Month: August 2018

Ebola Vaccinations Begin in Congo’s Latest Deadly Outbreak

Posted on by SeeAF

The World Health Organization says experts are starting to carry out Ebola vaccinations in Congo’s latest deadly outbreak.

Health officials have warned that containing the outbreak is complicated by the presence of multiple armed groups in the northeast region that borders Uganda and Rwanda.

 

Congo’s health ministry says at least nine people have died in the country’s tenth Ebola outbreak, which was declared Aug. 1. There have been 16 confirmed Ebola cases, 27 probable cases and 46 suspected ones.

 

The experimental vaccine was used in an earlier, unrelated outbreak in Congo’s northwest that was declared over last month. The first to be vaccinated are health workers, contacts of confirmed Ebola cases and their contacts.

 

Genetic analysis has confirmed the virus strain in this latest outbreak is the Zaire strain.

 

 
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Zimbabwe Opposition Politician Arrested at Zambian Border

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Zimbabwe opposition politician Tendai Biti has been arrested at the Zambian border.

Biti’s lawyer, Nqobizitha Mlilo, says his client was detained Wednesday as he was attempting to cross the border into Zambia in a bid to gain asylum.

Biti is one of nine members of the Movement for Democratic Change alliance wanted by Zimbabwe police for inciting violence following last week’s presidential election, which the MDC alliance claims was rigged in favor of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Biti held a news conference the day before President Mnangagwa was declared the winner and claimed that MDC leader Nelson Chamisa had won the July 30 vote. When Chamisa’s supporters took to the streets the next day to protest the official results, police responded by using tear gas and live fire, killing six people.

Biti served as finance minister from 2009 to 2013 during a power-sharing government between the MDC and then-President Robert Mugabe, the leader of the long-ruling ZANU-PF party. Mugabe was forced from office last year after 40 years in power, surrendering the presidency to Mnangagwa, his vice president.
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Despite Crackdown, Immigrants Flowing Over Arizona Border

Posted on by SeeUS

The 3-year-old boy with a bowl haircut and striped shirt silently clung to his father in the back of a U.S. Border Patrol truck.

Their shoes still muddy from crossing the border, the father and son had just been apprehended at a canal near a border fence in Arizona on a muggy night in July. Before the father, son and two older children could make it any farther, a Border Patrol agent intervened and directed them through a large border gate.

The father handed over documents that showed gang members had committed crimes against his family, one of the ways immigrants who seek asylum try to prove their cases. After a wait, he and his children were hauled away in a van to be processed at a Border Patrol station about 20 miles away in Yuma.

The encounter witnessed by The Associated Press illustrates how families are still coming into the U.S. even in the face of daily global headlines about the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policies. The flow of families from Central America is especially pronounced in this overlooked stretch of border in Arizona and California.

The Border Patrol’s Yuma Sector has seen a more than 120 percent spike in the number of families and unaccompanied children caught at the border over the last year, surprising many in an area that had been largely quiet and calm for the past decade.

So far this fiscal year, agents in the Yuma sector have apprehended nearly 10,000 families and 4,500 unaccompanied children, a giant increase from just seven years ago when they arrested only 98 families and 222 unaccompanied children.

The Trump administration’s policy of separating families did not seem to be slowing the flow. The Border Patrol here apprehended an average of 30 families per day in June, when the uproar over the policy was at its peak, an increase from May. Yuma is now the second-busiest sector for family border crossings next to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.

Agents and border crossers here have many things to contend with. Parts of the border are urban, with fences and canals on the U.S. side directly across from a home’s backyard in Mexico. The sector includes Arizona and part of California, along with the Imperial Sand Dunes and Colorado River.

While drug smugglers and other criminals use the vast desert to cross illegally, most families and children simply walk or swim across into the U.S. and wait to be arrested, according to Border Patrol spokesman Jose Garibay. Many travel in large groups, he said.

Garibay says he was once on assignment when he encountered a group of over 60 families and children.

Dealing with large numbers of families and children has proven to be logistically difficult for the agency. There are only so many vans to transport the immigrants to the sector’s processing facility in Yuma.

Many don’t understand why so many families and children from Central America are coming to the U.S. through this stretch of Arizona and braving its extreme summer heat, when the more direct path takes them to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, more than 1,000 miles away.

Garibay said migration patterns are largely controlled by the cartels that smuggle people across. The Mexican state of Tamaulipas that borders the Rio Grande has been experiencing extreme violence by drug cartels that the head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently said are fighting for “every inch” of control of the river where migrants are often smuggled in Texas.

Randy Capps of the Migration Policy Institute says it’s noteworthy that most of the border crossers in the Yuma sector are Guatemalans. He said it’s possible many are headed for California and that crossing through the Yuma area may be the safest and simplest way to do that.

They are encountering a section of border that the government hails as its gold standard for border security. It was one of the busiest sectors in the country for years before new fencing, technology, remote surveillance and more agents resulted in a drastic drop in border crossings.

“It’s really been a combined effort across the whole agency to be able to turn this sector into something that is manageable and not somewhere there was 138,000 apprehensions back in 2005,” Garibay said.

Yuma is an agricultural hub that relies heavily on immigrant labor to harvest crops, mainly lettuce and dates. Hundreds of Mexican workers cross the border with special visas to work the fields. Their employers have to pay to house and feed them, and they earn around $10 an hour.

The Yuma area supplies 90 percent of the nation’s leafy greens for most of the year- a $2.5-billion-a-year industry. It’s a place heavily reliant on immigrant labor, but also where President Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton by more than 5 points.

A 45-minute drive from the city of Yuma south through a number of fields leads to San Luis, Arizona, the small border city where clothing shops and Mexican restaurants line the street leading to Mexico.

On the same night the 3-year-old and his family were taken into custody, an agent out on patrol near Yuma spotted two men and two boys ages 12 and 13 from Guatemala standing on a road waiting to be arrested. The group had walked through a knee-high canal and their pants and shoes were wet and dirty. An agent gathered their names, home countries and dates of birth before putting them in his truck while waiting for a transport van. The men and boys said nothing as they were taken away.

