Month: May 2018

Croatian Border Police Fire at Van of Illegal Migrants; 9 Hurt

Posted on by SeeEU

Nine people were hurt, including two children, when Croatian border police fired at a van full of illegal migrants that refused to stop.

Police said they discovered 29 people inside the van after it crossed the border from Bosnia.

The driver fled into the woods, and police were searching for him. 

The two wounded children were recovering in a hospital, and officials said their lives were not in danger.

“We are sorry about the children being injured in this incident,” Zadar town police chief Anton Drazina said. “Our priority is the fight against organized crime and protection of the state border and not against the migrants, but against the criminals who are unfortunately endangering the lives of the migrants by their smuggling activities.”

Police said most of the people in the van were from Afghanistan and Iraq.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants used the so-called Balkan route to cross into the European Union before the route was shut down. But a number of people still slip through.
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UN Threatens South Sudan With Sanctions   

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The U.N. Security Council is giving South Sudan one month to stop fighting and sign a peace deal or face an arms embargo and sanctions.

The council passed a U.S.-sponsored resolution Thursday with the minimum nine votes needed for approval. Six members abstained.

The resolution calls on Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to report back to the council on June 30. 

If there is still fighting and no “viable political agreement,” the council will consider an arms embargo and sanctions against six top South Sudanese officials.

Ethnic fighting has raged in South Sudan since 2013 between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those backing his former vice president, Riek Machar.

Tens of thousands have been killed and more than a million civilians have fled their homes.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley has called Kiir an “unfit partner” for peace.

The relief group Doctors Without Borders reported Thursday on what it says is an increase in attacks on civilians in Leer and Mayendit counties over the past month. They include gang rapes, mass murders and villages looted.

The group says people are fleeing for their lives into the brush and swamps without food, clean water, proper shelter or medical care. 

Doctors Without Borders says all sides must stop violence against civilians.
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Pope Vows ‘Never Again’ to Sex Abuse in Chile, Reopens Probe

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Pope Francis on Thursday promised Chilean Catholics scarred by a culture of clergy sexual abuse that “never again” would the Church ignore them or the cover-up of abuse in their country, where a widespread scandal has devastated its credibility.

The pope issued the comments in a letter to all Chilean Catholics as the Vatican announced that Francis was sending his two top sexual abuse investigators back to the country to gather more information about the crisis there.

The Vatican’s most experienced sexual abuse investigator, Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, and Father Jordi Bertomeu, a Spaniard, had visited Chile earlier this year.

In the letter released by Chilean bishops, Francis also praised the victims of sexual abuse in the country for persevering in bringing the truth to light despite attempts by Church officials to discredit them.

“The ‘never again’ to a culture of abuse, and the system of cover-up that allowed it to perpetuate, calls on all of us to work towards a culture of carefulness in our relationships,” he said in the eight-page letter.

He described the Chilean scandal as a “painful open wound.” Hours before the letter was released in Chile, the Vatican said Scicluna and Bertomeu would concentrate on the diocese of Osorno in southern Chile, seat of a bishop who has been most caught up in the scandal.

A Vatican statement said the purpose of the trip, due to start in the next few days, was to “move forward in the process of reparation, and healing for victims of abuse.”

The two prepared a 2,300-page report for the pope after speaking to victims, witnesses and other Church members earlier this year.

On May 18, all of Chile’s 34 bishops offered to resign en masse after attending a crisis meeting with the pope in the Vatican about the cover-up of sexual abuse in the south American nation.

Francis has not yet said which resignations he will accept, if any. In his letter, the pope said the renewal of the Church hierarchy on its own would not bring the transformation needed in Chile, calling for unity in a time of crisis and a deepening of faith.

The scandal revolves around Father Fernando Karadima, who was found guilty in a Vatican investigation in 2011 of abusing boys in Santiago in the 1970s and 1980s. Now 87 and living in a nursing home in Chile, he has always denied any wrongdoing.

Victims accused Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno of having witnessed the abuse but doing nothing to stop it. Barros, who was one of those who offered to stand down, has denied the allegations.

During a visit to Chile in January, Francis staunchly defended Barros, denouncing accusations against him as “slander.”

But days after returning to Rome, the pope, citing new information, dispatched Scicluna and Bertomeu to Chile. Some of their findings were included in a damning 10-page document that was presented to the bishops when they came to Rome.

In April, the pope hosted three non-clerical victims who said they were abused by Karadima, and this weekend he will be meeting with priests who said they were abused by Karadima when they were young.
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Europe Responds Swiftly to US Tariffs, Threatens Retaliation

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Reaction to U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to slap tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from American trading partners — including the European Union — came fast and furious, with threats of retaliation and warnings they risk sparking a trans-Atlantic trade war.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said the European bloc would respond by imposing penalties of its own on American exports.

“Today is a bad day for world trade,” said Cecilia Malmström, the European trade commissioner. EU officials previously informed the World Trade Organization of the bloc’s plan to levy duties on $7.2 billion worth of U.S. exports if the Trump administration proceeded with threats to impose a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum.

Canadian and Mexican officials also threatened retaliatory responses but have as yet not indicated which U.S. products they will target. Both countries had hoped that the White House would continue to exempt them from the tariffs. 

National security cited

Europe, along with Canada and Mexico, had been granted a temporary reprieve from the U.S. tariffs after they were unveiled in March by Trump, who said the levies were needed to stem the flood of cheap steel and aluminum into the U.S. and that to impose them was a national security priority.

In Europe, there was disappointment, but less surprise. 

Juncker called the U.S. action “unjustified” and said Europeans had no alternative but to respond with tariffs of their own and to lodge a case against Washington with the World Trade Organization in Geneva. “We will defend the union’s interests, in full compliance with international trade law,” he said.

The EU had already publicly announced that in the event tariffs did go ahead, it would impose levies on Levi-made jeans, Harley-Davidson motorbikes and bourbon whiskey.

British officials appeared the most alarmed. The government of Theresa May had pinned post-Brexit hopes on securing a trade deal with the U.S., and the imposition of tariffs on steel is adding to fears that negotiating a quick trade liberalization agreement with Trump looks increasingly unlikely.

“We are deeply disappointed that the U.S. has decided to apply tariffs to steel and aluminum imports from the EU on national security grounds,” a government spokesman said. “The U.K. and other European Union countries are close allies of the U.S. and should be permanently and fully exempted.”

Discussion at summit

He said the British prime minister planned to raise the tariffs with the U.S. president personally in Canada at a scheduled G-7 summit of the seven largest advanced economies. That summit is likely to be a frosty affair, much like last year’s in Taormina, Sicily. 

