As Ethiopia prepares for parliamentary elections scheduled to take place in June, the contest to win the hearts and minds of voters is already under way on social media, which democracy activist Befeqadu Hailu is closely watching.“Social media has offered us a means to organize, networking, and expressing ourselves safely, easily and cheaply,” he explained to VOA during a Skype interview from his office in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. “But on the other hand, the political organizations and political groups are using social media in an organized manner so they can disseminate any information in the interest of their political advantage, so that is manipulating their followers.”Ethiopian elections come as unrest flares in its northern Tigray region, where ethnic and political tensions are exploited online. Facebook is the dominant social media platform in the country, although less than 20% of the overall population has internet access.“People disseminate whatever they hear on social media through mouth-to-mouth communication,” Hailu explained.In October 2019, a disputed Facebook post by a well-known Ethiopian media figure went viral, prompting outrage that led to violence and the deaths of almost 80 people in the Oromia region. The killing of a popular singer in Addis Ababa in 2020 also triggered a wave of posts on the social media site, followed by violence in the capital and beyond.As national elections approach and social media use expands, Hailu said his country is ripe for online disinformation campaigns that could lead to further bloodshed.“They disseminate ethnic biases, hatred and prejudices so they might instigate conflict in ethnic clashes and political clashes. So, this is of concern to us,” Hailu said.“We work with partners to flag activity that could potentially thwart participation, exacerbate tensions or contribute to unwarranted perceptions that the voting process or the outcome are illegitimate,” said Michael Baldassaro, senior adviser with the Carter Center’s digital threats monitoring team, a relatively new program in the organization’s global democracy and peace initiatives.Baldassaro, who spoke to VOA via Skype, said with internet access increasing in many emerging democracies, use of social media is changing the ways candidates and voters interact.Tigray region EthiopiaIt is also changing how the global nonprofit Carter Center, founded by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, assesses elections.“We typically do this work in environments that are characterized by deep political polarization where citizens distrust government institutions or election authorities to varying degrees, and their primary sources of media are either unprofessional or hyper-partisan, or both,” Baldassaro explained.“We find in these environments that people turn to social media, where they find themselves in echo chambers, and encounter bias-confirming content — a good portion of which is false and misleading or demonizes those with different perspectives or beliefs.”The Carter Center, together with partners in countries where they are monitoring elections, not only flag dangerous online activity, but press tech companies to act.“If that information is indeed false, we might relate that to Facebook and the human rights policy team or to our counterparts in the country office to take action,” said Baldassaro. “Maybe at that point, they might take action to either downrank or deplatform that content all together. We want to be able to mitigate potential harms in real time.”Hailu’s Center for Advancement of Rights and Democracy (CARD) is one of several organizations in Ethiopia monitoring and acting on potential harmful online activity.“We try to identify those profiles who are repeatedly disseminating false information and demand or advocate for the social media platforms to remove that content as soon as possible,” he said.In a 2020 report, the United Nations outlined the dangers in Ethiopia of unmoderated content on Facebook. The tech giant said it is increasing content moderation staff in Africa, but Hailu said there are many challenges monitoring and moderating enormous amounts of content in different languages from different locations, including from diaspora communities outside the continent.“It requires the efforts of multiple organizations and multiple stakeholders,” he told VOA.With Carter Center support, CARD has expanded its mission beyond Amharic-only language content in Ethiopia.“We are also now observing at least three local languages,” Hailu said.But Hailu admits it is still an enormous task monitoring users and content that increases daily, reaching audiences in dozens of different languages or dialects throughout Ethiopia.
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Month: February 2021
US to Release Intelligence Report on Khashoggi Killing
The U.S. is expected to release a declassified intelligence report Friday that blames Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the 2018 grisly murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was a U.S. resident with U.S. citizen children.
Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post, was lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul Oct. 2, 2018, and was 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.
U.S. President Joe Biden talked with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Thursday. The White House said that during the call, 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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Relatives, Rights Groups Urge Probe of Cellphone Jamming Devices in Cambodia’s Prey Sar Prison
Family members and human rights officials have called on Cambodia’s government to probe the use of cellphone jamming devices in prison cells they believe are impacting the health and rights of detainees after jailed activists complained of what they say is radiation poisoning.Eap Sour, the wife of opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party activist Kong Sam An, told Radio Free Asia’s Khmer Service on Wednesday that her husband was shockingly thin, irritated, and forgetful while appearing at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court last week to face charges of “incitement.”She said Kong Sam An, like other detainees, complained that his health was deteriorating and that he had passed out in his cramped cell in Phnom Penh’s notorious Prey Sar Prison because of the jamming devices.“He looked like he was going to faint during the hearing, and I wanted to cry,” she said.“I’m disappointed that good people like him are treated badly by the authorities. He fought for the nation, worked as a teacher, and eventually ended up in prison. I feel sorry for him, but I can do nothing but pray for him to get well soon and return home.”500% over capacityPrey Sar Prison is the largest of Cambodia’s prisons and administered by the country’s Ministry of Interior. Rights groups say conditions in the facility, formerly known as S24, are atrocious.According to London-based Amnesty International, as of January last year, Prey Sar held over 10,000 prisoners, approximately 500% over capacity. Up to 40% of all prisoners are in pretrial detention, and thousands are held for minor, nonviolent offenses, such as use or possession of drugs.Kol Sat, the wife of jailed CNRP activist Kong Mas, told RFA that while the prison’s water supply was recently restored, inmates remain stacked like farm animals.She urged the government or the Ministry of Interior to investigate the cellphone jamming devices and remove them if they are found to have a detrimental effect on the health of the detainees.“I had a quick chat with [Kong Mas], but he could not hear the conversation and kept forgetting things,” she said.Several activists, including Cambodian Confederation of Trade Unions president Rong Chhun, who are being tried on charges widely seen as politically motivated, have also complained of Prey Sar’s tight quarters and said they believe the cellphone jamming devices have impacted their health and memory.Former prisoner Kong Raya said that each cell in Prey Sar has at least four or five devices. He said the devices make a noise that bothered his ears and gave him a headache.Instead of installing the devices, he added, prison guards should be fighting corruption within their ranks and stopping prisoners from having cellphones brought into the facility.“I’m no expert, but prisoners — including political activists — have the same complaints,” he said.“When they were outside, they were fine, but when they are in jail, they lose their memory.”Call for probeIn response to the complaints, Nuth Savna, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior’s General Department of Prisons, said he welcomed the idea of setting up a commission to investigate the impact of using the devices, as his officers work at Prey Sar. He claimed that the company that installed the devices had previously confirmed that they are not harmful.“Please be informed that my officers lack the skills to evaluate radio equipment, so only a telecommunications employee can do it,” he said.“This request has nothing to do with me. If civil society writes a letter to the government or the Ministry of Interior, they will decide whether to take action.”Nuth Savna said prison officials restrict the import of prohibited items, but crowded conditions prevent them from catching all contraband. As for the overcrowding, he echoed earlier statements claiming that the courts are working to speed up their caseload and authorities are building more prisons.Am Sam Ath, deputy director for human rights monitoring and protection at local rights group LICADHO, confirmed to RFA that many detainees have made similar claims about the health effects of the cellphone jamming devices, but that so far, no one has probed the issue.He called on the government to establish an expert and independent commission to investigate and address the allegations.“We are not experts, we do not dare to explain whether they have an affect or not, so we want an expert committee to study the matter,” he said.He added that even though detainees are deprived of certain rights in prison, they should still enjoy the rights to adequate food, health services, and freedom from torture.‘Inhumane’ conditionsCambodia’s opposition parties have also called on Cambodian authorities to improve conditions for the country’s detainees.The CNRP’s European Union branch earlier this month issued a statement urging Cambodia’s government to resolve overcrowding and end the use of jamming devices in prisons.The EU branch said it considers the housing of thousands of prisoners together in cramped, poorly ventilated rooms, “torture” and “a serious human rights violation.”In November 2017 the Supreme Court banned the CNRP for its supposed role in a plot to overthrow the government. The move marked the beginning of a wider crackdown by Prime Minister Hun Sen on the political opposition, NGOs, and the independent media that paved the way for his ruling Cambodian People’s Party to win all 125 seats in the country’s July 2018 general election.In March last year, Amnesty International’s regional director, Nicholas Bequelin, called the conditions in Cambodia’s jails “inhumane,” adding that detainees and staff are unable to take preventable steps, including physical distancing and isolation during the coronavirus pandemic.“These conditions were never acceptable, and now they risk lighting a fuse for what could quickly become dramatic and exponential levels of community transmission of COVID-19,” he said, referring to the disease caused by the virus.
