Month: February 2023

Former Shah’s Son Calls for Increased Support of Iranians

Posted on by SeeEU

A group of exiled Iranians will increase support for opposition movements in the country so they can continue to pressure the authorities there amid a crackdown on protests, the last heir to the Iranian monarchy said Saturday.

Iran has been rocked by unrest since the death in police custody of a young Iranian Kurdish woman in September after she was detained for flouting a strict Islamic dress code. The protests are among the strongest challenges to the Islamic Republic since the revolution.

‘Maximum pressure’ and ‘maximum support’

Eight Iranian exiled dissidents, including Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the toppled Shah, discussed ways of uniting a fragmented opposition earlier this month amid pro-government events marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution inside the country.

“We have to have a component of domestic pressure on the regime because external pressure by sanctions weakens the system, but it is not enough to do the job,” Pahlavi told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

“We are looking at means on how we can support the movement back home,” Pahlavi said. “There is a lot of discussion on maximum pressure and more sanctions, but parallel to maximum pressure there needs to be maximum support.”

The Washington-based Pahlavi said the immediate focus would be to ensure Iranians had access to the internet, help finance labor strikes through a fund, and find ways to ease money transfers to Iran.

‘The good, bad and ugly’

Unlike in previous years, the Iranian government was not invited to Munich this year as a result of its crackdown, but also due to its support of Russia in the war in Ukraine.

Instead, opponents to the Iranian governments were invited, while anti-government rallies took place in Munich.

Pahlavi has lived in exile for nearly four decades, since his father, the U.S.-backed shah, was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Opposition to Iran’s clerical government is atomized, with no clear recognized leader. Pahlavi said the priority now was for unity, and in the end, a democratic system decided by Iranians.

It remains unclear how much support Pahlavi has on the ground, but there have been some pro- and anti-slogans in demonstrations. Many Iranians remember the Shah’s secret police, Savak, and Pahlavi said he condemned what had happened then.

“We have to look at the good, bad and ugly, and that’s the only way we can progress in [the] future,” he said, adding that Iran’s young population was savvy and knew that any future political system would need strong institutions to ensure the past was not repeated.

Western powers have been reluctant to speak to opponents to the ruling authorities, fearing a rupture in ties would harm efforts to release dozens of Western nationals held in Iran, but also kill any chance of reviving a nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers. However, that has begun to change.

French President Emmanuel Macron was filmed in Munich Friday with U.S.-based women’s rights advocate Masih Alinejad.

“I would be very happy to meet you all together because this message of unity is very important,” Macron said.
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Six Charged After 18 Migrants Died in Truck in Bulgaria

Posted on by SeeEU

Bulgarian prosecutors have charged six people with human trafficking after 18 Afghan migrants were found dead Friday inside a truck dumped on a dirt road near the capital Sofia.

Prosecutors said the truck was abandoned near the village of Lokorsko after the driver and his companion found that many of the 52 migrants in the hidden compartments of the truck, which were isolated with foil, were dizzy and some had already died.

The truck driver and his companion were also charged over the deaths of the migrants, prosecutors said.

Despite strong and prolonged banging on the cabin, the driver refused to stop the truck earlier, the head of the National Investigative Service and deputy chief prosecutor Borislav Sarafov told reporters.

The deaths have shocked Bulgaria, in what is one of the worst incidents of its kind on the overland route across the Balkans into Europe.

Thousands of people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia make the journey and Bulgaria has been trying to cope with an increased inflow of migrants from neighboring Turkey in the past year.

The 18 victims died of a combination of lack of oxygen in an enclosed space and difficulty breathing as they had been crammed into the truck “like in a tin can,” Sarafov said. “The victims died slowly and painfully.” 

“This case shows an extreme callousness and demonstrates that migrants are seen only as goods that should be shipped from one place to another, irrespective of whether they are alive or dead,” Sarafov said.

The other 34 migrants, who were rushed to hospitals Friday, remain in stable condition, officials said.

Five of those charged are in custody, while one of the suspected traffickers, who had managed to flee the country, is being sought with a European arrest warrant.

Prosecutors said the ring had trafficked migrants from the border with Turkey across Bulgaria to Serbia, from where they continued their journey mainly to Britain, Germany and France.
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US, China Diplomats in Munich to Cool Rising Tensions  

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United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken is meeting with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi in Munich on Saturday, a meeting widely seen as an attempt to cool rising tensions between the two countries. 

Blinken’s motorcade has left the Munich Marriott Hotel where he’s staying, heading to an undisclosed location for the meeting with Wang. 

The meeting on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference is the first face-to-face talk between the two top diplomats since the U.S. shot down a Chinese spy balloon early this month. The incident led Blinken to postpone a planned trip to Beijing.

Earlier Saturday, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris told an audience at the Munich Security Conference that she is troubled by the Beijing government’s deepening relationship with Moscow since Russia invaded Ukraine. Harris added that the Chinese support for Russia amid its war on Ukraine would undermine rule-based international order.

Also on Saturday, Wang said the U.S. shootdown of the Chinese “airship” is “a clear violation of international practice.”

“This behavior is unimaginable and borders on hysteria. It is 100% an abuse of force,” Wang told an audience at the Munich Security Conference. Wang Yi’s formal title is director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

On February 3, Blinken told Wang Yi in a phone call that the spy balloon, which drifted across the continental United States, was “an irresponsible act and a clear violation of U.S. sovereignty and international law that undermined the purpose” of Blinken’s trip. China said it was a weather balloon that strayed off course and later charged that the U.S. has conducted more than 10 balloon flights over China since May 2022. The U.S. has rejected both claims.

U.S. officials say the Chinese military’s refusal to speak with Pentagon counterparts after the balloon was shot down last week was a dangerous development.

Senior U.S. officials have said open lines of communication between the two countries are critical to prevent unintended conflicts, particularly in times of tensions.

U.S. officials note they also see the talks as a move to get back to a broader discussion on a range of issues, while the discussion on China’s surveillance balloon operation over U.S. territory is high on the agenda.
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US Declares Russia Committed ‘Crimes Against Humanity’ in Ukraine

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The Biden administration formally concluded that Russia has committed “crimes against humanity” during its nearly year-long invasion of Ukraine, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said Saturday.

“In the case of Russia’s actions in Ukraine we have examined the evidence, we know the legal standards, and there is no doubt: these are crimes against humanity,” Harris, a former prosecutor, said at the Munich Security Conference.

“And I say to all those who have perpetrated these crimes, and to their superiors who are complicit in these crimes, you will be held to account.”

The official determination, which came at the end of a legal analysis led by the U.S. State Department, carries with it no immediate consequences for the ongoing war.

But Washington hopes that it could help further isolate Russian President Vladimir Putin and galvanize legal efforts to hold members of his government accountable through international courts and sanctions.

Harris’ speech comes as senior Western leaders meet in Munich to assess Europe’s worst conflict since World War II.  

She said Russia was now a “weakened” country after Biden led a coalition to punish Putin for the invasion, but Russia is only intensifying assaults in Ukraine’s east. Meanwhile, Ukraine is planning a spring counteroffensive, for which it is seeking more, heavier and longer-range weapons from its Western allies.

The nearly year-long war has killed tens of thousands, uprooted millions from their homes, pummeled the global economy and made Putin a pariah in the West.

Washington already had concluded that Russian forces were guilty of war crimes, as has a U.N.-mandated investigation, but the Biden administration conclusion that Russia’s actions amount to “crimes against humanity” implies a legal analysis that acts from murder to rape are widespread, systematic and intentionally directed against civilians. In international law, it is seen as a more serious offense.

