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The United Nations is assessing the Cyclone Idai humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe as calls for the government to provide aid more quickly grow louder. Columbus Mavhunga reports from the hard hit district of Chimanimani, about 500 kilometers south east of Harare.
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Month: March 2019
One in Three Fear Losing Homes in West and Central Africa, Poll Finds
Nearly one in three people living in West and Central Africa fear losing their homes and land in the next five years, according to a survey of 33 countries, making it the region where people feel most insecure about their property.
More than two in five respondents from Burkina Faso and Liberia worry their home could be taken away from them, revealed Prindex, a global property rights index which gauges citizens’ views.
In West Africa, “a history of governments and investors seizing land for large projects has made people more insecure,” said Malcolm Childress, executive director of the Global Land Alliance, a Washington-based think tank that compiles the index.
Insecurity can lead to people struggling to plan for their futures, holding back entire economies, Childress said.
“In countries like Rwanda, however, which are mapping and registering customary land, that uncertainty is much lower,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, adding that only 8 percent of the country’s respondents feared losing their homes.
In Southeast Asia and Latin America, which Childress said had strong institutions documenting land, only 21 percent and 19 percent of people, respectively, reported feeling insecure about their property.
The survey, conducted by U.S. polling firm Gallup and launched in Washington, D.C., at a World Bank conference on Tuesday, is the largest ever effort documenting how secure people feel about their homes and land at a global level.
A lack of formal documentation and poor implementation of land laws threaten tenure in many countries, experts say, with more than 5 billion people lacking proof of ownership, according to the Lima-based Institute for Liberty and Democracy.
Survey respondents cited being asked by their landlord to leave the property as well as family disagreements as the main reasons for feeling insecure.
The index also found that 12 percent more women than men felt they might lose their property in the event of divorce or death of a spouse.
That gap shows “there is a long way to go in meeting the aspiration of equal economic rights for women worldwide,” said Anna Locke from the Overseas Development Institute, a British think tank that is involved in the index.
The survey for the first time sampled respondents in Britain, where 11 percent of people feared losing their home, mainly due to a lack of money or other resources.
More than 50,000 people were questioned about ownership or tenure in 33 countries most of them from Africa, Latin America and Asia. Over the next year, the poll will be extended to 140 countries.
Prindex is an initiative of the Omidyar Network — with which the Thomson Reuters Foundation has a partnership on land rights coverage — and the U.K.’s Department for International Development.
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Maker of OxyContin Agrees to $270M Settlement in Oklahoma
The maker of OxyContin and the company’s controlling family agreed Tuesday to pay a groundbreaking $270 million to Oklahoma to settle allegations they helped create the nation’s deadly opioid crisis with their aggressive marketing of the powerful painkiller.
It is the first settlement to come out of the recent coast-to-coast wave of nearly 2,000 lawsuits against Purdue Pharma that threaten to push the company into bankruptcy and have stained the name of the Sackler family, whose members rank among the world’s foremost philanthropists.
“The addiction crisis facing our state and nation is a clear and present danger, but we’re doing something about it today,” Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter said.
Nearly $200 million will go toward establishing a National Center for Addiction Studies and Treatment at Oklahoma State University in Tulsa, while local governments will get $12.5 million. The Sacklers are responsible for $75 million of the settlement.
In settling, the Stamford, Connecticut-based company denied any wrongdoing in connection with what Hunter called “this nightmarish epidemic” and “the worst public health crisis in our state and nation we’ve ever seen.”
The deal comes two months before Oklahoma’s 2017 lawsuit against Purdue Pharma and other drug companies was set to become the first one in the recent barrage of litigation to go to trial. The remaining defendants still face trial May 28.
Opioids, including heroin and prescription drugs such as OxyContin, were a factor in a record 48,000 deaths across the U.S. in 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Oklahoma recorded about 400 opioid deaths that year. State officials have said that since 2009, more Oklahomans have died from opioids than in vehicle crashes.
Other states have suffered far worse, including West Virginia, with the nation’s highest opioid death rate. It had over 1,000 deaths in 2017.
In a statement, Purdue Pharma said the money that will go toward addiction studies and treatment in Oklahoma will help people across the country. CEO Craig Landau said the company is committed to “help drive solutions to the opioid addiction crisis.”
Plaintiffs’ attorney Paul Hanly, who is not involved in the Oklahoma case but is representing scores of other governments, welcomed the deal, saying: “That suggests that Purdue is serious about trying to deal with the problem. Hopefully, this is the first of many.”
But some activists were furious , saying they were denied the chance to hold Purdue Pharma fully accountable in public, in front of a jury.
“This decision is a kick in the gut to our community,” said Ryan Hampton, of Los Angeles, who is recovering from opioid addiction. “We deserve to have our day in court with Purdue. The parents, the families, the survivors deserve at least that. And Oklahoma stripped that from us today.”
Purdue Pharma introduced OxyContin in the 1990s and marketed it hard to doctors, making tens of billions of dollars from the drug. But the company has been hit with lawsuits from state and local governments trying to hold it responsible for the scourge of addiction.
The lawsuits accuse the company of downplaying the addiction risks and pushing doctors to increase dosages even as the dangers became known. According to a court filing, Richard Sackler, then senior vice president responsible for sales, proudly told the audience at a launch party for OxyContin in 1996 that it would create a “blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition.”
Earlier this month, Purdue Pharma officials acknowledged that they are considering bankruptcy . But Oklahoma’s attorney general said the company gave assurances it will not take such a step in the near term. And he said the settlement money is “bankruptcy proof” – that is, “it’s not at risk in the event Purdue declares bankruptcy.”
Lance Lang, a 36-year-old recovering user from Oklahoma City, said he is glad some of the settlement will go toward helping those still suffering from addiction.
”My heart breaks for those that we’ve already lost. I’ve buried several myself,” said Lang, who now helps recovering users find housing. “But I also know we have waiting lists of dozens and dozens for our facilities, and the state has waiting lists of hundreds and hundreds of people who need help right now.”
But Cheryl Juaire, whose 23-year-old son Corey died of an overdose in 2011, said she was devastated to hear about the settlement.
Jauire, who lives in Marlborough, Massachusetts, had been organizing a group of hundreds of mothers to go to the first day of the trial and stand outside with photos of their dead children. She said a complete airing of the facts is the only way to fully hold Purdue to account.
A settlement is “a huge disservice to the tens of thousands of families here in the United States who buried a child,” she said. “That’s blood money from our children.”
