Month: May 2019

Uganda Seeks $927 Million to Support Refugee Population

Posted on by SeeAF

The Ugandan government and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees are calling on the donor community to extend $927 million to support the over 1.2 million refugees living in Uganda.  But the appeal is complicated by the alleged misuse of previous contributions.

Located next to several countries in conflict, Uganda has become host to huge refugee populations. Currently there are 792,000 South Sudanese, 417,000 Congolese and more than 35,000 Burundians, among others.

The $927 million sought would pay for water, sanitation, food, health care, shelter and other basic needs for the refugees.

Jens Hessemann is the senior field coordinator for the U.N. refugee agency in Uganda.

“Uganda is Africa’s largest refugee situation of over 1.2 million refugees and the number is growing with continued influxes to the country. And over 100 partners, U.N. and NGO partners have been supporting the Uganda government in managing this humanitarian situation and deliver life saving services. That needs to continue,” said Hessemann.

However, the appeal is weighed down by what donors are calling unsatisfactory investigations over abuse of funds. In early 2018, four Ugandan officials under the Office of the Prime Minister were asked to leave their positions, pending investigations into alleged abuse of funds, fraud and exaggeration of refugee numbers.

Uganda’s junior minister for refugees, Musa Ecweru, said the probes are still ongoing.

“We are saying, the investigation is systematic, is thorough. Those gentlemen and ladies will not step in these offices, until, they are either cleared or brought to book if they are found to have committed a crime.”

He also accuses Uganda’s development partners of misusing donor funds.

“The partners have also had a challenge. You over cost your administrative response. The money that the international community gives, three quarters of the money goes to your welfare. You drive big cars, you sleep in big hotels,” he said.

Hessemann declined to comment on Ecweru’s remarks.

He said the UNHCR has been working with the government to verify actual refugee numbers using a biometric system that the agency named Progress. He said the system will reduce fraud and corruption.

“Priority of all the partners is accountability. We are accountable to refugees. To deliver services, meeting their rights and their needs. But we are obviously also accountable to donors to ensure that funding is value for money and is used in the right way,” said Hessemann.

The appeal follows critical remarks from German Ambassador Albert Conze, who said Germany has re-established financial dealings with UNHCR but will not dispense half of the $52 million it had pledged until the Ugandan government limits corruption.

“I am a bit surprised that this takes 15 months.  Not a very convincing response. We are getting the response that this is now with this or that agency and that they should come up with something, but nothing has come up so far. You can do what you want with your own money, but when you get money from friends, I think your accountability is increased,” he said.

UNHCR states that in 2018, only 57 percent of the Uganda refugee response plan was funded, leaving many unmet needs. The contributions in 2019 have been particularly slow in coming, with less than 20 percent of the needed funds received so far.
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EU Leaders Starting to Pick Bloc’s Top Chiefs

Posted on by SeeEU

European leaders are in Brussels to choose their preferred candidates for top European Union positions after last week’s parliamentary elections, but already are divided on who should be the next president of the European Commission, the executive arm of the 28-nation bloc.

The term of Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the commission ends in October. But Germany and France, two of the biggest economic forces on the continent, are at odds on who should replace him, a choice that must be ratified by the 751-member parliament when it assumes power in July.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel favors fellow countryman Manfred Weber, who has led the conservative European People’s Party group, the biggest in the EU assembly, since 2014. The EPP, even as it lost seats in the parliamentary elections, still constitutes the largest bloc of lawmakers and her support for Weber is in line with past practice in picking a European Commission president from the leading party in the parliament.

But the big centrist blocs in parliament will lose their majority in the new legislature, with nationalists and Greens gaining ground, leading to a more fragmented assembly and possibly more difficulty in picking a consensus nominee for president of the commission, which proposes EU laws and enforces them.

French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters he favors a nominee with “experience either in their country or in Europe that allows them to have credibility and savoir faire,” an apparent attack on the 46-year-old Weber, who has never served in government or a major institution like the commission.

Macron suggested two alternative nominees, Denmark’s Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner for Competition since 2014, and Frenchman Michael Barnier, who has led the EU’s so-far unsuccessful negotiations with Britain over London’s Brexit effort to divorce itself from the EU.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez suggested a fellow socialist, Dutchman Frans Timmermans, saying he “has the qualities and the experience.”

The European leaders are also picking a new leader of the EU Council, a body that defines the European Union’s overall political direction and is now headed by Poland’s Donald Tusk; the European Central Bank, now led by Italian Mario Draghi and a new foreign policy chief, currently Italian Federica Mogherini.

 
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HRW: Egyptian Security Forces Committed Widespread Abuses in Northern Sinai

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The Egyptian military and police forces have committed widespread abuses in the northern Sinai Peninsula, according a new report by Human Rights Watch, which said some of the actions amount to war crimes.

The report alleges that Egyptian security forces, who have been conducting military operations against Islamist insurgents in the region, have engaged in unlawful action against civilians in the region.

The report describes widespread extrajudicial arrests and killings, as well as torture, forced evictions and collective punishment by Egyptian security forces. Egyptian forces have also armed and trained militias that have conducted abuses and rights violations, according to the report.

The organization documented 50 cases of arbitrary arrests and specifies that in 39 of the cases, the individuals were “likely disappeared. The report also describes torture sites that detained children as young as 12 years old, according to former detainees.

Egyptian government officials have dismissed the report.

The HRW report also notes alleged abuses committed by Islamic State affiliates in the region, including kidnappings and executions. The local branch of IS claimed responsibility for the bombing of Metrojet Flight 9268 in October 2015, killing all 224 people on board.  The plane crashed in the Sinai Peninsula after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh.

The conflict in the northern Sinai region has escalated since 2013, following the ouster of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi by then-defense minister Abdel Fatah el-Sissi.

The government subsequently mobilized tens of thousands of forces to the region

The report calls on the Egyptian government to allow the Red Cross into the region and calls for the ceasing off all aid to Egypt until an investigation confirms that the abuses have stopped.
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Israel Heading Toward Political Crisis

Posted on by SeeEA

“This is a night of a marvelous victory! Marvelous!” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu triumphantly declared after hearing the election results.  That was 49 days ago, and Netanyahu appeared securely positioned to — come July — become the longest serving prime minister in the Jewish state’s history.

However, early Tuesday, in the second of four readings, the Knesset voted 66 to 44 to order a new round of elections.  Netanyahu sought the vote as he has failed to form a coalition and his deadline is Wednesday.

What happened?

Netanyahu’s Likud party and his “natural allies” — the right wing and ultra-orthodox parties — command 65 seats in the 120-member Knesset. Each faction, but one, can deny him the 61 votes he needs to win the Knesset’s confidence. But two of those factions, the ultra-orthodox Yahadut Hatorah and the secular Israel Beitenu, are led by dominant figures.  