At a shelter for immigrants on the Mexico side, more recently deported immigrants, families and Central Americans have been showing up this year. Casa del Migrante la Divina Providencia was seeing about 1,000 people each month in 2017. In 2018, over 2,000 people started showing up monthly, according to Martin Salgado, who runs the shelter.

Most of the people served at the shelter are Mexicans who were deported. But on occasion, Central Americans making their way north stopped here for a warm meal, a prayer and a bed.

Jose Blanco, 28, had left Honduras nearly a month prior to arriving at the shelter. He and two others tried crossing the border illegally near San Luis but came back after six hours on foot, when he found it was too hot and dangerous to keep going.

Blanco, the father of two children who were back in Honduras, said he planned on going home instead of trying to cross again.

“It’s too hard here right now,” Blanco said. 
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Zimbabwe Opposition to Challenge Presidential Results

Posted on by SeeAF

Zimbabwe’s main opposition party says it will legally challenge official results showing that President Emmerson Mnangagwa won the July 30 election. The announcement comes as tension in the country remains high, with human rights organizations saying the army is assaulting opposition members, an allegation the government denies.

Douglas Mwonzora, secretary-general of the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance, says the party has gathered material to show that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission inflated vote totals in favor of the incumbent president.

“The variance, so far, that we have been able to tell is that in Harare, President Mnangagwa votes were exaggerated by 130,000 votes, in Bulawayo, I think, it was 40,000, so we have been able to see the discrepancies in the figures that ZEC [Zimbabwe Electoral Commission] announced.”

According to official figures, Mnangagwa garnered 50.8 percent of the vote, beating MDC candidate Nelson Chamisa’s 44 percent. But Chamisa says he actually won 56 percent of the vote.  

Last week, opposition protests in Harare denouncing the electoral commission resulted in six deaths, several injuries and 27 arrests.

Tuesday, Magistrate Nyasha Vhitorini granted $50 bail to each of those arrested and said the state had reduced the case to “political rhetoric.”

“I am satisfied that there is nothing placed before this court that shows that the accused persons are a flight risk, nothing was brought to court, what was brought to court was that they have a propensity to go and disturb peace, now there is a standard that has disjointed the case that I have cited, we have an IO [investigating officer] saying something, state prosecutor saying something. The story is so, so disjointed in a material way,” Vhitorini said.

After the hearing, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights chairman Denford Halimani said the 27 should not have been arrested in the first place.

“So we have no doubt that when these people are put on trial, if at all we are going to go to the stage, they are going to be acquitted,” Halimani said.

Meanwhile, the head of Human Rights Watch in southern Africa, Dewa Mavhinga, told VOA the Zimbabwean army is beating up people in opposition strongholds.

Zimbabwe’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sibusiso Moyo denies the charge.

“Let me assure you that the military in this country is generally a well-trained and very disciplined force, and it will not indulge in that. … But what we are witnessing is that they may be certain personalities who might be purporting to be soldiers and are not soldiers, that are going about imitating as if they are. This is what we are busy investigating.”

But Mavhinga blames the government.

“How do men with masks go about abducting people and also looking for MDC officials? How does that happen in a country that has law and order and how does it suddenly become an issue after an election? The government must take responsibility, because this type of lawlessness points to a clear pattern of targeting MDC officials.”

The EU, U.S., Canadian and Swiss embassies issued a statement Tuesday expressing concern over “excessive use of force by Zimbabwe authorities to quash opposition MDC Alliance protesters last week.”   

 
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Report: Trump Ex-Lawyer Being Investigated for Tax Fraud

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President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who is under federal investigation in New York, is being investigated for possible tax fraud, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Federal authorities are examining whether Cohen’s income — potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars — from his taxi medallion business was under-reported in federal tax returns, the newspaper said.

The report also alleged that prosecutors were investigating whether employees of Sterling National Bank improperly allowed Cohen to obtain loans for his taxi business even though he failed to provide adequate documentation.

Convictions for tax and bank fraud carry potentially hefty prison terms, which the newspaper said could put additional pressure on Cohen to cooperate with prosecutors in the event that he is charged.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment. Cohen’s lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Speculation has mounted in U.S. media that Cohen, who once declared he was so loyal he would “take a bullet for the president,” is willing to cooperate with prosecutors and how much Trump has to fear should he do so.

The federal investigation has focused on his business dealings and reportedly whether payments he made violated campaign finance laws.

He was involved in efforts to hush up allegations from a former Playboy model about an affair with Trump and paid $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels to silence her own claims of an alleged one-night stand with Trump in 2006.
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S. Sudan Opposition Urges Focus on Power-Sharing Deal

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Some South Sudan opposition parties that signed a power-sharing deal in Khartoum say they did so to give peace a chance even though they disagree with some of the agreement’s provisions.

However, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, an African trade bloc that brokered the peace process, issued a press release Tuesday in which it said Sudanese mediators, including President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, would continue facilitating the talks until a revitalized peace agreement for South Sudan was finally signed.

According to the IGAD statement, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta will send a team of experts to support the continuation of the peace process in Khartoum. There had been reports the talks would possibly be moved to another location.

Group not happy with agreement

Bangasi Joseph Bakosoro, leader of the South Sudan National Movement for Change, said the South Sudan Opposition Alliance and the Former Detainees group initially did not want to sign the deal on Sunday because some of their demands had not been met in the Khartoum agreement, such as reverting to the original 10 states, down from the current 32 states.

Bakosoro said his group agreed to sign the deal only after Sudanese Foreign Minister Al-Dirdiri Mohammed Ahmed informed the group, in writing, that as a chief mediator, he would reopen discussions on the outstanding issues in the next round of talks.

“Most of us did not like to sign the agreement. That is a given fact. But … we are waiting to start debate on the outstanding issues,” Bakosoro told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus.

No date has been announced as to when discussions on the outstanding issues will resume.

The South Sudan Opposition Alliance and the Former Detainees group have raised concerns about a provision in the deal that provides for the creation of an Independent Boundaries Commission to determine the number of states in South Sudan.

