shelter in. I am appealing to the NGOs with food and the community to rush with some food to save the lives of the people.”
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US Postal Service Enters Digital, Virtual, Augmented Worlds to Attract Customers

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Even though the U.S. Postal Service delivers about 46 percent of the world’s total mail, competition is getting tougher every day. The post office is turning to technology to stay current. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee shows how the USPS is using virtual and augmented realities, along with email, to attract business.
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US Social Media Firms Step Up Help on Security Efforts, Intelligence Leaders Say

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Leaders of U.S. national security and law enforcement agencies said Tuesday the U.S. private sector has been helpful in efforts to keep the country safe.

While the leaders did not name companies, industry sectors or what specific help has been provided, they did discuss the challenges of monitoring social media.

The comments may reflect a shift in what law enforcement has seen as the technology industry’s adversarial approach when it comes to fighting crimes and addressing national security issues.

The most notable example of this tension was support by tech industry groups for Apple’s battle with law enforcement over breaking the encryption of an iPhone used by the man who killed 14 people in the 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California.

‘Forward-leaning engagement’

At a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing Tuesday, Dan Coats, director of National Intelligence, said the U.S. government has received more support from those in the private sector “who are beginning to recognize ever more the issues that are faced with the material that comes through their processes.”

Christopher Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, referred to the help from the private sector as a “more forward-leaning engagement.”

“So, it’s teamwork within the intelligence community and then partnership with the private sector, which is, I think, the other big change I’ve noticed — is a lot more forward-leaning engagement with the private sector in terms of trying to share information and raise awareness on their end,” said Wray, also speaking at the hearing.

“Because at the end of the day, we can’t fully police social media, so we have to work with them so that they can police themselves a little bit better as well,” Wray added.

Gates: Be careful of arrogance

Separately, Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, said in an interview that tech firms need to be careful of being too arrogant when working in realms outside their businesses or they’ll face the kind of government intervention his firm experienced in its antitrust dispute.

“The tech companies have to be careful that they’re not trying to think their view is more important than the government’s view, or than the government being able to function in some key areas,” said Gates in an interview with Axios.

Gates cited Apple’s iPhone battle with the government, criticizing “their view that even a clear mass-murdering criminal’s communication should never be available to the government.”

“There’s no question of ability,” he said about unlocking the iPhone. “It’s the question of willingness.”

He also cited companies’ “enthusiasm about making financial transactions anonymous and invisible.”

Microsoft’s consent decree with the U.S. Justice Department came to an end in 2011, a result of the government’s settlement with the software giant in its antitrust case.

Remarks on Trump administration

On Tuesday, Gates and his wife, Melinda, issued their foundation’s annual letter.

In terms of the Trump administration, Gates wrote that while “we disagree with this administration more than the others we’ve met with, we believe it’s still important to work together whenever possible. We keep talking to them because if the U.S. cuts back on its investments abroad, people in other countries will die, and Americans will be worse off.”

Melinda Gates wrote that the president is a role model of “American values in the world.” She continued, “I wish our president would treat people, and especially women, with more respect when he speaks and tweets.”
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Here’s How Points-based Immigration Works

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The Senate is beginning its immigration debate with a bill that encapsulates all of President Donald Trump’s immigration priorities.One of those is a shift from an immigration system based largely on family reunification to a policy that would be points-based, sometimes called merit immigration.

Points-based systems are not new. Britain has one, and Germany is starting a pilot immigration program based on points.The two oldest points-based systems are in Canada and Australia.

Here is what those programs look like and how they stack up against the current U.S. system and the one Trump proposes:

Canada, Australia, U.S.

In 1967, Canada became the first nation to establish a points-based system. It allows 100 possible points for education, work experience, job offer, age of applicant and family adaptability. In the Canadian system, applicants can get the greatest number of points, 28, for language proficiency in English and French.

WATCH: Points-Based Immigration: How It Compares

To qualify as one of Canada’s skilled immigrants, an applicant must accrue 67 points and pass a medical exam.

In 2017, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada planned for more than half of its total immigrants to come through its workers’ program (172,500) and a smaller number (84,000) to be admitted as family members.

Australia’s points system was instituted in 1989 as a departure from the country’s previous racial- and ethnic-based policy. 

