The border between Australia’s most populous states has finally been reopened after almost five months of COVID-19 restrictions. Victoria has managed to contain a deadly second wave of infections, and unfettered travel into neighboring New South Wales is now permitted. There were celebrations as the border between Australia’s most populous states re-opened. For more than 135 days, families have been separated and businesses disrupted. Cars lined up overnight as New South Wales ended the travel restrictions imposed on its southern neighbor Victoria, which has managed to contain a deadly second wave of coronavirus cases that led to one of the world’s longest lockdowns in the city of Melbourne. Authorities said Monday the southern state had gone 24 consecutive days without a confirmed infection, and it recorded just one known active COVID-19 case. Residents are no longer compelled to wear a mask outdoors, and larger gatherings are now permitted. Cafes and restaurants can now accommodate more patrons. New South Wales has become the first jurisdiction in Australia to open to all states and territories. Travel restrictions remain in place elsewhere. Residents of Sydney are still banned from entering the state of Queensland to the north.Youths prepare to enter the ocean at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Nov. 23, 2020.New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian says it’s time for the entire country to open up. “We will try and work hard, not only never again to have a lockdown but also never to have to shut down our borders. Now, we know in a pandemic you cannot predict what is around the corner, but what I do want to say to the people of New South Wales and to the people of Australia is that New South Wales is resilient, we have an outstanding health system and an outstanding police force, and our strategy is to make sure we keep things as open possible without going backwards in a COVID-safe way. So, please, please keep following the instructions we are putting forward,” Berejiklian said.New South Wales authorities are calling for special help to be given to allow overseas students back into Australia to boost the ailing university sector. Most foreign nationals have been unable to travel to Australia since March, when its international borders were closed. But New South Wales wants to allow up to 2,000 foreign students to return each week. They would face a mandatory 14 days in hotel quarantine. The federal government, however, says priority should be given to Australians wanting to come home. At present, 6,000 citizens and permanent residents are permitted to return each week. New Zealanders are allowed into parts of Australia, but other international travel into and out of Australia is expected to remain limited well into next year. Australia has recorded more than 27,800 coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, and more than 900 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center.
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Month: November 2020
Israel Media Report Netanyahu Met with Saudi Crown Prince
Israeli media reported Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a secret visit Sunday to Saudi Arabia for talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The reports said the Israel delegation also included Yossi Cohen, the chief of Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency and cited flight tracking data showing a private jet traveling from Tel Aviv to Neom, Saudi Arabia and returning hours later.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during his visit to the country, in Riyadh, Nov. 22, 2020.Netanyahu’s office did not make any public comment about any such trip. The U.S. State Department did not include any mention of Netanyahu in its Sunday statement about Pompeo’s meeting with Mohammed bin Salman, which took place in Neom. “They discussed the need for Gulf unity to counter Iran’s aggressive behavior in the region and the need to achieve a political solution to the conflict in Yemen,” Principal Deputy Spokesperson Cale Brown said. Pompeo visited Israel last week and celebrated with Netanyahu the recent agreements Israel signed normalizing relations with Bahrain, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates. Pompeo has urged Saudi Arabia to normalize its ties with Israel as well. The United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia also share a strong interest in countering Iran.
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Turkey Pardons are a Long Presidential Tradition
In one of the more unusual American traditions, every year around Thanksgiving a turkey is spared from becoming a family dinner by being pardoned by the sitting U.S. President. This annual presidential tradition has a long history, as Iacopo Luzi reports.
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Missing Thai Activist’s Sister Seeks Answers in Cambodia
Early this year Thai pro-democracy activist Wanchalearm Satsaksit told his sister he felt as if he were being followed by three men who looked like Thai police officers. Wanchalearm had arrived in Cambodia in 2014, fleeing a warrant for failure to report to a military camp for dissidents after a coup. He is now missing.Sister of Missing Thai Activist Headed to CambodiaShe hopes to force an investigation“They are in the circles where these threats are common,” his sister, Sitanun Satsaksit, told VOA Khmer. She added that her brother didn’t seem very worried at the time, which she recalled as being “before COVID.” On May 13, Thai police visited their mother’s home in Ubon Ratchathani, a city in northeastern Thailand. They asked about Wanchalearm’s whereabouts. The Thai activist immediately took to Facebook to mock the police officers for “performing their duties.”
“This might have been the last straw,” Sitanun said during a video call November 16 with VOA. She added that she believes the satirical post pushed Thai authorities to act. Her brother made his last Facebook post June 3, taunting Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha in Isan, the language of northeastern Thailand. His delivery seems friendly, but his words are profane. CCTV footage from June 4 shows a black SUV speeding away from Wanchalearm’s home in Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changvar district. Eyewitnesses who identified Wanchalearm told VOA Khmer that three men had forced him into the vehicle before it took off. The Thai activist has not been seen since. Sitanun arrived in Phnom Penh in early November to attend a December 8 hearing at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court into Wanchalearm’s alleged disappearance. She plans to present evidence and push for a fuller investigation into the incident.
“I want to find the truth about my brother,” she told VOA, “I don’t really know what to expect.” She said she knows only that as she spoke to Wanchalearm the day he disappeared, she heard men speaking in a language that was not Thai in the background. “He said, ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe,’” she said. Worried that something was obstructing his windpipe, she told him to smack his chest to try to clear it if he couldn’t breathe. “The next thing you know, he went off the line.” Linking generations Wanchalearm is the ninth self-exiled pro-democracy critic of Thailand’s government and monarchy to disappear since Prayuth came to power in a military coup in 2014. The bodies of Kraidej Luelert and Chatchan Buphawan, who had fled to Laos, were found in the Mekong River in December 2018. None of the cases has been solved. Activists gather for a rally with a photo of Thai dissident Wanchalearm Satsaksit in front of Cambodian Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, June 8, 2020.After the alleged abduction, Cambodia initiated an investigation at the request of Thai authorities. Within days, Cambodian authorities questioned whether Wanchalearm had ever lived at the Mekong Garden condominium in the Chroy Changvar district. By June 10, Cambodian police were questioning his presence in Cambodia at the time of his disappearance. Cambodian national police spokesman Lt. Gen. Chhay Kim Khoeun said that according to official records Wanchalearm was not living in Cambodia at the time of his abduction. He told Radio Free Asia “According to our investigation, Wanchalearm left Cambodia in 2017 [and did not return].” In a submission to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, the Cambodian government said Wanchalearm’s visa had expired on December 31, 2017, and his last recorded entry into the country was on October 19, 2015. The government’s letter continued to maintain that authorities had yet to ascertain “if there was a real abduction case and if it had really happened in Cambodia.” Sitanun said that since her brother left Thailand, she had spoken to him constantly about his life and work in Phnom Penh. “The entire family knows. He posted about it on Facebook,” Sitanun said of his residence in Cambodia. Two charges Sitanun’s court summons lists two charges that are being investigated by Sin Sovannroth, unlawful arrest, detention and confinement, and unauthorized possession of weapons. The charged are “unidentified individuals” and the investigative judge will decide after hearing testimony if the case should go to trial.
Eyewitness accounts reported by VOA Khmer in June suggest that the three men involved in the alleged abduction were carrying concealed weapons.
On Wednesday, Nov. 18, Y Rin, a Phnom Penh Municipal Court spokesperson, directed VOA to query deputy prosecutor Kuch Kimlong. VOA Khmer contacted him that day, and Kuch Kimlong asked that queries be sent via Telegram, an encrypted messaging app. He has not responded to requests for comments sent as requested.
