Month: September 2018

Cameroon Reopens Schools Threatened by Boko Haram

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Children at the Government Primary School Limani dance with joy as they meet each other in class for the first time in several years.

Cameroon has re-opened 40 schools on its northern border with Nigeria that were sealed four years ago because of threats from Boko Haram insurgents. But while students are happy returning, many of their teachers are absent and have been replaced by troops from the Multinational Joint Task Force still fighting the Islamist group.

 

The children’s school in Limani is one of the forty near northern Cameroon’s border with Nigeria that authorities reopened this week, citing improved security.

 

Cameroon closed around sixty schools in the area beginning in December 2014 because of the threat from Boko Haram.

 

The Islamist militant group, whose name roughly translates as “non-Islamic education is a sin,” had launched an all-out assault on villages near the Lake Chad area.

 

Cameroon says hundreds of Boko Haram fighters attacked and torched schools, including the Limani primary school.  

 

Ibrahim Nassourou was nine years old when the school was shut.  He and his parents fled to a neighboring village where Nassourou was unable to attend school.

 

He says when he was told that their school in Limani had been reopened he shouted with joy because he can now again persue an education.

 

Cameroon authorities are touting the absense of a major Boko Haram attack for the past year and are urging parents to return their children to the re-opened schools.  Troops are protecting the schools, they say.  

 

But parents are reluctant to trust promises of safety. Only about 20 percent of the students have come back.

 

Teachers are also noticeably absent.

 

At the Limani Primary School’s Class Five, troops from the Multinational Joint Task Force have traded their weapons for teaching manuals and chalk.

 

Cameroon-born staff corporal Blaise Fonkon says teaching is part of their social outreach program.

 

“We have [a] humanitarian line of operation. In that humanitarian line of operation, we have of course the school situation. Through their school, if they actually know what they are supposed to do here, they will be engineers, they will be teachers, they will be doctors and I am sure that they will change this country,” Fonkon said.

 

Classroom teacher Edison Abunaw says despite assurances of their safety, most of his teaching colleagues do not wish to return.

 

And between Boko Haram’s attacks and kidnappings, and villagers hiding in fear, he says, the fate of many former students is still not known.

 

“We used to have about 500 to 600 pupils, but we have about two hundred [now]. Most of the parents, they don’t tell us what happened to their children so we are confronted with situations where we cannot easily explain what happened to the child,” Abunaw said.

 

Abunaw notes classes only started September 3, so he says it is too early to say if more teachers and students will return.

 

Cameroon is giving absent teachers two weeks to come back to their jobs.

 

Mayor of Fotokol town Abouzari Mahamat says the government has promised to rebuild schools that Boko Haram damaged.

 

He says the engineering corps of the Multinational Joint Task Force, which is fighting Boko Haram, has promised to construct new classes and repair those that were destroyed. Mahamat says, thanks to the presence of the troops, peace is returning and children can now go to school.

 

But Mahamat acknowledges that reconstruction has been slow because contractors also worry that fighting could return.

 
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US Charges N. Korean Man in Sony Hack, Other Attacks

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U.S. prosecutors on Thursday announced charges against a North Korean computer programmer in connection with a series of cyberattacks in recent years, including the 2014 hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment and a 2016 attack on the Bangladesh central bank.

Prosecutors identified the hacker as Park Jin Hyok, a programmer who worked for Chosun Expo, an alleged front company for the North Korean government. Park and a group of other unidentified hackers are accused of engaging in a “wide-ranging, multi-year conspiracy” to conduct computer intrusions and wire fraud around the world while operating out of North Korea, China and other countries.

Park, who faces charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit computer related fraud, remains at large. The FBI issued a wanted poster for him. The Treasury Department announced sanctions against both Park and Chosun Expo in connection with the conspiracy.

The Sony cyberattack was allegedly carried out in retaliation for the release of “The Interview,” a movie that depicted a fictional assassination plot against North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. During the intrusion, the hackers stole movies and other confidential information, and rendered thousands of computers inoperable, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Thursday.

In the attack on Bangladesh Bank, described as the largest cybertheft from a financial institution, the hackers stole $81 million, according to the complaint. The conspirators allegedly carried out hacks targeting “many more financial services” victims in the United States as well as countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and South America in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.

The hackers were responsible for the ransomware used in the 2017 global cyberattack known as WannaCry, according to the complaint.

The charges come as the Trump administration seeks a denuclarization agreement with the North Korean government.

In recent years, U.S. officials have singled out North Korea among countries that pose growing cyberthreats to the United States. In its annual Worldwide Threat Assessment report released in February, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Russia, China, Iran and North Korea “will pose the greatest cyberthreats to the United States during the next year.”
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Moniz: U.S. Energy Security More Than Oil Imports

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American energy security “is in a very very good place” according to former U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. In an interview with VOA Contributor Greta Van Susteren, Moniz touts America’s “world-leading innovation system” as important to being energy secure. They discuss U.S. exports of LNG and natural gas’ role in bridging to renewables; China’s role in energy projects; nuclear power’s place in the energy mix; how so-called “clean coal” technology can work. Conducted August 20, 2018
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US Seeks Extended Detention for Migrant Children

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The Trump administration wants to bypass a court settlement that limits the time migrant children may be held in detention to 20 days.

In a proposal to be published Friday, the Departments of Homeland Security (DHS) and Health and Human Services (HHS) say they will supplant terms of the 1997 Flores agreement with new regulations that would “satisfy the basic purpose” of Flores.

The departments say they will ensure that migrant children in government custody will be “treated with dignity, respect and special concern for their particular vulnerability as minors.” However, they add that “the proposed rule may result in extending detention of some minors, and their accompanying parent or legal guardian.”

How long migrant children may be detained is indeterminate.

“ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is unable to estimate how long detention would be extended for some categories of minors and their accompanying adults,” the proposal said.

The Flores settlement agreement has been an impediment to the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump for some time. The administration sees the 20-day rule as a legal loophole that facilitates illegal immigration because in lieu of detention, migrant families are released into the U.S.