To gain entry, applicants must accrue 60 points for such attributes as English proficiency, skilled employment, educational background and ties to Australia. Australia awards the greatest number of points (30) to people of prime working age. Applicants must also pass a medical exam and character test.

In 2016-17, the Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection reported that “123,567 places were delivered in the skill stream; 56,220 places were delivered in the family stream.”

In contrast, the United States has had a system based on family reunification since the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965. There are 480,000 family visas allotted every year, while work visas are set at 140,000.

Pluses, minuses

Supporters of Trump’s plan argue the family-based approach brings in low-skilled workers compared with a point system. His proposal and one in the Senate would reward points based on high-salary job offers, past achievements, English language ability and education. The plans would also cut legal immigration by about 50 percent.

Critics say a points system would cost more; the government would have to review the applications and pay resettlement costs that are currently covered by sponsoring families. 

Results

In 2016, the United States admitted almost 1.2 million immigrants.The top five countries they came from were Mexico, China, Cuba, India and the Dominican Republic.

That same year, Canada took in about 296,000 immigrants. The top five countries of origin were the Philippines, India, Syria, China and Pakistan.

In 2016-17, Australia admitted 184,000 immigrants. India, China, Britain, the Philippines and Pakistan were the leading countries of origin.

The Australian Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in November 2016, “The unemployment rate for recent migrants and temporary residents was 7.4 percent, compared with 5.4 percent for people born in Australia. Migrants with Australian citizenship had an unemployment rate of 3.3 percent, temporary residents 8.6 percent and recent migrants on a permanent visa 8.8 percent.”

Statistics Canada reported an overall unemployment rate of 5.4 percent in 2017. For immigrants who had just landed it was 6.4 percent, and for those in the country for five years or less, it was 9.6 percent. For those in the country more than 10 years, the unemployment rate approached the national average at 5.6 percent.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said that in 2016, the unemployment rate for the foreign-born population, both new and longtime residents, was 4.3 percent, which was lower than the 4.9 percent rate for the population in general.
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Much Senate Sniping, Little Action on Immigration

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Partisan sniping dominated U.S. Senate deliberations one day after the chamber voted to launch debate on immigration reform, including the fate of undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, on Tuesday signaled his intention to conclude the immigration debate by week’s end and accused Democrats of needlessly delaying floor action.

“If we’re going to resolve these matters this week, we need to get moving,” McConnell said.

Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York objected when McConnell moved to begin floor debate on legislation cracking down on so-called “sanctuary cities” — municipalities that do not cooperate with federal authorities in identifying and handing over undocumented immigrants.

Schumer said the proposal “doesn’t address Dreamers, nor does it address [U.S.] border security,” and “would be getting off on the wrong foot.”

Hundreds of thousands of young immigrants, sometimes referred to as Dreamers, received temporary permission to work and study in the United States under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama administration program that President Donald Trump rescinded last year.

Trump challenged Congress to pass a law addressing DACA beneficiaries’ legal status, reigniting an immigration debate that reached the Senate floor this week.

“The key here is an immigration debate, not a DACA-only debate, not an amnesty-only debate,” Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley said. “An immigration debate has to include a discussion about enforcement measures … how to remove dangerous criminal aliens from our country.”

Trump has proposed a path to eventual citizenship for 1.8 million young undocumented immigrants, but also demanded funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, a reduction in the number of legal immigrants America accepts, and prioritizing newcomers with advanced work skills.

“Republicans want to make a deal and Democrats say they want to make a deal,” Trump tweeted early Tuesday. “Wouldn’t it be great if we could finally, after so many years, solve the DACA puzzle. This will be our last chance, there will never be another opportunity! March 5th.”

‘We’re on the verge’

Trump set March 5 as the termination date for DACA, after which former beneficiaries would be at risk of deportation unless Congress acts.

Any immigration proposal will need three-fifths backing to advance in the Senate, and Democrats argued that only a narrowly-tailored bill focusing on areas of general bipartisan agreement — a DACA fix and boosting border security — can pass.

“We can get something done, we’re on the verge,” Schumer said. “Let’s work toward that.”

Senate Republicans have unveiled a proposal that encompasses Trump’s immigration priorities, including “merit-based” legal immigration that gives preference to those who can best contribute to U.S. economic output.

Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin said such criteria would have excluded his relatives who came to America from Lithuania.

“My grandparents and my mother didn’t come to this country with any special skills or proficiency. They came here with a determination to make a better life, and they did — for themselves and for me,” Durbin said. “That’s my family’s story. That’s America’s story.”
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Market Volatlity, Budget Deficits Pose Test for Fed’s Powell

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When the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting ended last month, U.S. stock indexes were near record highs, market volatility was almost non-existent and policymakers chatted about the calm waters welcoming incoming central bank chief Jerome Powell.

Now, Janet Yellen’s successor may instead be facing an early test of his leadership as the Fed weighs the significance of a recent market downturn and jump in long-term bond yields as well as the risk the Trump administration’s tax and spending policies may light the fuse of unexpectedly fast inflation.

Powell’s views will become clearer when he testifies separately before lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate during the week of Feb. 28, and holds his first press conference as Fed chief after the March 20-21 policy meeting.

Investors widely expect the central bank to raise interest rates at its March meeting.

New U.S. inflation data on Wednesday may also indicate whether the pace of price increases is accelerating, which will be good news for a central bank that has struggled to hit its 2 percent annual inflation target — unless it comes too fast.

Meanwhile, the market turbulence this month “will worry them and induce considerable hand-wringing,” UBS economist Seth Carpenter said in an essay that asked whether Powell would delay a March rate hike to steady financial markets.

Not likely, said Carpenter, but he added that the selloff put the Fed in the quandary of determining whether the sudden market wobbliness is more important to policy than the recently passed tax cuts or an expected rise in U.S. government deficits.

Last week, the U.S. Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed into law a temporary spending deal expected to push budget deficits past $1 trillion annually with new military and domestic outlays.

On Monday, Trump proposed a budget that called for spending $57 billion less in fiscal year 2019 than mandated in last week’s deal.

‘Upside risks’

Powell’s colleagues at the Fed so far have said the central bank should stay the course, gradually raising rates along the path Yellen set and neither reacting to the recent market turbulence or jumping to conclusions about the impact the tax cuts and higher deficits could have on inflation.

But they’ve also made clear they are looking closely at all of the above, which will make Powell’s first months as Fed chief more complex than they seemed a couple of weeks ago.

“There are more salient upside risks to the forecast than we have seen in quite a while,” Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester told reporters on Tuesday after a speech in Dayton, Ohio, flagging the possibility the extra spending generated by tax cuts and a rise in budget deficits could throw off the Fed’s outlook for growth, inflation and other aspects of the economy.

“It is going to be important to evaluate how firms and households are responding.”

“Who knows?” Mester said. “The financial markets may be a risk on the downside if we do see a pullback in confidence. We have not seen it so far. I am not anticipating it.”

As stock markets were plummeting last week, San Francisco Fed President John Williams said he felt investors in a sense were playing catch-up — finally accepting the fact that central banks would continue raising rates, and repricing stock and bond investments accordingly.

“I think some of the market reaction is the fact that the economy is doing well,” Williams said, calling the rise in long-term bond yields “maybe delayed recognition” that global economic growth will continue and central banks will raise rates as a result.

 
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Kosovo President Expects ‘Historic’ Deal With Serbia This Year

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Kosovo expects to resolve outstanding issues with Serbia this year by reaching an “historic” agreement that would pave the way for the Balkan country to get a seat at the United Nations, President Hashim Thaci said on Tuesday.

Kosovo seceded a decade ago from Serbia, but its independence has not been recognized by Belgrade, which together with its traditional allies Moscow and Beijing has blocked Pristina’s bid for a U.N. seat.

As Belgrade moves closer to membership in the European Union, Serbian authorities are under pressure to resolve relations with neighbors including Kosovo.

“The deal between Kosovo and Serbia, which I believe will happen in 2018, will be a historic, a comprehensive agreement which will result in Kosovo’s membership in United Nations,” Thaci told Reuters in an interview.

Serbia lost control over Kosovo in 1999 when NATO waged a bombing campaign to halt killings of ethnic Albanians in a two-year counter-insurgency war. Nearly a decade later, in 2008, Kosovo declared independence, backed by the United States and most of the Western European states.

Kosovo’s independence has been recognized by 115 states so far.

