Month: June 2018

‘This Is Congo’ Explores Everyday Voices Amid Conflict

Posted on by SeeAF

“To grow up as a child in Congo, according to God’s will, is to grow up in paradise,” Col. Mamadou Ndala says in the opening scenes of “This Is Congo,” a film making its theatrical release Friday in the United States.

Strolling outside the eastern city of Goma where he is stationed, Ndala adds: “Perhaps because of the will of man, growing up in Congo is to grow up in misery because of these endless, unjust wars imposed on the people.”

Congo has been in the headlines as it faces its latest outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, and as a long-delayed presidential election is set for December. Dozens of armed groups continue to wreak deadly havoc on the vast, mineral-rich nation.

“This Is Congo,” directed and filmed by former photojournalist Daniel McCabe, gives an insider’s view on the diverse lives behind the headlines. It follows four people — a military commander, a mineral dealer, a tailor and a high-ranking, anonymous military intelligence officer — to show the humanity in the middle of crisis.

Traveling around the Kivu regions in the east, McCabe sought to explore the root causes of conflict in Congo. He ended up on the front lines of fighting between the army and M23 rebels as they marched into Goma in 2012 and were pushed out the following year. He gained unprecedented access through Ndala, the film’s main subject.

Though filming mostly took place in 2012 and 2013 the scenes of fighting appear timeless, reflecting Congo’s continuous upheaval as some soldiers are recruited by ever-changing rebel groups and later reintegrated back into the army, which is poorly organized and badly paid.

“This is a revolving cycle of conflict,” McCabe told The Associated Press. “The film to me is about the banality of war and the corruption of man. Our hope is that the audience can identify with the characters.”

Another of the four main characters is Mama Romance, who turned to selling gemstones to support her family, eventually sending her children to good schools and breaking the cycle of poverty. The dangerous work, as she crosses borders to sell, shows how entrepreneurial Congolese make money from the rich mineral resources around them. Often the proceeds from exports never trickle down.

“This Congo” also follows Hakiza Nyantaba, a tailor who has been displaced for years by conflict, as he ekes out a life at the kind of camp that is home to many Congolese. As of January 4.5 million people had been displaced, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

“It seems God has forgotten us,” Nyantaba says.

McCabe honors his resilience.

“There are displacement camps where people have been living for 20 years. It’s unfathomable,” the filmmaker said.

Alleged corruption by officials and mining companies in part drives the fighting in Congo, which has trillions of dollars of mineral deposits ranging from diamonds and zinc to copper and tin.

“This is Congo” makes clear that civilians are the victims.

McCabe, who clearly adores the complexities of Congo, said he wants the film’s viewers to “dig up more information on their own . read more books, have more interest in the area.” He urged people to “broaden their gaze.”

The film premiered in September at the Venice Film Festival but will release on Friday in theaters in New York City, Los Angeles and other U.S. cities. It also is being released on the BBC in the UK on iTunes in more than 70 countries.

“This is Congo” also will screen in Goma on July 15 on the closing night of the Congo International Film Festival.
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Despite Fears, No Racism Midway Through Russia’s World Cup

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Senegalese computer scientist Alioune Ndiaye’s fears that he might face racist abuse at the soccer World Cup in Russia have not materialized. Nor have other foreign fans’ fears.

Midway through the month-long tournament, no major racist incidents have been reported among players and fans despite concerns in the run-up that the World Cup could be tarnished by racism.

International rights groups that sounded the alarm over a series of racist incidents at soccer matches in the months preceding the tournament have said that the World Cup experience in Russia has so far been generally positive.

“What I found in Russia is very different to what they told me before coming here,” Ndiaye, the Senegalese fan, said outside the stadium in the city of Samara, where his country’s side lost 1-0 to Colombia on Thursday.

“When I told people ‘I am going to Russia’ … they said ‘Oh, no, be careful’ and stuff like that. But people in Russia are very welcoming, very kind and I don’t see anything like racism here.”

Russia had pledged to host a safe and secure World Cup in 11 cities, including for visible minorities. But racist incidents at matches between Russian Premier League clubs and at an international friendly earlier this year fueled concern that players and fans could be subjected to abuse.

CSKA Moscow fans chanted racist abuse at Arsenal’s black players several times during a Europa League match in April in Moscow, while FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, fined Russia one month before the World Cup for racist abuse directed at French players during the friendly in March.

But at the World Cup, fans and rights groups say the mood is different.

“We are all together with them,” said Senegalese fan Bigue Thombane of Russian fans as she banged on a drum outside the stadium in Samara. “There is nothing. No racism at all. Truly.”

Piara Powar, the head of the FARE network, an organisation that monitors discrimination in European soccer, said it had not recorded a single significant incident involving Russian far-right hooligans or any racist incidents involving Russian fans.

“There has been nothing on a major scale and nothing from Russians,” Powar said. “That was one of the concerns of course coming into the tournament. So that’s all good news from our point of view.”

The world is watching

Referees at the World Cup have the power to stop, suspend of abandon a match in the event of discriminatory incidents. They have not done this so far in the tournament.

But the absence of major racist incidents does not mean that the group stage of the World Cup has been without problems related to discrimination.

FIFA fined Mexico for homophobic chants by their fans. Denmark was fined for a sexist banner, and some women at the tournament have been targeted by discriminatory behavior. Poland and Serbia were also fined for “political and offensive” banners displayed by their fans.

Powar said that the absence of racist incidents did not come as a major surprise given Russia’s and citizens’ efforts to project a positive image of the country to foreign guests.

“We know that during the World Cup period, the population sort of understand that they are in the spotlight,” Powar said. “The world is watching.”

Alexei Smertin, the Russian Football Union’s anti-discrimination inspector, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

With the knockout stage beginning on Saturday, fans from the 16 remaining teams are eager for the tournament to remain racism-free.

“They see us around and they ask whether we need anything,” said Colombian fan Hernan Garcia. “No racism at all so far. It has been an amazing experience.”
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Will Trump-Putin Summit Be Chemistry Vs Substance?

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Summit meetings can change the world. Back in the 1970s, West German Chancellor Willy Brandt used to say that it was of the highest importance for leaders to “get a smell of each other.” Chemistry between leaders was a useful factor in soothing fractious relations, he thought.

On July 16, U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, will hold their first official summit — in Finland’s capital — just days after the U.S. leader is scheduled to hold meetings with NATO, an alliance that has been in his crosshairs. The timing of the meetings gives Europe the opportunity to shape what the U.S. leader may seek from the summit.

