Mexican authorities hope most of the asylum seekers living in a major encampment on the border will be allowed to enter the United States by the end of next week, according to a Mexican government source.
The migrant camp in Matamoros, Mexico, just across the river from Brownsville, Texas, is currently home to just under 700 migrants, according to the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR). The majority are asylum seekers who have been waiting in Mexico as their cases wind through U.S. courts under a program implemented by former President Donald Trump.
One week ago, President Joe Biden’s administration began permitting members of the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program to enter the United States to pursue their court cases. UNHCR spokeswoman Silvia Garduno said 27 people crossed the border from Mexico Thursday and 100 did so Friday, and that the agency hopes to continue this pace in the coming days.
The agency, along with the International Organization for Migration, is in charge of the logistics of registering and transporting migrants from the camp to the United States.
The Mexican government source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the goal was for 500 migrants in the Matamoros camp to enter the United States by the end of next week.
Mexican authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) referred Reuters to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) statement that said the registration process “will be done as quickly as possible.”
In Matamoros, asylum seekers expressed optimism. “We’ve just received news that tomorrow we’re leaving!” said Honduran asylum seeker Josue Cornejo in a video recorded inside the camp Friday evening, which also shows his wife and daughters wiping away tears.
But as one tent city begins to empty in northeastern Mexico, another has sprung up on the other side of the country. In Tijuana, migrants encouraged by the news that some asylum seekers were being allowed to enter the United States have begun to camp out near the El Chaparral port of entry, across the border from San Diego, California.
Advocates say about 50 tents have been put up in recent days.
Biden, a Democrat, is balancing pressure from immigration advocates to unwind the hardline immigration policies of his predecessor with concerns about rising numbers of migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
To handle an anticipated rise in crossings, CBP said in a statement on Friday that it planned to open a facility in Eagle Pass, Texas. Plans for the new facility come after CBP announced on February 9 the opening of another temporary facility in Donna, Texas, to handle border processing while the agency’s permanent center in McAllen is renovated.
Under U.S. law, children who arrive at the border without parents or legal guardians have to be transferred quickly out of border patrol facilities and into government-run shelters overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Separately, HHS is also scrambling to cope with the influx of new arrivals by opening emergency shelters and trying to speed releases of migrant kids to sponsors in the United States.
“There are no good choices here,” Biden told reporters Friday. “The only other options are to send kids back, which is what the prior administration did.”
Most migrants caught at the border, including families and individual adult asylum seekers, are still being rapidly expelled at the border under a Trump-era health rule in place since last March.
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Month: February 2021
Botswana Eases COVID Restrictions Despite Rising Death Toll
Botswana, which saw COVID-19 deaths surpass 300 this week, has lifted a ban on alcohol sales and eased curfew restrictions. But President Mokgweetsi Masisi extended an existing curfew.In a televised address, Masisi said rising COVID-19 cases mean the curfew will continue until the end of March. Botswana introduced a nine-hour curfew in December, but Masisi announced Friday the hours have been reduced to six.”The curfew period restricting the movement of people will be extended from the 1st to the 31st of March 2021 and will begin at 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. daily. The government has decided to lift the suspension of the sale of alcohol with effect from 1st March, 2021. Alcohol will be sold to consumers on weekdays only,” he said.Masisi said in lifting the alcohol ban, the government took into consideration the impact on the economy.”Studies both scientific and anecdotal, have shown that alcohol consumption impairs judgment making it difficult in some cases to adhere to set health protocols. Although necessary at the time, the government has nonetheless been worried by the effect of the temporary ban on the sale of alcohol on the industry, and by extension, the country’s economy,” Masisi said.The country’s alcohol industry employs more than 50,000 people.Botswana Alcohol Industry Association president Masegonyana Madisa welcomed the decision to lift the ban.”As the alcohol industry, we have always maintained a certain position, that is government should find a more sustainable approach to this problem that we have, which involves curbing the spread of the virus, which we have in Botswana, and at the same time balancing it with protecting the lives and livelihoods of those in the alcohol industry, including its extensive value chain.”Meanwhile, the country’s COVID-19 Task Force team vice chairperson, Mosepele Mosepele, expressed concern over the rising death toll.“The unfortunate report that we would like to share is the sharp increase in the number of COVID-19 fatalities. The last time we reported we stood at 254, and unfortunately today we report cumulative 300 total number of COVID-19-associated fatalities, Mosepele said.The southern African country has recorded 28,371 COVID-19 cases and 310 deaths.President Masisi has urged the nation to adhere to COVID-19 protocols as the country awaits the arrival of the first batch of vaccine doses in March.
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Armenian President Refuses to Fire Armed Forces Chief at Center of Political Crisis
Armenian President Armen Sarkissian has refused to fire the head of the general staff of the country’s armed forces after he was dismissed by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the presidential office said Saturday.
Pashinyan dismissed the head of the general staff, Onik Gasparyan, Thursday after what he had called an attempted coup to remove him, but the move had to be signed off by the president.
According to the president’s statement, posted on the presidential office website, the move to dismiss Gasparyan was unconstitutional.
The army has called for the resignation of Pashinyan and his government after what critics say was the disastrous handling of a bloody six-week conflict between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh last year.
