Month: June 2018

EU Puts Off Balkan Membership Talks as France Demands Reforms

Posted on by SeeEU

European Union governments on Tuesday delayed by at least a year a decision to allow membership negotiations with Macedonia and Albania after France and the Netherlands faced down Germany and demanded more reforms.

The unexpected outcome, despite broad EU support, showed French President Emmanuel Macron’s determination to postpone the decision until after European Parliament elections in May, for fear of stoking anti-immigrant sentiment, diplomats said.

It also puts a brake on the momentum Germany and the European Union’s Chief Executive Jean-Claude Juncker had sought in the Western Balkans to counter Russian influence by offering the six countries a path to EU membership.

EU governments will “set out the path towards accession negotiations in June 2019”, for Macedonia and Albania, according to a document agreed by the bloc’s 28 Europe ministers at what diplomats said was a long, fraught meeting in Luxembourg.

“It was a very difficult birth,” Germany’s EU minister Michael Roth said of the compromise decision.

Germany, Austria, Sweden, Slovakia and many other EU countries had hoped for an agreement on Tuesday that would give clear approval for membership talks to start. EU leaders were due to have signed off at a summit on Thursday in Brussels.

Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia all hope to join the European Union and are considered future members by many in the bloc.

While membership talks with Serbia and Montenegro are under way, Albania, which is already a member of NATO, and Macedonia, which has reached an agreement to resolve a dispute over its name with Greece, had won the support of the European Commission, which recommended that membership talks be opened.

Even with the delay, Macedonia’s deputy prime minister for European Affairs, Bujar Osmani, said on Twitter his country was now “on the path to open the accession negotiations next June”.

COUNTERING CORRUPTION

Macron, backed by the Netherlands, has said the bloc must first reform itself before taking on new members, although EU diplomats say Paris is mainly concerned about stoking anti-immigrant sentiment at home.

The rushed accession of Romania and Bulgaria in 2007 and the poorly managed migration of eastern European workers to Britain, which turned many Britons against the European project, have made so-called EU enlargement more difficult, officials say.

The Dutch parliament has approved opening EU membership talks with Macedonia after an agreement with Greece to change the country’s official name from Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to Republic of North Macedonia.

But the Dutch government was unwilling to move before France, diplomats said.

In their statement, EU ministers said both Albania and Macedonia needed to do more on judicial reforms, endemic corruption and organized crime. Depending on progress next June and another report by the Commission, which oversees membership talks, EU governments could formally open negotiations at an so-called intergovernmental conference by the end of next year.

Both countries have to show “a track record both in improving the rule of law and fighting organized crime”, Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok told reporters. “We’ll look carefully at next year’s Commission report to judge whether we see this progress,” he added.

Many European countries, including Austria which will chair the EU rotating presidency from July, want to send a signal to Albania, Macedonia and other Western Balkan countries that the way to EU membership is still is open, especially as Macedonia looks set to be welcomed into the NATO alliance in July.

“There has been a lot of progress. It only enforces our point that the Western Balkans should have a clear membership perspective,” Austria’s EU minister Gernot Bluemel said.

 
…

your ad here

UN: Battle for Syrian Enclave of E. Ghouta Marked by War Crimes

Posted on by SeeEA

The U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria accuses all warring factions in that country of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in the battle for control of eastern Ghouta, a besieged enclave in the suburbs of the capital, Damascus.

In their latest report presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, U.N. investigators call the method of warfare employed in eastern Ghouta barbaric and medieval, marked by the most brutal forms of violence, with civilians as the primary victims.

The chair of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, says no one in this war has clean hands. Between February and April, he says, pro-government forces launched daily aerial and ground bombardments, killing hundreds of people and destroying the essentials of civilian life.

“The battle to recapture eastern Ghouta, however, cannot be characterized by the actions of a single party, as it was marked by pervasive war crimes committed by all sides, committed by all sides.”

Pinheiro says members of armed groups and terrorist organizations have carried out indiscriminate reprisal attacks on Damascus regularly, killing and injuring hundreds of civilians.  

Pinheiro condemned the systematic and strategic use of Syrian military forces to encircle and starve the civilian population to compel surrender, actions that amount to war crimes against humanity.

The report submitted to the Human Rights Council omits the mention of six chemical weapons attacks allegedly carried out by Syrian forces in eastern Ghouta between January and April. An attack on April 7, which reportedly killed 49 people, including 11 children, created an international outcry. The United States, Britain and France retaliated with missile strikes.

In their defense, the U.N. investigators say they decided not to include these events in the current report because a probe by a U.N. commission is ongoing. The investigators say they are likely to include information on chemical attacks in their next report in September.

Syria’s ambassador, Hussam Edin Aala, speaking as a concerned country at the council, lambasted the commission’s report as a fabrication. He said it was based on lies and accusations made by non-governmental organizations affiliated with armed terrorists.

 
…

your ad here

Zimbabwe’s Political Parties Sign Peace Pledge for July Polls

Posted on by SeeAF

Zimbabwe’s political parties Tuesday signed a “peace pledge” committing to peaceful campaigns for the July 30 general election.

Zimbabwe’s political parties sing the national anthem before signing a “peace pledge” the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission says is aimed at ending violence that characterized the country’s previous elections.

Absent from the ceremony Tuesday were the two leading candidates for the July 30 election, President Emmerson Mnangagwa of the ZANU-PF party and Nelson Chamisa, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance – a coalition of opposition parties.

MDC-Alliance Secretary-General Douglas Mwonzora said the candidates were represented by party leaders.