“While statistics specific to family units have not been compiled, the reality is that a significant number of aliens who are not in detention either fail to appear at the required proceedings or never actually seek asylum relief, thus remaining illegally in the United States,” the proposed rule reads.

“Today, legal loopholes significantly hinder the department’s ability to appropriately detain and promptly remove family units that have no legal basis to remain in the country,” DHS Secretary Kristjen Nielsen said in a statement. “This rule addresses one of the primary pull factors for illegal immigration and allows the federal government to enforce immigration laws as passed by Congress.”

The proposal is probably going to be challenged in the California court of U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee who oversees the Flores agreement and has so far resisted attempts to change it.

The 21-year-old Flores Settlement stemmed from a 1985 court case that claimed federal detention was damaging to a migrant child.

The public has 60 days to comment on the proposed rules, followed by a 45-day period in which lawyers who negotiated the original settlement can challenge the government’s move in court.
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China Offers Debt Relief, But Most African Countries Borrow Elsewhere

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Chinese President Xi Jinping promised Monday to cancel debt for some of Africa’s least-developed countries.

Erasing debt tied to interest-free loans has long been a part of China’s policies in Africa.  But the announcement, made at Xi’s opening speech at the 2018 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, or FOCAC, comes amid growing concern over China’s lending practices, which some have deemed “debt-trap diplomacy.”

Yet Chinese loans make up just a small portion of Africa’s debt, W. Gyude Moore, a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development, told VOA. Moore is Liberia’s former minister of public works and focuses on infrastructure financing in Africa.

He put the continent’s total debt burden at about $6 trillion, most of which is owed to organizations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Paris Club of mostly Western creditor countries. He said Chinese loans make up just two percent of all Africa debt.

Murky details

Debt forgiveness is a small part of a much larger package announced at this year’s FOCAC, and details about affected countries aren’t known, Moore said.

“Because it is unclear what the conditions are to qualify for debt relief, we can’t say for sure what countries will benefit from it,” he said.

In his speech, Xi said the relief would help “heavily indebted and poor countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing countries.”

That’s consistent with how China has dealt with debt forgiveness in the past.

Deborah Bräutigam, the director at the China-Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University, wrote earlier this week that the debt-relief policies were nothing new, even if they sounded like a big change.

“These foreign aid loans are a long-standing and relatively modest part of Chinese finance in Africa,” Bräutigam wrote.

‘Net positive’

Critics worry that China wants to create debt problems with its partners to gain leverage with them.

In Sri Lanka, China took over Hambantota Port and thousands of acres of surrounding land as part of a debt forgiveness package, raising concerns about sovereignty.

But Moore thinks that case is an anomaly and points to Venezuela, a country that owes China about $50 billion without having faced similar takeovers of facilities or land, as another example of how things can play out.

More importantly, African nations turn to China to fulfill a need, Moore said.

“Currently, Africa lags every region of the world when it comes to infrastructure.  And China, it appears, is the only country with both the appetite and the resources to be able to help Africa meet its infrastructure needs,” Moore said. “I think China has been a net positive partner with most African countries.”

 

Corruption concerns

But good intentions may not be enough to keep borrowers out of trouble. Bräutigam told VOA that concerns about Chinese debt and doubts about the necessity of some infrastructure projects have merit.

“The Chinese practice has been much more deferential to local sovereignty. And so, in their view, African governments know what they’re doing when they borrow to build these projects.  And in their own history the Chinese have also borrowed to build things,” Bräutigam said.

That’s led some critics to fault China for perpetuating corruption with no-strings-attached loans and a policy of non-interference with other nations’ internal dynamics.

Moore said the Democratic Republic of Congo is one example of a country that’s indebted to China but also saddled by corruption.

“The problem with the DRC is not simply something with the Chinese loans,” Moore said. “There was an instance where almost $2 billion in rent collected on mining didn’t make it to the national budget.”

Internal & external pressure

Moore sees an extension of China’s policies in Africa for the foreseeable future, although debt cancellation or restructuring both are likely, he added.

But growing scrutiny both internationally and internally could constrain future Chinese lending, especially in the context of the high-profile Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing’s massive infrastructure project cast as a modern-day Silk Road.

About 100 million Chinese live in poverty, Moore said, and the country’s own debt has spiked in the past nine years from about $6 trillion to roughly $28 trillion. That’s left some in China questioning the wisdom of giving Africa what they see as development aid.

But Chinese money isn’t likely to dry up, and until African nations find other lenders willing to offer comparable terms, the continent will keep counting on China to bolster its development efforts.

“China will continue to, for at least the next decade, be a source of lending to African countries,” Moore said.
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ICC Claims Jurisdiction to Probe Alleged Crimes Against Rohingya

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The International Criminal Court ruled Thursday it has jurisdiction to investigate the alleged forced mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to neighboring Bangladesh as a possible crime against humanity.

The Hague-based court said the top prosecutor must consider the ruling “as she continues with her preliminary examination concerning the crimes allegedly committed against the Rohingya people.”

The ruling came after chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, in an unprecedented move, asked judges for an opinion on whether she could investigate the deportations as a crime against humanity.

The preliminary probe, which aims to determine if there is sufficient evidence to launch a full investigation, “must be concluded within a reasonable time,” the court said.

Myanmar is not a member of the court, but Bangladesh is — which was the basis of Bensouda’s argument for jurisdiction. She compared deportation to “a cross-border shooting” that “is not completed until the bullet [fired in one country] strikes and kills the victim [in another country].”

About 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state into Bangladesh since August of last year to escape a military offensive that has resulted in torched villages and allegations of murder and rape by troops and vigilantes.

A special U.N. investigative panel accused Myanmar’s military on August 27 of carrying out numerous atrocities during the crackdown against the Rohingya “with genocidal intent” after a series of Rohingya militant attacks on security outposts.

The panel, sanctioned by the U.N. Human Rights Council, concluded in a scathing report that Myanmar’s military actions were “grossly disproportionate to actual security threats.”