With a week to go before the June 7-8 summit, there’s still no final agreement on the agenda, British and Italian officials said. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had earmarked climate change, women’s rights and economic growth as key issues, but there has been pushback from Washington. Thursday’s tariff announcement by the White House will further complicate agreeing on a G-7 agenda.

German reaction to the announcement of the tariffs was among the fiercest. Chancellor Angela Merkel dubbed them “illegal.” Manfred Weber, a key ally of the German chancellor and leader of the biggest bloc in the European Parliament, accused the Trump administration of treating American allies as enemies.

“If President Trump decides to treat Europe as an enemy, we will have no choice but to defend European industry, European jobs, European interests,” he said. “Europe does not want a trade conflict. We believe in a fair trade regime from which everybody benefits.” 

Wilbur Ross, U.S. commerce secretary, who’s in Europe and has been pressing the EU to make concessions to avert the tariffs, dismissed threats of a trade war, saying retaliation would have no impact on the U.S. economy. He held out hope that the tariffs could be eliminated, saying, “There’s potential flexibility going forward. The fact that we took a tariff action does not mean there cannot be a negotiation.” 

Business leaders cautious

Some European business leaders have urged their national leaders to be restrained in response, fearing a tit-for-tat spiral could be triggered quickly. Britain’s Confederation of British Industry warned against overreaction, saying no one would win on either side of the Atlantic if a major trade war erupted.

The director of UK Steel, Gareth Stace, said he feared there was clear potential for a damaging trade war.

“Since President Trump stated his plans to impose blanket tariffs on steel imports almost three months ago, the U.K. steel sector had hoped for the best, but still feared the worst. With the expiration of the EU exemption now confirmed to take effect tomorrow [June 1], unfortunately, our pessimism was justified, and we will now see damage not only to the U.K. steel sector but also the U.S. economy.” 
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Zimbabwe: Trump Administration Turning ‘Blind Eye’ to Sanctions

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Zimbabwe’s President says the Trump administration is easing enforcement of sanctions on the southern African country. The president spoke Thursday in Gweru town, about 350 kilometers south of Harare, a day after setting July 30 as the date for the next election.

In an hour-long speech Thursday to his ZANU-PF party supporters, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said relations with Western countries are warming up since he came to power last November, after his predecessor Robert Mugabe resigned under pressure from the military.

He said the U.S. is overlooking sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe in the early 2000s following reports of human rights abuses and election rigging by the Mugabe regime.

According to Mnangawa, the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, known as ZIDERA, has been hurting the southern African country since it was passed nearly 20 years ago.

He said in recent months, his administration has secured billions of dollars in commitments to addressing Zimbabwe’s moribund economy.

“I must say this to you: Americans have ZIDERA which forbids U.S. companies to invest in Zimbabwe,” he said. “But we have big U.S. company which came and wants to do Batoka Gorge Hydroelectricity project at $5.2 billion. We asked them how they would do it when there is ZIDERA and they said, Trump’s administration is giving us a blind eye. So things are changing.”

Mnangagwa said he had already written to his Zambian counterpart President Edgar Lungu about the project, which is supposed to take place on the Zambezi River, on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe.

U.S. embassy officials in Harare could not be immediately reached if indeed Trump’s administration was now overlooking ZIDERA, a law passed by the U.S. Congress in 2001.

Turning to Zimbabwe’s elections set for July 30, Mnangagwa said he was already planning beyond them.

“We have agreed that five years after this election, we have programs we have put down to improve housing,” he said. “We are saying: 1.2 million houses to be built. We are attracting foreign companies who are willing to invest in houses. As industries are recovering, as electricity is being produced, we believe that in the next five years according to our program, [we have] over 2,000 mega watts of electricity that will come on board.”

Mnangagwa pleaded for unity in ZANU-PF, which has experienced internal strains since Mugabe resigned last November.

In the coming election, Mnangagwa is face challenges from several opponents including 40-year-old Nelson Chamisa of the country’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change.
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Flood-Stricken Somalia Needs More Aid to Avert Humanitarian Crisis

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The World Food Program is calling for stronger international support for hundreds of thousands of Somalis impacted by some of the heaviest rains to hit their country in three decades. The rainfall that began last month has caused widespread flooding and damage in central, south and north Somalia.

For much of the last decade, Somalia has struggled with chronic drought. The 2011 drought was especially bad, killing an estimated 260,000 people.

Now Somalia has the opposite problem — too much rain.

About one month ago, President Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed appealed for international support to help hundreds of thousands of people displaced by heavy flooding.

The response has been somewhat tepid. The World Food Program says it is concerned the situation will become even more difficult since the disaster has slipped out of the world’s headlines.

The agency reports nearly 300,000 of the 700,000 people affected by the floods are homeless. WFP spokeswoman Bettina Luescher says her agency is doing what it can to support livelihood and safety net activities to build up resilience.

“But, we are once again under-funded. We need some $120 million to assist the people in Somalia until the end of October. As you know, last year, we were fighting to avoid a famine in Somalia. We have to keep on pushing to make sure that all the gains that we were able to make last year when we were able to fight off a famine can still be kept,” she said.

Earlier in the year, the U.N. appealed for $1.5 billion to provide aid to some five million people affected by drought and conflict. Less than $370 million, or 24 percent, has been received. U.N. officials say that isn’t enough to support a robust flood response.

Luescher says WFP is aiming to reach three million people in Somalia this year. She says work is going on in partnership with other agencies to reach the flood victims. She says the WFP is distributing high-energy biscuits and handing out two-month supplies of food rations in some areas.

She says many places are inaccessible by road, so aid workers are using boats to reach people cut off by the floods. She says the WFP, which operates the U.N. Humanitarian Air Service, also has added a helicopter to its fleet to transport aid workers to flood-affected areas.
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Ukraine: Reporter’s Fake Murder Involved Pig’s Blood, Morgue

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A Russian journalist, who helped stage his own death to avoid an alleged Russian plot to murder him, says the operation involved pig’s blood and him being transported to a morgue.

Ukrainian authorities disclosed Wednesday they planned his mock death after learning Russian security officials supposedly had ordered his murder a month ago.

In his first detailed accounting of the sting since its revelation, Arkady Babchenko said at a news conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, he could have chosen not to participate when he was approached about a month ago. Instead, he promptly agreed.

“I said, ‘Great!’ Why have you been waiting for a month?”

Babchenko said after he arrived at the morgue, he changed his clothes and began watching the news.  

A Kremlin spokesman said Thursday that Russia is glad Babchenko is alive, but called the staging of his death “strange.”