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Myanmar Police Fire Warning Shots, Try to Disperse Protesters
Police and security forces in Myanmar’s largest city fired warning shots Friday as they moved to break up a group of about 1,000 demonstrators who had gathered at a popular shopping mall in Yangon’s Tamwe neighborhood overnight to protest a military-appointed official.Protesters were holding banners and shouting slogans denouncing the Feb. 1 coup, despite the increase of the security presence with a water cannon truck stationed in the area.According to state media and eyewitnesses, a unit of about 50 riot police acted against the protesters and arrested at least one demonstrator.The Reuters news agency reports that a Japanese journalist was detained at a protest in Yangon on Friday. If confirmed, the detention would be the first of a foreign journalist since the coup.On Thursday the World Bank said it would not disburse funds to Myanmar in the wake of the military takeover.The political crisis in the country took a new turn Thursday when supporters of the military junta in Yangon attacked demonstrators protesting the Feb. 1 overthrow of the civilian government.The violence capped a day that began when hundreds of pro-military supporters turned up for a rally in downtown Yangon. The pro-military supporters were marching near the city’s central railway station when they were jeered by a group of bystanders and responded by firing slingshots and throwing stones at them.Popular protests against the coup have been staged across Myanmar on a daily basis since the military detained de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other members of the civilian government on Feb. 1, claiming widespread fraud in November’s election, which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won in a landslide.The United Nations said 150 people in the capital were arrested Monday.“The U.N. team is currently tracking more than 900 political and state officials, activists and civil society members – including journalists, monks and students – now being detained. And of course, we call for their immediate release,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters Thursday.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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Laos Issues New Decree on Dams Aimed at Minimizing Harm
The government of Laos issued new guidelines for managing hydropower dams aimed at minimizing water shortages and flooding, state media reported on Thursday, amid debate on how its hydropower boom has altered the vital Mekong River.The new decree, effective March 4, requires all hydropower operators to notify authorities whenever dam reservoirs reach maximum storage or when river levels downstream fall to a critical level, the Vientiane Times reported. “Effective management of water resources and rivers, especially those used by hydropower plants, is seen as crucial as Laos strives to build more dams and become an important exporter of electricity,” the article said.Laos’ ministry of energy and its foreign ministry did not reply on Thursday to requests for comment on the decree. Hydropower development is central to Laos’ plan to export around 20,000 megawatts of electricity to its neighbors by 2030.At least 50 dams have been built in the last 15 years on Laos’ hundreds of rivers and streams, with at least 14 new dams on the Mekong and its tributaries completed since 2018, according to the U.S.-funded Mekong Infrastructure Tracker.Environmentalists say the dams have damaged the Mekong River Basin’s fragile ecosystem.Sudden water releases causing floods and holding back water that causes shortages downstream has sparked complaints from fishermen and farmers in both Laos and downstream neighbors including Thailand and Cambodia, where millions of people rely on the Mekong River for their livelihoods.Environmentalists have called for better “cascade management” for dams inside Laos, as well as for 11 dams on the upper Mekong inside China, to minimize negative effects.Activists said it remains to be seen whether the new Laos decree would be enforced.”Despite the government of Laos developing and adopting multiple regulations and guidelines related to hydropower in recent years, institutional capacity, enforcement and monitoring remains weak,” said Gary Lee, International River’s Southeast Asia Program Director.
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Sahel Child Marriage Growing Rapidly
According to data from the United Nations, Africa’s Sahel countries have the highest rate of child marriage in the world, with more than half of all girls being married before the age of 18.Viviane Sawadogo, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, lives in Burkina Faso. Her family forced her into marriage at age 12. She had been promised from birth to the man’s family in exchange for a child bride his family had given to hers some years earlier.But her husband was a man in his 50s who already had four wives, and Sawadogo decided to escape what she described as a curse.One morning, she said, she left the house and walked from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., covering more than 30 kilometers. But she was caught and taken back to the house, feeling completely devastated. She said she was determined not to give up, however, and made another attempt. That night she walked more than 40 kilometers before finding a bus which allowed her to escape.After her escape, she found refuge in a center set up by a church for girls fleeing child marriage. She lived there for 10 years and was able to continue her education.Sawadogo is now a 22-year-old university student. She has left the center but returns regularly to mentor younger girls, like one who also escaped through the bush alone and whose name is being withheld.The 12-year-old said she left the man she had been given to because she didn’t love him and because he already had three wives and children. She has been living at the center for a few months, where she is clothed, fed and also able to attend school, something she said makes her very happy.Cultural practices like “gifting” daughters to other families are common in the Sahel, as is the kidnapping of young girls for marriage.Nonprofit groups like Save the Children are working to eliminate child marriage but say financial support and empowerment of the girls is an essential part of stopping it.Toumani Sale Issoufou works on the issue for Save the Children in Burkina Faso.He said they believe the reason the girls are given up for marriage is because the parents think they do not have the means to support them within the family. When a girl is given in marriage, “We have to find a way to empower her,” he added.Save the Children provides cash to families to ensure girls continue their education and also helps train the girls so they can get jobs.Meanwhile, Burkina Faso’s government says careful monitoring by citizens is also essential to prevent child marriage.Soumaila Sako from Burkina Faso’s Ministry for Women, Families and Humanitarian Affairs said the country has set up more than 800 watch cells in at least 872 villages to report child marriages to authorities and has sensitized more than 4 million people on the phenomenon of child marriage.But it is an uphill battle. Sister Véronique Kansono, the nun who runs the refuge center for girls, said the conflict raging across the Sahel since 2012 has only made matters worse.This week alone, she said, the center welcomed four girls. There are other weeks when six arrive, which she said is too much. There are already 110 girls living at the center. She’s surprised the numbers have gotten worse, rather than decreasing.Despite the obstacles, Sawadogo said, escaping child marriage is vital. Had she not escaped, she said, her life would be miserable.