Helsinki is no stranger to encounters between U.S. and Russian heads of state; but, the summit will rank as one of the oddest, say analysts, coming against the backdrop of probes into the actions of the U.S. president’s election advisers amid claims they colluded with Moscow’s interference in the 2016 White House race.

Trump’s domestic foes fault him for shying away from criticizing Putin personally, arguing it gives credence to claims made by a former British spy that the Kremlin holds compromising information on the U.S. president. Trump has angrily dismissed the claims.

The U.S. leader has said in the past that “getting along with Russia [and others] is a good thing, not a bad thing” to explain why he wants to improve relations with Moscow.

Not since the Cold War have relations between the West and Moscow been so fraught with clashes over Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and its pro-separatist operations in eastern Ukraine, as well as its military intervention in Syria.

NATO, cybersecurity

There also have been disputes over the nuclear arms treaties, NATO policy, and cybersecurity. And in the crowded battlefield of northern Syria, there was blood-drawing when U.S. artillery bombardments and airstrikes killed an estimated 200 Russians, in an assault still shrouded in mystery.

Much hangs on this summit. Arms control and other security issues will figure as the main topics of discussion, according to U.S. and Russian officials, who say Ukraine and Syria will be discussed as well. Both sides are playing down the likelihood of any breakthroughs.

But it apparently is a summit more than most built around the importance of the leaders themselves, and less on a detailed and actionable agenda. It has not been preceded by a long period of behind-the-scenes diplomatic negotiations to flush out the minutiae of a pre-agreed deal.

“The format reflects both leaders’ preference for bold, big-brushstroke meetings,” said a British diplomat, adding it is similar in nature and conception to the summit in Singapore earlier in June with Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “And it may be more art than deal,” he added.

Trump and Putin are not alone in being attracted to high-profile, symbolic encounters.

“Summit meetings are especially alluring to alpha types who relish new challenges,” British academics David Reynolds and Kristina Spohr wrote in a recent article for CAM magazine, a Cambridge University publication. But they also warn parleying at such high-profile encounters is “a high-risk business.”

Can personal chemistry be a substitute for substance when foreign leaders sit down to negotiate disputes? Is there a danger in placing too much hope on the personal ties leaders forge at symbolic summits?

Political precedents

In 1972, President Richard Nixon made a largely symbolic visit to China to talk with Mao Zedong in a bid to kickstart efforts to resolve the sharp differences between two highly antagonistic powers. Little of immediate substance was achieved but few doubt the trip was a success, paving the way for the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between Washington and Beijing seven years later.

Analysts and former diplomats point to another Nixon trip in 1972 as a better and less risky model for summitry — his trip to then-Soviet Russia, becoming the first U.S. president to enter the Kremlin. That trip saw Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev toasting each other in St. Vladimir’s Hall. It was preceded by painstaking negotiations, led by then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Even before Nixon set foot in Russia, Washington and Moscow had pre-agreed on 10 deals covering strategic arms limitation, trade, technology and cultural relations.

A former British ambassador to Russia, Andrew Wood, says summits “need something concrete to talk about and it is difficult to know what that concrete is — you can’t just talk in the abstract about Ukraine or the damage Russian military activities have done in Syria.”

He notes that in recent years, U.S. and Russian leaders have talked and “there has been wild-eyed optimism about what could happen and it has been disappointing and I see no reason why this meeting should be any different.”

The U.S. ambassador to Moscow, Jon Huntsman, cautioned in an exclusive interview with VOA shortly after Putin was re-elected as president in April against thinking in terms of a reset with Russia, saying a sudden breakthrough is unrealistic — advice he clearly has been giving to Trump.

“The resets and the redos of years gone by, both Republicans and Democrats, always end in disaster,” he told VOA. “They heighten expectations to the point of our inability to achieve any of those expectations. Hopes are dashed. Relationships crumble. We’ve seen that over and over again.”

He added it is important to maintain a dialogue and look for “natural openings to build trust in small ways.”

Putin’s agenda

Both the Russian and U.S. governments have differences of opinion among their officials — some are more dovish; others more hawk-like. And in the run-up to the July summit, there will be behind-the-scenes debates galore within both governments about tactics, strategies and goals for the meeting.

Last April, then-CIA director Mike Pompeo, during a hearing on his nomination to be U.S. secretary of state, told a Senate panel that he favored a tough approach toward Russia. In the Kremlin there also are disagreements. A Kremlin insider earlier this year told VOA that many in the Russian government, including Putin, suspect there’s a permanent fracture between Russia and the West, which cannot be repaired. “Some people in the Kremlin hoped it would be different with Donald Trump. But I wasn’t holding my breath,” the insider said.

The question now is, if the insider is right, whether Putin has changed his mind and sees a summit as an opening that could help usher in a general improvement in Russia-West relations.

Some European diplomats say they are skeptical, arguing Putin has a clear game plan to persuade Trump to acknowledge that the annexation of Crimea is now irreversible by easing sanctions. The quid pro quo for that could be a Russian acceptance for the pro-Moscow Donbas region to be reintegrated with the rest of Ukraine.

Others said they believe Putin will be looking to Washington to help Russia cope with post-war Syria, which will need an estimated $250 billion in reconstruction costs. “Either way, by holding a summit with him, Trump is normalizing Putin — and without getting anything up front,” said a British diplomat.

A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, dismissed the British charge.

“Of all countries, shouldn’t the British want lines of communication open? Wasn’t it Churchill who said, ‘Jaw-jaw is better than war-war?'” The official was referring to the quote popularly attributed to the late British prime minister, Winston Churchill.
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US’ Pompeo, Saudi Arabia’s Al Falih Meet, Discuss Energy Security

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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed energy security at a meeting with Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Khalid Al Falih on Friday in Washington, the department said.

No other details were provided in a department statement.

The United States has pushed for Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries to add to oil supply to counter the U.S. effort to isolate Iran through renewed sanctions.

Saudi Arabia, the biggest oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, said it wants to boost production to 11 million barrels a day to offset declining exports from Iran.
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No Rule Change Seen After World Cup ‘Non-Games’

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After some final World Cup group matches seemed to turn into “non-games” with teams barely playing or seeming unwilling to score, FIFA said on Friday it had no plan to change rules or how the draw is made.

On Thursday, Japan’s 1-0 defeat by Poland turned to farce as the Japanese, level on points, goal difference and goals with Senegal, defended their advantage on FIFA’s fair play criteria by effectively stopping playing — thereby avoiding picking up bookings or red cards that would have jeopardized their second-place finish.

Later, the England v Belgium match was overshadowed by talk that, being both sure of qualifying for the next round, neither wanted to win since the group winners face a potentially tougher route to final than the runners-up. Fans found the tempo sluggish and England seemed less than desperate after Belgium scored.

