Month: June 2024

Malawi court rejects same-sex marriage

Posted on by SeeAF

Blantyre, Malawi    — Malawi’s Constitutional Court on Friday dismissed the case of two applicants who wanted it to legalize same-sex relationships. State lawyers welcomed the ruling while lawyers for the applicants expressed disappointment.

The applicants, Jan Willem Akster from the Netherlands and a Malawian transgender man, Jana Gonani, brought their case to the Constitutional Court for interpretation of Malawi’s anti-homosexuality laws following their arrest in 2021.

Akster is currently facing nine charges of sexual abuse and sodomy, while Gonani is charged with unnatural offenses.

They said Malawi’s laws violate their fundamental rights, including a right to privacy and dignity.

However, Judges Joseph Chigona, Vikochi Chima and Chimbizgani Kacheche rejected their arguments.

Chigona said the applicants failed to bring evidence of how the provisions in the country’s laws discriminated against homosexuals.

Chigona also said Akster failed to prove that Malawi’s laws violated his right to health.

“The first applicant was asked in a cross examination if he had ever accessed a public hospital and replied that he had gone to Zomba Central Hospital after he had been involved in a car accident,” Chigona said. “When he was asked about his experience there, especially if he was asked about his sexual orientation before he was assisted, he said he was not. He actually said that he was medically assisted so well. The only complaint he had about the facility were spiders in the ward.”

Chigona said the court also dismissed claims that Malawi police violated Gonani’s right to privacy when they ordered him to undress, to confirm his claims that he was transgender.

“We know that by Section 24 of Criminal Procedure and Evidence Code that police are empowered to search a suspect who is reasonably suspected of having committed a particular offense and who has been arrested,” the judge said. “The caveat is that the search only extends as it is reasonably required for discovering a thing upon this person in connection to the offenses he was suspected of.”

Minority rights activists and religious leaders attended the delivery of the judgment, which took over six hours.

Rights activist Michael Kaiyatsa of the Center for Human Rights and Rehabilitation said he was not happy with the ruling but would comment more after going through the written judgment.

Defense attorney Bob Chimkango said, “To be honest, we are satisfied with the process, but the only thing that we may not be agreeing with is the judgment itself. But it’s too early to comment as you will notice it’s a 135-page document. We were just listening — we were not working on it. So we will be waiting for it to be given to us, analyze it and then advise the client accordingly.”

A spokesperson for Ministry of Justice, Frank Namangale told reporters outside the court that the government was happy with the ruling.

Same-sex marriages have been a controversial issue in Malawi.

In July 2023, religious leaders led street protests across the country against the potential legalization of same-sex marriage.

Friday’s judgment means homosexuality remains an offense in Malawi, punishable by a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.

The Constitutional Court said Friday that the applicants were free to ask parliament to amend the country’s homosexuality laws if they were not satisfied with its judgment.
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LGBTQ+ Kenyans decry surging blackmail, extortion on dating apps

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In Kenya, where same-sex relations constitute a crime punishable by up to 14 years in prison, the only option for the LGBTQ+ community to meet is through dating apps and social media. But now, those Kenyans say, the platforms are being used to trap victims in a web of blackmail, extortion and physical and sexual assault. Juma Majanga reports from Nairobi, Kenya. Camera: Amos Wangwa.
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US official: World should be ‘alarmed’ by growing North Korea-Russia cooperation 

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Deadly Kenya protests spurred by international debt woes

Posted on by SeeAF

Johannesburg — “Kenya is not IMF’s lab rat,” was just one of many slogans condemning the International Monetary Fund that was seen this week on demonstrators’ placards at protests in Kenya against proposed tax hikes. 

The protests, fueled by tech-savvy youth on social media, were sparked by the Kenyan government’s plans to significantly raise taxes to pay off its enormous debt. 

The government did a U-turn after things turned deadly Tuesday when protesters broke into parliament in Nairobi and police opened fire, killing over 20 people, according to rights groups. 

Embattled President William Ruto announced he was listening to the protesters’ concerns and was scrapping his controversial finance bill. He said he would instead introduce budget cuts and austerity measures to try to shore up the country’s finances.   

But the chaotic events in one of Africa’s major economies, also a key U.S. ally, have led to questions about the debt choking many developing countries, and who is to blame. 

International financial institutions  

Kenya owes $80 billion in domestic and foreign debt. Its debt stands at 68 percent of GDP, well above the World Bank and IMF’s recommended maximum of 55 percent. 

The tax hikes in Ruto’s unpopular bill were aimed at avoiding default and came after an agreement earlier this month between Kenya and the IMF on a comprehensive reform package.   

Most of Kenya’s debt is owed to international bondholders, while its biggest bilateral creditor is China, to which it owes $5.7 billion.    

Washington frequently accuses Beijing of “debt trap diplomacy” — unscrupulous lending that leaves developing countries overly burdened. China, which has undertaken large infrastructure projects across Africa under President Xi Jinping’s global Belt and Road Initiative, vehemently rejects the allegations. 

Experts have different takes on whether China or Western monetary institutions are to blame for Kenya’s current woes. Kenya owes billions of dollars to Western countries and the IMF as well as China. 

“The key culprit is the lack of a well-functioning global financial safety net,” said Kevin P. Gallagher, director of Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center.  

“Programs from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank made the situation worse, rather than better, and the flaws in the G20 Common Framework to work out debt problems were seen as too risky for Kenya to enter into,” he said, referring to the debt restructuring mechanism that other indebted African countries like Zambia and Ghana have been using. 

China’s role 

Gallagher said China’s loans to Kenya have decreased in recent years, according to his university’s data, and it has little to do with the East Africa country’s debt woes. 

“Indeed, the Kenyan case disproves accusations of ‘debt-trap diplomacy’ on the part of China. If China was doing debt trap diplomacy it would be seizing Kenyan assets, instead Chinese capital has been the most patient during these rough times,” Gallagher told VOA. 

David Shinn, a former U.S. diplomat, said the blame couldn’t be placed on any one factor. 

“China is the largest bilateral lender, but its loans are quite modest when compared to the international financial institutions and holders of Eurobonds,” he told VOA. 

“All of these players share the blame for too much debt. The Kenyan government should not have allowed itself to take on so much debt and those who offered loans should have been more circumspect,” he continued.  

Alex Vines, director of the Africa Program at Chatham House, was also even-handed, saying, “China is part of the debt burden, but private equity is also contributing to the overall burden.”  

Aly-Khan Satchu, a Kenya-based economist, said Kenya was “in a perfect debt storm.”  

“You know you’d get whiplash for looking at Kenya’s politics. From a period of looking east, we’re back to looking west again … and therefore a big decision has been made to wrestle Kenya away from the Chinese orbit, with the support of the World Bank and the IMF.” 

However, Satchu said, one of the problems is that Kenya has had to reroute some of the IMF and World Bank’s money in order to pay its debts to China, particularly for a Chinese-built railway.  

Harry Verhoeven, a senior researcher at Columbia University, told VOA neither China nor the IMF is uniquely responsible for Kenya’s problems. 