“So, the national chairpersons of political parties are key people in the maintenance of peace within political party and they are also key people in the inter-party relations and we hope that this will be more organic. We will build the national trust that is necessary. For a long time our politics was enmeshed in toxic issues of hate, intimidation, violence, corruption and subterfuge. We hope this signing ceremony brings a new era and a new politics to our country”

Zimbabwe Home Affairs Minister Obert Mpofu, who represented Mnangagwa, commented on the “peace pledge.”

“To us it confirms what we have been saying and what our president has been saying about conduct of electioneering and mobilization of people towards our harmonized elections that they should be peaceful, free of violence and credible without any impediment of other people’s rights. So, we are quite happy that this pledge has been signed or is going to be signed by those who aspire for peace in our conduct of elections.”

Police dragged the leader of the 1980 Freedom Movement party, Francis Danha, out of the ceremony for protesting that the July 30th elections are a sham unless the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission resigns.

“We should not go and participate in an election which is rigged and which is flawed. We should not go on and participate in an election which we know they are already the whistleblowers and they are biased,” he said. “We should not allow a flawed process. I am not talking as a person who is intending to win an election. I am talking as a responsible citizen. We should have a message which we will teach our children and children’s children that if you want to be a leader in Zimbabwe how do you go about it. The how part of it is what we are supposed to clearly answer in 2018.”

Opposition parties have long accused the ruling ZANU-PF party of manipulating the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to ensure victory at the polls.

 
…

your ad here

US Official Warns Turkey on F-35 Deal Over Russia System

Posted on by SeeEU

A top U.S. State Department official warned Turkey on Tuesday that its purchase of Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets would be jeopardized if it does not drop a plan to buy S-400 missile defense systems from Russia.

If it buys the system, Turkey would also be subject to sanctions under a bill President Donald Trump signed into law last summer, Wess Mitchell, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, testified in the Senate.

That sweeping sanctions law, known as CAATSA, seeks to punish companies that do business with Russia’s defense industry.

“We’ve also been very clear that across the board, an acquisition of S-400 will inevitably affect the prospects for Turkish military-industrial cooperation with the United States, including F-35,” Mitchell told a Foreign Relations subcommittee hearing on U.S. relations with Europe.

Ties between Washington and Ankara have been strained in recent months over a host of issues, including U.S. policy in Syria and legal cases against American citizens detained in Turkey, notably a U.S. pastor named Andrew Brunson, who is being held on terrorism charges.

Mitchell estimated there are about two dozen detained Americans in Turkey, many of them dual nationals.

But Mitchell also praised Turkey, a member of NATO, as “a crucial ally and partner,” citing its support for the campaign against the Islamic State militant group.

“We work with them very closely in intelligence and in other areas, but this has the potential to spike the punch,” he said.

Separately, Trump congratulated Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan by telephone on Tuesday on his victory in Sunday’s presidential election and the two leaders agreed to improve bilateral defense and security ties, Erdogan’s office said.

Various pieces of legislation have been making their way through Congress that would block the transfer of the jets to Turkey over its plan to purchase the Russian system.

Mitchell said the administration believes it has the legal authority to withhold the transfer of the military jets to Turkey, if need be, without Congress passing legislation.

Lockheed Martin held a ceremony last week to mark the “rollout” of the first F-35 jet for Turkey, but that aircraft was headed for Arizona, where F-35 training takes place.

Delivery of the jets into Turkey is not expected until next year.

 

 
…

your ad here

Chemical Weapons Watchdog to Vote on Ability to Assign Blame

Posted on by SeeEU

The global chemical weapons watchdog plans to vote Wednesday on whether it should have authority to apportion blame for attacks, an idea arising from frictions between Britain and its key Western allies on one side and Russia and Syria on the other.

The British delegation to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons introduced the proposal to empower the Nobel Prize-winning group to identify those responsible for chemical weapons attacks. The organization, based in The Hague, the Netherlands, currently does not have that ability.

“At present, the OPCW experts will say where and when an attack happened, but not who was responsible,” British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said at a special meeting on the U.K. proposal Tuesday. “If we are serious about upholding the ban on chemical weapons, that gap must be filled.”

Several nations agree that limits written into the organization’s agreements with the United Nations and the countries that decided to be bound by an international chemical weapons ban hamstring the watchdog’s work. The British delegation argues that the ability to identify perpetrators would “strengthen the organization entrusted with overseeing the ban on chemical weapons.”

Britain made its proposal in the wake of the chemical attacks on an ex-spy and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury, as well as in Syria’s civil war and by the Islamic State group in Iraq. Britain has accused Russia of using a nerve agent in the attempted assassination in March of former spy Sergei Skripal, which Moscow strongly denies.

Russia has said a change like the one Britain proposed would undermine the organization and threaten its future. Its representative said at Tuesday’s meeting that the U.N. Security Council was the only place to discuss such issues.

“So it would seem that the U.K. draft is an attempt to undermine the mandate and sovereignty” of the Security Council, Russian Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Georgy Kalamanov.

The Security Council established a joint U.N.-OPCW investigative team to determine responsibility for chemical attacks in Syria. But Russia vetoed a Western-backed resolution in November that would have renewed the joint team’s mandate.

Efforts to revive or replace the Syria team since then have failed. So, at the moment, Britain’s Johnson said, “no international body is working to attribute responsibility for chemical weapons attacks in Syria.”
…

your ad here

Uber Wins Back License in London, for Now

Posted on by SeeEU

Uber avoided a ban in London on Tuesday after the taxi-hailing app’s new management made changes to ease strained relations with the city’s transport regulator, but its new license will include strict conditions.