The U.N.-backed Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine has not yet concluded that the war crimes it says it has identified amount to crimes against humanity.

‘Barbaric and inhumane’

In her remarks, Harris cited as “barbaric and inhumane” the scores of victims found in Bucha shortly after Russia’s invasion last February; the March 9 bombing of a Mariupol maternity hospital, that killed three people, including a child; and the sexual assault of a four-year-old by a Russian soldier that was identified by the U.N. report.

Organizations supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have documented more than 30,000 war crimes incidents since the invasion, according to the U.S. government.  

Ukrainian officials said they were investigating the shelling of the city of Bakhmut just this week as a possible war crime.  

Russia, which says it is conducting a “special military operation” in Ukraine to eliminate threats to its security and protect Russian speakers, has denied intentionally targeting civilians or committing war crimes.  

“Let us all agree: on behalf of all the victims, both known and unknown, justice must be served,” Harris said.

The Biden administration has sought to bring alleged war criminals to justice, including training Ukrainian investigators, imposing sanctions, blocking visas and hiking penalties under U.S. war crimes laws.

Washington has spent some $40 million on the efforts so far and says it is working with Congress to secure an additional $38 million for the efforts.

But the Biden administration’s ability to enforce any such efforts beyond its borders – and certainly within Russia – is limited. Collecting evidence in the war-torn country, too, has proven difficult.

International legal bodies also are constrained. At the International Criminal Court, for instance, jurisdiction extends only to member states and states that have agreed to its jurisdiction, such as Ukraine but not Russia. Kyiv has been pushing for a new international war crimes organization to focus on the Russian invasion, which Moscow has opposed.

“If Putin thinks he can wait us out, he is badly mistaken,” Harris said. “Time is not on his side.”
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Ghanaian Footballer Atsu’s Body Found Under Rubble in Turkey Quake, Agent Says

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Ghanaian footballer Christian Atsu has been found dead under the building where he lived in southern Turkey after last week’s massive earthquake, the ex-Chelsea winger’s Turkish agent said.

“Atsu’s lifeless body was found under the rubble,” Murat Uzunmehmet told reporters in Hatay, where the athlete’s body was found. “Currently, more items are still being taken out. His phone was also found.”

Atsu had been scheduled to fly out of southern Turkey hours before the quake, but Hatayspor’s manager said on Friday the Ghanaian opted to stay with the club after scoring the game-winning goal in a Feb. 5 Super Lig match.
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Wrongfully Convicted US Man, Now Free: ‘I Was Finally Heard’

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As he languished in a Missouri prison for nearly three decades, Lamar Johnson never stopped fighting to prove his innocence, even when it meant doing much of the legal work himself.

This week a St. Louis judge overturned Johnson’s murder conviction and ordered him freed. Johnson closed his eyes and shook his head, overcome with emotion. Shouts of joy rang out from the packed courtroom, and several people — relatives, civil rights activists and others — stood to cheer. Johnson’s lawyers hugged each other and him.

“I can’t say I knew it would happen, but I would never give up fighting for what I knew to be the right thing, that freedom was wrongfully taken from me,” Johnson said.

Thanks to a team of lawyers, a Missouri law that changed largely because of his case, and his own dogged determination, he can start to put his life back together. “It’s persistence,” the 49-year-old said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press.

“You have to distinguish yourself. I think the best way to get [the court’s] attention, or anyone’s attention, is to do much of the work yourself,” Johnson said. “That means making discovery requests from law enforcement agencies and the courts, and that’s what I did. I wrote everybody.”

He said that he was able to contact people “who were willing to come forward and tell the truth.”

Johnson was just 20 in 1994 when his friend, Marcus Boyd, was shot to death on Boyd’s front porch by two masked men. Police and prosecutors arrested Johnson days later, blaming the killing on a dispute over drug money; both men were drug dealers.

From the outset, Johnson said he was innocent. His girlfriend backed his alibi that they were together when the killings occurred. The case against him was built largely on the account of an eyewitness who picked Johnson out of a police lineup, and a jailhouse informant who told a police detective that he overheard Johnson discussing the crime.

Decades of studies show that eyewitness testimony is right only about half the time — and since Johnson’s conviction, across the country there has been a reexamination of eyewitness identification procedures, which have been shown to often reproduce racial biases.

St. Louis Circuit Judge David Mason also heard testimony calling into question the informant’s integrity. Even more, an inmate at South Central Correctional Center in Licking, Missouri — James Howard — came forward to tell the judge that he and another man were the shooters — and that Johnson wasn’t involved. Howard is currently serving a life term for an unrelated murder.

After two months of review, Mason announced his ruling Tuesday.

“It felt like a weight had been lifted off me,” Johnson said. “I think that came out in how emotional I got afterward. I was finally heard.”

It was a moment that he wasn’t sure would ever come.

A connection to another wrongfully convicted man also played a pivotal role in Johnson’s eventual freedom.

Ricky Kidd was convicted of killing two men in Kansas City in 1996. He was sent to the Potosi Correctional Center, where he and Johnson became friends. One day, in the prison yard, Johnson turned to Kidd.

“He said, ‘You might not believe me, but I’m innocent,’” Kidd recalled. “I said, ‘Oh yeah? You might not believe me but I’m innocent, too!’”

The two became cellmates. Eventually, the Midwest Innocence Project agreed to take on Kidd’s case. Meanwhile, Johnson’s effort was going nowhere. Kidd recalled a night when he was awakened by Johnson’s quiet sobs and the sound of his feet pacing the floor.

“He said, ‘Man, I don’t think I’m going to make it out. I keep getting these doors shut,’” Kidd said. “I said, ‘You got to hang in there.’”

Johnson tried to stay busy. That included working in the prison hospice unit. It gave him a new perspective.

“Growing up where I grew up, death, shootings, all those kinds of things are kind of normal,” he said. Working in hospice, “You develop a greater appreciation of life, as you see someone go through that death process.”

Meanwhile, Kidd talked to an investigator with the Innocence Project and made the case that since Johnson had already done so much background work himself that the process would have a head start. The organization took on his case.

Lindsay Runnels, a Kansas City attorney who partners with the Innocence Project, said Johnson’s work was vital. For example, she said his Freedom of Information Act requests uncovered the extensive criminal background of the jailhouse informant, which called into question the man’s integrity.

“He just did all of that groundwork on his own from his jail cell, with nothing but paper and stamp,” Runnels said.

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner believed Johnson was innocent. But her efforts to help him were blocked when the Missouri Supreme Court, in March 2021, ruled that Gardner lacked the authority to seek a new trial 28 years after the conviction.

Missouri lawmakers, disturbed that an innocent person could remain in prison on the technicality that too much time had passed since his conviction, passed a law enacted in August 2021, that allows prosecutors to request a hearing before a judge in cases of potential wrongful conviction. That law freed another longtime inmate, Kevin Strickland, in 2021. He had served more than 40 years for a Kansas City triple-killing.

Some states, including California and Hawaii, are also wrestling with how to handle wrongful convictions cases. In California, Attorney General Rob Bonta is setting up a commission to review criminal cases for possible wrongful convictions. The Innocence Project’s website says that across the U.S., it has helped free or exonerate more than 240 people, 58% of whom are Black.

The vast majority of their clients were exonerated by DNA evidence.

Now, Kidd is a public speaker who also works with prosecutors to help them avoid convicting innocent people. He hopes Johnson will join him in his effort. What Johnson chooses to do next as a free man is unclear.