Bakasoro said his group, which is part of the South Sudan Opposition Alliance, agreed to sign the deal only with the caveat that such issues would be resolved in a timely fashion.

“That made us sign the agreement, and we are hoping that in the near future we are going to finalize the outstanding issues and complete the High Level Revitalization Forum [as the peace talks are known], and then we wait for the final signing,” Bakasoro told VOA.

‘Other opposition parties’

Peter Mayen, head of the People’s Liberal Party, part of a group referred to as the “other opposition parties,” said his group agreed to sign the deal with the same understanding. He said the success or failure of the agreement would depend on whether it was fully implemented.

“South Sudanese really are in dire need of peace irrespective of the positions of the parties, irrespective of outstanding issues. People want the guns to go silent, people want opportunities to rebuild the economy and people want to impact in a genuine democratic transformation,” Mayen told South Sudan in Focus.

Mayen said once a final deal was signed, all parties must work to provide basic services to the South Sudanese people.

The armed opposition group known as the National Salvation Front (NAS), led by a former deputy army chief of staff, General Thomas Cirillo, declined to sign the agreement. He told South Sudan in Focus on Tuesday that the NAS had not authorized any person to sign the deal on its behalf.

NAS disputed signature

Major General Julius Tabuley Daniel, who declared himself the interim chairman of NAS, signed the deal, but Cirillo said Tabuley was not a legitimate representative of NAS.

“You have a few individuals who are not satisfied with [what] NAS is doing in terms of this peace process, because, for them, they just want to go to Juba. Maybe they are tired and for their own reasons they decided to leave NAS,” Cirilolo told South Sudan in Focus.

He said three or four individuals have been in contact with security authorities in Juba “to cause problems within NAS” and traveled to Khartoum to take part in the talks. “They represent themselves,” he said, not the NAS.
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Conflicting Reports About Talks on US Pastor Detained in Turkey

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Reports out of Turkey say a diplomatic delegation has already left and is set to visit Washington this week for discussions about the ongoing detention of U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson. The U.S. State Department could not confirm that such a meeting is planned. The conflicting reports come at a time of escalating U.S.-Turkish tensions, which are threatening to trigger a financial crisis in Turkey. VOA Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.
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US Concerned for Chinese Professor, Arrested During Live VOA Interview

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The Trump administration says it is concerned about the whereabouts of retired Chinese university professor Sun Wenguang, who has not been heard from since he was detained during a live VOA interview last week.

“We condemn China’s ongoing abuse of human rights, in particular, the suppression of the fundamental freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly, and the unlawful detention of activists, lawyers, journalists and civil-society leaders seeking to defend those freedoms,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA.

The official also said the State Department was grateful for the work of VOA reporters and other journalists in China who “have dedicated their lives and taken great risk to pursue this important work.”

Sun was being interviewed August 1 from his home in Jinan, the capital of China’s eastern Shandong province, on the VOA Mandarin language television show Issues & Opinions.

Sun was answering questions about an open letter he’d written to Chinese President Xi Jinping, criticizing Chinese aid to Africa when there are so many living in poverty in China.

Sun told the host in Washington that police had entered his apartment and demanded he end the interview. Sun blamed Xi for sending the officers to break down his door.

“I am entitled to express my opinion. This is my freedom of speech,” were Sun’s last words before the line went dead.

VOA correspondent Yibing Feng in Beijing has been unable to get any comments regarding Sun’s whereabouts from police or the Chinese foreign ministry.

Efforts by the VOA Mandarin service in Washington to reach Sun also have been unsuccessful.

Sun is an outspoken, longtime critic of Chinese authorities. He was arrested during the infamous Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and was sentenced to seven years in prison in 1978 for criticizing Mao Zedong, two years after Mao had died.

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican and one of the Capitol’s harshest critics of China, is calling for Sun’s immediate release.

“Chinese authorities are increasingly aggressive and brazen in their efforts to stifle free speech and other basic rights. We are deeply concerned for Professor Sun Wenguang’s safety and well-being and urge his immediate and unconditional release,” Rubio said in a statement.

State Department correspondent Nike Ching, Senate correspondent Michael Bowman and Kenneth Schwartz contributed to this report.
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UK Defense Chief: Post-Brexit Britain to Remain Strong

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Britain will always be a “tier one” military power, British Defense Minister Gavin Williamson told the Atlantic Council think tank Tuesday in Washington, contradicting recent comments by British Prime Minister Theresa May.

In June, the prime minister asked Williamson to justify Britain’s role as a tier one military power at a Downing Street meeting, challenging Defense Ministry plans to modernize the armed forces just weeks before a NATO summit, according to the Financial Times.

Underlying her statement, the report said, was a realization that Britain can no longer economically compete with top global powers. The following day, when asked to respond to the report at a joint news conference with NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg, May criticized the report as inaccurate but declined requests to verbally commit to maintaining Britain’s tier one military status, saying only that she wanted Britain to be a “leading defense nation.”

Downing Street later said May had challenged Williamson’s plans but rejected claims she was pushing to reduce the nation’s military stature.

During his Atlantic Council speech, Williamson forcefully asserted Britain’s role as “major global actor.”

“We have always been a tier one military power, and we always will be a tier one military power,” he said, before rejecting concerns that the pending Brexit would compromise Britain’s global military standing.

“While Britain is leaving the EU, we are clear about our role and place in the world,” he said. “Brexit is Britain’s moment to look up, be more ambitious, and redefine our place in the world. In some ways, the EU has limited our vision, discouraged us from looking to the horizon. Now, we are being freed to reach further and aim higher. Please, never underestimate my nation. The U.K. remains a great power.”

Williamson, 42, who joined May’s cabinet in late 2017, made the comments ahead of Pentagon meetings with his American counterpart, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

Asked about President Donald Trump’s criticism of NATO, Williamson expressed his conviction that U.S. investments in the alliance prove this administration is “incredibly committed to NATO,” and that Britain and the U.S. would remain “reliable partners for the long term.”

Although there are no technical criteria that define tier one military power, Britain’s defense ministers have suggested the term involves a range of military capabilities, from nuclear deterrents to naval, ground and air force branches that can deploy in any corner of the globe.

