Rwanda and Uganda have agreed to resolve issues that have strained bilateral relations in recent months. Through an ad hoc commission, the two sides have been working on their differences in order to defuse tensions. The talks build on a memorandum of understanding that was signed in Angola one month ago to end the dispute that prompted both countries to accuse the other of spying, political assassinations and meddling. The tensions had also prompted Rwanda to close the border with its northern neighbor.At the meeting Monday, Olivier Nduhungirehe, minister of state within Rwanda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, spoke of the long history between the two countries.
“Rwanda and Uganda share historical ties, that should normally build a strong strategic alliance given the long-standing bonds that link the two peoples and countries,” he said.
Rwanda’s government, however, did not raise the issue of a travel advisory aimed at discouraging Rwandans from traveling to Uganda. Kigali has voiced concern about cases involving Rwandans, who it says have been illegally detained or tortured on Ugandan soil. This has been a point of contention between the countries.Ugandan Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa says the state will employ due process in the case of the Rwandans.
“We are going to use the courts … we are going to use all formal ways, of dealing with people who alleged criminals or alleged detained so as to distinguish innocents from guilty,” he said.
Rwanda also accuses Uganda of hosting and supporting terror groups aimed at destabilizing the government in Kigali. The Ugandan foreign minister says his country has no interest in destabilizing Rwanda’s security.
“The point is that we have nothing to benefit in destabilizing Rwanda just like I think they have nothing in destabilizing Uganda. We are going to be investigating all of these allegations and we shall find a way of resolving them,” he said.
The ad hoc commission meeting was the first aimed at following up on the implementation of the memorandum of understanding.
Angola’s minister of external relations, Manuel Domingos Augusto, attended Monday’s meeting. He voiced optimism after the talks, saying it shows African countries can work together to resolve issues among themselves.”
“This is a positive sign and this is also proof that we can find African solutions for African problems,” he said.
Rwanda and Uganda signed the memorandum of understanding on August 21. Officials say that in addition to Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo played a role in getting Rwanda and Uganda to sign the agreement. Despite the progress, though, observers say for now, nothing has changed or improved and are taking a wait-and-see approach.
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Month: September 2019
Cokie Roberts, Longtime Political Journalist, Dies at 75
Cokie Roberts, the daughter of politicians who grew up to cover the family business in Washington for ABC News and NPR over several decades, died Tuesday in Washington of complications from breast cancer.ABC broke into network programming to announce her death and pay tribute.Roberts was the daughter of Hale Boggs, a former House majority leader from Louisiana, and Lindy Boggs, who succeeded her husband in the job. Roberts worked in radio and at CBS News and PBS before joining ABC News in 1988.She was a congressional reporter and analyst who co-anchored the Sunday political show “This Week” with Sam Donaldson from 1996 to 2002.Roberts, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002, kept working nearly to the end. She appeared on “This Week” in August, drawing enough concern about her evident weight loss that she released a statement saying “I am doing fine” and was looking forward to covering next year’s election.She co-wrote a political column for many years with her husband of 53 years, Steven, who survives. They had two children.Roberts wrote books, focusing on the role of women in history. She wrote two with her husband, one about interfaith families and “From This Day Forward,” an account of their marriage.Current ABC News political reporter Jonathan Karl recalled being in awe of Roberts when he first started working at the network.“When I think of politics, I think of Cokie Roberts,” he said.Her colleagues said she never became cynical or lost her love for politics. She did force NPR to clarify her role as a commentator when she wrote a column in 2016 calling on “the rational wing” of the Republican party to reject Donald Trump as their presidential candidate.
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Snowden Calls on France’s Macron to Grant Him Asylum
Former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked classified documents detailing government surveillance programs, is calling on French President Emmanuel Macron to grant him asylum.Snowden, now living in Russia to avoid prosecution in the United States, stressed in an interview broadcast Monday on France’s Inter radio that “protecting whistleblowers is not a hostile act” and that he feels entitled to get protected status in France.Snowden unsuccessfully applied for asylum in France in 2013 under Macron’s predecessor, Francois Hollande. He has also sought asylum in several other countries.
Snowden’s memoir, telling his life story in detail for the first time, will be released Tuesday in about 20 countries, including France.The French presidency did not comment.
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CPJ: Concern Over Life Sentence Appeal in 2000 Murder of Ukrainian Journalist
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has “expressed concern” over the possibility that a former Ukrainian police general who confessed to the murder of a journalist may have his life prison sentence commuted.Oleksiy Pukach, who once headed the surveillance department of Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, was sentenced in January 2013 for the murder of Heorhiy Gongadze 13 years earlier on September 16.After his disappearance that day, Gongadze’s beheaded body was found two months later in a forest near Kyiv that sent shock waves through society and prompted immediate calls for a thorough investigation.Pukach, meanwhile, has given conflicting accounts over the years, and has been appealing his life sentence for the past six years.His next appearance before the Supreme Court is on October 9, which is when he could be freed.“Nineteen years after the brutal murder…of Gongadze, there are concerns the confessed killer may go free. Ukrainian authorities should not allow impunity for journalists’ killings to reign,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s European and Central Asia program coordinator. “There must be full justice…and the masterminds must also be held accountable.”FILE – In this Aug. 2000 photo, investigative journalist Heorhiy Gongadze is seen during an interview in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, a month before his abduction and murder.In his appeals, Pukach said he took orders from above, mainly from then-Interior Minister Yuriy Kravchenko.In turn, Kravchenko died from two gunshot wounds to the head, the day before he was supposed to give testimony to prosecutors in March 2015. His death was ruled a suicide.In a July interview with the Kyiv Post, Pukach said he “overstepped” his powers, but that he “served the full sentence already for this crime…they had no right to give me life in prison.”He was convicted for kidnapping the journalist, taking him to a forest, killing him, decapitating him, and then trying to cover up the crime.Gongadze, who founded the Ukrainska Pravda news website, investigated alleged corruption in the administration of then-President Leonid Kuchma who has been implicated in giving the order to kill him based on audio recordings that were made public.Kuchma and his former chief of staff, Volodymyr Lytvyn, have repeatedly denied involvement in the Gongadze murder.However, during his criminal trial in 2013, Pukach told the judge that he should ask Kuchma and Lytvyn for his motive to kill Gongadze.Pukach later said that Kuchma and Lytvyn also should have been put behind bars with him.Gongadze’s widow, Myroslava Gongadze, told CPJ that “Pukach’s release would be a serious hit to media freedom in Ukraine. It would show that perpetrators of crimes against journalists are not fully held accountable before the law.”Since 1992, more than 50 Ukrainian journalists have been killed for carrying out their professional duties. Most recently, Cherkasy-based reporter Vadym Komarov was attacked in May and died a month later.