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US Peace Corps Marks 60 Years of Global Volunteerism
The U.S. Peace Corps turns 60 Monday.Since its establishment through executive order by President John F. Kennedy on March 1, 1961, the Peace Corps has sent more than 240,000 volunteers to 141 countries. The organization quickly became an icon of the idealistic 1960s.The goal was to foster peace and understanding by sending mostly young, college-educated or otherwise experienced Americans to developing countries for two-year stints, helping with education, health, community economic development, agriculture, the environment and youth development.The idea for the Peace Corps came during the 1960 presidential campaign when Kennedy gave an impromptu speech on the steps of the University of Michigan’s student union on Oct. 14. During the speech, he asked students if they would be willing to serve their country and the cause of peace by volunteering to work in the developing world.”How many of you who are going to be doctors, are willing to spend your days in Ghana? Technicians or engineers, how many of you are willing to work in the Foreign Service and spend your lives traveling around the world?” Kennedy asked.“On your willingness to do that, not merely to serve one year or two years in the service, but on your willingness to contribute part of your life to this country, I think will depend the answer whether a free society can compete. I think it can. And I think Americans are willing to contribute. But the effort must be far greater than we have ever made in the past,” he said.In its first five years the Peace Corps sent over 14,000 volunteers to 55 countries, according to The Washington Post.Among those were Warren Master and his wife, Karen, of Hobe Sound, Florida.From January 1966 to July 1967, when the native New Yorkers were 22 and 23, respectively, they were Peace Corps volunteers in Turkey. They arrived just in time to celebrate their first wedding anniversary.FILE – U.S. first lady Michelle Obama laughs with Peace Corps volunteers participating in a project in Kakata, some 70 kilometers from Liberia’s capital of Monrovia, June 27, 2016.Their first job was to join a Turkish team tasked with establishing a rural tuberculosis control program in and around Ceyhan in Adana province.“Our job was to work ourselves out of a job as our Turkish counterparts moved into this space,” said Warren.And it worked.After six months, they were reassigned to teaching positions in Ankara.“My day job was primarily teaching English to pre-med students at Hacettepe University,” Warren said. “Meanwhile, we found housing in one of Ankara’s many shantytowns that ringed the nation’s capital.”Upon returning to the U.S., Warren got a master’s degree in anthropology. He also took a job organizing community action programs in Appalachia and American inner cities. It was work he described as very similar to Peace Corps work.After that, he became a public servant.In Ankara, Karen began teaching at a nursery school located in Gulveren.“This was my first experience with young kids. The school was on the lower floor of a coffee house. There was very little in the way of materials,” she said. “I had to improvise everything.”In her last year, she taught English at Middle Eastern Technical University.“At that time in my life, teaching was not really on my radar as a possible professional goal,” she said, adding that she had studied voice for six years.While theater was her passion, she said her experience in Turkey made her realize she loved teaching, too. She went on to become a drama and English teacher.“The experience in Turkey allowed me to explore facets of myself I didn’t know existed,” she said. “It exposed me to another country’s culture and language far different from anything I’d known. It was life changing.”Some of the more recent highlights of the Peace Corps work includes sending 32 volunteers to South Africa as teachers in 1997, the first volunteers to go to that country.The program was sparked by President Nelson Mandela’s 1994 state visit to the U.S. when he asked then-President Bill Clinton for help addressing social and economic challenges in the country.In 1995, after Hurricane Luis tore through the Lesser Antilles, the Peace Corps sent volunteers to help rebuild homes. That experience led to the Peace Corps Response program, which provides “short–term, focused, humanitarian service to countries worldwide.”FILE – A Peace Corps volunteer works with a caterpillar driver on the Great Ruaha road project in Tanganyika, present-day Tanzania, in 1962. They were working to secure better access to a sugar refinery.In 2011, three women testified before Congress alleging their claims of rape had not been taken seriously. In 2013, the Peace Corps established an Office of Sexual Assault Risk-Reduction and Response to better mitigate dangers and provide support for victims.More recently, the coronavirus pandemic has hit the Peace Corps hard.Last March, concerns about the virus caused it to suspend operations in the more than 60 countries in which it was operating and bring all 7,000 of its volunteers back to the United States.It is unclear what the Peace Corps’ 61st year will look like, but according to a spokesperson, they are accepting volunteer applications for tentative departures late this year or early next year.“As the Peace Corps celebrates our 60th anniversary, I am reminded of how far we have come and what an unprecedented time we are in now,” says Acting Peace Corps Director Carol Spahn. “The past 60 years have truly prepared us for this historic moment. During a pandemic that has touched every corner of the globe, it’s clear that we are all in this together.”Spahn added, “As we look to the next 60 years, I know the Peace Corps will continue to be a community of people — all over the world — willing to do the hard work of promoting peace and friendship.”
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Journalist’s Home Set Ablaze Amid Niger Violence
The home of a Radio France International (RFI) reporter was burned down Thursday during post-election violence in Niger’s capital, Niamey.
RFI correspondent Moussa Kaka and his family were not harmed in the attack, but their house was badly damaged.
The French public broadcaster said it believes Kaka was targeted for his journalism and noted the attack took place just four days after the second round of the presidential election.
“This is a very serious attack on the freedom of the press and the safety of our colleague,” RFI said in a statement Friday. It added that Kaka plans to file a complaint with police.
Several houses and buildings were set on fire this week amid tensions following the vote.
The electoral commission declared the ruling party’s candidate Mohamed Bazoum the winner in Sunday’s runoff vote. Opposition candidate Mahamane Ousmane disputed the result, calling them fraudulent.
Ousmane previously served as president, from 1993 to 1996, when the military overthrew him.
“Two people in Niger have died in post-election violence and hundreds have been arrested,” the government said Thursday in a statement.
The arson comes a few months after Kaka, a longtime correspondent for RFI, received anonymous threats online, RFI said.
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Kaka has been dealing with death threats for more than two months. Arnaud Froger, who is head of RSF’s Africa desk, said the journalist received more than 1,000 death threats.
“He had already filed a complaint back in December and nothing has happened so far,” Froger told VOA.
With tensions mounting, Froger said it was “regrettable” that more wasn’t done to prevent attacks. “It is the duty of political leaders not to incite their supporters to violence,” he said.
Niger’s Interior Minister Alkache Alhada blamed a prominent opposition figure, Hama Amadou, for stoking the unrest.
Amadou lost his presidential bid in 2016 and was prevented from running this time because of criminal conviction. He publicly supported Ousmane in the vote. There was no immediate response from Amadou, Reuters said.
Some information for this report came from Reuters.
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How Myanmar’s Civil Disobedience Movement Is Pushing Back Against the Coup
Myanmar professionals who are vital to the country’s economy are spearheading the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) against the country’s post-coup military regime.
Anti-coup protests in Myanmar, attracting tens of thousands nationwide, have taken to the streets since the February 1 coup against the civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy.
Since the coup, the CDM has attracted support from a broad range of professions, led by medical and health care workers. Bankers, lawyers, teachers and engineers across the nation have demanded the military return the elected government to power, refusing to return to work.
The CDM began as an online campaign but has expanded into a wider pro-democracy movement. Medical workers in the CDM, spoke to VOA about the origins of their efforts.
Naypyidaw surgeon Zwe Min Aung told VOA, “At the time, we really disagreed [with] this [the military coup], and we created [a] small group in Mandalay hospital and other hospitals, too. We distributed the statement on February 2 from Facebook and the nationwide CDM began. There is no leader.”
Myay Latt, a Yangon doctor, added, “The CDM movement [is] a collective leadership. We are all the followers and leaders. The military coup surprisingly arises, and our leaders were detained. We use Facebook for access to social media and we use other social media to start the Civil Disobedience Movement.”
Myanmar, also known as Burma, was ruled by the military from 1962 until 2011. In 2015, Suu Kyi and the NLD won the country’s first election since military rule ended.
The military-backed opposition lost heavily to the NLD in elections last November and claimed widespread electoral fraud. The military coup began February 1, removing the elected government. Military commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing took power, announcing a “one-year-long state of emergency” and that a future general election would be held.Anti-coup protesters hold up signs in support of Myanmar’s Civil Disobedience Movement, during a rally in Yangon, Myanmar, Feb. 24, 2021.Since then, widespread protests have taken place across Myanmar, with thousands demanding an end to the coup. Armored vehicles have been deployed on the streets, with authorities opening fire on several occasions. More than 600 people have been arrested, and several deaths have been reported.
Military chief Min Aung Hlaing has publicly told medical professionals to go back to work, but demonstrations have continued, despite the military’s aggressive approach.
Win Thaw, the new deputy governor of the Central Bank of Myanmar, has claimed protesters are “destroying their own economy”.
Myay Latt, though, said the CDM has three strategies, all of which will continue peacefully no matter what force the military decides to use.
“We do have the protests in the history of Myanmar, the military always uses violence, they strike our protesters with their guns and real bullets. So, we decided, our people to go in a peaceful way,” he told VOA.
“Civil staff workers will not go to their departments and will not work for the current government. Civilians will not use any products military-related…and they will not pay any taxes to the government. Civilians will continue to protest in a clever way, a large group, or sometimes in front of the embassies and will continue protests nationwide,” he added.