​Fighter jet

While addressing the Atlantic Council event, Williamson discussed a new concept of a fighter jet being developed in Britain, nicknamed the Tempest, which he hopes U.S. defense officials will consider for purchase.

Williamson unveiled a full-sized model of the jet at a British air show in July, which, according to Bloomberg, was part of a “bid to show that the nation plans to remain a leading military power after Brexit.”

With Europe’s largest military budget and a substantial aerospace research and development sector, Britain has historically attracted substantial investments from major U.S. defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.

Britain’s aerospace and defense sectors — both massive contributors to the British economy in terms of jobs, technology and exports — are among those negotiating agreements with the government’s business and strategy department to brace for financial and trade repercussions upon leaving the European Union.

This story originated in VOA’s Serbian service. Some information is from Reuters.
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Caution Urged on Possible Second US-North Korea Summit

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It would be “unwise” for U.S. President Donald Trump to hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, unless Pyongyang fully listed its existing nuclear weapons and facilities and agreed on full verification and concrete steps toward denuclearization at the second meeting, experts said.

“Given the absolute lack of any progress on actual denuclearization [since the first summit], it would be a very unwise idea to have a second summit with Kim,” Robert Manning, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said Tuesday. “I would advise against a second summit, unless Kim provides the [International Atomic Energy Agency] a full inventory of his nuclear weapons program and facilities and agrees to allow the IAEA [to conduct] intrusive … inspections.”

Trump expressed his interest in having another meeting with Kim, saying in a tweet last week, “I look forward to seeing you soon!” as North Korea began the process of returning remains presumed to be those of American soldiers killed during the Korean War. The two leaders first met on June 12 in Singapore.

National security adviser John Bolton on Tuesday said Trump conveyed that he was ready to meet with Kim anytime in a recent letter he sent to Kim. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Sung Kim, the current U.S. ambassador to the Philippines who is leading the talks with Pyongyang, delivered Trump’s letter to North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho during the conference of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) held in Singapore over the weekend.

Douglas Paal, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said although he would not rule out the possibility of a second summit, he had doubts “about the value of such a meeting,” especially given “the very insubstantial activity since the last summit declaration.”

“The likelihood [of having the second summit and having the second summit be successful] is small, in my opinion,” Paal said.

Kim agreed to “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” at the summit with Trump in Singapore, but the concrete steps to be taken toward denuclearization were not set out. 

Since the first summit, Pyongyang has taken what Ken Gause, director of the International Affairs Group at the Center for Naval Analyses, called reversible and not verifiable steps by dismantling key facilities used to develop engines for ballistic missiles at the Sohae satellite launching station in July. North Korea destroyed the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, also considered a reversible and not verifiable step, in May as a goodwill gesture preceding the summit.

Based on satellite images taken August 3, it appears additional dismantlement is taking place at the Sohae site, according to the U.S.-based North Korea monitoring group 38 North.

However, according to a confidential U.N. report submitted to the North Korea sanctions committee on Friday, North Korea is continuing to develop its nuclear and missile program.

Pompeo testified that North Korea was still producing fissile material for making nuclear bombs during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in July.

Paal said if Trump were to have a second summit with Kim, “it would have to be a very different kind of summit meeting with much more structured and prearrangement of outcomes,” starting with the declaration of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and facilities, followed by the verification of the declaration leading to dismantlement.

​However, Paal is skeptical that North Korea will engage in serious discussions on taking concrete steps toward denuclearization. He said North Korea was “more serious about making small gestures in exchange for relief from the U.N. sanctions.”

At the ASEAN conference, Ri described the U.S. call for the international community to enforce sanctions on North Korea as “alarming.”

The U.S. made the move to pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. But Pyongyang has been demanding that Washington lift sanctions and sign a peace treaty, officially declaring an end to the Korean War, which ended in armistice in 1953.

Paal said signing a peace treaty would have to be “embedded in the broader strategy.”

“Just doing it would be a mistake because you don’t want to give them a credit for what they’ve not done,” he added.

Gause said that since the North Koreans have “a very strong rationale for deterrence and survival to keep the nuclear program,” seeing the U.S. as “their primary adversary and their threat,” Washington could test North Korea’s rationale and “undermine the rationale” by building “trust and confidence toward some sort of peace regime.”

“You remove that threat, and their justification goes away,” Gause said. “And it becomes harder for them to justify holding on to that nuclear program.”
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Iran Weighs Response as US Sanctions Bite

Posted on by SeeEA

As Iranians awoke Tuesday to renewed U.S. sanctions that had been lifted by Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers, the question on everyone’s mind remained: What happens now? 

From deciphering President Donald Trump’s tweets on Iran — including one demanding “WORLD PEACE” — to trying to figure out how much their cratering currency is worth, Iranians appear divided on how to respond.

The same goes for their theocratic government, which for now is abiding by the atomic accord. President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate whose administration struck the 2015 deal, has taken an increasingly confrontational line in recent weeks, applauded by hard-liners who had long opposed him. Then in a speech on live television Monday night, Rouhani seemed to suggest that direct talks with Trump could be possible.

That’s something North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-hu, who visited Tehran on Tuesday and met with its leadership, knows firsthand.

Whether Iran should choose a North Korea-style photo-op with the American president who backed out of the nuclear deal or abandon the unraveling accord and increase its uranium enrichment remains a fiercely debated question in Iran. But everyone agrees something has to be done soon, as sporadic protests across the country of 80 million people only add to the pressure. 

“The situation is not good right now; nothing is clear,” said Ebrahim Gholamnejad, a 41-year-old carpenter. “The economy is turning into a jungle.”

The newly imposed American sanctions target U.S. dollar financial transactions, Iran’s automotive sector, and the purchase of commercial planes and metals, including gold. Even stronger sanctions targeting Iran’s oil sector and central bank are to be re-imposed in early November.

On Tuesday, German car and truck maker Daimler AG said it was suspending its “very limited” activities in Iran and shuttering a representative office. European companies had known since Trump’s announcement in May that sanctions were coming back. Airbus at that time suspended plane deliveries to Iran; of 98 orders, only one A321 had been delivered, plus two A330s that were sold to a company that leased them to an Iranian customer.