Members of the Sackler family are defendants in some of the lawsuits but were not actually parties to the Oklahoma case. The company said the family nevertheless voluntarily contributed to the settlement. “We have profound compassion for those who are affected by addiction,” the family said in a statement.
The Sacklers are major donors to cultural institutions, and the family name is emblazoned on the walls at many of the world’s great museums and universities. In the past few weeks, as the accusations have mounted, the Tate museums in London and the Guggenheim Museum in New York have cut ties with the family, and other institutions have come under pressure to turn down donations or remove the Sackler name.
A Massachusetts court filing made public earlier this year found that Sackler family members were paid at least $4 billion from 2007 until last year.
Purdue Pharma has settled other lawsuits over the years, and three executives pleaded guilty to criminal charges in 2007. But this is the first settlement to come out of the surge of litigation in the past few years that focuses largely on the company’s more recent conduct.
More than 1,400 federal lawsuits over the opioid crisis have been consolidated in front of a single judge in Cleveland who is pushing the drugmakers and distributors to reach a nationwide settlement.
Read Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter’s full statement about the state’s settlement with Purdue Pharma.
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US Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Boost Taiwan Ties, Amid China Tensions
Republican and Democratic U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation seeking to boost Washington’s relations with Taiwan and raise the island’s international profile on Tuesday, which could heighten tensions with China.
Senator Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the influential Foreign Relations Committee, along with Republican Senators Tom Cotton and Ted Cruz, and Democratic Senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Chris Coons offered the “Taiwan Assurance Act.”
Representative Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, plans to introduce a companion measure in the House.
Among other things, the bill would mandate that President Donald Trump review State Department guidelines on relations with Taiwan, direct the Defense Department to make efforts to include Taiwan in military training exercises and expresses congressional support for regular U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.
“This legislation would deepen bilateral security, economic, and cultural relations, while also sending a message that China’s aggressive cross-Strait behavior will not be tolerated,” Cotton said in a statement.
To become law, the measure would have to pass the Senate and House and be signed into law by Trump. Its passage would rankle Beijing as the United States and China are edging toward a possible deal to ease a months-long tariff dispute.
Taiwan is one of a growing number of flashpoints in the U.S.-China relationship, which also include the trade war, U.S. sanctions and China’s increasingly muscular military posture in the South China Sea, where the United States also conducts freedom of navigation patrols.
Washington has no formal ties with Taiwan but is bound by law to help defend the island nation and is its main source of arms. The Pentagon says Washington has sold Taiwan more than $15 billion in weaponry since 2010.
China has been ramping up pressure to assert its sovereignty over the island, which it considers a wayward province of “one China” and sacred Chinese territory.
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Unvaccinated Children Face Public Space Ban in New York Measles Outbreak
A New York suburb has banned children not vaccinated against measles from public spaces, such as schools and shopping malls, as it fights the state’s worst outbreak in decades of the potentially deadly disease.
Rockland County declared a state of emergency on Tuesday and said the ban would remain in place for 30 days or until unvaccinated children get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot.
The Rockland announcement follows measles outbreaks in California, Illinois, Texas and Washington and is part of a global resurgence of the viral infection, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We will not sit idly by while children in our community are at risk,” County Executive Ed Day said in a statement. “This is a public health crisis, and it is time to sound the alarm.”
There have been 153 confirmed cases of measles in Rockland County, about 11 miles (18 km) north of Manhattan, mostly among children who have not been vaccinated.
The ban begins at midnight after which unvaccinated children will not be permitted in locations such as places of worship, schools and shopping malls. Outdoor spaces like playgrounds are excluded from the ban. People medically unable to get vaccinated are exempt.
The outbreak began when a traveler visited Israel and returned to a predominantly ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Rockland County. There have also been at least 181 confirmed cases of measles in the New York boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens since October, mostly among Orthodox Jews, according to the city’s health department.
The New York and Washington outbreaks began after U.S. travelers picked up measles in foreign countries, where the disease was running rampant, and brought it back to places where vaccination rates were too low by U.S. public health standards.
The disease has spread mostly among school-age children whose parents declined to get them vaccinated, citing reasons such as philosophical or religious beliefs, or concerns the MMR vaccine could cause autism, authorities said.
Large scientific studies have demonstrated that there is no link between vaccines and autism.
Officials say the measles outbreaks offer a lesson about the importance of maintaining a minimum 95 percent “herd” level of immunization against dangerous, preventable diseases such as measles. Rates as low as 60 percent were found in parts of New York where measles spread, State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said in February.
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Save The Children: 7 Killed in Airstrike on Yemen Hospital
A hospital in a rural area of northwest Yemen was hit by an airstrike Tuesday killing seven people and wounding eight others, Save the Children said.
The international aid organization, which supports the hospital, said in a statement sent to the Associated Press that four of those killed were children and two adults are unaccounted for.
Save The Children said a missile struck a petrol station near the entrance to Kitaf rural hospital, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the city of Saada at 9:30 a.m. local time on Tuesday.
“The missile was said to have landed within 50 meters (55 yards) of the facility’s main building,” it said.
The organization said the hospital had been open for half an hour and many patients and staff were arriving on a busy morning.
Among the dead were a health worker and the worker’s two children and a security guard, it said.
‘Breach of international law’
Save the Children, which reported earlier this week that 37 Yemeni children a month had been killed or injured by foreign bombs in the last year, demanded an urgent investigation into the attack.
Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the organization’s chief executive, said: “We are shocked and appalled by this outrageous attack.”
“Innocent children and health workers have lost their lives in what appears to been an indiscriminate attack on a hospital in a densely populated civilian area,” she said. “Attacks like these are a breach of international law.”
Thorning-Schmidt said the hospital is one of many Save the Children supports in Yemen, “but time after time, we see a complete disregard by all warring parties in Yemen for the basic rules of war.”
The conflict in Yemen began with the 2014 takeover of the capital, Sanaa, by Iranian-backed Houthi Shiite rebels, who toppled the government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
A Saudi-led coalition allied with Hadi’s internationally recognized government has been fighting the Houthis since 2015.
Saudi-led airstrikes have hit schools, hospitals and wedding parties and killed thousands of Yemeni civilians. The Houthis have fired long-range missiles into Saudi Arabia and targeted vessels in the Red Sea.
The fighting in the Arab world’s poorest country has killed thousands of civilians, left millions suffering from food and medical care shortages, and pushed the country to the brink of famine.
‘Just a step away’
U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock has said about 80 percent of Yemen’s population — 24 million people — need humanitarian assistance including nearly 10 million “just a step away from famine” and nearly 240,000 “facing catastrophic levels of hunger.”