Investigators also denounced Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, for failing to use her position and “her moral authority” to prevent the crisis.

Aung San Suu Kyi received a Nobel Peace Prize for her decades-long struggle against Myanmar’s former military regime, but her global reputation has been tarnished for failing to speak out in support the Rohingya.

 
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UN Agency Calls on S. Africa to Stem Xenophobic Violence

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The U.N. refugee agency is urging the South African authorities to get to grips with violence targeting foreigners before it gets completely out of control.

UNHCR says it is alarmed by the xenophobic fever, which is taking hold of large portions of South African society.  It says even refugees and asylum seekers, who are particularly vulnerable, have become targets of violent anti-foreigner sentiment.

Four people reportedly were killed in the Soweto area of Johannesburg by angry protesters last week, while mobs looted and destroyed property belonging to foreign nationals. The UNHCR says it is worried these tense standoffs between South Africans and foreigners is spreading to Kwazulu Natal and Western Cape Provinces.

UNHCR spokesman Charlie Yaxley told VOA similar attacks occurred in 2015, but relations between South African nationals and foreigners since then, by-in-large, have been peaceful.

“But, we do see these flare-ups every now and again.  And, we do want to underscore that those affected are people who have already fled war and persecution.  And, they have been brought to South Africa because they require protection,” Yaxley said.

South Africa currently hosts more than 280,000 refugees and asylum-seekers.  Yaxley said UNHCR staff has visited those affected by violence in Soweto in recent days.  He said it found shops owned by foreigners have been looted and destroyed, stripping their owners of their livelihoods.

He said the UNHCR is heartened by condemnation of these attacks by civil society groups and hopes this will result in the restoration of peaceful co-existence and harmony with foreign nationals.

 
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UN: Human Rights Defenders in Malawi Under Threat

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The U.N. human rights office warns human rights defenders and activists in Malawi are under increasing threat as pre-electoral politicking heats up before next year’s general election.

The run-up to next May’s presidential, parliamentary and council elections is becoming nastier and more dangerous for those trying to hold authorities in Malawi to account.  The U.N. human rights office reports thugs attacked the offices of the Center for Human Rights and Rehabilitation in the capital Lilongwe last week.

Reports say the attackers viciously beat up a guard and threw a gasoline bomb at the center’s offices causing an extensive fire.  Human rights office spokeswoman Liz Throssell said over the past few weeks, an increasing number of human rights defenders have been intimidated and threatened.

She said one activist received death threats after issuing an anti-corruption press statement.  When he went to the police, she said the police ignored his complaint and did not provide him with any protection.

And, she said, more women are being victimized.

“We are also concerned about an emerging pattern of threats and violence against women members of parliament and electoral candidates.  For example, one female MP’s car was torched in Mangochi in the south of the country in August,” she said.

Throssell said the current pattern of pre-electoral violence is reminiscent of similar attacks that occurred in 2011 – a year that was marked with heightened attacks against civil society.  She warned peoples’ rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association are at risk.

The U.N. human rights office is urging government authorities to investigate the threats and attacks against human rights defenders and to ensure they are able to carry out their crucial work in a safe and protected environment.
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Baltic Countries Want Walmart to Remove Soviet-Themed Shirts

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Three Baltic countries have lashed out at retail giant Walmart for selling online T-shirts and other products with Soviet Union emblems on them, and demanded that the goods be removed.

Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were forcibly annexed by Moscow in 1940 and remained part of the Soviet Union until its collapse in 1991, except for a brief occupation by Nazi Germany 1941-1944.  Lithuania has been taking a particularly hard line against its communist-era legacy, banning all Soviet symbols as well as Nazi ones.

“Horrific crimes were done under the Soviet symbols of a sickle and hammer,” the Lithuanian ambassador to the United States, Rolandas Krisciunas, wrote Wednesday to Walmart. “The promotion of such symbols resonates with a big pain for many centuries.”

“When the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania, hundreds of thousands of our citizens were killed, exiled, tortured, raped, separated from their families. Similar fates struck dozens of millions of other innocent people, including children, across Europe and across the globe,” the ambassador wrote.   

Krisciunas said he does not believe that Walmart deliberately chose to offend by selling the T-shirts, tank tops and sweatshirts with Soviet symbols and the letters USSR. “But in this case, the T-shirts and other products with the symbols of mass murder should be immediately withdrawn,” he wrote.

The Baltic News Service said a group of lawmakers from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania had written Wednesday another letter to Walmart, saying “it is utterly disappointing [that the chain] does not show respect for the millions of different citizens who fell victim to the Soviet totalitarian regime.”

Selling such items “demonstrates lack of human decency,” the BNS news agency quoted them as saying. They added that Walmart “participates in promotion, among its customers worldwide, of totalitarianism, human rights abuse and suppression of freedom and democracy, the values that allowed such corporations as Walmart to grow and prosper.”

“We call on Walmart Inc. to demonstrate their corporate responsibility…and immediately discontinue selling of the…items,” they wrote, according to BNS.

There was no immediate reaction from the retailer based in Bentonville, Arkansas.

It seemed from the site that it is a third-party company — called Buy Cool Shirts — that sells the shirts through Walmart Inc.’s page.

In May, German sports gear maker Adidas agreed to remove a red tank top with the letters USSR and emblems of the Soviet Union from its online store. The item was being sold ahead of the soccer World Cup in Russia.

 

 
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Brazil Museum Fire Destroyed 700 Ancient Egyptian Artifacts

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Egypt’s Antiquities Ministry says a preliminary report shows that the fire that engulfed Brazil’s National Museum destroyed all of its artifacts including those in the pharaonic hall, which contained 700 pieces.

 

Thursday’s statement says Egypt’s diplomatic missions in Brazil are communicating with the museum’s Egyptology department head to know the precise damages to Egyptian holdings.

 

Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, says the pieces were largely bought by Brazil’s emperor, Dom Pedro I, from antiquities traders in the 19th century.

 

He says they include five mummies, one of which was offered in its original coffin to Dom Pedro II by Egyptian Viceroy Ismail Pasha during a visit to the Middle East.