As uncertainty over the Iran nuclear deal grew after Trump entered the White House, Iran’s already-anemic economy nosedived. The country’s monthly inflation rate has hit double digits again and the national unemployment rate is 12.5 percent. Among youth, it is even worse, with around 25 percent out of a job.

Iran’s currency, the rial, now trades over double its government-set rate to the U.S. dollar. Trying to stem the loss, the Iranian government five months ago shut down all private currency exchange shops, but the black market has thrived.

On Tuesday, central bank chief Abdolnasser Hemmati allowed private currency exchanges to reopen. Shops welcomed customers, though some displayed no exchange rates late into the morning amid confusion over how much the troubled rial was truly worth.

Iranian authorities recently arrested 45 people, including the central bank’s deputy chief, as part of a crackdown on financial fraud. On Tuesday, Iran’s state-controlled television aired a 30-minute documentary applauding the central bank’s new economic decisions. 

The hard-line Keyhan newspaper, which previously lampooned Rouhani, bore his picture on the front page with a large headline quoting him saying: “The way we can surpass all sanctions is to have unity.”

But what to do next remains an open question. Iran continues to abide by the nuclear deal it struck with the Obama administration and other world powers, which limits its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of sanctions, and makes it impossible for Iran to quickly develop a nuclear weapon. Iran has always said its nuclear program is entirely peaceful.

In recent weeks, Iran has prominently displayed its centrifuges and threatened to resume enriching uranium at higher rates. At one point Rouhani renewed a long-standing Iranian threat to close off the Strait of Hormuz, through which a third of all oil traded by sea passes. 

Trump for his part has ricocheted between threats and promises to speak with Iranian officials without preconditions, offering mixed messages to both the Iranian public and its government. That continued Tuesday, as he described American actions in a tweet as “the most biting sanctions ever imposed, and in November they ratchet up to yet another level.”

“Anyone doing business with Iran will NOT be doing business with the United States,” he wrote. “I am asking for WORLD PEACE, nothing less!”

John Bolton, the U.S. national security adviser, said the intent of sanctions is not to bring about Iranian “regime change.”

But we definitely want to put maximum pressure on the government, and it’s not just to come back to discuss fixing a deal that’s basically not fixable,” Bolton said Tuesday on Fox News. “We want to see a much broader retreat by Iran from their support for international terrorism, their belligerent activity in the Middle East and their ballistic missile, nuclear-related program.”

Though Iranians already are angered by Trump putting their nation on his travel ban list, some say talks with the U.S. president might be necessary. Others insist that Iran, which has weathered decades of previous sanctions, should stand its ground.

“I believe America cannot do a damn thing,” said Farzaneh, a 54-year-old housewife who declined to give her last name out of privacy concerns. “It can’t do anything, because Iranians are backing each other.”

Direct talks with the U.S. also would challenge the Islamic Republic leadership, which for nearly 40 years has encouraged flag-burning demonstrations against “the Great Satan.” 

On Tuesday, Ri, the North Korean foreign minister, who was involved in Pyongyang’s Singapore talks with Trump, met with Iranian leaders, though it’s unclear what he discussed with them.

For now though, Iranians say they can only wait for the next Trump tweet or their government’s decision on how to respond.

“People should just keep calm, because the other party wants to disrupt our peace,” said Gholamnejad, the carpenter. “America, who imposed the sanctions, wants to create chaos.”
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Nigerian Security Agents Blockade Parliament; Chief Later Fired

Posted on by SeeAF

Nigeria’s security forces stopped lawmakers entering parliament on Tuesday in a blockade seen by the opposition as a bid to intimidate its leaders, but the presidency condemned the move and the acting president fired the head of the security agency.

It is the first such incident since Nigeria became a democracy in 1999 and coincides with increased tension between the National Assembly and the executive ahead of an election in February 2019 when President Muhammadu Buhari will seek a second term.

For some, it revived memories of the decades when the military and security forces held sway over politics in a country that has one of Africa’s largest economies.

Armed men wearing the black uniform of the Department of State Security (DSS) stood at the gates of the building in the capital Abuja and were later joined by police officers blocking entry for up to an hour, witnesses said.

Images of the incident were shared widely on social media.

The motive for the blockade was not immediately clear.

But a spokesman for Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said in a statement that the DSS director general, Lawal Musa Daura, had been fired. Osinbajo is acting president for Buhari, who last week left for a 10-day holiday in Britain.

“The unlawful act, which was done without the knowledge of the presidency, is condemnable and completely unacceptable,” said a separate statement issued later by Osinbajo’s office.

It described the move as an “unauthorised takeover of the National Assembly complex” which was “a gross violation of constitutional order, rule of law and all accepted notions of law and order.”

The statement gave no reason for Daura’s dismissal. The presidency later said Matthew B. Seiyefa, the most senior director in the DSS, will act as director general until further notice.

Recent defections

The blockade followed the defection of around 50 lawmakers from Buhari’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party to the main opposition in the last few weeks. These included the country’s third most senior elected official, Senate President Bukola Saraki.

The defections cost the APC its Senate majority and present a challenge to Buhari’s re-election bid because most of those who left joined the opposition People’s Democratic Party which ruled Nigeria from 1999 until Buhari took office in May 2015.

Saraki’s supporters said the blockade was part of a plan to impeach and replace him. Parliament went on recess last week until Sept. 25, but meetings were to be held Tuesday.

“We urge Nigerians and the international community to condemn this illegal invasion of the National Assembly complex and the attempt to asphyxiate the legislature as undemocratic, uncivilized and irresponsible,” said Saraki in a tweet.

After the blockade, Saraki’s supporters greeted him with chanting in the parliament building.

“The presidency’s sack of Daura was a damage-control stunt and a knee-jerk gimmick which came as a response to the national and international outcry against the armed invasion of our legislature,” said a PDP statement.

The ruling party said attempts to blame its leaders for Tuesday’s blockade were “false allegations” and “mischievous.”

