Month: March 2023

Biden Embarks on First Presidential Visit to Canada 

Posted on by SeeUS

President Joe Biden has a number of critical issues to discuss with his Canadian counterpart when he makes his first presidential visit to Ottawa, the White House says. These include national security concerns, climate change, trade, migration, the conflict in Ukraine and unrest in Haiti.

Biden was set to leave Thursday for a one-night visit to Canada’s capital, where he will meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and address parliament on Friday. While there, Biden will discuss “taking concrete steps to increase defense spending, driving a global race to the top on clean energy, and building prosperous and inclusive economies,” said John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council.

Analysts say the gravity of those issues underscores the importance of the close relationship between Washington and Ottawa — the two nations share the world’s longest undefended land border — but also how unbalanced the relationship is.

“It’s a relationship that often does not get the attention and respect that it’s due,” said Earl Anthony Wayne, a public policy fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center and a former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Argentina and Mexico.

Biden is only now visiting Ottawa as president, more than halfway through his term.

In Canada, “this is front-page news and has been for several weeks now — the expectation that President Biden would be coming to Canada,” said Louise Blais, Canada’s former ambassador to the United Nations.

“Whereas you compare that with the amount of coverage that the visit has received in the United States, it gives you a little bit of an idea of the asymmetrical aspect of the relationship. But that being said, it’s a warm and positive relationship,” she said.

Gordon Giffin, a former U.S. ambassador to Canada, remarked on the packed agenda for the short visit.

“I think President Biden’s visit must be three weeks, not two days, based on the menu of items that have been listed so far that, quote, ‘need to be addressed.’” 

Security

The White House said the key issue would be security — over North America’s skies through the joint North American Air Defense Command; in the Western Hemisphere amid instability in Haiti; and across the ocean in Europe and Asia.

On calls for a U.N. peacekeeping force in unstable Haiti, “I think that they will continue to talk about ways we can continue to support from a humanitarian assistance perspective, for the people of Haiti and Haitian national security forces,” Kirby said. “And as for a multinational force or anything like that, I, again, I don’t want to get ahead of the conversation here.”

Colin Robertson, a former Canadian diplomat and former head of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, said he expected Biden to emphasize security contributions.

“My guess is the president is going to push us hard on defense and security,” he said. “We’ve committed under NATO to spend 2% of GDP [gross domestic product] on defense. Canada’s only at 1.27%. And, yes, we’ve made some recent investments towards NATO modernization, but we’re going to be expected to do a lot more.

“Our armed forces strength is 50% across the services — navy, army, air force — below capacity. The United States would like us to take a lead in Haiti. We just simply haven’t got the capacity to do that. We are doing what we can in NATO, but NATO now is going to, I think, take a greater interest in the north because of pressures mostly from the Russians but also from the Chinese.”

Trade

The two nations are major trade partners, but Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Americas Society/Council of the Americas, said Ottawa should seek closer ties, such as membership in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity.

“It doesn’t make any sense for our top trade partner, our northern neighbor, not to be a party to this negotiation,” he said.

But, he added, movement in trade ties may take time.

“These issues aren’t new,” he said. “They’re not related to one U.S. administration or the other.”

The White House said the two leaders would also discuss clean energy, economic cooperation and more. Wayne said these deep and broad intersections are a key characteristic of this particular bilateral relationship.

“I often like to call it ‘intermestic,’ in that it’s international and domestic at the same time,” he said. “The issues are so important for both countries that they’re debated domestically, but yet, by definition, they’re international because it’s between two countries.”
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EU Leaders Expected to Approve Ukraine Ammunition Plan

Posted on by SeeEU

European Union leaders are expected to give their approval Thursday for a plan to speed ammunition deliveries to Ukrainian forces fighting a Russian invasion. 

The $2 billion plan was endorsed earlier this week by EU foreign and defense ministers. It calls for both sending ammunition from existing stocks and for EU countries to work together to place new orders for more rounds. 

Ukrainian leaders have told Western allies that Ukraine’s military has an urgent need for more ammunition, especially 155-millimeter shells. 

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is due to join the EU leaders for a lunch meeting Thursday, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy scheduled to give a later video address. 

Thursday’s session comes a day after Ukrainian authorities said new Russian drone and missile attacks killed at least seven people in two cities. 

EU foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell used a Thursday tweet to highlight Russian President Vladimir Putin’s expression of support for a Chinese-drafted peace plan in Ukraine, placing Putin’s hosting of Chinese President Xi Jinping this week alongside the Russian attacks. 

“Ukraine has been attacked again by Russia with Iranian drones, targeting educational facilities & a missile attack on a residential building in Zaporizhzhia,” Borrell said. “Just when Putin expressed need for ‘peaceful settlement’ to President Xi, Russian again commits war crimes.” 

Putin on Tuesday praised Xi’s peace plan to end the Ukraine war, although it does not call for withdrawal of Russian troops as Zelenskyy has demanded before peace talks can start.     

The United States, Ukraine’s chief arms supplier, has rejected China’s peace plan because it would leave Russian territorial gains in eastern Ukraine in place.   

  

“A cease-fire right now, freezing the lines where they are, basically gives [Putin] the time and space he needs to try to re-equip, to re-man, to make up for that resource expenditure,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said.      