Khieu Sopheak, secretary of state at Cambodia’s Interior Ministry, said Nov. 18 that he could not comment on court proceedings and that ministry officials would aid the court in its investigation.
He said the police investigation had found no leads to suggest Wanchalearm was abducted outside his residence and that there was “no trace” of the pro-democracy activist.
“Anything that has been raised on Facebook or wherever else [about this case], there is no truth to it,” said Khieu Sopheak.
Sam Chamroeun, Sitanun’s Cambodian lawyer, said only that the prosecutor had taken note of the complaint and charged unidentified individuals with Wanchalearm’s disappearance.
“Now, it is in the hands of an investigative judge – it means the prosecutor has already pressed charges,” he said. James Buchanan, a lecturer at Mahidol University near Bangkok, said in an email that it was unlikely the Cambodian government would conduct a serious investigation into Wanchalearm’s disappearance because it might reveal the Thai government’s involvement. “If the Cambodian government actually seriously investigated this case and came to the conclusion that it was the Thai state that was responsible, that would of course provoke an angry reaction,” Buchanan said. Thaksin was once supported by Hun Sen, who authorized the deposed Thai politician to travel to Cambodia and mobilize his Red Shirts supporters from there. Buchanan said he believed Cambodia was “harboring many Thai dissidents, including Wanchalearm” which could pose challenges to Cambodia’s relations with the Thai government. He added that it was revealing that the Cambodian courts had filed charges against unidentified individuals in the case.
“This could be a compromise that allows them to save face in front of Wanchalerm’s family and the international community, but without any serious diplomatic repercussions from the Thais.” Sitanun remains unequivocal about the Thai government’s involvement in her brother’s disappearance. The government has denied involvement repeatedly. “Everyone knows who did this. The Thai state was involved, I said this publicly several times,” she told VOA, giving no specifics or proof. She said police officers have been following her in Thailand and they told her that they had been instructed to keep track of her. VOA has called Thai police and the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh for comment but has not obtained responses. “I have not been threatened but I have been followed virtually everywhere I go by the police officers.” This report originated in VOA Khmer. Rattaphol Onsanit, chief of VOA Thai, contributed from Washington.
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Biden Team Decries Lack of Access to Official COVID Data
With U.S. President Donald Trump still disputing results of the November 3 election, there is little communication between the Trump administration and the incoming Biden team, including on the nation’s response to COVID-19. Michelle Quinn reports.
Video editor: Mary Cieslak
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Co-Founder of Viral ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Dies at 37
YONKERS, NEW YORK — A co-founder of the social media ALS ice bucket challenge, which has raised more than $200 million worldwide for Lou Gehrig’s disease research, died Sunday at the age of 37, according to the ALS Association.Pat Quinn was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, in 2013, a month after his 30th birthday, the organization said in a statement announcing his death. “Pat fought ALS with positivity and bravery and inspired all around him,” the association said. “Those of us who knew him are devastated but grateful for all he did to advance the fight against ALS. … Our thoughts are with the Quinn family and all of his friends and supporters. Pat was loved by many of us within the ALS community and around the world.”In 2014, Quinn saw the ice bucket challenge on the social media feed of professional golfer Chris Kennedy, who first dared his wife’s cousin Jeanette Senerchia to take a bucket of ice water, dump it over her head, post a video on social media and ask others to do the same or to make a donation to charity. Senerchia’s husband had ALS.Quinn and co-founder Pete Frates, along with their teams of supporters, helped popularize the challenge. The ALS Association said Quinn “knew it was the key to raising ALS awareness,” calling it “the greatest social media campaign in history.” Frates, a former Boston College baseball player, died in December 2019 at the age of 34.When the two picked it up, the phenomenon exploded, the organization said. Thousands of people participated in the viral trend, including celebrities, sports stars and politicians — even Donald Trump before his election and cartoon character Homer Simpson. Online videos were viewed millions of times.”It dramatically accelerated the fight against ALS, leading to new research discoveries, expanded care for people living with ALS, and significant investment from the government in ALS research,” the organization’s statement said.Lou Gehrig’s disease, named after the New York Yankees great who suffered from it — is also known as ALS or motor neuron disease. It is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that leads to paralysis due to the death of motor neurons in the spinal cord and brain. There is no known cure. The organization added that Quinn continued to raise awareness and funds after popularizing the challenge. In 2015, the association honored him, among others, as “ALS Heroes” — an award given to people living with the disease who have had a significant, positive impact on the fight against it.
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French Ex-President Sarkozy Goes on Trial, Accused of Corruption
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy goes on trial Monday accused of trying to bribe a judge and of influence-peddling, one of several criminal investigations that threaten to cast an ignominious pall over his decades-long political career.Prosecutors allege Sarkozy offered to secure a plum job in Monaco for judge Gilbert Azibert in return for confidential information about an inquiry into claims that Sarkozy had accepted illegal payments from L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt for his 2007 presidential campaign.Sarkozy, who led France from 2007-2012 and has remained influential among conservatives, has denied any wrongdoing in all the investigations against him and fought vigorously to have the cases dismissed.Investigators had from 2013 been wiretapping conversations between Sarkozy and his lawyer Thierry Herzog as they delved into allegations of Libyan financing in Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign.As they did, they learned that Sarkozy and his lawyer were communicating using mobile phones registered under false names. Sarkozy’s phone was registered to a Paul Bismuth.Prosecutors have said the wiretaps revealed that Sarkozy and Herzog had on multiple occasions discussed contacting Azibert, a magistrate at the Cour de Cassation, France’s top appeals court for criminal cases, and well-informed on the Bettencourt inquiry.They allege that Sarkozy offered to help Azibert get the Monaco job in return for insider help.”Mr. Azibert never got the job in Monaco,” Sarkozy told BFM TV this month.Herzog and Azibert are both on trial with Sarkozy, charged with corruption and influence-peddling. They are also accused of “violating professional secrecy.” All three face up to 10 years in prison and hefty fines if convicted.Sarkozy and his center-right party Les Republicains have for years said the investigations against the former president are politically motivated.Next March, Sarkozy is due in court on accusations of violating campaign financing rules during his failed 2012 reelection bid. The so-called “Bygmalion” case centers on accusations that Sarkozy’s party worked with a friendly public relations firm to hide the true cost of his campaign.Prosecutors are still investigating claims that Libya’s former leader Moammar Gadhafi provided Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign with millions of euros shipped to Paris in suitcases, allegations that Sarkozy denies. His main accuser, a French-Lebanese businessman, withdrew his account of events this month.