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Biden Touts Milestone of 50 Million Vaccine Shots
US President Joe Biden commemorated on Thursday the 50 millionth shot of the COVID-19 vaccine since his swearing-in, just days after the nation passed 500,000 coronavirus deaths. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this story.Producer: Barry Unger
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Amnesty Report Describes Axum Massacre in Ethiopia’s Tigray
Soldiers from Eritrea systematically killed “many hundreds” of people, mostly men, in a late November massacre in the Ethiopian city of Axum, Amnesty International says in a new report, echoing the findings of an Associated Press story last week and citing more than 40 witnesses.Crucially, the head of the government-established Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, Daniel Bekele, says the Amnesty findings “should be taken very seriously.” The commission’s own preliminary findings “indicate the killing of an as yet unknown number of civilians by Eritrean soldiers” in Axum, its statement said.The Amnesty report on what might be the deadliest massacre of Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict describes the soldiers gunning down civilians as they fled, lining up men and shooting them in the back, rounding up “hundreds, if not thousands” of men for beatings and refusing to allow those grieving to bury the dead.Over a period of about 24 hours, “Eritrean soldiers deliberately shot civilians on the street and carried out systematic house-to-house searches, extrajudicially executing men and boys,” the report released early Friday says. “The massacre was carried out in retaliation for an earlier attack by a small number of local militiamen, joined by local residents armed with sticks and stones.”The “mass execution” of Axum civilians by Eritrean troops may amount to crimes against humanity, the report says, and it calls for a United Nations-led international investigation and full access to Tigray for human rights groups, journalists and humanitarian workers. The region has been largely cut off since fighting began in early November.Ethiopia’s federal government has denied the presence of soldiers from neighboring Eritrea, long an enemy of the Tigray region’s now-fugitive leaders, and Eritrea’s government dismissed the AP story on the Axum massacre as “outrageous lies.”But even senior members of the Ethiopia-appointed interim government in Tigray have acknowledged the Eritrean soldiers’ presence and allegations of widespread looting and killing.On Thursday, Ethiopia’s government acknowledged that the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission was investigating “allegations relating to incidents in the city of Axum” in collaboration with unnamed international experts.But Ethiopia’s ambassador to Belgium, Hirut Zemene, told a webinar on Thursday that the alleged massacre in November was a “very highly unlikely scenario” and “we suspect it’s a very, very crazy idea.”No one knows how many thousands of civilians have been killed in the conflict between Ethiopian and allied forces and those of the Tigray regional government, which had long dominated Ethiopia’s government before Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018. Humanitarian officials have warned that a growing number of people might be starving to death as access, while improving, remains restricted.FILE – The Church of St. Mary of Zion in Axum, in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, in November 2013.The presence of Eritrean soldiers has brought some alarm. The United States has repeatedly urged Eritrea to withdraw its soldiers and cited credible reports of “grave” human rights abuses. On Wednesday it asked, “Does the Eritrean military have sufficient control over its troops to prevent them from committing human rights abuses?”Witnesses of the massacre in Axum told Amnesty International that Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers jointly took control of the city, but the Eritreans carried out the killings and then conducted house-to-house raids for men and teenage boys.Bodies were left strewn in the streets after the events of Nov. 28 and 29, witnesses said.“The next day, they did not allow us to pick the dead. The Eritrean soldiers said you cannot bury the dead before our dead soldiers are buried,” one woman told Amnesty International. With hospitals looted or health workers having fled, some witnesses said several people died from their wounds because of lack of care.“Gathering the bodies and carrying out the funerals took days. Most of the dead appear to have been buried on 30 November, but witnesses said that people found many additional bodies in the days that followed,” the new report says.After obtaining permission from Ethiopian soldiers to bury the dead, witnesses said they feared the killings would resume any moment, even as they piled bodies onto horse-drawn carts and took them to churches for burial, at times in mass graves.The AP spoke with a deacon at one church, the Church of St. Mary of Zion, who said he helped count the bodies, gathered victims’ identity cards and assisted with burials. He believes some 800 people were killed that weekend around the city.After being left exposed for a day or more, the bodies had begun to rot, further traumatizing families and those who gathered to help.The new report says satellite imagery shows newly “disturbed soil” beside churches.
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$2.3 Billion Awarded to USS Pueblo Crew, But How to Collect From North Korea?