The prominent Russian war correspondent and Kremlin critic had been reported to be shot dead in the stairwell of his Kyiv apartment building on Tuesday. But Babchenko stunned reporters when he appeared alive and well Wednesday as Ukrainian security officials explained the death had been faked.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday he did not know if the result of the case justified the actions taken, and that the situation does not change Russia’s view that Ukraine is a dangerous place for journalists.

Reporters Without Borders condemned Babchenko’s fake death, saying it was “distressing and regrettable” for Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) to play with the truth.

“Was such a scheme really necessary? There can be no grounds for faking a journalist’s death,” said the group’s secretary-general Christophe Deloire.

On the ethics of the operation

Babchenko responded to the criticism in front of his colleagues Thursday at a news conference in Kyiv.

“Do you want to survive or do you want to preserve the ethics, morals, purity and spiritual standards of your profession? You are welcome to preserve the ethics, morals and purity of your profession. I chose the option to survive.”

At a televised briefing Wednesday, SBU chief Vasyl Hrytsak stood alongside Babchenko as he recounted events leading up to the foiled assassination attempt.

The operation began with a tip from an anonymous source who said an unidentified Ukrainian national had been inquiring about buying weapons for a contract killing in Kyiv, which triggered the SBU probe.  Officials said he had been asked to find and hire someone to carry out the assassination.

During the negotiations, Hrytsak said, the man claimed Russia’s Secret Service had offered him $40,000 to organize and carry out the hit. He said the suspect was a former separatist fighter who had fought in eastern Ukraine.

SBU investigators then recruited Babchenko into the sting operation designed to catch Russian agents in the act of conducting an extrajudicial killing on foreign soil.

Investigators said the intermediary who had been tasked with hiring the gunman was in custody, and officials said they had additional hard evidence linking Russia’s secret service to the assassination plot, though they did not provide details.

Apologies

Addressing reporters, Babchenko told his family he was sorry for faking his own death.

 

“I’d like to apologize for everything you’ve had to go through,” he said. “I’ve been at the funeral of many friends and colleagues, and I know this nauseating feeling. Sorry for putting you through this, but there was no other way.

 

“Special apologies to my wife for the hell she’s been through these two days,” he added. “Olya, forgive me, please, but there was no other option.”

 

Police reports that followed initial reports of the shooting say it was Babchenko’s wife who discovered him lying in a pool of blood at the entrance of their Kyiv apartment.

It is not clear whether his wife was involved in the sting.

“As far as I know, this operation took two months to prepare,” Babchenko told the briefing. “They saved my life. I want to say thank you.”

Tuesday’s news of the shooting shocked the Ukrainian capital, prompting Kyiv and Moscow officials to blame each for the reporter’s death.

 

Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman suggested Russia had orchestrated the killing, while Kremlin spokesman Peskov rejected that claim.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said after Babchenko’s reappearance Wednesday that Ukrainian officials had circulated a false story for purposes of “propaganda.”

Kyiv police and officials from Ukraine’s Interior Ministry had announced on Tuesday that Babchenko had died in an ambulance on the way to a hospital after being shot in the back at his home in Kyiv, where he has lived in exile since August 2017.

News of the 41-year-old’s reported death had shocked colleagues and added to tension between Moscow and Kyiv, whose ties have been badly damaged by Russia’s seizure of Crimea and backing for separatist militants in a devastating war in eastern Ukraine.

This story originated in VOA’s Ukrainian Service; some reporting by AP and RFE/RL.
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European Court: Romania, Lithuania Hosted CIA Secret Jails

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The European Court of Human Rights ruled Thursday that Romania and Lithuania allowed the detention and abuse of a Saudi and a Palestinian at secret U.S. prisons.

The Strasbourg, France-based court said Thursday that Abd al-Rahim Al Nashiri, a Saudi national later sent to Guantanamo Bay, was detained and abused in Romania between Sept. 2003 and Oct. 2005, and urged Romania to investigate and punish perpetrators.

The court concluded that Al-Nashiri was blindfolded, hooded, shackled, kept in solitary confinement, and subjected to loud noise and bright light during his detention at the CIA prison in Romania.

Romania denies hosting such CIA facilities. There was no immediate reaction from the government.

The court said Al Nashiri and Zubaydah were both considered “high-value detainees” taken by the CIA at the start of the U.S.-led “war on terror.”

Al Nashiri’s lawyer, Amrit Singh, called the ruling “a sharp rebuke to Romania’s shameful attempts” to conceal its hosting of a secret CIA prison.She was the lead lawyer on the case with the New York-based Open Society Justice Initiative.

Singh also noted the court’s decision in light of the appointment of new CIA Director Gina Haspel, who supervised a covert detention site in Thailand where terror suspects, including al-Nashiri, were waterboarded, an interrogation technique that simulates drowning.

“The European court’s ruling is critical for upholding standards of international law — that torture is absolutely prohibited and those involved in torture must be held to account,” said Singh. “It stands in stark contrast to the United States’ decision to promote Gina Haspel to CIA Director despite her role in my client’s torture.”

 The court also said that Lithuania hosted a secret CIA detention facility from February 2005 to March 2006 where Abu Zubaydah, a Palestinian suspected of being a planner for the Sept. 11 attacks, was detained.

It ruled that Lithuania allowed him to be moved to another CIA detention site in Afghanistan, “exposing him to further ill-treatment.” He is currently detained at Guantanamo Bay and has not been charged.

Lithuanian authorities said they would consider appealing the court’s decision and may also investigate the claims again.

Justice Minister Elvinas Jankevicius told reporters that “we will take a decision after carefully examining,” the ruling. Vytautas Bakas, the chairman of the parliamentary committee for national security and defense, said he would propose opening a new probe.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, however, contradicted the justice minister and said in a statement that the small Baltic country’s “reputation damage is done,” adding that Lithuania “thus will have to execute a court judgment” and pay Zubaydah 130,000 euros ($152,000). She has regularly clashed with the Lithuanian government and forced a minister to resign after expressing her distrust.

Amnesty International called the rulings “a key milestone in holding European governments accountable for their involvement in illegal CIA activities in the aftermath” of the 9/11 attacks.

Roisin Pillay, director of the International Council of Jurists’ Europe and Central Asia Program claimed that “many other European governments colluded with the U.S. to illegally transfer, `disappear’ and torture people during rendition operations and must also be held accountable.”