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Top US Coronavirus Experts Endorse Prospective Vaccines
Two of the leading U.S. coronavirus experts said Sunday they personally would have no worry about receiving either of the vaccines that are under final review, but voiced concern about the continuing skepticism of the American public.“These vaccines are highly effective,” Moncef Slaoui, the chief scientific adviser for Operation Warp Speed, the U.S. government’s effort to develop a coronavirus vaccine, told ABC’s “This Week” show. “I feel very comfortable taking the vaccine.”Vaccines developed separately by the drug-making teams at Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have shown 95% efficacy in tests and are now awaiting U.S. government approval for use generally as tens of thousands of new infections are being recorded in the United States each day.But national polls in the U.S. have shown that about four in 10 Americans remain uncertain about getting vaccinated.The government’s review is likely to be completed in the next few weeks and millions of doses of the vaccines could be made available before the end of the year, initially for health care workers and the most vulnerable elderly in nursing homes.“I’m very concerned about that skepticism,” Slaoui said.A pedestrian walks past a sign advising mask-wearing during the coronavirus outbreak, in San Francisco, California, Nov. 21, 2020.No hesitation
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, told CBS News’s “Face the Nation” show he also has no fear of being vaccinated.“If I’m within the group that’s recommended, I definitely I would,” he said. “I would have no hesitation to take it. Nor would I have hesitation to recommend it to my family.”He said that assuming the Food and Drug Administration approves the vaccines after its review, “When the American public hears that, you should be assured” that they are safe.He said, “Twenty million could be vaccinated by the middle to the end of December and in January and February even more. We need to get as many people vaccinated as possible.”He said there would be “blanket protection” for the country if vast numbers are vaccinated, but not if only 45% or 50% are.He said with the current nearly 200,000 new infections each day in the U.S., “We’re in a very, very difficult situation.”He stressed the need for continued “mitigation measures,” such as physically distancing from other people by two meters or more and wearing face masks.“If you don’t follow these recommendations, you could have an exponential increase” in the number of cases, he said.“We can do something” about the increase in the number of cases, he said. “Help is on the way. Vaccines are on the way if we can hang in there. We can get out of this.”“There’s a very sober message on the one hand but there’s a hopeful message if we do certain things,” Fauci concluded. “It’s within our power to do them.”
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Dayton Accords 25 Years Later: Bosnia Got Blueprint for Peace but not for Its Future
When leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Croatia gathered in the U.S. city of Dayton, Ohio, in November 1995, war in Bosnia had been raging for almost four years. It exacerbated deep ethnic tensions, drove almost 2 million people from their homes and claimed about 100,000 lives.
A few months earlier, Serb forces had killed more than 8,000 Bosniak — Bosnian Muslim — men and boys in Srebrenica, an event later ruled genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.
After numerous failed international attempts to stop the fighting, it was U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke who brokered the Dayton Peace Agreement. NATO, the guarantor for the peace, deployed 60,000 peacekeepers.
The agreement confirmed Bosnia’s independence and established a state presidency, parliament and government. However, it also divided the country into two entities, a Bosniak-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina on one hand, and Republika Srpska, on the other, both with wide autonomies and complex political structures.FILE – Civilians run along Sarajevo’s notorious “Sniper Alley,” as French U.N. peacekeepers look on, April 5, 1995.James Pardew was part of the U.S. negotiating team, led by Holbrooke. He said that the biggest challenge before Dayton was the complicated structure of the negotiating process, including a lot of travel through European capitals, cooperation with international organizations, such as NATO and the United Nations, and dealing with leaders who had very hard positions.
Pardew said, “We had to deal with [former Serbian President] Slobodan Milosevic in Belgrade, which was challenging and difficult. He was a very crafty person, and he created this fiction that somehow he wasn’t involved in the war in Bosnia. That was all untrue. But each of the leaders, [former Bosnian President Alija] Izetbegovic with the Bosnian Muslims, [former President Franjo] Tudjman in Croatia, and others, each one of them had their own interests and their own agendas. And Holbrooke had to weave his way through those.”
The negotiating process culminated at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, where leaders of the former Yugoslav republics — Izetbegovic, Tudjman and Milosevic — agreed to end the war. The agreement was initialed on November 21 in Dayton, and finally ratified on December 14 in Paris.FILE – Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic, left, shakes hands with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, right, as Croatian President Franjo Tudjman looks on, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, Nov. 1, 1995.Primary objective of agreement accomplished
Critics say that the Dayton Accords created a complex nation with far too many layers of government, focused more on protecting ethnic groups than on promoting the rights of individuals. Many war criminals were never sanctioned, while the same, nationalistic, political parties have mostly been in power since 1995.
Robert Gelbard was special representative of the U.S. president and secretary of state for implementation of the Dayton Peace Accords from April 1997 until August 1999. Before that appointment he also dealt with the former Yugoslav region, including cooperation on capturing war criminals.
“The resistance that we saw from some of the governments in the region, particularly from Serbia, was extraordinary,” Gelbard said.
Gelbard said he went to Bosnia for the first time just two weeks after the Dayton Accords, at Holbrooke’s request. He adds that it is easy to criticize compromises like the peace agreement later, but it did achieve its main goal, stopping the killing.
“There are lots of problems with the Dayton Agreement, but I still think, 25 years later, it was a brilliant achievement by Richard Holbrooke and those who were working with him,” Gelbard said.
“The failure came afterwards,” he said, “in the unwillingness of the international community when things have calmed down to sit down and create the circumstances again through the necessary political will to revisit it, redo the constitution, and create an environment to provide a different kind of Bosnia-Herzegovina that would be a successful state.”FILE – A forensic anthropologist of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) works to identify the remains of a victim of the Srebrenica massacre, at the ICMP center near Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina, July 6, 2016.Pardew said that the priority was to stop the killing, but the problem was the political structure created by Dayton.
“Did we make mistakes? Of course, we did. There is no perfect negotiation,” Pardew said.
“But I would say the biggest one was giving the entities, the Republika Srpska and the Federation, as much authority over the functioning of Bosnia as they had. I don’t think we could have reached an agreement without the two entities, but I do think that we could have done a better job of limiting the power to disrupt the state by those entities.”
The U.S. played a key role in establishing the peace, but the long-term goal for Bosnia was always European integration. In the past two decades Bosnian politicians have unsuccessfully attempted to change the constitution, make significant reforms and fulfill conditions to join the European Union. The EU itself also has slowed down the accession process.
Despite all that, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia Matthew Palmer, who has responsibility for the Western Balkans, said that the European dream for Bosnia has no alternative.
“The Dayton Peace Accords were successful in achieving their primary objective, which was to bring an end to the war, an end to the violence, an end to the suffering. To create a foundation upon which the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina could build a more stable future,” Palmer said. “There’s still clearly a lot of work that needs to be done. The vision of Bosnia-Herzegovina integrated completely into the European family of nations has not yet been fulfilled,” he added.FILE – A flock of pigeons fly over Bascarsija square in the old part of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital Sarajevo, Jan 11, 1998.Responsibility of local leaders
On the 10th anniversary of the accords, Holbrooke urged U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration to increase its engagement in Bosnia, saying that Bosnia’s central government was weak, and corruption in the country was widespread. He added that without EU membership, Balkan countries will always be a mess.
Gelbard said that even today corruption, complicated bureaucracy, and an unfavorable investment environment remain key problems in Bosnia.
“I’ve tried to get companies to invest in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Very little interest,” he said.
Pardew also says the development of Bosnia after 1995 has been a disappointment. As reasons, he cites negative, destructive influences of neighboring countries, especially Serbia, Russian involvement, and the failure of local leaders to create a democratic and productive society that benefits everybody.
Both Pardew and Gelbard mentioned Milorad Dodik as an example. Dodik, currently a member of a tripartite Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was a pro-Western leader of Bosnian Serbs after the war, with strong international support. Since then, though, he has embraced a nationalistic narrative, threatening to separate Republika Srpska from Bosnia. In 2017, he was sanctioned by the U.S. for actively obstructing the Dayton Accords.FILE – Members of Bosnia’s newly elected tripartite presidency, Bosnian Serb member Milorad Dodik, center, Croat member Zeljko Komsic, left, and Muslim member Sefik Dzaferovic, greet each other, in Sarajevo, Nov. 20, 2018.“Milorad Dodik was around in 1995 when all this was going on. I can’t believe that he’s still in power in Republika Srpska and unwilling to take any kind of compromise that would weaken the position of Republika Srpska in his mind. Even though those compromises might be in the best interest of the Serbs who live there,” Pardew said.