 

Flames tore through the 200-year-old museum, which contained some 20 million items, on Sunday.
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Arab League Welcomes Paraguay Embassy Move out of Jerusalem

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The Arab League has welcomed Paraguay’s decision to relocate its embassy from the contested city of Jerusalem back to Tel Aviv.

Saeed Abu Ali, assistant to the league’s secretary-general for Palestinian affairs told reporters Thursday the move serves as a model for other countries in the face of Israeli plans and U.S. pressure. He also said it will also positively reflect on Arab-Paraguayan relations.

Abu Ali hailed Paraguay’s move as being on the “right track” and in accordance with international legitimacy resolutions.

 

Paraguay had moved its embassy to Jerusalem in May after Guatemala and the U.S., infuriating Palestinians who seek east Jerusalem as a future capital.

 

Paraguay reversed its decision Wednesday prompting Israel to shutter its embassy in Paraguay and warn that ties between the countries would be “strained.”
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Fears Rise, Diapers Vanish as Iran Currency Hits New Low

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Iran’s rial fell to a record low Wednesday as worried residents of Tehran lined up outside beleaguered moneychangers, part of a staggering 140-percent drop in the currency’s value since America pulled out of the nuclear deal four months ago.

Those who went to work at the start of the Iranian week Saturday saw their money shed a quarter of its value by the time they left the office Wednesday. Signs of the currency chaos can be seen everywhere in Tehran, where travel agents offer vacation prices only in hard currency and diapers have disappeared from store shelves, something acknowledged by the supreme leader.

Many exchange shops in downtown Tehran simply turned off their electronic signs showing the current rate for the U.S. dollar, while some Iranians who wanted hard currency sought out informal money traders on street corners. Exchange shops that remained open offered 150,000 rials to the U.S. dollar.

“Everyone’s just nervous,” said Mostafa Shahriar, 40, who was seeking dollars.

There was no immediate acknowledgement of the drop on state media.

​Troubled times feel different

Iran’s economy has faced troubled times in the past, whether from the shah overspending on military arms in the 1970s or the Western sanctions following the 1979 Islamic Revolution and U.S. Embassy takeover. Drastic fluctuations in oil prices have also taken a toll.

This time, however, feels different. The currency has crashed along with hope many felt following the 2015 nuclear deal Iran struck with world powers, including the administration of then-President Barack Obama.

Iran agreed to limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of some sanctions. The West had feared Iran would use its nuclear material to build atomic bombs, while Tehran has always insisted its activities are purely peaceful.

In May, despite the United Nations repeatedly acknowledging Iran had lived up to the terms of the deal, President Donald Trump withdrew America from the accord. He said he wanted stricter terms put on Iran that included limiting its ballistic missile program, curtailing its regional influence and forever limiting its nuclear activities.

While European nations say they want the deal to continue, America’s enormous influence in global financial markets led oil companies and airplane manufacturers to quickly withdraw from working in the country. Harsher sanctions loom in early November, including those targeting Iran’s oil industry, a key source of hard currency.

Iran’s leader sees US sabotage

The Trump administration denies it is seeking to overthrow Iran’s government through economic pressure, but Iranian officials say the link is clear.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, called the U.S. moves economic “sabotage” this past weekend and specifically mentioned the diaper shortage. Some 70 percent of material for disposal diapers is imported. As the rial falls, it makes purchasing the material from abroad more expensive.

“Imagine that in Tehran or other major cities, baby diapers suddenly become scarce. This is happening, this is real, this is not make-believe. Baby diapers!” Khamenei said, according to a transcript on his official website. “This makes people angry. On the other side, the enemy wants people to be angry with the government and system. This is one of their ways.”

 

The head of the government’s budget and planning department told lawmakers Wednesday that authorities have allocated $13 billion for commodities and medicine, with another $6 billion to help the poor, according to parliament’s website.

Lines at money exchanges

Lawmakers dropped a plan for the distribution of subsidized goods directly to the people after budget head Mohammad Bagher Nobakht warned there would “be long queues in front of the shops, like money exchange houses, that can create an ugly scene in the city alleys and streets.”

Such lines could be seen Wednesday in front of money exchange shops near downtown Tehran’s Ferdowsi Square. The shops required those purchasing foreign currency to show their airplane tickets for travel abroad. Those without tickets were turned away, with many seeking out informal moneychangers, who discreetly waved wads of U.S. currency to signal their presence.

Those who were waiting cheerfully spoke to an American journalist visiting a city where weathered graffiti still proclaims “Down with the U.S.A.”

Protecting assets

One young couple, who planned to soon be married, wanted to get hard currency to protect themselves against the market.

“We have some savings, and (the) value of our money is going down every day while the dollar’s price keeps going up,” said Sadjad, a 25-year-old who gave only his first name out of concerns about speaking publicly. “We figured we should buy some dollars to protect our assets.”

His 24-year-old fiancee, Fatemah, said even the price of her sought-after wedding dress kept changing.

“Unfortunately every item we lay our hands on suddenly gets expensive,” she said.

Shahriar, the 40-year-old man seeking dollars, blamed government inaction in part for the crisis.

“There is no glimmer of hope that the situation changes because everything depends on firstly the government’s policy to sort out this problem,” he said. “And we have up to now seen no kind of practical and effective way or solution on behalf of the government to solve this problem.”

As one man waiting in line for dollars at an exchange shop muttered with a smile: “It’s the land of confusion.
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Refugee Advocates Lobby US Congress

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Within 25 days, President Donald Trump will make a decision that will affect tens of thousands of refugees.

On Wednesday, advocates lobbying members of Congress on Capitol Hill pressed for that number to be 75,000.

Last year, Trump wanted it to be no more than 45,000.

The reality in the last 11 months is closer to 20,000.

“It is very difficult right now,” Pastor Mike Wilker told 21 activists-in-training in a basement meeting room of his Capitol Hill parish, two blocks from Congress. “It gets depressing.”