The health workers said that instead of working under the government, they are using mobile medical clinics, charity clinics and private hospitals to provide free medical services.An anti-coup protester holding a sign reading “Join in CDM (Civil Disobedience Movement)” poses for a photo in front of an armored personnel carrier deployed outside the Central Bank of Myanmar building, in Yangon, Myanmar, Feb. 15, 2021.In addition, despite regular Internet shutdowns at night, which the military has claimed is for the stability of the country, the CDM has a new website to raise funds and through which individuals can join.
Protesters bang pots and pans at night to show disapproval of the coup, as well as to warn neighbors authorities are near. Costumes, art, blindfolds and Thanaka – a traditional paste used for sun protection – have all been used to show resistance.
Dr. Noh Noh, a Mandalay surgeon, said some CDM tactics have been inspired by recent Hong Kong protests.
“As much as possible, we use safe methods and tracks for protests, not facing their troops directly, not crossing safety lines. We follow [the] Be Water Movement, as in the Hong Kong protests,” Noh Noh said. Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters adopted the tactic from actor Bruce Lee, aiming to be without form, practicing being impulsive, flexible, and elusive.
Further support comes from the online Milk Tea Alliance, a campaign of internet users from Thailand, Hong Kong, and Taiwan as well as Myanmar. Its online manual for protests, has been recently translated into Burmese.
Similarities aside, though, the dangers to protesters in post-coup Myanmar are considered far greater than in Hong Kong and Thailand.
“Every day, every protester has their own fears while being in a strike. We are afraid of not being able to meet our family members again. We are also afraid of the cops who arrest us at nighttime,” Noh Noh said.
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Tigray Victim Pleas for Justice After Eritrean Soldiers Allegedly Massacre Civilians
Guesh Liasanewerk’s family had just gathered to celebrate the birth of his sister’s child four days earlier. Sitting in their home in a rural area outside of the historic Ethiopian city of Axum, they were interrupted by Eritrean soldiers storming in. Within moments, the men, including his 78-year-old father and 17-year-old brother, were executed by gunshots. Amnesty International has called the Axum killings, which took place Nov. 28 and 29, a “massacre” in a new report.“There are people who lost three or four people in our neighborhood,” Guesh told VOA’s Tigrigna service in one of the multiple interviews conducted with residents of Axum weeks before Amnesty International’s report. “Many people were killed, including monks in the monasteries.”In the city, Guesh said, many young people were killed.“Bodies in the city were laid out for three days because they didn’t have anyone to bury them. Some of the bodies were taken with a carriage after four days. My cousin was found after four days and they identified him using his identification card,” he added, making his cousin the third family member allegedly killed by Eritrean soldiers. All his family members were buried in one grave, he said. “I hope to get justice for my parents and my family.”’Hundreds, hundreds of people’The Amnesty International report details the systematic killing of hundreds of civilians in Axum, in the country’s Tigray region. Gathering information from interviews with more than 40 survivors and witnesses of the attack as well as others with knowledge of the events, the organization collected consistent accounts of looting, indiscriminate shelling and extrajudicial killings. The human rights group said the events may constitute a crime against humanity.Report author Jean-Baptiste Gallopin said the massacre began Nov. 28 after a small group of militiamen loyal to the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, an armed movement that later became one of four political parties in a ruling coalition, attacked a temporary mountainside Eritrean base.“In retaliation for this attack, Eritrean forces shot wantonly at civilians and killed, we believe hundreds, hundreds of people over the course of roughly 24 hours,” Gallopin told VOA. “They also went around carrying house-to-house searches, and dragging mostly men out of their homes and shooting them on the streets or killing them in their homes.”Helina Afewerki, who grew up in Axum but lives in Addis Ababa, traveled to Axum to attend funerals of neighbors. She said she heard consistent accounts of Eritrean soldiers going door to door killing mostly men.“In my neighborhood alone, Enda Mikael, I have confirmed 26 people who were killed,” she told VOA. “They were targeting the men and asking for them. If people didn’t open their doors when they knocked, they said, ‘We will throw bombs.’”Another witness who is an Axum resident but did not want to reveal his name for fear of reprisal said there were some Tigrayan militiamen who were shooting in the beginning but when the Eritrean soldiers came in, they started to indiscriminately kill. “They came in with tanks,” he said.Eritrea’s Minister of Information Yemane Gebremeskel denied the Amnesty International report Friday and called it a fabrication.“Eritrea is outraged and categorically rejects the preposterous accusations leveled against it by Amnesty International in a fallacious report issued today,” he said in a tweet. “It must be underscored that Amnesty made absolutely no attempt to seek any information from Eritrea.”Ethiopia’s minister of foreign affairs posted on its Facebook page that all blame goes to the TPLF. “None other than the TPLF should, therefore, take the primary responsibility for what subsequently unfolded in the region. This outlaw group has been engaged in ambush, assassination, and other criminal activities.”An Eritrean soldier speaking to VOA’s Tigrigna service denied the charges.“We had no aim or goal to target civilians. In fact, our understanding is that the people of Tigray were coming toward us looking for a safe haven or seeking shelter with us,” he said asking that his name not be used.“Even in Axum, there were situations where some were people who were shooting and some were looting. There were times that required for an appropriate response, but there was nothing that aimed at the civilian population. I am an eyewitness myself. I was there myself,” he said.’We have a trust deficit’There are others who cast doubt on the accuracy of the report.“I think that it is important to get evidence and to put it forward,” Bronwyn Bruton, the director of programs and studies at the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center told VOA. “The evidence would hopefully come from investigators going on the ground. But in order to get those investigators on the ground, we have political problems that we need to solve. We have a trust deficit. We have the lingering ghost of TPLF which was the indispensable partner of the U.S. for so many years.”Gallopin said Amnesty International’s methodology in the report was meticulous. Researchers spent 11 days in the Hamdayet refugee registration center in eastern Sudan speaking to witnesses who fled the area. The organization corroborated locations of shelling and burial sites using satellite imagery analyzed by its Crisis Evidence Lab. They have also reviewed videos taken in the area showing evidence of the attacks and were able to geolocate them.“So clearly the casualty figure is very high and this is the highest, the most significant massacre that’s been documented so far in the conflict in Tigray and also the most systematic documentation of violations by Eritrean forces Tigray,” Gallopin said.Gallopin said he fears other abuses are going undocumented due to the difficulty in collecting information.“It’s very important to bear in mind that given the considerable restrictions on access, we don’t have a clear picture of the overall scale of violations. And this could be just the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
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Peace Corps Marks 60 Years of Global Volunteerism
The U.S. Peace Corps turns 60 Monday.Since its establishment through executive order by President John F. Kennedy on March 1, 1961, the Peace Corps has sent more than 240,000 volunteers to 141 countries. The organization quickly became an icon of the idealistic 1960s.The goal was to foster peace and understanding by sending mostly young, college-educated or otherwise experienced Americans to developing countries for two-year stints, helping with education, health, community economic development, agriculture, the environment and youth development.The idea for the Peace Corps came during the 1960 presidential campaign when Kennedy gave an impromptu speech on the steps of the University of Michigan’s student union on Oct. 14. During the speech, he asked students if they would be willing to serve their country and the cause of peace by volunteering to work in the developing world.”How many of you who are going to be doctors, are willing to spend your days in Ghana? Technicians or engineers, how many of you are willing to work in the Foreign Service and spend your lives traveling around the world?” Kennedy asked.