“I think the IMF is not wrong in its diagnosis that there’s not enough revenue being raised, I think that’s certainly right,” he said. “Where you can be more critical of the IMF is, so far at least, that it hasn’t spoken up very much … about the distributional effects of how that revenue should be raised, or what the government has proposed to raise it.” 

Other factors 

Analysts note it wasn’t just loans that got Kenya into its fiscal predicament. The country was hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and has also suffered from the fallout of Russia’s war on Ukraine — which has seen global food and energy prices rise. Climate change-induced floods have also hurt the country’s economy. 

Samuel Misati Nyandemo, a senior economics lecturer at the University of Nairobi, said the Kenyan government, having withdrawn the controversial finance bill, now has a tough road ahead.  

“The government should try to balance between raising revenues and address the cost of living and doing business in the midst of entrenched corruption, impunity and wastage of public resources,” he said. 

Kenya, he warned, might not be the last African country where frustrations boil over and citizens take to the streets.  

In impassioned remarks in April, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “the world cannot afford to continue throwing developing countries’ plans and futures onto a raging bonfire of debt.” 

He said around 40% of the world’s population now live in countries that spend more on interest payments than health or education.
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Cameroon, Nigeria agree to end border dispute

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YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Nigeria and Cameroon said Thursday they would no longer seek a court ruling to settle their disputed border.

Rather, the two nations said, joint delegations will validate a demarcation plan on site and put an end to long-standing territorial disputes.

The nations share about 2,100 kilometers (1,300 miles) of border, from Lake Chad in the north of the Gulf of Guinea to the Atlantic Ocean coast.

Leonardo Santos Simao, chairperson of the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission set up by the United Nations to solve the countries’ territorial disputes, said he is delighted the two countries decided to resolve their disputes without long and expensive processes at the International Court of Justice.

The agreement to peacefully resolve border disputes before the end of 2025 was made at a meeting of the Mixed Commission on Wednesday and Thursday in Yaounde. Simao called it a milestone.

The two countries agreed to visit disputed territories in Rumsiki and Tourou in northern Cameroon and Koche in eastern Nigeria before the end of 2024.

Nigerian Justice Minister Lateef Olasunkanmi Fagbemi, who is the leader of the West African state’s delegation to the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission, confirmed that the countries have agreed to complete the project within 12 months.

“It’s a consensus between Cameroon and Nigeria. By the end of 2025, this project should be concluded,” he said. “We have so admirably and maturely handled the situation in such a way that there is hardly any dissent. We are satisfied with the outcome of the two-day meeting, and we are hopeful that there is light at the end of the tunnel.”

Cameroon and Nigeria say the border demarcation was slowed by Boko Haram terrorism in both countries. They say that the Boko Haram group’s firepower is drastically reduced now and that the demarcation can continue.

The two states say they will move past existing differences over the precise location of the border in about 30 villages.

The Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission was established in 2002 at the request of President Paul Biya of Cameroon and the then-Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo to facilitate the implementation of an October 10, 2002, International Court of Justice ruling that ceded Bakassi, an oil-rich border peninsula, to Cameroon.

Nigeria initially rejected the verdict, with its senate arguing that the ruling, based on a colonial era agreement, was unfair and should be appealed. But Nigerian officials said the verdict should be respected.
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Mongolians vote as anger grows over corruption and economy

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Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia — Mongolians voted in parliamentary elections on Friday, with the ruling party widely expected to win despite deepening public anger over corruption and the state of the economy.

People across the vast, sparsely populated nation of 3.4 million, sandwiched between China and Russia, are voting to elect 126 members of the State Great Khural.

Polls opened at 7 am local time (2300 GMT Thursday) and will close at 10 pm, with preliminary results expected later in the night.

Tsagaantsooj Dulamsuren, a 36-year-old cashier pregnant with her fourth child, told AFP that Friday’s poll offered her a chance to “give power to the candidates you really want to support”.

“I want lawmakers to provide more infrastructure development… and more jobs in the manufacturing industry for young people,” she said outside a polling station at a hospital near the capital Ulaanbaatar.

Analysts expect the ruling Mongolian People’s Party (MPP), led by Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene, to retain the majority it has enjoyed since 2016 and govern the country for another four years.

They say the party can credit much of its success to a bonanza over the past decade in coal mining that fuelled double-digit growth and dramatically improved standards of living, as well as a formidable party machine and a weak, fractured opposition.

Yet there is deep public frustration over endemic corruption, as well as the high cost of living and lack of opportunities for young people who make up almost two-thirds of the population.

There is also a widespread belief that the proceeds of the coal-mining boom are being hoarded by a wealthy elite — a view that has sparked frequent protests.

Broad spectrum

Preliminary results are expected to come within a few hours of polls closing despite Mongolia’s vast size, thanks to assistance from automated vote counting.

The streets of Ulaanbaatar, home to almost half the population, have been decked out with colourful campaign posters touting candidates from across the political spectrum, from populist businessmen to nationalists, environmentalists and socialists.

Parties are required by law to ensure that 30 percent of their candidates are women in a country where politics is dominated by men.

Long lines snaked around corridors at a polling station in a school in downtown Ulaanbaatar, with many voters wearing traditional clothing.

Oyun-Erdene also voted in a kindergarten in Ulaanbaatar, an AFP reporter saw.

The prime minister told local TV after casting his ballot that he hoped Friday’s vote would “open a new page of trust and cooperation between the state and citizens”.

However, many younger, urban voters are not convinced by the MPP’s pitch, while the failure of the established opposition Democratic Party to provide a credible alternative has helped fuel the rise of minor parties.

Batsaikan Battseren, a 45-year-old community leader dressed in traditional Mongolian deel clothing, said he was urging people to vote.

“Our area’s average participation is 60 percent,” the former herder said at a polling station in rural Sergelen, an administrative division more than an hour’s drive from the capital.

However, “young people from 18 to 30 years old don’t go to vote”, he said.

‘Social contract’

Mongolia has plummeted in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index under Oyun-Erdene’s premiership.

It has also fallen in press freedom rankings and campaigners say there has been a notable decline in the rule of law.

Some fear that, should it win a new mandate, the ruling party will tighten Oyun-Erdene’s grip on power and erode the democratic freedoms of ordinary Mongolians.

“I’ll describe this election as a referendum on… Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene and whether he will manage to get a mandate to rewrite Mongolia’s social contract,” Bayarlkhagva Munkhnaran, political analyst and former adviser on the National Security Council of Mongolia, told AFP.

The MPP is the successor to the communist party that ruled Mongolia with an iron grip for almost 70 years.

It remains popular, particularly among rural, older voters, and commands a sprawling, nationwide campaign apparatus.

“Their appeal is ‘look, we’ve done well, we’ve managed well’,” Julian Dierkes, a professor at the University of British Columbia and an expert on Mongolian politics, told AFP.

He said concern about corruption was widespread, even though “there’s no real distinction” among the opposition parties.