By the end of September, Trump will have consulted with federal lawmakers and, with advice from agencies like the State Department, he will make a presidential determination about the maximum number of refugees the U.S. will allow in during the coming fiscal year, which starts October 1.

The volunteers took off after a few hours of training from LIRS, a national refugee resettlement organization, and Lutheran Social Services-National Capital Area, its local affiliate that hosted the event. They split into groups of two, three, sometimes more, and walked toward the offices of 19 U.S. representatives and senators — mostly Democrats, with a few Republicans.

It’s an issue, said Fiona Tomlin of Veterans for American Ideals, that “crosscuts members of every political stripe.”

Special immigrant visas

The Trump administration zealously curbed refugee arrivals within a week of Trump’s inauguration. Since then, through various lawsuits and iterations of the president’s order, the U.S. refugee program is a whisper of its former self. And the changes reach into special immigrant visa categories known as SIVs for Iraqis and Afghans who aided the U.S. government since the U.S. military interventions in those countries in the early 2000s.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Anne Derse studied the talking points about refugees during a break Wednesday before the congressional meetings. She’s retired now, on the cusp of becoming a deacon in the Episcopal Church after three decades of serving as a diplomat, including time in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Her son — a captain in the U.S. Marines — served in both countries as well, and her former bodyguard came to the U.S. through a special immigrant visa for longtime embassy workers overseas. 

“I’ve seen how important it is to have the support of these kinds of people that we bring into the U.S. under the Special Immigrant Visa program,” said Derse. “It’s really important from a national security perspective. We made a promise, and we need to keep that promise … and I believe we have an obligation, in the bigger picture, to welcome refugees.”

So the 20-odd, newly minted advocates prepared.

They asked questions about why they should ask members of Congress to consider a 75,000-refugee cap for 2019 when that feels so unrealistic in the current political climate. (“If we say 50 [thousand] or 45 [thousand], what kind of message are we sending? Are we giving up …?” Javier Cuebas, of LIRS, said in explaining the decision to aim higher.) They decided who would tell what personal anecdotes during their meetings — the refugee family their church welcomed, the apartment their synagogue prepared for an SIV recipient, the fact that an organization that resettled 1,330 people last year is serving about 400 this year.

Making the case

The office of Representative Blumenauer is friendly territory for them. The Oregon Democrat not only supports the SIV program, he’s sponsored a bill to add more visas. There’s a modified American flag over the reception desk that says “In our America … immigrants and refugees are welcome.” An aide is waiting to meet the quintet of advocates. 

Wilker, who ministers to a congregation on Capitol Hill that has facilitated the arrivals of SIV families, tells the aide he’s worried about the destruction of the immigration and refugee resettlement program.

“I can understand the need for double-checking,” he says of the Trump administration’s claims that additional security measures were needed for refugees and SIVs, “ … but we’re breaking promises left and right to these people.”
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Saudis Intercept Houthi Missile; 26 Wounded by Shrapnel

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Saudi Arabia’s air defense forces intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile fired by Yemen’s Houthis in the southern city of Najran, wounding 26 people with shrapnel, Saudi civil defense said Wednesday.

The Houthi-run al-Masirah TV said on Twitter the group had hit a Saudi National Guard camp in the border city. The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis said the missile launched from Saada province had been detected at 20:08 (1708 GMT).

The Iran-aligned Houthi militants, who control Yemen’s capital Sanaa and most of the west of the country, regularly fire missiles on southern Saudi Arabia and occasionally aim for higher-value targets, such as the capital Riyadh or facilities of state oil company Aramco.

Most of the missiles have been intercepted by the Saudi military. At least 112 civilians have been killed in such attacks since 2015, according to the coalition.

Saudi civil defense said two children were among the wounded in the latest missile interception. Eleven of the victims were taken to hospital for treatment.

Saudi Arabia is leading a Western-backed alliance of Sunni Muslim Arab states trying to restore the internationally recognized government of Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, ousted from the capital by the Houthis in 2015.

U.N. mediator Martin Griffiths told reporters in Geneva that Yemen’s first round of peace talks in almost three years aims to build confidence between the warring sides.
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Trump: Syria’s Idlib ‘Cannot Be a Slaughter’

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International calls for restraint grew Wednesday for Syria and its allies, Russia and Iran, to avoid a bloodbath and humanitarian disaster in Syria’s Idlib province.

The northwestern province along the Turkish border is the last major part of Syria in rebel hands. Syrian forces are surrounding the province, and observers say a multiparty operation may be imminent.

Meeting Wednesday with the emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, President Donald Trump called the situation in Idlib “very sad.”

“That cannot be a slaughter. If it’s a slaughter, the world is going to get very, very angry and the United States is going to get angry, too,” Trump added.

When a reporter asked Trump if he was not going to let an attack on Idlib happen, the president said only that he was watching very closely.

The 10 nonpermanent members of the U.N. Security Council issued a joint statement Wednesday urging all parties in Syria to show restraint. They said a military strike on Idlib would lead to a “humanitarian catastrophe.”

The entire council is scheduled to meet Friday to discuss the crisis, while at the same time, the presidents of Turkey, Russia and Iran are planning to hold a summit in Tehran.

Russia and Iran are Syria’s top allies, and Turkey fears another refugee crisis along its border if Syrian forces attack Idlib.

The three nations last year declared Idlib to be a “de-escalation zone,” and Turkey says the cease-fire inside Idlib must not be violated. Moscow, however, has called Idlib a “nest of terrorists,” the word it uses to refer to the rebels.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Russian airstrikes on Idlib killed at least nine civilians Tuesday. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu met with his German counterpart, Heiko Maas, in Ankara Wednesday, in part to send a message to Moscow that such attacks are unacceptable.

Cavusoglu says Russian and Turkish officials have been holding talks on preventing a military strike on Idlib.

“We don’t find it correct that the [Russian raids] happened before the Tehran summit,” he said. “If the problem here is the radical groups, a common strategy needs to be adopted. Joint work can be done to eliminate these groups, but the solution is definitely not to bomb Idlib in its entirety.”