A 2009 investigation in Lithuania concluded that the country’s intelligence agency helped the CIA set up two small detention centers there, but did not determine whether the facilities were actually used in the interrogation of terrorism suspects.
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Doctors Race to Vaccinate 1,000 People in Congo Against Ebola

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Health workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo are racing against time to contain an outbreak of Ebola. So far, the World Health Organization reports at least 25 people have died out of the 58 people who have gotten the virus. VOA’s Carol Pearson reports that efforts to vaccinate people exposed to Ebola started more than 10 days ago.
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Gravity Could Be Source of Sustainable Energy

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In today’s energy-hungry world, scientists are constantly revisiting every renewable resource looking for ways to increase efficiency. One researcher in the Netherlands believes even gravity can be harnessed to produce free electricity on a scale sufficient to power small appliances. VOA’s George Putic has more.
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Trump Ramps Up Rhetoric Against Special Counsel Probe

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U.S. President Donald Trump has ramped up his campaign to discredit Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe in the eyes of the American people. Mueller has not responded to Trump’s attacks as he works to compile what is expected to be an exhaustive report on Russian election meddling, the actions of Trump’s inner circle, and whether the president obstructed justice. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports.
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Denuclearization of N. Korea Probably Unachievable, Experts Say

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Amid a flurry of rapidly evolving diplomatic activities aimed at reviving the summit between Washington and Pyongyang, experts contacted by VOA’s Korean Service say that completely denuclearizing North Korea probably is unachievable.

“I think it is very difficult to know if these negotiations will lead to North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons,” said David Albright, a former U.N. nuclear inspector and nuclear proliferation analyst at the Institute for Science and International Security. “The problem is that North Korea entered into negotiations twice now where that was the goal but never really intended to accomplish that goal.”

Last week, President Donald Trump canceled the summit in a letter addressed to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, citing Pyongyang’s “tremendous anger” and “open hostility” toward Washington. Then North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, a longtime nuclear negotiator and senior diplomat, said in a statement carried by state media that the North was willing to sit for talks with the U.S. “at any time in any format.” Trump responded that talks regarding the summit scheduled to take place in Singapore on June 12 were “going very, very well.”

On Wednesday night, Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, met with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. On Thursday, they are expected to discuss final details of denuclearization talks for the summit, which is now expected to take place as anticipated in June.

Talks before the US summit

In Singapore, a U.S. summit preparatory team headed by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin has been coordinating summit logistics since Monday alongside Kim Chang Son, chief of staff to the North Korean leader.

And in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) along the border between South Korea and North Korea, a U.S. delegation headed by Sung Kim, the current ambassador to the Philippines and former ambassador to South Korea between 2011 and 2014, and a North Korean delegation led by Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui are set to meet for the second time this week.

Against this diplomatic backdrop, VOA’s Korean Service contacted 30 analysts, who unanimously said that Pyongyang will not yield to Washington’s demand to abandon its nuclear weapons program completely. Here are some key comments from the experts. 

Analysts

Douglas Paal, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, thinks Pyongyang might agree in principle to give up its nuclear weapons and missiles at the summit talks with the U.S., but it could easily make excuses later and delay the process, especially if sanctions are relaxed. Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign has led international efforts to impose sanctions banning 90 percent of the North’s trade.

Howard Stoffer, who served as deputy director of U.N. counterterrorism committee, also said the North could agree to completely denuclearize at the summit but the differences between Washington and Pyongyang over the pace of denuclearization could hamper the talks. Stoffer speculated the negotiations could stall if Pyongyang insists on its “phased” approach and demands that Washington make concessions as it takes steps to denuclearize. 

“If they come in and say, ‘No we are going to have to take something,’ then I don’t think there is going to be a negotiation,”  Stoffer said.

Pyongyang has said it prefers a “phased and synchronized” process of taking incremental steps toward denuclearization, expecting those steps to be matched by certain concessions from the U.S.

Washington, on the other hand, indicated it wants a one-shot denuclearization process that could be achieved rather quickly.  

Michael Fuchs, former deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs during the Barack Obama administration, said there is a very low probability that North Korea will give up its entire nuclear arsenal in a short period of time, adding the Trump administration must have realistic expectations.

According to James Jeffrey, who served as deputy national security adviser in the George W. Bush administration, a realistic goal for the U.S. would be to obtain an agreement from the North that it will dismantle its nuclear weapons and facilities continuously over time by promising the North additional sanctions will not be imposed on the regime. He said North Korea will never agree to have its complete nuclear weapons packed up and shipped out of the country. 

Experts think Kim will most likely agree to give up a part of North Korea’s  program instead of all of it, which is what the U.S. is expected to ask.

Ken Gause, director of International Affairs Group at the Center for Naval Analyses, said Kim, knowing that a complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization is impossible unless his regime collapses or is invaded, could try to hide a part of the program while declaring that the North has dismantled its program. 

North Korea will try to maintain its nuclear program in some capacity, said Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He said that during negotiations, Pyongyang will agree to give up part of its weapons in exchange for economic support.

The process of give-and-take negotiation strategy that the North is expected to push for is all too familiar according to Gary Samore, White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction in the Obama administration.

“We have all been through this experience before so it is very hard to take Kim Jong Un seriously,” Samore said. “But the argument in [South] Korea is that he is different than his father and his grandfather, and he is very genuine about giving up its nuclear weapons in order for reform and to revive the economy. But as far as I can tell, that is not based on any evidence beyond Kim Jong Un’s statements, which I don’t think are very plausible.”

Evans Revere, a former State Department official who negotiated with North Korea, said at best, Pyongyang will discuss denuclearization in ambiguous terms and agree to decrease the capacity of its inter-continental ballistic missiles and allow inspectors in to its Yongbyon nuclear facility. Revere said North Korea wants to weaken the U.S.-South Korea alliance and it is not truly interested in denuclearization. 

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Tuesday the U.S. is preparing for the summit to proceed. 

“We’re moving forward, and we’ll be prepared either way. And we’re planning as if it is happening,” she said.

Christy Lee contributed to this report, which originated on the VOA Korean Service.

 
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Source: Ex-FBI Official Wrote Memo on Comey Firing

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Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe drafted a memo on the circumstances leading up to the firing of his onetime boss, James Comey, a person familiar with the situation said Wednesday night.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press to discuss a secret document that has been turned over to special counsel Robert Mueller. His team is investigating whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia during the 2016 presidential election and whether the president sought to obstruct that inquiry through actions including the firing of Comey last May.

The memo concerns a conversation that McCabe had with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein about Rosenstein’s preparations for Comey’s firing. Rosenstein played an important role in that episode, having authored a memo faulting Comey for his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation that the White House held up as justification for President Donald Trump’s decision to fire the FBI director.

Rosenstein has said he wrote a memo laying out his concerns with Comey after learning that the White House intended to fire him.