“The use of armed security agents to force political outcomes does not bode well for the February 2019 general election,” said Malte Liewerscheidt, vice president at Teneo Intelligence, in a note.
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Egyptian Politician Calls for Referendum on Government

Posted on by SeeEA

An Egyptian politician has called for a referendum on President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s government.

Masoum Marzouk, a former diplomat, announced a road map this week that would include the suspension of the constitution and the dissolution of parliament if Egyptians were to vote against the government.

He said that if the government did not respond positively to his initiative, a popular conference” would be held in Cairo’s Tahrir Square — epicenter of the 2011 uprising — on August 31.

El-Sissi was re-elected this year in a vote in which all potentially serious competitors were arrested or pressured into withdrawing. The government has banned unauthorized protests and jailed thousands of people since 2013 in a massive crackdown on dissent.

Pro-government media figures and legislators have called for Marzouk to be prosecuted.
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Kenya Mourners Mark 20 Years Since US Embassy Attack

Posted on by SeeAF

August 7 is Kenya’s 9/11, the day of the worst terrorist attack in the country’s history.  On this day 20 years ago, a truck bomb destroyed the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, killing 213 people, most of them Kenyans. In Nairobi, hundreds gathered Tuesday to remember victims of the brutal attack.  

Pamela Olum was in the hospital the day of the embassy bombing.  Three days earlier she gave birth to her third child.

She says her husband came to see her at Mater hospital and to pay the bill.  He gave her 5,000 shillings for her 17,000 shilling bill and left for the bank to get the rest of the money. Olum says he left, and she never saw him again.

Lawrence Olum was one of the people killed on August 7, 1998, when al-Qaida exploded truck bombs in front of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.  The attacks killed a total of 224 people and injured nearly 5,000.  

On Tuesday, about 200 people, including survivors, gathered at a memorial park in Nairobi to honor victims of the attack and offer prayers.

Participants lighted candles and laid flowers as a sign of remembrance.

Teddy Gianopulos came to honor her sister, who worked at the U.S. embassy at the time of the bombings. She was 51 when she was killed.

“There is not a day we forget her, she is very much alive in our minds.  But this day is a painful day for all of us her family, her children, her grandchildren which she did not get to see,” said Gianopulos.

Kenya National Counterterrorism Center Director Martin Kimani says his country still faces the threat of terrorism.

“Kenya was injured extraordinarily 20 years ago, and today, 20 years later, Kenya remains threatened by terrorism and terrorists but our country has taken giant strides to prepare better, to be more ready,” said Kimani.

Despite the deaths and violence meted on the embassy staff and innocent people, U.S. ambassador Robert Godec said that in the midst of evil carried out by terrorists he saw humanity.  

“The moment of the terrible terror, that atrocity of the attack, we also saw great heroism, we saw so many embassy staff, Kenyans, people coming together to help rescue those who were injured, to help retrieve those who have been killed, to help begin the process of rebuilding and working together,” said Godec.

For Pamela Olum life has been difficult, but she survived the years to overcome the pain and educate her children.

Her first-born is now a DJ (a music mixer), the one in the middle – is a university graduate, and the third-born was accepted into a top Kenyan university this year.

 
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US Declines to Intervene in Saudi-Canada Diplomatic Dispute

Posted on by SeeEA

The United States on Tuesday declined to get involved in a diplomatic dispute between Canada and Saudi Arabia, two of its closest allies.

Both countries have recalled each other’s ambassadors after Canada criticized the Saudis for arresting human rights activists.

“Regarding Canada, we have raised that with the government of Saudi Arabia. They are friends. They are partners. Both sides need to diplomatically resolve this together. We can’t do it for them,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Tuesday.

Nauert said the U.S. would ask the Saudis for more information about the arrests and urged them to “respect due process.”

The Canadian foreign ministry demanded the Saudis free Samar Badawi and other “peaceful human rights activists” who have been jailed for their work inside the conservative kingdom.

The Saudi government accused Canada of interfering in its internal affairs. It recalled its ambassador to Canada and expelled the Canadian ambassador to Riyadh.

Riyadh also ordered about 16,000 Saudi students studying in Canada to come home. It has suspended direct flights to Toronto — Canada’s largest city — and is putting all new business with Canadian companies on hold.

Badawi’s brother Raif — winner of the European Union’s Sakharov Prize for human rights — has been in a Saudi prison since 2012 and was given 1,000 lashes on charges of insulting Islam in a blog.

Raif Badawi’s wife and three children live in Quebec, and became Canadian citizens last month.
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US Weighs In on Saudi-Canada Diplomatic Dispute

Posted on by SeeEA

A U.S. State Department spokesperson says Saudi Arabia and Canada are “close partners” and Washington would ask the Saudi government for more information about the arrests of women’s rights activists.

The United States also urged Riyadh to “respect due process” and disclose information about their legal status.

The remarks came Tuesday in response to Saudi Arabia’s expulsion of Canada’s ambassador and the recall of its own ambassador from Ottawa, after Canada criticized the recent arrest of Saudi women’s rights activists.

Saudi Arabia also suspended “all new business” and joint educational exchange programs with Canada.

Saudi Arabia’s actions followed criticism from Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and other diplomats who denounced the conservative kingdom for its recent arrest of women’s rights activists.

European Commission spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic called for the Saudis to explain the allegations against the activists and said that “we are in favor of a dialogue” to resolve the diplomatic dispute.  

Among those arrested was Samar Badawi, whose brother Raif Badawi was arrested in Saudi Arabia in 2012. Raif Badawi, who won Europe’s top human rights prize in 2015, was later sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam while blogging.

Human rights groups and Canadian and other Western diplomats have made repeated calls for the release of Raif Badawi, whose wife received Canadian citizenship in July.

VOA’s Cindy Saine contributed to this report.
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UN Agencies Help More Somali Refugees Return From Yemen

Posted on by SeeAF

The U.N. refugee and migration agencies have helped 116 Somali refugees return home from war-torn Yemen, although conditions in parts of Somalia remain unsafe.

The boat, which sailed from Aden, Yemen on Saturday arrived in the port of Berbera in Somalia the day after. Among its passengers were female heads of households, several students hoping to resume their educations, and a critically ill patient traveling with his family.