Maas said Germany was also concerned about massive bloodshed and “looming humanitarian catastrophe” inside Idlib.

About 3 million people are in the province. Many of them are rebels and their families who went there after being given a chance to evacuate from other areas formerly held by rebels before Syrian forces moved in.

The Syrian military has been urging the rebels in Idlib to surrender.
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Gordon Fizzles; Hurricane Florence Waits in the Wings

Posted on by SeeUS

Tropical Storm Gordon weakened Wednesday into a tropical depression, while forecasters kept their eyes on a strong storm churning in the Atlantic.

Gordon never strengthened into a hurricane but still brought misery along the central U.S. Gulf Coast. The storm knocked out power, caused floods and spawned several tornadoes. It was responsible for at least one death, when a large piece of a tree fell on a mobile home in Pensacola, Florida, killing a 10-month-old baby.

Flash flood watches were out from the Florida Panhandle west to as far north as Illinois as Gordon moved farther inland.

Meanwhile, forecasters were watching Florence, a strong Category 4 storm that was about 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) east of Bermuda as of late Wednesday.

Forecasters predicted Florence would weaken a bit over the next few days but would still be a powerful storm as it crept closer to Bermuda and the U.S. East Coast. That arrival was expected early next week.

Florence would be the first major Atlantic hurricane of the season to make landfall.
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US Releases Aid to Egypt Amid Human Rights Concerns

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The Trump administration is justifying the release of hundreds of millions of dollars in additional military aid to Egypt, citing the country’s progress over the last year in counterterrorism efforts and some improvements in its human rights record.

A State Department official told VOA the United States has worked closely with the Egyptian government over the last year to further strengthen bilateral ties in support of common security and counterterrorism goals.

“The secretary signed the national security waiver that allows for the obligation of an additional $195 million in FY 2017 Foreign Military Financing (FMF) for Egypt, as well as the certification that allows for the obligation of $1 billion in FY 2018 FMF for Egypt,” the official told VOA on Tuesday.

“We continue to support Egypt in combating terrorism and in encouraging steps toward inclusive economic growth and good governance,” the State Department official added.

The announcement follows the administration’s decision in July to release another $195 million in military aid for fiscal year 2016 to Cairo, which had been previously withheld over allegations of human rights violations by Egypt’s government.

“Recognizing steps Egypt has taken over the last year in response to specific U.S. concerns, and in the spirit of our efforts to further strengthen this partnership, the administration has decided to allow Egypt to use the remaining $195 million in FY 2016 FMF for military procurements,” a U.S. official told VOA at the time.

But Washington acknowledges Cairo needs to continue to improve its human rights record. 

“We have serious concerns about the human rights situation in Egypt,” a U.S. official told VOA on Tuesday.

The country has come under increasing scrutiny in recent months by rights groups, who allege Egyptian authorities are targeting political dissidents under the guise of security.

“The Egyptian regime used its fight on terrorism to crack down on peaceful opposition and to shut down the public sphere completely,” Amr Magdi, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, told VOA.

And in recent years, authorities in Egypt have arrested dozens of members of both domestic and foreign nongovernmental organizations.

“We will continue to make clear the need for progress in addressing them, including fully resolving 2013 NGO convictions and addressing our concerns about the NGO law,” the State Department official noted.

Some analysts charge that the Egyptian government has not done much and that the release of aid gives the wrong signal.

“Releasing the aid gives the Egyptian government carte blanche to continue with its crackdown, and perhaps even take it a step further,” Amr Kotb, advocacy director at Washington-based Tahrir Institute for Middle Eastern Policy, told VOA.

Kotb added that the U.S. has the ability to be a force that promotes fundamental freedoms and rights and that it should continue to play that role.

A senior Egyptian official, who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to talk to media, said that the release of aid to Egypt is about more than money.

“The aid was just a small portion. The relation between Egypt and U.S. is more than money,” the official said, noting the U.S. and Egypt need one another to fight terrorism in the region.

The Egyptian official said his government has been working on adjusting laws that regulate NGOs in the country, and a decision about the matter would be announced soon.

NGO crackdown

In 2013, Egypt’s crackdown on nongovernmental organizations in the country, including several American NGO workers, prompted the Obama administration to withhold military aid to the country.

That year, a Cairo court convicted 43 NGO workers, including several Americans, over allegations of receiving foreign funding and sowing internal unrest in the country.

Nancy Okail, the Egypt country director of Freedom House, a U.S.-based nongovernment organization working for democracy around the world, was one of those indicted.

“Most of the leadership of civil society organizations that we know of and are most established are either being prosecuted, or they are banned from traveling and having their assets frozen,” Okail said.

“I was charged with operating an office without license and for receiving funding from foreign government,” she told VOA.

Imad Ad-Dean Ahmad, from the U.S.-based research group Minaret of Freedom Institute, believes canceling aid might not be as effective as many would like it to be in encouraging improvement in Egypt’s record.

“I am not sure to what degree it can be an effective tool in establishing human rights in Egypt. There hasn’t been any changes in Egyptian policy toward human rights of its citizens,” Ahmad said.

Security or rights?

Egypt has long been viewed by the U.S. as a stabilizing force in the region. After Israel, the country is the largest recipient of U.S. military aid and has received nearly $80 billion in military and economic assistance over the past three decades.

“Egypt was always looked on as a country providing stability and also to try to keep peace between Israel and Egypt,” Robert Goldman, professor of international humanitarian law at the American University School of Law, told VOA.

Goldman added that for that reason, the Obama administration was put in a very difficult position to withhold the aid for Egypt in 2013.

But Daniel Benaim, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, believes Washington should not put aside the issue of human rights and democracy as it works with Egypt on the counterterrorism front.

“The U.S. should continue to forcefully raise issues of democracy and human rights because they matter to Egypt’s future and should matter to the kinds of sustainable partnerships America should want,” Benaim said.