Their clash is over a plan to reduce the number of rabbinical students who get automatic, renewable, draft deferments. Some 50,000 Israelis learn in those institutions and the rabbis see to them.  

Israel Beitenu’s leader, former defense minister Avigdor Liberman, insists on a passing a law to gradually reduce the number of deferments.  “We are not talking of a right-wing government, but a government of net halacha [Jewish religious law] and we are definitely no partners to forming a government of halacha,” he said Monday.  If Liberman votes against the confidence motion, Netanyahu will not win the Knesset’s confidence.

New elections may not be bad for the right- wing, which is under-represented in the Knesset. More than a quarter of a million votes went down the drain, in April, when two right-wing lists failed to pass the threshold. That is tantamount to some seven mandates and if there are new elections soon, the factions that proved their survivability could gain more power.

Netanyahu’s rush to call for new elections seems to be a move to deny President Reuven Rivlin the opportunity of giving another member of Knesset a chance to form a coalition. Netanyahu feared Rivlin, who is no fan of the prime minister, would ask former education minister Gideon Sa’ar, also of the Likud, to try his hand.  There are other options and once a new elections bill turns into law, the president’s hands are tied.

Another option could be former military Chief of General Staff Benny Gantz, who leads the Blue-White faction and like the Likud, has 35 mandates. Blue-White can hardly expect support from the ultra-orthodox or right-wing parties but made a proposal: “If someone else would head the Likud, anyone but Netanyahu, a national unity government could be formed,” Blue-White’s Yair Lapid, a former finance minister, said.  Gantz indicated as much.  “Netanyahu’s insistence on preserving his seat at all costs is the main and only barrier to forming a national agreement party,” he said.

The Likud and Blue-White would then have a majority, would not need more partners, and would follow a center-right, more moderate policy.  

Which boils the issue down to Netanyahu.  He will be charged with bribery and breach of trust unless he convinces the attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, to drop the accusations. The hearing is scheduled for October.

Netanyahu insists the accusations are baseless and he will disprove them in the hearing. But he seems to be doing his best to postpone a hearing and has argued voters chose him despite all the bad news.   

A first class campaigner, he persuaded many Israelis that he and his family are victims of persecution. Political science professor Avraham Diskin told VOA that Netanyahu has become “a symbol to Likud voters and members of Knesset, of a pursuit of the Right.”  That is why his faction backs him, Diskin suggested.   

Netanyahu’s detractors refer to the draft charge sheets, leaked evidence, the fact that the chief of police when he was investigated and the attorney general are right-wingers whom Netanyahu had hand-picked.

To secure his freedom, Netanyahu seeks parliamentary immunity and is likely to get it, especially if he is prime minister.

The High Court of Justice can nullify his immunity and there is a Likud move to amend the law so the Knesset can override a High Court of Justice decision. Netanyahu’s coalition partners support the change which infuriates the opposition, lawyers, and judges who warn against weakening the judiciary that protects people’s rights.     

 
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New Ukrainian President Reinstates Saakashvili’s Citizenship

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has reinstated the Ukrainian citizenship of Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian president who served as governor of Ukraine’s Odesa region in 2015-16.

In a decree signed and posted on the presidential website on May 28, Zelenskiy annulled a portion of his predecessor Petro Poroshenko’s July 2017 decree that stripped Saakashvili of his citizenship.

Zelenskiy’s decree comes eight days after his inauguration and six days after Saakashvili’s lawyer, Ruslan Chornolutskiy, filed a request seeking restoration of Saakashvili’s citizenship.

Saakashvili was granted Ukrainian citizenship and appointed to the Odesa governor’s post in 2015 by Poroshenko, an acquaintance from their student days.

Authorities in Tbilisi stripped Saakashvili of his Georgian citizenship in December 2015 on grounds that Georgia does not allow dual citizenship.

Then, when relations between Poroshenko and Saakashvili soured over corruption allegations and slow reform efforts, Poroshenko in November 2016 sacked Saakashvili from the Odesa governor’s post.

In July 2017, after Saakashvili created an opposition party called the Movement of New Forces, Poroshenko issued a decree that stripped Saakashvili of his Ukrainian citizenship.

In February last year, Saakashvili was detained in Kyiv, taken to the airport, and flown to Poland.

Days later, Ukraine’s border service banned Saakashvili from entering Ukraine until February 13, 2021.

Saakashvili swept to power in Georgia after helping lead the peaceful Rose Revolution protests there in 2003, when he was mayor of Tbilisi.

His party was dislodged from power by an opposition force in 2012 parliamentary elections and his term as president expired in 2013.

Saakashvili currently resides in the Netherlands, his wife’s native country.

 

 
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White House Adviser Travels Abroad to Get Support for Peace Plan

Posted on by SeeEA

President Donald Trump’s son-in-law is in Morocco Tuesday as part of a three-day trip to garner support for his Middle East peace plan.

White House officials said Tuesday Jared Kushner would also visit Jordan and Israel, along with U.S. representative for Iran Brian Hook and U.S. international negotiator Jason Greenblatt.

The trip comes as the U.S. prepares to unveil the economic part of the plan at a conference in Bahrain in late June.

The Palestinians have already rejected the peace portion of the plan and have called on Arab nations to boycott the conference, citing Trump’s previous recognition of Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have already committed to participate.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh stressed at a cabinet meeting earlier this month the need for a political agreement with Israel that resolves longstanding issues such Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. “Our struggle is over land, to end the occupation, establish our state with Jerusalem as its capital, and return the refugees,” he said.

Shtayyeh said the Palestinian financial crisis is the result of a “financial war” against them and that they would not relinquish their rights for money.

A senior White House official said on May 19 the plan calls for substantial investments in the Gaza economy but the investments would require a “stable” cease-fire deal to remain in effect.

“There’s a tremendous amount of opportunity [and] the world is willing to step up and work on this,” the official said. “But that only happens if we can resolve some of the political issues. The two things go hand in hand.”

The conference in Bahrain is scheduled to be held on June 25 and 26.

 
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Iraq Sentences 2 More French IS Members to Death

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An Iraqi court sentenced on Tuesday two more French members of the Islamic State group to death, bringing the total number of French former jihadis condemned to death this week to six.

The men were identified as Karam el-Harchaoui and Brahim Nejara. They are among a group of 12 French citizens who were detained by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in neighboring Syria and handed over to Iraq in January.

 

The Kurdish-led group spearheaded the fight against IS in Syria and has handed over to Iraq hundreds of suspected IS members in recent months.

 

France’s foreign minister said earlier Tuesday that his government is working to spare the group of condemned Frenchmen from execution after Iraq sentenced them to death — though France has made no effort to bring back captured French IS fighters.

 

Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian also reiterated France’s position but said the IS militants should be tried where they committed their crimes.

 

“We are multiplying efforts to avoid the death penalty for these … French people,” he said on France-Inter radio. He didn’t elaborate, but said he spoke to Iraq’s president about the case.