“The extent to which that’ll resonate with voters, we’ll know tonight sometime. It’s really hard to guess,” Dierkes said.
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Kyiv pushes allies to create no-fly zone in western Ukraine

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Kyiv, Ukraine — Lacking sufficient anti-aircraft systems to repel Russia’s unrelenting attacks, Ukraine is pushing its European allies to establish a no-fly zone in the west of the country by deploying air defense systems in neighboring Poland and Romania, officials told AFP.

Kyiv would like to create a safe space in western Ukraine where industry, energy infrastructure and civilians can be protected against the massive destruction unleashed by Russian strikes in recent months.

“I don’t understand why NATO doesn’t deploy Patriot systems along the Polish border,” said lawmaker Oleksiy Goncharenko, referring to U.S.-manufactured air defense systems.

“After all, Russian missiles have already entered Polish and Romanian airspace. This would protect the borders of Poland and Romania, and this would create a safe zone in the west and south of Ukraine,” he added.

That request was mirrored by several Ukrainian civilian and military officials who spoke to AFP in Kyiv during a trip organized last week by the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI) and local think tank New Europe Center.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba opened the debate in May, saying there was “no legal, security or moral argument that stands in the way of our partners shooting down Russian missiles over the territory of Ukraine from their territory.”

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has spent months pushing for more air defenses from his Western partners, but fresh supplies have only trickled in.

Recent victories for Kyiv include Romania’s promise of a Patriot missile defense system, and the United States has said it will prioritize sales of anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine for the next 16 months to allow it to replenish its stocks.

But time is running out for Ukraine, which has seen half its national electricity production capacity destroyed in recent months.

Every week, Russian missiles and drones strike the energy network, causing daily power outages that affect almost the entire population.

Critical energy situation

Russia focused on shelling Ukraine’s energy distribution networks during the winter of 2022-23, but has recently been destroying energy production facilities, which are much more costly and take years to repair or rebuild.

Moscow is also targeting the country’s energy reserves.

A European diplomatic source says Russian determination was underlined when it struck a facility storing gas 3 kilometers underground in the west of Ukraine.

“In the energy sector, the situation is really hard,” said a senior Ukrainian security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, adding he fears it will deteriorate further as winter approaches.

The official said talks were “in progress” with Western allies on a no-fly zone over western Ukraine using Patriot systems in Poland or Romania, “but that is not a simple decision.”

Western countries have been highly cautious about any moves that could lead to direct clashes with Russian forces and drag them into a wider war, which “makes this process slow and silent,” the official said.

But the subject could be discussed at the next NATO summit in Washington in early July, according to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Stefanishyna.

“We are doing everything we can to mobilize enough air defense elements to allow us to continue to be functional throughout the war,” she told AFP.

Kyiv does not expect any progress towards joining NATO, however, with Washington and Berlin still strongly opposed for fear of further antagonizing Russia.

“The chances of getting an invitation are close to zero,” said a Ukrainian diplomatic source.

But he said that Ukraine’s allies felt a “sense of guilt” about this, which plays into Kyiv’s hands.

That “puts pressure on our allies,” he said, to make “other strong decisions as alternatives.”
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India thumps England by 68 runs, will face South Africa in T20 World Cup final

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PROVIDENCE, Guyana — India thumped defending champion England by 68 runs to reach the final of the Twenty20 World Cup on Thursday.

India will face South Africa on Saturday at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados in a battle of the two unbeaten teams of the tournament.

Captain Rohit Sharma’s (57) second half-century helped India compile 171-7 and Suryakumar Yadav also blunted the England pace and spin with a vital knock of 47 off 36 balls after more than 2-1/2 hours of second semifinal was lost due to rain and wet outfield.

Spinners Axar Patel and the Kuldeep Yadav then combined in for 6-42 through some sharp turners as England got bowled out for 103 in 16.3 overs on a skiddy, low pitch devoid of grass to bow out of the tournament.

“If bowlers and batters adapt, things fall in place,” a beaming Sharma said. “Axar and Kuldeep are gun spinners. (It was) tough to play shots against them in these conditions (and) they were calm under pressure.”

Captain Jos Buttler smashed four boundaries in his 23 off 15 balls, but once he top-edged reverse sweep off left-arm spinner Patel’s first ball inside the power play and lobbed a simplest of catches to wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, England kept on losing wickets with regular intervals.

“I’ve bowled in the powerplay in the past many times,” Patel said after being adjudged player of the semifinal. “Knew the wicket was assisting and didn’t try too many things.”

England had collapsed to 88-9 when Liam Livingstone and Adil Rashid both got run out but Jofra Archer hit 21 off 15 balls before Jasprit Bumrah (2-12) finished off England by having Archer leg before wicket.

The win was sweet revenge for India, which got hammered by England by 10 wickets in the 2022 World Cup semifinal at Adelaide, Australia.

“India outplayed us,” Buttler said. “We let them get 20-25 runs too many on a challenging surface … they had an above-par total and it was always a tough chase.”

Earlier, Sharma and Yadav combined in a 73-run third wicket stand on a wicket where batters struggled to negotiate the variable bounce of pace and spin.

Virat Kohli’s below-par tournament continued after a wet outfield delayed the toss for 80 minutes and Buttler won the toss and elected to field.

Kohli took his run tally to disappointing 75 runs in seven games with run-a-ball knock of nine before Reece Topley cramped him for a big shot and hit the top of leg stump.

“We understand his (Kohli’s) class,” Sharma said in defense of his ace batter. “Form is never a problem when you’ve played for 15 years, probably saving for the final.”

Sharma continued his sublime form in the tournament on difficult pitches and countercharged on a yet another tough wicket for batters before heavy rain took the players off the field for another 73 minutes when India had reached 65-2 after eight overs.

Sharma reached his 50 after resumption of play with a swept six over fine leg off Sam Curran, and Yadav hammered the left-arm fast bowler to point for a six before both exited in successive overs.

Sharma was undone by a googly from Adil Rashid (1-25) in his last over and was clean bowled, while Yadav was deceived by Archer’s slower ball and ballooned a catch to long off.

Chris Jordan picked up 3-37 that included the wickets of Hardik Pandya (23) and Shivam Dube off successive balls, but India had piled up enough runs for its spinners to defend.
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Nigerian ginger farmers struggle after outbreak of disease

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Nigeria is one of the world’s leading producers of ginger, but a massive outbreak of fungal disease last year caused millions of dollars of damage. The Nigerian government has launched an emergency recovery intervention to help ginger farmers. Timothy Obiezu reports from Kaduna.
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EU leaders pick von der Leyen for second term as European Commission chief

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brussels — European Union leaders agreed on Thursday to nominate Ursula von der Leyen of Germany for a second five-year term as president of the European Commission, the EU’s powerful executive body.

At a summit in Brussels, the bloc’s 27 national leaders also picked former Portuguese Premier Antonio Costa as the future chair of their European Council meetings and selected Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas as the next EU foreign policy chief.

The leadership package represents continuity for the 27-member bloc, with centrist pro-EU factions keeping hold of top posts despite a far-right surge in elections to the European Parliament earlier this month.

The deal was announced by the current European Council president, Charles Michel, on social media.