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Nettles With Regal Roots Hit The London Catwalks
Fashion models wearing dresses made from nettles harvested at Prince Charles’s country estate in southwest England will feature at London Fashion Week on Tuesday, in one of this year’s most unusual offerings.The quirky eco-friendly attire stems from an unexpected collaboration between the heir to the British throne, who is passionate about ecology, and the sustainable fashion pioneers Vin + Omi.The designer duo met the Prince of Wales last year and the conversation quickly turned to horticulture and its place in their fashion-focused research and development.”We were looking at nettles, cow parsley and horseradish,” Vin, the British half of the pair, told AFP ahead of their show.”We discussed it with Prince Charles and he said: ‘I’ve got a lot of nettles in Highgrove, why don’t you come and get them?” he added, referring to the monarch’s private residence in rural Gloucestershire.And so began the unlikely union between two self-described “very punk” stylists and the upper echelons of Britain’s royal family. “It is a very odd marriage,” conceded Vin.For Omi, who hails from Singapore, Prince Charles’s green ethos was “mind-blowing”.”You wouldn’t think that someone like the future king of England would (think) about that,” he said, noting “proper conversations about (the) environment” clearly captivate him.’Very time-consuming’The fruits of this shared interest will be unveiled Tuesday night at the Savoy Hotel in central London.Among the creations hitting the catwalk: an elegant beige coat, resembling wool but in fact crafted from several thousand nettle plants, which would not look out of place on Prince Charles’s wife Camilla.The plants were collected and cleared of leaves by a team of students from Oxford Brookes University.Vin + Omi have developed a technique to recover the fibres from each nettle stalk, which are then bleached with environmentally-friendly natural products.”Nettles are a very archaic way of making garments,” said Vin, noting the process remains “laborious” and “very time-consuming”.They were historically the source of fabrics for “the landless”, he added.The duo have continued to work with the head gardener at Highgrove examining what other elements of the organic gardens — including discarded items such as sacks or flower pots — could be creatively recycled.They have already reclaimed wood from the grounds and turned into jewelry that will adorn the models on Tuesday.Other creations by the pair from beyond Highgrove include a shirt woven from recycled paint tubes and clothing made from recycled plastic collected from rivers and oceans.The V&A, London’s museum of art and design, plans to acquire some of the clothes to enrich its permanent collection dedicated to sustainable fashion.’Hippies’ -Vin + Omi’s eco-conscious designs appear to be in tune with rising public alarm at climate change. However, that was not always the case.”When we graduated 20 years ago, everybody called us hippies,” recalled Omi. “We predicted that sustainable fashion would be a big thing.”The 43-year-old is encouraged by increasing activism around environmental concerns, praising the Extinction Rebellion pressure group — which has repeatedly targeted Fashion Week and the broader industry — as “brilliant”.”I think that they are doing exactly the right thing by creating more pressure on institutions,” he said.The duo is working on around 40 projects worldwide, from Britain to China to the United States.In New York, they are transforming plastic collected from the Hudson River into locally-sold t-shirts.Elsewhere, they are exploring the potential of various natural materials, such as making leather from chestnuts or mushrooms.But Omi is sceptical of the industry’s overall efforts, which he sees as largely so-called “greenwashing” — taking superficial environmental action simply to make people feel better.
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From the US to Ghana, a Taste of Home in the Homeland
African Americans are being encouraged to visit Ghana to mark 400 years since the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade. In the capital, Accra, one returnee chef is awaiting U.S. visitors to give them a taste of home in the homeland.At her roadside cafe in Accra, Chef Sage cooks up food influenced by her time in the United States, the Caribbean and Ghana. Spices from her lentil burgers waft into the air, as members of her loyal customer base take their seats at the outdoor tables.“I had that Southern influence, my grandmother with cornbread and macaroni cheese – the whole soul food works, and then also being in the Caribbean, having that Caribbean influence as well. I don’t know if a lot of people residing in Africa know that the foods in the Caribbean are so similar, you have direct descendants coming from Africa to the Caribbean,” Sage said.Chef Sage — she prefers not to use her real name — says she’s seeing more African American customers who are in Ghana for “Year of Return” activities, visiting to mark 400 years since the start of the transatlantic slave trade. They sit alongside regular customers as Chef Sage and her family serve up plant-based fusion meals. Chef Sage was born in Brooklyn, New York, moved to Saint Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands as a child and in 2005 relocated to Ghana. “I think when African Americans relocate to Ghana, we do consider this our homeland and we are happy to be here but that food, you are still looking for what you are accustomed too. So I think I attract African Americans because I still have those flavors infused in the food,” Sage said.Chef Sage does private catering in Accra, as well as her weekly roadside cafe. The menu changes weekly but can include anything from sweet potato pie to tacos to fusion salads – all made with local ingredients. Customers like Grisel Industrioso say the food is about good taste and community.“You have people from Jamaica, different Caribbean islands, from you have people from North America, America itself but from different places, you have people from California and from the East like myself but there is something that brings us together as one people. We can all relate to this food,” Industrioso said.The links between food in Ghana and the United States are something Essie Bartels, a Ghanaian food entrepreneur, also explores. Her spice mixes and sauces aim to show the similarities in food cultures around the world, especially those with African heritage.“Being able to see where all these hotspots of flavors are and bringing them together, that is what I am trying to do with Essie Spice and that is what I hope the Year of Return will do to inspire people to see how connected even food is around the world,” Bartels said.Bartels and Chef Sage say the Year of Return is a good time to reflect on shared history and heritage.
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EU Parliament Endorses Lagarde as New Central Bank Head
The European Parliament has agreed the nomination of Christine Lagarde to serve an eight-year term as the next president of the European Central Bank.
The non-binding vote Tuesday was 394 in favor and 206 against, with 49 abstentions.
Lagarde, 63, was nominated by European governments to succeed Mario Draghi on Nov. 1 as head of the central bank for the 19 European Union countries that use the euro. She last week resigned her previous job as head of the Washington-based International Monetary Fund.The parliament and the ECB must give an opinion on the nomination but cannot block it. Lagarde has endorsed Draghi’s stimulus efforts aimed at raising inflation and growth in the wake of the eurozone debt crisis despite opposition in the currency union’s biggest member, Germany.
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Chinese Envoy Heading to US to Prepare for New Round of Trade Talks
China says a government official will travel to the United States this week to lay the groundwork for the resumption of high-level trade talks next month.State-run Xinhua news agency says deputy finance minister Liao Min will arrive in Washington Wednesday for talks with counterparts from the Trump administration to “pave the way” for the senior level negotiations, which will also take place in the U.S. capital. The decision to hold a new round of talks was made earlier this month during a phone call between Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, Beijing’s top trade negotiator, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.The two sides last held major talks in July but there was no major breakthrough in the trade dispute between the world’s top two economies. Washington and Beijing have been engaged in a series of escalating tit-for-tat tariffs for more than a year, sparked by U.S. President Donald Trump’s initial demand for changes in China’s trade, subsidy and intellectual property practices. China says U.S. trade policies are aimed at trying to stifle its ability to compete.The situation has cast uncertainty on financial markets and left companies scrambling to cope with the effects of the tariffs.President Trump announced last week that he was postponing a new round of tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese goods from October 1 to October 15 “as a gesture of goodwill.” China followed up by lifting tariffs on U.S. soybeans, pork and some other farm goods Treasury Secretary Mnuchin said last week he is “cautiously optimistic” a deal can be reached to resolve the trade dispute at the coming talks, but warned that Trump stands ready to keep, or even raise, tariffs on Chinese imports.