More than 50 years ago, North Korea captured the USS Pueblo and subjected the spy ship’s crew to “barbarity” for almost a year, treatment that “required medical and/or psychiatric intervention” for the men upon their release in December 1968.Today, crew members and their families face the challenge of finding North Korea’s assets so they can realize their shares of $2.3 billion judgment against Pyongyang handed down by a U.S. district court.In a memorandum opinion issued Feb. 16 but filed and made public Wednesday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia stated that “North Korea was liable” for “its incorporated theories of assault, battery, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, solatium, and wrongful death.”Memorandum opinion on USS Pueblo:The court awarded compensatory and punitive damages to 171 plaintiffs, including living crew members, the estates of deceased crew members, and living family members and the estates of deceased family members.The court granted a baseline award of $3.35 million for each crew member, which would amount to $10,000 for each of the 335 days that the crew members were held in captivity by the North Koreans. Further awards are based on calculations that allow for variations within the groups.But the decision included the finding that, “As a result of the barbarity inflicted by the North Koreans, almost all [crew members] required medical and/or psychiatric intervention. The majority have suffered, and continue to suffer, from post-traumatic stress disorder, impaired memory, intrusive flashbacks, nightmares, hypervigilance, anxiety, anger, depression, guilt, and withdrawal from others. Many have undergone invasive surgical procedures to ameliorate the physical damage resulting from the relentless torture they underwent as prisoners. Several have attempted to numb their pain through alcohol and drugs, and most have seen their domestic and/or professional lives deteriorate. A few have contemplated suicide.”“Justice is served insofar as the courts are concerned,” Mark Bravin, the lead attorney representing the plaintiffs of the USS Pueblo case, told VOA’s Korean Service. FILE – Grainy, black-and-white photos of the captain and captured crew hang in the USS Pueblo in Pyongyang, North Korea, Jan. 24, 2018.VOA contacted the North Korean mission in New York for a response but left a voicemail message after being unable to talk with anyone.More than 100 crew members and their families filed a lawsuit against North Korea in February 2018 under the FILE – Released crewmen of the USS Pueblo are escorted by MPs upon their arrival at the U.S. Army 121st Evacuation Hospital at Ascom City, 10 miles west of Seoul, Dec. 23, 1968.Bravin said the distribution from the fund is subject to some conditions to prevent individual claimants from “monopolizing” the fund.“They don’t get more money after their $20 million is received until everybody else has gotten their money,” Bravin said. “Once somebody gets 30% of their money, [the distributions] are paused so that others can [get theirs].”Joshua Stanton, an attorney based in Washington, D.C., who helped draft the FILE – Otto Warmbier, a University of Virginia student who has been detained in North Korea since early January, is taken to North Korea’s top court in Pyongyang, North Korea, March 16, 2016.The U.S. Marshals Service auctioned the Wise Honest in 2019 and, as is customary, did not release how much was realized.The Pueblo was seized by the North Korean navy in January 1968 while the U.S. ship was operating in international waters off the coast of North Korea. The Pueblo was engaged in an intelligence-gathering mission to intercept communications between Pyongyang and Moscow.After 11 months of suffering repeated beatings and torture, surviving crew members were released at the Demilitarized Zone dividing North and South Korea. The spy ship is moored along a river in Pyongang as part of North Korea’s Victorious War Museum.Aside from the damages awarded to the crew and their family members, Bravin said the return of the Pueblo would give them peace of mind.“One additional thing that could happen that would give peace of mind to the crew is if the United States and North Korea could find a way to get the Pueblo returned to the United States,” Bravin said. “It’s been an issue of concern for the crew forever.”Christy Lee contributed to this report, which originated on VOA Korea.
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Influential South Sudan Chiefs Warn of Conflict Over Land Grabs
Ten traditional chiefs from South Sudan’s Central Equatoria state have demanded the state government stop a campaign of illegal land grabs and are threatening the use of force unless officials intervene.In an open letter dated February 10 and addressed to the state governor, Adil Wani, the chiefs accused armed individuals, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and militias from Bor and the Bahr el Gahzal of orchestrating the land grabs in the villages of Mogiri, Bilinyang, Garbu, Kubi Timan and Gumbo.Marino Marcellino, head chief of Tokiman village, said some residents of Bor who were displaced by recent floods in Jonglei state had seized plots in his area and were selling them using fake title deeds.“Those are all people from Bor. They are the ones grabbing the land. You go to Gumbo market — it is all grabbed,” Marcellino told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus. “The market that was well-demarcated and its land documents distributed has all been grabbed. It’s now all white iron sheets. I have my own land there. I made [built] a foundation, but when I went to check, I found it was grabbed. I told them it’s my place. They told me this is South Sudan and it’s their place.”Relocation of IDPs urgedIn their letter, the chiefs called for the immediate relocation of IDPs back to their areas of origin. The chiefs also requested the removal of security personnel who have been stationed at Rejaf Payam to address issues related to land grabs.The chiefs said their desire to embrace coexistence and peace should not be taken as weakness.“Honorable Governor, let the government not force us to take the law in our own hands or use jungle laws to defend our ancestral land. Hence, we will appreciate if the state government could respond within a short period [as] possible,” the chiefs wrote.FILE – South Sudanese cattle herders stand among their animals in a field in Terekeka, in Central Equatoria state, South Sudan, April 13, 2014.South Sudan government spokesperson Michael Makuei, who also serves as the chairperson of the Bor Community in Juba, said farmers and cattle keepers could live together if they agreed to resolve land disputes.“President [Salva Kiir] has ever been clear. He has been saying that the cattle and the farms can coexist. Even if you go to Bahr El Ghazel [area], wherever you go where cattle keepers are, they cultivate, and they don’t destroy crops, and nobody complains about it.”Makuei said if cattle enter a farm and destroy it, the owner of the farm should open a case and there will a compensation paid for the destroyed crops.Marcellino said some of the land grabbers were armed and were allocating land using fake documents and stamps. He said some of the IDPs were also destroying crops by grazing their cattle on farmlands of the host community.Plan to investigateDerick Derickson, press secretary in the office of the governor of Central Equatoria state, said the governor was aware of land grabs and intended to form a committee to investigate the issue.Derickson said that early this year in Juba, the state governor formed a committee to facilitate talks between famers and herders to address conflict over land grabs.“One of the resolutions was for the immediate removal of these cattle keepers from the places they have occupied, and probably to the places of their origin, and they were given a duration, a time frame of one week, which I think is not happening speedily,” he said.Most homes in the town of Bor and some areas in Twic East county were submerged in a devastating flood in January that displaced 200,000 people. Most families affected by the floods fled to Central Equatoria state and were resettled temporarily at Mangala County.
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Papua New Guinea’s Michael Somare, ‘Father of the Nation,’ Dies at 84
Papua New Guinea’s first prime minister, Michael Somare, has died at 84, his daughter said Friday.Known as the “father of the nation,” Somare led the Pacific archipelago to independence from Australia in 1975 and served four times as prime minister.He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in early February, his daughter, Betha Somare, said in a statement.She said many Papua New Guineans had embraced her father as their own “father and grandfather.”Before independence, Somare was the chief minister of the Australian-administered territory of Papua New Guinea. He most recently served as the country’s leader briefly in 2011.PNG is a mountainous and sprawling nation rich in resources and minerals, including oil and gas and gold and copper.Linguistically diverse, it is one of the largest island economies in the South Pacific, although it has faced economic hardship and internal conflict, most notably during the decade-long civil war in the region of Bougainville that claimed as many as 20,000 lives before ending in 1998.PNG Prime Minister James Marape said the former leader was now at rest from the “pain and toils of life.””Our nation honors this great leader, the founding and longest serving prime minister of our country,” Marape said in a statement, appealing for a week of silence, peace and calm as the country pays its respects.”He is unmatched by anyone of us who comes after him,” he added.Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison wrote in a tweet on Friday that Somare was the founding father of a democratic and independent PNG and “great friend” to Australia.
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African Countries Kick Off Inoculation Campaigns with Chinese-Made COVID-19 Vaccine
As countries kick off vaccination campaigns in Africa amid mistrust over COVID-19 vaccine efficacy, health ministers are among the first ones to take the shots. VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports on Senegal and Zimbabwe, two countries that began inoculating their populations using Sinopharm — the Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccine.