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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US Officials Welcome Start of Ramadan

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U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden said Wednesday the United States “reaffirms our support to Muslim communities suffering hardships and devastation” as they issued a message offering best wishes to Muslims in the U.S. and around the world at the start of the holy month of Ramadan. 

“We will continue to stand with the people of Turkiye and Syria — who have lost many loved ones during the recent devastating earthquakes — and with the people of Pakistan, who are rebuilding their lives following last summer’s floods,” the Bidens said in a written statement using the Turkish government’s preferred version of the country’s name. 

Their statement also said the United States and its partners stand in solidarity with Muslims who face continued oppression, including Uyghurs in China and Rohingya in Myanmar. 

“During this holy month, we also honor Muslim communities across our nation that have been part of the American story since our founding,” the Bidens said. “From science and technology, to arts and academia, to law and medicine, to business and government, and beyond — Muslim Americans continue to strengthen our nation’s diverse tapestry generation after generation.” 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in his own statement marking the start of Ramadan that many U.S. embassies and consulates will host fast-breaking iftar meals “to share in the month’s beautiful traditions and demonstrate our commitment to promoting social cohesion, inclusion, and diversity within our communities.” 

“We express deep appreciation for our longstanding partnerships with diverse communities across the Muslim world and remain committed to promoting religious freedom for all, both at home and abroad,” Blinken said. 
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Court Orders Trump Lawyer to Provide Documents in Mar-a-Lago Case

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A federal appeals court in a sealed order Wednesday directed a lawyer for Donald Trump to turn over to prosecutors documents in the investigation into the former president’s retention of classified records at his Florida estate.

The ruling is a significant win for the U.S. Justice Department, which has focused for months not only on the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago but also on why Trump and his representatives resisted demands to return them to the government. It suggests the court has sided with prosecutors who have argued behind closed doors that Trump was using his legal representation to further a crime.

The order was reflected in a brief online notice by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The case is sealed, and none of the parties in the dispute is mentioned by name.

But the details appear to correspond with a secret fight before a lower court judge over whether Trump lawyer M. Evan Corcoran could be forced to provide documents or give grand jury testimony in the Justice Department special counsel probe into whether Trump mishandled top-secret information at Mar-a-Lago.

Corcoran is regarded as relevant to the investigation in part because last year he drafted a statement to the Justice Department asserting that a “diligent search” for classified documents had been conducted at Mar-a-Lago in response to a subpoena. Weeks later, FBI agents searched the home with a warrant and found roughly 100 additional documents with classified markings.

Another Trump lawyer, Christina Bobb, told investigators last fall that Corcoran had drafted the letter and had asked her to sign it in her role as a designated custodian of Trump’s records.

A Justice Department investigation led by special counsel Jack Smith and his team of prosecutors is examining whether Trump or anyone in his orbit obstructed its efforts to recover all the classified documents — which included top-secret material — from his home. No charges have been filed.

Other legal threats

The inquiry is one of multiple legal threats Trump faces, including probes in Atlanta, Georgia, and Washington over his efforts to undo the election result and a grand jury investigation in New York over hush money payments. The New York case appears to be nearing completion and building toward an indictment.

Last week, Beryl Howell, the outgoing chief judge of the U.S. District Court, directed Corcoran to answer additional questions before the grand jury. He had appeared weeks earlier before the federal grand jury investigating the Mar-a-Lago matter but had invoked attorney-client privilege in declining to answer certain questions.

Though attorney-client privilege shields lawyers from being forced to share details of their conversations with clients before prosecutors, the Justice Department can get around that if it can convince a judge that a lawyer’s services were used in furtherance of a crime — a principle known in the law as the crime-fraud exception.

Howell ruled in the Justice Department’s favor shortly before stepping aside as chief judge Friday, according to a person familiar with the matter, who was not authorized to discuss a sealed proceeding and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity. That ruling was subsequently appealed, and the court records show the dispute before the federal appeals panel concerned an order that was issued last Friday by Howell.

The three-judge panel that issued the decision included Cornelia Pillard, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, and J. Michelle Childs and Florence Pan, both appointees of President Joe Biden. The order came just hours after the court imposed tight deadlines on both sides to file written briefs making their case.

A lawyer for Corcoran did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment Wednesday, and a lawyer for Trump declined to comment on the sealed order.
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Judge to Rule on Pills to End Pregnancy

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A federal judge is expected to rule soon on the fate of a pill that leads to a medication abortion. The drug in question, mifepristone, has been on the market for 20 years, but opponents of abortion rights say it is unsafe. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti explains.
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Malawi President Seeks More Support for Cyclone Victims

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Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera is appealing for additional humanitarian assistance for thousands of Malawians displaced by Cyclone Freddy, which has killed more than 500 people in the country.

Chakwera made the urgent request to Malawi’s parliament on Wednesday, when he was presenting an assessment of the impact of the cyclone, which also hit Mozambique.

Though the country is receiving a lot of local and international assistance for the victims, he said, more aid is needed.

“So many have responded positively to our appeal, and I have personally committed to acknowledge every support, for the situation is so grave that we simply cannot take any contribution for granted,” he told lawmakers. “However, the supplies we are deploying are far from enough for the magnitude of the need.”

Malawi’s Disaster Management Affairs Department says there are more than 500,000 people who have been displaced living at 534 camps.