Thorning-Schmidt called for an immediate suspension of arms sales to the warring parties and diplomatic pressure to end the conflict.
“We must stop this war on children,” she said.
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Erdogan, AKP Seek to Win Key Kurdish Vote with Promises of Reconstruction, Peace
Turkey’s ruling AKP Party with its message of services, jobs, and construction is seeking to defeat the country’s main pro-Kurdish HDP party in Sunday’s local elections. One of the main battlegrounds is Diyarbakir, the central city in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast, a center of a decades-long insurgency by separatists. Dorian Jones reports.
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Spain Seeking Extradition from US of Suspects in N. Korean Embassy Raid
Spain is seeking extradition from the United States as many as 10 people who burst into the North Korean embassy in Madrid last month and tried to pass stolen information to the FBI.
A Spanish judge believes all 10 fled to the U.S. after the Feb. 22 raid. He calls them members of a criminal organization and accuses them of trespassing, burglary, assault, and threats.
The leader of the group has been identified as Adrian Hong Chang — a Mexican citizen who is a U.S. resident. Others in the group include American and South Korean citizens.
The suspects call themselves Cheollima Civil Defense and describe the group as a human rights movement working to liberate North Korea.
According to the Spanish court complaint, the 10 barged into the North Korean embassy in Madrid on Feb. 22, wearing full head masks and armed with knives and fake handguns.
They allegedly tied up and gagged the staff while they took a North Korean diplomat into the embassy basement and tried to talk him into defecting.
When the embassy official refused to go with them, they allegedly bound and gagged him too.
Spanish police say an embassy employee managed to jump out of a window and alert officers. Hong Chang posed as a diplomat and assured police everything was fine. The group allegedly escaped with computers and hard drives in a stolen embassy car.
Hong Chang is suspected of attempting to pass the material to the FBI when he arrived in the US.
It is not known if the FBI took the stolen information. The FBI issued a statement saying “it is standard practice to neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.”
There have been no comments from the Spanish, South Korean, or North Korean governments.
But a State Department spokesman said Tuesday the United States government had nothing to do with the raid.
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Official Death Toll from Cyclone Idai in Zimbabwe Tops 180
Zimbabwe’s government said Tuesday that the number of deaths related to Cyclone Idai has topped 180. The number could go higher, as authorities are still trying to determine how many are missing following last week’s rains.
Addressing visiting United Nations officials in the most affected area in Zimbabwe, Llyod Kasima, the acting district administrator for Chimanimani, said Cyclone Idai deaths now stand at 181.
He said authorities are still trying to figure out how many people are missing.
“Traditionally, we used to receive some minor rainfalls, and we used to manage that and control. But this disaster was too much for us, was too big,” Kasima said. “The rivers flooded, creating new streams. In the process, some people were swept away, some died and so far, some are not known where they are.”
Kasima said the situation has been made worse by power outages, which has hampered communication, and flooding that cut off streets and highways.
The Britain-based charity Save The Children is trying to determine how many of the missing are children.
“Right now, the actual number of children who have been affected is not known because the statistics are difficult to come by,” said Sophie Hamandishe, the organization’s spokeswoman in Zimbabwe. “We do not even know how many children are missing because we have statistics coming from different areas and some are conflicting. The major challenge that we are having is accessing people who need the much-needed aid that we want to deliver. The areas are inaccessible.”
She said once all roads become accessible, statistics would be available of who was actually affected.
The Zimbabwean government Tuesday said more than 40,000 people had been left food insecure by Cyclone Idai, while more than 7,000 had their homes destroyed.
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UNHCR: 500,000 Displaced Cameroonians Urgently Need Humanitarian Aid
The U.N. refugee agency is appealing for $184 million to support its life-saving operations for nearly a half-million Cameroonians displaced inside their country and as refugees in Nigeria.
Violent clashes between the Cameroonian military and armed separatists in the English-speaking parts of the country have intensified during the past year.
The U.N. refugee agency estimates more than 437,000 Cameroonians are internally displaced and more than 35,000 others have fled to Nigeria in search of refuge.
The UNHCR said most of the victims are women and children who have fled their homes with very little, and they often arrive in impoverished host communities where food, health, education, water and sanitation are scarce.
UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch tells VOA that violence is forcing civilians caught in the crossfire to flee for their lives.
“Civilians have suffered immensely and also burning of houses, torture, rape, kidnapping of school children in this region is a great concern for us,” Balock said. “And, in terms of burning houses, we have reports that in over 172 villages in these regions, houses have been burned or destroyed.”
Baloch said the UNHCR, which he said is severely underfunded and unable to meet the growing needs, urgently needs $35 million to provide critical aid for the hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
Inside Cameroon, he said many people are living in overcrowded conditions, without proper shelter or health and sanitation. He said the UNHCR does not have enough money to protect the affected population.
That has put the safety of women, children, and people with disabilities, as well as lactating and pregnant women, at risk, he said.
Baloch said refugees in Nigeria are living in more than 47 villages along the border in makeshift settlements and are dependent upon humanitarian assistance to meet their basic needs.
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‘Largest Facilitator of Child Porn’ Extradited to Face US Charges
An Irish-American man described by the FBI as “the largest facilitator of child porn on the planet” faced a U.S. judge for the first time this week, on allegations that he ran an anonymous web hosting service that allowed users to post images of child rape.
After five years in Irish custody, Eric Eoin Marques, 33, was extradited on March 23 and stood before a federal judge in Maryland two days later.
He is charged with four counts related to the advertisement and distribution of child pornography.
In a 16-page criminal complaint outlining the case against Marques, an FBI agent describes the graphic content of two Dark Web sites only available through special software, and hosted by a service that allowed users to remain “anonymous or untraceable.”
The complaint contains explicit descriptions of images of sexual torture, bestiality, and rape that were available — and searchable — to website users. The child victims included infants, according to court documents.
Investigators reviewed more than one million files from one website and found that “nearly all of the files depict children who are engaging in sexually explicit conduct with adults or other children, posed nude and/or in such a manner as to expose their genitals, in various states of undress, or depict child erotica,” the U.S. Department of Justice summarized.
The U.S. government alleges Marques ran the now-defunct business, Freedom Hosting, for at least five years, from July 2008 to July 2013, according to the complaint. He was arrested in Dublin in 2013.
In a Dublin court bail hearing, FBI Special Agent Brooke Donahue described Marques as “the largest facilitator of child porn on the planet.”
“Criminals cannot hide on the dark web or in foreign countries,” said U.S. Attorney Robert K. Hur. “We will find them and bring them to justice.”