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Kremlin Critic Navalny Transferred to Prison Outside Moscow
Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny has been sent to a prison outside Moscow to serve his sentence, his lawyer said Thursday, a move that came despite a demand by Europe’s top human rights court for his release.Navalny lawyer Vadim Kobzev did not immediately name the prison where Navalny was sent. Russian news reports have previously indicated that Navalny, who has been held in a maximum-security jail in Moscow, would likely be sent to a facility in western Russia.Navalny, 44, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most vociferous foe, was arrested January 17 upon returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Russian authorities have rejected the accusation and accused Navalny of cooperating with Western intelligence agencies — claims he has ridiculed.Earlier this month, Navalny was sentenced to 2½ years in prison for violating the terms of his probation while convalescing in Germany. The sentence stems from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that Navalny has rejected as fabricated — and which the European Сourt of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled to be unlawful.Large protestsNavalny’s arrest has fueled a wave of protests that have drawn tens of thousands to the streets across Russia. Authorities have detained about 11,000 people, many of whom were fined or given jail terms ranging from seven to 15 days.Russian officials have dismissed demands from the United States and the European Union to free Navalny and stop the crackdown on his supporters.Moscow also rejected the ECHR ruling that, citing risks to Navalny’s life in custody, ordered the Russian government to release him. The Russian government has rebuffed the court’s demand as unlawful and “inadmissible” meddling in Russia’s home affairs.Earlier this week, EU foreign ministers agreed to impose new sanctions against Russian officials linked to Navalny’s jailing.Since Navalny’s arrest, Russian officials and state news media have aggressively tried to discredit him, a change from the previous tactic of largely ignoring him.Possible ‘advocacy of hatred’Some of the criticism has emphasized anti-migrant views expressed years ago as he was rising to prominence.Amnesty International this week stripped Navalny of his designation as a “prisoner of conscience” because of those views. “Navalny had, in the past, made comments which may have amounted to advocacy of hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, violence or hostility,” the organization said in a statement Thursday.The statement denied the move was in response to external pressure, but news reports have suggested Amnesty International was targeted in a coordinated campaign to discredit him.”These were not independently acting activists … these were people who would like to defame Alexey as the most prominent opponent of Mr. Putin,” Vladimir Ashurkov, executive director of Navalny’s anti-corruption organization, said in a conference call Thursday.Amnesty International said rescinding the prisoner-of-conscience designation did not change its demand for Navalny to be freed.”There should be no confusion: Nothing Navalny has said in the past justifies his current detention, which is purely politically motivated. Navalny has been arbitrarily detained for exercising his right to freedom of expression, and for this reason, we continue to campaign for his immediate release,” the organization said.
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First Asylum-Seekers from Mexico’s Matamoros Border Camp Enter US
The first asylum-seekers from a Mexican border camp that had become a symbol of Trump-era immigration restrictions entered the United States on Thursday under a new policy meant to end the hardships endured by migrants in dangerous border towns. The United Nation’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the initial group comprised 27 people who had been living in the makeshift camp in Matamoros opposite Brownsville, Texas. Some residents have lived there for more than a year under former President Donald Trump’s controversial Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program requiring asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for U.S. court hearings. The first group of 27 migrants leave their camp towards the Gateway International Bridge to be processed and seek asylum in the U.S., in Matamoros, Mexico, Feb. 25, 2021.A new process under President Joe Biden will gradually allow thousands of MPP asylum-seekers to await courts’ decisions within the United States. Some migrants last week were permitted to cross into San Ysidro, California. Francisco Gallardo, who runs a migrant shelter in Matamoros and provides humanitarian aid at the camp, welcomed the news that the process had begun in Matamoros, but said it should have come sooner. “It’s good that they are doing it, but unfortunately coming late,” he said. Freezing temperatures at the U.S.-Mexico border had made the Matamoros camp a priority, the Department of Homeland Security said on Wednesday. Migrants at the camp have struggled to ensure proper hygiene and to protect themselves from organized crime in a state that is one of the most violent in Mexico. “The camp was a space that had multiple risks for the migrants,” said Misael Hernandez, a researcher on migration issues at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte. Mexico’s migration institute did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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China’s Detention of Irish Businessman Spotlights Global Issue
After two years of discreet silence about his detention without charges in China, Irish businessman Richard O’Halloran finally spoke up this month. His youngest child was only 5 years old when he traveled to Shanghai in February 2019 on what he expected to be a short business trip, O’Halloran said in an interview with FILE – People hold signs calling for China to release Canadian detainees Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, March 6, 2019.While the case of the “two Michaels” has been widely publicized, O’Halloran’s ordeal was little known until he went public this past week. In the interview, the 45-year-old father of four said his anguish had reached the point that he asked the Chinese judge in charge of his case: “Do you expect that I tell my wife to get on with her life, and for my kids to try and forget about me? Is that what you’re trying to do?” O’Halloran, an executive with the Irish subsidiary of an aviation leasing company, traveled to China to help settle a commercial dispute that resulted in the arrest of his employer on charges of defrauding Chinese investors of some $70 million. While not charged with any crime, O’Halloran has been told he cannot leave China until the money is returned to the investors. The Chinese embassy in Dublin told RTE: “In any country, company representatives have the legal obligation to return the proceeds of crime flowing into the company and related yields to the victims.” The embassy added, “We fully understand Mr. O’Halloran’s family’s anxiety and hope they will advise Mr. O’Halloran to cooperate in a meaningful way with judicial authorities in Shanghai to ensure an early solution to the case.” But O’Halloran argued in his interview that the Chinese legal system is “fundamentally flawed.” “To expect somebody to sign documents in Chinese, to conduct an entire interview in Chinese, without legal representation, is just not correct in my view,” he said. FILE – Winston Lord, then-U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asia, addresses a press conference in Honolulu, Jan. 25, 1996.The case has attracted the attention of some major China policy experts, including Winston Lord, a former U.S. ambassador to China and assistant secretary of state for East Asia. “I’ve been following the case closely for many months, it’s a very sad, frustrating and cruel case,” Lord said in a phone interview from his home in Manhattan. “This man is a businessman from Ireland, he went to the mainland to try to help the Chinese resolve a case against another Chinese, and he’s been kept in detention — not house arrest, but he can’t leave the country — for two years.” Lord said China may be hurting its own economic interests by holding O’Halloran. “I already know people who don’t want to be stationed in China, whether it’s pollution, repression, or extreme measures like this,” he said. The detention has also been denounced on the floor of the Irish parliament, where Senator Michael McDowell insisted that “no Chinese citizen would be treated in this way in this country.”Watch: In the #Seanad today I highlighted the ongoing wrongful detention of Richard O’Halloran in China https://t.co/xs8h15ztJ5 via @YouTube— Michael McDowell (@SenatorMcDowell) February 15, 2021″Comparative size of our two countries doesn’t justify wolf diplomacy being deployed against Ireland to try and blackmail this man into doing something unlawful,” he said. McDowell cautioned the Irish government against falling into what he called the three stages of inaction — “the stage which was premature to do anything, the stage which was too sensitive, and the stage which was too late.”