Chakwera told the lawmakers to bury their political differences and work together to address the devastation caused by the powerful storm.

“This is one of the darkest hours in the history of our nation,” he said. “And if we are to emerge in this dark hour and see the joy of a new dawn in the future, we must all roll up our sleeves and get to work. If we are going to see the light of a new dawn again, we must take the necessary steps now for safeguarding a brighter tomorrow for Malawians.”

Chakwera announced the government will soon introduce legislation aimed at helping to safeguard people from natural disasters.

Kondwani Nankhumwa, leader of opposition political parties in the Malawi Parliament, welcomed the plan to have legislation for disaster management and emphasized the government must deal with sanitation issues at evacuation camps to avoid the outbreak of diseases.

“Our water resources have been depleted, boreholes have been washed away, taps have been washed away,” said Nankhumwa. “Let me register a call that the government should look into this with other partners, because if we allow these people to continue drinking unprotected water from unprotected wells, then there will be an outbreak of other diseases in camp.”

Cyclone Freddy hit Malawi amid its deadliest cholera outbreak of the past two decades, which so far has killed at least 1,600 people.

The Malawi Health Ministry warned this week that the cyclone has increased the risk of the spread of other communicable diseases, such as typhoid and dysentery.
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US Judge Orders Iran, Intermediary Pay Out $1.68 Billion to Families in 1983 Beirut Bombing

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A federal judge in New York ordered Iran’s central bank and a European intermediary on Wednesday to pay out $1.68 billion to family members of troops killed in the 1983 car bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Lebanon.

U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska said a 2019 federal law stripped Bank Markazi, the Iran central bank, of sovereign immunity from the lawsuit, which sought to enforce a judgment against Iran for providing material support to the attackers.

The lawsuit also names Luxembourg-based Clearstream Banking SA, which is holding the assets in a client account. Clearstream parent company Deutsche Boerse AG said on Wednesday that it is considering appealing against the decision.

Clearstream will “weigh all relevant interests and responsibilities” and comply with its legal and regulatory obligations in handling the funds, Deutsche Boerse said.

The exchange said that it does not view the ruling as increasing the risk from the lawsuit in a way that would require the companies to make financial provisions.

Attorneys for the parties did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The October 23, 1983, bombing at the Marine Corps barracks killed 241 U.S. service members.

Victims and their families won a $2.65 billion judgment against Iran in federal court in 2007 over the attack.

Six years later, they sought to seize bond proceeds allegedly owned by Bank Markazi and processed by Clearstream to partially satisfy the court judgment.

Bank Markazi has argued that the lawsuit was not allowed under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), which generally shields foreign governments from liability in U.S. courts.

In January 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling in the families’ favor and ordered the case to be reconsidered in light of the new law, adopted a month earlier as part of the National Defense Authorization Act.

Preska said the 2019 law authorizes U.S. courts to allow the seizure of assets held outside the country to satisfy judgments against Iran in terrorism cases, “notwithstanding” other laws such as FSIA that would grant immunity.

A Luxembourg court in 2021 ordered Clearstream not to move the funds until a court in that country recognizes the U.S. ruling. Clearstream has appealed that decision.

The case is Peterson et al v. Islamic Republic of Iran et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 13-09195.
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Banking Worries Ripple Around the Globe

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Worries about recent bank failures and bailouts are rippling through the world economy, from New York to Beijing, and central bankers are working to calm depositors and financial markets. Mike O’Sullivan reports from California, where a major player in the tech industry, Silicon Valley Bank, collapsed earlier this month. Rob Garver contributed.
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China Watching World’s Response to War in Ukraine, Blinken Says

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China is very carefully watching how Washington and the world respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but has not yet crossed the line of providing lethal aid to Moscow, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.

Speaking on the heels of a visit to Moscow by Chinese President Xi Jinping, Blinken told a Senate hearing that if Russia was allowed to attack its neighbor with impunity, it would “open a Pandora’s box” for would-be aggressors and lead to a “world of conflict.”

“The stakes in Ukraine go well beyond Ukraine. … I think it has a profound impact in Asia, for example,” Blinken said, noting that Japan and South Korea had been major supporters of Ukraine in the conflict.

However, he said he did not believe that China has been providing lethal aid to Moscow.

“As we speak today, we have not seen them cross that line,” Blinken told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing, the first of four times he will testify to congressional committees this week.

Blinken testified later on Wednesday to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Russia’s invasion has led to debates over how the war will affect China’s military thinking regarding Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing sees as sovereign Chinese territory.

“I think if China’s looking at this — and they are looking at it very carefully — they will draw lessons for how the world comes together, or doesn’t, to stand up to this aggression,” Blinken said.

Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin greeted each another as “dear friend” when they met in the Kremlin and discussed China’s proposals for a resolution to the Ukraine conflict.

“They have a marriage of convenience — I’m not sure if it’s conviction. Russia is very much a junior partner in this relationship,” Blinken said.

He said China’s political and material support for Russia goes against Washington’s interests.

Blinken told lawmakers that the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development needs President Joe Biden’s entire budget request, an 11% increase from last year, to face threats posed by Russia and China.

“The post-Cold War world is over, and there is an intense competition under way to determine what comes next,” Blinken said.