The trio won broad backing from leaders, but diplomats said right-wing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni abstained from the vote on von der Leyen and voted against Costa and Kallas.

Von der Leyen’s nomination still needs approval from the European Parliament in a secret ballot – widely seen as a trickier proposition than her endorsement by EU leaders.

At the summit, the EU also signed a security agreement with Ukraine, debated how to bolster EU defenses against Russia and agreed on the bloc’s strategic priorities for the next five years.

The security deal underlines EU support for Kyiv fighting off Moscow’s invasion for a third year, despite gains by the far-right in European elections, uncertainty created by French snap elections and the U.S. presidential vote in November.

The agreement lays out the EU’s commitments to help Ukraine in nine areas of security policy, including arms deliveries, military training, defense industry cooperation and demining.

“These commitments will help Ukraine defend itself, resist destabilization and deter future acts of aggression – more concrete proof of the EU’s unshakable resolve to support Ukraine for the long haul,” Michel said.

The leaders will reiterate their pledge to support Ukraine as long as it takes, saying that “Russia must not prevail” and that Ukraine must get back the land annexed by Moscow.

Defense debate

The war in Ukraine laid bare the EU’s lack of preparedness for a conflict as the bloc struggles to supply Kyiv with enough weapons against Russia, prompting calls for more EU coordination of defense systems and investment in defense industries.

Diplomats said von der Leyen told the summit that between 1999 and 2021, the EU increased military spending by 20%, China by 600% and Russia by 300%, even before Moscow’s massive rise in military spending after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

According to diplomats, von der Leyen told leaders the EU needed to invest 500 billion euros ($535.30 billion) in defense over the next 10 years. Financing options included national contributions, dedicated revenue streams — called the EU’s own resources — and joint borrowing, von der Leyen said.

Investment in defense is part of the EU’s “strategic agenda” that the leaders aimed to agree on before dinner on Thursday — a document that tells EU institutions what European governments want them to focus on during their 2024-29 term.

Apart from defense, the agenda calls for a more competitive EU to withstand economic pressure from China and the United States and for preparing the bloc for enlargement that would include Ukraine, Moldova and the Western Balkans.
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Oklahoma state superintendent orders schools to teach the Bible in schools

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oklahoma city, oklahoma — Oklahoma’s top education official on Thursday ordered public schools to incorporate the Bible into lessons for grades 5 through 12, the latest effort by conservatives to incorporate religion into classrooms.

The directive drew immediate condemnation from civil rights groups and supporters of the separation of church and state, with some calling it an abuse of power and a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

The order sent to districts across the state by Republican State Superintendent Ryan Walters says adherence to the mandate is compulsory and “immediate and strict compliance is expected.”

“The Bible is an indispensable historical and cultural touchstone,” Walters said in a statement. “Without basic knowledge of it, Oklahoma students are unable to properly contextualize the foundation of our nation which is why Oklahoma educational standards provide for its instruction.”

Oklahoma law already explicitly allows Bibles in the classroom and lets teachers use them in instruction, said Phil Bacharach, a spokesman for state Attorney General Gentner Drummond.

But it’s not clear if Walters has the authority to mandate that schools teach it. State law says individual school districts have the exclusive authority to decide on instruction, curriculum, reading lists, instructional materials and textbooks.

The head of the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations criticized the directive as a clear violation of the Constitution’s Establishment Clause, which prohibits the government from “establishing” a religion.

“We adamantly oppose any requirements that religion be forcefully taught or required as a part of lesson plans in public schools, in Oklahoma, or anywhere else in the country,” Adam Soltani said in a statement.

“Public schools are not Sunday schools,” Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said in a statement. “This is textbook Christian Nationalism: Walters is abusing the power of his public office to impose his religious beliefs on everyone else’s children. Not on our watch.”

The directive is the latest salvo in an effort by conservative-led states to target public schools: Louisiana has required them to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms, while others are under pressure to teach the Bible and ban books and lessons about race, sexual orientation and gender identity.

Earlier this week the Oklahoma Supreme Court blocked an attempt by the state to have the first publicly funded religious charter school in the country.

A former public school teacher who was elected to his post in 2022, Walters ran on a platform of fighting “woke ideology,” banning books from school libraries and getting rid of “radical leftists” who he claims are indoctrinating children in classrooms.

He has clashed with leaders in both parties for his focus on culture-war issues including transgender rights and banning books, and in January he faced criticism for appointing a right-wing social media influencer from New York to a state library committee.
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CNN bans White House pool reporters from debate room 

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washington — The White House Correspondents’ Association said Thursday that CNN had rejected multiple requests to include White House pool reporters inside the studio during the first presidential debate between incumbent Joe Biden and Republican rival Donald Trump. 

The press pool, made up of representatives of major news organizations, accompanies the president on foreign and domestic trips and normally has access to any event where he speaks or appears in public, with the goal of keeping the U.S. public informed. 

It is extremely rare for it to be barred from an event in the United States. 

“WHCA is deeply concerned that CNN has rejected our repeated requests to include the White House travel pool inside the studio,” Kelly O’Donnell, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, said in a statement. 

“The pool is there for the ‘what ifs?’ in a world where the unexpected does happen,” she said, and to provide “context and insight by direct observation and not through the lens of the television production.” 

These reporters are there to see what is said and done when the microphones and cameras are off, and provide independent observation, she wrote, with duties “separate from the production of the debate as a news event.” 

O’Donnell said both the Biden and Trump campaigns agreed to the WHCA’s request. 

CNN has agreed to allow only one White House print pool reporter to enter the studio during a commercial break to “briefly observe the setting.” 

The network will also allow still photographers from other outlets to cover the candidates inside the studio and will provide a television feed of the debate to other networks. 

CNN has put in place many other rules for the first showdown, including two commercial breaks, no props and muted microphones except when the candidates are recognized to speak. The network did not respond to a request for comment. 

“Precedent matters for future debates,” O’Donnell said, alluding to the next Biden-Trump face-off in September. 

The National Association of Black Journalists also asked CNN to accredit reporters from local Black-owned news organizations, after none of Atlanta’s Black news groups got credentials to be on-site for the debate.
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Closer Russia-North Korea ties may create opportunity for US, China 

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washington — The recent defense pact between Russia and North Korea could present a diplomatic opportunity for the United States and China to work together for stability on the Korean Peninsula, an issue of mutual interest to both countries, some experts say.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said Monday that China would be “somewhat anxious” about enhanced cooperation between Russia and North Korea, adding that Chinese officials have “indicated so in some of our interactions, and we can see some tension associated with those things.”

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters after the Russia-North Korea summit last week in Pyongyang that concern about the new defense agreement between the two countries “would be shared by the People’s Republic of China” — China’s official name.

During their keenly watched summit, Russian President Vladmir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty, vowing to challenge the U.S.-led world order.

Under the treaty, the two countries, which share a short border along the lower Tumen River, are now required to provide military assistance using all available means if either of them is attacked by a third country.

High-precision weapons

Putin further raised the stakes in this newly cemented relationship, saying he is not ruling out the possibility of Russia providing high-precision weapons to North Korea.