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Cambodian Government’s Request for ‘Meetings’ Seen as Intimidation
The Cambodian government summoned three human rights organizations to meetings in Phnom Penh to examine research they published and comments one of them gave to the media, a move the NGOs described as attempts at intimidation. The organizations are Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT), Licadho and Transparency International (TI). TI director Preap Kol was summoned separately for separate comments.In their report Collateral Damage: Land Loss and Abuses in Cambodia’s Microfinance Sector, Licadho and STT highlight cases of Cambodians having lost their land when their land titles were used as collateral for taking up a loan. The report tells of Cambodian citizens being left deep in debt. Following the publication of the report, Licadho and STT were asked to meet Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan on September 4. Licadho director Naly Pilorge said that most of the meeting was spent on pushing both organizations to sign a pre-written statement that implied that the results found in their research were not accurate. “Of course, Licadho and STT refused to sign this joint statement,” she said. “So most of the meeting was to push, to coerce, to threaten both organizations to sign on.”She said she assumed that they were called to meet because the report concentrated upon the issue of debt and raised issues that investors should be wary of. The government has repeatedly stressed that Cambodia’s economy was growing at a steady rate.The two organizations were called in for a second meeting, an invitation both organizations declined. Government spokesman Phay Siphan said he had called the meeting with the two organizations because he said the “fake report is biased” and was “misrepresenting the reality.”Chak Sopheap, executive director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, condemned the move by the Council of Ministers. “The questioning of STT, Licadho and TI representatives sends a clear message to other human rights defenders and government critics that dissent is not tolerated in Cambodia,” she said in an email to VOA. “The intimidation of these NGOs formulates part of a wider, systemic attack on free speech and peaceful dissent. …. The severe curtailment of the abilities of citizens to exercise their fundamental freedoms has caused a chilling rise in self-censorship, illustrating that Cambodian’s feel unable or are unwilling to speak freely.”Spokesman Siphan rejected that criticism. “I don’t condemn them… I invite them,” he said, rejecting allegations that he had pressured them. “I do not put pressure on them.”Preap Kol, country director of Transparency International, had also been called for a meeting with Phay Siphan for comments he gave to the Southeast Asia Globe. “Cambodia applies ‘free market economy’ ideology and, as far as I know, does not yet have a policy that ensures an equitable share of profit to local people,” Kol told the Southeast Asia Globe. “Therefore, the majority of Cambodian people, especially those who are poor or disadvantaged, are not ideally benefiting from the impressive economic growth.”Kol excused himself, saying that he was out of the country currently. Siphan said he would keep inviting Kol to meet. Kol said the move to call him in for a meeting was unusual and a first-off. “I have never been invited to a meeting of this nature to clarify my comments in the media,” he said in a message to Voice of America from Sweden. “This appears to make people feel intimidated to speak to the media but this would not stop me from continuing to speak the truth… I am open to meet and discuss with any concerned as necessary, preferably in an environment that is free of intimidation and oppression.”
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China and US Clash Over ‘Belt and Road’ in Afghan Resolution
China and Russia clashed with the U.S. and other Security Council members Monday over China’s insistence on including a reference to Beijing’s $1 trillion “belt and road” global infrastructure program in a resolution on the U.N. political mission in Afghanistan.The mission’s six-month mandate expires Tuesday and council members met behind closed doors for over 2 1/2 hours Monday, unable to agree on a text because of China’s demand.Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, the current council president, told reporters afterward that diplomats were working on a new text and “we’re in the process of reaching a compromise.”He said the council would meet again late Tuesday morning in hopes of reaching unanimous agreement.This is the second time in six months that the resolution to keep the U.N. political mission in Afghanistan operating has become embroiled in controversy over “belt and road” language.Resolutions extending the mandate of the Afghan mission for a year in 2016, 2017 and 2018 had language welcoming and urging further efforts to strengthen regional economic cooperation involving Afghanistan, including through the huge “belt and road” initiative to link China to other parts of Asia as well as Europe and Africa.But in March, when the mandate renewal came up, U.S. Deputy Ambassador Jonathan Cohen objected, saying Beijing was insisting on making the resolution “about Chinese national political priorities rather than the people of Afghanistan.”He said the Trump administration opposed China’s demand “that the resolution highlight its belt and road initiative, despite its tenuous ties to Afghanistan and known problems with corruption, debt distress, environmental damage, and lack of transparency.”FILE – China’s Deputy Permanent Representative Wu Haitao addresses the United Nations Security Council, Aug. 29, 2018, at U.N. headquarters.China’s deputy ambassador, Wu Haitao, countered at the time that one council member — almost certainly referring to the U.S. — “poisoned the atmosphere.” He said the “belt and road” initiative was “conducive to Afghanistan’s reconstruction and economic development,” saying that since it was launched six years ago 123 countries and 29 international organizations had signed agreements with China on joint development programs.The result of the standoff was that instead of a one-year mandate renewal for the Afghan mission, the mandate was renewed in March for just six months in a simple text, without any substance.Ahead of this month’s mandate expiration, Germany and Indonesia drafted a substantive resolution that would extend the mandate for a year. It focused on U.N. support for an Afghan-led and Afghan-controlled peace process, U.N. assistance in the Sept. 28 presidential election and strong backing for Afghan security forces “in their fight against terrorism.” It made no reference to China’s “belt and road” initiative.So China and close ally Russia circulated a rival draft resolution that removes all the substantive language and simply extends the mission for a year.Council diplomats said after Monday’s meeting that China and Russia would likely veto the German-Indonesian draft resolution, and the China-Russia draft would fail to get the required nine “yes” votes. So diplomats were meeting Monday night to draft a new resolution.South Africa’s U.N. ambassador, Jerry Matjila, said, “I think there is a chance of a compromise.”