The secretary of state urged every member of the International Criminal Court to comply with an arrest warrant issued for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The United States is not a party to the ICC.
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Report Finds 119,000 Hurt Worldwide by Riot-Control Weapons Since 2015

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More than 119,000 people have been injured by tear gas and other chemical irritants around the world since 2015 and about 2,000 suffered injuries from less lethal impact projectiles, according to a report released Wednesday.

The study by Physicians for Human Rights and the International Network of Civil Liberties Organizations, in collaboration with the Omega Research Foundation, took 2½ years to research. It provides a rare, partial count of casualties, compiled from medical literature, from these devices used by police around the world, including in Colombia, Chile, Hong Kong, Turkey and at Black Lives Matter protests in the United States.

Most of the data comes from cases in which a person came to an emergency room with injuries from crowd control weapons and the attending doctor or hospital staff made the effort to document it, said the report’s lead author, Rohini Haar, an emergency room physician and researcher at the University of California School of Public Health in Berkeley.

Crowd control tools become more powerful

The report on casualties from a largely unregulated industry cites an alarming evolution of crowd control devices into more powerful and indiscriminate designs and deployment, including dropping tear gas from drones.

It calls for bans on rubber bullets and on multiprojectile devices in all crowd control settings and tighter restrictions on weapons that may be used indiscriminately, such as tear gas, acoustic weapons and water cannons, which in some cases have been loaded with dyes and chemical irritants. Governments also should ensure these weapons are subject to rigorous independent testing, with testing, evaluation and approval involving law enforcement, technical specialists and health professionals, among others, the report said.

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, said the report underscores serious issues.

“These troubling global numbers echo the concerns I raised locally when Donald Trump first dispatched armed troops to Portland in 2020 with no guidance on their use of chemical munitions near schools and against protesters when most were peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights,” Wyden said. “The report’s recommendations are very worthy of consideration by the Department of Homeland Security.”

Portland, Oregon, was an epicenter of racial justice protests after George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police in May 2020. Police and protesters clashed, with officers firing tear gas, pepper spray and other devices, turning parts of the city into battle grounds.

Then-President Trump sent militarized federal agents to protect federal property and the violence escalated, with agents dousing the crowds with tear gas and other irritants. Bystanders and nearby residents choked on the fumes, their eyes watering and burning. Some protesters launched fireworks at agents and shined lasers in their eyes.

Portland Police Bureau spokesperson Terri Wallo Strauss noted that the department’s updated policy emphasizes “the goal of avoiding the use of force, when feasible.”

Devices can help restore order, say police

Police say crowd control devices are, if used properly, an effective tool for dispersing rioters.

“Rallies basically spin out of control when they’ve been hijacked by individuals that have come in with a nefarious purpose to create the riots, the looting, those type of things. And then, obviously, law enforcement has to come in and try their best to create a safe resolution and try to restore order,” Park City, Utah, Police Chief Wade Carpenter said during the height of the Black Lives Matter protests.

Carpenter is also an official with the International Association of Chiefs of Police, which has more than 32,000 members in more than 170 countries. The group declined to comment on the new report. But in 2019, it recommended guidelines on crowd management.

Pepper spray, or oleoresin capsicum, may be used against “specific individuals engaged in unlawful conduct or actively resisting arrest, or as necessary in a defensive capacity,” the guidelines state. It “shall not be used indiscriminately against groups of people where bystanders would be unreasonably affected, or against passively resistant individuals.”

But the internet is full of instances in which pepper spray was used against non-resisting people, including against Tyre Nichols, who was beaten to death by Memphis police in January.

Tear gas “may be deployed defensively to prevent injury when lesser force options are either not available or would likely be ineffective,” the IACP guidance states. Projectiles that are supposed to hit a surface like a street before impacting a person “may be used in civil disturbances where life is in immediate jeopardy or the need to use the devices outweighs the potential risks involved.”

Direct-fired impact munitions, including beanbag rounds, “may be used during civil disturbances against specific individuals who are engaged in conduct that poses an immediate threat of death or serious injury,” the guidance says. Protesters have been blinded and suffered brain damage from beanbag rounds.

Claims against police

Numerous lawsuits have been filed over the use of force by police during protests.

In November, the city of Portland reached a $250,000 settlement with five demonstrators in a federal lawsuit over police use of tear gas and other crowd control devices during racial justice protests.

But last month, a federal judge threw out an excessive force claim against an unnamed federal agent who fired an impact munition at the forehead of protester Donavan La Bella, fracturing his skull, as he held up a music speaker during a racial justice demonstration in Portland in 2020. La Bella continues to struggle with a severe head injury.

Haar, who is a medical adviser for Physicians for Human Rights, said the number of injured is far greater than what she compiled from medical reports.

“Basically, we knew we’re capturing sort of the tip of the iceberg,” she said. “This is just a tiny fraction of what the world is experiencing on a daily basis. The vast majority of injuries — even significant severe injuries — go unreported.”
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Ukraine, IMF Agree on $15.6 Billion Loan Package

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Ukraine and the International Monetary Fund have agreed on a $15.6 billion loan package aimed at shoring up government finances severely strained by Russia’s invasion and leveraging more support by assuring other donors that Ukraine is pursuing strong economic policies and fighting corruption.