According to some experts in Washington, China’s frustration with its two neighbors could make room for a Sino-American effort to dissuade Russia and North Korea from moving forward with their nascent defense pact.

Patrick Cronin, the Asia-Pacific security chair at the Hudson Institute, told VOA’s Korean Service earlier this week that there is a way for the U.S. to find “some common ground” with China on this issue.

He explained that it is in China’s interest not to see the transfer of Russia’s advanced, offensive military technologies to North Korea, which could be destabilizing on the Korean Peninsula.

“That opens up a common ground for the United States to deal with China to limit any destabilizing transfer of technology to the Korean Peninsula,” he said.

Joseph DeTrani, who served as the special envoy for six-party denuclearization talks with North Korea from 2003 to 2006, told VOA’s Korean Service on Wednesday that the U.S. and China need to come together on this issue.

DeTrani said North Korea has to be on the list of “the issues of mutual concern” between the top two powers, as the U.S. pursues dialogue with China on subjects such as artificial intelligence and trade.

Dennis Wilder, who served as senior director for East Asia affairs at the White House’s National Security Council during the George W. Bush administration, was more cautious about the possibility of U.S.-China coordination.

Wilder told VOA’s Korean Service this week that the current state of U.S.-China relations makes Beijing averse to working with Washington on North Korea.

“No, they have no interest in joining with us, considering how they feel we are treating them,” Wilder said. “I very much doubt that the Chinese would be interested. A far possibility would be that they might want to share information, but that would be the only place.”

No ties to call on

Robert Gallucci, who was the chief U.S. negotiator during the 1994 North Korea nuclear crisis, offered a similar view.

“We don’t have a relationship with Beijing right now that we could call on,” he said earlier this week.

Gallucci told VOA’s Korean Service that China will not appreciate the possibility of its influence on North Korea being undercut.

Gary Samore, who served as the White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction during the Obama administration, told VOA’s Korean Service via email on Wednesday that China might have a limited influence on what is happening between Russia and North Korea, although Washington and Beijing share an interest in keeping things calm on the Korean Peninsula.

“I expect that Beijing will discourage any military assistance from Russia to North Korea that could be destabilizing,” he said. “Whether Putin or Kim Jong Un will respect China’s wishes, I can’t say.”

Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told VOA’s Korean Service via email earlier this week that “in principle, China welcomes Russia to consolidate and develop traditional friendly relations with relevant countries,” without referring to North Korea.

Meanwhile, Washington is holding out hope that Beijing can still leverage its historical ties with Pyongyang to drive a solution.

“We urge Beijing to use its influence to encourage the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] to refrain from destabilizing behavior and return to the negotiating table,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA’s Korean Service on Wednesday.
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South Korea will consider supplying arms to Ukraine after Russia, North Korea sign strategic pact

Posted on by SeeEU

Seoul — South Korea said Thursday that it would consider sending arms to Ukraine, a major policy change that was suggested after Russia and North Korea rattled the region and beyond by signing a pact to come to each other’s defense in the event of war. 

The comments from a senior presidential official came hours after North Korea’s state media released the details of the agreement, which observers said could mark the strongest connection between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War. It comes at a time when Russia faces growing isolation over the war in Ukraine and both countries face escalating standoffs with the West.

According to the text of the deal published by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, if either country gets invaded and is pushed into a state of war, the other must deploy “all means at its disposal without delay” to provide “military and other assistance.” But the agreement also says that such actions must be in accordance with the laws of both countries and Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which recognizes a U.N. member state’s right to self-defense. 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the pact at a summit Wednesday in Pyongyang. Both described it as a major upgrade of bilateral relations, covering security, trade, investment, cultural and humanitarian ties.

The office of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol issued a statement condemning the agreement, calling it a threat to his country’s security and a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, and warned that it would have negative consequences on Seoul’s relations with Moscow. 

“It’s absurd that two parties with a history of launching wars of invasion — the Korean War and the war in Ukraine — are now vowing mutual military cooperation on the premise of a preemptive attack by the international community that will never happen,” Yoon’s office said.

At the United Nations in New York, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul called it “deplorable” that Russia would act in violation of multiple U.N. sanctions resolutions against North Korea that Moscow voted for.

Yoon’s national security adviser, Chang Ho-jin, said that Seoul would reconsider the issue of providing arms to Ukraine to help the country fight off Russia’s full-scale invasion.

South Korea, a growing arms exporter with a well-equipped military backed by the United States, has provided humanitarian aid and other support to Ukraine, while joining U.S.-led economic sanctions against Moscow. But it hasn’t directly provided arms to Kyiv, citing a longstanding policy of not supplying weapons to countries actively engaged in conflict.

Speaking to reporters in Hanoi, where he traveled after Pyongyang, Putin said Thursday that supplying weapons to Ukraine would be “a very big mistake” on South Korea’s part. If that happens, Putin said that it would lead to “decisions that are unlikely to please the current leadership of South Korea.”

He said that South Korea “shouldn’t worry” about the agreement, if Seoul isn’t planning any aggression against Pyongyang.

Asked whether Ukrainian strikes on Russian regions with Western-supplied weapons could be considered an act of aggression, Putin said that “it needs to be additionally studied, but it’s close to it,” and that Moscow isn’t ruling out supplying weapons to North Korea in response.

A number of NATO allies, including the United States and Germany, recently authorized Ukraine to hit some targets on Russian soil with the long-range weapons they are supplying to Kyiv. Earlier this month, a Western official and a U.S. senator said that Ukraine has used American weapons to strike inside Russia.

Putin has said in response that Moscow “reserves the right” to arm Western adversaries and reiterated that notion on Thursday.

“I said, including in Pyongyang, that in this case we reserve the right to supply weapons to other regions of the world,” he said. “Keeping in mind our agreements with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, I’m not ruling that out.”

The summit between Kim and Putin came as the U.S. and its allies expressed growing concern over a possible arms arrangement in which Pyongyang provides Moscow with badly needed munitions for the war in Ukraine, in exchange for economic assistance and technology transfers that could enhance the threat posed by Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile program.

Following their summit, Kim said the two countries had a “fiery friendship,” and that the deal was their “strongest-ever treaty,” putting the relationship at the level of an alliance. He vowed full support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Putin called it a “breakthrough document,” reflecting shared desires to move relations to a higher level.

North Korea and the former Soviet Union signed a treaty in 1961, which experts say necessitated Moscow’s military intervention if the North came under attack. The deal was discarded after the collapse of the USSR, replaced by one in 2000 that offered weaker security assurances. 

There’s ongoing debate on how strong of a security commitment the deal entails. While some analysts see the agreement as a full restoration of the countries’ Cold War-era alliance, others say the deal seems more symbolic than substantial.

Ankit Panda, a senior analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that the text appeared to be carefully worded as to not imply automatic military intervention.

But “the big picture here is that both sides are willing to put down on paper, and show the world, just how widely they intend to expand the scope of their cooperation,” he said.