Thaci said the agreement with Serbia would bring full normalization of relations between the former foes, although they may not be required to recognize each other as independent states.

Kosovo’s relations with Western countries was soured by an initiative to scrap a law that established a war crimes court.

The initiative was shelved under pressure by Western embassies in Pristina, and the court was set up in 2015, although it has yet to hear a case.

The Specialist Chamber, which has the authority to try ex-Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) guerrillas for alleged atrocities in the war that led to independence from Serbia, is part of Kosovo’s legal system but based in The Hague to minimize the risks of witness intimidation and judicial corruption.

Kosovo’s media have reported that some of the leading Kosovo politicians, including Thaci, who was commander of the KLA, could be indicted by the court or called to testify.

“This was an historic injustice but for the sake of keeping the strategic partnership with the US, EU and NATO we created that [the court],” Thaci said. “Kosovo has nothing to hide.”

Asked what he would do if called to testify as a witness or defendant by the court, he said: “The president or any other citizen of this country has no reason to be afraid.”

“We never violated Kosovo law or international laws. We have fought against a dictator, against a man who committed genocide,” he said, referring to former Yugoslav and Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, who died in 2006 while on trial for war crimes.

The 1.8 million-strong country is preparing for a big celebration on Saturday to commemorate the 10th anniversary of its declaration of independence. Kosovo-born British singer Rita Ora is due to hold a big concert in Pristina.
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Court Rejects Czech PM’s Bid to Clear Himself of Past Secret Police Links

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A Slovak court has rejected a demand by Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis to be cleared of cooperation with the communist-era secret police (StB), a court spokesman said on Tuesday.

The ruling concludes a lengthy legal battle started by Babis, a Slovak-born billionaire businessman who rose last year to the top of the political ladder in the neighbouring Czech Republic, Slovakia’s former partner in the Czechoslovak federation that fell apart in 1993.

The decision is mainly of symbolic value. It does not stop Babis from holding office nor from attempting to form a new government after his minority administration failed to win a vote of confidence in the Czech parliament last month.

A spokesman for Czech President Milos Zeman said on Twitter the decision did not mean any change in the president’s plan to appoint Babis as prime minister again.

Former secret agents involved

Babis, helped by evidence provided by former communist-era secret agents, won the initial court battles in the case, but his fortunes turned when the Slovak Constitutional Court ruled last year that those witnesses were unreliable.

It also ruled that Babis’s suit against the Slovak UPN institute which keeps communist-era files was misplaced, saying the institute was only the keeper, not the author, of the files, which were compiled by the StB itself.

The Constitutional Court sent the case back to the Bratislava regional court for a final ruling, which was made on Jan. 30 but not published until Tuesday.

‘We will sue until death’

Babis has admitted to meetings with StB officers in the 1980s in the former Czechoslovakia when he was a Communist Party member and worked in foreign trade, but he insists he only discussed the country’s economic interests.

For some Czechs and Slovaks, the injustices of the communist era of their joint past are still raw nearly 30 years on, but Babis’s ANO party still easily won the Czech election in October with nearly 30 percent of the vote.

Babis said on Tuesday he would fight the ruling with another lawsuit, although he did not know yet where it would be addressed.

“We will sue until death because we are in the right,” he told the online version of daily MF Dnes.

Faces fraud charges

Babis moved to Prague in the 1990s and built up his Agrofert chemicals and farming business before entering politics in 2011.

Babis is also facing fraud charges in the Czech Republic in a case involving 2 million euros in European Union and national subsidies a decade ago. That is the main reason other parties have refused to join a Babis-led government.

He denies any wrongdoing and ANO has refused to nominate another candidate for the post of prime minister.

 
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Egypt’s Prisons Can’t Confine Love on Valentine’s Day

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Despite pressure from Islamists, Valentine’s Day continues to be a big day for many Egyptians to express their feelings of love.  In Egypt’s prisons, where human rights groups estimate as many as 60,000 political prisoners are languishing, love remains alive as detainees and their lovers find creative ways to open their hearts on this day.  VOA correspondent Hamada Elrasam interviewed and photographed loved ones of several prisoners for this photo essay.

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Turkey’s Erdogan Issues Warning Over Eastern Mediterranean Energy Exploration

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is taking a hard line against nations and foreign energy companies exploring for gas in the eastern Mediterranean, warning them not to “step out of line” and encroach on his country’s territorial rights.