“I think we can move the needle, prevent wrongful convictions in the first place and help extricate more individuals on the back end,” Kidd said.

Johnson said he’s thankful to be free, even if he’s unsure what the future holds.

“It’s exciting and a little intimidating,” he said. “I have to go out there and learn, and survive, and get my life back in order.”
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Zelenskyy: There Is No Alternative to Ukrainian Support

Posted on by SeeEU

“There is no alternative to Ukrainian victory,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said via video link Friday to the Munich Security Conference. “We have to liberate Ukraine – and Europe. Because when the Russian weapon shoots at us, it is already pointed at our neighbors.”

Also attending the gathering was a delegation of about 50 U.S. lawmakers to affirm bipartisan support for U.S. aid to Ukraine. Four delegations of Democratic and Republican leaders and members of the Senate and House joined hundreds of politicians, military officers, and diplomats from around the world at the event.

The U.S. delegation is one of the largest since the creation of the conference in 1963, U.S. officials said. The Russian invasion on Ukraine has fortified the NATO alliance and the European Union, and it has unified members of the U.S. Congress.

“We are here to send a clear message to this conference and everyone around the world: the U.S. is on a bipartisan basis totally behind the effort of help Ukraine,” Mitch McConnell, the Democratic-controlled Senate’s Republican minority leader, told Reuters after meeting with conservative German politicians.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is pressing President Joe Biden directly to send F-16 warplanes to Ukraine. Five House members argued in a letter sent Thursday to Biden and obtained by Politico that modern jets that Kyiv has sought, but the administration has so far not agreed to, “could prove decisive for control of Ukrainian airspace this year.”

“The provision of such aircraft is necessary to help Ukraine protect its airspace, particularly in light of renewed Russian offensives and considering the expected increase in large-scale combat operations,” the lawmakers wrote.

The letter was composed by Maine Democrat Jared Golden. Also signing on were Democrats Jason Crow of Colorado and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, and Republicans Tony Gonzales of Texas and Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin.

The lawmakers contend that either the Lockheed Martin-manufactured F-16 or something similar would give Ukrainian forces greater capability than ground-based artillery provided by the U.S. and other nations.

Ukrainian air force spokesperson Colonel Yuriy Ignat told VOA’s Myroslava Gongadze that “modern multipurpose fighter jets are urgently needed to obtain advantages in the air and land fire support of Ukraine’s troops.

“Given that the F-16 is one of the most common multirole aircraft in the world, which can engage both ground and air targets with a wide range of weapons, this aircraft is the most likely candidate for the progressive rearmament of the air force of Ukraine to this type of fighter,” he said.

Ignat added that these aircraft would become part of Ukraine’s air defense, as they are capable of effectively destroying enemy cruise missiles and Iranian attack drones.

“We have dozens of pilots with the appropriate level of training and knowledge of the English language,” he said.

Bakhmut offensive

Ukrainian soldiers are pleading for more weapons as they fight to hold off a Russian offensive on the small eastern city of Bakhmut. Russian rockets and artillery pummeled a residential district in the city on Thursday, killing three men and two women and wounding nine, Ukraine’s prosecutor general said, adding it was being investigated as a war crime.

Nearly one year into the invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops are intensifying assaults in the east. The Ukrainian government has urged all remaining residents in the city to leave, as heavy fighting is expected to continue.

Russian troops have been trying to take Bakhmut for months, and the city, which once had 70,000 inhabitants, is under virtually constant shelling.

“If you are rational, law-abiding and patriotic citizens, you should leave the city immediately,” said Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk. She made the appeal via the Telegram messaging app Friday, to what is believed to be about 6,000 people still in the city, in the Donetsk region.

Vereshchuk said those who stay would endanger themselves and their families, but also hinder the work of those who are trying to help them, such as defense and security forces or volunteers.

The British Defense Ministry said Saturday in its daily intelligence update about Ukraine that it has become “increasingly difficult” for the Kremlin to insulate the Russian population from the war in Ukraine.

“A December 2022 Russian poll reported that 52% had either a friend or relative who had served in the so-called Special Military Operation,” the ministry said.  
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Ukrainian Olympic Head on Russian Rival: ‘He is My Enemy’

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They fought on the same side and together won Olympic gold, young men from Russia and a newly independent Ukraine, joined for one last medal-winning hurrah on a short-lived post-Soviet Unified Team at the 1992 Barcelona Games.

Now, former fencers Vadym Guttsait and Stanislav Pozdnyakov are on opposite sides of the war that Russia is waging on Ukraine. Both have risen to become senior sports administrators, respectively heading the Ukrainian and Russian Olympic committees. The nearly year-old invasion has utterly shredded what was left of their friendship and they’re now fighting each other in a divisive and growing split within the Olympic movement over whether Russia and ally Belarus should be barred from next year’s Paris Games.

Guttsait, who is also Ukraine’s sports minister as well as its Olympic committee president, now has only contempt for his former teammate. Guttsait calls Pozdnyakov “my enemy” and says their friendship began to collapse when Russia invaded Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014. Moscow’s full-scale invasion, which enters its second year next week, was the last straw. Guttsait blames the Russian Olympic Committee president for making supportive comments of the assault.

“I don’t want to talk to him. I don’t want to know him at all. He is my enemy, who supports this war, who considers it an honor for athletes to take part in the war against Ukrainians, to kill Ukrainians,” Guttsait said. “Therefore, for today and forever, this person does not exist for me.”

The issue of whether athletes from Russia and Belarus should be allowed to compete is shaping up as the biggest potential spoiler of next year’s Paris Olympics. Guttsait is threatening a Ukrainian boycott if Russians and Belarusians are there and he is mobilizing support from other countries, backed by the wartime star power of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Russia and Belarus, on the other hand, are clinging to a lifeline thrown to them by the International Olympic Committee, which says some of their athletes may be able to return to international competition despite the war. The IOC suggests that their athletes who have not actively supported the war could try to qualify and compete as “neutral athletes,” stripped of national team uniforms, flags and anthems. Pozdnyakov has said Russia is preparing as if its athletes are going to Paris.

In an interview late Tuesday with The Associated Press, Guttsait laid out the process that could lead to a Ukrainian boycott of Paris if that happens. The minister said his own personal opinion is that “we need to boycott” if Russians and Belarusians attend. But he added that the decision isn’t his alone to make and said the Ukrainian Olympic Committee will convene an extraordinary meeting and “we will decide together whether we will participate or not.”

“This is a very important question, it is a very serious question and difficult for every athlete, for every coach who prepares all his life to go to the Olympic Games,” he said. “But while our people are dying, women and children are being killed, our cities are being destroyed, we stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian people. In my opinion, this is more important than going to the competition. But we need to make this political decision together with our Olympic family.”

Before any decision for a full boycott, Ukrainian athletes could also show opposition by withdrawing from Olympic qualifying competitions that allow Russian and Belarusian entrants. Guttsait cited the example of the European wrestling championships in Croatia in April. If Russian and Belarusian athletes compete, Ukrainian wrestlers will either not attend “or they will come and not take part,” Guttsait said.

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach is facing a widespread backlash from Ukraine and its allies for opening a door for some athletes from Russia and Belarus to return to international competition. Bach argues that the Olympic movement has a “unifying mission of bringing people together” and a proven track record of opening lines of communication between nations divided by conflict. He cites the example of North and South Korea, which fielded a joint women’s hockey team at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Guttsait noted, however, that there are also Olympic precedents for keeping nations out. Germany and Japan were not invited to the 1948 London Olympics after they were the aggressors in World War II and South Africa was excluded from 1964-1988 because of its racist Apartheid laws.