The deal was made as Putin visited North Korea for the first time in nearly a quarter-century, a trip that showcased their personal and geopolitical ties. Kim hugged Putin twice at the airport, their motorcade rolling past giant Russian flags and Putin portraits, before a welcoming ceremony at Pyongyang’s main square attended by what appeared to be tens of thousands of spectators.

According to KCNA, the agreement also states that Pyongyang and Moscow must not enter into agreements with third parties, if they infringe on the “core interests” of any of them and mustn’t participate in actions that threaten those interests.

KCNA said that the agreement requires the countries to take steps to prepare joint measures for the purpose of strengthening their defense capabilities to prevent war and protect regional and global peace and security. The agency didn’t specify what those steps are, or whether they would include combined military training and other cooperation. 

The agreement also calls for the countries to actively cooperate in efforts to establish a “just and multipolar new world order,” KCNA said, underscoring how the countries are aligning in face of their separate confrontations with the United States.

How the pact affects Russia’s relations with South Korea is a key development to watch, said Jenny Town, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington and director of the North Korea-focused 38 North website.

“Seoul had already signed onto sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, souring its relations with Moscow. Now with any ambiguity of Russia’s partnership with North Korea removed, how will Seoul respond?” she said. “Is there a point where it decides to cut or suspend diplomatic ties with Russia or expel its ambassador? And have we reached it?”

Kim has made Russia his priority in recent months as he pushes a foreign policy aimed at expanding relations with countries confronting Washington, embracing the idea of a “new Cold War” and trying to display a united front in Putin’s broader conflicts with the West. 

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest point in years, with the pace of both Kim’s weapons tests, and combined military exercises involving the U.S., South Korea and Japan intensifying in a tit-for-tat cycle.

The Koreas also have engaged in Cold War-style psychological warfare that involved North Korea dropping tons of trash on South Korea with balloons, and Seoul broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda with its loudspeakers. 
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Yacht captain jailed ahead of arson trial over Greek island fire

Posted on by SeeEU

Athens — Greek judicial authorities have jailed the captain and first officer of a yacht ahead of a trial on charges of arson over a forest fire on the island of Hydra believed to have been sparked by fireworks, legal sources said.

The two men and the entire crew of the yacht have denied any wrongdoing. Eleven other crew members were freed on bail and with restrictions.

Wildfires are common in the Mediterranean country, but they have become more frequent and devastating due to hotter, drier and windier conditions, which scientists link to climate change. Greece has, in recent years, beefed up penalties for arson.

The fire, believed to have been triggered by fireworks, broke out on Friday night and devoured nearly 300,000 square meters of the island’s pine forest before firefighters doused the flames early on Saturday.

The Greek crew members of the yacht, which was moored 350 meters from the shore when the fire erupted, were arrested on Sunday at a marina near Athens and charged with starting the blaze.

All of them reiterated their denial of the charges before an investigating magistrate at the court of Piraeus on Wednesday.

The yacht operator, Salaminia Yachting Limited, said it “retains absolute confidence in the integrity and sincerity of the crew members,” who deny involvement in the incident, according to a statement cited by the Athens News Agency.

A legal source said earlier there was not enough evidence to link the crew with the case and that the captain was the first person to alert authorities about the fire. The foreign passengers who chartered the yacht, most of them from Kazakhstan, have left the country, the source added.

A prosecutor ordered on Thursday an internal probe into the actions of authorities that allowed them to travel outside the country before the official investigation was concluded. Later in the day, charges for abetting arson were laid against eight of the passengers, police sources said.

Witnesses have testified that they saw smoke and flames after hearing 15 to 20 loud sounds, similar to firework explosions, at 10:30 p.m. (1930 GMT) on Friday, according to court documents seen by Reuters.

A rubber boat sailed toward the yacht as the fire rapidly spread, said one witness, who later saw a fire extinguisher on the yacht’s stern.
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Chinese maritime aggression seen as test of US-Philippine alliance

Posted on by SeeUS

manila, Philippines — Analysts see China’s increasingly aggressive attacks on Philippine vessels in the South China Sea as a test of the U.S.-Philippines alliance. What happens next, they say, will depend largely on how Manila and Washington respond. 

Dramatic footage released last week by the Philippine military showed Chinese coast guard personnel wielding knives, an ax and other weapons as they intercepted Philippine soldiers who were in rubber boats delivering supplies to a garrison at Second Thomas Shoal.  

The June 17 clash was the worst so far in the escalating tension in the disputed waters, with several Philippine soldiers injured, including one who lost a thumb, according to Manila. 

But while the Philippines tried to de-escalate the tension with diplomacy, analysts say future such incidents are likely.  

“China will seek to push the Philippines further,” said Don McLain Gill, an international studies lecturer at De La Salle University in Manila.  

“The main challenge here is to apply considerable cost on China in order for it not to illustrate this sort of behavior and turn it into something regular, like the same way it had regularized water canonning and ramming [of Philippine vessels],” he told VOA. 

There have been several incidents in the past months in which Chinese coast guard ships blasted Philippine patrol boats with water cannons and performed dangerous maneuvers in attempts to stop resupply missions to Philippine troops stationed at the shoal. 

The flash point of the conflict is the BRP Sierra Madre, a dilapidated warship that Manila deliberately ran aground in 1999 to stake its claim to Second Thomas Shoal, a maritime feature in the Spratly Islands that is within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.  

China claims almost the entirety of the South China Sea, including the Spratly chain, based on historical maps that an international tribunal has ruled have no legal basis.

Parallel strand of negotiation

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., in his first media interview since the incident, acknowledged Thursday that more must be done than to just file diplomatic protests against China. 

“We have [lodged] more than 100 protests already. … [What usually happens is] we summon the ambassador, we tell him our position, that we don’t want what happened, and that’s it. But we have to do more than that, so we are. We are doing more than just that,” Marcos told reporters Thursday, without elaborating. 

But Collin Koh, a fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said there must also be a “parallel strand of negotiation and dialogue” between China and the United States to de-escalate the tension. 

The United States is a treaty ally of the Philippines and is obligated to defend Manila against external armed attack, including in areas in the South China Sea. 

Given the high stakes for all three countries, Koh said, China might listen to another superpower.  

“I think in large part it will depend very greatly on U.S. signaling explicitly to China on things that it should refrain from doing, and it must come with a very explicit threat of repercussions or consequences,” Koh told VOA. 

“If the messaging isn’t done clearly, then we are going to see a repetition of what’s happening,” he added. 

Mutual defense treaty 

Marcos has ruled out invoking the mutual defense treaty over the latest incident, saying it could not be considered an “armed attack.” 

Marcos had earlier said he wanted a review of the treaty, which was signed in 1951, to respond to the changing security challenges in the region.  

The recent escalation might provide urgency for Washington and Manila “to expedite the process of defining particular provisions and enhancing consultations,” according to Gill of De La Salle University. 

One such clarification was provided earlier this year by Marcos, who said the death of a Philippine serviceman in “an attack or an aggressive action by another foreign power” could trigger the treaty.  

This specific requirement, however, might work in China’s favor.

“If you set the bar so high, then it means that you are allowing China to keep doing whatever it is doing just under that threshold,” Koh said, although he agreed that it was not yet necessary to activate the treaty.  