“I think of anybody in that country, he disappoints me the most,” Gelbard said.
“Watching Republika Srpska over the years and at first they hated Dayton, and now Dodik keeps saying — I love Dayton. And the reason he loves Dayton is because the structures, unfortunately, do not allow for true governance of a real state,” he added.
Gelbard said that the peace agreement provided a temporary framework for the governance of Bosnia Herzegovina, but the country is stagnating, and needs changes in its constitution and its structures. He adds that the process should be led by the EU, which has failed to show the political will to do so for decades.
“This would be a wonderful case for Europe to show responsibility and for the EU to take responsibility, with strong American support, for convening a group, an international conference, to redo the constitution of Bosnia and create an effective ability to govern Bosnia,” Gelbard said.
Pardew does not think that is likely to happen, saying, “There is not going to be a Dayton 2.”FILE – Participants of the “March for Peace,” carrying Bosnian flags, walk near the village of Nezuk, some 150 kilometers northeast of Sarajevo, July 8, 2015.He said that responsibility lies in the hands of Bosnian leaders who have chosen divisiveness rather than cooperation and development, even though Dayton Accords do not prevent them from making positive changes.
“Until we have leaders that are willing to work together and toward those kinds of goals, I think Bosnia is going to continue to be a failure. And what does that cause? It causes young people to leave, to seek opportunities elsewhere, and it creates a kind of a broken system under international support. And I think that’s tragic. That is certainly not what we intended in 1995,” Pardew said.
Palmer, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, said that reforms are key for Bosnia and that the system needs to be more functional and capable of delivering goods and services to the citizens, and to holding the leadership accountable.
“Those who are in positions of power and responsibility need to be held to account and the system, the state, the institutions of Bosnia-Herzegovina need to work for everybody,” he said.
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Pompeo, Stoltenberg Talk China at Halifax Security Forum
Everyone had something to say about China at this year’s Halifax International Security Forum.
From U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, speakers at this national security conference speculated about China’s ambitions, strategies and how the world should respond.
“The Chinese Communist Party has presented enormous risk to the systems, the foundations, and the values that democracies all across the world hold dear,” Pompeo said.
The secretary compared President Donald Trump’s hard line on China to former President Ronald Reagan’s defiance of the former Soviet Union in the 1980s.
Incoming President-elect Joe Biden has also been critical of China, but it is unclear how or if the new administration will change course in dealing with Beijing.
The Halifax International Security Forum is a national security conference held quietly every year in Canada. It attracts top politicians, diplomats, military leaders and advocates.
The forum’s mission is to foster cooperation between democracies, and it frequently includes speakers critical of China and Russia. Last year, Cindy McCain presented the 2019 John McCain Prize for Leadership in Public Service to “the people of Hong Kong.”
During the Trump administration, Washington has ramped up the rhetoric against Beijing, entered a trade war and taken other measures.
Delaware Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat, said a different approach toward China is needed.
“President Trump has stood up to China,” Coons said, “but not in the most effective or coordinated way.”
The Biden presidency, Coons said, would be more effective by working with allied countries against Chinese expansion.
Stoltenberg, the secretary general of NATO, took a more conciliatory tone than Pompeo.
“China is not an enemy. China is not an adversary,” said Stoltenberg, citing the benefits of working closely with a rising China. However, Stoltenberg acknowledged there were challenges in the relationship with China.
“If anything, the rise of China just makes NATO more important and unity among NATO allies more important,” Stoltenberg said.
Beyond China and Russia, the forum tackled domestic issues within the U.S. and other countries, such as racial justice.
Founded 12 years ago, the forum is an opportunity to network and build relationships, its founder says.
“Our mission as an organization is to enhance strategic cooperation among the world’s democracies,” Peter Van Praagh, the forum’s founder and president, told VOA. Van Praagh says the forum brings together leaders “to really tackle the world’s toughest challenges.”
Some participants said the forum was a success this year despite the obstacles posed by the pandemic.
“This is a time of uncertainty and anxiety, but as a strategic matter, the democratic model ultimately sits on the right side of history,” said Lincoln Bloomfield Jr., a former top State Department official. “Much work lies ahead to fulfill its superior potential.”
Matthew Bryza, a former U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan, said the forum gave him “a renewed confidence that the free world may be battered and challenged, but remains on track for the next phase, strengthened by our advanced technologies and shared democratic values.”
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Ethiopia’s Abiy Gives Tigray Region 72-Hour Ultimatum
Ethiopia’s prime minister has issued an ultimatum to Tigrayan regional forces to surrender or face a military offensive on the state’s capital of Mekele.
“Your journey of destruction is coming to an end, and we urge you to surrender peacefully within the next 72 hours, recognizing you are at a point of no return,” Abiy Ahmed said in a statement aimed at the leaders of the TPLF party.
“Take this last opportunity,” he added.Dear fellow Ethiopians, pic.twitter.com/3H9XXSiFM7— Abiy Ahmed Ali 🇪🇹 (@AbiyAhmedAli) November 22, 2020The Ethiopian army has been battling local forces in Tigray since conflict broke out on November 4, when Abiy sent the national defense force into the area, after accusing local forces of attacking a military base there.
Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands have fled to Sudan since then.Thousands of Refugees from Ethiopia’s Tigray Region Fleeing ViolenceThe more than week-long conflict in Ethiopia between federal government and regional ruling party TPLF has forced more than 20,000 people to flee to Sudan, according to UN refugee agencyA blackout of internet and phone communications in the region has made it difficult to confirm a death toll and reports of violence.
Tigray is the northernmost of Ethiopia’s nine regional states. Tensions have been building in the region since September 9 when Tigray defiantly held a regional election after Abiy postponed the polls, citing the coronavirus pandemic.
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Hundreds Detained in Ongoing Belarus Protests Against Longtime President
More than 200 people have been arrested, a rights group said Sunday, as Belarusians continued to protest longtime President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk. Thousands of people took to the streets to demand Lukashenko’s resignation. According to rights watchdog Vesna-96, 205 people had been taken into custody, despite activists’ efforts to decentralize protests in hopes of evading police. Weekly rallies have been held since disputed presidential elections on Aug. 9 in which long-term leader Lukashenko retained power in a vote seen by international observers as not fair or transparent and in which key opposition leaders were detained or forced to flee. The protests have led to more than 7,500 arrests and police violence against demonstrators. Street protests regained momentum after a 31-year-old anti-government demonstrator died earlier this month. Activists say he was severely beaten by security forces during a rally. Lukashenko has been in power 26 years and is refusing calls to step down. Lukashenko maintains he won the election in a landslide — garnering 80% of all ballots — despite widespread claims at home and abroad that the vote was heavily rigged to keep him in power.