Ukraine’s finance ministry said Wednesday that the program will “help to mobilize financing from Ukraine’s international partners, as well as to maintain macro-financial stability and ensure the path to post-war reconstruction after Ukrainian victory in the war against the aggressor.”

The loan program will run for four years, with the first 12 to 18 months focusing on helping Ukraine close its massive budget deficit and easing the pressure to print money to use for spending, the IMF said in a statement Tuesday. Printing money to fund people’s pensions, state salaries and basic services can make things worse by fueling inflation and destabilizing the currency.

The remainder of the program will focus on supporting Ukraine’s bid for European Union membership and postwar reconstruction.

Deal still needs board approval

The IMF deal is expected to leverage even more money for Ukraine because it provides evidence to potential donor governments, including in the Group of Seven major democracies and the European Union, that Ukraine’s government is following sound economic policies.

The agreement, which still needs approval from the IMF’s executive board, “is expected to help mobilize large-scale concessional financing from Ukraine’s international donors and partners over the duration of the program,” Gavin Gray, the IMF’s mission chief for Ukraine, said in a statement.

The Washington-based IMF said Ukrainian authorities demonstrated their commitment to healthy economic policy and met all agreed-upon goals during a preliminary consultation. The loan program goes beyond previous IMF practice by lending to a country at war, under new rules that allowed assistance because of circumstances of “exceptionally high uncertainty.”

Ukraine massively increased military spending while the economy shrank by around 30% in 2022, hitting tax revenue.

The result was a huge budget deficit that has been covered by outside financing from the U.S., the EU and other allies. The aid has helped the country end its excessive reliance on money printed by the central bank and loaned to the government, an emergency step considered necessary early in the war but that could fuel inflation and send the currency plunging if prolonged.

IMF noted Ukraine’s progress

Before the war, Ukraine had made progress in reforming its banking system and making government contracts more transparent. But it still ranked 122 out of 180 countries on Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index.

Its prewar economy was characterized by political involvement from wealthy individuals known as oligarchs and by slow progress on improving the legal system perceived as too open to political influence.

The IMF, however, said that after the preliminary consultations, the government has “made progress in reforms to strengthen governance, anti-corruption and rule of law, and lay the foundations for postwar growth, although the agenda of reforms in these areas remains significant.”

Several senior officials, including deputy ministers and governors of front-line regions, were fired in January after allegations of corruption, some related to military spending, embarrassed the government. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was elected in 2019 on an anti-establishment, anti-corruption platform.
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Rights Experts: Violations in Ethiopia Must Be Investigated to Ensure Durable Peace

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U.N. human rights experts warn that peace in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region will not last unless violations committed during more than two years of armed conflict are investigated and perpetrators held to account.

The three-member U.N. International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia, which presented its latest report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva Tuesday, welcomed the November 2 peace agreement that ended hostilities between the Ethiopian government and Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF.

Since the peace agreement was signed, “the region has witnessed a significant and so far, sustained reduction in conflict,” said Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the commission.

He said the two-year war adversely affected the lives of millions of people in the Tigray, Afar and Amhara regions of northern Ethiopia.

“We especially welcome commitments to human rights, protection of civilians, unhindered humanitarian access and accountability,” he said.

Despite these positive developments, Othman told the Human Rights Council the gravity and scale of violations committed in Ethiopia since the war’s outbreak in November 2020 must not be forgotten.

“Our 2022 September report found reasonable grounds to believe that all parties to the conflict had committed war crimes and violations and abuses of human rights since fighting erupted in November 2020,” he said.

This view was echoed Tuesday in the U.S. State Department’s annual report on human rights violations around the world. The Ethiopian government rejected the U.S. assertion that all sides in the two-year Tigray war committed war crimes, calling the statement “inflammatory.”

The U.N. commission has continued to investigate these allegations in addition to accusations of serious violations and abuses committed since the signing of the peace agreement.

The commission has documented serious offenses allegedly committed by all parties including Eritrean forces operating on Ethiopian territory, and forces from the Tigray, Afar, Amhara and Oromia regions.

They include attacks on civilians, sexual and gender-based violence, denial of humanitarian assistance, arbitrary detention, violations of children’s rights and hate speech.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports conflict and displacement have left 9.4 million people across Tigray, Afar and Amhara in dire need of humanitarian aid. The World Food Program reports 5.5 million people in these regions are facing severe hunger.

Othman said independent investigations and accountability for grave violations are essential to ensure justice for survivors and “deter the commission of future violations and abuses.”

He noted that information for this report has been gathered from victims, survivors and witnesses remotely because the Ethiopian government has refused the commission’s investigation team access to the country.

“We strongly urge the government to reconsider its decision not to cooperate with the commission,” he said. “Under international law, the federal government has the primary responsibility to ensure accountability for crimes committed during the conflict.”

Tsegab Kebebew Daka, Ethiopian ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, cautioned the commission against using “inflammatory information,” which he said had the potential to undermine the peace agreement.

He said his government was firmly committed to investigating all cases of human rights violations and ensuring that victims received redress.

He noted that the peace agreement also provided transitional measures, “which include adopting transitional justice policy, to ensure accountability, truth-telling, redress for victims, healing and reconciliation.”

Daniel Bekele, chief commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission of Ethiopia, called on the U.N. council and international community to support the implementation of “a genuine human rights, victim-centered transitional justice policy for Ethiopia.”