Hacktivist group Anonymous repeatedly targeted Freedom Hosting in 2011, taking down links to what they claimed were more than 40 child pornography sites.
When an administrator restored services, Anonymous “once again infiltrated the shared hosting server at Freedom Hosting and stopped service to all clients,” the group described. They declared the hosting service “Enemy Number One” in their collective anti-child pornography efforts, known as Operation DarkNet.
“The owners and operators at Freedom Hosting are openly supporting child pornography and enabling pedophiles to view innocent children, fueling their issues and putting children at risk of abduction, molestation, rape, and death,” Anonymous stated at the time.
The Irish media closely monitored Marques’ case over the years, as the dual US-Irish citizen fought extradition in the Irish courts.
Last week, however, Ireland’s Supreme Court cleared the way for his removal to face the U.S. charges.
Marques was born in New York to a Brazilian father and Irish mother. The family moved to Ireland when Marques was 6, according to media reports.
He is scheduled to make a second appearance in Maryland district court on March 27 for a detention hearing.
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Erdogan, AKP Vie for Key Kurdish Votes With Promises of Reconstruction, Peace
Turkey’s ruling AKP, with a message of services, jobs, and construction, is seeking to defeat the country’s main pro-Kurdish HDP in Sunday’s local elections. Diyarbakir, the largest city in the country’s predominantly Kurdish southeast, is the center of the battle for power.
Baglar is Diyarbakir’s largest district and a long time stronghold of the pro-Kurdish movement. Huseyin Beyoglu, in his bid to win the mayorship, is seeking a breakthrough for the AKP.
“People of Baglar want services, want peace, want jobs,” said Beyoglu, “and they believe that peace, the services and the jobs will only come from the hands of the AKP Party municipal officials.”
“People of Baglar are showing a red card to HDP, which for the last 20 years brought nothing but discontent to their district,” he added.
Following the collapse of a peace process between Kurdish separatist group the PKK and Ankara, fighting erupted in Diyarbakir, like in many towns and cities across the Kurdish region.
In unprecedented fighting in the decades-long conflict, parts of Diyarbakir were razed to the ground as security forces ousted PKK fighters who had taken over parts of the city. Tens of thousands of people remain homeless.
Throughout the decades the PKK had avoided fighting in towns and cities. The change in tactics even drew criticism from its usually loyal supporters along with the broader Kurdish movement.
The AKP is seeking to exploit any rift and is pouring millions of dollars into rebuilding destroyed parts of the city.
Critics point out; it remains unclear who will be able to afford the new housing, with the areas destroyed in fighting among the city’s poorest.
Senior officials from Ankara regularly visit the construction sites, to assess progress before Sunday’s crucial local elections. Huge posters adorn rebuilt walls, highlighting the destruction by the fighting and the vision of a modernized restored city.
The AKP in Diyarbakir believes they have a winning message of development and progress over strife.
AKP mayoral candidate Beyoglu has for weeks been delivering his message to local people across the HDP’s stronghold. “For 65 days we are in the field,” said Beyoglu. ”We are by the people. We visited 16,000 tradespeople, 450 coffee shops and saw that people now say, ‘enough’ to HDP.”
Watch related video by Dorian Jones:
In his latest campaign drive, Beyoglu targets local traders. Before starting, he stops off at a newly constructed police checkpoint, protected by massive blast walls and an armored car.
The checkpoints have been set up all across strongholds of the pro-Kurdish movement in Diyarbakir.
An armored car slowly drives up the street shadowing Beyoglu and his campaign activists as they drop into shops and small businesses.
Some businessmen offer support, “As tradespeople, we were very unhappy,” said this cleaning materials wholesaler, who wanted to remain anonymous. “We couldn’t open our shops, always fighting, always chaos. Thank God these people lifted that wreckage; that’s why our choice is AKP Party.”
Listening is Abdurrahman Dogan, an AKP campaigner who is also running for the local parliament.
“They (people) don’t want to go back to the old days (of fighting). Two years ago store shutters were almost permanently down in Baglar;” said Dogan. “There was no rest; there were gas bombs, fights, and noise. There was no peace. Now, they want peace, services, and job.”
“We will rebuild Baglar with the help of our government, build new housing complexes,” he added. “There are many streets here where no ambulance or fire engines can enter. They will all be knocked down and a brand new Baglar will be rebuilt.”
Abdurrahman claims with the PKK defeated in Diyarbakir there are no longer any “no-go” areas for his party and freely campaigns across the city.
Despite such optimism, the AKP is facing a difficult struggle in Baglar. In the last local election, the AKP lost by 58 percent to 32 percent.
Many of the district’s 400,000 people were forced to leave their villages in the 1990s by security forces in its war against Kurdish separatists the PKK.
The scorched earth policy displaced more than a million people. There appears a strong sense of injustice among some, that its previously elected mayor is now languishing in jail, and replaced by a state appointee.
In a coffee shop, an old man who did not want to be identified predicted offers of prosperity would not be enough. “What I have been observing is that HDP will come out of the polls on top in Diyarbakir just like the old elections,” he said. “I believe they will get back the votes that we’re taken from them, deserve by increasing their votes.”
However, Beyoglu insists people are increasingly ready to listen, “People of Baglar broke away and are estranged from the HDP in a strict sense. People know that the services will come from the AKP party and AKP party mayors.”
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US Sanctions Network Supporting Iran’s Revolutionary Guards
The U.S. on Tuesday imposed new sanctions on a network of 25 individuals and entities in Iran, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates it accused of laundering more than a billion dollars and euros that were used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and defense ministry to fund terrorism in the Middle East.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement the U.S. was “targeting a vast network of front companies and individuals” in the three countries “to disrupt a scheme the Iranian regime has used … to exploit the international financial system to evade (U.S.) sanctions, while the regime funds terrorism and other destabilizing activities across the region.”
Sigal Mandelker, the Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and intelligence, said central to the funding was the Revolutionary Guards-controlled Ansar Bank and its currency exchange arm, the Ansar Exchange, “both of which used layers of intermediary entities to exchange devalued Iranian rial ultimately for dollars and euros to line the pockets” of the Revolutionary Guards and Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics.
“This vast network is just the latest example of the Iranian regime’s use of deceptive practices to exploit the global financial system and divert resources to sanctioned entities,” Mandelker said. “This once again exposes to the international community the dangerous risks of operating in an Iranian economy that is deliberately opaque.”