Had England equalized they would have finished first, as they started with fewer yellow cards, while Belgium had also picked up more bookings during the course of the match.

FIFA’s World Cup chief executive Colin Smith said the fair play criteria for group qualification would be reviewed after its first use at the World Cup but he believed it would not change. And he defended the level of competitive intent seen among the teams involved in the past few days’ matches.

“This is the first World Cup that we’ve brought in this rule,” Smith told reporters of the law that saw Japan advance as Group H runners-up ahead of Senegal because they had the same points, goal difference and goal tally but had picked up fewer yellow cards.

“Obviously what we want to avoid is the drawing of lots. We believe that teams should go forward on their performance. “We will review after this World Cup,” he said. “But as it currently stands we don’t see any need to change the rules we’ve put in place.”

Smith acknowledged that there had been comment about the final minutes of the Japan game.

“But these are isolated cases because they find themselves in a particular scenario after goal difference and the various points that have been met,” he said. “The game of football for the fans is a competitive game of football and the fans who have paid money to come and watch matches expect to see that — and I think we have seen that.”

Asked whether there was a way to avoid teams trying to come second by making a new draw after the group phase, Smith said: “Redoing the draw is obviously very difficult from the whole logistical, organizational point [of view].”

Echoing comments by England coach Gareth Southgate, he said: “If Belgium didn’t want to win then they obviously forgot to tell the goalscorer — because it was a cracker.”

“We believe on our side that every game is a competitive game of football and teams want to win.”
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UN envoy: Yemen’s Warring Parties Willing to Restart Talks

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Yemen’s warring parties have confirmed their willingness to restart negotiations after a two-year hiatus, the U.N. special envoy for Yemen said even as fighting raged along the country’s west coast over a key port city.

Martin Griffiths told the U.N. radio late on Thursday that he plans to bring Yemen’s Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, and the country’s internationally recognized government backed by a Saudi-led coalition to the negotiating table within the next few weeks “at the very latest.”

He said he hopes the U.N. Security Council will come up with a plan next week and present it to the Yemenis.

Griffiths has been talking to both sides to prevent an all-out bloodbath in Hodeida, which is a lifeline for Yemen’s population.

He visited Yemen’s President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi in the southern city of Aden, and he also met with the Houthis’ chief negotiator Mohammed Abdul-Salam. He said he expects more talks with the Houthi side to take place within the next few days over the start of negotiations.

Griffiths attributed a lull in the fighting Friday “to the discussions we have been having with the parties.”

Earlier this month, Yemeni forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition launched an offensive to retake Hodeida. Fighting has been concentrated at and around the city’s airport, threatening to worsen Yemen’s humanitarian situation.

Aid groups have repeatedly voiced fears that a protracted fight could shut down the port and potentially tip millions of people into starvation.

Recently, the Houthis offered to have the United Nations manage Hodeida’s port, pending “an overall cease-fire” in the rebel-held city. This has been accepted by both sides, Griffiths said, adding that the U.N. role would begin “as soon as the parties” formally agree.

The civil war in impoverished Yemen has raged unabated since March 2015.
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US Candidate Loses Race to Lead UN Migration Policy

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Ken Isaacs, the U.S. nominee to lead the U.N. migration agency, was knocked out of the race on Friday after coming third behind Portugal’s Antonio Vitorino and Costa Rica’s Laura Thompson in a secret ballot of member states in Geneva, delegates said.

Isaacs, vice president of U.S. evangelical charity Samaritan’s Purse, had caused controversy after being forced to apologize for tweets and social media posts in which he disparaged Muslims.

 
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EU, US Extend Sanctions Against Russia

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European leaders have agreed to extend their sanctions against Russia for its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. The EU leaders said in statement Friday the sanctions have been extended for six months.

The decision was made at the leaders’ summit in Brussels after they had a “very short discussion” on Ukraine, an anonymous source told AFP, the French news agency.

The United States, meanwhile, is also holding to sanctions against Russia for its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula.

The U.S. intelligence community also concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election to help Trump win the White House and special counsel Robert Mueller has already indicted Russian individuals and entities in a scheme to influence the vote.

Meanwhile, as the date and venue for President Donald Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin were announced, the U.S. leader continued to dismiss allegations that Moscow interfered with his 2016 election.

Trump has long disparaged the investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller into Trump campaign links with Russia as a “witch hunt,” but suggested in a new Twitter comment that he accepts Russian denials that it interfered.

“Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election!” Trump declared.

Trump’s view contrasted with a Wednesday comment by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, saying that when Trump and Putin meet, Trump is sure to warn the Russian leader that it is “completely unacceptable” to interfere in U.S. elections.

The July 16 talks between the two leaders in Helsinki will be their first full-fledged meeting after previous shorter encounters at international gatherings. They are occurring at a difficult time in Washington-Moscow relations.

But as the summit was announced, Trump railed against Mueller and his 13-month probe in a string of tweets, saying in one of them, “There was no collusion and there was no obstruction of the no collusion.”

The White House said Trump and Putin will discuss “a range of national security issues.” The Kremlin said the two leaders will talk about “the current state and prospects for development of Russian-U.S. relations.”

The Trump-Putin summit will come after the U.S. leader’s attendance at the July 11-12 NATO summit in Brussels and July 13 meetings with British Prime Minister Theresa May and Queen Elizabeth in London.

Despite the sanctions against Russia, Trump has, even in the face of opposition from Western allies, shown an inclination to foster better with relations with Putin. He suggested earlier this month that Russia should be readmitted to the G-7 conclave of leaders of some of the biggest world economies after Moscow was suspended from the group when it annexed Crimea.

Trump said Wednesday that “getting along with Russia and with China and with everybody is a very good thing.” Trump said he and Putin would discuss Syria, Ukraine and “many other subjects.”

 

As relations between the two countries have chilled, they have traded cuts in their diplomatic entourages.

Before he left office and Trump assumed power, former U.S. President Barack Obama ordered the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats and shut down two Russian recreational retreats in the U.S. in response to the election meddling. In a tit-for-tat action in mid-2017, Russia ordered the U.S. to cut 755 members of its embassy and consulate staffs in Russia.

Three months ago, the U.S. expelled 60 Russian officials from the U.S. and ordered the closure of the Russian consulate in the western city of Seattle in response to the Russian poisoning of former Moscow spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the British city of Salisbury.