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US Ambassador Arrives at UN With Positive Message
The new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations arrived Thursday in New York, where she said she looked forward to engaging with allies and partners to tackle the many challenges the world faces.“The United Nations is the most important forum for bringing people and countries together, and I take that seriously as a U.S. diplomat,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters.A day after being sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris, the ambassador arrived to a busy first month — the United States takes over the rotating presidency of the U.N. Security Council on March 1.She presented her credentials to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and told reporters she was “thrilled” to be at the U.N. after a 35-year career in the foreign service.“We are clear-eyed about the difficult work that needs to be done, from elevating human rights to reforming the U.N. itself, to addressing conflicts old and new around the world, and we look forward to engaging our allies and our partners to get it done,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “After all, we are stronger when we are working together.”She is the fifth consecutive female ambassador Washington has sent to the world body. President Joe Biden has also elevated her post to Cabinet level.Thomas-Greenfield will have her work cut out for her at the United Nations. The Trump administration was largely indifferent to the organization and pulled back its support — both financial and diplomatic — on several fronts. Biden has vowed to reengage with the world body and embrace multilateralism.The Senate confirmed the ambassador on Tuesday, 78-20.
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Report on France’s Colonial Past in Algeria Spurs Criticism, Little Action
Tree-lined Avenue Bugeaud, cutting through one of Paris’ more elegant neighborhoods, may be under threat. Calls are growing to re-baptize the street, named after a colonial-era French general, whom critics blame for the death of thousands during France’s conquest of Algeria. Earlier this month, the city’s deputy mayor, Laurence Patrice, indicated she might be favorable to studying the matter.That’s been one of the few concrete moves since January’s publication of a much-awaited report on France’s troubled history in Algeria. President Emmanuel Macron, who commissioned it, has accepted a key recommendation of establishing a “memory and truth commission,” along with another — not to apologize for France’s colonial past. Hundreds of thousands of Algerians died over more than 130 years of French rule. Today, however, there is silence from the government on when the truth commission will be up and running — or on a raft of the report’s other recommendations on ways to reconcile a still-painful past. And as Paris and Algiers eye a key marker next year — the 60th anniversary of Algerian independence — the way forward remains unclear. Rather than helping both sides move on, the report by respected historian Benjamin Stora has mostly grabbed news for the avalanche of criticism it’s triggered on both sides of the Mediterranean.Backdropping its conclusions is a decades-long fight over the truth. Successive French presidents have refused to apologize for the country’s colonial rule. Macron has gone further than most, describing as a presidential candidate in 2017 France’s occupation as a crime against humanity — a remark that drew outcry at home.Not so from Algeria’s aging, hardline government, whose roots spring from its bloody 1954-62 war of independence. And while the country’s majority young population sees that period as ancient history, many — including members of the Hirak anti-government protest movement — venerate memories of revolutionary heroes, while anti-French sentiment remains strong.FILE – French troops seal off the historic casbah quarter, in Algiers, Algeria, May 27, 1956.A ‘buried’ past? In France, center-right parties have offered a largely low-key response to the Stora report, and some leftist ones have even praised it. But key members of the country’s sizable Algerian diaspora have given it a thumbs down. “Rather than an apology, reparations, and the possibility of prosecutions, tokenism and a desire to downplay unspeakable crimes that are in living memory appear to have guided Stora’s work,” wrote prominent French-Algerian journalist Nabila Ramdani in Foreign Policy. For their part, Algerians known as Harkis, who fought on France’s side during the independence war, say they are also disappointed. “For me, this report hasn’t forgotten the Harkis, it’s buried them,” writer Dalila Kerchouche, the daughter of a Harki, told the Le Monde newspaper. On the other side of the French debate sits Perpignan’s mayor, Louis Aliot, of the far-right National Rally party. He tweeted “shameful” in reaction to Stora’s recommendations, which he said denigrated the memories of French war victims. Similarly, sharp criticism is coming from Algeria. After an initially muted response, Algiers said last week the report “lacked objectivity” and in particular failed to acknowledge “war crimes and crimes against humanity” committed by France as colonizer, according to government spokesman Ammar Belhimer. The country’s main war veterans group similarly slammed the findings as “concealing colonial crimes.”Algeria, however, has yet to publish its own take, from a parallel research effort into the colonial past. Abdelmadjid Chikhi, the historian tasked to do so, has refused to comment on the Stora report.Meanwhile, a pair of French and Algerian activists have posted an online petition to erase former General Bugeaud’s name from every French school and street sign. It was long ago removed from a main square in downtown Algiers, and replaced by that of 19th-century colonial resistance fighter Abdelkader.FILE – A soldier guards the remains of 24 Algerians at the Moufdi-Zakaria culture palace in Algiers, July, 3, 2020. After decades in a French museum, the skulls of the 24, decapitated for resisting French colonial forces, were formally repatriated.Tasked to restitute memoriesBorn to a Jewish-Algerian family from Constantine, Algeria, Stora saw the Algerian revolution unfold firsthand. His family ultimately headed to France when he was 11 —just days before Algeria’s independence in July,1962. He has defended his report as being faithful to its original purpose. “I was tasked to restitute memories, mostly French ones,” he told Le Monde recently, of his appointment by Macron last year. Stora acknowledged, however, that he might have “passed a little too quickly on Algerian memories and the colonial trauma.” He did not recommend France apologize for its colonial past. Rather, his report outlined a raft of specific measures Paris could take — from investigating old French nuclear tests in Algeria, to restoring Algiers colonial-era government archives — which Stora argues will make a bigger impact. For ordinary Algerians, he said, including those from the Hirak protest movement, coming to terms with history is particularly difficult “given the profound public sentiment that their history has been dissimulated or confiscated.” “On both shores, misunderstanding exists,” Stora said. “And this complicates, all the more, efforts at reconciliation.”