 

France is outspoken against the death penalty globally. The sentencings in Iraq come amid a controversy about the legal treatment of thousands of foreign fighters who joined IS in Syria and Iraq.

 

 
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Desperate Zimbabweans Risk Lives in Abandoned Mines

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Officials in Zimbabwe say the bodies of eight illegal miners have been retrieved from an abandoned gold mine about 50 kilometers north of Harare. The news Monday was a reminder of the risk faced by desperate illegal miners trying to make a living in the economically troubled southern African country. Matopo is a gold rich area in southern Zimbabwe, and some men there enter such mines, despite the danger involved. 

These men are illegal miners, using a metal detector to search for gold at the Nugget Mine, about an hour’s drive from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city. 

​Piniel Ndingi-Nyoni is one of those who entered the mine, despite the recent collapse of a mine shaft that killed four men. 

Ndingi-Nyoni says he has no choice but to take the risk. 

“Problems at home force me to do this. We need school fees, you need food, there are medical bills to take care of, so all that force you to stay in the bush. It is not funny at all. In this cold weather, we sleep in shacks while the wife is at home. At times, we can go for three months without getting anything,” Ndingi-Nyoni said.

​A few minutes later, the illegal miners disappeared into the bush at the sight of officials in the area. Once the coast is clear, they re-appear.

No man gives up, is the motto 42-year-old Edward Madyauta lives by. He says he has gold rush dreams. But he says on several occasions, he has gone for months on a wild-goose chase. 

What about fears of being trapped under, as what happened a few meters away?

“I do not fear death, because (I) usually get gold before depth gets past my height. So that can’t collapse on me. But those who go under have a higher risk of the shaft collapsing on them,” Madyauta explained.

On Monday, searchers found the bodies of eight men working an abandoned mine in Mazowe, north of the capital. It was the third fatal incident involving illegal miners this year. 

Polite Kambamura, deputy minister of mines, says the government is worried about the trend and has embarked on a campaign to urge people to stay away from abandoned mines.

​“We are going to call on owners of such mines to show cause why they are not mining. We are risking the lives of many people. If a mine stays for long without any activity, the ground will weaken up,” Kambamura said. “Some of those miners are going underground to mine on pillars. The moment they mine on pillars, then there is no more support and the ground will fall off.”

But with Zimbabwe’s economy in meltdown and no recovery in sight, one wonders if any of the miners, like Nyoni and Madyauta in Matopo, will listen to the advice.
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Pulitzer Board to Honor Parkland Journalists

Posted on by SeeUS

The Pulitzer Prize Board is set to honor journalists from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for their work memorializing 17 classmates and coaches killed in a shooting last year.

According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, eight students and the faculty adviser of The Eagle Eye newspaper traveled to New York for the honorary luncheon.

The Eagle Eye staff submitted their package of obituaries to the public service category of the annual Pulitzer Prize awards that recognize exceptional work by U.S. newspapers, magazines and news sites.

The student newspaper did not win, but during the April announcement of the awards, Pulitzer Prize Administrator Dana Canedy spoke of her “sincere admiration” for their entry and said they “give us all hope for the future of journalism.”

“The Eagle Eye’s submission stated that the student reporters and editors had to ‘put aside our grief and recognize our roles as both survivors, journalists and loved ones of the deceased,'” Canedy said.”These budding journalists remind us of the media’s unwavering commitment to bearing witness — even in the most wrenching of circumstances — in service to a nation whose very existence depends on a free and dedicated press.”
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US, Japan Leaders Emphasize Enhanced Military Cooperation

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Enhanced military cooperation between the United States and Japan in the face of a rising China was emphasized as President Donald Trump concluded a four-day state visit in the island nation. 

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, on Tuesday morning, hosted Trump on the deck of the JS Kaga, one of Japan’s helicopter carriers that will soon be converted to carry a short takeoff/vertical landing variant of the American-made F-35 supersonic stealth jet fighter. 

The two leaders did not mention China by name in their remarks, but their concern about Beijing’s assertive stance militarily in the Pacific was obvious. 

WATCH: Trump Japan visit comes to a close

Abe spoke of an “increasingly severe security environment in the region.”

Trump said Japan’s purchase of an 105 additional F-35 Lightning II jets (each with a price tag of around $100 million) “will help our nations defend against a range of complex threats in the region and far beyond.” 

Later, addressing hundreds of sailors on the nearby USS Wasp, Trump said of the F-35 planes: “The enemy has a problem with it. You know what the problem is? They can’t see it.” 

Since the end of World War Two, when the United States and Japan were enemies, the Japanese have largely depended on American forces for defense. 

“Now the Chinese are flexing their muscles eyeing two Japanese island chains,” says a source close to Prime Minister Abe. 

“There’s an increasing need for us to do something on the eastern part of the archipelago with Japanese air power,” the source explained to VOA. “It is to supplement the U.S. 7th Fleet obviously and it is not to say the U.S. fleet is less accountable.”

There has been nervousness in Japan, which has a pacifist clause in its constitution imposed on it after the war by the U.S. occupation, about America’s long-term commitment to the defense of the island nation with scant natural resources. The worry grew after Trump won the 2016 presidential election. He had been known as a prominent “Japan basher” for decades as a real estate developer and has in office continued to criticize Tokyo for what he considers Japan taking unfair advantage of the United States in trade and not paying enough to host tens of thousands of American forces on its soil. 

Trump’s latest visit to Japan is seen as assuaging some of those concerns, although trade frictions persist. 

Trump, on Monday, said finalizing a new trade pact would be postponed until after parliamentary elections in Japan in July. 

Trump restrained himself during his visit by not pushing Abe too hard on trade, according to Yuki Tatsumi, co-director of the East Asia program at the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C.

“For Trump to suggest that any trade deal will be after August was a good political gesture for Abe,” Tatsumi told VOA. “I think Abe will be put in a tougher spot in the long run, though. Atmospherics were extremely good indeed, but there was very little substance. There will be questions asked on whether it was worth it to welcome Trump with all those bells and whistles, especially when the visit achieved no concrete deliverable.” 

Trump repeatedly touted that he was honored to be the first state guest of the new Reiwa imperial era during which Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako hosted him and first lady Melania Trump for a banquet at the Imperial Palace on Monday evening. 

Abe accompanied Trump for a round of golf at a private course outside Tokyo and sat alongside him on the final day of a sumo wrestling tournament where the president awarded a large trophy, which he said he had personally purchased, to the champion wrestler. 
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Trump-Abe Meeting Highlights Security Alliance Despite Differences

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U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will wrap up a trip to Japan by addressing American service personnel Tuesday at the naval base at Yokosuka outside Tokyo. Despite differences on North Korea and trade, the president’s trip is highlighting U.S. security commitments to its ally in the region, as well as an opportunity for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to show Japan is shouldering its defense burden. VOA White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara reports.
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Tensions Grow Between Russia, Iran in Syria

Posted on by SeeEU

Russian military police last week reportedly carried out a raid against Iranian-backed militiamen stationed at Syria’s Aleppo international airport, local media reported. 