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Biden to Name First Cabinet Members on Tuesday
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden plans to name the first members of his Cabinet on Tuesday, a key aide said Sunday, even as President Donald Trump urged on Republicans to help him in his longshot legal effort to overturn his re-election defeat. Ron Klain, Biden’s incoming White House chief of staff, declined in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” show to say which agency heads Biden would name. But the preisdent-elect said last week he had settled on a new Treasury secretary and that his selection would appeal to “all elements of the Democratic Party… progressive to the moderate coalitions.” While Biden is transitioning to become the country’s 46th president at his inauguration on January 20, Trump has refused to concede. On Sunday, the outgoing U.S. leader told his followers on Twitter, “We will find massive numbers of fraudulent ballots… Fight hard Republicans.” It’s all about the signatures on the envelopes. Why are the Democrats fighting so hard to hide them. We will find massive numbers of fraudulent ballots. The signatures won’t match. Fight hard Republicans. Don’t let them destroy the evidence! FILE – Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., returns from a break in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 3, 2020.“President Trump has exhausted all plausible legal options to challenge the result of the presidential race in Pennsylvania,” Toomey said. “I congratulate President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their victory. They are both dedicated public servants and I will be praying for them and for our country.” After a hand-by-hand recount of 5 million votes, the southern state of Georgia certified Biden’s victory there on Friday, while Pennsylvania and the midwestern state of Michigan could do the same on Monday. The Trump campaign has since requested another recount of the votes in Georgia. FILE – Officials work on ballots at the Gwinnett County Voter Registration and Elections Headquarters, Nov. 6, 2020, in Lawrenceville, near Atlanta, Georgia.Despite his legal setbacks, Trump has refused to authorize his administration to cooperate with Biden on his transition to power. Biden aide Klain rebuked Emily Murphy, the Trump-appointed head of the General Services Administration, for so far refusing to ascertain that Biden is the apparent election winner so that federal funding can be made available for the transfer in control of the government and Biden aides can talk with officials at numerous agencies. “I hope that the administrator of the GSA will do her job,” Klain said, referring to Murphy. Klain said the Republican president’s efforts to overturn the results were a disgrace, “definitely not the democratic norm.” “A record number of Americans rejected the Trump presidency, and since then Donald Trump’s been rejecting democracy,” Klain said. Klain said that with the surging outbreak of the coronavirus in the United States, Biden’s inauguration would be “scaled down” from the normal large event on the steps of the U.S. Capitol followed by a luncheon with key lawmakers, a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House and gala inaugural balls in the evening. But he said plans have not been finalized. “There is something here to celebrate,” Klain said. “We just want to do it in a safe way.”
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US Officially Withdraws from Open Skies Agreement
The United States formally withdrew on Sunday from the Open Skies Treaty, an 18-year-old arms control and verification agreement that Washington repeatedly accused Moscow of violating. The withdrawal is the latest blow to the system of international arms control that U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly scorned, complaining that Washington was being either deceived or unfairly restrained in its military capabilities. The U.S. State Department confirmed the move, noting six months had expired since notice of the pending exit had been issued and saying “the U.S. withdrawal took effect on November 22, 2020, and the United States is no longer a State Party to the Treaty on Open Skies.” The National Security Council confirmed the withdrawal and added that “Russia flagrantly violated [the treaty] for years.” It quoted national-security adviser Robert O’Brien as saying the move was part of an effort to “put America first by withdrawing us from outdated treaties and agreements that have benefited our adversaries at the expense of our national security.” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on May 21 announced the U.S. intention to withdraw and gave the six-month notification to Open Skies’ 34 other members, as required under the treaty’s rules. Russia’s Foreign Ministry condemned the U.S. decision. “Washington has made its move. Neither European security nor the security of the United States and its allies themselves have benefited from it. Now many in the West are wondering what Russia’s reaction will be. The answer is simple. We have repeatedly emphasized that all options are open to us,” the ministry said in a statement on November 22. Signed in 1992, the treaty, which entered into force in 2002, allows its 34 members to conduct short-notice, unarmed observation and surveillance flights over one another’s territories, to collect data on military forces and activities. More than 1,500 flights have taken place under the agreement. The treaty’s proponents say the flights help build confidence by showing that, for example, adversaries are not secretly deploying forces or preparing to launch attacks. But its critics, particularly among U.S. Republicans, have asserted the treaty has been violated repeatedly, first and foremost by Moscow. In his May statement, Pompeo charged that Russian violations included restrictions on flights near breakaway regions over Georgia, along Russia’s southern borders, and limits on the lengths of flights over the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. “Russia has consistently acted as if it were free to turn its obligations off and on at will,” he said. Arms control experts have said while some of the U.S. complaints have merit, others are misleading. And U.S. military and intelligence agencies will lose an important source of data by not being party to the treaty, they said, and NATO allies support the agreement. “While Russia has violated the treaty, the United States has reciprocated. NATO allies support the treaty — which focuses first and foremost on enhancing European security — and wish the United States to remain a party,” Steven Pifer, a former U.S. ambassador and arms control expert, said in commentary published last week. The Trump administration has targeted several international treaties over the past four years, most notably the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a key Cold War agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union. After years of complaining that Russia had secretly designed, then deployed, a treaty-violating missile, Washington withdrew in 2019 and the treaty collapsed. Another more consequential treaty, the New START agreement, is also set to expire in February 2021, and U.S. and Russian officials have been struggling to find a way to keep it intact. But Trump administration officials want to expand the treaty to include China. And they have also sent mixed signals about new conditions for extending New START, something Moscow has rejected. Adding to the uncertainty is Trump’s expected departure from the White House on January 21, 2021, when Democrat Joe Biden is scheduled to be inaugurated and take office. Biden has signaled support for extending New START and preserving other treaties. “Instead of tearing up treaties that make us and our allies more secure, President Trump…should remain in the Open Skies Treaty and work with allies to confront and resolve problems regarding Russia’s compliance,” Biden said in a statement in May.
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Ancient Madrid Market Reopens Amid Debate Over Virus Rules
Madrid’s ancient and emblematic Rastro flea market reopened Sunday after a contentious eight-month closure because of the COVID-19 pandemic that has walloped the Spanish capital. With many major European flea markets still shut down, the Rastro’s return seems to be another example of Madrid’s bid to show that heavy coronavirus restrictions may not be necessary even among the latest surge of the virus and some sort of normality can resume with precautions. That stance has been both criticized and lauded. After lengthy negotiations, city authorities agreed the Rastro could open at 50% capacity, with half its 1,000 stalls alternating each Sunday for a maximum crowd of 2,700 people. Police with backup drones will monitor the market to avoid overcrowding. Dating back to the 1700s, the Rastro sells the usual flea market mix of antiques, clothes, furniture, bric-a-brac and curios in stalls that snake down through a warren-like district next to Madrid’s majestic Plaza Mayor square. Long a traditional meeting and drinking place, the bustling Sunday morning market used to attract thousands of tourists and locals alike. If you arrived after 11 a.m., it was almost impossible to move. Spain has been one of Europe’s hardest-hit countries in the pandemic, recording more than 1.5 million coronavirus cases and over 42,500 deaths.