The U.S. claimed that to secure the funding for Ansar Bank, the Revolutionary Guards, the defense ministry and the Ansar Exchange used a network of front companies and agents in Turkey and the UAE. The Treasury Department said that in the last year and a half, UAE-based Sakan General Trading, Lebra Moon General Trading and Naria General Trading, along with the Iran-based Hital Exchange, provided about $800 million in funds to the Ansar Exchange. In addition, it said Turkey-based Atlas Doviz acted as a secondary foreign currency provider for Ansar Exchange.
The U.S. said the defense ministry and armed forces logistics agency supervises Iran’s missile program, including those used by Iran-backed Houthi fighters in Yemen against coalition forces supported by the U.S.
In all, the Treasury sanctions targeted eight individuals, all of them officials at the several financial institutions the U.S. alleged were part of the scheme to provide the funding for the Revolutionary Guards and the defense ministry.
The sanctions freeze any property and funds the targeted officials and entities might have in the United States and block Americans from conducting any business with them. The Treasury said that any foreign financial institution that transacts business with the sanctioned entities and individuals could also be subject to U.S. blacklisting.
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China, EU Stress Importance of Multilateralism
Top European Union leaders joined Chinese President Xi Jinping in Paris in stressing multilateralism to address issues from peace and security to climate change and trade.
The Paris meeting with Xi, which came ahead of a key EU-China summit planned for April 9, brought together some of the bloc’s biggest heavyweights: President Emmanuel Macron of France, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker.
At a joint press conference following the talks, Macron stressed what he described as areas of convergence between the European Union and China, two of the world’s biggest economic powers. Among them: intensifying the fight against climate change, denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and development and security in Africa.
Both sides, Macron said, want to construct a renewed multilateralism that is more just and balanced.
President Xi said the world is facing major challenges and peace and development were key. He described the growing threat of protectionism and unilateralism.
The cooperation through which China hopes to expand its ambitious ‘Belt and Road’ infrastructure and investment initiative initiative, however, is controversial and divisive within the European Union. As Germany’s Merkel said, “Europe wants to join the Belt and Road plan, but it demands reciprocity.”
Several areas stressed by the two sides, including EU and Chinese support for the Paris climate agreement and the Iran nuclear deal, contrast with positions taken by U.S. President Donald Trump.
The Chinese leader’s visit to France is the last leg of a European trip marked by multibillion dollar deals, including a major Chinese purchase of Airbus planes.
Earlier during Xi’s visit to in Rome, Italy became the first G-7 nation to sign on to China’s Belt and Road project.
Xi’s visit was greeted by some rights protests. Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders also released a new report on China’s alleged efforts to stifle media freedom abroad, as well as at home.
Cedric Alviani, the group’s East Asia Bureau director, said, “What we expect from that report is that, all around the world, journalists would start investigating in their city, in their region, in their country on the way Chinese authorities are pushing their influence.”
Alviani said China’s Belt and Road initiative is one way Beijing is spreading not only its economic, but also its ideological influence.
your ad hereUS Expands Ban on Foreign Aid to Overseas Abortion Providers
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday expanded the Trump administration’s ban on U.S. aid to groups that promote or provide abortions to include organizations that comply with the rules but give money to others that don’t.
Pompeo also said the U.S. would cut some assistance to the Organization of America States because at least two of its agencies are allegedly lobbying for abortion availability in the Western Hemisphere.
Pompeo said the administration was committed to protecting “the sanctity of life” in the United States and abroad and would enforce the policy “to the broadest extent possible” by not allowing foreign non-governmental organizations to skirt the ban.
“We will refuse to provide assistance to foreign NGOs that give financial support to other foreign groups in the global abortion industry,” Pompeo told reporters at the State Department. “We will enforce a strict prohibition on backdoor funding schemes and end runs around our policy. American taxpayer dollars will not be used to underwrite abortions.”
The move is an expansion of the so-called “Mexico City policy” first established under President Ronald Reagan but rescinded by subsequent Democratic administrations. Just days after taking office in 2017, President Donald Trump reinstated the policy and then expanded it to include all health programs not just reproductive health ones.
Critics of the policy that has been a hallmark of Republican administrations call it the “global gag rule.” They say it hurts reproductive and maternal health care in developing nations. Pompeo denied that and said the U.S. would continue to be a leader in such aid. The U.S. spends some $9 billion to support global health programs.
Abortion rights advocates slammed the decision as dangerous to women’s health, while abortion opponents welcomed it.
“This administration’s obsession with attacking women’s reproductive health is egregious and dangerous,” said Sen. Jean Shaheen, D-N.H. “Further expanding the global gag rule puts international organizations in an impossible position: provide women the full scope of reproductive health care services or deny critical funding that saves lives. That is unconscionable.”
The Susan B. Anthony Fund, an anti-abortion group, issued a statement praising the step.
“We are excited to see Secretary Pompeo taking additional steps to ensure that Americans’ hard-earned dollars are actually used for health assistance, not funneled to groups that push abortion,” it said.
In addition to the revision of the Mexico City rule, Pompeo said the administration would also start to enforce legislation that bars all U.S. funds from being used to lobby for or against abortion. As a first step in enforcement, he said support for the Organization of American States would be reduced, although it was not immediately clear by how much.
Pompeo said the step came as a result of some OAS institutions promoting greater access to abortion in the Americas. He did not identify them but some Republican lawmakers have urged Pompeo to take action over calls from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Commission on Women for countries in the hemisphere to ease laws restricting abortion.
“The institutions of the OAS should be focused on the crises in Cuba, Nicaragua and in Venezuela and not advancing the pro-abortion cause,” Pompeo said.
your ad hereAlgerian Army Chief Wants President Declared Unfit to Lead
Algeria’s powerful army chief wants to trigger the constitutional process that would declare ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika unfit for office.
After more a month of mass protests against Bouteflika’s long rule, Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaid Salah said Tuesday in remarks carried on Algerian television that the solution to the political crisis is to apply Article 102 of the Algerian Constitution.
Under that article, the Constitutional Council could determine that the president is too ill to fully exercise his functions, and ask the parliament to declare him unfit. The 82-year-old Bouteflika has barely been seen in public since a 2013 stroke.
The army chief is among the top power brokers in Algeria, and his announcement could pave the way for Bouteflika’s ouster.
your ad hereNASA Cancels First All-Women Spacewalk Due to Lack of Small Spacesuits
What should have been a giant leap for womankind has turned into a stumble on the path to equality after U.S. space agency NASA canceled the first all-female spacewalk due to a lack of a spacesuit in the right size.
Anne McClain and Christina Koch had been due to step into history books in a spacewalk Friday, during the final week of Women’s History Month.
But McClain will now give up her place on the mission to her male colleague Nick Hague, NASA announced late Monday.