 

In the aftermath, several Iranian militia leaders were arrested in what was seen as the latest episode of tensions between Iranian and Russian forces in Syria.  

 

Since the beginning of Syria’s civil war in 2011, Russia and Iran have built a strong military presence in the country in support of forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.  

 

Iran has since deployed thousands of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and allied Shiite militias to Syria, while Russia officially entered the Syrian conflict in September 2015 to help Assad’s regime.   

 

But as the war is waning, with Syrian regime forces reclaiming most of the territory once controlled by rebel forces, Russia and Iran seem to be vying for influence in the war-torn country.  

 

‘Slice of the pie’ 

 

Analysts say the protracted war in Syria has created a slight fissure between the two allies. 

 

“There are definite tensions that exist between Russia and Iran within Syria,” said Phillip Smyth, a researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who closely follows Iranian-backed militias in Syria.  

 

“You see things like this [raid in Aleppo] that occur in flashpoint zones because there’s criminal activity going on. Each country’s proxy wants a cut of that,” he told VOA.  

Similar incidents have been taking place throughout the country in the past two years.  

 

Recently, two divisions of the Syrian military were engaged in deadly clashes in different parts of the country, local reports said.  

 

This power struggle is the result of differences among Syrian military leaders who are either loyal to Russia or Iran, observers believe.  

 

“I do believe that it comes down to who controls what, what slice of the pie they all have. But I don’t necessarily believe that this is going to lead to some major conflagration between Iranian and Russian forces there,” analyst Smyth said.  

 

Tactical differences  

 

The strategic partnership between Russia and Iran in Syria goes beyond such disagreements, especially since Russia is still dependent on Iranian forces to hold territory and to provide manpower for Syrian regime troops, some experts say.  

 

“I never believe that Russia would separate from Iran,” said Anna Borshchevskaya, a research fellow at the European Foundation for Democracy who focuses on Russia’s policy in the Middle East. 

 

“The disagreements they’re having is that they’re trying to carve out spheres of influence in Syria, which is something that Russia understands very well,” she told VOA in a phone interview. “Their relationship is a complex one, for sure. But what holds them together is their anti-Americanism and a desire to reduce American influence in the region.”  

Borshchevskaya added that “on the tactical level, [Russia and Iran] are going to have differences sometimes. But they agree on the big picture.” 

 

The U.S. has been involved in the war against Islamic State militants since 2014, when the terror group announced its so-called caliphate in Syria and Iraq.  

 

U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who declared victory over IS in March, now control more than a third of Syria’s territory.  

 

The United States has about 2,000 troops in areas under the control of the Kurdish-led SDF. But the U.S. administration has said it will keep only about 400 soldiers in those areas after the war against IS is over.  

 

Russia and Iran have constantly opposed the U.S. military presence in Syria. 

 

Economic competition  

 

Some analysts believe that, unlike when they became involved in Syria’s war, Russian and Iranian forces now control larger territories and both countries are searching for economic opportunities in the country.  

 

“Now there are more points of friction between the two countries than ever before,” said Jowan Hemo, a Syrian economist who follows the economic patterns of the war.  

 

“So naturally, you would see them compete to win contracts with the Syrian regime, including the energy and power sectors and other types of investments,” he told VOA. 

 

In 2018, Russia was awarded exclusive rights to produce Syria’s oil and gas. Russia has also signed a contract to use the Syrian port of Tartus for 49 years, while Iran won a bid to partially use the port of Latakia. 

 

Both countries want to economically monopolize Syria for the long term, because they each have given sizable loans to the Syrian regime throughout the war, economist Hemo said.  

 

“I believe this type of competition will continue in Syria, but eventually Russia’s economic dominance will prevail,” he added. 
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Sudan Opposition to Press Ahead With General Strike

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Sudan’s alliance of opposition and protest groups said Monday that it would push ahead with a two-day general strike starting Tuesday after talks with the ruling military council collapsed. 

 

Wagdy Saleh, speaking for the Declaration of Freedom and Change Forces (DFCF) alliance, said the Transitional Military Council (TMC) demanded a two-thirds majority on a sovereign council that would lead the country after the ouster of longtime President Omar al-Bashir last month. 

 

The deputy head of the TMC, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, said earlier Monday that the council was ready to hand over power swiftly but that the opposition was not serious about sharing power. 

 

“These people do not want to partner with us,” said Dagalo, who is known as Hemedti and heads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, adding they wanted to confine the military to a ceremonial role. 

 

“By God, their slogans cheated us. I swear we were honest with them 100%,” Hemedti said at a dinner with police and diplomats. “That’s why, by God almighty, we will not hand this country except to safe hands.”    
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Somali Officer Remembered as Mother, Military Hero

Posted on by SeeAF

VOA’s Salem Solomon contributed to this report.

Col. Faadumo Ali spent her life trying to bring peace and security back to her home country of Somalia.

The 33-year-old mother of 10 joined the military in 2007 and led a division of Danab, an elite, U.S.-trained commando force. She had taken part in many battles against the extremist group al-Shabab, including fights that liberated the capital, Mogadishu.

But on May 22, while standing guard at a checkpoint in the capital, Ali was killed by a car bomb. Her husband, Cmdr. Bashar Sharif Abdullahi, also a member of Danab, died in the attack as well.

Hassan Ali Mohamed, Somalia’s minister of defense, noted that Ali was a valuable bridge between the Somali National Army and the African Union Mission in Somalia because she spoke English. She was also the first female special staff member to former Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed.

“She developed the military’s attitude and was such a hero that we lost,” Mohamed told VOA’s Somali service.

Role model

Ali’s sister, Malyuun Mahmed, said she was a role model in and out of her home.

“She was raising her kids, providing for her father and mother, and she was an inspiration to all of us. We are so sorry that their kids lost their two parents on the same day,” she said.

Her children range in age from 17 to a 22-day-old newborn. Ali was married before and lost a previous husband to an al-Shabab attack two years ago.

Although Mogadishu is under the control of the African Union and the Somali National Army, attacks by al-Shabab continue. This particular blast targeted officials and lawmakers on their way to the presidential palace. Nine people were killed, including former Somali Foreign Minister Hussein Elabe Fahiye.

The defense minister said two operations were ongoing against al-Shabab, code-named Protection 1 and Protection 2. He added that the fight to destroy the extremist group was an entire government effort.

“Whenever we liberate a zone, we recruit and deploy police forces, rebuild houses, distribute food, and build the local administration,” Mohamed said.

Tributes to fallen

Many Somali websites and popular social media pages featured tributes to the fallen soldiers, calling them heroes.

“She was a highly loved mother. … Whenever she was in the operations, her mother and other kids used to care for her family. Her death touched us badly. It’s a sad day for our family,” her sister added.