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Cameroon Begins Election Campaign amid Separatist Violence
Cameroon has begun the campaign season for its December 6 regional council elections amid threats and attacks from separatists fighting to create an English-speaking state in the French-majority country. The separatists, who have vowed to disrupt the polls, attacked several military convoys dispatched to protect voters. The government is pleading with citizens to help recently deployed troops by denouncing suspects.Councilor Emile Ngalla, 47, said he fled from Bui to Mezam, both administrative areas in Cameroon’s English-speaking Northwest region on Saturday. He said separatist fighters came to his home and threatened to kill him if he takes part in Cameroon’s December 6 regional council elections.”I am not sure taking [I will take] part in the elections, but all I want to beg is that the government should enforce security for those who have the courage to do it [participate]. The issue of elections is bringing a lot of fear,” he said.Ngalla said he will stay in the English-speaking northwestern town of Bamenda, which he said is safer, until the elections are held.Government officials in the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions say councilors and traditional rulers who constitute the electoral college are increasingly receiving death threats from fighters.A video shared on social media appears to show an armed man in his 30s threatening to kill candidates if they do not stop campaigning and resign.”I am coming out today to make it clear to the international community that there will be no elections come December 6, 2020. I want to advise all our people. you must stay vigilant. There will be no elections,” he said.Deben Tchoffo, governor of the Northwest region said besides the audios and videos shared on social media, separatists have been making anonymous phone calls threatening candidates and voters.Speaking via telephone from Bamenda, Tchoffo said troops have been deployed to protect voters, candidates and election materials. He said separatist fighters who have intensified attacks and threats to disrupt the polls should know that they will be killed by the military if they do not surrender. He said the elections will offer special status to the English-speaking regions, as requested by residents.Tchoffo said on Friday and Saturday there were several attacks on military convoys. He did not say if there were any deaths, but civilians said at least four troops were wounded and five military vehicles damaged in the northwestern town of Kumbo.Friday, President Paul Biya dispatched his defense minister, police boss and defense chief of staff to the English-speaking regions to make sure the elections take place.Defense Minister Joseph Beti Assomo said the population should cooperate with the military by denouncing separatist suspects in their community.”I wish to highlight unequivocally that our presence here attests the government’s resolve to provide an effective and definite solution to this crisis which keeps tormenting our people. A people who are only asking for a peaceful life, that is to live in a safe stable and prosperous environment,” he said. Assomo called on voters and candidates to brave the threats and asked those who had left the region to return.The government says the December 6 regional election will put in place the special status for the English-speaking regions as decided during the grand national dialogue called by Biya last September 30 through October 4.The dialogue was to propose solutions to the crisis in the country’s English-speaking regions. Separatist leaders invited to the national dialogue refused to take part and called the special status a nonevent, stating that they want nothing but total independence for the English-speaking regions.Cameroon’s English-speaking regions descended into violence in 2016 when teachers and lawyers protested alleged discrimination at the hands of the French-speaking majority.The government responded with a crackdown and separatists took up OK? Weapons, claiming that they were defending civilians. The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people and displaced over 500,000, according to the United Nations.
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Erdogan says Turkey Sees itself a Part of Europe
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that his country, an official candidate for European Union membership, sees itself as an inseparable part of Europe but will not give in to attacks and double standards. “We see ourselves as an inseparable part of Europe… However this does not mean that we will bow down to overt attacks to our country and nation, veiled injustices and double standards,” Erdogan said in a speech to the members of its AK Party. Turkey’s drilling activities in a disputed part of the eastern Mediterranean have raised tensions with the EU as Turkey locked in a dispute with and Greece and Cyprus over the extent of their continental shelves and hydrocarbon resources. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said this month that Turkey’s rhetoric on Cyprus was aggravating tensions with the EU and Ankara had to understand that its behaviour was “widening its separation” from the bloc. The EU will discuss Turkey’s pursuit of natural gas exploration in contested waters in the eastern Mediterranean at their next summit in December, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday. “We do not believe that we have any problems with countries or institutions that cannot be solved through politics, dialogue and negotiations,” Erdogan said.
Erdogan, connected to the event through videolink, said that the EU should keep its promises regarding the migrants issue and making Turkey a full member of the bloc. He was referring to a 2016 deal under which Ankara curbed migrant entries into Europe in exchange for financial help and visa-free travel in the Schengen region. Turkey recently extended the seismic survey work being carried out by its Oruc Reis ship in a disputed part of the eastern Mediterranean until Nov. 29, according to a naval notice.
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G-20 Virtual Summit Concludes Sunday
The Group of 20 virtual summit continues Sunday in Saudi Arabia. U.S. President Donald Trump, who has not made many public appearances since losing the presidential election earlier this month, is scheduled to attend the meeting Sunday, as he did Saturday. Saudi Arabia’s King Salman opened the summit Saturday by calling on member countries to reassure the world of affordable and equitable access to vaccines. In this handout image from the Saudi Royal Palace, Saudi King Salman gives his opening remarks at a virtual G-20 summit hosted by Saudi Arabia and held via videoconference amid the COVID-19 pandemic, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Nov. 21, 2020.”We will spare no effort to ensure their affordable and equitable access for all people, consistent with members’ commitments to incentivize innovation,” the leaders said in a draft G-20 communique seen by Reuters. “We recognize the role of extensive immunization as a global public good.” The pandemic and the crisis of economic recession dominated the first day of the two-day virtual summit of the top 20 industrial and emerging-market countries. “We have a duty to rise to the challenge together during this summit and give a strong message of hope and reassurance,” Salman said as he opened the summit. The king’s comments were made as global coronavirus cases approached 58 million and worldwide COVID-19 deaths neared 1.4 million, according to Johns Hopkins University. The G-20 leaders are concerned that the pandemic will further widen the divide between rich and poor. To combat that, the European Union urged contributions totaling $4.5 billion to Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, a global project to speed the development and distribution of vaccines, tests and treatment, according to the World Health Organization. Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged nearly $593 million. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin offered Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, and China offered to cooperate on vaccines. This photo provided by the G-20 Riyadh Summit shows Saudi King Salman, center, and other world leaders during a virtual summit hosted by Saudi Arabia and held via videoconference amid the COVID-19 pandemic, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Nov. 21, 2020.On Saturday, Trump tweeted about unfounded voter fraud in the November 3 U.S. presidential election during Salman’s remarks before leaving to play golf at his club in nearby northern Virginia. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said he spoke of the need to work together to restore economic growth, but she did not mention a U.S. pledge to support the global distribution of a vaccine in a summary released late Saturday. After Trump left the virtual meeting, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who also attended, said in a Treasury Department statement that the 7-month-old Debt Service Suspension Initiative “is a key achievement of the G-20 in response to the pandemic.” The initiative aims to help the world’s poorest countries grapple with the consequences of the pandemic until the middle of next year. Treasury’s statement also said the G-20’s Common Framework would help the poorest countries address pandemic-induced debt problems “by coordinating sovereign debt resolution if needed.” The summit is being held mostly online for the first time this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. G-20 member countries include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United States and the European Union. They represent, according to the group’s website “around 80% of the world’s economic output, two-thirds of global population and three-quarters of international trade.”
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Burkina Faso Votes in Presidential, Parliamentary Elections
Voters in Burkina Faso are going to the polls Sunday for presidential and parliamentary elections, held while extremist violence in the West African country has been escalating.President Roch Kabore who is running for a second five-year term against 12 other candidates has promised to secure and stabilize the country.Kabore, 63, is expected to win, although he is in a tight race with opposition candidates, former finance minister Zephirin Diabre, 61, of the Progress and Change Party and the runner-up in 2015 election; and Eddie Komboigo, chairman of the Congress for Democracy and Progress party of former president Blaise Compaore, who was overthrown by a popular uprising in 2014 after 27 years of rule.However, Kabore must win 51% of the votes cast in the first round to avoid a runoff.Burkina Faso’s Central Election Commission has said that about 7% of the electorate will not be able to vote for fear of violence in the north and east of the country, that has taken more than 2,000 lives this year alone.The polling stations will close at 6 p.m. local time and the voting results are expected by midweek.