Uber overhauled its policies and personnel in Britain after Transport for London (TfL) refused to renew its license in September for failings in its approach to reporting serious criminal offenses and background checks on drivers.

Judge Emma Arbuthnot said while Uber had not been fit and proper when that decision was made, an overhaul of its policies in the subsequent months had changed its position.

“[Uber] has provided evidence that it is now a fit and proper person. … I grant a license to ULL [Uber London Limited],” she said in her judgment.

The judge granted Uber a 15-month “probationary” license to operate.

With backers including Goldman Sachs and BlackRock and valued at more than $70 billion, Uber has faced protests, bans and restrictions around the world as it challenges traditional taxi operators, angering some unions.

Uber, which has about 45,000 drivers in London, introduced several new initiatives in response to the ruling, including 24/7 telephone support and the proactive reporting of serious incidents to police. It has also changed senior management in Britain, its biggest European market.

The ruling has been a test of Uber’s new management at board level, with chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi, who took charge the month before TfL’s decision, pledging to “make things right” in London.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan was clear that the court ruling was no carte blanche for Uber in London.

“No matter how big or powerful you are, you must play by the rules “especially when it comes to the safety of Londoners,” he said in a tweet. “Uber has been granted a 15-month license to operate in London but with a clear set of conditions that TfL will closely monitor and enforce.”

The license conditions include giving TFL notice of what Uber is doing in areas that may be a cause of concern, reporting safety related complaints and having an independent assurance audit report every six months.
…

your ad here

Concern Voiced About Education of Refugee Children in Cameroon

Posted on by SeeAF

Thousands of Nigerian refugees, who fled violence from the Boko Haram insurgency for Cameroon, say they are uncertain about returning to their country because they have lost everything to the insurgents. Humanitarian officials say conditions for refugee children may worsen if the youngsters continue to avoid school in the Minawao refugee camp. More than half of the thousands of children there either stay home or are involved with child labor.

It is a very noisy morning at the Minawao refugee camp in northern Cameroon. Groups of people are making rounds, calling on refugees to keep sending their young children to a formal educational establishment or teenagers to vocational schools to learn a trade that will help them, should they voluntarily return to Nigeria.

Sister Gift Slovanska is a Roman Catholic nun who helps the refugees in far northern Cameroon. She says the UNHCR, along with the NGO Plan International, and local non-governmental organizations, churches and traditional rulers, aim to stress the importance of an education for children.

She says it is rather unfortunate that in spite of their tours of the refugee camps to tell parents to send their children to school, some still allow their children to serve as household help and child workers in surrounding villages just because they lack food.

In March 2017, the governments of Cameroon and Nigeria, alongside the U.N. refugee agency, signed an agreement for the voluntary repatriation of Nigerian refugees living in Cameroon.

More than 85,000 refugees who fled the Boko Haram insurgency in northeastern Nigeria are living at the Minawao camp.

Sixteen-thousand children were registered in schools before 2017, but after the announcement of their possible return to Nigeria, the numbers dropped to 7,000 this year, according to Cameroon’s government.

Elvis Nga Bihina is a spokesperson for traditional leaders who educate the refugees about sending children to school in the northern regions of Cameroon. He says the response has not been very successful this year because some 60 percent of the refugees are anxious to return home.

He says the main problem they face is that 80 percent of the population of the Minawao refugee camp is made up of school age children but that a majority of them have been absent from classrooms especially when they started hoping about returning to Nigeria.

Cameroon, Nigeria and the UNHCR agreed to provide people wishing to return with clear information on the security and economic situation as well as access to basic services particularly in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States in northeastern Nigeria, where Boko Haram fighting is historically violent, in order to allow refugees to make well-informed and voluntary decisions.

This month, George Okoth-Obbo, the U.N. refugee agency’s assistant high commissioner for operations, visited Minawao and said officials would observe the situation in Nigeria before advising the refugees to voluntarily return home.

“It is clear that in those areas in which there are still activities that threaten safety, where people are being attacked, where people are being abducted, where their property is being destroyed, being burned and where there are security operations which are on going to resolve these problems, those are not conditions where people can return,” he said.

Okoth-Obbo said while waiting, the international community should know that the main goal to strive for is education.

A 2016 UNHCR survey conducted in Minawao camp revealed that 71 percent of the refugees intend to return as soon as the situation is conducive to doing so.

Boko Haram is blamed for about 20,000 deaths since beginning its insurgency in northern Nigeria in 2009. The Islamist extremist group says it wants to create a strict Islamic state in Muslim-majority northern Nigeria.

 

 

 

 
…

your ad here

Dutch Parliament Approves Limited Ban on Burqa, Niqab

Posted on by SeeEU

The Netherlands has approved a limited ban on “face-covering clothing” in public places, including Islamic veils and robes such as the burqa and niqab but not the hijab, which covers only the hair. Firebrand far-right politician Geert Wilders had pushed for the ban for over a decade.

Parliament’s upper chamber made the final approval in a vote Tuesday.

Wilders’ Freedom Party claimed the development as a major victory, while Senator Marjolein Faber-Van de Klashorst called it “a historical day because this is the first step to de-Islamize the Netherlands.”

“This is the first step and the next step is to close all the mosques in the Netherlands,” she said, building on Wilders’ anti-Islam rhetoric.

The Dutch law is described by the government as “religion-neutral,” and does not go as far as more extensive bans in neighboring countries like France and Belgium. It applies on public transport and in education institutions, health institutions such as hospitals, and government buildings.