“Nobody died and there were no other serious injuries other than the poor guy who lost his thumb. The question is: Are we going to be lucky in the future like that?” Koh asked.
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Canada’s 2023 fires spewed more heat-trapping gas than millions of cars

Posted on by SeeUS

WASHINGTON — Catastrophic Canadian wildfires last year pumped more heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the air than India did by burning fossil fuels, setting ablaze an area of forest larger than the U.S. state of West Virginia, new research finds.

Scientists at the World Resources Institute and the University of Maryland calculated how devastating the impacts were of the monthslong fires in Canada in 2023 that sullied the air around large parts of the globe. They figured it put 2.98 billion metric tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the air, according to a study update published in Thursday’s Global Change Biology. The update is not peer-reviewed, but the original study was.

The fire spewed nearly four times the carbon emissions as airplanes do in a year, study authors said. It’s about the same amount of carbon dioxide that 647 million cars put in the air in a year, based on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data.

Forests “remove a lot of carbon from the atmosphere and that gets stored in their branches, their trunks, their leaves and kind of in the ground as well. So, when they burn all the carbon that’s stored within them, [it] gets released back into the atmosphere,” said the study’s lead author, James MacCarthy, a research associate with WRI’s Global Forest Watch.

When and if trees grow back, much of that can be recovered, MacCarthy said, adding, “It definitely does have an impact on the global scale in terms of the amount of emissions that were produced in 2023.”

MacCarthy and colleagues calculated that the forest burned totaled 77,574 square kilometers (29,951 square miles), which is six times more than the average from 2001 to 2022. The wildfires in Canada made up 27% of global tree cover loss last year; usually it’s closer to 6%, MacCarthy’s figures show.

These are far more than regular forest fires, but researchers focused only on tree cover loss, which is a bigger effect, said study co-author Alexandra Tyukavina, a geography professor at the University of Maryland.

Syracuse University geography and environment professor Jacob Bendix, who wasn’t part of the study, said, “The loss of that much forest is a very big deal, and very worrisome.

“Although the forest will eventually grow back and sequester carbon in doing so, that is a process that will take decades at a minimum, so that there is a quite substantial lag between addition of atmospheric carbon due to wildfire and the eventual removal of at least some of it by the regrowing forest,” he said.

“So, over the course of those decades, the net impact of the fires is a contribution to climate warming.”

It’s more than just adding to heat-trapping gases and losing forests; there were health consequences as well, Tyukavina said.

“Because of these catastrophic fires, air quality in populated areas and cities was affected last year,” she said, mentioning New York City’s smog-choked summer. More than 200 communities with about 232,000 residents had to be evacuated, according to another not-yet-published or peer-reviewed study by Canadian forest and fire experts.

One of the authors of the Canadian study, fire expert Mike Flannigan at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia, puts the acreage burned at twice what MacCarthy and Tyukavina do.

“The 2023 fire season in Canada was [an] exceptional year in any time period,” Flannigan, who wasn’t part of the WRI study, said in an email. “I expect more fire in our future, but years like 2023 will be rare.”

Flannigan, Bendix, Tyukavina and MacCarthy all said climate change played a role in Canada’s big burn. A warmer world means a longer fire season, more lightning-caused fires and especially drier wood and brush to catch fire “associated with increased temperature,” Flannigan wrote.

The average May-to-October temperature in Canada last year was almost 2.2 degrees Celsius warmer than normal, his study found. Some parts of Canada were 8 to 10 degrees Celsius hotter than average in May and June, MaCarthy said.

There’s short-term variability within trends, so it’s hard to blame one specific year and area on climate change, and geographic factors play a role, Bendix said in an email, but still, “there is no doubt that climate change is the principal driver of the global increases in wildfire.”

With the world warming from climate change, Tyukavina said, “The catastrophic years are probably going to be happening more often, and we are going to see those spikier years more often.”
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US denies Zimbabwe’s claims it is militarizing Zambia

Posted on by SeeAF

HARARE, ZIMBABWE — The head of U.S. Africa Command denied Thursday claims by Zimbabwean government officials that Washington is setting up a military base in neighboring Zambia and wants to move AFRICOM operations there from Germany.

At an online press briefing, General Michael Langley, head of AFRICOM, rejected Zimbabwe’s claims that the United States is establishing a base in neighboring Zambia.

“That’s absolutely false,” Langley said from an African Chiefs of Defense Conference in Botswana. “We have no bases in Zambia. We have no plans to put one there.”

He said the U.S.’s approach on the continent is “African-led and U.S.-enabled.”

“We have a deep partnership with Zambia,” he said. “We have increased security cooperation with them. But there is no footprint. There’s no posture. There’s no base.”

Zimbabwean officials declined to comment to VOA about Langley’s remarks. But Rutendo Matinyarare, chairperson of the pro-government Zimbabwe Anti-Sanctions Movement, alleged that Langley held a briefing in Lusaka and that the U.S. was setting up the AFRICOM hub in Zambia.

Matinyarare claimed that several businesspeople who have flown into the country have seen a substantial amount of American military equipment at Zambia’s airport.

“And so, the question is, ‘What are these weapons doing in Zambia?’” he said.

Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema denies that his country is being militarized by the U.S. He says Zambia’s army has exchange programs with a number of countries, including the U.S., which should not be mistaken for the U.S. establishing a base.

Zambia says it has called on two regional bodies — the African Union and the Southern African Development Community — to mediate talks with Zimbabwe. Zambia and Zimbabwe are members of both organizations.

Zambian officials have also said the fallout stems from comments that Zimbabwean President Emerson Mnangagwa made during a recent trip to Russia — namely, the accusation that the U.S. has been militarizing Zambia to consolidate power in the region and isolate Zimbabwe.

Western countries imposed travel and financial sanctions on Zimbabwe’s leadership and affiliated companies in the early 2000s for alleged election rigging and human rights abuses. The U.S. recently removed sanctions on most Zimbabweans, but a few prominent figures — including Mnangagwa — remain on the list.

Meanwhile, Langley told reporters that top regional security challenges throughout Africa were discussed at the just-ended defense conference.

“Our African partners want this conference here because they want to own it. But we are AFRICOM, and the U.S. government is here because we have common values, common objectives, that will affect stability, security and prosperity on the continent,” he said.

This year’s conference provided a “valuable wealth of information” and lessons ahead of talks next year, Langley said.
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CAR opposition, civil society call for local elections boycott

Posted on by SeeAF

YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — The Central African Republic government has rejected calls from the opposition and civic society groups to postpone the country’s first local elections in more than 35 years. Opponents of the polls say funds are not available and security remains fragile at best, but the CAR government and the United Nations assert the October elections will help restore democracy and peace to the troubled state.

The Central African Republic’s opposition and civil society groups say a day hardly goes by in the country without reports of rebels either killing civilians or abducting people for ransom.

Rebels and armed groups also loot for survival and create chaos in towns and villages across the borders in Cameroon, Sudan, South Sudan, and three other neighboring countries.