 
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5 Killed in Maryland Newspaper Attack

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U.S. police are combing through the life of a gunman who possibly had a vendetta against an Annapolis, Maryland, newspaper when he opened fire killing five people and injuring two others at the office of the paper. Michael Brown reports for VOA.
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Myanmar Downgraded on US Trafficking Report

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The United States on Thursday declared Myanmar as among the world’s worst offenders in human trafficking, placing it alongside Iran, North Korea and Syria — countries the U.S. has long disparaged.

The U.S. State Department’s 2018 “Trafficking in Persons Report” downgraded Myanmar (also known as Burma) to the report’s lowest classification amid global criticism over human rights abuses by that country’s military against the minority Rohingya Muslims.

“Burma’s armed forces and others in the Rakhine State dislocated hundreds of thousands of Rohingya and members of other ethnic groups, many of whom were exploited through the region as a result,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Thursday.

“Some in the Burmese military also recruited child soldiers and subjected adults and children from ethnic minority groups to forced labor,” he added.

Annual report

The annual report evaluates 187 countries and assigns each one of four categories based on the country’s efforts to combat trafficking. Tier 1 is the best ranking, while Tier 3 is the worst. There are two middle ranks: Tier 2 and Tier 2 Watch List.

Countries placed in Tier 3 can be penalized with sanctions and limited access to the U.S. and international foreign assistance.

 

WATCH: Myanmar Joins Ranks of Worst Human Trafficking Countries

The U.S. urged Myanmar to cease all unlawful recruitment and use of children in the armed forces, ending its officials’ involvement in sex trafficking and forced labor, and to hold officials criminally accountable for these crimes.

The 2018 report’s “Topics of Special Interest” section also includes a lengthy narrative on the horrors of the institutionalization of children or removing them from family caregiving settings, amid recent controversy surrounding U.S. immigration policy.

“Children in institutional care, including government-run facilities, can be easy targets for traffickers. Even at their best, residential institutions are unable to meet a child’s need for emotional support that is typically received from family members or consistent caretakers with whom the child can develop an attachment,” said the report.

US and zero tolerance

U.S. President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy raised concerns over child welfare and an increase in trafficking. More than 2,000 children were reportedly separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border in recent weeks before the president signed an executive order halting the policy. Some were placed in government-contracted shelters hundreds of miles from their parents.

“There are two distinct crimes of human trafficking and migrant smuggling,” said a State Department official in a telephone briefing on Thursday, pointing out the State Department’s report focuses on human trafficking, which is a crime of exploitation of individuals. “Whereas smuggling is a crime against the state and the illegal crossing of a border entry into a country,” the official said.

The official referred questions on migrant smuggling to the Department of Homeland Security.

While “the State Department deserves credit for its comprehensive exposition on the horrors of institutionalizing children, detailing how removing children from family caregiving settings causes long-term emotional harm and mental health effects, and heightens risks of human trafficking,” John Sifton from Human Rights Watch said “it is an indictment of the Trump administration’s own policies with respect to asylum seekers and others seeking entry into the United States.”

“We hope [Ivanka] Trump and Secretary Pompeo can share it with other federal agencies and brief them about it in more detail,” Sifton added. Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, was at the State Department for the release of the report.

10 who make a difference

Also at Thursday’s release of the report — 10 men and women from around the world who were honored for their efforts to make a difference in the global fight against modern slavery, including Francisca Awah Mbuli, a survivor of human trafficking and the founding director of Survivors’ Network in Cameroon.

“There are limited resources available through international aid. That is why I made it my mission and my organization, Survivors’ Network’s mission, to build a grassroots movement in Africa to create an awareness program to prevent human trafficking,” said Mbuli.

“To prevent trafficking, people need vocational training to build skills so that they can work and become self-sufficient in their home countries,” she added.

Kim Jong-chul is the founder and former director of the Advocates for Public Interest Law in South Korea. He works as an attorney to ensure justice for victims of human trafficking.

Kim told VOA on Thursday that ordinary people and consumers should stop buying products made by companies that hire forced labor.

“We can put pressure on companies by saying that ‘I do not want to buy tainted products by human trafficking victims,’” Kim told VOA.

The report listed 21 other countries in the lowest Tier 3 category: Belarus, Belize, Bolivia, Burundi, China, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gabon, Iran, North Korea, Laos, Mauritania, Papua New Guinea, Russia, South Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

Notably, Sudan was taken off last year’s Tier 3 blacklist and upgraded to Tier 2 Watch List, which is the second-to-worst ranking at a time of improved relations between Washington and Khartoum. Last October, the United States lifted long-standing economic sanctions on Sudan, citing the country’s progress in human rights.
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Myanmar Joins the Ranks of Worst Human Trafficking Countries

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The U.S. State Department says Myanmar has joined the ranks of China, Russia, South Sudan, Syria, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and others as the worst offenders in the world for human trafficking and forced labor. But the State Department also recognized 10 heroes who have dedicated their lives to ending the scourge of modern slavery. VOA’s diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine has more from Washington.
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Relative Says Iran’s Forces Killed Iranian Kurd Near Border    

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A relative of an Iranian Kurdish porter carrying goods into Iran from Iraq says Iranian security forces shot and killed him as he was crossing a mountain footpath near the border on Wednesday.

The family member who spoke to VOA Persian said Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) troops shot Shwaneh Mahmoudzadeh, 19, on the Iranian side of the border, west of the town of Sardasht. The relative said Mahmoudzadeh was carrying goods from Iraqi Kurdistan to sell in northwestern Iran’s predominantly Kurdish region.

Iranian Kurdish porters, known locally as kolbars, have carried goods across mountain footpaths between the two countries for years. The practice is one of the only sources of income in the region, which is among Iran’s most impoverished.

The family member also sent VOA Persian an image of a memorial poster containing a photo of Mahmoudzadeh and details of memorial events scheduled for Thursday and Friday in the town of Piranshahr, where he was from.

The poster did not specify what caused his death. Family members have been reluctant to publicize such information, fearing reprisals from Iranian security forces who they say warn them against speaking out about the shootings of kolbars.

Kolbars have told VOA Persian that IRGC forces have defended such shootings by saying they mistook the porters for Iranian Kurdish militants who are active in the region. But the kolbars have said there is no accountability for the shootings, with the IRGC forces involved in the incidents being transferred to other locations.

Iranian security forces began to block the footpaths used by kolbars in December, with local officials saying they acted at the request of Iraq to bring order to border trade and preserve security in border areas. Many residents have rejected that explanation because of what they see as Tehran’s deep influence over Iraqi affairs.

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Persian service. Michael Lipin reported from Washington.
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Business Leader: Iran Lost 50,000 Jobs in Three Months

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A prominent Iranian business leader said his country has lost tens of thousands of private sector jobs in recent months, the latest sign of a worsening Iranian economy as the U.S. re-imposes tough sanctions.