“On your willingness to do that, not merely to serve one year or two years in the service, but on your willingness to contribute part of your life to this country, I think will depend the answer whether a free society can compete. I think it can. And I think Americans are willing to contribute. But the effort must be far greater than we have ever made in the past,” he said.In its first five years the Peace Corps sent over 14,000 volunteers to 55 countries, according to The Washington Post.Among those were Warren Master and his wife, Karen, of Hobe Sound, Florida.From January 1966 to July 1967, when the native New Yorkers were 22 and 23, respectively, they were Peace Corps volunteers in Turkey. They arrived just in time to celebrate their first wedding anniversary.FILE – US first lady Michelle Obama laughs with Peace Corps members at a project 70 kilometers from the capital city Monrovia in Kakata, Liberia, June 27, 2016.Their first job was to join a Turkish team tasked with establishing a rural tuberculosis control program in and around Ceyhan in Adana province.“Our job was to work ourselves out of a job as our Turkish counterparts moved into this space,” said Warren.And it worked.After six months, they were reassigned to teaching positions in Ankara.“My day job was primarily teaching English to pre-med students at Hacettepe University,” Warren said. “Meanwhile, we found housing in one of Ankara’s many shantytowns that ringed the nation’s capital.”Upon returning to the U.S., Warren got a master’s degree in anthropology. He also took a job organizing community action programs in Appalachia and American inner cities. It was work he described as very similar to Peace Corps work.After that, he became a public servant.In Ankara, Karen began teaching at a nursery school located in Gulveren.“This was my first experience with young kids. The school was on the lower floor of a coffee house. There was very little in the way of materials,” she said. “I had to improvise everything.”In her last year, she taught English at Middle Eastern Technical University.“At that time in my life, teaching was not really on my radar as a possible professional goal,” she said, adding that she had studied voice for six years.While theater was her passion, she said her experience in Turkey made her realize she loved teaching, too. She went on to become a drama and English teacher.“The experience in Turkey allowed me to explore facets of myself I didn’t know existed,” she said. “It exposed me to another country’s culture and language far different from anything I’d known. It was life changing.”Some of the more recent highlights of the Peace Corps work includes sending 32 volunteers to South Africa as teachers in 1997, the first volunteers to go to that country.The program was sparked by President Nelson Mandela’s 1994 state visit to the U.S. when he asked then-President Bill Clinton for help addressing social and economic challenges in the country.In 1995, after Hurricane Luis tore through the Lesser Antilles, the Peace Corps sent volunteers to help rebuild homes. That experience led to the Peace Corps Response program, which provides “short–term, focused, humanitarian service to countries worldwide.”FILE – A Peace Corps Volunteer works with a Tanganyikan caterpillar driver on the Great Ruaha road project in 1962. They were working to better access a sugar refinery.In 2011, three women testified before Congress alleging their claims of rape had not been taken seriously. In 2013, the Peace Corps established an Office of Sexual Assault Risk-Reduction and Response to better mitigate dangers and provide support for victims.More recently, the coronavirus pandemic has hit the Peace Corps hard.Last March, concerns about the virus caused it to suspend operations in the more than 60 countries in which it was operating and bring all 7,000 of its volunteers back to the United States.It is unclear what the Peace Corps’ 61st year will look like, but according to a spokesperson, they are accepting volunteer applications for tentative departures late this year or early next year.“As the Peace Corps celebrates our 60th anniversary, I am reminded of how far we have come and what an unprecedented time we are in now,” says Acting Peace Corps Director Carol Spahn. “The past 60 years have truly prepared us for this historic moment. During a pandemic that has touched every corner of the globe, it’s clear that we are all in this together.”Spahn added, “As we look to the next 60 years, I know the Peace Corps will continue to be a community of people — all over the world — willing to do the hard work of promoting peace and friendship.”
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US Judge Approves $650M Facebook Privacy Lawsuit Settlement
A federal judge on Friday approved a $650 million settlement of a privacy lawsuit against Facebook for allegedly using photo face-tagging and other biometric data without the permission of its users.U.S. District Judge James Donato approved the deal in a class-action lawsuit that was filed in Illinois in 2015. Nearly 1.6 million Facebook users in Illinois who submitted claims will be affected.Donato called it one of the largest settlements ever for a privacy violation.”It will put at least $345 into the hands of every class member interested in being compensated,” he wrote, calling it “a major win for consumers in the hotly contested area of digital privacy.”Jay Edelson, a Chicago attorney who filed the lawsuit, told the Chicago Tribune that the checks could be in the mail within two months unless the ruling is appealed.“We are pleased to have reached a settlement so we can move past this matter, which is in the best interest of our community and our shareholders,” Facebook, which is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, said in a statement.The lawsuit accused the social media giant of violating an Illinois privacy law by failing to get consent before using facial-recognition technology to scan photos uploaded by users to create and store faces digitally.The state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act allowed consumers to sue companies that didn’t get permission before harvesting data such as faces and fingerprints.The case eventually wound up as a class-action lawsuit in California.Facebook has since changed its photo-tagging system.
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Myanmar Doctor Prevented from Treating Wounded Protesters
A medical doctor told VOA on Saturday that Myanmar security forces stopped her from treating wounded protesters during a violent crackdown by security forces, even preventing her from caring for a protester who later died in police custody under unknown circumstances.Dr. Aye Nyein Thu told VOA she was helping wounded protesters on the front lines in Mandalay, where security forces attacked residents during a demonstration at a shipyard last Saturday.At least two protesters died in the mayhem, including a 17-year-old who was shot in the head and a 36-year-old who was shot in the chest and died on the way to the hospital, according to VOA’s Burmese Service.It was among the worst violence Myanmar has seen since protests erupted following a military coup earlier this month. At least three protesters and one policeman have died in the nationwide protests, which show no signs of slowing down.Shipyard crackdownThe violence in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, began when about 500 riot police and other security forces descended on the Yadanabon shipyard, where dock workers had joined the national civil disobedience movement against the coup.Following a brief standoff with protesters near the dock, security forces began firing water cannons at the crowd and proceeded to use batons to beat protesters and other nearby civilians, including an elderly resident who was simply watching, according to Aye Nyein Thu.Aye Nyein Thu, a general practitioner, said she attempted to treat injured civilians who had been detained in a police van, including a 24-year-old man who was severely bleeding from an open wound that stretched from the front to the back of the thigh.She said she begged police to release the man so he could receive stitches to stop the severe hemorrhage.“They denied all my requests,” she said. “All I could do was cleanse the wound, stop the bleeding, and [apply] dressing.”Within days, the man had died while in security forces’ custody, she said.“His family found him in the military hospital,” according to Aye Nyein Thu.“The military doctor said the cause of death was due to COVID-19 and they immediately burned his body on that day,” she said.“I asked the family if they were shown any evidence of COVID-19. They said they [were] only shown a blood antigen test. And this test was not checked in front of the family.”She said she suspects the man was shot with live bullets, not rubber bullets, as security forces claim.International condemnationThe United Nations Country Team in Myanmar expressed “profound concern” Sunday over the Mandalay violence, noting the clashes wounded dozens and left some protesters in serious condition.”We call on security forces to refrain from violence. The use of excessive force against demonstrators by security forces must stop and the fundamental right to peaceful assembly must be respected along with other human rights such as the freedom of speech,” the U.N. statement read.The U.S. Embassy in Myanmar said it was “deeply troubled” by the fatal shooting of protesters. “No one should be harmed for exercising the right to dissent,” it added.Myanmar’s military overthrew the country’s elected government Feb. 1, citing irregularities in a November election. The military also jailed longtime democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and others. It declared a one-year state of emergency.Public sentiment quickly coalesced against the military, which exercised brutal dominance over Myanmar for about 50 years before it eventually ceded some powers about a decade ago.The protests have continued daily, as has the police crackdown.Aye Nyein Thu, who spoke to VOA in between treating more wounded protesters following fresh clashes in Mandalay on Friday, said residents are not deterred by the violence.“Not at all,” she said. “If one person dies, two [more] will come [to protest]. If two die, then a whole group will come.”