“Mission managers decided to adjust the assignments, due in part to spacesuit availability on the station,” NASA said in a statement.
“McClain learned during her first spacewalk that a medium-size hard upper torso — essentially the shirt of the spacesuit — fits her best. Because only one medium-size torso can be made ready by Friday, March 29, Koch will wear it.”
Nearly 60 years after the first human blasted off into space, less than 11 percent of the 500 plus people who have traveled to space have been women, and spacewalk teams have either been all-male or male-female.
McClain and Koch were both part of the 2013 NASA class that was 50 percent women.
NASA said the decision to change the plan was made in consultation with McClain after a spacewalk last week.
“Anne trained in M and L and thought she could use a large but decided after Friday’s spacewalk a medium fits better,” wrote spokeswoman Stephanie Schierholz on Twitter.
“In this case, it’s easier (and faster!) to change spacewalkers than reconfigure the spacesuit.”
The NASA announcement was met with disappointment and anger by many following the much-anticipated mission on social media, with some arguing an all-female spacewalk was overdue.
Others said they were sad that a milestone moment on women’s space exploration had been deferred, but safety came first.
“I’m super disappointed about the all-woman spacewalk not happening as scheduled this Friday but I’m also super supportive of astronauts having the authority to say ‘I would be safer using a different piece of equipment’,” wrote Emily Lakdawalla, a senior editor at the U.S. nonprofit The Planetary Society.
“An all-woman spacewalk WILL eventually happen.”
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Upcoming Local Elections in Turkey a Test for Pro-Kurdish Party
With local elections in Turkey set for this coming Sunday (3/31), the vote is seen as a crucial test for the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party, or HDP, in the country’s predominantly Kurdish southeast. Most of the HDP’s mayors and parliamentary deputies are in jail, accused of supporting a Kurdish insurgency. Still, as Dorian Jones reports from Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey’s Kurdish region, HDP candidates are running for office.
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Why US Workers Are Stressed & Ready to Quit
Sixty-three percent of American workers are stressed and ready to quit, and poor communication is a leading cause of their frustration, according to a survey commissioned by Dynamic Signal, a California-based company that sells mobile-first communications platforms to companies.
Eighty percent of U.S. employees report feeling stressed because of ineffective company communication, which is a 30 percent increase from a year ago.
The survey involved 1,001 respondents who answered questions online between January 31 and February 12.
Among the most frustrated workers are the 80 million hourly employees who rarely have access to a work email. These non-desk workers include people employed in retail stores, hotels, restaurants, bars, production facilities, warehouses and hospitals, as well as delivery drivers.
Deskless employees are four times more likely to agree that their company communicates more effectively with office employees than it does with them.
“I think companies are doing same job they’ve done forever, but expectations of their employees has evolved,” says Russ Fradin, Dynamic Signal’s CEO. “Because whether it’s your bank account balance or your Tinder match or your sports score … that’s all basically pushed to you immediately, so that makes the frustration when you hear about something you needed to know for your job an hour later, three days later or two weeks later, I think probably that much more frustrating.”
In addition, the survey finds that workers spend up to two hours of each workweek looking for information they need to perform their daily tasks.
Other studies also reflect growing dissatisfaction with internal communications at work. A 2017 Gallup Poll found just 13 percent of employers found company communications to be effective.
And Staffbase, another company that produces mobile apps for internal employee communications, says that 74 percent of U.S. employees feel they are “missing out on company news and information.”
Using posters in the break room or on the factory floor, or newsletters and magazines to communicate with employees might have been effective before the advent of smartphones. But now that the vast majority of Americans – 77 percent – own a smartphone, companies like Fradin’s, as well as the Harvard Business Review, are making the case for using mobile apps to improve employee communications.
That would allow employees to receive information about schedules, pay stubs, company announcements and benefits directly to a mobile device, even if they don’t have a company email.
“It’s really just about bringing the types of tools around your mobile phone that everyone is used to in their day-to-day life, into the workforce,” Fradin says. “There is a way that folks are used to receiving all of their information and workplaces have not kept up with that.”
Improving internal communications can boost the bottom line. Companies with higher employee engagement retain more workers and bring in higher profits, according to Gallup’s 2017 State of the American Workplace report.
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3 Coaches Plead Not Guilty in US College Admissions Scandal
Former coaches from the University of Southern California and Georgetown University were among a dozen people who pleaded not guilty Monday to charges they participated in the largest college admissions fraud scheme uncovered in U.S. history.
The 12 appeared in federal court in Boston to face charges that they took part in a $25 million racketeering conspiracy in which wealthy parents allegedly paid up to millions of dollars to get their children into vaunted universities. Prosecutors allege that the parents paid for admissions exams like the SAT and ACT to be taken for their children. They are also accused of bribing coaches to secure spots for their children in elite universities as fake athletic prospects.
The defendants included Gordon Ernst, Georgetown’s former head tennis coach; Jorge Salcedo, the former head men’s soccer coach at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA); and Donna Heinel, formerly USC’s senior associate athletic director.
They are among 50 people, including actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman and top corporate executives, charged with participating in a scheme that helped parents buy admission to universities such as Yale, USC and Georgetown.
Others who entered not guilty pleas included former Wake Forest University women’s volleyball coach William Ferguson; former USC women’s soccer coaches Ali Khosroshahin and Laura Janke; and ex-USC water polo coach Jovan Vavic.
The U.S. Education Department has opened an investigation into eight universities linked to the admissions and bribery scandal, Politico reported, citing individuals familiar with the probe.
The Education Department on Monday notified the presidents of Yale, Wake Forest, University of San Diego, Stanford, Georgetown, the University of Texas at Austin, USC and UCLA notifying them of the investigation, which could result in penalties if the schools are found to have violated federal laws or rules, Politico said. The Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
The court hearing came as Yale on Monday said it had rescinded the admission of a student linked to the scandal. A former Yale soccer coach, Rudolph “Rudy” Meredith, is set to plead guilty on Thursday to accepting bribes to designate applicants as soccer recruits.
The criminal investigation has already led to the scheme’s mastermind, William “Rick” Singer, pleading guilty to running the fraud through his California-based college admissions counseling service, The Key.
Singer called the scam a “side door” to gaining admission and used it on behalf of clients including Douglas Hodge, a former chief executive for asset manager Pimco, and “Full House” actress Loughlin, who prosecutors say paid bribes to have their children admitted to USC.
Prosecutors said Singer paid Ernst $2.7 million in exchange for helping students get preferential admission to Georgetown as “bought-and-paid-for” tennis recruits.
Prosecutors said Singer also bribed administrators of the SAT and ACT college admissions exams to allow an associate to help students with their answers or correct their answers.