Remembrances also poured in for Abdullahi.

“He dedicated his time and efforts to the Somali army. I’m so sorry and felt pain when I heard (about) the death of this couple,” said Abdihakim Barre Ismail, brother of the deceased officer.
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D-Day’s 75th Anniversary Renews Interest in Some Classrooms 

Posted on by SeeEU

Kasey Turcol has just 75 minutes to explain to her high school students the importance of D-Day — and if this wasn’t the 75th anniversary of the turning point in World War II, she wouldn’t devote that much time to it.

D-Day is not part of the required curriculum in North Carolina — or in many other states.

Turcol reminds her students at Crossroads FLEX High School in Cary that D-Day was an Allied victory that saved Europe from Nazi tyranny and that the young men who fought and died were barely older than they are. She sprinkles her lesson with details about the number of men, ships and planes involved in the landing at Normandy while adding a few lesser-known facts about a Spanish spy and a deadly military practice conducted six months earlier in England.

Losing resonance

In the U.S. and other countries affected by the events on June 6, 1944, historians and educators worry that the World War II milestone is losing its resonance with today’s students.

In France, which was liberated from German occupation, D-Day isn’t a stand-alone topic in schools. German schools concentrate on the Holocaust and the Nazi dictatorship. And despite having been part of the Allied powers, in Russia, the schools avoid D-Day because they believe it was the victories on the Eastern Front that won the war.

“History has taken a back seat” in the U.S. because of the focus on science and math classes, said Cathy Gorn, executive director of National History Day in College Park, Md. 

In the U.S., teaching about World War II varies from state to state. It’s often up to the teachers to decide how much time they want to give to individual battles like D-Day.

California framework

California’s History-Social Science Framework, adopted in 2016, includes for sophomores an expansive unit on World War II that covers how the conflict was “a total war,” the goals of the Allied and Axis powers and how the fighting was fought on different fronts. The unit also includes a section on the Holocaust. 

In New York, school officials are using the D-Day anniversary to review the curriculum and “make recommendations on how the current average time of 90 minutes of World War II study in a school year can be strengthened, expanded and mandated.” 

There are special programs available to immerse select students in the history of D-Day. 

For eight years, National History Day sent 15 pairs of students and teachers to Normandy to immerse them in the history of D-Day. The high school sophomores and juniors would research individual soldiers close to them — relatives or people from their hometowns — who died. On the last day, the group visited a cemetery where each student read a eulogy for his or her individual soldier. 

Teachers also have outside resources. The National World War II Museum offers an electronic field trip through D-Day and provides suggested lessons plans.

In North Carolina, history is taught through “conceptual design” with connections to themes such as geography, economics and politics, said Meghan Grant, coordinating teacher for secondary social studies in Wake County schools.  

The lessons are based on a method of teaching social studies that was developed in 2013 and used by about half the states, said Larry Paska, executive director of the National Council for the Social Studies. Paska said it may focus on asking students a question like, “What makes an event a turning point in the war?” Students then will use difference sources of evidence to back up their answers.

‘This is the moment’

As part of her D-Day lesson, Turcol tells her class of juniors and seniors that the Germans thought an attack from the Allied forces wouldn’t be possible.  

“It’s too stormy. It’s too risky,” she said. “And what do we do? Yeah, we find a glimmer of hope. On June 5th, the skies kind of clear. The moon kind of shines. And we’re like, ‘This is the moment. This is what is happening.’ ”

She tells students that Gen. Dwight Eisenhower kept D-Day plans on the “down low.”  

Turcol plays a few minutes of a documentary about D-Day to “show you the true humanity of the war,” she says.  

“You saw the German praying … asking for his mother, father, asking for this to be over. Not everybody is on the same message in Germany,” she says. “Everybody here is a father, a mother, a brother, a cousin, a friend. So every life matters.”

Students in Europe also receive dramatically different lessons on D-Day depending on where they live.

Because of Germany’s history, any hint of militarism remains a taboo. While battles like D-Day, Stalingrad and the Operation Barbarossa invasion of Russia might be mentioned briefly in schools, they tend to be lumped together in broad overviews of the war. Individual teachers do have leeway, however, to pursue topics that capture the attention of students. 

The curriculum is similar from state to state. In Berlin high schools, for example, curriculum guidelines include the history of the war under the overall focus on “the collapse of the first German democracy; Nazi tyranny,” which includes classes on Nazi ideology, resistance movements, the Holocaust and World War II.

Similarly, Bavaria’s ninth-grade curriculum focuses primarily on explaining how the Nazis came to power and their anti-Semitic ideology and genocidal policies, with the war taught briefly as part of their “expansion and conquest policies.”  In the 11th grade, the focus is even more directly on the Holocaust, and the curriculum guidelines note specific dates to be learned, including the anti-Jewish “Kristallnacht” pogrom in 1938.

The Russian narrative on D-Day has remained almost unchanged since the days of the Soviet Union. Historians and schoolbooks describe the invasion as a long-awaited move, happening after the course of WWII had already been shaped by Soviet victories in the battles of Stalingrad and Kursk and other battles on the Eastern Front.

Even in the country where D-Day occurred, the assault doesn’t have a central place in the teaching of World War II. The history of 20th century conflict is taught in France as a theme and no longer as a chronological list of major battles.

A week of lessons ‘not possible’

“We no longer teach as we did before, what we called ‘the history of battles,’ ” says Christine Guimonnet, who teaches history at a high school west of Paris and is secretary-general of the APHG, a French association of history and geography teachers. “Everyone will, of course, speak about June 6 because it was a major moment in the war, but we’re not going to spend a whole week on it. That’s not possible.” 

As long as they are still teaching the broader themes, French teachers may home in on specific events, like D-Day, to organize study projects and, if they have the budget, trips to Normandy beaches, museums or screenings of The Longest Day, a 1962 film about the events of D-Day. 

As cultural director at Normandy’s Caen Memorial, Isabelle Bournier deals daily with school groups that tour the museum. French children often aren’t familiar with the details of D-Day, partially because fewer families have relatives who lived through the war and can pass on their stories, she said.

Students from Normandy are different from the broader French student population, she said.

“All families are more or less impregnated by this history. It is part of us,” Bournier said. 
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Zarif Says Iran Not Seeking Nuclear Arms

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Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Monday Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons, which its supreme leader had banned in an edict, adding on Twitter that U.S. policies were hurting the Iranian people and causing regional tensions.

“Ayatollah (Ali) @khamenei_ir long ago said we’re not seeking nuclear weapons” by issuing a fatwa (edict) banning them,” Zarif said in a tweet.” (U.S.) Economic Terrorism is hurting the Iranian people and causing tension in the region.”
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Israel Could Face New Elections Amid Coalition Crisis

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Israel moved closer to new parliamentary elections Monday, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unable to form a government after appearing on track last month to win a fifth term as leader of the Jewish state.