Successive Dutch governments have sought to ban niqabs, which cover most of the face but still shows the eyes, and burqas, which cover the face and body — even though studies suggest that only a few hundred women in the Netherlands wear the garments. The ban also covers ski masks and full-face helmets.

The government said people still have full freedom on how to dress, except when it is necessary to have full facial contact — for instance in education and health-related situations.

The ban does not apply to public streets, although police can ask an individual to remove face-covering clothing for identification.

“This is actually virtually a complete ban because the only spaces that are still available for women (who wear face-covering clothing) are the street and the private sector,” said Annelies Moors, professor of Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Amsterdam. “And, of course, the private sector can also have their house rules, they could also possibly legislate against their presence. So this leaves women very little space.”

“It is completely disproportionate and the only effect will be that many of these women will stay at home even more,” said Green Party senator Ruard Ganzevoort. “They will not have an opportunity to go to school. They will not have an opportunity to go to learn to swim, and all those things.”
…

your ad here

Trump, Erdogan Talk on Phone After Turkey Elections

Posted on by SeeEU

The Turkish presidency says President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke on the phone to U.S. President Donald Trump following Sunday’s elections.

The statement on Tuesday said Trump congratulated Erdogan for his election victory and wished him success. Erdogan was voted into an executive presidency with sweeping powers Sunday, garnering more than half of the country’s votes.

The statement said they also stressed the Turkish-American “strategic partnership,” especially in defense and military relations. That included an emphasis on a “joint road map” recently struck for a key northern Syrian town, which will push out a U.S.-backed Kurdish militia that Turkey considers terrorists.

The Manbij deal has eased tense relations and the statement said the two leaders are “impatiently” waiting to meet at a NATO summit in Brussels on July 11-12.
…

your ad here

Northern Virginia Facility Housing Migrant Children

Posted on by SeeUS

Sixty-seven percent of Americans say it is unacceptable to separate children from parents who have been caught trying to enter the United States illegally according to a recent CBS News poll.

The poll found that 90 percent of Democrats and 66 percent of Independents, compared to 39 percent of Republicans found family separation unacceptable. And 68 percent of Americans said they are a lot about what happens to the separated children.

In Bristow, Virginia, an unincorporated community 64 kilometers west of Washington, the separation policy and immigration in general have taken on new resonance because a local shelter for troubled youth is now housing some of the separated migrant children.

Youth for Tomorrow, a nonprofit organization, provides behavioral and other services. Its Bristow location, amidst upper-middle-class managed communities, came as a shock to some residents.

For Dan Ryan and his wife, Gery, the facility is located about four kilometers, or a six-minute drive, from where they live. While acknowledging the need for border security, Dan Ryan voiced concern for the children’s welfare.

“I don’t know a simple answer,” said Dan Ryan, a defense contractor. “I think we have to respect the humanitarian needs that these people have, but we have to maintain our borders. We have to do that. I’m struggling a little bit here,” he added.

Gery Ryan, who is retired, expressed similar concerns.

“I was shocked to hear it, because when the kids were being shipped here in Bristow, it kind of made it real to me — very close and very personal to the fact that it brought it to life more than anything. I knew that the kids were being taken away and housed somewhere, but to say it’s in my own neighborhood, it just kind of set me back for a while.”

Separately, a woman in her 30s who did not wish to be identified said she was against separating children from their parents, but said similar scenarios occur when people are sent to jail for one reason or another. She also suggested that the migrant children would fare better at the shelter.

“Maybe kids will be better off in the facility because they will get services and conveniences that they didn’t have,” she said.

The facility did not respond to VOA requests for comment. A VOA reporter was not allowed to tour the facility last Saturday.

Last week, Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine toured Youth for Tomorrow, which has accepted unaccompanied minor children for six years, according to his office.

Kaine’s office said that in addition to the unaccompanied minors, between 10 and 20 children have arrived at the facility since April after being separated from their parents under U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration policy. He said those who arrived in the past two months were between the ages of 10 and 17. Many were said to be “traumatized.”

Kaine has voiced concern that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, along with the Department of Homeland Security, have not said whether children who have been separated from their parents are being sent to other locations in Virginia.

“The Trump administration needs to assure us that every single one of the children they separated from their parents is quickly and safely returned to their families,” Kaine said. “The first step toward that goal is identifying where every child is being held, releasing a list of those facilities, and letting members of Congress visit all of those locations.”

Last Wednesday, Trump signed an executive order to end the practice of separating children from parents who cross into the United States illegally. Before Wednesday, the administration’s zero-tolerance policy required adults to be criminally charged, which meant under U.S. law, children could not stay with their parents but have to be sent to centers run by the Department of Health and Human Services.

VOA Urdu reporter Deepak Dobhal contributed to this report

 
…

your ad here

Trump: Harley-Davidson Using Trade Tensions as Excuse to Move

Posted on by SeeUS

U.S. President Donald Trump accused motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson Inc on Tuesday of using trade tensions over tariffs as an excuse to move production for European customers overseas.

“Early this year Harley-Davidson said they would move much of their plant operations in Kansas City to Thailand. That was long before Tariffs were announced. Hence, they were just using Tariffs/Trade War as an excuse,” Trump said on Twitter.

“When I had Harley-Davidson officials over to the White House, I chided them about tariffs in other countries, like India, being too high. Companies are now coming back to America.

“Harley must know that they won’t be able to sell back into U.S. without paying a big tax!”

Harley-Davidson representatives did not immediately return a request for comment.