The minister said support among Russian athletes for the invasion makes their presence at the Paris Olympics unthinkable while the war rages. He also noted that Russian athletes are often enrolled in the country’s armed forces.

Ukrainian athletes, on the other hand, are facing the miseries of war as they try, as best they can, to ready themselves for Paris.

“I really want all people to understand how we prepare, how our athletes live, that our athletes train while cruise missiles are flying, bombs are flying,” Guttsait said. “The Olympic Games are great, they unite the whole world, but not those athletes who support this war and this aggression.” 
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Biden to Vow ‘As Long as It Takes’ Support for Ukraine on War Anniversary

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President Joe Biden will mark the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with a speech Tuesday in Poland, where he is expected to reiterate the United States’ commitment to support the defense of Ukraine “for as long as it takes” despite growing Republican reticence and softening overall support among Americans.

Scheduled to arrive in Warsaw on Tuesday morning, Biden will meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda to discuss “collective efforts to support Ukraine and to bolster NATO’s deterrence,” said John Kirby, National Security Council (NSC) spokesperson in a briefing to reporters Friday.

Biden also will meet with NATO leaders from the so-called Bucharest Nine (B-9), the countries on NATO’s easternmost flank, which include Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

B-9 countries feel the Russian threat more acutely and are pushing for a more robust military response compared with other European nations including France and Germany, whose citizens are more concerned about ways to end the conflict and are questioning the war’s impact on their own economies.

The White House said there are no plans for Biden to visit Ukraine nor to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during this trip. Observers say Biden may not cross the border to avoid provoking Putin, but it’s likely that Zelenskyy will meet him in Poland in a summit that would not be revealed until the last minute for security reasons. The pair last met in person in late December when Zelenskyy made a surprise visit to Washington.

Meanwhile Vice President Kamala Harris is in Germany to attend the annual Munich Security Conference, in which the Ukraine war dominates conversations among world leaders.

War of attrition

Despite repeated public confirmation that the U.S. will support Zelenskyy for “as long as it takes,” observers note that time is not on Kyiv’s side as Moscow turns the conflict into a war of attrition in a bid to grind down Ukrainian resolve and exhaust the West’s patience. Ukraine has the advantage of Western high-tech weapons and intelligence support, but Russia is favored by the sheer size of its economy, manpower and defense production capacity.

The U.S. wants Ukraine to make battlefield progress rapidly without dragging NATO into a direct military confrontation with Moscow, said George Beebe, director of Grand Strategy at the Quincy Institute.

“We are trying to essentially achieve a balance here to give the Ukrainians enough military wherewithal that they can bring this war to a successful conclusion but to do so without recklessly raising the risk of World War III as President Biden is fond to say,” Beebe told VOA. “That’s not an easy balance to strike.”

With the U.S. and Russia having most of the world’s nuclear weapons, escalation could be catastrophic.

Amid reports of Russia ramping up its ground and air attacks, administration officials would not say whether Biden will announce another security package or offensive weaponry including jet fighters that Kyiv says it needs to make significant gains on the battlefield.

No pathways to peace

White House officials are quick to point out that Russian President Vladimir Putin can end the war immediately by halting his offensive. Instead, Moscow is mobilizing and ramping up long-term defense production.

“At the same time, Ukrainians are absolutely not ready to give up any of their territory, not that that would stop the war because Putin would just be encouraged by this,” said Michal Baranowski, managing director for German Marshall Fund East.

Polls show an overwhelming majority of Ukrainians believe the country should get back all its territory, including Crimea, which Moscow annexed illegally in 2014.

Baranowski told VOA that Biden is unlikely to force Zelenskyy into a premature compromise, however it remains unclear how much Western support can be sustained long term. Already NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is saying that Ukraine is using up ammunition faster than the West can provide, straining its weapons industries.

Another contentious element is Ukraine’s future geostrategic alignment. Moscow is adamant that Kyiv does not join NATO or have a separate military alliance with the U.S. even if it doesn’t become a NATO member.

“Unless there’s some understanding reached with the Russians on that, I think their fallback position is going to be simply to wreck Ukraine to the point where it’s in no condition to ally with anybody,” Beebe said.

Beebe points to cease-fires where neither side recognizes territorial changes and simply accepts them as unsettled issues, at least at first. “That may be where we want to go into here,” he said.

Next week, the United Nations General Assembly will vote on a draft resolution co-sponsored by the U.S. that stresses “the need to reach, as soon as possible, a comprehensive, just and lasting peace” in Ukraine.

“We are also urging countries to support the resolution,” a National Security Council spokesperson told VOA.

Republican questions

While there is still broad support for Ukraine in Congress, some Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives, where their party now holds a slim majority, are increasingly questioning the massive flow of American funds to Kyiv — $40 billion in security, economic and humanitarian aid since the invasion.

“This war is being fought on the backs of U.S. taxpayers,” said Ryan Zinke, a Republican congressman from Montana. “And what’s our plan, Mr. President? Is it an endless war? Are we going to continue to feed armament that we don’t know where it’s going exactly, or how it’s going to be used? To what extent?” he said to VOA following Biden’s State of the Union remarks earlier this month.

Traditionally, Republicans are more likely to support foreign military spending. But former President Donald Trump’s “America First” doctrine has motivated a small but vocal non-interventionist faction in the party.

Earlier this month a group of House Republicans who support Trump introduced the “Ukraine Fatigue” resolution that calls for an end to U.S. military and financial aid to Ukraine and urges combatants to reach a peace agreement.

Although the group represents a minority even within the Republican Party, its members could jeopardize future Ukraine aid packages since the January adoption of a new House rule where only one member is needed to bring a “motion to vacate” to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy — a concession McCarthy agreed to in exchange for support to secure his speakership.

Nearly half of Americans (47%) now say Washington should urge Kyiv to settle for peace as soon as possible.
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Biden to Vow ‘As Long as It Takes’ Support for Ukraine on War Anniversary

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US President Joe Biden is gearing up to mark the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with a speech in neighboring Poland on Tuesday, where he will reiterate the US commitment to support the defense of Ukraine ‘for as long as it takes.’ This despite growing Republican reticence and softening overall support among Americans. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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Trial Begins for Belarusian Blogger Grabbed Off Diverted Flight

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A Belarusian blogger arrested after Minsk diverted the commercial flight he was on in 2021 went on trial in the country’s capital Thursday.

Raman Pratasevich, who ran the news channel Nexta, is facing charges including organizing mass unrest and plotting to overthrow the government.

One of Nexta’s founders, Stsiapan Putsila, and a site administrator, Yan Rudzik — both of whom no longer live in Belarus — are being in tried in absentia.

The Nexta channel, which ran via a messaging app, gained popularity as a way to share news and information in 2020 during the contested reelection of President Alexander Lukashenko and the mass protests that followed.

Authorities in November 2020 issued an arrest warrant for Pratasevich and Putsila, both of whom were already living outside the country.

Pratasevich was arrested in May 2021 when a bomb hoax was used to divert the Ryanair passenger jet he was traveling on from Greece to Lithuania.

The U.S. and the European Union denounced the move as a hijacking and imposed sanctions against Lukashenko’s government.

A U.N. investigation into the diverted flight determined in 2022 that the purported threat used to divert the plane was “deliberately false and endangered its safety.”

The report by the International Civil Aviation Organization concluded that Belarus committed “an act of unlawful interference,” in diverting the flight.