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European Governments Resist Public Clamor for Easing of Pandemic Lockdown
Months of lockdowns and pandemic restrictions are taking their toll on Europeans, with many chafing at the prolonged limitations on public life. With vaccine distribution now starting to pick up after a sluggish start in most countries, calls are mounting for an easing of restrictions.Britain is first up, with pressure building for easing after a blisteringly fast rollout of its inoculation program that’s already seen one in three adults in the country receive at least one vaccine dose.In a race against a faster-spreading variant of the virus, more than 18 million people in Britain have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, fueling demands for a speedy end to the country’s lockdown, the third since the pandemic emerged.The ruling Conservatives hope the success of the largest mass vaccination program in the country’s history will erase public memories of the missteps and reversals of last year, which saw ill-disguised clashes between the government, lawmakers and medical advisers. There were more than two dozen abrupt U-turns in policy.But a Conservative popularity bounce risks being lost amid squabbling about when and how quickly pandemic restrictions are lifted, according to lawmakers and analysts. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Monday that his government would take a “cautious” approach to easing a national lockdown, with restrictions lifted every few weeks so the impact can be judged.FILE – Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a vial of Astra Zeneca coronavirus vaccine during a visit to a coronavirus vaccination center in Orpington, England, Feb. 15, 2021.The prime minister told lawmakers this week that England is going to start “reclaiming our freedoms” with the goal of removing all legal limits on people’s social contact set to end by June 21. His road map for relaxing the country’s lockdown will see schools reopen on March 8 and some outdoor restrictions lifted three weeks later.Hugs could be allowed in May, he said.For some, the planned relaxation is too fast; for others, too slow. And Johnson’s party is becoming restive. Influential Conservative lawmaker Steve Baker lamented the slow pace of relaxation, saying it “will be a hammer blow for aviation, for pubs, for restaurants, hotels, gyms and pools, the arts and the establishment.”Nearly 70,000 finesAnd many Britons are straining at the leash with breaches of pandemic restrictions rising steeply since last month. Police have handed out in the past year nearly 70,000 fines to people for breaking lockdown rules, according to government data, but of those, more than a third were issued since January 17 of this year.Elsewhere in Europe, relaxation seems a distant dream, but public impatience is mounting with the slow vaccination campaigns, which are likely to have electoral consequences.In the Czech Republic, where infections are surging, Prime Minister Andrej Babis has been criticized for sending inconsistent signals about when coronavirus measures will be lifted.FILE – A man wearing a face mask to guard against coronavirus transmission walks across the medieval Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic, Feb. 25, 2021.The country’s parliament has moved to restrict Babis’ powers to tighten restrictions, and the opposition coalition now has overtaken the ruling party in the opinion polls, suggesting voters are losing faith in the government.Despite the fact that the country’s two-week infection rate is three times the EU average and its death rate of 174 people per million is among the worst in Europe, Babis’ government started to loosen a few pandemic restrictions, only to backtrack as health experts denounced the move.Rastislav Maďar, head of the University of Ostrava’s Institute of Epidemiology, told Politico EU, “Many people are fed up and tired of the political games, and now refuse to respect obligatory lockdown rules.”Some relaxationPartly as a result of public pressure, governments in Italy, the Netherlands and Denmark have all tweaked their restrictions to allow some letup on lockdowns.Starting March 1, high school children in Holland will have at least one day in the classroom. Hairdressers and other so-called contact professions can reopen on March 3. Teenagers and adults up to age 27 can play team sports outside. But a nighttime curfew, which triggered several days of riots when introduced, will remain.Denmark, which has been under a lockdown since December, is lifting some restrictions that will see the retail sector reopen. Older school students are expected to be allowed to return to classrooms in regions with low infection rates.FILE – Carabinieri officers patrol an access road to Bollate, in the outskirts of Milan, Italy, Feb. 18, 2021. Italy’s Lombardy region asked the national government Feb. 25 to send more vaccines north to help stem a surge of new COVID cases.And in Italy, high school students are now returning to class, the first time since October, and bars and restaurants in some regions are being allowed again to serve customers at tables and counters until dusk. But a nationwide nighttime curfew remains and travel among Italy’s 20 regions is restricted.In other European countries, lockdowns and severe restrictions are remaining. Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Germany and France aren’t ready for any serious easing. In Germany, the government is coming under increasing pressure to present the public with a road map out of the coronavirus crisis amid growing anger over the snail-paced vaccination campaign.’We envy you’Only 6% of Germans have received at least one shot so far, compared with about 33% of Britons. That huge disparity prompted Bild Zeitung, a major tabloid newspaper, to splash across its front page Wednesday: “Dear Britons, We envy you!” The paper went on to ask, “When will we be as far as the British are?”The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has been rebuffing calls for a major relaxation of lockdown rules, saying there has to be a significant reduction in the incidence rate to under 35 per 100,000 first. It currently stands at about 60 per 100,000.At a Tuesday meeting with lawmakers from her ruling Christian Democratic party, Merkel said she understood “the valid desire for an opening up,” but that could be done safely only in “four stages of opening, without a yo-yo effect.”
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Sweden Breaks February Record High Temperature
Sweden’s national weather service, the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) Thursday reported a new national high temperature for February — 16.8 degrees Celsius.The SMHI confirmed the record on its Twitter account, attributing the high temperatures to the föhnvind, a warm, dry wind that traditionally comes out of the mountains.Record temperatures were also reported Thursday in Poland where Makow Podhalanski hit 21.7 degrees Celsius, and in Slovakia, where the southwestern city of Hurbanovo reported a high of 20.8 Celsius.Winter Weather Hits Parts of Europe, From Poland to Turkey Temperatures dropped to minus 28 degrees Celsius (minus 18 Fahrenheit) in some Polish areas overnight, the coldest night in 11 yearsThursday’s records come as western and central Europe is seeing something of a winter heat wave, with records falling earlier in the week in the Czech Republic, Austria, and in Germany, where on Monday, Hamburg hit 21.1 degrees Celsius — the warmest temperature recorded there in any winter month. Some of the records that fell this week had stood for more than a century.The heat wave comes two weeks after western and central Europe saw a frigid blast of winter, with heavy snowfalls in Britain, Germany and the Netherlands. Washington Post meteorologist Matthew Cappucci says the region has seen the wild swing in temperatures thanks to a seesaw effect in the jet stream that earlier in the month brought freezing air down from the pole, and this week brought warm air from the south, including dust from the Sahara Desert in Africa.