According to McCabe’s memo, Rosenstein indicated to him that he was initially asked to reference the Russia investigation in his own memo on Comey. But the final version didn’t include discussion of Russia and focused instead on the Clinton email case.

Rosenstein appointed Mueller special counsel one week after Comey was fired. He has said he would recuse himself if necessary if his actions became relevant to Mueller’s investigation.

The AP reported in March that McCabe had drafted multiple memos, including about his interactions with Trump. Comey also drafted a series of memos about his own encounters with Trump that unnerved him.

The New York Times first reported on the content of this particular memo.

McCabe became FBI acting director following Comey’s firing last May. He was fired as deputy director in March, just days before his scheduled retirement, amid an inspector general finding that he had misled internal investigators about his role in an October 2016 disclosure to The Wall Street Journal.
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Trump Planning Tariffs on European Steel, Aluminum

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President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to impose tariffs on European steel and aluminum imports after failing to win concessions from the European Union, a move that could provoke retaliatory tariffs and inflame trans-Atlantic trade tensions.

The tariffs are likely to go into effect on the EU with an announcement by Friday’s deadline, according to two people familiar with the discussions. The administration’s plans could change if the two sides are able to reach a last-minute agreement, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

Trump announced in March the United States would slap a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent tariff on imported aluminum, citing national security interests. But he granted an exemption to the EU and other U.S. allies; that reprieve expires Friday.

​Europe bracing

Europe has been bracing for the U.S. to place the restrictions even as top European officials have held last-ditch talks in Paris with American trade officials to try to avert the tariffs.

“Realistically, I do not think we can hope” to avoid either U.S. tariffs or quotas on steel and aluminum, said Cecilia Malmstrom, the European Union’s trade commissioner. Even if the U.S. were to agree to waive the tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, Malmstrom said, “I expect them nonetheless to want to impose some sort of cap on EU exports.”

European officials said they expected the U.S. to announce its final decision Thursday. The people familiar with the talks said Trump could make an announcement as early as Thursday.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross attended meetings at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris on Wednesday, and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer joins discussions in Paris on Thursday.

The U.S. plan has raised the threat of retaliation from Europe and fears of a global trade war — a prospect that is weighing on investor confidence and could hinder the global economic upturn.

​

If the U.S. moves forward with its tariffs, the EU has threatened to impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S. orange juice, peanut butter and other goods in return. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire pledged that the European response would be “united and firm.”

Limits on cars

Besides the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs, the Trump administration is also investigating possible limits on foreign cars in the name of national security.

“Unilateral responses and threats over trade war will solve nothing of the serious imbalances in the world trade. Nothing,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in an impassioned speech at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris.

In a clear reference to Trump, Macron added: “These solutions might bring symbolic satisfaction in the short term. … One can think about making voters happy by saying, ‘I have a victory, I’ll change the rules, you’ll see.’”

But Macron said those “who waged bilateral trade wars … saw an increase in prices and an increase in unemployment.”

Tariffs on steel imports to the U.S. can help local producers of the metal by making foreign products more expensive. But they can also increase costs more broadly for U.S. manufacturers who cannot source all their steel locally and need to import the raw material. That hurts the companies and can lead to more expensive consumer prices, economists say.

Ross criticized the EU for its tough negotiating position.

“There can be negotiations with or without tariffs in place. There are plenty of tariffs the EU has on us. It’s not that we can’t talk just because there’s tariffs,” he said. He noted that “China has not used that as an excuse not to negotiate.”

But German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier insisted the Europeans were being “constructive” and were ready to negotiate special trade arrangements, notably for liquefied natural gas and industrial goods, including cars.

WTO reforms

Macron also proposed to start negotiations between the U.S., the EU, China and Japan to reshape the World Trade Organization to better regulate trade. Discussions could then be expanded to include other countries to agree on changes by the end of the year.

Ross expressed concern that the Geneva-based World Trade Organization and other organizations are too rigid and slow to adapt to changes in global business.

“We would operate within (multilateral) frameworks if we were convinced that people would move quickly,” he said.

Ross and Lighthizer seemed like the odd men out at this week’s gathering at the OECD, an international economic agency that includes the U.S. as a prominent member.

The agency issued a report Wednesday saying “the threat of trade restrictions has begun to adversely affect confidence” and tariffs “would negatively influence investment and jobs.”
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41 Advance to Spelling Bee Finals

Posted on by SeeUS

This year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee drew the largest number of competitors in its history, 516. But the field is far smaller, as only 41 spellers advance to the finals Thursday. 

The finalists were announced Wednesday after two days of onstage spelling during which nearly 200 spellers were eliminated for getting words wrong. Scores on a written spelling and vocabulary test determined who advanced to the finals.

“There were no perfect scores on the test,” spelling bee Executive Director Paige Kimble says, “We thought it was an easy test. We were wrong.”

“They made it hard on purpose” said Jacob Williamson, a former competitor who is coaching five spellers this year. 

But that didn’t seem to shake the confidence of those who have traversed the road before.

“It was fine, actually. I didn’t expect it to be fine,” said Erin Howard, 13, of Huntsville, Alabama. “I think at worst I missed five.”

According to Scripps, 113 of the spellers this year had previous national finals experience and 45 have relatives who are former competitors, including Atman Balakrishnan, from Chicago, whose father Balu Natrajan was the winner in 1985, and the first Indian-American to take the title. 

The top scorers this year are Shruthika Padhy, Aisha Randhawa and Karthik Nemmani. 

Shruthika came into the bee as one of the favorites, having finished in seventh place last year.

The past 13 champions and 18 of the last 22 have been Indian-American.
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Mother of Activist Jailed by Iran Says He’s on Hunger Strike

Posted on by SeeEA

The mother of an Iranian citizen-journalist who has been jailed in Iran for four years says her son has been on a hunger strike for a month to raise awareness about poor conditions at his prison. 

In a phone interview with VOA Persian broadcast on Wednesday, Farangis Mazloom said her activist son, Soheil Arabi, began refusing food a month ago at the Great Tehran Penitentiary. She denied rumors that Arabi had committed suicide and shared with VOA Persian a recent audio recording of him speaking from prison.

 In the minute-long recording, Arabi said he was on a hunger strike to end inequality at the Great Tehran Penitentiary, where he said conditions were “worse than you can imagine.” He said the prison had incarcerated thousands of young people and turned them into addicts of drugs such as heroin in order to enrich prison wardens engaged in drug trafficking. 

Arabi ended the recording by stating his name and dating it as recorded in Khordad, the current Persian month that began on May 22. VOA Persian could not confirm Arabi’s assertions about conditions at the prison because it is barred from reporting inside Iran.