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Biden, Other Hopefuls Set for Down-home Southern Politics
Four Democratic presidential candidates descended on South Carolina on Monday for what organizers call the oldest traditional campaign speech event in the country, taking an opportunity to continue to make their cases ahead of the first Southern vote of 2020.On Monday, Joe Biden, Bill de Blasio, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar spoke at the Galivants Ferry Stump, a biennial Democratic event that takes place in a rural portion of northeastern South Carolina. One by one, they addressed a crowd of about 2,500 gathered in the unincorporated community of Galivants Ferry along the banks of the Little Pee Dee River.The event dates back to the 1870s, when former Civil War Gen. Wade Hampton arrived in Galivants Ferry as part of his campaign for South Carolina governor. Area businessman Joseph Holliday began to invite Democratic candidates to give campaign speeches from his Galivants Ferry store, standing on a tree stump to be seen above the crowd.A woman waits to hear from several Democratic presidential candidates scheduled to speak at the Galivants Ferry Stump, Sept. 16, 2019, in Galivants Ferry, South Carolina.A tradition was born, and the Holliday family has continued to host the stump every other year preceding an election. The gathering is like a scene out of the South of days gone by, with politicians glad-handing and visiting over the strains of music, clog dancing and the aroma of chicken bog, a Lowcountry dish of chicken, sausage and rice.These days, candidates speak not from the original pine stump but from the porch of the Hollidays’ store, which has been recognized as a “Local Legacy” by the Library of Congress. On Monday, de Blasio characterized the event as “the center of the political universe.”A common stop for South Carolina’s Democrats, this year’s event is the first organized specifically for presidential hopefuls. One of them, Biden, has been here before, introduced to speak at the 2006 event by longtime friend and Senate colleague Fritz Hollings as Biden considered a 2008 presidential bid. This year, Biden was the first confirmed attendee.”I know I’m going to offend another state,” Biden told the crowd, after entering to music from a high school marching band and doffing his trademark Ray Ban sunglasses, “but this is my favorite campaign event.”Republicans are always invited to attend the stump but aren’t allowed to speak. One of them, former South Carolina governor and congressman Mark Sanford, worked the crowd as he mounts his longshot bid to challenge President Donald Trump for the GOP presidential nomination.As Sanford looked on, Klobuchar called out Sanford for his infamous absence in 2009, when he told staff he was hiking the Appalachian Trail when he was actually visiting a mistress in Argentina.”We don’t have a governor who hiked the Appalachian Trail,” Klobuchar told the crowd of South Carolinians. “Oh that’s right — you don’t, either.”Supporters of several of the Democratic presidential candidates gather for a photo ahead of the Galivants Ferry Stump, Sept. 16, 2019, in Galivants Ferry, South Carolina.Buttigieg reminded the crowd of the generational contrast he presents to other 2020 hopefuls, pointing to John F. Kennedy’s 1960 victory.”If you think about it, that’s how Democrats win,” Buttigieg said. “We win when we offer leadership from a new generation, with new ideas.”Democratic White House hopefuls have been flooding South Carolina for nearly a year, taking opportunities to get to know and campaign to the state’s heavily African American electorate, which plays a key role in its first-in-the-South primary and reflects those in other Southern states that follow quickly on the nominating calendar, offering candidates a proving ground to test their message. The stump meeting draws thousands of attendees from across the state, but Horry County, in which Galivants Ferry sits, is more than 80% white.Longtime state lawmaker John Land served as this year’s master of ceremonies.
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Trump Says US Reaches Trade Deals with Japan, No Vote Needed
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that the United States has reached initial trade agreements with Japan on tariff barriers and digital trade that will not require congressional approval.In a letter to the U.S. Congress released by the White House, Trump said that he intends to enter into the agreements “in the coming weeks” and was notifying lawmakers that the tariff deal would be made under a trade law provision allowing the U.S. president to make reciprocal tariff reductions by proclamation.”In addition, I also will be entering into an Executive Agreement with Japan regarding digital trade,” Trump said in the letter.A spokesman for U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer could not immediately be reached for comment on the letter and the trade deals.Neither agreement would require a vote in Congress under the so-called “fast track” approval process. The Trump administration last year notified Congress that it would pursue negotiations with Japan under this method.But over much of the past year, the scope of talks have narrowed to exclude the automotive sector, which is the source of most of the $67 billion U.S. trade deficit with Japan.U.S President Donald Trump, right, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attend a bilateral meeting at the G-7 summit in Biarritz, France, Aug. 25, 2019.Instead, Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in August announced an agreement in principle of a deal that covered reductions in tariffs on agricultural and industrial goods, but not autos.The two leaders said at the G7 summit in France that they hoped to sign the agreement at this month’s United Nations General Assembly in New York.Trump’s letter did not disclose any contents of the agreements, but Japan had previously said it was willing to consider a deal that would reduce agriculture tariffs to levels previously contemplated under the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal that Trump quit on his third day in office in 2017.Trump’s letter said that the United States would pursue further trade negotiations with Japan.”My Administration looks forward to continued collaboration with the Congress on further negotiations with Japan to achieve a comprehensive trade agreement that results in more fair and reciprocal trade between the United States and Japan,” Trump said.U.S. technology industry officials say they expect the digital trade agreement with Japan to be closely aligned with provisions in the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which follow the U.S. model for internet development.The USMCA provisions aim to ensure the free flow of data across borders without taxation, prohibit data server localization requirements and limit governments’ ability to require the disclosure of source code by the companies they regulate.Announcement of the Japan agreement also left unclear whether Trump has agreed not to impose threatened national security tariffs on Japanese vehicles and auto parts. Avoiding the “Section 232” tariffs of up to 25% was a major motivating factor for Tokyo in negotiating with Washington on trade.Trump said after the G7 summit last month that he was not considering auto tariffs “at this moment.”For Trump, the signing of even a partial trade deal with Japan centered largely on agriculture would provide some relief to U.S. farmers who have been battered by a 14-month U.S.-China trade war and lost market share.