The company decided to build the Thailand plant last year after Trump pulled out from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would have lowered import tariffs on its bikes in some of the fastest-growing motorcycle markets in Asia.

Harley-Davidson said on Monday it would move production of motorcycles shipped to the EU from the United States to its international facilities and forecast the trading bloc’s tariffs would cost the company $90 million to $100 million a year.

The Trump administration imposed tariffs on imports of European steel and aluminum earlier this month, and in response, the European Union began charging import duties of 25 percent on a range of U.S. products including big motorcycles like Harley’s on June 22.

Trump responded angrily to the Harley-Davidson’s announcement on Monday, saying he has fought hard for the 115-year-old Milwaukee-based company and was surprised by its plans, which he described as waving the “White Flag.”

“I fought hard for them and ultimately they will not pay tariffs selling into the E.U., which has hurt us badly on trade, down $151 Billion. Taxes just a Harley excuse – be patient!” Trump said in a post on Twitter on Monday night.

Harley-Davidson, the dominant player in the heavyweight U.S. motorcycle market, said it would not pass on any retail or wholesale price increases in the EU and instead focus on shifting some U.S. production.

 
…

your ad here

EU China to Promote WTO Rules Upgrade

Posted on by SeeUS

As Washington and Beijing teeter on the brink of a possible trade war, the European Union and China have agreed to launch a working group to promote reform at the World Trade Organization. The move is part of an effort to upgrade the global trade system’s toolbox and ward off growing threats to the multilateral trade system and body.

According to a top EU official, the reform group would look at ways to modernize regulations and address the problem of state subsidies and other unfair trade practices.

How willing a participant Beijing will be in that effort is unclear as most of the EU’s proposed upgrades are connected to unfair trade measures, practices and policies that exist in China. The same concerns are driving the administration of President Donald Trump to press forward with the possible threat of heavy tariffs on some $34 billion in Chinese goods.

The Trump administration announced Monday that it is also mulling restrictions on foreign investments in technology. 

European Union Vice President Jyrki Katainen admits that the effort to try and promote reform of WTO rules will not be easy. He said it would take time and that China would have different views on priorities. 

But, Katainen added that if nothing is done, “the environment for multilateral trade will vanish.”

State media in China has portrayed Monday’s meetings with EU officials, a high-level dialogue ahead of next month’s EU-China summit, as the two teaming up to combat “unilateralism and protectionism” and promote globalization and protecting the global economy.

The European Union wants the reform effort to address issues such as industrial subsidies and unfair trade practices such as the forced transfer of technology in exchange for market access. 

“The two issues together are some of the reasons why, not the only reasons but some of the reasons why the president of the United States is taking unilateral action,” Katainen said, adding that the issue instead has to be solved in an orderly manner.

The basic idea is to update the WTO so that it is better suited to the current realities of the modern world, he said.

“The EU is not siding with any party or any country, the only thing we are siding with is rules-based trade,” Katainen said.

Chinese state media have portrayed the effort as a sign that Washington’s trade actions are creating a united front between the EU and China. A report in the Beijing-based newspaper Global Times called the joint effort to combat “unilateralism” and “protectionism” a “clear rebuttal of punitive U.S. tariffs on European and Chinese goods” and defense of the “multilateral trade system.” 

A report in the China Daily highlighted how trade frictions were bolstering closer trade ties between the EU and China. 

At the release of a survey on the business climate in China last week, the head of a top European businesses lobby noted that some companies, perhaps one or two, have already seen benefits from the ongoing trade dispute. 

Mats Harborn, president of the European Chamber of Commerce, said that it was not possible to tell if that is a trend but added that trade tensions are not good for business. 

“We don’t want companies to benefit from this trade war, we would like to see that we are all competing on a level playing field in China,” Harborn said.

In remarks following meetings with Katainen on Monday, Vice Premier Liu He did not mention the reform working group proposal for the WTO specifically. He did say that both countries agreed to pay attention to market access issues facing businesses on both sides and that they agreed to “reform the multi-lateral trade system and keep it advancing with the times.”

At a so-called “press conference” with Katainen, where journalists were not allowed to ask questions, Liu said “unilateralism and trade protectionism” was on the rise and that the European Union and China agreed to prevent such practices from impacting the world economy or dragging it into recession. 

Monday’s high-level dialogue was held in preparation for the EU-China Summit, which will be held next month on July 16-17th. During that meeting the two are looking to move forward a Comprehensive Agreement on Investment and to exchange market access offers. 
…

your ad here

Eritrea Sends High-Level Delegation to Ethiopia

Posted on by SeeAF

A high-level delegation from Eritrea is in neighboring Ethiopia for historic talks that could bring an end to one of Africa’s longest-running conflicts.

The Eritrean delegation arrived in Addis Ababa Tuesday.  

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki pledged to send the delegation last week during his country’s Martyrs Day observance in the capital, Asmara. President Afwerki’s pledge was in response to one made earlier this month by Ethiopia’s new reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed that he will honor a deal signed in 2000 to end a two-year border war.

Ethiopia had long refused to accept the terms of the deal, which included withdrawing from the border town of Badme. 