Nike Ching at the State Department contributed to this report.
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Trump Demands NYT Turn Over Anonymous White House Critic

Posted on by SeeUS

President Donald Trump demanded in a tweet Wednesday night that The New York Times immediately turn over an anonymous official of his administration for prosecution:

The demand came shortly after Trump published a one-word message on Twitter: “TREASON?”

 

The president and the White House reacted with anger to the Times opinion piece, written by a person — identified by the paper as a senior Trump administration official — who asserted that the president’s worst impulses have been frequently foiled by his own staff.

Trump, asked about the article following an afternoon event in the East Room, called it “gutless” and launched into an extended criticism of the newspaper. 

“They don’t like Donald Trump and I don’t like them because they’re very dishonest people,” the president told reporters. 

A ‘failing’ staffer

He characterized the writer of the opinion piece as someone “probably who is failing and probably here for all the wrong reasons.”

The author called Trump “amoral,” as well as “generally anti-trade and anti-democratic.”

“Meetings with him veer off topic and off the rails, he engages in repetitive rants, and his impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back,” according to the article.

The author, saying “it may be cold comfort in this chaotic era,” wanted Americans to know that “there are adults in the room.”

One surprising revelation in the commentary concerned “early whispers” of invoking the 25th Amendment, but “no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until — one way or another — it’s over.”

The 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution spells out measures that can be taken to remove a sitting president.

Just after Trump’s impromptu remarks, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders issued a statement calling the article “pathetic, reckless and selfish,” and describing the action as “a new low for the so-called paper of record.” 

Sanders said the Times should issue an apology, calling the article’s publication “another example of the liberal media’s concerted effort to discredit the president.”

As for the anonymous author, the press secretary accused the person of “not putting country first but putting himself and his ego ahead of the will of the American people. This coward should do the right thing and resign.”

Support for agenda

The piece does not entirely condemn Trump’s presidency, giving rise to speculation in the capital that the author is someone who generally supports the Republican administration’s agenda.

“There are bright spots that the near-ceaseless negative coverage of the administration fails to capture: effective deregulation, historic tax reform, a more robust military and more,” the author wrote.

The article plays into anecdotes released Tuesday from reporter Bob Woodward’s new book Fear, which alleges Trump’s own staff has stolen important documents off his desk.

Trump on Wednesday repeatedly referred to the book as “fiction.” 
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Blackwater Guard’s Case Ends in Mistrial     

Posted on by SeeUS

The retrial of a Blackwater security guard alleged to have participated in a 2007 massacre of unarmed Iraqi civilians ended Wednesday in a hung jury.

U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth declared a mistrial after the jury said it remained deadlocked after more than two weeks of deliberations in the case of Nicholas A. Slatten.

Slatten was accused of firing the first shots of a one-sided firefight on Sept. 16, 2007, in Baghdad’s Nisour Square. Armed Blackwater personnel fired machine guns and threw grenades into traffic, killing or injuring 31 people.

Since that time, the U.S. Justice Department has been trying to hold the Blackwater employees involved in the incident responsible.

In 2014, Slatten was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Last August, a federal appeals court threw out that conviction and ordered a new trial.
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Philanthropy Aids Rwanda’s Push for More Preschools

Posted on by SeeAF

In her mother’s eyes, Lucky truly is fortunate. The 5-year-old girl is learning social skills and her ABCs at a new preschool instead of playing at home or amid the maize and beans that her parents grow in Rwanda’s eastern Bugesera district.

    

“Seeing my daughter going to school makes me so happy,” said Immaculate Zihinjishi, whose three older children didn’t have access to formal early childhood education. The family also has a toddler.  

The preschool in the village of Kasebigege is a 10-minute walk from the family’s home. It opened early this year, enrolling almost 120 youngsters ages 3 to 6.  

Like many countries around the globe, Rwanda wants to strengthen support for young children’s education and development. As of 2011, the year the government announced a plan to increase the number of early childhood centers, just 10 percent of young children were enrolled in preschool programs – though that was up from 6 percent the previous year, according to the Institute of Policy Analysis and Research-Rwanda, a nonpartisan research firm. The United Nations, in an undated report, puts the participation rate at 12 percent.

The low-slung red brick school grew out of a joint philanthropic effort led by the heads of Paxful Inc., a U.S.-based digital platform for bitcoin transactions, and Zam Zam Water, a humanitarian organization promoting clean water and quality education.

Paxful CEO Ray Youssef, who said he wants to encourage charitable giving in the cryptocurrency sector, launched the online #BuiltWithBitcoin fundraising initiative in 2017. He was impressed by the work of Zam Zam and its founder, Yusuf Nessary.  

‘A new world with crypto’

Paxful’s Youssef added that he was drawn to Rwanda as a site for the school, and specifically to Bugesera province, because it had overcome a painful history of genocide to become a model of forgiveness and living peacefully side by side.

“I thought it was very poetic,” Youssef told VOA, adding that he hoped to “show people a new world with crypto.”

Zam Zam had built wells in five villages in the province, earning the trust of the local government and residents. They donated land for the school, and Paxful and firms such as cryptocurrency company AnthemGold gave $50,000 worth of bitcoin for its construction. The building has three classrooms, four restrooms and a water tank.

The preschool has free tuition and all-English instruction, with its handful of teachers trained as early childhood educators, Zam Zam’s Nessary said. Parents help with caring for the children and maintaining the grounds.  

Lucky’s mom, Immaculate Zihinjishi, said she appreciated that her daughter is learning English, supplementing her native Kinyarwanda. Zihinjishi also praised the preschool and its benefactors.

“We’re all very happy that these people came to help us and to build this school,” she said, adding that they’ve been generous to the broader community. “They even gave goats to those in extreme poverty.”

In August, Paxful and Zam Zam Water announced their partnership had begun raising funds to build a primary school nearby, intended for students age 6 through 15. Paxful gave an initial $20,000 donation toward the estimated $100,000 cost and pledged to match community donations toward that total, it said in a press release. The company also said in the press release that it has a goal of building 100 schools in Africa.

This report originated in VOA’s Africa Division’s Central Africa Service.