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Locals Protest Construction of Russia’s Massive Landfill
Who would want what’s possibly Europe’s largest landfill in their own backyard? That question lies at the center of a protest against construction of a massive garbage dump in northern Russia — an environmental issue that has come to symbolize growing frustration towards Moscow’s sway over Russia’s far-flung regions. The fight over Shiyes — a remote railway outpost in Russia’s Arkhangelsk province that is to play host to the landfill — first erupted a little over a year ago after local hunters came across a secret construction site in the region’s swamp-filled forests. It didn’t take long for locals to learned of the dig’s true purpose: to house a 52-square-kilometer storage area for refuse shipped in from Moscow, some 1126 kilometers away. Government officials say Shiyes was chosen based on its remote location — with the new ‘Ecotechnopark’ a cutting edge example of innovative waste storage. They also point to cash and incentives — such as a computer lab, annual New Year’s gifts, and healthcare access to top Moscow hospitals for nearby locals — as a smart investment for regional development. But anger over the landfill has united a diverse swath of citizens across northern Russia — with many saying they see it as a threat to natural resources that define a way of life in extreme climate.In this photo taken on Friday, April 20, 2018, garbage trucks unload the trash at the Volovichi landfill near Kolomna, Russia. Thousands of people are protesting the noxious fumes coming from overcrowded landfills surrounding Moscow.“Of course we’re against it,” says Antokha, a construction worker who travelled some 800 kilometers away to join the camp from the city of Arkhangelisk.“The area’s swamps feed rivers that extend throughout the region and feed into the White Sea. Poison Shiyes with garbage and you poison the entire north,” he added, while declining to provide his last name. Welcome to the Resistance Antokha is just one of many Russian northerners who have joined a hundreds-strong protest movement that spent the past year locked in a standoff with authorities over construction of the landfill. In that time, ‘The Republic of Shiyes’ has emerged — a tent commune just outside the dig site with its own anthem, flag, infirmary, as well as a makeshift kitchen and bathhouse. While ‘The Republic’ even has a stage for concerts and announcements, this is no Woodstock. Among the camp’s strictest rules? No drugs or alcohol.Yet Shiyes has attracted the eclectic mix of an ‘anything goes’ event: liberals share soup casually with nationalists, peaceniks with military vets, small business owners alongside eco-activists. All have committed to rotating shifts into the camp — through a frigid winter and mosquito-infested summer — in an effort to keep the protest going. “This really is a war,” says Anna Shakalova, a shopkeeper from nearby who’s emerged as one of the leaders of the movement. “And if we stay together, it’s a war we win.”Growing Resentments Beyond the immediate environmental concerns, the battle over Shiyes has also exposed simmering resentments about a top-down system of governance that centralizes power and critical regional revenues in Moscow’s hands. There’s widespread feeling that Russia’s regions give their resources to the capital while getting little — or, even worse, garbage — in return. “It’s an example of Moscow chauvinism against the rest of the country,” says Ksenia Dmitrieva, 33, who grew up swimming in the area’s rivers as a child. “Moscow thinks just because they have the money they can put their trash where they want. They’re not better than us.”The Shiyes strike continues amid a year of growing discontent with Russia’s government — with complaints about a sagging economy affecting the regions disproportionately. Recent elections saw whole swaths of territory — such as the Khabarovsk Province in the Far East — send stinging defeats to the United Party in local races. The public has also condemned the government response to the spread of massive wildfires across wide swaths of Siberia. Meanwhile, smaller cities surrounding Moscow have long complained about the overflowing dumpsites poisoning air and water quality. But more alarming for the Kremlin? President Vladimir Putin is no longer immune.Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia, Sept. 5, 2019.After years of sky-high ratings, Putin’s support numbers have fallen in the wake of unpopular pension reforms and falling living standards. Recent polls show trust in Putin has fallen to just over 30%. Meanwhile, a majority now think the country is on the wrong track. “They ask: ‘why wasn’t that done?’ And when they don’t find an answer of course they become opponents of Putin” says Ilya Kirianov, an engineer who traveled to Shiyes from Severodvinsk — where the public was still reeling from a mysterious explosion that released radiation into the air this past July. “You see people who just a year ago voted for Putin are now some of his harshest critics,” he added.Count Liliya Zobova, a business owner, is among those who’ve lost patience with the Russian leader. “I loved Putin and voted for him,” she says. That changed after seeing Putin weigh in — briefly in an answer in May 2019 — to say authorities should take public opinion into account.The result? Construction paused — but only briefly. “It means Putin supports it,” says Zobova. “I don’t know who to believe anymore.” Helicopters and BlockadesFor now, protesters have blockaded old logging roads that provide the only access for equipment to the build site. Even getting to the camp involves a hike through dense sticky swamplands. In turn, authorities have started using helicopters to ferry in diesel and supplies for a force of masked private security contractors and regional police who guard the site.In a show of force against the Shiyes camp, several protesters have been arrested and face the prospect of criminal prosecution. Police regularly post signs warning a raid is imminent. It’s natural to be afraid,” says Irina Leontova, a 28-year-old filmmaker from Syktyvkar, a 3 hour drive away. “Anything can happen — arrests, fines — but still people keep coming.” Surveying the camp, Vera Goncherinka, a retired accountant from the nearby town of Urdoma, marveled at how life had changed since she got involved in the Shiyes uprising a year ago. “I should be on my couch at home but look at me now,” she said —- adding that her experiences in Shiyes had convinced her that something was stirring in Russia’s regions. “How do we know something like Shiyes isn’t happening somewhere else in Russia? Have you ever heard them talk about us on television?” With that, a passing train blew its whistle in support — and the protesters waved back. A sign that news — like the region’s water — always finds a way out of the swamp.
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Iranian, Russian and Turkish Presidents Focus on Unity in Efforts to End Syrian War
The presidents of Turkey, Iran and Russia met in Ankara Monday in the latest trilateral summit to resolve the Syrian civil war. Launched in 2017 in the capital of Kazakhstan and known as the Astana peace process, summit leaders Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Hassan Rouhani and Vladimir Putin focused on cooperation, despite profound differences on the future of Idlib, the last enclave of Syrian rebels.”We are in complete agreement in aiming for a lasting political solution for Syria’s political unity and territorial integrity,” Erdogan said, setting the tone for the one-day gathering.Erdogan reaffirmed his commitment to target Syria’s Kurdish militia, the YPG.”We will drain the terrorist swamp east of the Euphrates (in Syria) and carry our efforts in the fight against terrorism to another level,” he said.Ankara designates the YPG as terrorists linked to a Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey. The YPG is a crucial ally in Washington’s war against Islamic State. Last month, Turkish and U.S. generals hammered out an agreement to jointly create a buffer zone in Syria to protect Turkey’s frontier from the YPG. Analysts say many details remain unresolved between the two NATO allies.Erdogan, flanked by Rouhani and Putin, reiterated his threat to unilaterally act against the U.S.-backed militia by the end of the month if a buffer zone has not been created.Rouhani attacked America’s presence in Syria.”(President Donald) Trump said last year that U.S. troops will pull out of Syria, but the outcome of this promise has been like his other promise — a lie,” Rouhani said. “It is essential that U.S. troops leave the region at once, and the Syrian government establishes sovereignty in the East, north of (the) Euphrates.” Putin backed a Turkish intervention, saying any country has the right to protect its border. But with the condition, any response has to end once the threat is removed, he said, reiterating Syria’s sovereignty.Analysts say Rouhani, Erdogan and Putin suspect that Washington secretly harbors plans to create an independent, or at least autonomous, Kurdish state. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, center, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, right, and Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani speak to the media at a news conference in Ankara, Turkey, Sept. 16, 2019.”The important thing is how can Turkey, Iran (and) Russia go ahead and find shared goals,” said International relations professor Mesut Casin of Istanbul’s Yeditepe University. “They are aiming to establish and protect the territorial integrity and Syrian sovereignty.”Analysts says simmering Turkish U.S. tensions over the YPG also facilitates another Putin goal.”Russia’s final aim is to weaken NATO-U.S.-Turkey relations,” Casin said.Syrian constitution, future of IdlibThe three leaders also announced that an agreement had been reached on a committee to draft a new Syrian constitution. The process had been deadlocked for months over disagreements on committee membership. Putin refused to give a date for the committee’s first meeting.Differences also remain over the future of Idlib. Erdogan is urgently lobbying for an end to the ongoing assault by Damascus forces against the rebels. Ankara fears the assault will lead to another significant exodus of refugees into Turkey. Last week, the Turkish Red Crescent said around half a million Syrians in Idlib had fled to Turkey’s border.Putin robustly defended the assault.”A zone of deescalation should not serve as a terrain for armed provocations,” he said at the beginning of the summit. “We must take supplementary measures to destroy the terrorist menace that comes from the zone of Idlib.” Last year, Erdogan and Putin struck a deal that averted a Syrian army attack on Idlib. Part of the agreement included Turkish forces establishing 12 observation posts to enforce a buffer zone between Damascus forces and rebels.Terrorist groups were excluded from the agreed upon cease-fire. Ankara and Moscow remain at loggerheads over which groups are terrorists. Rouhani also voiced the need for Damascus forces to take back control of Idlib.Control of Idlib “The endgame is whether it’s the desire of Ankara or not,” said former Turkish diplomatic Aydin Selcen, “that these 12 (Turkish military) observation posts are surrounded and protected by Russian military police, and then (the) Syrian army take over (the entirety) of Idlib, with a 5-kilometer strip left along the Turkish border, and with Turkey already strengthening its border wall, with the plan apparently not to let the refugees into Turkey.”Some analysts suggest Erdogan could be seeking to make a deal, giving up support of the rebels in Idlib in exchange for Russian and Iranian backing to create a zone of control against the YPG militia in northeastern Syria, an area where Erdogan claimed Monday that as many as 3 million Syrians living in Turkey can be resettled.