Arabi has been imprisoned since November 2013, when security agents of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) arrested him at his Tehran home. 

The U.S.-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has said authorities charged Arabi with “insulting the Prophet [Muhammad]” in comments posted on Facebook. It said Arabi initially was sentenced to death but got the sentence reduced on appeal to 7½ years in prison with two years of religious studies to prove his repentance, and a two-year ban on traveling abroad.

Last year, Arabi wrote several letters while being detained at Tehran’s Evin prison, stating that he began another hunger strike in late August and sustained it for at least a month. At the time, CHRI said Arabi was protesting IRGC harassment of his wife and relatives. 

In a September statement, media rights group Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders) said it was “extremely concerned” about the prison conditions of detained journalists and citizen-journalists in Iran, especially those such as Arabi who were on hunger strikes or ill. RSF added: “More and more Iranian prisoners, including journalists, are risking their lives by going on hunger strikes in protest against prison conditions or mistreatment, or simply to demand proper medical care.”

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Persian service. 
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China to Host Rouhani After US Withdrawal From Iranian Nuclear Deal

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Amid current tensions between Washington and Tehran, Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of the forthcoming Eurasian Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting June 9-10 in Qingdao, China.

Analysts say Rouhani’s presence at the SCO conference will send a message that China is ready to fill the void left after the U.S. withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal earlier this month.

Xi supported the 2015 Iran nuclear accord, which Trump had called deeply flawed before withdrawing America from the deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

China sees opportunity

Hassan Askari Rizvi, a Pakistan-based expert on international affairs, told VOA that China could use this opportunity to expand its influence and grow its business in Iran, filling a void left by the U.S. It could be an important step for China to grow its presence in the Middle East, he added.

Walter Andersen, former chief of the U.S. State Department’s South Asia Division in the Office of Analysis for the Near East and South Asia, told VOA that Iran is not a member of the SCO. He said Rouhani was likely attending the summit because of tense relations between Tehran and Washington.

Andersen added that China should be careful before announcing any new trade-related policy with Iran as the U.S. has said that any company dealing with Iran would be subject to sanctions as well.

Topics of discussion at the upcoming SCO summit are to include terrorism, separatism, extremism and cybersecurity breaches.

Iran nuclear deal

Analysts say Rouhani’s presence in the conference might lead to a discussion of the Iran nuclear deal.

Rizvi said the SCO is emerging as a regional platform and envisions itself as an autonomous world body, but one that does not seek confrontation with the U.S.

The two main players of the bloc, China and Russia, could ask other countries, such as Pakistan, India and Iran, to look toward Beijing and Moscow rather than the West.

“It (SCO) would try to balance the American influence in the region, South Asia, Central Asia and parts of Middle East,” Andersen said.

Depending on the summit declaration, U.S.-China relations could be affected, Rizvi said. But he added both sides have huge economic stakes in the region, so it is likely they would continue working together.

Andersen said Chinese and Iranian leaders would want better relations, “but President Rouhani represents a government that is very religious-oriented and that could get in the way of developing a much closer relationship with communist China.”

The seven member SCO was launched in 2001 to combat Islamic extremism and other regional security issues. Apart from China and Russia, its founding members include Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan joined in 2017, and Iran is the next aspirant.
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Saudi Harassment Measure Adds to String of Reforms

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Saudi Arabia is preparing to outlaw sexual harassment, less than a month before the conservative kingdom lifts its decades-long ban on female automobile drivers.

The kingdom’s Shura Council, its legislative body, has approved the draft law, which will introduce a prison term of up to five years and a penalty of $80,000 for the crime.

Amin Saikal, director of the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Australian National University, told VOA that the move indicates the kingdom wants to “improve the status of women and do what it can to immunize them against the repression and harassment that they may have faced in the past.”

The bill, which preserves the anonymity of alleged victims, also criminalizes incitement to sexual harassment, as well as falsely reporting an incident to the authorities.

It also stipulates alleged victims cannot withdraw a complaint or fail to report an incident to the police.

The new law adds to the string of reforms adopted by the conservative kingdom in recent months, including the reopening of movie theaters and the lifting of the driving ban, which goes into effect on June 24.

Activists’ arrests

But the social reforms appear overshadowed by the recent arrests of at least 10 activists, mostly women, fighting for the right to drive and a change in the male guardianship system.

Saikal said it appeared that on one hand, the authorities “want to engage in a degree of liberalization, and on the other hand, they also want to keep the lid on.”

The United Nations on Tuesday called on Saudi Arabia to provide information about the women. 

Saudi authorities have released three of the women, but activists and rights groups said those still detained — four women and three men — have been interrogated without access to lawyers. One of the women, Loujain al-Hathloul, has not been heard from since her arrest May 15. Others have been allowed just phone calls to their families. 

The Interior Ministry has not named those arrested but has accused them of being “traitors” and working with foreign powers, charges that Amnesty International called “blatant intimidation tactics.”

The activists were accused of “contact with foreign entities with the aim of undermining the country’s stability and social fabric,” the human rights group said.
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Israel Bars Indonesian Tourists   

Posted on by SeeEA

Israel is barring tourists and pilgrims from Indonesia in response to what it says is a ban on Israelis by Jakarta.

Tens of thousands of Indonesian Muslims visit Israel every year as part of a wider tour of the Middle East.

Indonesian officials have not confirmed Israel’s assertion that they have suspended visas for Israeli tourists. The countries do hot have diplomatic relations.

But Indonesians have protested what they say is Israel’s harsh treatment of the Palestinians. Earlier this month, Indonesian demonstrators set fire to U.S. and Israeli flags outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta to protest the moving of the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The tourist ban comes amid signs that relations between the Jewish state and the world’s largest Muslim-populated country appeared to be warming.

Trade between Israeli and Indonesia has expended and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for diplomatic ties with Indonesia. 
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Kenyan Court Suspends Key Parts of New Cyber Law

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Kenyan journalists and bloggers have scored a legal victory in their fight against a new cyber law that they say erodes freedom of speech and endangers millions of Kenyans who express themselves online.

Justice Chacha Mwita, a high court judge, on Tuesday suspended 26 sections of the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act, which President Uhuru Kenyatta signed into law earlier this month.

Kenyatta said the law would protect Kenyans and ensure the security and safety of the country’s vast communications network.

But critics argued that it violated Kenya’s Constitution and infringed on freedom of expression, along with the rights to privacy and property.

Petition

In its petition to the High Court of Kenya on Tuesday, the Bloggers Association of Kenya (BAKE), an alliance of digital content creators chaired by Kennedy Kachwanya, said that the act would “deny, violate, infringe and threaten various rights and fundamental freedoms in the Bill of Rights in a manner that is not justified under Article 24.”