He said the Ethiopian commission spoke to more than 700 victims of human rights violations who indicated that their primary needs were “to live without fear, to have peace and security and reparations to get their lives back.”

Steve Ratner, a member of the U.N. commission, said the panel would support whatever mechanism for transitional justice the Ethiopian people and government choose, provided it contained “accountability and justice for those who committed international crimes, truth and acknowledgement for the victims, remedies and redress for them and the establishment of mechanisms to ensure non-repetition of these abuses in the future.”
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Has Biden’s Green Record Been Tainted by Oil-Drilling Willow Project?

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The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says governments must do much more to move away from fossil fuels. The Biden administration has taken several steps to do so, but a recent decision to approve an oil-drilling project in Alaska has disappointed those who want the U.S. to swiftly cut greenhouse gas emissions. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias explains
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Ethiopian Authorities Remove Terrorist Label from Tigrayan Party

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Ethiopian lawmakers voted in a special session Wednesday to remove the terrorist designation given to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF.

Lawmakers in the lower house approved the move by a majority vote. Out of 472 members, 61 voted against the move and five abstained.

The decision is the latest step in an African Union-brokered peace deal in November between Ethiopia’s federal government and the TPLF that ended a two-year civil war.

Ethiopia’s federal government labeled the TPLF a terrorist organization in May 2021, a few months before war broke out between forces loyal to each side.

The war left thousands of people dead and displaced millions more. 

The peace deal saw Tigrayan forces handing over heavy weapons to the federal government, which has in turn opened aid corridors and resumed essential services to the region. 

As part of the deal, an interim administration has been set up in the area until elections can be held. 

Getachew Reda, who was picked by the TPLF to lead the Interim Regional Administration, was one of scores of Tigrayan officials previously charged with terrorism under the designation.

Ethiopian media reports say those charges are also expected to be lifted. 

A TPLF spokesperson was not immediately available to comment.

Rights groups have accused all the warring sides, including Eritrean and regional Amhara forces, of committing war crimes during the conflict.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was in Ethiopia in early March, on Monday condemned atrocities allegedly committed by all sides in the conflict and welcomed commitments to pursue transitional justice. 

The Ethiopian government rejected Blinken’s statement, saying it was inflammatory and untimely.  
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Latvia’s Russian Minority Struggles with a Changing World

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Latvia is the European Union country with the largest Russian minority, with ethnic Russians making up approximately 25% of its population. For them, the war in Ukraine has been a political and social earthquake. Marcus Harton narrates this report from Ricardo Marquina in the Latvian capital, Riga.

Camera: Ricardo Marquina
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Colorado Proposal Would Cut Public Records Costs for Media 

Posted on by SeeUS

As Colorado’s fall neared in 2021, reporter Jesse Paul wanted to peek behind the curtain of state prisons, submitting a request for documents regarding inmate deaths, injuries and staff violations — public records made available to ensure government transparency.

But then the bill arrived, and Paul, a reporter at The Colorado Sun, shot off a cheeky email to his editors: “You guys cool if I drop $245,000 on this?”

In a concession many journalists know well, Paul gutted his admittedly large request, leaving most of those government documents shrouded from the public’s sight.

Those types of financial barriers are partly why Colorado state lawmakers are considering legislation that would give the news media privileges when requesting public records, including lower fees and stricter deadlines for records custodians to produce documents.

But the draft legislation kicked off a hullaballoo on Twitter, with some concerned that favoring news media was unfair, while others found the mere idea of politicians defining who is and who isn’t a journalist unsettling.

Most states do not differentiate between the general public and media organizations, and the Colorado draft bill’s definition of the news media would effectively exclude news startups in their first year of operation — raising their public records costs.

The proposal comes as some states push in the opposite direction. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is seeking an agenda that may limit access to public records, and lawmakers across the country are trying to shield the disclosure of personal information for elected officials and public employees.

The Colorado proposal has yet to be introduced, and it could change as the final kinks get worked out, said Democratic state Senator Chris Hansen, the bill’s sponsor. Hansen, in defense of the definition, said burgeoning news groups would still be able to submit requests and the temporary higher cost wouldn’t be a “significant burden.”

Broadly, the proposal is considered a step in the right direction by media groups. It would require stricter retention of government email records, charge news media half the cost billed to the general public — roughly capped at $15 for every hour spent producing the records — and ensure certain reports from investigations into sexual harassment by elected officials be publicly available.

To Jeff Roberts, executive director of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition and who has helped draft the bill, said the proposal isn’t perfect but will make a dent in the problem. A more robust solution, he said, would be better funding for governments to respond to records requests.

The cost of Paul’s quarter-million-dollar request still probably wouldn’t be addressed by this bill, Roberts noted. Those documents likely fall under a separate category for criminal records, and Roberts is still on a mission to address prohibitive costs.

“There doesn’t seem to be political will to just reduce the cost for everyone,” said Roberts.

Larry Ryckman, editor of The Colorado Sun, said that while he had misgivings about politicians defining what qualifies as news media, he was generally pleased with any expansion of public records access.

“A healthy democracy depends on a free press, that we will ask questions, that we will dig in, and that we will verify facts,” Ryckman said, “and we cannot hold government and government agencies and officials accountable without access to documents.”
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Macron Says Unpopular Pension Reform Necessary, Will Enter Into Force by Year-End 

Posted on by SeeEU

President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday said a deeply unpopular new law that raises the retirement age was necessary and would enter into force by the end of the year.