In a Thursday report, state news agency ISNA quoted the deputy head of the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture as saying 50,000 jobs were lost from March to May. The three-month period referenced by Hossein Salavarzi represents the first quarter of the Persian year. 

ISNA said Salavarzi made the comment in a meeting with lawmakers from Tehran province. The report gave no details of how the 50,000 jobs were lost. But reports from state media, social media and rights activists in Iran have described frequent layoffs and factory closures around the country this year. ​

Target of million jobs

Salavarzi also is quoted as saying the aim was to create 1 million jobs in the current Persian year that began in March. It was unclear to whose aim he was referring, but his disclosure of job losses in the first quarter of the year suggests Iran is lagging far behind that job creation goal. 

The United States withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal last month, starting the process of re-imposing tough sanctions on the Iranian energy sector that produces the country’s main export, oil. 

Since then, Iran’s rial has weakened to a record low against the dollar on the black market on fears the U.S. sanctions will curb oil exports that serve as the country’s main revenue source.

Value of rial drops

In a Thursday interview on VOA Persian’s NewsHour program, Iran analyst and former Glasgow University political science professor Reza Taghizadeh said the plunging value of the rial has exacerbated Iran’s job losses, particularly in manufacturing. 

“With the declining value of the national currency, the incentive to invest in Iran’s economy, for domestic investors or foreign investors, drops substantially,” Taghizadeh said. “And if there are no imports coming into Iran [because the rising dollar makes them more expensive], that will significantly affect what domestic manufacturers can make.”

Dependent on imports

He said Iran’s industries are heavily dependent on imports of unfinished products and of machinery needed to assemble the parts of those products. 

Iran’s official unemployment rate for the March 2017 to March 2018 Persian year was 12.1 percent. 

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Persian Service.
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US Delegation Attends Kenya’s Inaugural Economic Summit 

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A U.S. delegation traveled to Kenya on Thursday to attend the inaugural economic summit of the American Chamber of Commerce, Kenya.

About 500 delegates, including Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Gilbert Kaplan, U.S. undersecretary of commerce for international trade, other high-ranking government officials from both nations and representatives from nearly 30 major U.S. corporations, gathered at the summit, which was aimed at creating partnerships between the two nations’ public and private sectors in order to foster economic growth. 

The Kenyan agenda was centered on advancing Kenyatta’s “Big Four” priorities — universal health care, manufacturing, food security and affordable housing — that he set out after his re-election to a second term last year.

American companies in attendance were looking for opportunities to expand and to increase trade and investment in Africa.

Kaplan told VOA that increasing business and economic development in Africa would benefit many Americans, which aligns with the promises of President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” agenda. 

“If we can export more and do more transactions here, do more investment here, that’s going to be incredibly helpful for the United States, for the people back home, because we’ll be making profitable ventures, and that will naturally help,” he said.

But the U.S. delegation also had a strong message for Kenya: Real, meaningful economic growth can’t happen unless Kenya commits to fighting corruption.

‘It’s got to stop’

“Corruption is undermining Kenya’s future,” said Robert Godec, U.S. ambassador to Kenya. “It’s clearly a major problem for the country. We welcome President Kenyatta’s commitment and the push recently to address this problem. Corruption is theft from the people, and it’s got to stop.”

In his speech to the delegation, Kenyatta pledged to “fight this animal called corruption and ensure that it is a beast that shall never infect or inflict future generations” of Kenyans. 

Kaplan told VOA that the U.S. government was providing support and training to the Kenyan government to help tackle corruption.

“We’ve dealt with that — the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, rule of law and international standards,” he said. “I think we can convince Kenya that following those rules is ultimately to their benefit because it brings more businessmen and women into the system and being able to be successful.” 

Part of the objective of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is to make it illegal for companies and their supervisors to influence foreign officials with personal payments or rewards.

C.D. Glin, president and chief executive of the U.S. African Development Foundation, told VOA that the U.S. government’s and private sector’s support of businesses in Africa that had ramped up under the previous administration was being continued by Trump.

For instance, the President’s Advisory Council for Doing Business in Africa, begun under the Barack Obama administration and still in force, “really is looking at Africa from a business standpoint and from an opportunity standpoint so that Africans can benefit from U.S. support, but also can support the U.S.,” Glin said.

Major boost

Nicholas Nesbitt, chairman of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance, said the increased U.S. private sector investment had been hugely beneficial for the Kenyan economy.

“We see a lot more tourism coming to Kenya, a lot more trade and a lot more business,” he said. “We’re very excited to see the numbers of American companies — small, midsize and even large corporations — looking at Kenya as a destination. It’s also a gateway to east Africa, where there are 200 million potential consumers. So, the investments, the energy, the excitement is absolutely tremendous today at this summit between American and Kenyan business.”

Six commercial deals between Kenyan and American companies were signed at the summit. Maxwell Okello, chief executive of the American Chamber of Commerce, Kenya, called that a sign that significant economic change would be driven by private sector innovation.

“I think at the end of the day, with what we’re hearing today here, it’s really down to what the private sector wants to do from a commercial engagement,” he said. “And I believe conversations such as this is really where you spark that interest, where you create those linkages and the sort of engagement that you need. And the opportunities are there for anyone. They’re obvious.

“So, I think that various policies aside, from a commercial business engagement perspective, the sky is wide open.” 
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UN: 10,000 Children Killed, Maimed in Conflicts Worldwide in 2017

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More than 10,000 children were killed or maimed last year in armed conflicts around the world, a U.N. report said this week.

More than 21,000 “grave violations” of children’s rights were reported in 2017, a sharp increase from the year before, according to the annual Children and Armed Conflict report that was released Wednesday.

“Despite some progress, the level of violations remains unacceptable,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. 

The report covers 20 countries, including hot spots such as Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan. 

According to the report:

— The Saudi Arabia-led coalition was responsible for at least half of the more than 1,300 child deaths in Yemen. It was also responsible for injuring more than 300 children. 

— Nigeria and Iraq imprisoned 2,200 and 1,000 children, respectively, because their families were allegedly associated with terrorist groups. 

— Al-Shabab extremists in Somalia abducted more than 1,600 children to use as soldiers or sex slaves. 

— In South Sudan, more than 1,200 children were recruited as soldiers. 

— In Yemen, there were more than 840 cases of boys as young as 11 being recruited and used as soldiers.

“The point is, these kids should not be treated like children of a lesser God; they deserve the same rights as every kid to live their lives at least meaningfully and to be given a chance at recovery,” said Virginia Gamba, the U.N. special representative for children and armed conflict.