Article 24 states that freedoms cannot be limited unless doing so is “reasonable and justifiable in an open and democratic society.”

BAKE argued that much of the act was “vague” and “overbroad,” with key terms such as “publish” lacking definitions.

Article 19 Eastern Africa and the Kenya Union of Journalists were listed as interested parties on the petition.

Erick Odur, the union’s secretary general, tweeted that “Section 12 of the Act takes away media freedom as required by Article 34 of the Constitution and seeks to reintroduce criminal libel by imposing heavy fines” when Kenyatta signed the act into law.

Expanded offenses

The act, signed into law May 16, lists 33 offenses, including 15 that were added after the bill’s introduction to the National Assembly last June. Most of the additions are among the suspended sections.

Phishing, cyberterrorism, identity theft and cybersquatting, or appropriating another’s name, were among the offenses listed in the expanded law.

Most of the offenses carry penalties that include millions of shillings in fines, multiple years in prison or both.

“I am satisfied that the issues raised affect the Constitution and fundamental rights and freedoms. I, therefore, grant the conservatory orders sought,” the bloggers association quoted Mwita as saying.

Accountability

Supporters of the law believe it is needed to contain the spread of misinformation on the internet.

Bitange Ndemo was Kenya’s minister of information and communication from 2005 to 2013. He said the spread of misinformation showed that media in Kenya needed more accountability.

“It’s very dangerous because there is no verification mechanism. You can easily confuse people with what you call fake media or fake news,” Ndemo told VOA by phone.

He said Kenyan media “hasn’t woken up to” the necessity of verifying facts. “That is the downside of developing countries when it comes to fake news.”

The suspension covers more than half of the criminal offenses listed in the law, but the matter is far from resolved legally. With some portions of the law now in effect, the case will resume July 18.
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Analysts Warn Sahel Region to Deny Militants Safe Havens  

Posted on by SeeAF

Islamic State is spreading its influence to other regions, including Africa’s Sahel, and experts are warning that countries in the region should take measures to keep the militant groups from regrouping in these areas.

Having lost most of the territory it once controlled in Iraq and Syria, the terror group’s fighters are reportedly establishing ties with local militant organizations.

“A key strength of these extremist organizations has been their ability to move with ease across national borders within the Sahel, allowing them to regroup after setbacks, and to replenish their ranks with inflows of fighters, weaponry and resources,” Jennifer G. Cooke of George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs told VOA.

Officials in the Sahel region have also voiced concerns over growing militancy and warned that the militant groups are not only destabilizing the region, but also pose a threat to the security of other countries.

“Most of these terrorists are leaving these places to come to the Sahel, to harbor there and to organize attacks against everybody.” Abdoulaye Diop, Mali’s foreign minister, said during a discussion at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) late last year.

Michael Shurkin, a senior political scientist with the Rand Corporation, shares Diop’s concerns.

“There is legitimate concern that if allowed to, the extremist groups will make themselves into a direct threat to the U.S. and its friends by turning the region into a new Afghanistan, where the Taliban gave al-Qaida the freedom to organize the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.”

G5 Sahel

In order to crack down on militant groups in the region, five countries including Niger, Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso and Mauritania established a joint force known as the G5, which is a 5,000-person military and police force, tasked with carrying out counterterrorism operations along the common border regions of all five countries.

However, the G5 Sahel is not yet fully operational due to funding and logistical issues.

On Tuesday, while on a visit to Mali, the country most affected by terrorism among the G5, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to donors to provide more sustainable support to the G5 Sahel force.

“The international community must understand the need to provide the G5 Sahel countries with predictable support,” Guterres said.

In February, various countries pledged $509 million to G5, just shy of the group’s initial budget of $529 million, but the contributions have not been made yet.

Some analysts, like George Washington University’s Cooke, warn that the G5 must pull its act together to ensure that international partners do no lose interest.

“The force has won initial support from European partners, the United States, Saudi Arabia and others, all of whom have been convinced of the need for a greater regional security cooperation,” Cooke said. “If operationalization of the joint force becomes bogged down in disagreements or delays, international partners will very likely lose interest.” 

Military option

Some experts charge that the military option is not the only answer to the problem of extremism in the region.

“Equally important, however, will be to use U.S. diplomatic and development leverage to press governments of the region to think beyond the military and address not just the symptoms, but the drivers of violence and insecurity as well,” Cooke said.

The Rand Corporation’s Michael Shurkin agrees with Cooke’s assessment.

“The answer is some combination of longer-term economic and political development paired with steady progress on the part of the member nations’ security force,” Shurkin said. “It’s about opportunities as well as about integrating marginalized populations.”

U.S. role

A U.S military spokesperson told VOA that they are coordinating with G5 on the ground.

Samantha Reho, spokesperson for the U.S. Africa Command, said that last month, several military officers from G5 Force participated in the annual Flintlock Exercise, organized by the U.S. Special Forces Command in cooperation with nations across the Sahel. Flintlock is designed to foster regional cooperation to stabilize regions of North and West Africa, and reduce the presence of violent extremist organizations.

Reho added that the G5 Force is a new initiative and that there is no determination yet as to how the U.S. will support it.

“But what I can tell you is that any direct support we provide will be [in] conjunction and in coordination with those respective host nations and other U.N. and international partners, mainly France’s 4,000 troops, who have had a long-standing military presence in the region,” said Reho.

Shurkin of the Rand Corporation believes that working with the French in the Sahel will be a good idea.

“The U.S. can help the G5 force be more effective, working in tandem with the French, not in isolation from the French,” he said.
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South Sudan President Urges Ethiopia to Oppose US-Drafted Sanctions

Posted on by SeeAF

One day before the United Nations Security Council votes on proposed U.S. sanctions against six South Sudanese officials accused of obstructing the peace process, President Salva Kiir left his nation’s capital, Juba, for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He is seeking Ethiopian support to stop the U.S.-drafted sanctions.

Presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny says Kiir will ask Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali to use his position as head of the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development, or IGAD, to block the proposed sanctions. IGAD sponsored a series of failed peace talks between the government and rebel groups aimed at revitalizing a peace agreement signed in 2015.

Ateny told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus program that President Kiir will assure Prime Minister Ahmed that the Kiir government is committed to restoring peace in South Sudan. He says Kiir will argue that U.N. sanctions could hinder efforts to restore peace. South Sudan’s defense minister, Kuol Manyang Juk, would be among the six officials blacklisted if the measure passes.