“Let them not think that the search for natural gas in Cypriot waters and opportunistic initiatives relating to islets in the Aegean have slipped our attention,” Erdogan said Tuesday as he addressed his ruling AK Party parliamentarians. Both Greece and Turkey claim the islets, known as Imia and Greek and Kardak in Turkish. The two countries nearly went to war in 1996 over ownership of the islets.

Erdogan made his remarks as Turkish warships continued to block an Italian ship from proceeding to search for energy in contested Cypriot waters.

“We warned Italy to not send oil company ENI to Cyprus for offshore drilling,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said, adding that Ankara would defend what he said were Turkish Cypriot rights. Turkey claims as its own a part of the area designated by Cyprus for exploration. The government in Nicosia says Cyprus has a sovereign right to drill.

“The Turkish side made clear, what is unilaterally done [by Greek Cypriots] is totally unacceptable. The [exploration] blocks declared by the Greek Cypriot side overlap the blocks by Turkish Cypriot side,” said former Turkish Ambassador Mithat Rende, who had responsibility for energy issues in his country’s Foreign Ministry.

The latest dispute also has embroiled Egypt, with Cairo criticizing Ankara’s actions. Egypt and the Greek Cypriots have a partnership to search for energy together. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry’s official spokesperson, Ahmed Abu Zeid, said in a statement that no party can dispute the legality of the agreement on the demarcation of the maritime borders between Egypt and Cyprus.

In a related development, Greece says a Turkish coast guard vessel collided with a Greek coast guard boat off the disputed islets late Monday. No injuries were reported. The Greek vessel, however, was damaged. The Reuters news agency says Greece protested to Turkey over the incident and that the Turkish prime minister, Binali Yildirim, told his Greek counterpart, Alexis Tsipras, that Athens must  take steps to decrease tension in the Aegean.

Earlier this month, the U.S. ambassador to Greece, Geoffrey Pyatt, warned of the danger of an “accident” between Greece and Turkey in the Aegean. The warning came as Athens claimed there had been a major surge in Turkish fighter jets infringing on its airspace over the waters.  

“What we are seeing is an aggressive [Turkish] nationalist rhetoric, backed by action, exactly like Russia. Its quite likely to result in a confrontation,” warned political scientist Cengiz Aktar. “Turkey’s foreign policy is a return to the 19th century, based on the affirmation of the power. It’s a muscle-flexing policy. This aggressive foreign policy feeds the nationalist feelings in the country. It’s very functional for the regime in the upcoming elections.”

Turkey is due to hold local, general and presidential elections by 2019.

The potent combination of electoral politics shaping foreign policy makes Ankara unpredictable, analysts say, in a region bereft of unresolved disputes. “This all has a history; it’s very much embedded in concepts on national causes, both on the Greek side and the Turkish side,” said political columnist Semih Idiz of Al Monitor website. “So Erdogan has to appear determined. This is one issue he has to be seen protecting Turkey’s rights in the Aegean and Cyprus; in effect he is playing to the nationalist gallery.”

“Anything can happen at any time – a [Turkish] adventure in the Aegean [Sea] would mean occupation of a small island. For Cyprus, it would mean the annexation of the northern part of the island,” said political scientist Aktar. Northern Cyprus is administered by a Turkish Cypriot government and recognized internationally only by Ankara. The rest of the island is ruled by a Greek Cypriot administration. Cyprus was partitioned after a 1974 Turkish invasion of the island following a Greek-inspired coup.

The past couple of decades have seen diplomatic flareups among Ankara, Athens and Nicosia. The trouble occasionally has involved Ankara using strong rhetoric. Analysts point out that such disputes were contained by Turkey’s bid to join the European Union, given that Ankara was aware any spilling over of diplomatic tensions into violence or even the very threat, likely would end its membership aspirations.

Given that Turkey’s EU bid is widely considered dead for the foreseeable future, the region could be entering a new era, according to Aktar. “There are no more checks and balances that a future [Turkish] membership of the European Union is providing – owing to the difficult bilateral relations between the two countries [Greece and Turkey] and this is new, and that opens the door to a very dangerous future,” Aktar underscored.
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Ethiopia Frees Opposition Leader Amid Protests

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Ethiopia released a senior opposition leader from prison on Tuesday and dropped all charges against him, a day after demonstrators blocked roads and staged rallies in several towns to protest against his incarceration.