Eritrea, a former province of Ethiopia, broke away in 1993.
…

your ad here

Trump Meets Jordan’s Abdullah as US Prepares to Unveil Middle East Peace Plan

Posted on by SeeUS

As the U.S. prepares to roll out its Middle East peace plan, President Donald Trump meets with King Abdullah of Jordan about stalled Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on a deal. So far the White House has not disclosed details about the peace process. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has more from the White House.
…

your ad here

South African Youth Eagerly Await Obama Visit

Posted on by SeeUS

Former US president Barack Obama enjoyed huge popularity on the African continent while he was president. The much-loved Obama returns to Johannesburg next month hoping to promote inclusiveness and unity, not division. Zaheer Cassim is in South Africa for an advance look at the former US president’s much-anticipated visit.
…

your ad here

World Risks Missing Goal of Ending Child Marriage by 2030

Posted on by SeeAF

A global goal of ending child marriage by 2030 will not be achieved unless the world steps up its efforts, campaigners warned at a meeting Monday aimed at stopping the practice.

Twelve million girls a year are married before the age of 18 with often devastating consequences for their health and education, and ending the practice by 2030 is one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Rates have fallen in recent years, but advocates say the practice remains widespread in some parts of the world, raising doubts about the 2030 target.

“Unless we strengthen and accelerate our work in the coming years, because of population growth, we might not be able to end child marriage in one generation,” said Mabel van Oranje, who chairs the campaign group Girls Not Brides.

She urged governments to put their national strategies into action and said they must begin to see the economic benefits of preventing girls ending up as young brides.

“If we have a world without child marriage, this world will be trillions and trillions dollars wealthier,” van Oranje told the more than 500 delegates at the conference in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.

A World Bank study last year showed child marriage will cost developing countries trillions of dollars in the next decade, hampering global efforts to eradicate poverty.

About 25 million early marriages have been prevented in the last decade, with the biggest decline seen in South Asia, UNICEF said in March.

But the global rate of decline is too slow at just under 2 percent a year, said Anju Malhotra, principal adviser on gender and development for the U.N. children’s agency. It needs to speed up to 23 percent a year to meet the 2030 target.

“It is a sobering picture,” said Malhotra, adding that the practice persists in sub-Saharan Africa.

Poverty is often the key reason for child marriage, but protracted conflicts in Syria, for example, or extreme weather in countries including Bangladesh, Mali and Niger have put more girls at risk, campaigners say.

Early marriage increases the risk of exploitation, sexual violence, domestic abuse and death in childbirth, as well as making it more likely that girls quit school, they add.

The three-day meeting that began Monday is hosted by Girls Not Brides, which groups over 1,000 organizations committed to ending a practice that affects 650 million women and girls today.

Among delegates was 17-year-old Hadiqa Bashir from Pakistan.

Bashir escaped an attempt by her family to marry her off when she was 11, and went on to set up an all-girl group, Girls United for Human Rights, that campaigns against early marriages.

“It’s about changing perception of the people and the way they think,” she told Reuters, saying she hopes to find new inspiration from the meeting.
…

your ad here

EU Lawmakers Want to Punish Hungary’s Orban for Democratic Slide

Posted on by SeeEU

Some European lawmakers urged the EU on Monday to consider stripping Hungary of its voting rights to punish it for weakening democracy and the rule of law, a move which prompted a swift rebuke from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

The European Parliament’s Civil Liberties committee (LIBE) voted in favor of triggering a formal punitive procedure, citing concerns about the independence of the judiciary, freedom of expression, the rights of minorities, and treatment of migrants and refugees in Hungary.

The European Parliament as a whole is expected to endorse the proposal in September but it is unlikely to lead to any swift action against Hungary as that would require all other EU states to back the idea.

But the LIBE move highlighted a widening rift between the liberal EU founders and Hungary – part of a grouping of newer, eastern member states which are now run by nationalist eurosceptics and have resisted an EU push to host asylum seekers.

Orban dismissed the committee’s vote as an attempt to pressure Hungary to change its policies on migration, state news agency MTI reported.

“But, given that Hungarian voters have already made their decision about this issue, there is nothing to discuss,” he said, according to MTI.

Orban’s Fidesz party won by a landslide in elections last April, partly on a wave of support for his hardline migration policies, including a refusal to take in anyone from the new arrivals from the Middle East and North Africa.

During his eight years in power, Orban has increasingly put pressure on courts, media and non-government groups. Though the EU has often protested, it has largely failed to stop him in what his critics denounce as a growing authoritarian drive.

Orban’s other nationalist, eurosceptic ally Poland would most likely shield Budapest from any sanctions even if the Article 7 punitive procedure was launched against Hungary.

Orban has made clear he would block any such move against Warsaw, which has been at odds with the bloc for more than two years over its own judicial reforms that critics say weaken courts and the rule of law in the largest ex-communist EU state.

Twenty-eight EU ministers will discuss their concerns about Poland again on Tuesday at a session in Luxembourg.

EU leaders are preparing to discuss immigration policy in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, seeking to heal a deep division in a bloc already badly shaken by Brexit.
…

your ad here

Despite Protests, Moldova Court Upholds Decision to Void Mayoral Election Result

Posted on by SeeEU

Moldova’s Supreme Court on Monday upheld a decision to invalidate the election victory of a pro-transparency candidate for the post of mayor of the capital Chisinau, despite public protests demanding the ruling be overturned.

Hundreds and sometimes thousands of Moldovans have been protesting daily, since a court ruled on June 19 that Andrei Nastase’s electoral win was illegitimate, citing unspecified violations.

The scandal has brought more political turmoil for a country that plunged into crisis following a $1 billion banking fraud in 2015, enduring successive government collapses and frequent conflict between the president and the government.

According to Moldovan law, the Supreme Court’s ruling is final and the post will be filled by an acting mayor until the next election in 2019.