The Israeli parliament approved a preliminary motion to dissolve itself, and if adopted a second time in a Wednesday vote, Israel would be forced to hold new elections.

After last month’s elections, Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party emerged tied as the largest bloc in the 120-member parliament, but with traditional minor party allies appeared to be in control with a solid 65-55 majority.

His prospective coalition has been thrown into turmoil by former defense minister Avigdor Lieberman, sometimes a Netanyahu ally and sometimes a rival.

Lieberman has demanded passage of a new law mandating that young ultra-Orthodox men be drafted into the Israeli military, like most other Jewish men, while Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox allies have called for the current draft exemptions to remain in place.

In a prime-time statement, Netanyahu called for his potential coalition partners to put “the good of the nation above every other interest” to avoid what he said would be “expensive, wasteful” elections.

The Israeli leader said he was hopeful that a compromise could be forged before the late Wednesday deadline for him to form a new government.

But he acknowledged, “Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to convince Lieberman to avoid another election. The reality is that we must be responsible and form a government immediately.”  

He said, “A lot can be done in 48 hours. The voters’ wishes can be respected, a strong right-wing government can be formed.”

Netanyahu cannot form a government without the five seats of Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party.

“The draft law has become a symbol, and we will not capitulate on our symbols,” Lieberman said, vowing to press for new parliamentary elections if his demand is not met.

Ultra-Orthodox parties consider military conscription a violation of their religious beliefs, fearing that military service will lead to secularization. But such exemptions from military service are widely resented by other Jewish Israelis.

Some Likud adherents say that Lieberman is motivated by his personal spite for Netanyahu, but Lieberman says he will not give in to religious coercion.

“I will not be a partner to a Halachic state,” he said, using the word for Jewish law.

U.S. President Donald Trump, a staunch Netanyahu ally, took note of the Israeli political impasse while on a state visit to Japan, referring to his friend by his well-known nickname, Bibi.

“Hoping things will work out with Israel’s coalition formation and Bibi and I can continue to make the alliance between America and Israel stronger than ever,” Trump said on Twitter. “A lot more to do!” 

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Kenya Conference Takes On Rapid Urbanization

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Some 3,000 delegates, including four presidents, cabinet ministers, urban planners and population experts are attending the United Nations Habitat Assembly meeting this week in Nairobi.  They are seeking better urban and sustainable planning to deal with rising populations as well the effects of climate change.

 

At the inaugural U.N Habitat Assembly, delegates will put their heads together hoping to find solutions to make big cities more habitable.  

For Africa, urgent solutions are needed as the United Nations estimates nearly half of the continent’s populations live in slums.

The theme of the summit is “Innovation for a better quality of life in cities and communities.” U.N. Habitat Director for Africa Naison Mutizwa-Mangaza says innovation will be key in transforming the continent’s urban areas.

 

“We hope there will be a lot of ideas shared on innovations on how to plan our cities, how to manage them, how to do transport in a more imaginative way and so on.  For me it would be how to grow African economies using urbanization as a tool,” Mutizwa-Mangaza said.

The assembly is to be held every four years and comes as more people are living in urban areas than rural areas, posing a challenge for urban planners, according to Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta.

 

“Inadequate shelter and unsustainable human settlement remain a key challenge. I urge partners to exchange ideas and best practices for improving our cities.  And I therefore continue to urge member countries and partners to seize this opportunities during this United Nations Habitat Assembly to exchange ideas and best practices with a view of identifying practical solutions to improving our cities and human settlements,” Kenyatta said.

 

At the end of the five day summit, delegates plan to come up with a ministerial declaration with proposals on how to make cities more inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable by 2030.

 

Maimouna Sharrif, director of U.N. Habitat, says coordinated action is needed.

 

“It means that we collectively need to get our urban growth process right to sort, and our urban growth process and our cities right to solve or mitigate these problems.  This is important as some of these problems do not recognize regional or national boundaries,” Sharrif said.

 

The U.N. Habitat Assembly, will draw from the New Urban Agenda, a road map on urban development adopted by global leaders in 2016.   

 

 
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Fiat Chrysler Proposes Merger With Renault

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Fiat Chrysler proposed a merger Monday with Renault, a union that would create the world’s third biggest automaker.

The merger, if it happens, would vault the new company, with annual sales of 8.7 million vehicles, into a position ahead of General Motors and behind only Volkswagen and Toyota, both of which sell about 10.6 million.

The merger could give the combined companies a better chance in the battle among auto manufacturers to build new electric and autonomous vehicles.

Investors in both companies showed their initial approval of the announcement, with Renault’s shares jumping 15 percent in afternoon trading in Paris and Fiat Chrysler stock up more than 10 percent in Milan. The proposal calls for shareholders to split ownership of the new company.

Fiat Chrysler said the deal would save the combined companies $5.6 billion annually with shared payments for research, purchasing and other expenses. The deal does not call for closure of any manufacturing plants but the companies did not say whether any employees would lose their jobs.

The deal would give Fiat access to Renault’s electric car technologies, allowing it to meet the strict carbon dioxide emission standards the European Commission is enacting.

For its part, Renault might be able to gain ground in the U.S. market because of Fiat’s extensive operations in North America.

The French government owns 15 percent of Renault and said it supports the merger, while adding that “the terms of this merger must be supportive of Renault’s economic development, and obviously of Renault’s employees.”

 
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Israel Open to US-Led Talks With Lebanon Over Border Dispute

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Israel says it’s willing to engage in U.S.-mediated talks with Lebanon to resolve a border dispute over a sliver of the Mediterranean Sea seen as rich with energy resources.

Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said he met Monday with U.S. envoy David Satterfield, who has shuttled between the countries with the aim of demarcating their maritime boundary over past weeks.

Steinitz “expressed Israel’s openness”’ to negotiations “for the benefit of both countries’ interests in developing natural gas reserves and oil.”

Israel and Lebanon, technically still at war, each claim some 860 square kilometers (330 square miles) of sea as within their own exclusive economic zones. Earlier this month, Lebanese President Michel Aoun said he presented Satterfied with Lebanon’s “united stance” and encouraged U.S. diplomatic involvement.

Satterfied returns to Beirut on Tuesday.

 
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Africa 54

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We are live. Join us and let us know from what part of the world you are watching us.
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Cost of Buying Out US Flood-Prone Homes: $5B and Rising

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The residents of this small riverside town have become accustomed to watching floods swamp their streets, transform their homes into islands and ruin their floors and furniture.

Elmer Sullivan has replaced his couch, bed and television. He’s torn up water-buckled floorboards. And he put a picket fence against the front of his house to cover up a gap left when waters washed out part of the stone foundation.

“I just don’t want to mess with it anymore. I’m 83 years old and I’m tired of it, and I just want to get out of it,” Sullivan said.