The U.N. agency oversees rules on civil air space but has no power to impose sanctions, AFP reported.

Since his arrest, Pratasevich has appeared on state television in what analysts have described as forced confessions. The blogger has been held under house arrest while awaiting trial.

Last year, a court convicted his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, who was also on the diverted flight, for inciting social hatred. She was sentenced to six years in prison.

The Belarus Embassy in Washington did not respond to VOA’s email requesting comment.

‘Crackdown on free speech’

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Belarus to drop the charges against Pratasevich and his absent co-defendants.

In a statement, Gulnoza Said of CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program said the charges are “a cynical display of the vindictive nature of the Belarusian government, which is determined to retaliate against those who covered the 2020 protests.”

In an email Friday, Said told VOA, “My observation is that the authorities stopped even pretending that it’s not a crackdown on free speech and free media. The masks are off. Lukashenko doesn’t seem to bother with his image in the West anymore.”

Belarus is one of the worst jailers of journalists globally, after mass arrests of media workers who covered the protest movement, according to the CPJ and other rights organizations.

More than 30 journalists are behind bars, either awaiting trial or serving sentences, according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists. Two of those detained contributed to VOA sister network Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Speaking about the mass arrests, Volha Khvoin, who is on the board of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, told VOA last month, “This is their sacrifice for freedom of speech.”

Said told VOA that the CPJ is concerned about the plight of journalists in Belarus, adding that “lengthy prison sentences have also become a norm.”

“The trials are mostly held behind closed doors. Lawyers are forced to sign a nondisclosure agreement so [they] cannot reveal any information,” she said. “The authorities seem to want to teach a lesson to the Lukashenko regime’s critics by showing that anybody voicing dissent will face a very harsh punishment.”

Belarus has a poor record for media freedom. The watchdog group Reporters Without Borders describes it as “Europe’s most dangerous country for journalists until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

The country ranks 153rd out of 180 countries on the RSF Press Freedom Index, where No. 1 signals the best environment for media.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
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Large US Delegation at Munich Conference Underscores Bipartisan Support for Ukraine

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Nearly 50 lawmakers from both major political parties of the United States on Friday attended the start of Europe’s premier annual security conference to affirm bipartisan support for U.S. aid to Ukraine.

Four delegations of Democratic and Republican leaders and members of the Senate and House converged as one of the largest groups of U.S. lawmakers to attend the Munich Security Conference since its inception in 1963, U.S. officials said.

Hundreds of politicians, military officers and diplomats from around the world gathered in Munich a week before the anniversary of Russia’s invasion, with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urging allies to speed up weapons deliveries.

The war has tested not only the unity of the NATO alliance and European Union, but the ability of the U.S. parties to overcome deep policy differences.

“We are here to send a clear message to this conference and everyone around the world: The U.S. is on a bipartisan basis totally behind the effort of help Ukraine,” Mitch McConnell, the Democratic-controlled Senate’s Republican minority leader, told Reuters after meeting conservative German politicians.

Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Soeder said McConnell’s unequivocal support for Ukraine was welcome after the uncertainty of the former President Donald Trump administration’s isolationist America First policy.

“Today is a very good signal,” he said.

Other prominent U.S. lawmakers in Munich included Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Republican chairmen of the House foreign relations and intelligence committees and their Democratic Senate counterparts.

The Republican takeover of the House of Representatives in last year’s mid-terms raised questions about the future of the U.S. aid on which Kyiv depends to halt a new offensive by Russia in a war that has killed thousands and displaced millions.

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy declared there would be no “blank check” for Ukraine and far-right Republicans hold that resources are needed to address other pressing problems.

Some senators share that view. On Thursday, Republican Senator Josh Hawley had urged an end to U.S. military aid to Ukraine until the European allies increased their backing, saying sending arms to Kyiv was threatening the ability of the U.S. to deter a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

But Lindsey Graham, a leading advocate of aiding Ukraine, said in Munich that China would be encouraged to invade Taiwan if the U.S. and its European allies failed to back Ukraine.

“If you care about China and you don’t get the connection between Russia, Ukraine and China, you are missing a lot,” Graham told Reuters.

But Republicans and some Democrats also say President Joe Biden’s administration should better explain its Ukraine policy.

The United States is Ukraine’s leading military aid supplier at some $30 billion, including long-range artillery, air defense systems and advanced armored vehicles.

There are now calls on both sides of the Atlantic for Ukraine to receive advanced Western fighter jets.
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UN Weekly Roundup: February 11-17, 2023

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Editor’s note: Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch.

Aid efforts ramp up in aftermath of earthquakes 

As hopes fade for finding survivors under the rubble more than one week after  massive earthquakes killed more than 40,000 people in parts of Turkey and Syria, relief efforts are ramping up to reach the millions of survivors who need winter clothes, food, water and sanitation. The United Nations launched a $1 billion appeal for Turkey and a nearly $400 million one for Syria this week. 

For the first time since the Syrian war began in 2011, the country’s president, Bashar al-Assad, has agreed to allow the U.N. to bring humanitarian assistance into opposition-held parts of the country. Since 2014, the organization has relied on Security Council resolutions to cross from Turkey into Syria. Now, with millions of residents in the area impacted by the earthquake, Assad has agreed to let humanitarian workers use two additional crossings for three months. The United States says it will be watching, and if the Syrian leader reneges on his promise, it will seek council authorization to keep the crossings open. 

Syria’s Assad to Allow UN More Access to Quake Victims 

Aid appeal for Ukraine as war hits one-year mark 

The United Nations appealed Wednesday for $5.6 billion to provide humanitarian assistance to millions of Ukrainians affected by Russia’s invasion of their country nearly one year ago. Nearly $4 billion of the appeal will go toward easing the plight of 11.1 million people displaced or living in dangerous and difficult situations inside Ukraine. The remainder will assist 4.2 million Ukrainian refugees and communities hosting them in 10 European countries.

UN Appeals for $5.6 Billion for Millions of Ukrainian Victims of Russian Invasion 

Uganda closes UN human rights office in Kampala 

Uganda said this week that it would not renew the U.N. human rights office’s mandate in the country because it was no longer necessary. Human rights activists have protested the action and the U.N. human rights office is reportedly in discussions with the government to see what can be done.

Ugandan Activists Decry Closure of UN Human Rights Office in Uganda 

In brief        

—  U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the African Union summit. He will address leaders Saturday on issues including peace and security threats, the cost-of-living crisis, and the impact of the climate crisis on the continent. He is also participating in high-level meetings on the situations in the Sahel, Libya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He has had several bilateral meetings with leaders, including the AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa and Rwandan President Paul Kagame. 

—  The U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, known as UNMISS, said Thursday that violence rose sharply there at the end of 2022, mainly in Upper Nile, Warrap and Jonglei states. The number of civilians harmed by violence rose 87% between October and the end of December over the same period in 2021. There was also a huge spike in abductions (464%) and conflict-related sexual violence (360%). UNMISS urged the Juba government to urgently address the escalation and to protect civilians. For its part, the mission has increased patrols and set up temporary operating bases in hot spots. 

— On Thursday, the U.N. launched a $1.3 billion appeal to help 6 million people in northeastern Nigeria, where child malnutrition rates are rising and 2.4 million people are in acute need due to conflict, disease and disaster. Women and girls make up 80% of those in need across three hard hit areas – Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states. The U.N. says already high levels of severe acute malnutrition in children are forecast to more than double, from 300,000 children impacted last year to a projected 697,000 children this year.  