Since the so-called assisted spontaneous return program began in 2017, the U.N. refugee agency and International Organization for Migration have helped more than 2,000 Somali refugees return to their homes of origin.

UNHCR spokesman William Spindler says the Somali refugees are living under precarious conditions and, like the Yemenis themselves, are not receiving adequate aid and protection.

“Refugees are vulnerable to early marriage, child labor, detention and to the risk of dangerous onward movement. These circumstances have added to the urgent need for UNHCR to increase humanitarian support, mitigate risks and find lasting solutions for these people.”

Spindler tells VOA that UNHCR is not promoting returns to Somalia because they are not sustainable.

But he says his agency is responding to demands from refugees for help to return home because the alternative of remaining in Yemen is worse.

“From our perspective, the situation in Somalia is far from safe. But, at the same time, Yemen, as we know is facing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis with outbreaks of disease, with food insecurity and with an ongoing conflict that has displaced millions of people.”

When the refugees arrive in Somalia, Spindler says they receive a cash grant and an allowance, as well as household items, food assistance from the World Food Program, and an education allowance for primary school children.

 

 

 

 
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Turkish Delegation Heading to Washington as Financial Crisis Looms

Posted on by SeeEU

A Turkish diplomatic delegation is set to visit Washington Thursday to ease tensions. Reports of the visit helped to stem a sharp drop in the value of Turkish currency. Analysts warn rising U.S.-Turkish tensions are threatening to trigger a financial crisis in Turkey.

On Monday, the Turkish lira suffered its most significant drop in a decade. The sell-off triggered by reports that the Trump administration is considering ending Turkey’s duty-free access to the U.S. market.

The lira recovered some of its heavy losses on news of the diplomatic visit. But the currency began to slide again Tuesday as subsequent reporting contradicted initial reports that a preliminary agreement had been reached between Ankara and Washington.

Turkey’s deputy foreign minister Sedat Onal is reportedly set to lead the delegation, according to a foreign ministry source. Earlier reports suggested a far more powerful delegation would be sent to Washington, including foreign, interior, defense, and finance ministers.

Andrew Brunson

The agenda is expected to focus on discussions about the ongoing detention of U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson, who is currently under house arrest while standing trial on terrorism charges. The White House dismisses the charges as baseless, accusing Turkey of hostage taking.

U.S.-Turkish tensions escalated last week, with U.S. President Donald Trump targeting two Turkish ministers with sanctions over Brunson’s detention. Turkey hit back with reciprocal measures.

“He [Brunson] now has acquired symbolic importance more than the worth of the issue. And with him will be tied all the Americans detained, and the State Department employees in Adana, Istanbul and Ankara,” said international relations expert Soli Ozel of Istanbul’s Kadir Has University.

Three locally employed consular and embassy officials are being held on terrorism charges.

“Things have piled out over the course of several years, which all needs to be solved,” Ozel said. “For that to happen, things really have to calm down — the hysteria on both sides of public opinions.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may have already prepared the ground for a compromise. He has carefully avoided personally attacking Trump.

“He opened a good room for maneuver by disassociating Trump from this wrongdoing, basically saying he was misled,” Ozel said. “If this thing is allowed to subside, good diplomats can actually find a way out.”

The U.S. Embassy in Turkey, too, sought to calm relations, tweeting Tuesday, the “U.S. continues to be a solid ally and friend of Turkey despite tensions. The two countries have an active economic relationship.”

The embassy also emphatically denied widespread Turkish media reports quoting an unnamed U.S. official predicting further heavy declines in the Turkish currency.

Analysts suggest both sides have considerable experience resolving differences.

“Turkey’s relations have always been troubled,” noted international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University. “Even in the 1970s the relationship was described as the troubled partnership. The question today is, are the problems solvable?”

Russia, Iran

There is a myriad of outstanding disputes between the two NATO allies. Relations are strained over Ankara’s deepening ties with Moscow, in particular, and the planned purchase of Russia’s S-400 missile system. Washington said the missiles threaten to compromise NATO systems.

Additionally, Ankara is refusing to enforce reintroduced U.S.-Iranian sanctions while differences over Syria remain and Turkish demands to extradite U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is blamed for the 2016 failed coup in Turkey.

International investors are expected to watch Thursday’s visit closely. Success would likely dial back fears that Washington could impose painful financial sanctions that would hit Turkey’s fragile economy hard, adding further pressure on the currency. Failure would probably trigger another sell-off.

Turkish banks and corporations owe hundreds of billions of dollars in loans, many of which are due within a year. With the lira already falling by around 30 percent since the start of the year, concerns are growing over the ability to repay the debt.

Investors are also alarmed over the economic policies pursued by Erdogan, in particular his aversion to raising interest rates to rein in rampant inflation.

Given the precarious state of Turkish financial and economic markets, Ankara presumably has little room to maneuver with Washington. However, success will likely offer at best, limited respite since international investors’ concerns center on Turkey’s financial imbalances and the failure of Erdogan to address them.

“The current level of real policy rate is insufficient to compensate for the heightened geopolitical risk premium after U.S. sanctions, which will keep the lira vulnerable to a further escalation of geopolitical tensions,” said Inan Demir, the London-based economist at Nomura Securities, in a note to clients.
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Pussy Riot Activist Protests Torture in Russian Prisons

Posted on by SeeEU

An activist from Russian punk collective Pussy Riot has led a protest outside the headquarters of the state penitentiary agency to protest torture and slave labor in Russian prisons.

Pussy Riot member Maria Alekhina and activist Dmitry Tsorionov put banners and photos of inmates who were reportedly beaten by prison personnel on the Federal Penitentiary Service building in Moscow.

 

Tuesday’s protest comes amid public outrage stoked by a recently released video of an inmate being beaten by men in guards’ uniforms while lying handcuffed on a table. Several guards have been put in custody while the 2017 beating is being investigated.

 

Alekhina and Pussy Riot bandmate Nadezhda Tolokonnikova spent nearly two years in prison for an anti-Putin protest inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior in 2012.