 
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German FM in Turkey Amid Signs of Thawing Ties

Posted on by SeeEU

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas is making a two-day visit to Turkey in the latest step in warming relations between the two countries.

Last year, bilateral relations plummeted to the point that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused German Chancellor Angela Merkel of using “Nazi methods.”

But before leaving for Ankara, Maas  said “we are determined to keep working hard to improve our relations. Turkey is more than a large neighbor, it is an important partner of Germany.”

Maas will meet Erdogan and top Turkish ministers.

The visit is to prepare for Erdogan’s state visit to Berlin later this month, a rare privilege in Europe, analysts say, given Turkey’s poor human rights record.

Looking for help

“There indeed seems to be a warming of relations between Turkey and Germany,” said political analyst Sinan Ulgen of the Istanbul-based Edam research group. “Turkey’s relationship with its other big partner in the West, the United States, is under tension. So,there is a real willingness in Ankara to improve the relations with key European countries, primarily Germany.”

Last month’s imposition of U.S. tariffs on Turkish goods triggered a collapse in Turkey’s currency, threatening a financial crisis. The Turkish and German finance ministers are to meet in Berlin later this month to reportedly discuss financial support for Turkey.

Until recently, Erdogan had threatened to look east toward Moscow, in response to souring ties with Washington and Europe. But analysts point out that Turkish financial woes and the deepening crisis in Syria, underscore the limits of Ankara’s relationship with Moscow.

“There was always a consciousness in Ankara that Russia could never really be a strategic partner to Turkey,” Ulgen said. “Namely, there continue to be fundamental differences on how the two countries look at developments in the region, be it Syria, Ukraine, Crimea.”

“Secondly,” he added, “Russia is not an economic partner in the sense that the IMF [International Monetary Fund] or EU could ever be,” he added, “so expectations in terms that Russia could be helpful in an economic downturn scenario in Turkey were always very superficial.”

Human rights

Turkey’s human rights record is seen as a significant stumbling block to any improvement in relations with the EU.

Maas said he would call on Turkish authorities for the release of seven German citizens, which Berlin claims are being held for political reasons.German politicians are accusing Ankara of pursing hostage diplomacy.

Ankara insists the Turkish judiciary is independent. But in the past few months, Turkish courts have released German journalists Deniz Yucel and Mesale Tolu.

Analysts warn if Ankara is seeking significant improvement in its ties with Berlin and the wider European Union, it will have to take substantial steps toward complying with EU standards on human rights defined by the Copenhagen Criteria.

“The EU demand of meeting the Copenhagen Criteria requires having some kind of democratic regime — some kind of independent judiciary, some role for checks and balances,” said political analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners. “You cannot put people in jail for their postings on social media or arrest journalists for writing something Erdogan doesn’t like. These practices need to stop.”

“Ankara is looking for a relationship that is devoid of political conditionality. From the European perspective, that will not be possible,” Ulgen said.

Analysts claim the decline in human rights in Turkey means Ankara’s EU membership hopes are all but finished.

“This vocation of becoming a full EU member is over,” said former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen. “Now, even to renew the customs union is not going to happen this year or next.”

“But yet separately,” he added, “those countries in the European Union are the biggest trade partners of Turkey, and it will remain so,” he added. “Especially Turkey and Germany enjoy a special relationship with many problems, but no country can replace Germany for Turkish industry, and Turkey needs more industrial production to get out of this dire straits in Turkey.”

Analysts say an EU agreement with Turkey to control migrants entering European countries remains a compelling reason for Berlin and the rest of the bloc to improve relations and maintain Turkey’s economic stability.

“Given that both parties now realize that Turkey’s accession is unfeasible, at least for the foreseeable future, a new relationship will have to be defined,” Ulgen said. “A new balance has to be struck overall.”
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Warnings of Huge Disruption as Britain Prepares for Possible Cliff-Edge Brexit

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Britain risks huge disruptions to its economy and society, including trade, transport, health care and citizens’ rights, if it leaves the European Union next March without a deal. That’s the conclusion of a new report on the short-term risks of a so-called ‘no-deal Brexit.’ The report comes as lawmakers return to London after a six-week summer break to face growing uncertainty over Britain’s future relations with the EU. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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FAO Warns Southern Africa to Prepare for Drought

Posted on by SeeAF

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has warned Southern African officials meeting in Zimbabwe to better prepare for expected drought or risk food security.

About an hour’s drive south of Harare, 62-year-old maize farmer Leo Yuma is tending to his land.

 

With the rainy season expected in just weeks, Yuma — with no irrigation facilities for his maize field – said he cannot sit still as drought is expected.

He said all his children are unemployed so they all depend on farming for survival. “I do not irrigate — I depend on the rains. I can’t dictate to God what to do. I will depend on his rains for my maize.”

 

Back in Harare, the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is warning southern African officials that investment — not prayer — is needed to prepare for drought.

 

At a three-day meeting on ending hunger, the FAO warned Southern African nations must take measures to deal with dry conditions or risk food security.

 

Patrick Kormawa is coordinator for the FAO in southern Africa.

 

“Drought is with us. This is one peculiar issue that countries have to take into consideration; you do not wait for prediction before you put any measures to mitigate drought. This sub-region only 7 percent of the arable land is irrigated, which is about 34 million hectares. That is not acceptable. Investment in irrigation is very, very important. Investment in climate resilient agriculture is very important,” he said.

Kormawa said there is about a 40 percent chance the region will be hit again this year by the El Nino weather pattern – with high temperatures and low rainfall.

 

The last El Nino-induced drought from 2014-2016 led to 40 million people requiring food assistance across southern Africa. Madagascar and Zimbabwe were among some of the worst hit countries.
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Straight Talk Africa | Special Edition

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Today #StraightTalkAfrica presents a town hall introducing members of the Mandela Washington Fellows for Young African Leaders Initiative. This year, to commemorate Nelson Mandela’s 100th birthday, the fellows participated in community service projects and pledged to continue Mandela’s legacy. Fellows come from all 49 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Join me and meet the panelists.
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