Gamba said crises in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen were the main reasons for the “serious increases” in violations reported. 
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France Charges 10 in Alleged Plot to Attack Muslims

Posted on by SeeEU

French authorities have charged 10 suspected far-right extremists in connection with an alleged plot to attack Muslims, a judicial source said Thursday.

The nine men and one woman, who ranged in age from 32 to 69, were arrested in raids across France on Saturday. They appeared before a judge on Wednesday evening and were charged with “criminal terrorist conspiracy,” the source said.

Several were also charged with violations of firearms laws and the manufacture or possession of explosive devices.

Police have linked the 10 to a little-known group called Action des Forces Operationnelles (Operational Forces Action), which urges French people to combat Muslims, or what it calls “the enemy within.”

The suspects had an “ill-defined plan to commit a violent act targeting people of the Muslim faith”, a source close to the investigation told AFP on Monday.

Rifles, handguns and homemade grenades were found during the raids in the Paris area, the Mediterranean island of Corsica and the western Charentes-Maritimes region.

Firearms, ammunition seized

Prosecutors said in a statement Wednesday that 36 firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition were seized, as well as items in one suspect’s home that could be used in the manufacture of a type of organic peroxide explosive.

The suspects include a retired police officer, identified only as Guy S., who was the alleged leader of the group, according to a source close to the investigation. The group also includes a former soldier.

France remains on high alert following a wave of jihadist attacks that have killed more than 240 people since 2015.

Officials have urged people not to confuse the actions of radicalized individuals with those of France’s estimated 6 million Muslims, but anti-Islamic violence is on the rise.

The Guerre de France (War for France) website of the shadowy Operational Forces Action depicts an apocalyptic battle scene under the Eiffel Tower, and claims to prepare “French citizen-soldiers for combat on national territory.”

France’s TF1 television has said the group planned to target radicalized imams and Islamist prisoners after their release from jail, as well as veiled women in the street chosen at random.

France registered 72 violent anti-Muslim acts last year, up from 67 in 2016.
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Shootings Reported at Maryland Newspaper

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Multiple people were reportedly shot Thursday afternoon at The Capital newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland. 

The Baltimore Sun, which owns the Annapolis newspaper, said a reporter told Sun staffers of the shooting.

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said it was responding to the shooting report.

Marc Limansky, a spokesman for the Anne Arundel County Police Department, said officers were searching the newspaper building in Annapolis. He said the situation was “active and ongoing.” But he said he had no details about potential victims and could not confirm the exact location of the building.
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Pope to 14 New Cardinals: Defend Dignity of Poor

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Pope Francis gave the Catholic Church 14 new cardinals Thursday, exhorting them to resist any temptation toward haughtiness and instead embrace “the greatest promotion” they can achieve:  tending to those neglected or cast aside by society.

Among those receiving the cardinals’ biretta — a crimson-red square cap with three ridges — was his point man for helping Rome’s homeless and poor. Polish Monsignor Konrad Krajewski has handed out sleeping bags to those spending cold nights on the Italian capital’s streets and driven vans taking the poor on seaside daytrips arranged by the Vatican.

The choices of many of the new cardinals reflected Francis’ determination that the church be known for tireless attention to those on society’s margins. He also turned his attention to countries located far from the Vatican after centuries of European dominance of the ranks of cardinals, honoring churchmen from Peru, Madagascar and Japan, which has a tiny minority of Catholics.

With Thursday’s ceremony, there are now 226 cardinals worldwide, 74 of them named by Francis during his 5-year-old papacy.

Of that total, 125 cardinals are younger than 80 and can vote in a conclave for the next pope when the current pope dies or resigns: 59 of them appointed by Francis, 47 by Pope Benedict XVI, his predecessor, and 19 named by Pope John Paul II. 

Three of those named Thursday are too old to participate in selecting the next pope.

In his homily, Francis told the new cardinals to avoid the “quest of honors, jealousy, envy, intrigue, accommodation and compromise.”

“What does it gain the world if we are living in a stifling atmosphere of intrigues that dry up our hearts and impede our mission?” the pope asked during the ceremony at St. Peter’s Basilica. He lamented the “palace intrigues that take place, even in curial offices.”

“When we forget the mission, when we lose sight of the real faces of our brothers and sisters, our life gets locked up in the pursuit of our own interests and securities,” Francis said. “The church’s authority grows with this ability to defend the dignity of others.”

“This is the highest honor that we can receive, the greatest promotion that can be awarded us: to serve Christ in God’s faithful people,” Francis said, going on to cite the “hungry, neglected, imprisoned, sick, suffering, addicted to drugs, cast aside.”

Other top issues

At a post-ceremony reception, Peru’s new cardinal, Huancayo Archbishop Pedro Barreto Jimeno, a Jesuit like Pope Francis, was asked which pressing questions churchmen should urgently address.

The cardinal told the AP that the “social exclusion” of migrants is an issue “all must address.”

Francis recently has appealed to all nations to be more welcoming to the refugees they can adequately integrate into society.

The Peruvian cardinal also cited the need to fight corruption worldwide. Francis has made battling corruption inside the church also one of his papacy’s priorities.

After the ceremony, the pope and the new cardinals took minivans to the monastery on Vatican City grounds where Benedict XVI, who retired from the papacy in 2013, lives. The cardinals each went up to greet the frail 91-year-old Benedict, who was sitting in a chair, taking his hand and briefly chatting with the emeritus pontiff.

New cardinals

The new cardinals include Iraqi churchman Louis Raphael I Sako, the Baghdad-based patriarch of Babylonia of the Chaldeans.

Sako told Francis that he welcomed the pope’s “special attention” to the “small flock who make up the Christians in the Middle East, in Pakistan and in other countries who are undergoing a difficult period due to the wars and sectarianism and where there are still martyrs.”

A Pakistani prelate, Joseph Coutts, archbishop of Karachi, was another new cardinal.

Addressing his “dear brother cardinals and new cardinals,” the pope said the “only credible form of authority is born of sitting at the feet of others in order to serve Christ.”

In a sign of the pope’s attention to ordinary people’s suffering, Monsignor Giuseppe Petrocchi, the archbishop of L’Aquila, an Italian mountain town devastated by a 2009 earthquake, was among the newest cardinals.