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Panel: Full-Scale War Looms in South Sudan One Year After Peace Accord Signed
A panel of U.N. experts warns the failure of South Sudan’s warring factions to implement last year’s peace accord risks plunging the country into full-scale war once again.The report by the three-member Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan shows no improvements since South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar signed a peace accord aimed at ending the country’s six-year civil war.The chair of the commission, Yasmin Sooka, said more than six million people are going hungry, 1.3 million children under five are acutely malnourished, and millions more are stunted, affecting their health and mental development.FILE – Yasmin Sooka, chairwoman of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, addresses the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Dec. 14, 2016.”The starvation in South Sudan is neither random, nor accidental,” she said. “It has been part of a deliberate strategy on the part of the warring parties to target civilians in acts that may amount to war crimes. … There is no doubt that the responsibility for the enduring humanitarian catastrophe in South Sudan rests firmly with the country’s warring politicians.”Sooka warned that important provisions of the accord are not being implemented, including the disengagement of rival forces in preparation for the creation of a unified military force for South Sudan. She urged the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the African Union and the international community to deal effectively with armed groups to prevent a return to full-scale war.In addition, she said gross human rights violations are rampant and widespread, levels of sexual and gender-based violence are exceedingly high, and justice for the victims has proven to be impossible.”In the military courts that are actually trying to prosecute perpetrators, the judges do not even have ink and paper to print their judgments and have been going to the market to print court documents, paying for it out of their own pockets,” Sooka said. “This is a government that cannot supply stationery or even food, but has no problem buying bullets.”Security Not all assessments of South Sudan’s near-future are so bleak. In late August, IGAD representatives in Addis Ababa said last year’s cease-fire has continued to hold, and said the general security situation in South Sudan has improved. The U.N. has noted that more than a half-million South Sudanese have returned home from neighboring countries.South Sudan’s Ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Kuol Alor, said his government has been exerting efforts to restore stability and tranquility to the country. He said a fuller response to the commission’s report will be made to the council by the Minister of Justice when he arrives in Geneva later in the week.
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Slovak Prime Minister Seen Surviving No-confidence Vote
Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini should easily defeat a no-confidence vote on Tuesday, but his government is being increasingly damaged by revelations about the reach of the main suspect in the 2018 murder of a journalist into state offices.The murder of investigative reporter Jan Kuciak, who uncovered fraud cases involving politically connected businessmen, and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova shone a spotlight on corruption in the central European country, sparking the biggest protests since the end of communism in 1989 that shook the political scene.Five people have been charged with the killings and are awaiting trial, including high-profile businessman Marian Kocner, whose business deals were a subject of Kuciak’s stories.Any contacts with Kocner, an acquaintance of politicians from various parties, have become toxic in the light of the charges.Special prosecutors said last month they had been able to extract tens of thousands messages from Kocner’s phone,including communications with “representatives of state bodies and the justice system.”Slovak media published parts of messages Kocner allegedly exchanged with a woman also charged in the killing and with his business allies, in which they discuss his alleged contacts among the authorities.Zlatica Kusnirova, mother of Kuciak’s fiancee, and her lawyer Roman Kvasnica have confirmed the authenticity of leaked messages. Kocner’s lawyer did not respond to emailed questions.Two deputy general prosecutors have been forced to resign since January over their contacts with either Kocner or the charged woman.A deputy justice minister resigned earlier this month after her mobile phone was seized by the police, but she denied any contacts with Kocner.Pellegrini is not personally implicated in Kocner’s messages but opposition parties called the no-confidence vote as he refused to remove the deputy justice minister until she was formally charged. They decided to go on with the vote even after her resignation despite lacking the numbers in the 150-member chamber to defeat the prime minister.The government will face more pressure on Friday when protesters return to the streets, aiming to “support courageous prosecutors and police officers and call for a trustworthy government,” ahead of the February general election.Ruling Smer is still the strongest party, with around 20 percent in polls thanks to welfare spending and a strong economy. But it has suffered major loses in regional, local, presidential and EU elections in the past 18 months, and a new pro-EU/liberal coalition is catching up in the polls with around 15-percent support.
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Egypt, Ethiopia at Odds as Talks Over Blue Nile Dam Resume
Egypt says Ethiopia has “summarily rejected” its plan for key aspects of operating a giant dam the East African nation is building on the Nile, while dismissing Ethiopia’s own proposal as “unfair and inequitable.”The comments in a note circulated to diplomats last week show the gap between the two countries on a project seen as an existential threat by Egypt, which gets around 90% of its fresh water from the Nile.The note distributed by the Egyptian foreign ministry, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, points to key differences over the annual flow of water that should be guaranteed to Egypt and how to manage flows during droughts.It comes as Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan met Sunday and Monday for their first talks over the hydroelectric dam in more than a year. A spokesperson at Ethiopia’s foreign ministry, Nebiat Getachew, said Monday the meeting had produced no agreements or disagreements, and gave no immediate response to the Egyptian claims.Egyptian officials were not immediately available for comment, but Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry has expressed unease in recent days over delays in negotiations.The $4 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) was announced in 2011 and is designed to be the centerpiece of Ethiopia’s bid to become Africa’s biggest power exporter, generating more than 6,000 megawatts.In January, Ethiopia’s water and energy minister said that following construction delays, the dam would start production by the end of 2020 and be fully operational by 2022.The dam promises economic benefits for Ethiopia and Sudan, but Egypt fears it will restrict already stretched supplies from the Nile, which it uses for drinking water, agriculture and industry.DeadlockThough nationalist, sometimes belligerent rhetoric between Egypt and Ethiopia has cooled in recent years, the sides have remained deadlocked.A report from International Crisis Group earlier this year warned that Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan could “blunder into a crisis if they do not strike a bargain before the GERD begins operation.”Egypt says it shared its proposal for filling and operating the dam with Ethiopia and Sudan on July 31 and Aug. 1, inviting both countries for a meeting of foreign and water ministers.”Unfortunately, in a letter dated August 12, 2019, Ethiopia summarily rejected Egypt’s proposal and declined to attend the six-party meeting,” the Egyptian government’s note said.Ethiopia had instead proposed a meeting of water ministers to discuss a document that included an Ethiopian proposal from 2018, it said.Both proposals agree that the first of five phases for filling the dam should take two years, at the end of which the GERD’s reservoir in Ethiopia would be filled to 595 meters and all the dam’s hydropower turbines would become operational.Drought issuesBut the Egyptian proposal says that if this first phase coincides with an extreme drought on Ethiopia’s Blue Nile, similar to that experienced in 1979-1980, then the two-year period should be extended to keep the water level at Egypt’s High Aswan Dam from dropping below 165 meters.Without such a concession, Egypt says it would risk losing more than one million jobs and $1.8 billion in economic output annually, as well as electricity valued at $300 million.After the first stage of filling, Egypt’s proposal requires a minimum annual release of 40 billion cubic meters of water from the GERD, while Ethiopia suggests 35 bcm, according to the Egyptian document.The note cites Ethiopia as saying last month that Egypt’s proposal “put(s) the dam filling in an impossible condition,” a charge Egypt dismisses.”The Ethiopian proposal … overwhelmingly favours Ethiopia and is extremely prejudicial to the interests of downstream states,” it says.