Others who pleaded not guilty on Monday included test administrators Igor Dvorskiy and Niki Williams; Mikaela Sanford and Steven Masera, who worked for Singer; and Martin Fox, who prosecutors said helped bribe a coach at the University of Texas at Austin while running a tennis academy.
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UN Officials: 13 Million in Congo Need Aid in Major Increase
The number of people needing humanitarian aid in Congo has increased dramatically in the past year to 13 million and “hunger and malnutrition have reached the highest level on record,” the head of the U.N. children’s agency said Monday.
UNICEF’s Executive Director Henrietta Fore told a news conference that 7.5 million of those needing aid are children, including 4 million suffering from acute malnutrition and over 1.4 million from severe acute malnutrition “which means that they are in imminent risk of death.”
U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock, who just returned from a visit to Congo with Fore, said the U.N. is appealing for $1.65 billion in humanitarian aid for the country this year – more than double the $700 million plus that it raised last year to help 8.5 million people.
He said the worsening humanitarian situation is the result of economic stresses including volatility in commodity prices and the turbulent political situation surrounding December’s elections, compounded by violence, increased displacement and the world’s second-largest Ebola outbreak.
Fore added that farmers fleeing with their families and drought in some areas also contributed.
She said the difficulty is that last year’s U.N. appeal was only half funded, and if that same amount is contributed this year it will only be a quarter of this year’s appeal, “and the needs are immense.”
Fore cited more grim statistics: 2 million people were newly displaced last year; 7.3 million children are out of school; 300,000 children die each year before their fifth birthday; 3 in 10 women are reported to be victims of sexual violence; and in January alone there were 7,000 cases of measles and 3,500 cases of cholera.
Congo’s Health Ministry said Monday that the Ebola epidemic has now exceeded 1,000 cases, with a death toll of 629.
Fore said about 30 percent of the cases are children, and UNICEF has identified about 1,000 children who have been orphaned or left unaccompanied while their parents are isolated in Ebola treatment wards.
UNICEF and its partners are providing psycho-social support, food and material assistance to the children, she said.
In the major city of Bunia close to the epidemic’s center, Fore said U.N. and Red Cross officials visited a kindergarten where Ebola survivors who cannot get the virus were caring for orphaned and unaccompanied children.
The U.N. officials also visited Goma, Beni and Butembo and the capital Kinshasa where Lowcock said they had “extremely constructive talks” with Congo’s new president, Felix Tshisekedi.
“We were encouraged by the new president” who said he would like to work closely with the U.N. on humanitarian issues and problems related to the millions of displaced people, the undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs said.
“Congo is a country where progress is possible,” Lowcock said, pointing to lower infant mortality, more children in school and Kinshasa becoming a modern African capital.
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Syrian Group Wants International Tribunal for IS Detainees
The U.S-backed Syrian fighters who drove the Islamic State from its last strongholds called Monday for an international tribunal to prosecute hundreds of foreigners rounded up in the nearly five-year campaign against the extremist group.
The administration affiliated with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said such a tribunal is needed “for justice to take its course,” particularly after countries have refused to bring home their detained nationals. The SDF has captured more than 1,000 foreign fighters, including many from Western countries.
“We don’t have other options,” Abdulkerim Umer, a foreign affairs official in the Kurdish-led administration, told The Associated Press. “No one wanted to take the responsibility (of repatriating their nationals). We can’t put up with this burden alone.”
Western countries have largely refused to take back their detained citizens, fearing they would not be able to convict them in civilian courts and that they could pose a security risk. The problem has grown more urgent since President Donald Trump announced his intention to reduce the U.S. military presence in Syria, where American forces are fighting alongside the SDF.
“It is an exceptional situation and we are looking at an exceptional framework,” said Ilham Ahmed, the head of the political arm of the SDF, told the AP. “We are dealing with a failed state. In this case we can treat the (Kurdish-administered) region as an exception.”
Asked about the tribunal proposal in Washington, U.S. special envoy for Syria and the anti-IS coalition, Jim Jeffrey, said: “We’re not looking at that right now.”
Jeffrey said the priority is to deal with the Iraqi and Syrian prisoners, which he estimated at 7,000 held in eastern Syria and representing the vast majority of those in detention. The second priority, Jeffrey said, is convincing the home countries of the foreign fighters to take them back.
Umer said foreign fighters should be tried where their crimes occurred and where they were detained. “The international community has evaded its responsibility, so we ask that they help us set up the court here,” he said.
Germany’s Foreign Ministry said in an email that it only knew of the proposal from media reports, but that setting up such a tribunal would “raise many political and legal issues, which would require careful evaluation by the international community.”
Germany has said bringing detained German militants home would be “extraordinarily difficult,” in response to a U.S. call for European nations to repatriate their nationals.
The SDF has been fighting IS since 2014 and has retaken large areas in northern and eastern Syria. Its administration is not recognized internationally or by the Syrian government, which has vowed to bring all the country’s territory back under its control.
The Kurdish-led administration has asked the government to grant it autonomy in a new constitution, something Damascus has roundly rejected. Umer said the issue of the foreign detainees is therefore an “exceptional case” that requires an international tribunal. He said the presence of the foreign fighters is a “big problem” that could stoke further instability in the region.
“It is a burden and a risk for us and the international community,” he said.
Nadim Houry, the director of the counterterrorism program at Human Rights Watch, said “it is hard to imagine” setting up an international tribunal on sovereign territory without that country’s approval. Previous efforts to get Security Council backing for international tribunals for crimes committed in Syria have failed, mostly because of vetoes by Russia, a main ally of Damascus.
Houry said a major legal concern would be trying people for the same crimes in different courts depending on their nationality.
“There is no real precedent for creating an international tribunal for some nationals and not the others,” Houry said. “It is an option that raises as many questions as it provides answers.”
He said that while the U.S.-led coalition has provided military aid to the SDF, it has done nothing to help develop the local judiciary.
“It is a fair call on the (SDF)’s part to say this should be an international responsibility, but so far the path to such help is unclear.”
Kurdish-run courts in northeastern Syria have tried hundreds of Syrians suspected of links to IS. In trials attended by the AP last year, Kurdish authorities showed leniency toward the mostly Arab suspects in a bid to build bridges with the majority Arab population. The courts do not impose the death penalty.
Umer said an international tribunal would help bring the system in line with global norms.
your ad hereSyrian Group Wants International Tribunal for IS Detainees
The U.S-backed Syrian fighters who drove the Islamic State from its last strongholds called Monday for an international tribunal to prosecute hundreds of foreigners rounded up in the nearly five-year campaign against the extremist group.