 
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Turkey’s Erdogan to Pay State Visit to Germany

Posted on by SeeEU

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will pay a state visit to Germany on Sept. 28-29, a spokeswoman for German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Tuesday, amid efforts by the allies to improves ties strained by a number of disputes.

The two fellow members of the NATO military alliance have differed over Turkey’s crackdown on suspected opponents of Erdogan after a failed coup in 2016 and over its detention of German citizens.

The spokeswoman did not say if Erdogan would also hold talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel. Merkel’s office declined to comment.

Germany’s mass-selling Bild newspaper reported last month that Erdogan would visit Germany around late September.

A state visit would include a reception by Steinmeier with military honors and a formal state banquet. The German and Turkish foreign ministers vowed earlier this year to do everything to improve relations.

Their resolve led to the release in February of a German-Turkish journalist who had been held in Turkey for a year for alleged security offenses. His release fulfilled a key demand by Germany, which still takes issue with what it calls Turkey’s deteriorating record on human rights.

Another German national was arrested in southeastern Turkey last month accused of spreading propaganda for Turkish militants, Turkish state media said.

The Turkish government has purged more than 150,000 civil servants and charged 77,000 people since the failed coup.

It has also launched cross-border operations into Syria against what it says are terrorist threats by the Kurdish YPG militia, which it deems a terrorist organization linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Rights groups and Turkey’s Western allies have criticized the crackdown, saying Erdogan has used the coup as a pretext to muzzle dissent. The government says the measures are necessary.
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DRC’s Kabila in Talks on Successor on Eve of Election Deadline

Posted on by SeeAF

DR Congo President Joseph Kabila scheduled talks on Tuesday with allies to discuss hand-picking a candidate to run in upcoming elections on the eve of a key campaign deadline, sources said.

Members of a pro-Kabila alliance known as the Common Front for Congo (FCC) “have been called to an important meeting this evening at Kingakati,” a minister told AFP, referring to the presidential residence on the outskirts of Kinshasa.

Another source, close to Kabila, said, “It’s not a secret any more — it’s about naming a candidate for our presidential platform.”

Names in the rumour mill include former prime minister Augustin Matata Ponyo; Kabila’s chief of staff, Nehemie Mwilanya Wilondja; and the president of the National Assembly, Aubin Minaku.

Candidates have until 1530 GMT Wednesday to file their bid for the December 23 poll — a twice-delayed ballot seen as crucial for the future of the notoriously unstable country.

Kabila, in power since 2001, should have stepped down at the end of 2016 when his constitutional two-term limit expired.

He has invoked a constitutional clause enabling him to stay on as caretaker.

But he has left everyone guessing whether he will seek to run again, perhaps by arguing that this is permissible because of a revision of the constitution in 2006.

The uncertainty has ratcheted up political tensions, leading to anti-Kabila protests that have been bloodily repressed.

Volatile

A country of some 80 million people, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has never known a peaceful transition of power since it gained independence in 1960.

Kabila, 47, took over from his father, Laurent-Desire Kabila, who was assassinated by a bodyguard.

His tenure over the vast mineral-rich country has been marked by a reputation for corruption, inequality and unrest. The watchdog Transparency International ranked it 156 out of 176 countries in its 2016 corruption index.

Many provinces are in the grip of armed conflict and millions have had to flee their homes, many flocking to Uganda, Tanzania, Angola and Zambia.

The United States is ready to impose further sanctions to dissuade Kabila from continuing his hold on power, the Financial Times reported Monday.

“The US is trying to convince Kabila to go between now and August 8,” an unnamed source told the newspaper. “They’re trying to squeeze his family and his finances.”

Candidates

Candidates who have already filed their bid include Jean-Pierre Bemba, 55, a former warlord and Kabila rival, who returned to Kinshasa last week after being acquitted of war crimes convictions by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Felix Tshisekedi, 55, leader of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), would file his application Tuesday, his spokesman Peter Kazadi told AFP.

Another candidate, who declared his hand on Tuesday is Tryphon Kin-Kiey Mulumba — once a spokesman to former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and twice a minister under Kabila.

Kin-Kiey — a vocal Kabila supporter — is running as an independent, local media said.

He told AFP he was running “in the name of my party,” called the Action Party.

The authorities last week barred Moise Katumbi, 53, a wealthy businessman and former governor of the province of Katanga, from returning home to file his bid.

Katumbi has been living in self-imposed exile in Belgium since May 2016 after falling out with Kabila.

The pro-Kabila FCC is an election platform combining two groups, the Presidential Majority and the People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD).

After Wednesday’s deadline, the definitive list of candidates will be announced on September 19.

 

 
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Greek PM Promises Full Investigation of Deadly Fire

Posted on by SeeEU

Greece’s prime minister vowed on Tuesday that experts will investigate all aspects of the country’s deadliest forest fire in decades and that the seaside resort areas devastated by the blaze will be rebuilt to higher standards.

Alexis Tsipras led a meeting about the fire on Tuesday with ministers and regional officials in Lavrion, a seaside town about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the areas burned. At least 91 people died in the July 23 fire.

“My promise, from the first day of this tragedy, was that the how' and thewhy’ will be investigated in depth and in all its dimensions,” Tsipras said. “Nothing will be covered up in the name of any vested interests.”

The prime minister reiterated that illegal buildings and fencing erected in forests, on coastlines and in creeks will be demolished. Government officials have blamed unauthorized construction for contributing to the death toll.

Experts have pointed to the lack of town planning in the worst affected area of the seaside resort of Mati as a contributing factor, with narrow streets, numerous dead ends and no clear way to get to the sea.

“Uncontrolled building which threatens human lives can no longer be tolerated. Anything that destroys forests and coastlines, anything that is a danger to human life, will be torn down,” Tsipras said. “It is our duty toward our dead, but most of all it is our duty toward the future generations.”

 

Tsipras’ government has come under intense criticism for its handling of the blaze, particularly after it denied any mishandling of the response effort. The public order minister, Nikos Toskas, had argued that despite much soul-searching he had been unable to detect any major mistakes. But following intense criticism from opposition parties, Toskas resigned last Friday, and senior officials under his supervision followed suit over the weekend.
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