Finally fed up, Sullivan and nearly half of the homeowners in Mosby signed up in 2016 for a program in which the government would buy and then demolish their properties rather than paying to rebuild them over and over. They’re still waiting for offers, joining thousands of others across the country in a slow-moving line to escape from flood-prone homes.

Patience is wearing thin in Mosby, a town of fewer than 200 people with a core of lifelong residents and some younger newcomers drawn by the cheap prices of its modest wood-frame homes. Residents watched nervously this past week as high waters again threatened the town.

“It really is frustrating, because here we are, we’re coming through a wet season. There’s a chance that we could possibly flood, and we’re still waiting,” said Jason Stooksbury, an alderman who oversees the town’s efforts to curb flooding. “It’s not a good situation, but what are you going to do — it’s the government process.”

Over the past three decades, federal and local governments have poured more than $5 billion into buying tens of thousands of vulnerable properties across the country, according to an Associated Press analysis of data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The AP analysis shows those buyouts have been getting more expensive, with many of the costliest coming in the last decade after strong storms pounded heavily populated coastal states such as Texas, New York and New Jersey. This year’s record flooding in the Midwest could add even more buyouts to the queue.

The purchases are happening as the climate changes. Along rivers and sea coasts, some homes that were once considered at little risk are now endangered due to water that is climbing higher and surging farther inland than historic patterns predicted.

Regardless of the risks, the buyouts are voluntary. Homeowners can renew taxpayer-subsidized flood insurance policies indefinitely.

With more extreme weather events, flooding “is going to become more and more of an issue, and there will be more and more properties that are at risk of total loss or near total loss,” said Democratic U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which has jurisdiction over FEMA. “Then the question is: Are we just going to keep selling them insurance and building in the same place?”

DeFazio wants to expand and revamp a buyout process that he describes as inefficient and irrational. He’s backing a proposed pilot project that would give homeowners a break on their flood insurance premiums, as long as they agree in advance to a buyout that would turn their property into green space if their homes are substantially damaged by a flood.

Buyout programs rely on federal money distributed through the states, but they generally are carried out by cities and counties that end up owning the properties.

Most buyouts are initiated after disasters, but Congress has become more proactive. Appropriations for FEMA’s Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grant Program — which funds buyouts and other precautions, such as elevating homes before disasters strike — have risen from $25 million in 2015 to $250 million this year.

A recent study for the National Institute of Building Sciences found that society as a whole saves $7 in avoided costs for every $1 spent through federally funded grants to acquire or demolish flood-prone buildings. Yet it’s harder to gauge the benefits for the individuals who move.

After Superstorm Sandy pummeled New Jersey and New York in 2012, Duke University graduate school student Devon McGhee researched what happened to hundreds of Staten Island homeowners who took buyouts. She found that all but two of the 323 homeowners she tracked relocated to areas with higher poverty levels. Three-quarters remained on Staten Island, and about one-fifth moved to homes that still were exposed to coastal flooding hazards.

“When people take the buyouts, sometimes the money they are given on their home is not enough to buy a comparable home in a lower-risk area,” said McGhee, who now works as a coastal management specialist for an engineering and consulting firm.

The prolonged buyout process also can take an emotional toll on people who are uprooted.

“Maybe they find a home, and it’s a good home, but it’s not their home where their kids grew up and had birthday parties and that sort of thing. There are these losses that occur in that transition process that can have implications for years,” said Sherri Brokopp Binder, an Allentown, Pennsylvania-based consultant who researches disaster buyouts.

Multiple layers of government bureaucracy can slow the buyout process. So can the typical hiccups that come with property sales.

In Kingfisher, Oklahoma, officials are still working to complete a buyout prompted by Tropical Storm Erin in 2007. The city initiated a buyout in 2010, then received additional money to buy more homes about five years later. It’s purchased more than 80 so far, with about 10 more to go, said Annie Vest, a former Oklahoma state hazard mitigation officer who now works for an engineering firm administering Kingfisher’s grant.

The process is just getting started in some Texas communities swamped by Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Officials in Liberty County, northeast of Houston, held a meeting with residents last month to discuss a $6.7 million HUD grant to buy out homes near the Trinity River. The county still must get appraisals of the homes, conduct asbestos inspections and take bids for a demolition contractor.

Local officials hope to start taking buyout applications by the end of the year, said David Douglas, the Liberty County engineering administrator and flood plain manager.

Formal discussions of a federally funded buyout likely are a long way off in Hamburg, Iowa, which was inundated in March by a breach of a Missouri River levee.

But local officials aren’t waiting around. Mayor Cathy Crain said they are looking into the potential for a private developer to relocate some houses and to acquire higher land where new homes and businesses could be built.

Relocating to higher ground isn’t likely in Mosby, unless residents are willing to go elsewhere. The entire core of the town is in a floodway, which means that new development is limited.

Located just northeast of Kansas City, Mosby began as a railroad town in 1887 and expanded with coal mines in the early 20th century.  At one time, it had a school, bank, grocery store and lumber yard. Those are gone now, and the trains merely pass by. In 2015, financial strains led the town to eliminate its small police force.

Mosby experienced some of its worst flooding that same year, with three floods in less than six weeks. The next year, city officials began pursuing the buyouts, and more than 40 homeowners signed up. They’ve been in limbo ever since. Local officials sought nearly $3 million in funding, submitted a revised application, obtained property appraisals and conducted environmental reviews.

Some residents have been scouting for new housing. Others are waiting to see the bids, which are expected this summer.

Sullivan hopes to get $28,000 for his home. He would move near his sister in southeastern Missouri, but he’s getting impatient.

“I’m just about ready to tell them, `Take it and shove it,”‘ he said.

Sitting on the concrete porch of the white wooden house where she’s lived for the past 36 years, Tammy Kilgore explains that “everybody’s just really on edge and ready to leave.”

“The floods, I’m tired of dealing with them, I really am,” she said. “I think they should have bought out this town a long time ago.”

 

 
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US Honors Its War Dead on Memorial Day

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The United States paused Monday to honor its war dead on the annual Memorial Day.

With U.S. President Donald Trump in Japan on a state visit, Vice President Mike Pence laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider at Arlington National Cemetery just outside Washington. Trump, before returning home, is marking the holiday with an address Tuesday to American troops at the Yokosuka U.S. Naval Base near Tokyo about the “global nature of the partnership between Japan and the U.S.”

At the cemetery, Pence told hundreds of military dignitaries and relatives of the fallen that the U.S. “can never fully repay” its debt to those who gave their lives for the country.

“We will never forget,” he said, “and we will never forget to honor” them. “Their duty was to serve, our duty is to honor them.”

Parades and somber remembrances are planned in U.S. cities large and small on Monday to recall the ultimate sacrifice that hundreds of thousands of Americans have borne for their country’s freedom through its 243-year existence.