— In Bangladesh, the World Food Program said Tuesday that because of a major funding shortfall, it will have to cut food assistance to Rohingya refugees for the first time since they fled Myanmar six years ago. The WFP is appealing for $125 million to avoid ration cuts, or at a minimum $80 million, to limit the ration cuts to one in 2023. The food agency said the first cut would be from $12 to $10 per person per month and would seriously impact food security and nutrition, which are already alarming. The WFP says without a cash injection by April, it could be forced to further cut an additional $4 per person. Most Rohingya refugees are fully dependent on that money to feed their families. 

— The U.N. said Friday that Malawi is fighting its worst recorded cholera outbreak, with more than 1,400 deaths and 43,000 cases to date. U.N. agencies have been responding for several months, providing cholera beds, tents for cholera treatment, essential supplies including hygiene items, and mobile units for safe food storage. 

Quote of note  

“Low-lying communities and entire countries could disappear forever. We would witness a mass exodus of entire populations on a biblical scale. And we would see ever-fiercer competition for fresh water, land and other resources.” 

– Secretary-General Guterres, on the consequences of sea-level rise, speaking Monday during a debate in the Security Council. He urged climate action to stem the warming, rising sea waters.

Next week

February 24 will mark one year since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. The fighting has displaced 5.3 million Ukrainians inside the country, caused nearly 8 million more to flee as refugees, and left 17.6 million people in the country in need of humanitarian assistance. The U.N. General Assembly is expected to take action on a draft resolution on Thursday that promotes peace in Ukraine in line with the U.N. Charter and international law. The Security Council will hold a ministerial level meeting on Friday on the subject.
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Family Flees Russia and Putin’s Regime, Comes to the US For New Life

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Russians who fear persecution due to their opposition to Moscow’s war on Ukraine continue to seek asylum in the U.S. after the White House announced its new policy in September. Many are coming through Mexico. Nina Vishneva reports on a mother and her three children who made that journey. Anna Rice narrates the story.
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Kosovo Celebrates 15 Years of Independence Hoping to Reach Deal With Serbia

Posted on by SeeEU

Kosovo feted 15 years of independence with a parade of soldiers and police cheered by thousands in Pristina on Friday with an eye to a normalization deal with Serbia, key to stability in a region still scarred from ethnic wars in the 1990s.

Crowds waving Kosovo and Albanian flags lined a main street in the capital as police and troops marched past, but there were no celebrations in the country’s north where minority Serbs have long resisted Pristina’s authority.

“Our independence was achieved through struggle and sacrifice, but our independence will only grow through work,” Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said ahead of the parade.

Tensions with Serbia linger as Belgrade continues to support the refusal of 50,000 minority Serbs in north Kosovo to accept the country’s independence, declared almost a decade after an uprising against repressive Serbian rule.

Serbia, whose forces were driven out of ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo by NATO bombing to stop a brutal security crackdown by Belgrade, still deems its former southern province an integral part of its territory.

U.S. and European Union envoys are pressing the countries to approve a peace plan presented in mid-2022 under which Belgrade would stop lobbying against Kosovo having a seat in international organizations including the United Nations.

The office of EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced that Kurti would meet Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Brussels on February 27 to discuss the 11-point plan.

Under it, Kosovo would commit to forming a semi-autonomous association of Serb-majority municipalities in the north, where nationalist Serbs have clashed repeatedly with police trying to apply the Pristina government’s writ.

Belgrade and Pristina have both accepted the EU plan in principle, though they have said further negotiations would be needed.

Resolving their volatile standoff is a major condition for Serbia and Kosovo to progress toward EU membership.

“We welcome your endorsement of the EU proposal on normalization, with the eventual goal of mutual recognition which would help secure a more peaceful and prosperous future for the people of both Kosovo and Serbia,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in a letter to Kosovo counterpart Vjosa Osmani on Thursday evening.

Ali Reshani, 73, among thousands of Kosovars gathering in Pristina’s streets for the February 17 independence anniversary, told Reuters: “Thanks to God we have our own police, we also have our own army. I expect better days.”

He added: “I hope God will give good things to the Americans for helping us.”

The anniversary was ignored in the Serb-majority town of North Mitrovica in north Kosovo.

Local Serb taxi driver Lazar Kostic, 58, said he had ethnic Albanian friends but was in touch only by phone. “[Kosovo] doesn’t mean anything to me personally. It is not a state and for me it never will be,” he told Reuters.

Alluding to the former federal, multinational Yugoslavia torn apart by ethnic wars in the 1990s, he said: “We grew up during times when it was not important who or what you were or what your name was. Those were the happy times. But, when politics got involved in our lives, it became another story.”
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US Concludes Chinese Balloon Recovery Efforts off South Carolina

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The United States successfully concluded recovery efforts off South Carolina on Thursday for debris from the suspected Chinese balloon shot down by a U.S. fighter jet on February 4, the U.S. military said in a statement Friday. 

“Final pieces of debris are being transferred to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory in Virginia for counterintelligence exploitation, as has occurred with the previous surface and subsurface debris recovered,” the U.S. military’s Northern Command said in a statement. 

“U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard vessels have departed the area. Air and maritime safety perimeters have been lifted.” 
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VOA Exclusive: Alongside Closest US Soldiers to Russia’s Border

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US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was in Estonia on Thursday, where the United States and NATO allies have increased force numbers as part of a push to deepen defenses across NATO’s eastern flank. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb gained exclusive access to US soldiers in Estonia, as she crisscrossed the country to learn more about its defense.
Camera: Mary Cieslak Video Editor: Mary Cieslak
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Water Shortage Protest Turns Deadly in Ethiopia’s South

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A protest over water shortages in the southern Ethiopian town of Welkite turned deadly when, witnesses say, security forces opened fire on protesters, killing at least two people.

The protest was started early Thursday morning by a group of elderly women holding jerry cans for carrying water and, according to one witness, gradually swelled to thousands of people. 

Adane Kifle, a Welkite resident who was at the protest, told VOA Friday that security forces started telling people to sit down after talking with some protesters.

“When we sat down, we couldn’t really make out what was being said and they were not sharing any information with us. It is in this situation, as I was in the front, that they tear gassed us,” Adane said. “We tried to save ourselves and people started throwing rocks. After then they started shooting. After that people dispersed in different directions.”

Dr. Behailu Dego, a surgeon at Welkite University Referral Hospital, said that two protesters were shot and died on arrival at the hospital.

“All of the injuries were from bullet wounds. The sad part is that we don’t have any blood banks in the area,” Dego said. “There were another 4 or 5 people who have had bullets wounds in their arms and legs.”

In a report Friday, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission put the death toll at three and said at least 30 people had sustained injuries due to bullet wounds.

Officials in the area say the violence was sparked by protesters throwing rocks at the local water bureau building and blocking roads, according to the report.

Welkite, a town of about 70,000, and the capital of the Gurage zone, has been plagued by water shortages for months amid the ongoing drought in the Horn of Africa. 

A resident said there was a water drilling project that local authorities promised would solve the problem. But nothing came of it. 

Calls to the mayor of Welkite as well as the zonal peace and security chief went unanswered.

 
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Kenyan Bandits Decline to Hand in Illegal Weapons

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A Kenyan government operation to disarm warring parties in the troubled Rift Valley region is off to a slow start.  Media reports say a three-day amnesty period for people to hand in illegal weapons resulted in the handover of just three guns. Kenyan police did arrest a local lawmaker for allegedly funding bandits and cattle rustlers, who have wreaked havoc in the region. 