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Bodies of Man and His Slave Unearthed from Ashes at Pompeii
Skeletal remains of what are believed to have been a rich man and his male slave attempting to escape death from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago have been discovered in Pompeii, officials at the archaeological park in Italy said Saturday.Parts of the skulls and bones of the two men were found during excavation of the ruins from what was once an elegant villa with a panoramic view of the Mediterranean Sea on the outskirts of the ancient Roman city destroyed by the volcano eruption in 79 A.D. It’s the same area where a stable with the remains of three harnessed horses were excavated in 2017.Pompeii officials said the men apparently escaped the initial fall of ash from Mount Vesuvius then succumbed to a powerful volcanic blast that took place the next morning. The later blast “apparently invaded the area from many points, surrounding and burying the victims in ash,” Pompeii officials said in a statement.The remains of the two victims, lying next to each other on their backs, were found in a layer of gray ash at least 2 meters deep, they said.As has been done when other remains have been discovered at the Pompeii site, archaeologists poured liquid chalk into the cavities, or void, left by the decaying bodies in the ash and pumice that rained down from the volcano near modern-day Naples and demolished the upper levels of the villa.The technique, pioneered in the 1800s, gives the image not only of the shape and position of the victims in the throes of death, but makes the remains “seem like statues,” said Massimo Osanna, an archaeologist who is director general of the archaeological park operated under the jurisdiction of the Italian Culture Ministry.Judging by cranial bones and teeth, one of the men was young, likely aged 18 to 25, with a spinal column with compressed discs. That finding led archaeologists to hypothesize that he was a young man who did manual labor, like that of a slave.The other man had a robust bone structure, especially in his chest area, and died with his hands on his chest and his legs bent and spread apart. He was estimated to have been 30 to 40 years old, Pompeii officials said. Fragments of white paint were found near the man’s face, probably remnants of a collapsed upper wall, the officials said.Both skeletons were found in a side room along an underground corridor, or passageway, known in ancient Roman times as a cryptoporticus, which led to the upper level of the villa.“The victims were probably looking for shelter in the cryptoporticus, in this underground space, where they thought they were better protected,” said Osanna.Instead, on the morning of Oct. 25, 79 A.D., a “blazing cloud (of volcanic material) arrived in Pompeii and… killed anyone it encountered on its way,” Osanna said.Based on the impression of fabric folds left in the ash layer, it appeared the younger man was wearing a short, pleated tunic, possibly of wool. The older victim, in addition to wearing a tunic, appeared to have had a mantle over his left shoulder.Mount Vesuvius remans an active volcano. While excavations continue at the site near Naples, tourists are currently barred from the archaeological park under national anti-COVID-19 measures.
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Meet the Relentless Thai Rights Defender Taking on the Powerful
She has been threatened more times than she can remember, harassed by legal cases and targeted by online trolls, but Pornpen Khongkachonkiet says she won’t stop championing human rights, especially while the law does not protect Thais from falling victim to “enforced disappearances” by shadowy powers.She is not alone in her concerns.Nine Thai dissidents An activist holds up a picture of missing Thai dissident Wanchalearm Satsaksit during a rally in front of the Cambodian Embassy in Bangkok on June 8, 2020.The only occasion to rattle her, she said, was a criminal defamation complaint, later dropped, by the military over a 2016 report on the alleged torture of ethnic Muslim-Malays in Thailand’s Deep South, on the Malaysian border. Defamation of a person or institution carries up to two years’ jail sentence in Thailand.“I was scared because if I was indicted who was going to help these guys? I had dragged these innocent people into a calamity,” she said.The case was later dismissed amid international pressure.In Cambodia, Pornpen is once more treading into dangerous territory.Wanchalearm’s family believes the Thai government knows what happened to the activist, who ridiculed the Thai government of Prayuth Chan-ocha on his Facebook page from Cambodia.Pornpen is accompanying his sister and her lawyers to Cambodia with evidence she hopes will spur an investigation into the fate of her brother.His disappearance has become a banner for a Thai protest movement desperate to sever the link between power and impunity.“An ‘enforced disappearance’ is not something anyone can do. It takes a high level of organization by those who have power, because it often involves abduction, torture, killing, destroying evidence and getting rid of the bodies,” she told VOA before leaving.The lack of a body leaves the trail cold, she said, presuming authorities are even looking in the first place.“Thai authorities treat enforced disappearance cases like a lost wallet or a lost bike. There is no investigation whatsoever,” she said.“It’s my job, my duty to discover the truth. Once I find the facts out, I have to help,” she said.Rebel at heartShe says she has had a rebellious spirit since childhood; she recalls asking her mother, at 6 years old, why she was being asked to prostrate herself in front of a royal family member, as is customary In Thailand.She credits growing up with marginalized communities, ethnic Karens at school in Ratchaburi, with giving her an early education on “the structural problems in our country.”Her main ambition is to see the law changed and the country codify protections taken for granted in many other nations.Thailand signed the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance in 2012, but it has yet to ratify it, insisting it must first pass a domestic law before joining the convention. Several years on, the law is still not on the books.Critics blame political obstruction by elements of the army-aligned government, unnerved by the prospect of a law that could see a slew of cases against people in power.After all, the military-linked government of Prayuth Chan-ocha — and the junta he led after seizing power in a 2014 coup — has hustled laws through a parliament stacked with its allies, including a hand-picked senate, appointed under a constitution the army wrote.“There’s a cybercrime law, a law banning political assembly but not the one that aims to protect lives and liberty of people to be free from torture and enforce disappearances,” Pornpen said.After six years of faltering rule, Prayuth is now in a corner. A youth-led protest movement is refusing to leave Bangkok’s streets until he resigns and a new fairer constitution with rights at its core is written.The youth “speak the language that I once had to learn in my law school,” she said, “But they learn in a day from internet. Change is already in the air.”