The administration affiliated with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said such a tribunal is needed “for justice to take its course,” particularly after countries have refused to bring home their detained nationals. The SDF has captured more than 1,000 foreign fighters, including many from Western countries.
“We don’t have other options,” Abdulkerim Umer, a foreign affairs official in the Kurdish-led administration, told The Associated Press. “No one wanted to take the responsibility (of repatriating their nationals). We can’t put up with this burden alone.”
Western countries have largely refused to take back their detained citizens, fearing they would not be able to convict them in civilian courts and that they could pose a security risk. The problem has grown more urgent since President Donald Trump announced his intention to reduce the U.S. military presence in Syria, where American forces are fighting alongside the SDF.
“It is an exceptional situation and we are looking at an exceptional framework,” said Ilham Ahmed, the head of the political arm of the SDF, told the AP. “We are dealing with a failed state. In this case we can treat the (Kurdish-administered) region as an exception.”
Asked about the tribunal proposal in Washington, U.S. special envoy for Syria and the anti-IS coalition, Jim Jeffrey, said: “We’re not looking at that right now.”
Jeffrey said the priority is to deal with the Iraqi and Syrian prisoners, which he estimated at 7,000 held in eastern Syria and representing the vast majority of those in detention. The second priority, Jeffrey said, is convincing the home countries of the foreign fighters to take them back.
Umer said foreign fighters should be tried where their crimes occurred and where they were detained. “The international community has evaded its responsibility, so we ask that they help us set up the court here,” he said.
Germany’s Foreign Ministry said in an email that it only knew of the proposal from media reports, but that setting up such a tribunal would “raise many political and legal issues, which would require careful evaluation by the international community.”
Germany has said bringing detained German militants home would be “extraordinarily difficult,” in response to a U.S. call for European nations to repatriate their nationals.
The SDF has been fighting IS since 2014 and has retaken large areas in northern and eastern Syria. Its administration is not recognized internationally or by the Syrian government, which has vowed to bring all the country’s territory back under its control.
The Kurdish-led administration has asked the government to grant it autonomy in a new constitution, something Damascus has roundly rejected. Umer said the issue of the foreign detainees is therefore an “exceptional case” that requires an international tribunal. He said the presence of the foreign fighters is a “big problem” that could stoke further instability in the region.
“It is a burden and a risk for us and the international community,” he said.
Nadim Houry, the director of the counterterrorism program at Human Rights Watch, said “it is hard to imagine” setting up an international tribunal on sovereign territory without that country’s approval. Previous efforts to get Security Council backing for international tribunals for crimes committed in Syria have failed, mostly because of vetoes by Russia, a main ally of Damascus.
Houry said a major legal concern would be trying people for the same crimes in different courts depending on their nationality.
“There is no real precedent for creating an international tribunal for some nationals and not the others,” Houry said. “It is an option that raises as many questions as it provides answers.”
He said that while the U.S.-led coalition has provided military aid to the SDF, it has done nothing to help develop the local judiciary.
“It is a fair call on the (SDF)’s part to say this should be an international responsibility, but so far the path to such help is unclear.”
Kurdish-run courts in northeastern Syria have tried hundreds of Syrians suspected of links to IS. In trials attended by the AP last year, Kurdish authorities showed leniency toward the mostly Arab suspects in a bid to build bridges with the majority Arab population. The courts do not impose the death penalty.
Umer said an international tribunal would help bring the system in line with global norms.
your ad hereInmates End Own Lives to Protest Rebel Kurdish Leader’s Treatment in Turkey
At least four Kurdish activists have died in prisons across Turkey since last week, in what lawyers and officials have called suicides over the poor prison conditions of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan.
The series of alleged suicides by Kurdish prisoners started on March 17 when Kurdish officials confirmed that Zulkuf Gezen took his own life, followed by the deaths of Ayten Becet and Zehra Saglam by similar attempts last weekend. Officials of pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) also confirmed on Monday the death of the fourth Kurdish activist, 24-year-old inmate Medya Cinar.
“Today, those who refused to listen to us caused the death of the fourth prisoner,” HDP co-chair Sezai Temelli said during a public gathering Monday in Adana.
“For 139 days, we have been calling on the Ministry of Justice and the government to end this lawlessness,” Temelli said to a crowd of supporters, referring to a widespread hunger strike campaign by Kurdish prisoners since November.
“We say that their demands must be fulfilled without deaths,” he added.
The four deaths have prompted demonstrations from thousands of Kurds in Turkey, northern Syria and some parts of Europe.
The four activists had been in prison for years over alleged ties to PKK — a U.S., EU and Turkey-designated terrorist organization. Before ending their lives this month, they joined in the hunger strike that initially began in November 2018 to pressure Turkish authorities into giving more access to Ocalan.
The rebel leader has been imprisoned on an island in the Marmara Sea since 1999. He has been prevented from meeting with his lawyers since 2011, and has rarely been allowed to see his family.
The hunger strikes over his jail conditions were first initiated by HDP lawmaker Leyla Guven last November. Since then, an estimated 300 Kurdish lawmakers and activists across Turkey have joined.
Turkish officials have refused to yield to the strikers’ requests, calling their activities an attempt by the HDP to stir up trouble in the country and spread pro-PKK propaganda.
“I do not call them deputies [representatives]. They are the PKK’s deputies,” Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said last week, referring to Kurdish HDP lawmakers in the Turkish parliament.
Burial, clashes
Speaking to a crowd of the ruling Justice and Development Party supporters in Nevsehir city, Soylu condemned HDP officials for attempting to organize a solidarity meeting at the burial site of Gezen.
“The other day, a terrorist died in prison. They wanted to meet and join the burial of the terrorist in Diyarbakir. I called the police chief and told him, ‘Do not allow anyone to be near the airport. Do not allow anyone to be within one kilometer of the cemetery.’ That is impossible for us to tolerate,” Soylu told the crowd as reported by local Turkish media outlets.
The burial ceremony, which took place last Monday and was attended by dozens of people, ended in violent clashes when police fired a water cannon to disperse the supporters. According to pro-Kurdish ANF News, several HDP lawmakers were barred from entering Diyarbakir cemetery where Gezen was buried.
PKK ‘wing’
Government officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have repeatedly accused the HDP of being the political wing of the PKK.
The militant PKK group has been demanding Kurdish autonomy in Turkey since 1978.
Violent clashes between Turkey and the PKK have continued for more than 30 years in predominately Kurdish southeast, resulting in the deaths of nearly 40,000 people.
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