It is estimated that 1.1 million Americans have died in conflict, but the largest single death toll — nearly a half million — came in the 19th century U.S. Civil War fought between northern and southern states over slavery, a practice ended after Union states in the northern U.S. prevailed. In the deadliest overseas conflict, more than 400,000 Americans were killed in World War II.

Various places across the U.S. have been cited in connection with the origin of Memorial Day, with perhaps the first commemoration of war dead in 1868, three years after the Civil War ended. In early rural America, families often marked the day in late summer. For years, the memorial was known as Decoration Day and the fallen from all U.S. wars were remembered and their service honored.

Memorial Day for years was set on May 30, but it became a national U.S. holiday in 1971 and now is celebrated on the last Monday in May. For some, a national moment of remembrance is set at 3 p.m. local time on the holiday.

Families of the fallen often visit the grave sites of their loved ones or watch parades with bands and flag-waving marchers. But for other Americans, the day is unofficially the beginning of summer and part of a three-day weekend when families head to parks and the beach or enjoy picnics with friends and relatives.

In Washington on Sunday, thousands of motorcycles roared through the streets for what organizers say will be the last Rolling Thunder celebration in the nation’s capital.

The annual Memorial Day tradition is meant to draw attention to more than 83,000 U.S. military personnel still listed as Missing in Action from World War I through the recent fighting in Iraq. The list also includes 126 people believed missing from operations related to the Cold War.

The first Rolling Thunder was held in 1988. The cyclists usually meet up in a Pentagon parking lot and ride into downtown Washington across the various bridges spanning the Potomac River.

But Rolling Thunder Executive Director Artie Muller said this is the last year he will hold the ride in Washington.

Muller said he has grown frustrated with the Pentagon bureaucracy in coordinating the event. Mueller said sponsors, vendors and others have not been given access to parking lots even though Rolling Thunder said it paid “exorbitant permit fees.”

For many people, the group’s decades-long presence with the loud roar of their motorcycle engines has become synonymous with Memorial Day activities in Washington.

Trump says Rolling Thunder is always welcome in the city.

“The Great Patriots of Rolling Thunder will be coming back to Washington, D.C. next year, and hopefully for many years to come. It is where they want to be and where they should be,” Trump tweeted as he thanked the “great men & women of the Pentagon for working it out.”

In an interview with VOA, Muller said Rolling Thunder is “willing to talk” with the president. But despite the president’s postings on Twitter, Muller said, “I think we really want to go nationwide” with local chapters holding their own observations on Memorial Day.

Muller said the annual trek to the nation’s capital is becoming too much for some Rolling Thunder members. “We’re all getting old and can’t ride that far,” he said. For members who come from the West Coast, Muller said, “It a haul. You’re talking 2 to 3,000 miles… That takes a lot out of you.”

Pentagon figures show 83,000 American military personnel remain unaccounted for. Most of them — about 73,000 — are from World War II. Upwards of 7,700 are from the Korean War, and more than 1,600 are from the Vietnam War.

Trump, before he left for Tokyo to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, said he is considering pardons for several military servicemen accused or convicted of war crimes, an action that critics say would be an abuse of his pardon powers.

“We’re looking at a lot of different pardons for a lot of different people,” Trump said at the White House.

“Some of these soldiers are people that have fought hard, long, you know. We teach them how to be great fighters and when they fight sometimes they get really treated very unfairly. So we’re going to take a look at it,” Trump said.

He acknowledged that two or three cases were “a little bit controversial.”

But as Memorial Day dawned across the U.S., Trump had yet to announce any pardons.

 

 

 
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Ghana Just Scratching Surface of Illegal Gold Mining

Posted on by SeeAF

Only the chirping of birds and insects break the silence at a gold mining site in the Eastern Region of Ghana, right at the foot of the Atewa forest reserve.

Caterpillar excavators stand still, as the two Ghanaian companies operating them wait for a new mining permit  a process that has been in the works for months.

But a fresh pile of sludge spilt over a patch of vegetation suggests the mine is being operated illegally.

Felix Addo-Okyreh, who works for Ghana’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), says the sludge — referred to as slime’ in mining jargon — is dirty waste water created when gold is separated from sediment, sometimes with the help mercury. It is stored in dams on the site.

“It rained heavily last week. The embankment of the dam was weak. It got broken, and this is the result,” he says.

The toxic slime landed a few meters away from a stream that flows into the Birim, a river supplying water to millions of people in the capital Accra.

Ghana cracked down on illegal small-scale gold mining in 2017, after the national water company warned that the chemicals discharged by what is locally known as galamsey could force the country to import all its drinking water within the next two decades.

That year the government set up a military task force to dismantle illegal mining sites and imposed a 20-month ban on all small-scale mining to give nature a breather. Satellite imagery and digital technologies are being used to better monitor mining activity.

Yet Global Forest Watch data released last month shows the rate of deforestation in Ghana increased by 60 percent in 2018, faster than in any other part of the world. The country lost 1.13 percent its primary forest last year, in part due to gold mined illegally and often siphoned away by Chinese buyers.

Daniel Kwamena Ewur, an officer for conservation group A Rocha, said the ban pushed more small-scale miners to work within the protected Atewa forest, operating at night when security officials are off duty.  

Local authorities and NGOs have started training illegal miners to learn alternative livelihood skills such as soup-making and farming bees. But critics doubt these activities are economically viable.

“It’s kind of scratching the surface of the core issues of livelihood driving people,” said Nafi Chinery, Ghana country manager for the New York-based Natural Resource Governance Institute.

Chinery believes the anti-galamsey campaign has been more about politics than impact. “We don’t have enough data about who is actually involved in galamsey,” she added.

Around 1.1 million Ghanaians were estimated to work in small-scale mining before the ban, which was lifted in December, accounting for around 30 percent of the country’s annual mineral production. 

EPA’s head of mining Michael Ali says the government is now going to great lengths to “sanitize” the gold industry by formalizing galamsey sites, being stricter with paperwork and cracking down on the use of mercury.

“The mission is to reduce it to the barest minimum,” said Ali. “We cannot eliminate it completely, unless the citizens themselves police it.”

The EPA has reclaimed ten acres of illegally mined land around the Atewa forest, near the southeastern town of Kyebi. Trees were planted to encourage residents to take initiative and help meet an ambitious reclamation target of more than 7,000 square kilometers of land by 2022.

In the nearby town of Sagymase, 65-year old cocoa farmer Janet Achampong does not know what to do about the gaping pit left on land she leased to illegal miners five years ago. She cannot afford to fill the hole herself and reconvert it to farmland.

The government has acknowledged money is short and says it is seeking support from the international community. In Sagymase, Norwegian donors are funding the reclamation of six acres of galamsey land over the next four years.

A Rocha’s Ewur is facilitating the project, but is wary of planting trees and food crops in soil that has been mixed with chemicals.

“There is some quantity of mercury in the belly of this land,” said Ewur. “I would not eat the mangoes that grow here.”   
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