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US House Panel Launches Investigation of Transportation Chief Chao
A U.S. House of Representatives panel on Monday demanded documents from Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao as part of a new investigation into whether she has used her office to benefit a shipping company owned by her family.Leaders of the Democratic-controlled House Oversight Committee said in a letter to Chao they were troubled by media reports she may have used her role in the Trump administration to boost Foremost Group, a shipping company founded by her father.The committee requested copies of communications between Chao and her father, James Chao, and her sister Angela Chao, Foremost’s chief executive, among other documents.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., addresses the audience gathered at the Fancy Farm Picnic in Fancy Farm, Ky., Aug. 3, 2019.Chao is the wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican ally of President Donald Trump.A Transportation Department representative said in a statement that the agency looked forward to responding to the committee’s request.”Media attacks targeting the secretary’s family are stale and only attempt to undermine her long career of public service,” said the representative, who declined to be identified.New York-based Foremost does most of its business in China and has received low-interest loan commitments from a bank run by the Chinese government, according to a New York Times report.The Times reported in June that Chao had attempted to include family members in meetings with Chinese officials that she was set to attend as transportation secretary.Politico reported last year that Chao appeared alongside her father in at least a dozen interviews with Chinese and Chinese-American media outlets since her nomination.The House Oversight Committee said in Monday’s letter that it was also investigating Chao’s “failure to divest” from Vulcan Materials Co., one of the largest U.S. construction companies, where she served on the board of directors before becoming transportation secretary.In early 2017, Chao pledged to cash out her stock holdings in Vulcan by April 2018. The Wall Street Journal reported in June that Chao had yet to fulfill that pledge.Chao sold her shares in Vulcan a few days after the Wall Street Journal report, according to documents submitted to the Office of Government Ethics.
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Italian Police Arrest Three Accused of Torturing Migrants in Libya
Italian police arrested three men Monday accused of torturing and extorting money from migrants in a Libyan detention center.Prosecutors in Sicily ordered the arrests of two Egyptians and one Guinean after several people identified them as their suspected tormentors.The three allegedly ran a migrant camp at a former military base in Zawiya, Libya.”I have been beaten several times. I suffered real torture that left scars on my body,” one migrant told prosecutors.Others say women were raped and migrants who could not pay a ransom were killed or sold to human traffickers.Armed militias are in charge of many migrant camps in Libya, which hold those who arrived in the country looking to get to Europe and those the Libyan coast guard picked up in the Mediterranean.Human rights groups have demanded the Libyan government shut down the migrant centers, calling them places of violence and squalor.”This investigation … confirms the inhumane living conditions in Libya’s so-called detention centers and the need to act, including at the international level,” said Luigi Patronaggio, chief prosecutor in the Sicilian city of Agrigento.
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86 Tigers Rescued from Thai Tiger Temple Have Died
More than half the tigers rescued three years ago from Thailand’s notorious Tiger Temple have died, authorities said Monday.Eighty-six of 147 tigers seized developed laryngeal paralysis and canine distemper, diseases they were vulnerable to because of inbreeding at the sprawling complex where tourists were allowed close contact with the large cats.The Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua or Tiger Temple, located west of Bangkok, allowed tourists to hand feed the tigers, hold the cubs and take close up photos until the government seized 147 cats after reports of wildlife trafficking and animal abuseThe tigers were relocated to two state-run sanctuaries. But officials soon noticed the effects of inbreeding “resulting in disabilities and weakened health condition,” said Patarapol, head of the Wildlife Health Management Division.FILE – A Buddhist monk plays with a tiger at the Wat Pa Luang Ta Bua, otherwise known as Tiger Temple, in Kanchanaburi province, Feb. 12, 2015.The temple in the western province of Kanchanaburi had gained international fame as a sanctuary run by Buddhist monks.But when police raided the temple in 2016, they found tiger bones, skin, teeth and at least 1,500 amulets made from tiger parts. They also found carcasses of 60 cubs stuffed in freezers or preserved in formaldehyde-filled jars.No one connected to the temple has ever been prosecuted.Authorities estimate there are some 1,000 tigers in captivity in Thailand, but only about 200 in the wild.
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In A Surprise Move, Foxconn’s Gou Drops Taiwan’s Presidential Bid
Terry Gou, founder of Apple supplier Foxconn, in a surprise move on Monday said he will not contest in Taiwan’s 2020 presidential election.Gou, Taiwan’s richest person with a net worth of $7.6 billion according to Forbes, said in a statement late on Monday he would not join the already competitive race, after losing the presidential nomination from the opposition, China-friendly Kuomintang party (KMT) in mid-July.”I have decided not to join the petition to run for president in 2020,” Gou said in a statement, apologizing to supporters who had urged him to run for the presidency. “I’d also like to say ‘thank you’ to everyone for your support and love,” Gou said.”Although I did not contest in the presidential election, it doesn’t mean I have given up politics,” he said, adding he would continue to push for the policies he proposed during the KMT primaries. He did not elaborate.Gou’s decision was a surprise to many amid widespread expectations he could run for the presidency as an independent, a move that could have complicated President Tsai Ing-wen’s re-election bid and spelled trouble for KMT, whose presidential candidate, Han Kuo-yu, is struggling in opinion polls.”We always believe that Chairman Gou will make the best decision that benefits the Republic of China,” KMT said in a statement, using Taiwan’s official name.”We should let go of the past and look forward. Comrades of the party should unite as one,” it said.Gou’s extensive businesses in China and ties with Beijing’s top leadership already came under the spotlight, as analysts said they could turn off voters who are increasingly wary of Beijing’s ambition to absorb the island.He stepped down as chief of Foxconn this year, handing over the running of the company to an operations committee. But he retained a seat on the board of the company, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd.Self-ruled Taiwan is set to hold presidential and legislative elections in January amid a delicate time with its neighbor China, which considers the island its own and has been ramping up pressure to squeeze Taiwan’s space.