Other new cardinals include:

Monsignor Antonio dos Santos Marto, bishop of Leiria-Fatima, which includes Portugal’s popular shrine town;

Monsignor Desire Tsarahazana, archbishop of Toamasina, Madagascar;

Monsignor Thomas Aquinas Manyo, who was bishop of Hiroshima before Francis made him archbishop of Osaka, Japan;

Monsignor Luis Ladaria, a Spanish theologian who heads the powerful Vatican office in charge of ensuring doctrinal orthodoxy;

Monsignor Giovanni Angelo Becciu, an Italian whose diplomatic career includes serving as ambassador to Cuba;

Monsignor Angelo De Donatis, the Rome vicar general;

The three new prelates too old to vote in a conclave included Sergio Obeso Rivera, Emeritus Archbishop of Xalapa, Mexico; Spanish priest Aquilino Bocos Merino; and Bolivian Monsignor Toribio Ticona Porco.
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Atlanta to Bring Human Rights Murals to City for Super Bowl

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In the months leading up to the 2019 Super Bowl, some of Atlanta’s bare walls will get a makeover.

The city of Atlanta and the Super Bowl Host Committee have partnered with arts group WonderRoot to launch “Off the Wall.” The project will create up to 30 murals focusing on Atlanta’s past, present and future role in civil and human rights. Brett Daniels, chief operating officer of the host committee, said the murals will transform the city in hopes of sparking a community-wide conversation. 

The artwork will start going up this fall and will remain as a permanent part of Atlanta’s cultural scene after the game. Students from Freedom University, which provides services for immigrant students in the country illegally, will aid in the design and installation of the murals.
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Self-Styled Utah Prophet Gets Additional 15-Year Prison Term

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A self-styled prophet who led a doomsday cult and secretly married young girls because of his beliefs in polygamy and has already been sentenced to 26 years in prison has been given a 15-year term following another guilty plea.

Samuel Shaffer, 35, was sentenced Wednesday in Manti, Utah, after pleading guilty to one felony count of child sodomy, the Deseret News reported . Other charges including bigamy, lewdness involving a child and an additional sodomy count were dropped in exchange for the guilty plea.

He had previously pleaded guilty to separate child rape and abuse charges in another Utah court, and was sentenced last month to at least 26 years in prison. The new sentence will be served concurrently and won’t extend his prison term but will be reviewed when determining his parole, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors say Shaffer led a group called the Knights of the Crystal Blade based on arcane Mormon ideas long abandoned by the mainstream church.

He and his fellow self-styled prophet, John Coltharp, 34, proclaimed to each secretly marry two young girls aged 4 through 8 related to the other man.

Coltharp pleaded guilty to sodomy and child bigamy charges earlier this month. His sentencing is scheduled for August.

Shaffer was charged in December 2017 after police with helicopters and dogs raided a remote makeshift desert compound made out of shipping containers about 275 miles (440 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City. Authorities found the girls hiding in flimsy plastic barrels and a nearby abandoned trailer where Shaffer said he had placed them to protect them from the winter weather.

The men had taken the children to the compound months before in preparation for an apocalypse or in hopes of gaining followers, authorities said.

At the hearing Wednesday, Shaffer told Judge Marvin Bagley that he had hoped to have a family and grow old with one of the girls.

“I sincerely believed that child marriage was a correct principle from God. And I’ve seen the consequences of what’s happened, and I know that I shouldn’t have done it now,” Shaffer said. “But I sincerely believed that the practice was correct at the time.”

“I’m not aware of any religion in this world that justifies an adult having a sexual relationship with an 8-year-old girl,” the judge said. “Certainly it’s a violation of Utah law.”

A third man, Robert Shane Roe, 34, of Castro, California, was charged earlier this month with sodomy of a child in connection with the group. He allegedly met the cult’s founders in a Facebook discussion group last year and traveled to Utah to join them.
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At UN, South Sudan Cease-fire Welcomed With Cautious Optimism

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African countries on the U.N. Security Council welcomed Thursday the signing of a permanent cease-fire between South Sudan’s president and his former vice president, but they expressed concern that, like previous agreements, it may not last. 

President Salva Kiir and his rival and former vice president, Riek Machar, signed the framework on Tuesday in Khartoum. 

South Sudan’s U.N. ambassador, Akuei Bona Malwal, said the declaration includes other warring parties, and they have all pledged to work together to bring peace to the country.

“While the document signed is a framework for peace, we are hopeful and very optimistic that a final agreement will be concluded in the very near future,” Malwal said.  “At this juncture, I would like to announce that in the next few hours President Salva Kiir will decree a comprehensive cease-fire all over South Sudan.”

Security Council members welcomed the sign of progress after more than four years of a bloody civil war that has seen thousands killed and more than 4 million displaced from their homes or made refugees. The fighting has caused a humanitarian catastrophe, with 7 million South Sudanese requiring humanitarian assistance this year. 

Equatorial Guinea’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Job Obiang Esono Mbengono, said the peace declaration is a step on the right path. 

“However, we are cautious when comes to optimism, since it is not first time the parties have reached agreements and not respected them,” Mbengono said through an interpreter. “Hence, we call on leaders to show responsibility.”

Ethiopian envoy Tekeda Alemu said the coming days would be critical. 

“What matters now is, of course, for the parties to honor this commitment and implement the cease-fire,” Alemu said.

Cote d’Ivoire’s envoy also urged the parties to honor their commitments and said his government supports deploying a joint IGAD and African Union force to enforce the cease-fire.

 

 

 
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Republicans Unleash Attack on Russia Probe Investigating Trump

Posted on by SeeUS

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives supportive of President Donald Trump launched an all-out attack Thursday on two of his key law enforcement officials handling the continuing criminal investigation of Trump campaign links to Russia in 2016.

In a House Judiciary Committee hearing, the lawmakers accused Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein of hiding thousands of pages of documents on the origins of the two-year investigation into Russian interference in the election that was aimed at helping Trump win the White House over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

They also attacked Federal Bureau of Investigation director Christopher Wray for what he acknowledged was the bias against Trump of a handful of FBI agents working on the investigation and an earlier probe of Clinton’s handling of classified material on a private email server while she was secretary of state.

The hearing came as the Republican majority in the full House, ignoring the opposition of Democrats, pushed through a nonbinding resolution rebuking Rosenstein for not fully complying with a subpoena to turn over all the documents and ordered him to do so by July 6.

Rosenstein told the judiciary panel that thousands of the documents have already been handed to the committee and that 100 Justice Department staff members are working around the clock sifting through thousands more pages of material to comply with the lawmakers’ demands.

Rosenstein appointed special counsel Robert Mueller and has overseen his work for the last 13 months conducting the Russia investigation and whether Trump obstructed justice by firing James Comey, a former FBI director who was handling the Russia probe before Mueller took over.