Bekele Gerba, secretary general of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), was arrested in December 2015 after mass protests broke out in the Oromiya region over accusations that farmers were being forced to sell land with scant compensation.

He had been held initially on terrorism charges, which were later reduced to charges of incitement to violence.

“He just walked out of prison. We have confirmed that all charges against him have been dropped,” Mulatu Gemechu, a member of the OFC’s leadership told Reuters.

State-affiliated media confirmed that Bekele had been freed along with seven other opposition figures, and that the charges against him had been dropped. Ethiopia’s information minister was not available for comment.

Bekele’s release came amid a three-day strike across Oromiya province, which surrounds the capital, as well as a mass pardoning of dissidents by the government aimed at reducing unrest that has simmered since 2015.

Nearly 6,000 prisoners have been freed since January, mainly people who had been detained for alleged involvement in unrest in Oromiya, or, to a lesser extent, the Amhara region.

Bekele was sentenced last month to six months for contempt of court after he and other opposition members sang a protest song during their trial. Had he not been freed, a verdict on his incitement charge would have been handed down on March 7.

On Tuesday, large crowds marched in various towns in Oromiya and roads remained blocked with large stones, including in the towns of Jimma, Woliso and Legetafo.

Markets, schools and banks remained closed in most of the areas, residents said. Some protesters attacked vehicles.

“Many Oromo politicians remain unjustly incarcerated, such as Bekele,” said one protester in the town of Jimma, who gave his name only as Awol, speaking before news that Bekele had been freed. “All should be released. That is why we are striking.”

Sparked initially by an urban development plan for the capital, unrest spread in 2015 and 2016 with demonstrations against political restrictions and human rights abuses.

Rights groups say hundreds have died in the violence.

Ethiopia is often accused of using security concerns as an excuse to stifle dissent, as well as suppressing non-governmental organizations and the media, which the government denies.
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Award-Nominated Film Spotlights Trauma of Calais ‘Jungle’ Kids

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The director of an award-nominated film about a traumatized boy stuck in the Calais “Jungle” camp has urged Britain to take in more lone child refugees stranded across Europe to prevent them from falling prey to traffickers.

Vika Evdokimenko’s film “Aamir” is loosely based on the story of a boy her husband met two years ago when the couple volunteered in the French camp, which has since been bulldozed.

“It was just one of the most miserable places I’ve been to,” Evdokimenko said ahead of Sunday’s British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards – Britain’s equivalent of the Oscars – where “Aamir” is in the running for best short film.

“Kids [were] in purgatory in that place,” she added.

The camp, a sprawling shanty town near the northern port of Calais, was once home for 10,000 refugees and migrants who hoped to reach Britain by stowing away on trucks, cars or trains.

Evdokimenko said life was hardest for the hundreds of lone children, many of whom had been trafficked after fleeing violence or poverty in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

In 2016, Britain pledged to take 480 of the most vulnerable young asylum seekers in Europe. Around half have arrived so far.

Refugee groups had originally hoped Britain would take 3,000.

“I think Britain can afford to be more generous … it’s a first-world country,” said Evdokimenko, who moved to the United Kingdom from Russia as a child.

Evdokimenko’s 16-minute-long film focuses on a boy driven to an act of violence when he cannot find a door for his shelter.

“He was absolutely desperate for a door. He felt very exposed, very unsafe,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“These kids get angry … There’s a lot of trauma, there’s a lot of issues and I wanted to show an imperfect portrait of a child refugee, but one that was relatable,” Evdokimenko added.

Locked in trunks

The director said the children she met told “horrific” stories about their experiences at the hands of smugglers.

Some described beatings. Others were locked in car trunks, sometimes for days, with just a tube to breathe through.

The film highlights the children’s vulnerability – Aamir is robbed after being drugged by men who appear to befriend him.

It also conveys the physical misery as relentless rains pour through flimsy shelters, turning the ground into a mud bath.

Evdokimenko, who worked at the camp in 2016 packing food rations, described a bleak dune-like landscape engulfed in the stench of a nearby chemical factory and littered with rubbish.