Martin Ziguele is the leader of the MLPC party, the Movement for the Liberation of the People of the CAR. He also served as the country’s prime minister from 2001 to 2003.

He said the violence makes it impossible for local elections to be held in October of this year as the CAR government plans.

Ziguele said besides asking the government to bring back peace to the troubled state before any local elections, opposition and civil society want structural reforms so that the CAR has an independent elections management body. He said he is surprised that the CAR wants to organize local elections this year when the political, economic and security situation that prevented elections in 2023 has not improved.

Ziguele spoke Thursday at a press conference in the CAR capital, Bangui, and said elections will be disrupted if the central African state’s government fails to listen to opposition and civil society. 

Ziguele did not say his party or others would disrupt the polls.  

Opposition and civil society groups accuse CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadera of preparing to rig the local elections in favor of his party, the United Hearts Movement, or MCU. They say by organizing an August 2023 referendum to scrap a two-term limit and extend the presidential mandate from five to seven years, Touadera indicated he wants to consolidate power.

Touadera, who was voted president of CAR in 2016, rejects the accusation and said he is responding civilians’ call to lead the country out of sectarian violence.

Maxime Balalou is the government spokesperson.

He said the government of the CAR has taken enough security measures to stop what he calls selfish opposition and civil society groups that want to see the central African nation in chaos by disrupting local elections. Balalou said it is an open secret that opposition and civil society groups calling for a boycott of polls are very unpopular and cannot democratically win local elections.

Balalou spoke Thursday on state TV. He said MINUSCA, the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the country, is protecting civilians and reducing a humanitarian, human rights and political crisis.

This month, MINUSCA and the United Nations Development Program signed a $1 million agreement to help civilians register and qualify to vote in the October local elections. The CAR says it needs $15 million to organize the elections, a date for which has not yet been made public. 

The government says elections, which have not taken place since 1988 because of political instability and armed conflict will restore peace and democracy and reinstitute local governance and accountability. 

The C.A.R. has been engulfed in violence and chaos since 2013, when predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power and forced then-President Francois Bozize from office. A Christian-dominated militia called the anti-Balaka fought back, and both groups were accused of killing civilians.

The fighting has forced close to a million Central Africans to flee to neighboring countries.
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UN: Thailand firms, banks lead in securing weapons for Myanmar

Posted on by SeeEA

BANGKOK — Thai banks and registered companies are taking on an expanding and leading role securing weapons to Myanmar’s military regime even as it grows increasingly isolated amid a brutal civil war claiming thousands of lives, a United Nations report released Wednesday says.

The report, Banking on the Death Trade: How Banks and Governments Enable the Military Junta in Myanmar, says international sanctions have helped to slash the regime’s purchase of weapons through the global financial system by a third from the 2022 to 2023 fiscal year, which runs April to March, to some $253 million.

“That is a very significant step in the right direction and shows the impact that international action can take,” said the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, the report’s author.

Andrews attributed much of the drop in trade to Singapore, which investigated its own banks and companies in the wake of a report he wrote last year that named the city-state among Myanmar’s main pipelines for arms since the military’s 2021 coup.

The new report says Myanmar’s military purchases through the global financial system from companies registered in Singapore crashed between 2022 and 2023 some 90% as a result, from $110 million to just $10 million last year.

“The bad news is that we’ve seen the opposite happen in Thailand, where there has been a significant increase in both the facilitation of weapons procurement transactions by Thai banks and the export of weapons materials from Thai companies into Myanmar,” Andrews told VOA.

According to his report, Myanmar’s military purchases from companies registered in Thailand over the same period doubled to $120 million, topping all other countries, including China and Russia.

China and Russia saw their companies’ arms trade with Myanmar through the global financial system fall in 2023, to $80 million and $10 million respectively. India’s trade stayed steady at $15 million.

Myanmar’s recent military purchases via Thailand, the report says, included items ranging from chemicals to machine tools and radios to spare parts for fighter jets and helicopters, which the junta is widely accused of using to deadly effect on civilian targets.

Myanmar’s military regime has denied targeting civilians and claims it is taking proportionate action against “terrorists.”

Andrews’ report does not claim that the Thai government was directly involved in the arms trades, or that all the military material and goods were made or assembled in, or exported from, Thailand. It also does not capture any arms trade outside of the global financial system, including any deals that may have been settled with hard cash or by barter.

Previous research by Andrews and others showed most weapons shipments to Myanmar since the coup starting out from China and Russia.

Even so, this week’s report highlights the major role international commercial banks continue to play in arming Myanmar’s military despite the mounting allegations of the junta’s war crimes. It names 16 banks in Thailand and six other countries across Asia handling $630 million worth of military-related purchases for the junta over the past two years.

Despite the impact sanctions have had in stemming that trade, Andrews told VOA countries keen on thwarting Myanmar’s junta can do much more to enforce, coordinate and add to the sanctions, to leave fewer gaps for the junta to exploit.

Countries that have placed sanctions on Myanmar have not all sanctioned the same companies, and some companies vital to the junta’s arms trade still have not been sanctioned at all.

Andrews said the junta has reacted to sanctions on two of its key banks for military trades, for example, by redirecting most of that business through another bank still free of sanctions. The junta has also gotten better at disguising its arms purchases.

“What is critical now is that the response of the international community, specifically with respect to sanctions, be coordinated, be strategic and be focused, and that the international community work together to enforce these sanctions and eliminate these loopholes,” he said.

“The reason that is so important is because, given the fact that the junta is on its heels … their response is to escalate attacks on civilians,” he said.

Citing research by Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a U.S.-based research group, he said the junta has picked up air strikes fivefold in the past six months alone. The junta has lost significant territory to armed resistance groups across the country over the same period and is now believed to be in control of less than half of Myanmar.

Andrews said the junta’s weapons supplies would also be hit hard if Thailand were to follow Singapore’s lead and crack down on its own companies doing business with Myanmar’s military and known suppliers.

Unlike Singapore, though, Thailand’s government has not explicitly come out against trading arms with Myanmar.

Asked for comment, Thailand’s Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Nikorndej Balankura said the government was looking into the report.

“Our banking and financial institutions follow banking protocols as any major financial hub. So we will have to first establish the facts before considering any further steps,” he said in a statement shared with VOA.

“This is a matter of policy which has to be carefully considered, particularly the impact of sanctions on the wider population,” he said. “Thailand has always taken the position not to support any action that impacts the wider population.”

In a separate statement, a group of past and present lawmakers from across Southeast Asia said it was “alarmed” by Myanmar’s shift from Singapore to Thailand to source weapons and urged all 10 governments of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to learn from Singapore.

The bloc agreed to a five-point peace plan for Myanmar in April 2021 but has failed to make any headway besides providing some humanitarian aid.

In the statement, Philippines lawmaker Raoul Manuel said the role of Southeast Asian companies in helping to arm the junta only undermines the bloc’s peace efforts.

“ASEAN’s efforts to resolve the conflict in Myanmar cannot be taken seriously if ASEAN member states are helping to arm and fund the murderous Myanmar junta, which has already killed thousands of its own people and continues to indiscriminately attack the civilian population,” he said.
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