One Republican lawmaker, Congressman Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, never asked Rosenstein a question in the hearing, but delivered a scathing five-minute monologue on the Mueller investigation.

“If you’ve got evidence [of Trump wrongdoing], finish it the hell up because this country is being torn apart,” Gowdy demanded of Rosenstein.

Gowdy and other Republican lawmakers condemned Peter Strzok, an FBI agent working on the probe, for telling his lover, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, in an email exchange that “we’ll stop” Trump from becoming president.

Gowdy, a one-time prosecutor, said it was “more bias manifested by an agent” than he had ever seen.

Rosenstein acknowledged that Strzok’s comments were “highly inappropriate.”

“It’s more than that,” retorted another Republican lawmaker, Congressman Ron DeSantis of Florida.

Strzok, who was recently escorted out of the FBI while the agency further examines his conduct, spent 11 hours answering lawmakers’ questions behind closed doors Wednesday, telling them the exchange with Page was a private comment and did not impact his impartiality in working on both the Clinton email probe and later the Mueller investigation. Mueller dismissed Strzok from his investigative staff months ago when his anti-Trump emails first surfaced.

A Justice Department watchdog recently concluded there was no political bias in the Clinton email probe, but that FBI agents and Comey had not adhered to agency rules in the way they conducted the probe and other aspects of their work.

DeSantis told Rosenstein he ought to remove himself from oversight of the Mueller investigation because he played a role in the initial White House justification for Trump’s firing of Comey in May 2017.

“I can assure you that if it were appropriate for me to recuse, I’d be more than happy to do so,” Rosenstein replied.

The House Republican support for Trump came as the U.S. leader unleashed a new barrage of dismissive Twitter comments targeting Mueller’s probe, calling it “a disgraceful situation!” He noted that Russia continues to deny interfering in the investigation. 
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Russia Cracks Down on Women-Shaming Online During World Cup

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Russia’s leading social network is cracking down on chat groups created to shame women during the World cup amid growing complaints of sexist abuse during the tournament.

Social network VKontakte told The Associated Press on Thursday it issued warnings to the administrators of such groups. VKontakte reminded administrators that “offensive behavior is unacceptable” and told them to better moderate their sites, including blocking content.

But sexist comments continued to appear Thursday on at least one of the targeted sites, which was named after an offensive Portuguese phrase for the female anatomy.

The site’s administrators openly criticize what they call inappropriate behavior by Russian women who celebrate with foreign fans during the World Cup.

Several female fans, journalists and others have complained of groping, sexist comments or other misconduct at the World Cup, being hosted in 11 Russian cities.
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Trump to Tout Economic Policies at Foxconn Ground-Breaking

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President Donald Trump was highlighting his economic policies Thursday by taking part in the ceremonial ground-breaking for a $10 billion Foxconn factory complex that may bring thousands of jobs to a state he barely carried in the 2016 presidential election.

But Trump’s celebration comes amid less-rosy economic news, with Harley-Davidson’s announcement it’s moving some motorcycle production overseas to avoid European Union tariffs that are a product of Trump’s escalating trade dispute with long-standing U.S. allies.

The president was irked by the Milwaukee-based company’s announcement this week and tweeted about it for three straight days, writing that any shift in production “will be the beginning of the end” for the iconic American manufacturer and even threatening retaliatory taxes.

Trump’s presence in Wisconsin was the subject of protests both in Milwaukee, where he spent a rare weeknight away from the White House, and in Mount Pleasant, where final preparations were under way for the ground-breaking.

Chants of “Hey, hey, Ho, ho. Donald Trump has got to go” were heard near the Pfister Hotel, where Trump overnighted and attended a pair of closed-door campaign events before heading to the groundbreaking and tour of an existing Foxconn facility. Gov. Scott Walker and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., were among those joining the president at the fundraisers. 

About 50 people walked from a downtown park to as close as they could get to the roped-off hotel, hoping Trump hears their calls to reunite migrant families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border after the president decide to prosecute everyone trying to enter the U.S. illegally.

As the president hobnobbed with supporters, his wife, Melania, was making her second trip in a week to the southern border to visit detention centers housing migrant children. She toured a Texas center last Thursday.

Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera, an immigrant rights organization, said the family separation issue is not unique to border communities. She said it’s also happening in the U.S. interior where deportations have increased.

“The scale of human rights violations that are being inflicted on children and families by the current administration should shake us to our core,” she said.

Protesters were also gathering near the Foxconn Technology Group campus in Mount Pleasant, about 30 miles south of Milwaukee.

Nearly 40 groups representing students, environmentalists, civil rights advocates, teachers, union workers and others have organized an event featuring dozens of speakers, a marching band, singers and musicians who plan to play ominous “Star Wars” music.

Foxconn is the world’s largest electronics contract manufacturer and assembles Apple iPhones and other products for tech companies. Based in Taiwan, it chose Wisconsin after being prodded by Trump and others, including Ryan, whose district will include the plant.

The project could employ up to 13,000 people, though opponents say it is costing Wisconsin taxpayers too much.

The ceremonial groundbreaking was supposed to be evidence that the manufacturing revival fueled by Trump’s “America First” policy is well underway. But Harley-Davidson’s announcement, spurred by the trans-Atlantic tariff fight, appears to have turned that on its head.

Walker is counting on a strong economy as part of his case for re-election in November. Wisconsin’s unemployment is at record-low levels and Walker argues that the Foxconn project, the largest economic development deal in state history, shows the state is on the right track.

When the deal, reached with assistance from the White House, was signed last year, Walker said critics could “suck lemons” and “all of us in the state should be smiling, Republican and Democrat, doesn’t matter.”

A year later, opinion polls show Wisconsin voters are split on the project and the state of the economy.

Trump carried Wisconsin by less than 1 point — just under 23,000 votes. He’s underwater in popularity, with only 44 percent of respondents in last week’s Marquette University Law School poll approving of the job he’s doing, while 50 percent disapproved.

Republicans were mostly unified in support of Foxconn, saying it is a once-a-generation opportunity to transform the state’s economy. But most Democrats — including all eight of those running against Walker — are against it, arguing the potential $4.5 billion in taxpayer subsidies was too rich. If paid out — they’re tied to jobs and investment benchmarks — the incentives would be the most paid to a foreign company in U.S. history.

Should Foxconn employ 13,000 workers as envisioned, it would be the largest private-sector employer in Wisconsin.

“Foxconn’s state-of-the-art products will be made in the U.S.A. — proudly in the state of Wisconsin!” Walker tweeted Tuesday, as he tried to shift the focus away from Harley-Davidson.

 
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