Kenyan government forces launched an operation this week to crack down on chronic violence in the Rift Valley. Most of the fighting is between communities over grazing land and livestock made worse by the ongoing severe drought.   

The first step – a three-day amnesty for people to hand over illegal weapons – resulted in just three guns being turned in by Thursday evening. 

Police and regional officials declined to respond to VOA requests for comment.  

Kenyan security analyst George Musamali says the communities in the North Rift Valley region cannot give up their guns easily after decades of insecurity in the region.

“It went in with threats and if you look at these communities, these are communities that have been taking care of their own security. They don’t see the government there,” said Musamali. “They would rather keep the guns until the operation is over. Then when the security forces leave the area then, they can continue living the way they are used to because the government is not offering any solutions to the perennial security problems in those areas.”

A security operation aimed at disarming the communities began Friday after the end of the amnesty period.

On Thursday, officers from Kenya’s Department of Investigation unit arrested a Pokot South member of parliament, David Pkosing, for allegedly financing the banditry in West Pokot County.

The legislator was later released and denied the claims of supporting the bandits.

Danstan Omari is a lawyer representing Pkosing. He says his client will appear at the offices of the criminal investigation unit to respond to more questions about his source of wealth.

“We agreed that we would take him there at 4 PM today so that he can respond to those allegations because we were told they have expanded the allegations,” said Omari. “Now they want us to respond to the allegations that the member of parliament is involved in money laundering and that the helicopter he has they will want to take a photo of the helicopter and lastly, they want to see how he has benefited from banditry, the commercial aspect of banditry.”

Pkosing told VOA some politicians from rival communities closer to the government were inciting authorities against him and his community.

He says the government needs to create a program where the warring communities can feed and move their animals freely in the region.

“We want the government to approach it in a structural manner. Let us allow the Turkanas, the Samburus, the Pokots, and the Marakwets,” said Pkosing. “The entire of this place where there is distress, let us bring order in terms of access to grass and water. If there is order, there is no conflict at all, but for now, there is no government.”

The communities in Baringo, West Pokot, Elgeyo Marakwet, Samburu, Laikipia and Turkana have been stealing animals from each other, leading to communal tensions and conflict.

 

Experts are urging the government to change its approach to dealing with the banditry threat and begin improving the lives of the communities by constructing roads, schools, and water points, as well as encouraging the community to start farming as another source of income.
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Children Rescued by Multinational Force in West Africa

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A multinational force of troops from Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria, on Thursday handed five children rescued from Boko Haram over to Cameroon. The Multinational Joint Task Force of the Lake Chad Basin Commission says scores of children were rescued last year in operations against the militant group. Cameroonian authorities are working to locate the children’s parents.

The Multinational Joint Task Force of the Lake Chad Basin, or MNJTF, that is fighting the jihadist group, says the five children it handed to Cameroonian authorities on Thursday were rescued by Chadian troops.

The children were handed over to government officials in Mora, a town in Cameroon’s Far North region on the border with Chad and Nigeria.

The task force said Chadian troops found the five boys in the volatile Lake Chad basin, looking unkempt, tired, hungry and sick.

The task force commander, Nigerian Major General Abdul Kalifa Ibrahim, said the teenage children spent several months in Boko Haram captivity. He spoke on Cameroon’s state broadcaster CRTV.

“They were unfortunate to be abducted by Boko Haram, but they were able to escape,” said Ibrahim. “Chadian soldiers found out they are Cameroonian children. We are going to carry out more operations. Our hope is for the Boko Harams themselves to come out and say this is enough.”

Cameroon says 25 out of the 60 children transferred to the country by the joint forces in the past three weeks were either saved by the military during operations or escaped from Boko Haram camps and surrendered to troops from Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria fighting the jihadists.

The task force says scores of the children were rescued last year in a military operation that killed 800 militants in lake Chad basin. The children were kept in Chad about 8 months for psychological care and to determine where they were from.

The government says the children range in age from 9 to 17 years old.

The governor of Cameroon’s Far North region, Midjiyawa Bakari, says Cameroonian President Paul Biya has ordered that the children be provided with food, medical care and an education while their parents are being found. He spoke to VOA via a messaging app from Maroua, capital of Cameroon’s Far North region.

Bakari says Cameroon has well-constructed centers for Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, or DDR, in Meri and Mora, northern towns on the border with Chad and Nigeria. He says the children will be enrolled in a school at the DDR center in Mora. Bakari says Cameroons medical staff members are at DDR centers ready to attend to the health needs of the children.

Bakari said in 2021, Cameroon successfully hosted more than 2,000 former Boko Haram militants including 950 Nigerians and about a hundred Chadians who defected from the jihdist group.

In June 2022, the Multinational Joint Task Force said 3,000 troops killed 800 jihadis on Lake Chad’s islands and neighboring areas between March 28 and June 4 in an operation called Lake Sanity.

Officials of the force said they were investigating the countries of origins of several hundred children who were rescued in the operations.

The troops say parents of some of the children may have been killed in battles with jihadist groups or have remained in Boko Haram camps as militants or captives.

The Lake Chad basin stretches across the borders of Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad.

The multinational force with troops from Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad says although attacks have been drastically reduced, Boko Haram and another group, the Islamic State West Africa Province, have established bases in the vast Lake Chad basin.

According to the U.N., 36,000 people have been killed and 3 million have fled their homes in Cameroon, Nigeria and Chad since 2009 when the fighting deteriorated into an armed conflict with Nigerian government troops.
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Survivors Continue to Emerge from Turkey Earthquake; Death Toll Tops 41,000

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Turkish rescuers pulled a teenage boy alive from the rubble of a collapsed building 260 hours after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck southeast Turkey and Syria, Turkish state news agency Anadolu reported Friday.  

Fourteen-year-old Osman Halebiye was taken to a hospital in Antakya.  

Later, two men, Mehmet Ali Sakiroglu, 26, and Mustafa Avci, 33, were rescued from the same building’s rubble, news agency DHA said.   

After he was rescued, Avci saw his newborn baby on a cellphone call with his parents, according to Reuters.  

The rescue efforts in Turkey have come amid criticism about unenforced building codes. Thousands of buildings collapsed in the February 6 earthquake, leaving massive amounts of rubble for rescue teams to search through.

More than 41,000 people in Turkey and Syria have been killed in the earthquake and hundreds of thousands have been displaced from their homes. 
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Russian Warship Drills with South African, Chinese Navies Amid Criticism

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Joint naval exercises including South Africa, Russia, and China get underway in waters off South Africa’s east coast Friday, despite U.S. concerns and Ukrainian condemnation. Critics say the 10-day military drills will do little to benefit South Africa and act as a propaganda boost for Moscow on the one-year anniversary of its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

While the West is upping its arms shipments to help Ukraine fend off Russia’s invasion, South Africa begins wargames today with Russian warships that proudly support the offensive.  

Russia’s “Admiral Gorshkov,” which arrived in Cape Town this week, is marked with the Kremlin’s pro-war symbol, the letter ‘Z.’   

Critics say the optics of South African servicemen aboard the frigate near the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion would be a coup for Moscow and a shame to the country of freedom fighter Nelson Mandela.

Ukrainian Ambassador to South Africa Liubov Abravitova told VOA she condemns the drills.

“It is very disturbing that South Africa will be hosting the military exercise with the country, aggressor, invader, that is using its military force against peaceful country, bringing destruction and trying to eliminate Ukrainian nation,” Abravitova said.

South Africa has repeatedly defended its neutral stance on the conflict in Ukraine and its right to relations with Russia, a fellow member of the BRICS trade bloc with Brazil, India, and China.  