The production team had originally hoped to cast one of the boys in the camp as Aamir, but decided it would be wrong to ask the children to relive their experiences for the camera.

They were also disturbed to find that whenever they returned to the camp, the boys they met on the last visit had vanished.

Evdokimenko said she was sure many had been trafficked.

Despite the Jungle’s demolition, Evdokimenko said her film was still relevant given the tens of thousands of unaccompanied refugee and migrant children scattered throughout Europe.

There are signs the Calais camp is being rebuilt, she said.

“My main anxiety about these kids is how they can ever recover from these things they’ve been through,” she added.

“The longer we leave them in these places, which are just so unsuitable for kids … the more we lose our opportunity to allow them to become amazing members of our communities.”

 
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Congolese Refugees Risk Lives to Flee DRC’s Ituri Province

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The U.N. refugee agency reports thousands of people are taking deadly flight as ethnic violence grows in Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ituri Province.

Some people are losing their lives in their desperation to escape the increasingly bitter conflict between the Hema and Lendu ethnic groups in DRC’s Ituri Province. The U.N. refugee agency reports four Congolese refugees seeking safety in Uganda have drowned after their boat capsized on Lake Albert two days ago.

The UNHCR says several days prior to this tragedy, two other refugees died at the DRC shores of Lake Albert, where thousands of people are waiting to cross.

Last week, the agency recorded a huge surge in the numbers of people fleeing Ituri, with more than 22,000 Congolese crossing Lake Albert to Uganda. This brings the total number of new arrivals in Uganda since the beginning of the year to 34,000.

UNHCR spokesman, Babar Baloch, calls this very alarming. He tells VOA this is the biggest exodus of refugees from Ituri for two decades. That is when 400,000 people were displaced and tens of thousands were killed in clashes between the Hema and Lendu over cattle and grazing rights.

“We remain worried,” he said. ” … What we have seen in the last weeks, on average 3,000 people fleeing per day, and this could still go on as there are reports of thousands of others being stranded on the shores of Lake Albert inside DRC.”

Baloch says refugees recount gruesome stories of growing attacks against civilians in Ituri Province, as well as killings and destruction of private property. He says UNHCR has received many reports of civilians being hacked to death and killed with arrows.

Baloch says arriving refugees are in great need of shelter, food and other vital support. He says new settlements must be built and it is critical for refugees to receive psychological counseling to help them overcome their trauma.
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Zuma, Kenyan Crisis, Communism or Capitalism for Africa – Shaka: Extra Time

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In this episode of “Shaka Extra Time,” Straight Talk Africa host Shaka Ssali answers your questions about the ANC and President Jacob Zuma, talks about capitalism versus communism for the African continent and rebukes criticism that he paints Africa as a “bad continent”. Take a look and let us know what you think.
“Shaka Extra Time” is a Facebook-live-only show where Paul Ndiho brings audience questions to Straight Talk Africa host Shaka Ssali.
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Sources: ANC to Remove President Zuma from Office

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Leaders of the African National Congress will hold a news conference Tuesday morning, where they are expected to announce their decision to remove embattled President Jacob Zuma as head of state.

News outlets say the ANC’s national executive committee decided to recall Zuma in the predawn hours Tuesday after a marathon 13-hour meeting in Pretoria. The decision was apparently sealed after ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa privately met with Zuma late Monday night in Pretoria as the talks dragged on. Earlier reports from state broadcaster SABC said the committee had given Zuma 48 hours to turn in his resignation.

The decision to remove Zuma from office came after a week of negotiations with the scandal-scarred president failed to convince him to quit.

Pressure has mounted on the the 75-year-old Zuma to step down since Ramaphosa took over as ANC head in December, defeating the president’s ex-wife Nkosazana Dlamina-Zuma. The political turmoil forced the cancellation of Zuma’s annual State of the Nation address before a joint session of Parliament last week. 

Zuma is scheduled to step down next year. An opposition coalition led by the Democratic Alliance and the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters says it will demand parliament be dissolved and early elections held once Zuma is out.

Zuma has been marred by corruption allegations, coupled with South Africa’s economic decline, since he assumed the presidency in 2009 after engineering the ouster of former President Thabo Mbeki, who was accused of abuse of power. 
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