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Damage from Australia’s Dingo Fence Can be Seen from Space
New research has revealed that environmental damage caused by Australia’s 5,600-kilometer dingo fence is so vast it can be seen from space. Satellite images have documented changes on both sides of one of the world’s longest human-made structures, which stretches across three Australian states.Dingoes are descended from south Asian wolves. They are thought to have arrived in Australia with Asian seafarers about 3,500 years ago. A study of the 5,600-kilometer dingo fence in the red sand dunes of the Strzelecki Desert in central Australia has revealed what happens when a key predator is removed.“Using 32 years of satellite images, we saw that the dynamics of the vegetation cover was different on either side of the fence,” said Adrian Fisher, a lecturer in remote sensing at the University of New South Wales. “On the side where dingoes are rare, we found many more kangaroos whose grazing lowered the grass cover across the landscape.”Fisher said that overgrazing damages soil quality, making the ground more vulnerable to erosion.He said dingoes not only keep kangaroo populations in check, they can also limit the ecological damage caused by feral pests.“It is clear that dingoes keep kangaroo numbers low, and where there are dingoes there are fewer foxes and cats,” he said. “This means that outside the fence it is common to find small native mammals like the dusky hopping mouse. Together with the satellite images, this research clearly shows that the removal of the apex predator has had widespread effects on the landscape and its biodiversity. To restore and conserve these ecosystems the important role of the dingo needs to be acknowledged.”The fence was built in Australia in the early 20th century to help protect sheep.Tearing parts of it down would threaten the livestock industry, but the authors of the university study hope that a balance can be found that restores ecosystems and protects farms.The University of New South Wales study was published in the journal Landscape Ecology.
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Calls to Boycott China’s 2022 Winter Olympics Echo 2008
The Rev. Patrick Mahoney arrived in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in August 2008.Along with two other freedom-of-religion activists, they unfurled a banner proclaiming “Jesus Christ is King” in front of the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall. The Americans wanted to call attention to Beijing’s record of human rights abuses by protesting the Olympic Games China was hosting that month.China is expected to host the Winter Olympics in February 2022. But few people believe China will stop violating the human rights of its citizens in the face of international condemnation and widespread calls to boycott the games. No country has officially declared a boycott. The International Olympic Committee takes the position that it is a sporting body that does not get involved in politics.Beijing is “fully confident the Beijing Winter Olympics will be a splendid event,” said China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, FILE – The Rev. Patrick Mahoney and two other activists unfurl a banner in front of the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall boycotting the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics Games in August 2008. (Courtesy Patrick Mahoney)Eventually, authorities dragged the trio to a Chinese prison for six days, before expelling them on Aug. 7, 2008 — a day before the games opened in a ceremony that was watched by 2 billion people worldwide.“When we saw the Olympics were taking place in Beijing in 2008, we thought this was a unique opportunity and platform to address these violations on a global stage and to really speak to the world what was happening in China,” he said.’Authoritarianism was on full display’Mahoney, who with his colleagues landed on Beijing’s travel blacklist, expected that the international attention the protest drew would pressure China to improve its human rights record.Yet that expectation fell through. According to the latest Human Rights Watch report released Jan. 23, the Chinese government’s “authoritarianism was on full display in 2020 as it grappled with the deadly coronavirus outbreak first reported in Wuhan province.”Beijing’s “repression — insisting on political loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party — deepened across the country,” the report states, citing abuses of Uighurs, a Turkic Muslim ethnic group in Xinjiang, the replacement of Mongolian with Mandarin Chinese in Inner Mongolia’s schools, and the imposition of a “draconian” National Security Law in Hong Kong, “its most aggressive assault on Hong Kong people’s freedoms since the transfer of sovereignty in 1997.”Multiple members of the U.S. Congress are calling for the games to be moved from China. Republican representatives Guy Reschenthaler from Pennsylvania, Michael Waltz from Florida, and John Katko of New York — the lead Republican for the House Committee on Homeland Security — recently introduced a resolution urging the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to rebid hosting for the 2022 Games.“I do not see how just 11 months from now, we reward the Chinese Communist Party with the honor and with the benefit of hosting the Olympic Games and giving the party that international platform for its ongoing cover up and for its ongoing propaganda,” Congressman Waltz told VOA Mandarin.’We are seeing a massive movement’The quadrennial international games draw audiences in the billions. According to a report by market-measurement firm Nielsen, between Aug. 8 and Aug. 24, 4.7 billion viewers — or 70% of the world’s population — watched Beijing’s 2008 Summer Olympics. In comparison, 3.9 billion watched the 2004 Athens Games, while 3.6 billion followed the 2000 Sydney Games on television.In 2018, 1.92 billion people, or 28% of the world’s population, watched the Winter Olympic Games in South Korea, held Feb. 9-25, according to organizers.Earlier this month, more than a dozen Canadian lawmakers signed an open letter calling for the Olympics to be moved outside China, according to Canada’s Global News website.Mahoney told VOA his calls for a boycott are different this time.“It’s as different as night and day,” he said. “In 2008, we were a lone voice pretty much, and there wasn’t even a consensus. Right now, we are talking with members of Congress; we’re talking with world leaders.“We are seeing a massive movement, which I am greatly encouraged by,” he added, describing it as an “historic opportunity.””It’s a way forward through peaceful global commitment to kind of isolate China, to say, look, we’re not against the government of China, we’re against these abuses and we will more than welcome you in if you are willing to treat your people with dignity and respect and honor freedom, democracy and human rights,” he said.Others disagree with that stance. Canadian Dick Pound, the IOC’s longest-serving member, said a boycott would be “a gesture that we know will have no impact whatsoever.””The games are not Chinese Games, the games are the IOC Games,” he told the BBC. “The decision on hosting is not made with a view to signaling approval of a government policy.”David Lampton, a professor emeritus of China Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, wrote in a recent opinion piece for Newsweek that boycotting the 2022 Games will arouse nationalism and generate counterproductive internal and external behavior from China.China’s citizens “will not view a boycott of the Olympics as a gesture of solidarity with a beleaguered population. Instead, they will consider it to be an attack on the Chinese people and their national and civilizational dignity, as well as an attempt to humiliate, not negotiate.”The Biden administration on Thursday said it has yet to decide whether or not the U.S. will boycott the games.“There hasn’t been a final decision made on that, and of course we would look for guidance from the U.S. Olympic Committee,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during a briefing.This story originated in VOA’s Mandarin Service.
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Will COVID Vaccines Help China Increase its Influence in the Balkans?
As some countries struggle to get enough COVID-19 vaccine, China has intensified efforts to distribute its vaccine in the Balkans. Some experts say it’s an effort to increase the county’s influence in the region. Dino Jahic and Amer Jahic have the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
Camera: Dino Jahic
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US Bans 76 Saudis Over Khashoggi Murder
US intelligence agencies released a report to Congress on Friday concluding that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved an operation in 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey, ‘to capture or kill’ Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and US resident. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports on reaction to the long-awaited report.