“Do you think I enjoy doing this reform? No,” Macron said in a rare TV interview. “But there is not a hundred ways to balance the accounts … this reform is necessary.”

Until the government pushed the pension bill through without a vote, the protests against a bill that will push the retirement age by two years to 64 had gathered huge, peaceful crowds in rallies organized by unions.

But since the government’s decision to skip a vote in parliament last week, spontaneous protests in Paris and elsewhere have seen rubbish bins and barricades set ablaze every night amid scuffles with police.

Protesters on Wednesday also blocked train stations in the southern cities of Nice and Toulouse.

This, alongside with rolling strikes that affect oil depots, public transport and garbage collection, represent the most serious challenge to the centrist president’s authority since the “Yellow Vest” revolt four years ago.

Macron said what he called “extreme violence” was not acceptable.

Neither a government reshuffle nor snap elections are on the cards, but rather an attempt to regain the initiative with measures to better involve citizens and unions in decision-making, political leaders in Macron’s camp said ahead of the interview.

Polls show a wide majority of French are opposed to the pension legislation, as well as the government’s decision to push the bill through parliament last week without a vote.

Labor unions have announced another nationwide day of strikes and demonstrations on Thursday.

“I don’t expect much from Macron’s speech,” pensioner Jacques Borensztejn said at a rally on Tuesday in Paris. “We don’t want this law and we’ll fight until it is withdrawn.”
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Indigenous Engineer Joins UN Water Conference

Posted on by SeeUS

As part of World Water Day, March 22, the United Nations is holding its first conference devoted to water issues since 1977. For VOA, Matt Dibble introduces us to a Native American engineering student who will share at that conference her tribe’s successful campaign to remove harmful dams in the Western United States.
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US-West Africa Military Exercise Introduces Maritime Training

Posted on by SeeAF

Flintlock, the United States-led annual joint military exercises in West Africa, is introducing maritime training for troops in the Gulf of Guinea. In this report from Sogakope, Ghana, reporter Henry Wilkins explores whether oil piracy is prompting the new training as he joins forces practicing a hostage rescue at sea.
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Cameroon Professor Finds Refuge at California University

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A university professor threatened by separatist violence in Cameroon is now in Southern California, sharing with her students the impact of armed conflict on the environment and on women. Genia Dulot has our story from Santa Barbara.
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Ukraine Says Russian Drone Attack Kills 3 in Kyiv Region

Posted on by SeeEU

Ukrainian authorities said Wednesday an overnight Russian drone attack killed at least three people in the Kyiv region. 

The state emergency service said the strike hit a school facility in Rzhyshchiv, about 60 kilometers south of the capital, damaging two student residences and an educational building. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted Wednesday that Russia’s overnight attacks included “20 Iranian murderous drones, plus missiles, numerous shelling occasions.” 

“Every time someone tries to hear the word ‘peace’ in Moscow, another order is given there for such criminal strikes,” Zelenskyy said. 

The Ukrainian leader said the success of his forces “brings peace closer” as he called for global unity and compliance with sanctions targeting Russia. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday praised a Chinese-drafted peace plan as he hosted Chinese leader Xi Jinping, while reiterating his stance that Ukraine and its Western partners are unwilling to engage in peace talks. 

Zelenskyy has said peace talks can only occur once Russia has withdrawn all its troops from Ukrainian territory. 

Kishida visit 

Zelenskyy hosted Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for talks Tuesday in Kyiv in the latest show of support from a world leader making a wartime stop in Ukraine. 

“Paid a visit to Ukraine to show firm resolution of G-7 as Chair and saw the situation with my own eyes,” Kishida tweeted Wednesday. “Having in-depth discussions with President Zelenskyy, I renewed commitment to take the lead in the efforts to uphold the international order based on the rule of law.” 

Japan is due to host a G-7 summit of the leaders of some of the world’s largest economies in Kishida’s hometown of Hiroshima in May. Tokyo has continually voiced support for Ukraine and joined rounds of sanctions against Russia. Kishida has said that the summit should demonstrate a strong will against Russia’s invasion and to uphold international order and rule of law.    

Kishida’s trip was kept secret until the last minute for security reasons. It is rare for a Japanese leader to make an unannounced visit to another country.   

Zelenskyy posted footage of him greeting Kishida, whom Zelenskyy called “a truly powerful defender of the international order and a longtime friend of Ukraine.”    

Kishida also toured the town of Bucha, where Ukraine says more than 400 civilians were killed last year by Russian forces, and which has since become synonymous with the brutality of Moscow’s troops.    

He laid a wreath outside a church before observing a moment of silence and bowing. 

The world was astonished to see innocent civilians in Bucha killed one year ago. I really feel great anger at the atrocity upon visiting that very place here,” Kishida said.  

“I would like to give condolences to all the victims and the wounded on behalf of the Japanese nationals,” he added. “Japan will keep aiding Ukraine with the greatest effort to regain peace.”     

In an apparent response to Kishida’s trip, Russia’s defense ministry said Tuesday that two of its strategic bomber planes flew over the Sea of Japan for more than seven hours.     