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UNHCR, EU Slam Greece Over Migrant Pushbacks, Abuse
The United Nations’ refugee agency is urging Greece to stamp out migrant abuse and investigate multiple accusations of pushbacks at the country’s sea and land borders with neighboring Turkey.The UNHCR statement issued late Thursday echoes portions of a report published hours earlier by the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT). The CPT report says Greece engaged in repeatedly pushing back migrants and encouraged similar actions by European forces deployed along its porous frontiers as part of a concerted effort to crack down on illegal migration.Forcing migrants to turn around is a serious breach of international law, violating asylum-seekers’ right to safe passage and protection.Croatia, France, Spain and Italy — all of which face similar migration challenges — also have been accused of engaging in unlawful, sometimes violent pushbacks.Earlier this week the EU Observer published emails from the EU border agency commonly known as Frontex citing an October incident in which Danish coast guard officers assisting Greek authorities refused orders to force migrants and asylum-seekers onto a small boat bound for Turkey.Frontex chief Fabrice Leggeri last month called the incident a “misunderstanding,” describing it as an “isolated incident” during questioning by European lawmakers.Details of the published emails, however, show that a Danish coast guard crew based in the Aegean Sea rejected the pushback order despite alleged recommendations by Greek authorities. They instead issued new orders for the migrants to be returned to a harbor on Greece’s southeastern Aegean island of Kos, which lies roughly 23 kilometers southwest of the Turkish port city of Bodrum.’Rescue, support, register’“UNHCR calls on Greece to continue rescuing, providing immediate support and registering new arrivals seeking protection,” said a prepared statement released by the office of Peter Kessler, the refugee agency’s senior communications officer. “UNHCR firmly reiterates its call on Greece to refrain from any practices that may involve informal returns of people to Turkey after they have reached Greek soil or territorial waters.”Kessler called out Greek authorities for allegedly underreporting land and sea arrivals from neighboring Turkey — a move believed to provide local authorities a free hand to conduct illegal pushbacks.Greece has grappled with accusations of forced migrant returns and abuse since 2015, when about a million refugees, mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, arrived in Europe to escape violence at home.Inflows have since see-sawed, reaching record lows since the start of the year with a total of 14,600 sea and land entries, according to UNHCR data.Accusations rejectedGreek migration officials did not immediately comment on either the pushback accusations or calls by the EU and UNHCR to stamp out migrant abuse.The government in Athens has repeatedly denied engaging in pushbacks or abuse of migrants, calling accounts part of an “unsubstantiated fake news campaign” orchestrated by its longtime regional rival, Turkey.Earlier this year, Turkey condemned Greek security forces for using tear gas and water cannons on migrants attempting to enter the country and accused those same forces of opening fire and killing at least three migrants trying to cross the border from Turkey into the European Union.Tens of thousands of migrants have been trying to get into EU member Greece since Turkey said on Feb. 28 it would no longer keep them on its territory as part of a 2016 deal with Brussels reached in return for European aid.Athens on March 1 suspended asylum applications for a month in what it called a strategy to prevent migrants from illegally entering the EU.’Ill treatment, inhumane conditions’According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), a Senegalese asylum-seeker in March said Greek security forces fired on a group of migrants and that he saw two men fall to the ground before he fled from the area.The New York-based rights group could not verify the shooting but accused the European Union of “hiding behind a shield of Greek security force abuse instead of helping Greece protect asylum-seekers and relocate them safely throughout the EU.”In its lengthy report issued Thursday, the CPT task force deployed to Greece earlier this year found recurring cases of migrant abuse, mainly by local police and coast guard officers.“The ill-treatment,” CPT said in its report, “consisted primarily of slaps to the head and kicks and truncheon blows to the body [mainly during arrest or transfer to detention cells.]”The CPT report described the detention facilities as inhumane.“Migrants continue to be held in detention centers composed of large barred cells crammed with beds, with poor lighting and ventilation, dilapidated and broken toilets and washrooms, insufficient personal hygiene, inadequate food and no access to outdoor daily exercise.”HRW in March issued a report stating that Greek authorities arbitrarily detained nearly 2,000 migrants and asylum-seekers in “unacceptable conditions” at mainland detention centers, denying them the right to lodge asylum claims.“[Greek] authorities claim they are holding the new arrivals, including children, persons with disabilities, older people, and pregnant women, in quarantine due to COVID-19, but the absence of even basic health precautions is likely to help the virus spread,” the report states.Greek government spokesperson Stelios Petsas has staunchly denied the criticism, insisting that Greek officials “tell everyone that they shouldn’t attempt to get in through the window.”“There is a door,” Petsas told reporters at a March press conference. “Whoever is entitled to protection should knock on that door and be entitled to protection based on international law.”He also rejected a New York Times report of secret Greek “black sites” where detainees are denied access to lawyers and cannot file asylum claims.Since surging to power last year, Greece’s ruling conservatives have taken an increasingly strong-armed approach to illegal migration, insisting that the EU help shoulder the burden and cost of Europe’s lingering refugee population.Earlier this year, Turkey warned it would no longer uphold a 2016 agreement with the European Union to continue hosting migrants on its soil in exchange for billions in aid.UNHCR says Turkey is currently home to 3.6 million registered Syrian refugees and an estimated 370,000 refugees and asylum-seekers of other nationalities.Greece currently hosts an estimated 186,000 refugees and asylum-seekers, including more than 5,000 unaccompanied minors.Reuters contributed to this story.
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FDA Approves Antibody Therapy as US Passes 12 Million Cases
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Saturday authorized the emergency use of a COVID-19 antibody therapy that President Donald Trump said helped cure him of the disease caused by the coronavirus.On the same day, the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported that the U.S. had passed 12 million COVID-19 cases.“It’s really a moment that we want to call on every American to increase their vigilance,” Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said this week.The Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. therapy approved by the FDA is made up of the monoclonal antibodies, casirivimab and imdevimab. They are to be administered together to treat mild to moderate COVID-19 in adults, including those 65 and older with some chronic medical conditions, and children who are at high risk of a more severe case.The company expects to have enough of the treatment ready for about 200,000 patients by the first week of January.Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, said Friday she expects the number of new daily cases to reach 20,000 per day, up from just under 5,000 per day currently, if Canadians maintain their current number of personal contacts.However, she warned that number could spike to 60,000 a day by the end of December if Canadians increase their level of contact with other people, a possible scenario with the Christmas holiday season looming.Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called on Canadians to stay home and follow public health rules to help slow the spread of COVID-19.Friday, U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, said they have filed for emergency authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to use their COVID-19 vaccine, saying they are poised to begin distribution within hours of receiving approval.The application comes after the companies said testing shows the vaccine has an effectiveness rate of 95%, with no serious safety concerns observed to date.U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Friday that the FDA could decide about emergency use for the vaccine candidate within weeks.
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Judge Throws Out Trump Bid to Stop Pennsylvania Vote Certification
Pennsylvania officials can certify election results that currently show Democrat Joe Biden winning the state by more than 80,000 votes, a federal judge ruled Saturday, dealing President Donald Trump’s campaign another blow in its effort to invalidate the election.U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, turned down the request for an injunction by Trump’s campaign. In his ruling, Brann said the Trump campaign presented “strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations … unsupported by evidence.””In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state,” the opinion said. “Our people, laws and institutions demand more.”Appeal to be soughtTrump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and campaign senior legal adviser Jenna Ellis pointed to the decision as a positive development in their effort to push the case relatively quickly to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a joint statement, they said they would seek an expedited appeal to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor and New York mayor, returned to court for the first time in decades to represent the Trump campaign Tuesday. He showed his rustiness by tripping himself up over the meaning of “opacity,” mistaking the judge for a federal judge in a separate district and provoking an opposing lawyer.FILE – Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer for President Donald Trump, speaks during a news conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters, Nov. 19, 2020, in Washington.Giuliani repeatedly contended in court that it was illegal for counties to help people vote. Opposing lawyer Mark Aronchick suggested Giuliani must not know the Pennsylvania election code.Trump had argued that the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law was violated when Pennsylvania counties took different approaches to notifying voters before the election about technical problems with their submitted mail-in ballots.Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar and the seven Biden-majority counties that the campaign sued had argued Trump previously raised similar claims and lost.’No justification’They told Brann the remedy the Trump campaign sought, to throw out millions of votes over alleged isolated issues, was far too extreme, particularly after most of them have been tallied.”There is no justification on any level for the radical disenfranchisement they seek,” Boockvar’s lawyers wrote in a brief filed Thursday.Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, tweeted shortly after Brann’s ruling, saying that “another one bites the dust.””These claims were meritless from the start and for an audience of one,” Shapiro said in a statement. “The will of the people will prevail. These baseless lawsuits need to end.”The state’s 20 electoral votes would not have been enough on their own to hand Trump a second term.Counties must certify their results to Boockvar by Monday, after which she will make her own certification. Democratic Governor Tom Wolf will notify the winning candidate’s electors that they should appear to vote in the Capitol on December 14.
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