Producer: Bakhtiyar Zamanov
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A Year Later, Uncertainly Looms Over US-Taliban Peace Agreement
The Taliban and the United States signed a peace agreement Feb. 29 last year, but a year later it remains unclear if U.S. troops will leave Afghanistan. Bezhan Hamdard reports.
Camera: Afghan Service Producer: Bezhan Hamdard
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Hundreds of Nigerian Schoolgirls Taken in Mass Abduction
Gunmen abducted 317 girls Friday from a boarding school in northern Nigeria, police said, the latest in a series of mass kidnappings of students in the West African nation.Police and the military have begun joint operations to rescue the girls after the attack at the Government Girls Junior Secondary School in Jangebe town, according to a police spokesperson in Zamfara state, Mohammed Shehu, who confirmed the number abducted.One parent, Nasiru Abdullahi, told The Associated Press that his daughters, ages 10 and 13, are among the missing.”It is disappointing that even though the military have a strong presence near the school they were unable to protect the girls,” he said. “At this stage, we are only hoping on divine intervention.”Resident Musa Mustapha said the gunmen also attacked a nearby military camp and checkpoint, preventing soldiers from interfering while the gunmen spent several hours at the school. It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties.Several large groups of armed men operate in Zamfara state, described by the government as bandits, and are known to kidnap for money and to push for the release of their members from jail.Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said Friday the government’s primary objective is to get all the school hostages returned safe, alive and unharmed.”We will not succumb to blackmail by bandits and criminals who target innocent school students in the expectation of huge ransom payments,” he said. “Let bandits, kidnappers and terrorists not entertain any illusions that they are more powerful than the government. They shouldn’t mistake our restraint for the humanitarian goals of protecting innocent lives as a weakness, or a sign of fear or irresolution.”He called on state governments to review their policy of making payments, in money or vehicles, to bandits.”Such a policy has the potential to backfire with disastrous consequences,” Buhari said. He also said state and local governments must play their part by being proactive in improving security in and around schools.United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the abductions and called for the girls’ “immediate and unconditional release” and safe return to their families, calling attacks on schools a grave violation of human rights and the rights of children, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.The U.N. chief reaffirmed U.N. support to Nigeria’s government and people “in their fight against terrorism, violent extremism and organized crime,” Dujarric said, and urged Nigerian authorities “to spare no effort in bringing those responsible for this crime to justice.””We are angered and saddened by yet another brutal attack on schoolchildren in Nigeria,” said Peter Hawkins, UNICEF representative in the country. “This is a gross violation of children’s rights and a horrific experience for children to go through.” He called for their immediate release.Nigeria has seen several such attacks and kidnappings over the years, notably the mass abduction in April 2014 by jihadist group Boko Haram of 276 girls from the secondary school in Chibok in Borno state. More than 100 girls are still missing.Friday’s attack came less than two weeks after gunmen abducted 42 people, including 27 students, from the Government Science College Kagara in Niger State. The students, teachers and family members are still being held.In December, 344 students were abducted from the Government Science Secondary School Kankara in Katsina State. They were eventually released.Anietie Ewang, Nigeria researcher at Human Rights Watch, noted the recent abductions and tweeted that “Strong action is required from the authorities to turn the tide & keep schools safe.”Amnesty International also condemned the “appalling attack,” warning in a statement that “the girls abducted are in serious risk of being harmed.”Teachers have been forced to flee to other states for protection, and many children have had to abandon their education amid frequent violent attacks in communities, Amnesty said.
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Rwanda Paid for Flight That Brought Hotel Rwanda ‘Hero’ to Kigali
Rwandan Justice Minister Johnston Busingye said in an interview broadcast Friday that Kigali had paid for the plane that brought the hero of the hit movie Hotel Rwanda to his home country to be arrested and tried.A critic of Rwandan President Paul Kagame since he left Rwanda to live abroad, Paul Rusesabagina, 66, appeared in Kigali under arrest in mysterious circumstances last August and is now on trial for charges including terrorism.”The government paid” to return Rusesabagina to Rwanda with the help of someone who knew him, Busingye told Al Jazeera’s UpFront program, produced in the U.S.The former manager of the Mille Collines hotel in Kigali, scene of the film recounting how he saved more than 1,000 people during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, Rusesabagina later moved to the U.S. and Belgium, where he was naturalized.But he was arrested in Rwanda in late August as he disembarked from a plane that had taken off from Dubai, which he believed was taking him to Burundi, in what his lawyers called a kidnapping.“In international criminal law, luring people into places where they can be brought to justice has happened and happened in many jurisdictions,” he added.In a statement, the justice ministry confirmed that the country “facilitated the journey” that brought the accused to Rwanda and insisted that “his rights were not violated at any point” in the legal arrest.It also said that a segment of the Al Jazeera program in which the minister is seen discussing with his advisers the interception of Rusesabagina’s private communications, which the broadcaster said was shown in error, “does not reflect the government’s position.”Rusesabagina faces nine charges, including terrorism, especially for alleged support for the National Liberation Front rebel group believed to have carried out deadly attacks in recent years.
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UN Experts Urge Far-Reaching US Reforms on Police Violence, Systemic Racism
Twenty-three United Nations human rights experts released a joint statement Friday calling on the United States to adopt reforms on police violence and address systemic racism and racial discrimination.
“We have repeatedly raised our concerns about the excessive force used by American police in the context of peaceful demonstrations, and the use of lethal force against individuals who did not present a threat to life at the time of the police intervention,” said the statement.
Signatories include Agnes Callamard, special rapporteur on extrajudicial and arbitrary executions, Irene Khan, special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, Marcos Orellana, special rapporteur on toxics and human rights, Nils Melzer, special rapporteur on torture and other cruel punishment, and others.
“In this time of political change, the United States must initiate far-reaching reforms to address police brutality and systemic racism,” they said.
The U.N. statement also praised a January report from the Office of the City Controller in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on its response to protests over the May 2020 death of unarmed African American man George Floyd in Minneapolis policy custody.
The Philadelphia probe found the city failed to sufficiently plan for the protests and that excessive force was used. It also found inconsistencies in how officers policed massive crowds protesting police brutality and other crowds gathered to show support for the police.
“Police officers fired tear gas, rubber bullets and used pepper spray from close range against protesters, residents, and bystanders indiscriminately,” the U.N. report states. “Tear gas canisters even landed in home yards hurting children.”
The report found that many violations stemmed from the failure of leadership at the highest levels in key city departments and agencies.
“We agree forcefully with the necessity for greater accountability,” said the U.N. statement. “The authorities at all levels must ensure that there is no impunity for any excessive use of force by law enforcement officials.”
The U.N. experts urged U.S. officials to address the issue of increased “militarization” of policing.
“Studies have shown that the use of military gear and armored vehicles for the purposes of law enforcement has not reduced crime or increased officers’ safety,” they said.
“On the contrary, when such equipment is used, officers are more likely to display violent behavior,” the statement added.