“The gap is always widened by the fact that each time the peace process is about to start, the United States of America issues standing orders in regard to sanctioning individuals within the government. So that one is translated by the rebels to be of their advantage and they become more intransigent,” Ateny told South Sudan in Focus.

Ethiopia is currently one of three African non-permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. Members are expected to vote on the proposed sanctions Thursday in New York. All council members must vote in favor of the resolution for it to pass.

Juba-based political analyst James Okuk, a professor of politics at the University of Juba, says Kiir probably wants Ethiopia to persuade other council members to vote against the U.S. proposal.

“Maybe this time, Kiir wants to lobby so that Ethiopia doesn’t vote in favor of the sanctions, and it might also use its influence as an African country to convince others not to vote so that they don’t get the nine votes needed in the U.N. Security Council,” Okuk told South Sudan in Focus.

Okuk said Kiir’s lobbying efforts will only succeed if he assures the Ethiopian leader that he will make concessions on the contentious issues which prevented the warring parties from reaching a peace deal during the last round of talks earlier this month in Addis Ababa.

“He has to let go some of those positions and give in to the opposition and if he does that, [it] means those who will go home will not be happy and that is the tough time he is in now. But if he doesn’t make those concessions, it means there will be no peace in the country,” Okuk said.

He said it is now up to the president to make concessions that will appease the opposition parties so peace can be achieved in South Sudan. And Okuk warns that if Kiir does not offer serious concessions, South Sudanese leaders could face more sanctions in the near future.

South Sudan’s conflict began in 2013 as a power struggle between Kiir and his former deputy, Riek Machar. The war has driven more than 4 million South Sudanese from their homes and caused a humanitarian crisis that has left some 7 million people in need of aid. South Sudan won independence from Sudan in 2011 and is the world’s youngest country.
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US Condemns Syria for Recognizing Georgia’s Breakaway Regions

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The United States on Wednesday condemned Syria’s decision to recognize two breakaway regions in Georgia and create diplomatic ties, saying it fully backed Georgia’s independence and reiterating its call for Russia to withdraw from the area.

“The United States strongly condemns the Syrian regime’s intention to establish diplomatic relations with the Russian-occupied Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.

“These regions are part of Georgia. The United States’ position on Abkhazia and South Ossetia is unwavering,” the statement said.

The U.S. statement came one day after Georgia said it would sever diplomatic relations with Syria after Damascus moved to recognize the two regions as independent states.

Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Nauru previously recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both of which broke away from Georgia following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Following that fight in the early 1990s, Georgia and Russia fought a war over the regions in August 2008.

The United States and European Union have backed Georgia in calling the Russian operation a naked land grab.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pledged deeper security and economic support for Georgia. He also called on Russia to withdraw its forces from Abkhazia and South Ossetia under the ceasefire agreement that followed the 2008 war. The department echoed that request on Wednesday.

“We fully support Georgia’s sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders, and call on all states to … do the same,” Nauert said.
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Nigerian University Remains Open, Defying Boko Haram

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Muktar Muhammed is on the mic sending out a cheery “Good Morning” message.

 

“It’s Friday morning here at the university. I hope everyone had a pleasant week,” he crooned over the airwaves. Muhammed is a disc jockey at the University of Maiduguri’s radio station KANEM-FM, 97.7.

 

Students were still anxious from an attack earlier in the month in which Boko Haram terrorists invaded the city but were repelled by soldiers.

 

Muhammed said part of his job, along with playing hot tunes, was to keep students calm.

 

“We make it a point. We make it a priority to do that, to keep them positive. Of course, to try and stay relaxed, focused on their studies,” he told VOA.

That’s because the University of Maiduguri sits in the very city where Boko Haram was formed and has continued to launch deadly attacks since 2009. Throughout Boko Haram’s nine-year war against the Nigerian government, the university was never attacked — until January 2017.

 

Defying the threats, the campus is abuzz with students strolling and laughing with each other before summer vacation. More than 20,000 are enrolled, and the student population is growing.

 

Third-year student Tasiu Hassan is headed to class to make a presentation. He was on campus in January 2017 when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive, killing a professor. Later, Boko Haram released a video in which the group’s leader could be heard saying, “The bomb that exploded on Monday morning, it’s our brothers responsible for it.”

“I found myself in a very terrible situation in such a way that I had even thought of going back home,” Hassan, from northern Nigeria, told VOA.

 

But he stayed, like many of his classmates. Since then, the university has been attacked at least 12 times by suicide bombers, university officials told VOA.

 

In July, suspected Boko Haram members kidnapped 10 members of the university’s geology and surveying department. They were later rescued by the Nigerian military.

 

VOA reached out to the geology lecturers for comment, but they declined.

Defying terrorists

The University of Maiduguri is the most prestigious and largest public education institution in northeastern Nigeria. The students are defying Boko Haram’s message that condemns Western education as sinful. Local reports said some of the university’s students joined Boko Haram in its early days. School administrators could not confirm that allegation.

Throughout Boko Haram’s insurgency, the university has not closed for a single day.

“To show how resilient we are, to show how much sacrifice we are making and that is the true reflection of the Maiduguri spirit — we are here because we have a responsibility to keep the system going. Someone has to be around no matter how bad the situation is,” said Danjuma Gambo, a mass communication professor and the university’s spokesperson.

Gambo said the university was too important to close, even for a day.  

 

“It’s serving many functions,” he said. “It contributes substantially to the local economy, to the business, to the finance, to even social activities in Maiduguri.”

 

That’s why city and state officials said they would do anything in their power to keep the university open.

 

The commissioner for the Borno State Ministry for Education, Musa Inuwa Kubo, told VOA the university is a source of pride.

 

“Most of us are products of that institution, and the resilience of the University of Maiduguri during the insurgency, ought to be commended by everybody,” he said.  

The university is enormous. Approximately 27 kilometers (17 miles) of trenches line the campus perimeter, mainly the eastern side that faces Nigeria’s border with Cameroon where many Boko Haram insurgents operate. The trench, commissioned in 2017 by the Borno State government, is a measure to slow incoming Boko Haram terrorists who usually invade the city in convoys of motorcycles.

 

Every day, sniffer dogs carry out inspections at two of the university’s entrances, searching for bomb chemicals and weapons. No other public Nigerian university in the region has this level of security.

 

It’s why Esther Clement continues to attend the university.

 

“Even though there is an insurgency, we are secured. Even before you come to the gate, the Gate 1, there are securities here and there. At the gate of the hostel, there is security,” Clement said. “Even when there is bomb blast, they call us to calm us down. We don’t go out.”

She has one more year of studies before she will receive a degree in mass communication.

 

“I want to become a reporter, so I can inform people about Boko Haram,” she added. 

 
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