South Africa’s foreign minister, Naledi Pandor, last month welcomed her visiting Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov and said Pretoria wouldn’t be bullied into choosing sides.  

The opposition Democratic Alliance  though, says Pretoria’s hosting the drills shows it has dropped any pretense at neutrality.  

Democratic Alliance shadow defense minister Kobus Marais adds the drills, called Mosi II, won’t benefit South Africa’s depleted navy and the funds would be better spent elsewhere.

“Given our very limited naval capabilities, resources and other higher priorities, we can gain little or no value from Exercise Mosi II, especially from the presence and possible launch of the hypersonic missile,” Marais said.

The Gorshkov is equipped with hypersonic Zircon missiles, which Russian state media report could be fired in a training launch during the drills. 

South African officials have denied the missile launch will be part of the 10 days of exercises, which also include China’s navy.  

South Africa’s Defense Department said this is not the first war game with Russia and that it previously joined military drills with its Western allies as well. 

However, South Africa this year declined an invitation to join U.S.-led multinational maritime drills in the Gulf of Guinea.

South African Institute of International Affairs Russia expert Steven Gruzd says Pretoria is trying to straddle both sides.

“South Africa does see a future in which Russia and China are both very, very important partners, but it’s still also trying to balance its relations with Western states,” said Gruzd. “There may be some fallout, we’re not sure of what kind, but the U.S. is certainly not happy at all that South Africa is taking part in these exercises.”

Asked to comment on the drills, the U.S. State Department told VOA by email it noted them with concern “even as Moscow continues its brutal and unlawful invasion of Ukraine.”

The statement went on to say, “We encourage South Africa to cooperate militarily with fellow democracies that share our mutual commitment to human rights and the rule of law.”  

Since Russia’s invasion last February, U.S. officials estimate tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been killed along with as many as a hundred thousand troops or more on each side.  

The Russian Embassy in South Africa and South Africa’s Defense Ministry did not reply to requests for comment.
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US Prosecutors Ask for 25 More Years in Prison for R. Kelly

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Federal prosecutors Thursday asked a judge to give singer R. Kelly 25 more years in prison for his child pornography and enticement convictions last year in Chicago, which would add to 30 years he recently began serving in a New York case.  

The 56-year-old wouldn’t be eligible for release until he was around 100 if the judge agrees both to the 25-year sentence and another government request that Kelly begin serving his Chicago sentence only after the 30-year New York sentence is fully served.  

In their sentencing recommendation filed before midnight Thursday in U.S. District Court in Chicago, prosecutors described Kelly’s behavior as “sadistic,” calling him “a serial sexual predator” with no remorse and who “poses a serious danger to society.”  

“The only way to ensure Kelly does not reoffend is to impose a sentence that will keep him in prison for the rest of his life,” the 37-page government filing says.  

Kelly’s sentencing in Chicago is set for next week.  

Kelly’s lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, wrote in a filing last week that even with his existing 30-year New York sentence, “Kelly would have to defy all statistical odds to make it out of prison alive.” She cited data that the average life expectancy of inmates is 64.  

She recommended a sentence of around 10 years, at the low end of the sentencing guidelines range, which she said could be served simultaneously with the New York sentence.  

In arguing for the lesser sentence, Bonjean alleged Kelly, who is Black, was singled out for behavior that she said white rock stars have gotten away with for decades. 

“None have been prosecuted and none will die in prison,” she wrote.  

Prosecutors acknowledged that a 25-year sentence in the Chicago case would be more time than even sentencing guidelines recommend. But they argued imposing a long sentence and instructing it be served only after the New York sentence was appropriate.  

“A consecutive sentence is eminently reasonable given the egregiousness of Kelly’s conduct,” the filing argued. “Kelly’s sexual abuse of minors was intentional and prolific.”  

At the trial in Chicago last year, jurors convicted the Grammy Award winning singer on six of 13 counts. But the government lost the marquee count that Kelly and his then-business manager successfully rigged his state child pornography trial in 2008. 

Both of Kelly’s co-defendants, including longtime business manager Derrel McDavid, were acquitted of all charges. 

Kelly, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, rose from poverty in Chicago to superstardom, becoming known for smash hit “I Believe I Can Fly” and sex-infused songs such as “Bump n’ Grind.”  

While the Grammy Award-winner went to trial in 2008, it wasn’t until after the airing of Lifetime’s 2019 docu-series, “Surviving R. Kelly – featuring testimonials by his accusers — that criminal investigations were kicked into high-gear, ending with federal and new state charges. 

In January, an Illinois judge dismissed state sex-abuse charges prior to a trial on the recommendation of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. Foxx said she was comfortable dropping the case because Kelly would spend decades in prison for his federal convictions.  

Prosecutors at Kelly’s federal trial in Chicago portrayed him as a master manipulator who used his fame and wealth to reel in star-struck fans to sexually abuse, in some cases to video record them, and then discard them. 

After deliberating over two days, jurors convicted Kelly of three counts each of producing child pornography and enticement of minors for sex, while acquitting him of obstruction of justice, one count of production of child porn and three counts of receiving child porn. 

The Chicago verdict came months after a federal judge in New York sentenced Kelly to 30 years in prison for racketeering and sex trafficking. Based on that sentence alone, he wouldn’t be eligible for release until he is around 80. 

Even if granted time off for good behavior, Kelly would only be eligible for release if he serves 25 years after the New York sentence in the year 2066, the government’s Thursday filing said.  

It will be up to Judge Harry Leinenweber in Chicago to decide the crucial question of whether Kelly serves whatever sentence he imposes concurrently, simultaneously, with the New York sentence or consecutively. 

Kelly’s legal team is appealing his New York and Chicago convictions. Prosecutors sometimes press for long sentences for defendants sentenced at earlier trials in a bid to ensure that, if some convictions are later tossed, they will still do some time behind bars.  

Bonjean argued that traumas throughout Kelly’s life, including abuse as a child and illiteracy throughout adulthood, justified leniency in sentencing the singer.  

Kelly “is not an evil monster but a complex (unquestionably troubled) human-being who faced overwhelming challenges in childhood that shaped his adult life,” she said.  

That the conduct for which he was convicted occurred decades ago should also be factored in, she said.  

“While Kelly was not a child in the late 1990s, he also was not the middle-aged man he was at the time of his 2019 indictment,” she argued. “Kelly was a damaged man in his late 20s.”  

She added that Kelly has already paid a heavy price from his legal troubles, including a financial one. She said his worth once approached $1 billion but that he “is now destitute.”  

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Zelenskyy to Address Munich Security Conference

Posted on by SeeEU

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to address the annual Munich Security Conference on Friday via video link.

Last year, the conference attendees implored Russian President Vladimir Putin not to invade Ukraine.

This year the conference is opening just days ahead of the Feb. 24 anniversary of the invasion.

Zelenskyy said in his nightly address that 101 people had been released from Russian captivity Thursday.

“Keeping the situation on the frontline under control and preparing for any escalation steps of the enemy is a priority for the nearest future,” he said.

“Moving forward with the further liberation of our land is a priority that we are carefully preparing,” he added.

The British Defense Ministry said in its daily intelligence update on Ukraine that the Russian Defense Ministry and its private contractor have “likely suffered” 175,000-200,000 casualties since the beginning of the invasion, with approximately 40,000-60,000 killed, representing “a high ratio of personnel killed.”

In addition, the update said that the Wagner Group’s convict recruits have “probably experienced a casualty rate of up to 50%.”
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