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FBI Monitoring Domestic Extremists Who Might Threaten Biden’s Speech to Congress
The FBI is keeping close watch on domestic violent extremists who might pose a threat to the U.S. Capitol when President Joe Biden delivers a speech before a joint session of Congress next month, a senior FBI official said Friday.“We have been worried that domestic violent extremists would react not only to the results of an election that they might not see as favorable, but the transition of a government that they may question,” the senior official told reporters on a press call.“And so I think for the near future as we continue to go through that process — and I would view the first address [to] the nation part of that process — that we are watching very closely for any reaction from individuals that would show either an intent to commit an attack or somebody that has already committed one,” the official said. The official asked not to be named.President Joe Biden delivers a speech on foreign policy, at the State Department, Feb. 4, 2021, in Washington.The comments came a day after the acting head of the U.S. Capitol Police warned that militia groups involved in the January 6 attack on the Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump want to “blow up” the building during Biden’s speech.“We know that members of the militia groups that were present on January 6 have stated their desire that they want to blow up the Capitol and kill as many members as possible, with a direct nexus to the State of the Union,” Yogananda Pittman, the acting police chief, told lawmakers.In response, Pittman said, the Capitol Police force has kept in place security barriers and other enhanced measures implemented after the January 6 attack, measures that she said would likely be removed as the threat dissipated.A date for Biden’s speech has not been announced. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she wants to delay the address until after Congress completes work on Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic stimulus package. White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Friday referred a reporter’s question about the threat to the Secret Service.Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump clash with police at the west entrance of the Capitol during a violent protest at the Capitol building in Washington D.C., Jan. 6, 2021.Threats of right-wing violence ahead of Biden’s inauguration on January 20 led to the unprecedented deployment of more than 25,000 National Guard members to Washington, but the ceremony on the steps of the Capitol passed without incident. Nevertheless, security around the Capitol remains tight, with tall fences around the complex still in place.The attack on the Capitol left five people dead, including a Capitol Police officer, and at least 140 other officers injured. It has also triggered a wide-ranging FBI investigation of an estimated 800 Trump supporters who stormed the building and others responsible for the attack.Acting Deputy Attorney General John Carlin said more than 300 people have been charged and more than 280 arrested in connection with the assault on the Capitol.“The investigation into those responsible is moving at a speed and scale that’s unprecedented, and rightly so,” Carlin told reporters during the press call. “Those responsible must be held to account, and they will be.”Of those arrested to date, more than two dozen are alleged members of the Oath Keepers, an anti-government group, and the Proud Boys, a pro-Trump right wing organization. But the vast majority of those arrested and charged so far have no known ties to any domestic extremist groups.The FBI views anti-government violent extremism and racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism as “as our top domestic violent extremist threat,” the senior FBI official said.Last year the FBI arrested about 180 individuals involved in connection with acts of domestic terrorism, the official said.“We are increasingly arresting more domestic terrorists each year, and … we’ve arrested more this year than previous years,” the official said.
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Myanmar UN Envoy Appeals to World to Stop Military Takeover
Myanmar’s U.N. envoy appealed to the international community Friday to reject a military coup in his country and “use any means necessary” to protect the people.“We, the committee representing CRPH [Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluuttaw], ask the United Nations, the U.N. Security Council and the international community that aspire to build a peaceful and civilized global society to use any means necessary to take action against the Myanmar military and to provide safety and security for the people of Myanmar,” an emotional Kyaw Moe Tun told the General Assembly.The CRPH is a committee representing the elected parliamentarians from Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party (NLD).Anti-coup protesters raise their hands with clenched fists during a nationwide general strike near the Mandalay Railway Station in Mandalay, Myanmar, Feb. 22, 2021, to protest against the military coup.Popular protests have been staged across Myanmar daily since the military detained de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other members of the civilian government February 1, claiming widespread fraud in last November’s election, which Suu Kyi’s NLD won in a landslide.The envoy said he represents the NLD, which is “the legitimate and duly elected” government – not the military leaders who seized power. He said the coup was illegal, unconstitutional and “not acceptable in this modern world.”“It is crystal clear that we all do not want to go back to the system that we used to be in before,” Kyaw Moe Tun said of the hundreds of thousands of people who have taken to the streets across Myanmar since the coup.The envoy accused the military of oppressing the people for decades, using “unspeakable, violent methods” to attack ethnic minorities, and that “these actions no doubt amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.”Kyaw Moe Tun said the military continues to act with impunity as it deploys violence against the peaceful protesters demanding a return to civilian rule and democratic norms.“The Myanmar military overthrows a democratically elected government, shoots to kill the peaceful protesters on the street, commits crimes targeting civilians, attacks ambulances and health care workers, arrests the democratically elected parliamentarians using unjust laws, issues arrest warrants without legal basis and breaches the fundamental human rights of the people of Myanmar,” Kyaw Moe Tun said.”The Myanmar military has become the existential threat for Myanmar,” he said.He appealed to the international community to continue to pressure the regime, not to recognize it or cooperate with it in any way, and to support the democratically elected lawmakers.“We will continue to fight for a government which is of the people, by the people, for the people,” Kyaw Moe Tun said, his voice cracking. He then spoke briefly in his native Burmese to address his fellow citizens listening in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma.“I would like to request to all of you to keep on fighting,” he urged his countrymen, according to a translation of his remarks. “The revolution must succeed.”US condemns coup, praises envoySpeaking at her first U.N. meeting, the new U.S. ambassador condemned the coup and praised the Myanmar envoy’s “courageous and brave statement.”New U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks after meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the United Nations in New York City, Feb. 25, 2021.”Like the permanent representative [Kyaw Moe Tun], the people of Myanmar are making their voices heard,” Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said. “Doctors and civil servants, grocery store cashiers and milk tea servers, delivery drivers, oil rig operators and artists — they are marching in the streets. They are raising red balloons, and banging pots and pans, and they are demanding their democracy back.”She said the United States stands in solidarity with demonstrators as they call for a return to peace and democratic governance.“The military has tried to silence those calls with social media and internet blackouts, but we still hear the people of Myanmar loud and clear,” she added.Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power also praised Myanmar’s envoy in a tweet, noting “it is impossible to overstate the risks that #Myanmar UN ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun just took in the @UN General Assembly when (voice cracking) he just now called on world to oppose the military coup.”Whoa. It is impossible to overstate the risks that Police advance with heavy construction equipment towards protesters demonstrating against the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar, Feb.22, 2021.Protesters were holding banners and shouting slogans denouncing the military coup, despite the increase of the security presence with a water cannon truck stationed in the area.According to state media and eyewitnesses, about 50 riot police acted against the protesters and arrested at least one demonstrator.The junta has declared a one-year state of emergency. Its commander, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, has pledged that new elections will be held to bring about a “true and disciplined democracy,” but did not specify when they would take place.Myanmar’s electoral commission denied the military’s claims of election fraud.The United States and other Western nations have demanded the release of Suu Kyi and her lieutenants, who have been detained since the coup, and called on the junta to restore power to the civilian government.