Around a thousand people gathered outside the court to protest against the decision and chanted: “Revolution!” Nastase, who has led a movement demanding greater transparency and accountability, says the court decisions were made at the behest of the head of Moldova’s ruling party, businessman Vlad Plahotniuc.

“Judges are bastards. They are scared of Plahotniuc, but not of you, the people of this country,” Nastase said after the latest ruling. “We will continue the protests until we win.”

The press office of Plahotniuc’s Democratic Party of Moldova (DPM) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Plahotniuc has previously said negative perceptions about him were down to lies spread by his opponents after he entered politics.

Nastase, a former prosecutor, won 52.5 percent of the votes in the June 3 election. His supporters’ daily protests included a gathering of several thousand in Chisinau on Sunday.

The canceling of Nastase’s win has drawn sharp rebukes from the United States and the European Union.
…

your ad here

Trump Cites Middle East Progress, But Mum on Peace Plan

Posted on by SeeEA

President Donald Trump said on Monday that a lot of progress had been made in the Middle East, but he declined to say when the White House would release its plan for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Trump, during a meeting with King Abdullah of Jordan, said things had improved since he pulled the United States out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. European allies opposed that move.

“Things are a lot different since we ended that,” Trump said.

In an interview with a Palestinian newspaper published on Sunday, Jared Kushner, Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, said Washington would announce its Middle East peace plan soon and would press on with or without Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Kushner visited Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt before talks on Friday and Saturday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

His comments underlined gaping divisions between Washington and the Palestinian leadership that have widened since Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December and moved the U.S. Embassy there, overriding decades of U.S. policy.

Palestinian officials, who want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state, accused Kushner of trying to undermine Abbas and what they described as their leader’s moderate camp.

In the interview with Palestinian newspaper Al Quds, Kushner, who was meeting with leaders in the region but not Abbas, refused to go into details on his peace plan.

The U.S. plan is expected to propose solutions to core issues in dispute between the Israelis and Palestinians, such as borders, the future of Israeli settlements, the fate of Palestinian refugees and security.

Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war. Israeli forces and settlers pulled out of the Gaza Strip, now controlled by Abbas’ main rival, the Islamist Hamas group, in 2005. U.S.-brokered peace talks collapsed in 2014.
…

your ad here

NATO May Be Close to Adding 30th Member

Posted on by SeeEU

NATO is on the verge of expanding its membership from 29 to 30 countries, perhaps more, when the alliance holds its annual summit next month. What does this mean for NATO and what are the implications for Russia? VOA’s Jane Bojadzievski has more.
…

your ad here

Syrian Government Forces Intensify Offensive Against Rebel Forces Around Daraa

Posted on by SeeEA

Thousands of civilians have fled rebel-held regions in and around Syria’s southern city of Daraa, as government forces intensify their offensive to regain territory with heavy shelling and powerful airstrikes.  Daraa is the city where Syria’s bloody and protracted civil war began in March 2011.

Arab media showed amateur video of powerful airstrikes by Syrian government warplanes and Russian fighter jets during the past 24 hours in the Daraa region in the south of the country.  The nearby rebel-held town of Busra al Harir was pounded heavily, according to rebel sources.

Syrian state TV claimed the Syrian Army was intensifying its offensive against the areas around Daraa in order to restore control over the region and stop rebel shelling of government-held areas.

The BBC Arabic service and Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV claimed that more than 14,000 civilians have fled government attacks during the past four days.  Amateur video showed civilians pitching tents and cooking on open fires.  VOA could not independently confirm the figures.

Syrian government TV also accused rebel groups, including the al-Qaida affiliated Jabhat al Nusra of targeting government mediation efforts to bring about reconciliation with rebel-held towns in the Daraa area.  

Analyst Mahmoud Abdel Salam claimed rebel groups had “harassed or killed a number of tribal mediators, in order to hamper reconciliation efforts.”

American University of Beirut Political Science Professor Hilal Khashan tells VOA he thinks one of the chief objectives of the government offensive is to reopen Syria’s main border crossing with Jordan, which has been closed for several years:

“One of the objectives of the offensive is to head directly to the Jordanian border and reopen the (main) border crossing, with the understanding that the Syrian Army will not come close to the (1973) ceasefire line on the Golan (Heights),” said Khashan.

Khashan said that he believes both Israel and Russia have reached an understanding over the current offensive and the deal has the blessing of the Trump administration.  He says Jordan also would like to reopen its border crossing with Syria “to improve its difficult financial situation.”

Syria’s seven-year-old civil war began in Daraa in March 2011, after a number of teenage boys were killed by the government after writing anti-Assad graffiti on walls inside the city.
…

your ad here

Congo’s Katumbi Open to Opposition Coalition

Posted on by SeeAF

Congolese opposition leader Moise Katumbi said on Monday he was in favor of a coalition that could include another opposition figure, Jean-Pierre Bemba, who is expected back in the country soon after his war crimes convictions were quashed on appeal.

Katumbi, Bemba, and Felix Tshisekedi, leader of Democratic Republic of Congo’s largest opposition party, are the main likely opposition contenders in a December presidential vote to choose a successor to President Joseph Kabila.

Bemba, a popular former rebel leader and vice president, left Congo in 2007 and has spent the last 10 years in prison in The Hague. But he is expected back in Congo in July and could participate in the vote.

Katumbi said he had visited Bemba several times during his 10-year detention to show support.

“I am in favor of a union of all opposition parties, including with Bemba, who is a major actor. Unity is strength,” Katumbi said, during a question-and-answer session on Twitter.

Katumbi added that he was also on good terms with Tshisekedi and they all had the same objective, ending Kabila’s rule.