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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Analysts Say Sentencing of Belarus Journalists is Retaliation for Coverage

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The verdicts handed down last week to two senior members of the independent Belarusian news website TUT.by were condemned by media as retaliation for truthful reporting.

In a closed hearing in Minsk on Friday, a court convicted the website’s editor-in-chief, Maryna Zolatava, of incitement and distributing material aimed at harming national security. The site’s director, Lyudmila Chekina, was convicted of tax evasion, incitement and organizing the distribution of material aimed at harming national security.

The journalists, who have both spent nearly two years in pre-trial detention, were each sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Three other journalists from the website also faced trial but had left the country earlier.

The news website reported extensively on the contested 2020 presidential election when President Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory and opposition candidates were detained or forced to flee.

Since 2020, TUT.by and its staff have been harassed, the newsroom raided, and access to its website blocked as part of what analysts say is Lukashenko’s wider crackdown on opposition voices. Authorities labeled the TUT.by site an “extremist organization” and many of its journalists have gone into exile.

The Belarus Embassy in Washington referred VOA to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Belarus. The ministry did not respond to VOA’s email requesting comment.

Lukashenko has said in interviews that reports on media jailings in Belarus are “misinformed.” He told The Associated Press in 2022, “the law is one and it must be observed. 

Media condemn verdict

TUT.by was one of the most popular independent news websites in Belarus.

“It really was the largest media in the country, covering up to 70% of the internet audience,” the site’s co-founder Kirill Voloshin told VOA. “It was a real power, a real potential tool of influence and a real threat to Belarusian authorities.”

In general, Voloshin said, “The courts [in Belarus] treat journalists very harshly and are doubly harsh toward journalists and TUT.BY managers.”

Voloshin is among the estimated 400 Belarusian journalists who have left the country since 2020. Many now live or work from Lithuania and Poland.

The co-founder said he believes Friday’s hearing was conducted behind closed doors “because none of the allegations are true.”

He said he doesn’t believe his colleagues will be released any time soon, adding, “The number of political prisoners will soon exceed 1,500, or has already exceeded. There is even a Nobel laureate there, there are well-known human rights activists.”

Barys Haretski, the deputy chair of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), said he believes the verdict is retaliation for TUT.by’s journalism.

“Dictators are always afraid of the light, and when some events take place in the country, and journalists cover them honestly, dictators really don’t like it,” he told VOA.

Haretski said that many journalists had dreamed of working for TUT.by before it was forced out.

“Lukashenko is fighting any dissent, especially with such large and influential media as TUT.by,” he said.

Persecution spreads

Zolatava and Chekina are among dozens of journalists to be detained in Belarus since 2020.

The BAJ at the start of 2023 estimated that more than 30 journalists remained imprisoned for their work inside Belarus. 

Political analyst Alexander Klaskovsky described the sentences as “cruel” even when compared to the wider situation for Belarus media.

“Under Lukashenko, the independent press was simply denied the right to exist,” the political observer said.

Lukashenko and his government “considers the uncontrolled media as one of its main enemies … and therefore there is no mercy here,” Klaskovsky said. “There is also a cold calculation in this, because the authorities are methodically clearing the field of independent media.”

He noted the harassment of the few remaining publications. In March, at least seven journalists have been detained, and authorities have raided reporters’ homes as well as the office of a local newspaper, Infa-Kurjer.

Media analyst Galina Sidorova said that Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin are both involved in the persecution of independent journalists and the suppression of freedom of speech.

Sidorova is the co-founder of 19-29 Foundation, a community of investigative journalists.

“We must not forget that the Putin regime is waging an aggressive war, and the intensified repressions against journalists in Russia are connected precisely with this,” she told VOA.

She also believes the harsh response to TUT.by is linked to its popularity, especially during the contested 2020 presidential election in Belarus.

The website had millions of visits, Sidorova said, adding that it “was among the first media outlets that the authorities wanted to crack down on.”

She dismissed the charges against the website’s journalists, saying, “The reason for all these accusations was the same: their highly professional journalistic activity.”

Despite a difficult environment, Sidorova noted that journalists still report, adding that the media community is “looking for ways to somehow work and convey independent information to our audience in this terrible and unbearable situation.”

This story originated in VOA’s Russian Service 
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Japan Beats United States to Win World Baseball Classic Crown

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Japan beat the United States 3-2 to win the 2023 World Baseball Classic in Miami Tuesday.   

Japan’s Shohei Ohtani, a star hitter and pitcher in U.S. Major League Baseball, sealed the win for his home country when he took the pitcher’s mound at the top of the ninth inning. He walked Jeff McNeil to start the inning, then got Mookie Betts to hit into a double play before striking out Los Angeles Angels teammate Mike Trout to give Japan its third WBC title since the event began in 2006. Japan won the first WBC and again in 2009.   

Ohtani was named the tournament’s most valuable player, hitting .435 with one homer, four doubles, eight runs batted-in and 10 walks to lead Japan to a 7-0 record during the WBC.   

Trea Turner homered in the second inning and teammate Kyle Schwarber hit a home run in the eighth to score the only runs for the United States, which won the last WBC in 2017. Munetaka Murakami and Kazuma Okamoto homered for Japan, while Lars Noobaar, an American-born member of the St. Louis Cardinals whose mother is Japanese, drove home a run in the second inning.   

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters. 
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