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US Intelligence Report Singles Out Saudi Crown Prince in Khashoggi Killing
The U.S. released a declassified intelligence report Friday that singles out Saudi Arabia’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for approving the grisly murder of Saudi dissident and Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom’s consulate in Turkey.Khashoggi was lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018 and killed by operatives linked to the crown prince. His body was dismembered, and his remains have never been found. Riyadh eventually admitted that Khashoggi was mistakenly killed in what it called a rogue operation but denied the crown prince’s involvement.The role of the crown prince, often referred to by his initials, MBS, in Khashoggi’s death has been the subject of media reports since late 2018.The U.S. Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, said in a statement Friday the report had been “coordinated with the Intelligence Community and the information has been declassified to the greatest extent possible while still protecting the IC’s critical sources and methods.”U.S. President Joe Biden talked Thursday with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman. The White House said Biden and Salman “discussed regional security, including the renewed diplomatic efforts led by the United Nations and the United States to end the war in Yemen, and the U.S. commitment to help Saudi Arabia defend its territory as it faces attacks from Iranian-aligned groups.”The White House readout of the call noted the recent release of several Saudi-American activists and Saudi women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul from custody and affirmed the importance the U.S. places on universal human rights and the rule of law. It did not mention the report on Khashoggi.The Trump administration rejected demands by lawmakers to release a declassified version of the report as the White House prioritized arms sales to the kingdom and alliance with Riyadh amid rising U.S. tensions with Saudi Arabia’s regional rival, Iran.
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Human Rights Violations Eroding Fundamental Freedoms Globally, Bachelet Says
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michele Bachelet warns a proliferation of human rights violations around the world is eroding fundamental freedoms and heightening grievances that are destabilizing.Presenting a global update Friday to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva,
Bachelet zipped through a long litany of global offenders. No region was spared. Few countries emerged with clean hands.
She criticized repressive policies in powerful countries such as Russia, which she said enacted new legal provisions late last year that further limited fundamental freedoms.“Existing restrictive laws have continued to be harshly enforced, including during recent demonstrations across the country. On several occasions, police were filmed using unnecessary and disproportionate force against largely peaceful protesters and made thousands of arrests,” she said.
Bachelet noted problems in the U.S. with systemic racism. She took the European Union to task for anti-migrant restrictions that put lives in jeopardy. She denounced the shrinking civic space across Southeast Asia, condemning the military coup in Myanmar and death squads in the Philippines.
She condemned corrupt, discriminatory and abusive practices in Venezuela, Honduras and other countries in the Americas that have forced millions of people to flee for their lives. She deplored the terrible suffering of millions of people victimized by conflicts in the Middle East.
Specifically, Bachelet expressed concern about alleged abuses committed by all parties in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. She called for a credible investigation into allegations of mass killings, extrajudicial executions, and other attacks on civilians, including sexual violence in the province.
“I am also disturbed by reported abductions and forcible returns of Eritrean refugees living in Tigray—some reportedly at the hands of Eritrean forces. At least 15,000 Eritreans who had taken refuge are unaccounted for following the destruction of their shelters. Coupled with growing insecurity in other parts of Ethiopia, the conflict in Tigray could have serious impact on regional stability and human rights,” she said.
Bachelet called on the Ugandan government to refrain from using regulations to combat COVID-19 to arrest and detain political opponents and journalists. And, she warned of the dangers posed by apparent official attempts in neighboring Tanzania to deny the reality of COVID-19.
“Including measures to criminalize recognition of the pandemic and related information. This could have serious impact on Tanzanians’ right to health. I note reports of pushbacks of hundreds of asylum seekers from Mozambique and the DRC, as well as continued reports of torture, enforced disappearances and forced returns of Burundian refugees,” she said.
Bachelet noted people in every region of the world were being left behind and excluded from development and other opportunities as the coronavirus pandemic continued to gather pace. She said building trust and maintaining and expanding freedoms were central to global efforts to contain and crush the coronavirus.
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Global Proliferation of Human Rights Violations Eroding Fundamental Freedoms, Bachelet Says
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michele Bachelet warns a proliferation of human rights violations around the world is eroding fundamental freedoms and heightening grievances that are destabilizing.Presenting a global update Friday to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva,
Bachelet zipped through a long litany of global offenders. No region was spared. Few countries emerged with clean hands.
She criticized repressive policies in powerful countries such as Russia, which she said enacted new legal provisions late last year that further limited fundamental freedoms.“Existing restrictive laws have continued to be harshly enforced, including during recent demonstrations across the country. On several occasions, police were filmed using unnecessary and disproportionate force against largely peaceful protesters and made thousands of arrests,” she said.
Bachelet noted problems in the U.S. with systemic racism. She took the European Union to task for anti-migrant restrictions that put lives in jeopardy. She denounced the shrinking civic space across Southeast Asia, condemning the military coup in Myanmar and death squads in the Philippines.
She condemned corrupt, discriminatory and abusive practices in Venezuela, Honduras and other countries in the Americas that have forced millions of people to flee for their lives. She deplored the terrible suffering of millions of people victimized by conflicts in the Middle East.
Specifically, Bachelet expressed concern about alleged abuses committed by all parties in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. She called for a credible investigation into allegations of mass killings, extrajudicial executions, and other attacks on civilians, including sexual violence in the province.
“I am also disturbed by reported abductions and forcible returns of Eritrean refugees living in Tigray—some reportedly at the hands of Eritrean forces. At least 15,000 Eritreans who had taken refuge are unaccounted for following the destruction of their shelters. Coupled with growing insecurity in other parts of Ethiopia, the conflict in Tigray could have serious impact on regional stability and human rights,” she said.
Bachelet called on the Ugandan government to refrain from using regulations to combat COVID-19 to arrest and detain political opponents and journalists. And, she warned of the dangers posed by apparent official attempts in neighboring Tanzania to deny the reality of COVID-19.
“Including measures to criminalize recognition of the pandemic and related information. This could have serious impact on Tanzanians’ right to health. I note reports of pushbacks of hundreds of asylum seekers from Mozambique and the DRC, as well as continued reports of torture, enforced disappearances and forced returns of Burundian refugees,” she said.
Bachelet noted people in every region of the world were being left behind and excluded from development and other opportunities as the coronavirus pandemic continued to gather pace. She said building trust and maintaining and expanding freedoms were central to global efforts to contain and crush the coronavirus.
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EU, NATO Leaders Discuss Security Priorities for Europe
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Friday took part in a European Union summit to discuss security and defense priorities for the alliance.
Stoltenberg joined European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel at EU headquarters in Brussels where they addressed other EU leaders by videoconference.
Ahead of the meeting, at a news briefing with Michel, Stoltenberg said NATO troops are working with civilian efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, helping to set up military field hospitals, transporting patients and medical equipment, among other efforts. He said their main focus is to ensure a health crisis does not become a security crisis.
But Stoltenberg said, the main role of the alliance is to act as a link between North America and Europe, and he welcomed the strong message from U.S. President Joe Biden regarding his commitment to rebuilding alliances with Europe.
Michel agreed saying he is “totally convinced” the Biden administration offers a unique opportunity to strengthen the partnership between NATO and the EU.
At a news briefing following the security meeting, Von der Leyen said cooperation with NATO was a top priority, but, reflecting the views of other key EU members, said the bloc, “as a whole, has more tasks for stabilization and security than the tasks within NATO. And for that, we have to be prepared.”
EU members Germany and France have been pressing for “strategic autonomy” within the bloc, particularly after what they called former U.S. president Donald Trump’s ambiguous attitude towards traditional U.S. European allies. They said they believe Europe has to be able to stand alone.
The French news agency reports a draft of conclusions from Friday’s meeting indicates the bloc’s leadership will reaffirm that “in the face of increased global instability, the EU needs to take more responsibility for its security,” but no concrete new announcements are expected.
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