It remains unclear whether the three opposition figures can agree on a single candidate for the presidency.

Kabila has not yet ruled out trying to circumvent term limits to stand again, keeping the country in suspense ahead of what could be its first democratic transition of power.

If he decides not to seek another mandate, Kabila could anoint a ruling party successor who could benefit from the party’s machinery and deep coffers.

Katumbi, who is currently in Europe, said he planned to return to Kinshasa between July 24 and Aug. 8 to register for the vote.

The millionaire businessman and former governor of Congo’s copper-producing Katanga province, said a decision by authorities to cancel his Congolese passport, and questions over his nationality, were government maneuvers aimed at stopping him from participating in the vote.

“Rest assured, I’m Congolese and I’ll be a candidate. I’ll campaign in the country, it is my right. Fear nothing,” Katumbi said, responding to questions on Twitter.
…

your ad here

Mali Administrators’ Strike Threatens July Presidential Vote

Posted on by SeeAF

Mali local government administrators at the front line of organizing next month’s presidential election launched a seven-day strike Monday demanding more security and allowances, two unions representing them said.

The administrators, who hold the rank of prefects or sub-prefects, are the government’s representatives at the local level. They are in charge of organizing the July 29 vote, and said the strike will last until at least July 1, after talks with the government collapsed over the weekend.

“We are concerned about our safety and working conditions. We have requested benefits in accordance with regulations, but we have not been listened to,” said Olivier Traore, secretary general of one of the unions.

The strike comes against a backdrop of growing security concerns and instability ahead of the election, and could impact the organization of the vote. France told Mali’s government on Tuesday to react strongly after at least 16 Fulani herders were killed in the latest suspected ethnic clash.

The unions are also asking for increased security protection for members’ offices and homes.

Ousmane Christian Diarra, a senior official of another union, said 54 prefects and their deputies, and 285 sub-prefects had walked out Monday and the strike was followed by nearly 100 percent of administrators across Mali.

“If at the end of the seven days we are not satisfied, as we said in the notice, the strike will be renewed automatically and will be unlimited until full satisfaction of our demands,” Diarra said.

He added that the strike could impact the schedule of election preparation, including the distribution of voter cards, which is carried out by the administrators. It will also paralyze the central administration.

Distribution of the cards started on June 20 and was expected to run until July 27.

Mali has been in turmoil since Tuareg rebels and loosely allied Islamists took over its north in 2012, prompting French forces to intervene to push them back the following year. Those groups have since regained a foothold in the north and center.
…

your ad here

UN Fails to Get Major New Funding Pledges for Palestinian Refugees

Posted on by SeeEA

The U.N. agency that assists Palestinian refugees failed to secure significant new funding Monday, as it faces imminent disruptions to its programs in the aftermath of a massive funding cut from the Trump administration.

In January, the administration informed the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, that it would contribute $60 million to its 2018 program budget — down more than $300 million from 2017.

“Facing the most severe funding crisis in our history, we had no time for pessimism or indecision, we reacted swiftly,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krahenbuhl told donors. “Launching a multidimensional strategy in January to mobilize support, sustain our programs on the ground and prevent a major humanitarian crisis from sweeping through an unstable region.”

After an emergency donors conference in March that raised $100 million, and additional contributions from Saudi Arabia and Qatar for $50 million each, the agency is seeking $250 million to keep afloat programs that assist more than 5.3 million Palestinian refugees across the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

“At this point, we do not have the income to ensure that the schools will open on time in August,” Krahenbuhl warned. UNRWA provides education to more than half a million schoolchildren.

“In the absence of significant new funding, we will have to begin taking very difficult measures in July, impacting the level of services, as well as our staff,” he added. About 90 percent of UNRWA’s staff are Palestinian refugees. Krahenbuhl said funding cuts would affect the emergency operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as put at risk food assistance to 1 million people in Gaza.

The agency has also tightened its belt in response to an earlier funding crisis in 2015, cutting nearly $200 million from its budget over the last two-and-a-half years. Krahenbuhl said the agency has further reduced its core and emergency budgets by an additional $92 million this year and was on its way to financial stability when the Trump administration cuts were announced.

Krahenbuhl downplayed expectations for Monday’s pledging conference, and a final tally of new contributions is not expected until later this week. Most countries cited assistance already pledged or said they would advance previously promised funds. Belgium was among the few countries pledging an additional contribution, announcing $4.7 million.

UNRWA supporters warn that halting or interrupting services could add to instability in a region already coping with conflict.

‘No appreciation’

Until January, the United States had been UNRWA’s single-largest donor state.

In a series of tweets at the time of the cuts, President Donald Trump said the U.S. pays the Palestinians hundreds of millions of dollars a year and gets “no appreciation or respect.” He appeared to link the humanitarian funding to peace talks, adding, “But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?”

In December, the Palestinians condemned the Trump administration’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move its embassy there, saying it had made it impossible for Washington to be an unbiased peace broker.

Relations have continued to deteriorate between the Palestinian Authority and the Trump administration following the U.S. embassy move to Jerusalem in May.

It is not just U.S. aid to UNRWA that has been halted. At a Congressional Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on June 13, David Satterfield, acting assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, told legislators that “new assistance is frozen” to the Palestinians while it undergoes a review ordered by Trump — about $200 million this year.

“It [the review] will answer ultimately to the president in terms of decision-making, and it is based upon what is the most appropriate use of U.S. taxpayer resources to affect U.S. strategic objectives wherever the review may be — Syria, Gaza, West Bank,” Satterfield said.
…

your ad here