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Some US Lawmakers Consider Designating White Supremacists as Terrorists
In June, Canada labeled the white supremacist group Blood & Honor and its armed branch, Combat 18, as terrorist organizations.In announcing the move, Canada’s public safety department said Blood & Honor derives its ideology from “the National Socialist doctrine of Nazi Germany” and, through Combat 18, has carried out murders and bombings.FILE – An internet screenshot taken Sept. 14, 2000, shows Combat 18, the armed branch of the white supremacist group Blood & Honour.The designation of a white supremacist group as a terrorist organization, the latest of several by Western nations, comes as U.S. allies respond to a recent rise in violence committed by right-wing groups. But the U.S. government is powerless to take such action because of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protections, even though it would strengthen the hand of law enforcement agencies in cracking down on extremist groups. “A white supremacist organization is an ideology, it’s a belief,” assistant FBI Director Michael McGarrity testified before the House Homeland Security Committee in May. “But they’re not designated as a terrorist organization.”Charging white nationalistsWhile prosecutors have successfully charged dozens of Islamic State sympathizers with providing “material support” to a foreign terrorist organization included on a government watch list, they can’t bring similar charges against individual white nationalists.But that could change if the U.S. starts adding groups such as Blood & Honor to its Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list, experts and some lawmakers say. There are currently 68 groups on the U.S. watch list. Most are Islamist groups such as IS and al-Qaida. Not one is a white nationalist group. FILE – An internet screenshot taken Sept. 14, 2000, shows part of the homepage of the Skandinavian division of the international white supremacist group called Blood & Honour.To be designated a foreign terrorist organization, a group must engage in terrorism and threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security of the United States. Blood & Honor, whose members were convicted in Florida in 2012 for murdering two homeless men they considered “inferior,” can meet the criteria, experts say. Domestic Terrorist Organizations”Our allies — including Germany, Canada and the U.K. — have designated Domestic Terrorist Organizations, and we must consider doing the same or at least designate the groups designated by our allies as Foreign Terrorist Organizations,” former FBI agent Ali Soufan said at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on global terrorists last week. “This will allow our law enforcement agencies access to the full suite of monitoring tools and our prosecutors the ability to bring meaningful charges for aiding domestic terrorism.With the designation, the FBI could monitor people connected to the organization, even if they are U.S. citizens operating on U.S. soil, Soufan said. In addition, the designation would allow authorities to share intelligence on the designated groups with U.S. allies and enable prosecutors to bring “material support” charges against white supremacists.”These are important tools,” Soufan said.’Terrorism is terrorism’Democratic Congressman Max Rose of New York is one of the proposed designation’s congressional champions.”Terrorism is terrorism, and we have to fix that,” Rose said at the hearing. “And the first step, I believe, is to start establishing some of these organizations as true foreign terrorist organizations.”Some Republican members also support the idea. FILE – Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y., speaks to the media in Syracuse, N.Y., Nov. 6, 2018.”It’s absolutely clear that white supremacism is the biggest problem, and we’ve got to go after that, and we have to address it,” said Republican Congressman John Katko of New York.The push comes as white supremacists have surpassed Islamist extremists in lethality in the United States in recent years, killing 26 people so far in 2019 and 17 people in 2018, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University. By contrast, violent jihadists committed one homicide last year and none this year. More worrisome is growing evidence of close coordination and information-sharing between U.S.-based white supremacists and their international cohorts. American Neo-Nazis are believed to make an annual pilgrimage to Europe to celebrate Hitler’s birthday with other white nationalists from around the world. While designating foreign white supremacist groups as FTOs would allow the FBI to use additional investigative tools, there are limits to its benefits, cautioned retired FBI agent and national security expert David Gomez. “While I don’t know if the FBI has any active investigations against organizations like Blood & Honor, it is an interesting question to ask, i.e., are the U.S. organizations taking direction from the potential [foreign terrorist organizations], or are they merely subscribing to their ideology?” Gomez said.Labeling a group a terrorist organization for simply subscribing to a white supremacist ideology would run afoul of the First Amendment, Gomez said.”That is the slippery slope that you have to worry about sliding down, because one man’s terrorist is another man’s patriotic nationalist,” he said.
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UN: Myanmar is Not Safe for the Return of Rohingya Refugees
A U.N. investigator finds that two years after the violent expulsion of more than 700,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, the situation in their home country remains too dangerous for them to return from their refuge in Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh.U.N. Special Rapporteur, Yanghee Lee, says Myanmar commits ongoing gross violations of international law and uses brutal measures to repress ethnic minorities in Rakhine and southern Chin states.She says many civilians have been killed and tens of thousands displaced by the indiscriminate use of heavy artillery and other methods of warfare used by both the Tatmadaw, Myanmar’s armed forces, and the Arakan Army, an insurgent group in Rakhine.She says by no stretch of the imagination is it possible to believe the Rohingya refugees would be safe if they returned to Myanmar. In August, she notes an agreement was hatched to repatriate 3,450 refugees.She says Myanmar claims to have done what is necessary for the repatriation to be successful and blames Bangladesh for delays in the operation going ahead. She says the contrary is true.”Myanmar has done nothing to dismantle the system of violence and persecution, and the Rohingya who remain in Rakhine live in the same dire circumstances that they did prior to the events of August 2017,” said Lee. “They are denied citizenship and recognition, face regular violence, including in the context of the ongoing conflict between the Arakan Army and the Tatmadaw.”The U.N. investigator says the Rohingya are unable to move freely and have little access to food, health care, education, livelihoods and services.Myanmar’s Permanent Representative to the U.N. in Geneva, Kyaw Moe Tun, denounces Yanghee Lee’s lack of impartiality, objectivity and good faith. He says Myanmar has zero tolerance for any violation of human rights and any form of violence, especially against children, women and the vulnerable.He acknowledges no Rohingya have returned under the bilateral arrangements, but notes some Hindu and Muslim people have gone back on their own volition. He says it is crystal clear some people want to return.He calls on the U.N. Human Rights Council to replace Yanghee Lee with a new special rapporteur who understands Myanmar’s history and recognizes the difficulties it faces in moving toward a democratic society.
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ICC Prosecutor Appeals Acquittal of Ex-Ivory Coast President
International Criminal Court prosecutors have appealed against the acquittal of former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo and a youth minister on charges of involvement in deadly post-election violence.Judges acquitted Gbagbo and Charles Ble Goude in January after ruling that prosecutors “failed to satisfy the burden of proof” in their presentation of evidence.Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said in a written notice of appeal that the reasons judges gave for their acquittals were “legally and procedurally defective” and urged appeals judges to declare a mistrial.More than 3,000 people were killed in 2010 and 2011 after Gbagbo refused to accept his electoral defeat to current Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara.Gbagbo and Ble Goude pleaded not guilty to four charges of crimes against humanity including murder, rape and persecution.
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