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Chief: Capitol Assault Much Bigger Than Intel Suggested
The acting U.S. Capitol Police chief was pressed to explain Thursday why the agency hadn’t been prepared to fend off a violent mob of insurrectionists, including white supremacists, who were trying to halt the certification of the presidential election last month, even though officials had compelling advance intelligence.Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman denied that law enforcement failed to take seriously warnings of violence before the Jan. 6 insurrection. Three days before the riot, Capitol Police distributed an internal document warning that armed extremists were poised for violence and could attack Congress because they saw it as the last chance to try to overturn the election results, Pittman said.But the assault was much bigger than they expected, she said.”There was no such intelligence. Although we knew the likelihood for violence by extremists, no credible threat indicated that tens of thousands would attack the U.S. Capitol, nor did the intelligence received from the FBI or any other law enforcement partner indicate such a threat.”FILE – In this Sept. 7, 2019, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, speaks during the New Hampshire state Democratic Party convention in Manchester, N.H.Later, under questioning by the House subcommittee’s chairman, Rep. Tim Ryan, Pittman said that while there may have been thousands of people heading to the Capitol from a pro-Trump rally, about 800 people actually made their way into the building.Protocols were ‘not adhered to’Pittman conceded that the agency’s incident command protocols were “not adhered to,” and that there was a “multi-tiered failure.” Officers were left without proper communication or strong guidance from their supervisors as the insurrectionist mob stormed into the building.The panel’s top Republican, Washington Rep. Jaime Herrera-Beutler, said the top Capitol Police officials “either failed to take seriously the intelligence received or the intelligence failed to reach the right people.”Pittman’s predecessor as chief testified earlier this week at a hearing that police expected an enraged but more typical protest crowd of Trump backers. But Pittman said intelligence collected before the riot prompted police to take extraordinary measures, including the special arming of officers, intercepting radio frequencies used by the invaders and deploying spies at the Ellipse rally where Trump was sending his supporters marching to the Capitol to “fight like hell.On Jan. 3, Capitol Police distributed an internal intelligence assessment warning that militia members, white supremacists and other extremist groups were likely to participate, that demonstrators would be armed and that it was possible they would come to the Capitol to try to disrupt the vote, according to Pittman.Not enough IntelligenceBut at the same time, she said police didn’t have enough intelligence to predict the violent insurrection that resulted in five deaths, including that of a Capitol Police officer. They prepared for trouble but not an invasion.”Although the Department’s January 3rd Special Assessment foretold of a significant likelihood for violence on Capitol grounds by extremists groups, it did not identify a specific credible threat indicating that thousands of American citizens would descend upon the U.S. Capitol attacking police officers with the goal of breaking into the U.S. Capitol Building to harm Members and prevent the certification of Electoral College votes,” Pittman said. FILE – Former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund testifies before a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs & Senate Rules and Administration joint hearing on Capitol Hill, Washington, Feb. 23, 2021.Steven Sund, the police force’s former chief who resigned after the riot, testified Tuesday that the intelligence assessment warned white supremacists, members of the far-right Proud Boys and leftist antifa were expected to be in the crowd and might become violent.”We had planned for the possibility of violence, the possibility of some people being armed, not the possibility of a coordinated military style attack involving thousands against the Capitol,” Sund said.FBI offered a warningThe FBI also forwarded a warning to local law enforcement officials about online postings that a “war” was coming. But Pittman said it still wasn’t enough to prepare for the mob that attacked the Capitol.Officers were vastly outnumbered as thousands of rioters descended on the building, some of them wielding planks of wood, stun guns, bear spray and metal pipes as they broke through windows and doors and stormed through the Capitol. Officers were hit with barricades, shoved to the ground, trapped between doors, beaten and bloodied as members of Congress were evacuated and congressional staffers cowered in offices.Pittman also said the department faced “internal challenges” as it responded to the riot. Officers didn’t properly lock down the Capitol complex, even after an order had been given over the radio to do so. She also said officers didn’t understand when they were allowed to use deadly force, and that less-than-lethal weapons that officers had were not as successful as they expected.While Pittman said in her testimony that that sergeants and lieutenants were supposed to pass on intelligence to the department’s rank and file, many officers have said they were given little or no information or training for what they would face.Officers left to improvise’Four officers told The Associated Press shortly after the riot that they heard nothing from Sund, Pittman, or other top commanders as the building was breached. Officers were left in many cases to improvise or try to save colleagues facing peril.Pittman also faces internal pressure from her rank and file, particularly after the Capitol Police union recently issued a vote of no confidence against her. She must also lead the department through the start of several investigations into how law enforcement failed to protect the building.Capitol Police are investigating the actions of 35 police officers on the day of the riot; six of those officers have been suspended with pay, a police spokesman said.
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Ankara Seeks Reset with Washington
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is calling for a reset in U.S. – Turkish relations. Relations between the two NATO allies have been strained, particularly over Ankara’s deepening ties with Moscow and its purchase of a Russian missile system. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
Producer: Henry Hernandez
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US Court Orders N. Korea to Pay $2.3 Billion to Crew Members of USS Pueblo
The former crew of a U.S. intelligence ship seized by North Korea in 1968 are entitled to more than $2.3 billion in damages from Pyongyang for “the pain and suffering” they suffered during 11 months of captivity, a federal judge has ruled.More than 100 crew members of the USS Pueblo and their relatives filed a lawsuit against North Korea in February 2018. The court decision was handed down on February 16 in Washington.Normally, foreign governments are immune from lawsuits in U.S. courts. But Congress created an exception in 2016 for nations that are identified as sponsoring terrorism. That exception allowed the Pueblo crewmen to file the lawsuit.Former President Donald Trump designated North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism in November 2017, after the country was removed from the list in 2008 by President George W. Bush.The Pueblo was seized by North Korea while it was in international waters off the eastern coast of the Korean Peninsula on January 23, 1968, and the 83 crew members were detained in the North. North Korea released the crew on Dec. 23, 1968, but they have kept the Pueblo.
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China Denies Requiring US Diplomatic Staff to Take COVID-19 Anal Swab Tests
China’s Foreign Ministry denied Thursday it ever required U.S. diplomats to submit to COVID-19 anal swab tests, disputing media reports that some personnel had complained.The Washington Post reported last week that U.S. State Department officials were looking into the complaints. The Post reports a State Department spokesman told reporters the department was “evaluating all reasonable options” to address the issue with the aim of preserving the “dignity” of U.S. officials “consistent with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.”Some Chinese doctors have said the anal swab test is more accurate and effective than a nasal swab, despite the unpleasant nature. But at a news briefing in Beijing, China Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters, “Upon verification with my colleagues, China has never asked U.S. diplomats in China to go through anal swab tests.”U.S. media outlet Vice Wednesday quoted a State Department official as saying the test had been given in error, and that China said it would stop such tests on U.S. diplomats.
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Italy’s Ambassador to Congo and Bodyguard Laid to Rest in Rome
Italy honored its ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo and his bodyguard at a state funeral Thursday, three days after they were killed in an attack in the Central African country.
Ambassador Luca Attanasio and paramilitary officer Vittorio Iacovacci were killed in an attack on a United Nations convoy by armed men as the convoy was en route to a U.N. World Food Program (WFP) school facility in the eastern Congolese town of Rutshuru.
Moustapha Milambo, a Congolese driver for the WFP, was also killed in the attack.
Prime Minister Mario Draghi and Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio attended the funeral at the Santa Maria degli Angeli Church in Rome.
Di Maio told legislators Wednesday that his government has asked the U.N. and the WFP to investigate security responsible for the convoy.
Italian police investigators have already left for Congo to collaborate with the country’s own investigation. Italian prosecutors are expected to launch a full investigation when they return.
The prime minister also said Italian investigators would go all out to determine the motive for Milambo’s killing.
Attanasio and Iacovacci were given a military salute as their caskets, covered in Italy’s tri-colored flag, were removed from hearses. A military band played somber music as the caskets were moved to the church.
Attanasio leaves a wife and three children. Iacovacci was engaged to be married.
Early autopsy results suggest the two men were killed by crossfire, not execution, according to Italian reports from Italian news media.
The WFP, based in Rome, won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for feeding refugees and other malnourished people around the world.
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