Month: July 2024

US arrests Syrian who oversaw prison where alleged abuse took place

Posted on by SeeUS

LOS ANGELES — A former Syrian military official who oversaw a prison where human rights officials say torture and abuse routinely took place has been arrested, authorities said Wednesday.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents took Samir Ousman al-Sheikh into custody last week at Los Angeles International Airport, said agency spokesperson Greg Hoegner.

The 72-year-old has been charged with immigration fraud, specifically that he denied on his U.S. visa and citizenship applications that he had ever persecuted anyone in Syria, according to a criminal complaint filed on July 9 and reviewed by The Associated Press. Investigators are considering additional charges against al-Sheikh, the complaint shows.

He was in charge of Syria’s infamous Adra Prison from 2005 to 2008 under President Bashar Assad. Human rights groups and United Nations officials have accused the Syrian government of widespread abuses in its detention facilities, including torture and arbitrary detention of thousands of people, in many cases without informing their families about their fate. Many remain missing and are presumed to have died or been executed.

“This is the highest-level Assad regime official arrested anywhere in the world. … This is a really big deal,” said Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a U.S.-based opposition organization.

Moustafa said Wednesday that one of his staff members, a former Syrian detainee, was first tipped off in 2022 by a refugee that there was “potentially a war criminal” in the United States. His organization alerted several federal agencies and began working with them to build a case against al-Sheikh.

Al-Sheikh’s attorney, Peter Hardin, called it a “simple misunderstanding of immigration forms” that has been politicized and said al-Sheikh “finds himself being made a pawn caught up in a larger international struggle.”

“He vigorously denies these abhorrent accusations,” Hardin said.

Investigators interviewed five former inmates at the Syrian prison, who described being hanged by their arms from the ceiling, severely beaten with electrical cables, and witnessing other prisoners being branded by hot rods, according to court documents. One inmate described how guards broke his back.

According to the complaint, al-Sheikh, a resident of Los Angeles since 2020, stated in his citizenship application that he had “never persecuted (either directly or indirectly) any person because of race, religion, national origin, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion” and “never been involved in killing or trying to kill someone.” This was false, as al-Sheikh persecuted political dissidents and ordered the execution of prisoners while he was head of Adra, the complaint states.

He began his career working police command posts before transferring to Syria’s domestic intelligence agency, which focused on countering political dissent, the complaint says. He later became head of Adra Prison and brigadier general in 2005. He also served for one year as the governor of Deir Ez-Zour, a region northeast of the Syrian capital of Damascus, where there were violent crackdowns against protesters.

He had purchased a one-way plane ticket to depart LAX on July 10, en route to Beirut, Lebanon, which shares a border with Syria, according to the complaint. After his arrest, al-Sheikh made his first appearance in Los Angeles federal court last Friday. He has family in the United States, including a daughter living in the Los Angeles area, according to the Syrian Emergency Task Force.

Syria’s civil war, which has left nearly half a million people dead and displaced half the country’s prewar population of 23 million, began as peaceful protests against Assad’s government in March 2011.

Other players in the war, now in its 14th year, have also been accused of abuse of detainees, including insurgent groups and the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which guard suspected and convicted Islamic State members imprisoned in northeastern Syria.

In May, a French court sentenced three high-ranking Syrian officials in absentia to life in prison for complicity in war crimes in a landmark case against Assad’s regime and the first such case in Europe.

The court proceedings came as Assad had begun to shed his longtime status as a pariah because of the violence unleashed on his opponents. Human rights groups involved in the case hoped it would refocus attention on alleged atrocities.
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Fire kills 16 people at shopping mall in southwestern China 

Posted on by SeeEA

Beijing — A fire at a shopping mall killed 16 people in the southwestern Chinese city of Zigong, state media reported early Thursday.

Firefighters and rescuers responded to a fire call shortly after 6 p.m. at the 14-story commercial building, and pulled 75 people to safety, according to the official news agency Xinhua.

Rescue efforts were ongoing. It was not immediately known what caused the fire or how many people were in the building when the fire broke out. The building houses a department store, offices, restaurants and a movie theater.

Social media video posts showed clouds of thick black smoke coming from the windows on the building’s lower levels and engulfing the entire 14-story structure as they rose into the sky. Huge flames were visible, and firefighters fought the fire with water. Local media said firefighters also used several drones.

Fire hazards remain a problem in China, which reported 947 fire fatalities in this year’s first few months ending on May 20, up 19% from the same period of the previous year, said Li Wanfeng, a spokesperson for the National Fire and Rescue Administration.

Li said the number of fires in public places such as hotels and restaurants rose 40% and that the most common causes were malfunctioning in electrical or gas lines and carelessness.

In January, a fire killed 39 people in a commercial building in the southeastern Chinese province of Jiangxi. It was caused by unauthorized welding in the basement.

In February, another 15 people were killed in a residential building in the eastern city of Nanjing, after an attached parking lot that had electric bikes caught fire.
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Russia, China taking space into dangerous territory, US says

Posted on by SeeUS

Washington — Russia and China are edging ever closer to unleashing space-based weapons, a decision that could have far-reaching implications for America’s ability to defend itself, U.S. military and intelligence agencies warn.

Adding to the concern, they say, is what appears to be a growing willingness by both countries to set aside long-running suspicions and animosity in order to gain an edge over the United States.

“I would highlight … the increasing amount in intent to use counterspace capabilities,” said Lieutenant General Jeff Kruse, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

“Both Russia and China view the use of space early on, even ahead of conflict, as important capabilities to deter or to compel behaviors,” Kruse told the annual Aspen Security Forum on Wednesday. “We just need to be ready.”

Concerns about the safety of space surged earlier this year when House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner called for the declassification of “all information” related to what was described as a new Russian anti-satellite capability involving nuclear weapons.

More recently, Turner has warned that the U.S. is “sleepwalking” into a disaster, saying that Russia is on the verge of being able to detonate a nuclear weapon in space, which would impose high costs on the U.S. military and economy.

The White House has responded repeatedly that U.S. officials have been aware of the Russian plans, and that Moscow has not yet deployed a space-based nuclear capability.

It is a stance that Kruse reaffirmed Wednesday, with added caution.

“We have been tracking for almost a decade Russia’s intent to design the ability to put a nuclear weapon in space,” he said. “They have progressed down to a point where we think they’re getting close.”

The Russians “don’t intend to slow down, and until there’s repercussions, will not slow down,” he said.

Russian and Chinese officials have yet to respond to VOA’s requests for reaction to the latest U.S. accusations, but both countries have repeatedly denied U.S. criticisms of their space policies.

In May, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov dismissed U.S. concerns about Moscow trying to put nuclear weapons in space as “fake news.”

But the Chinese Embassy in Washington, while admitting there are some “difficulties” when it comes to China-U.S. relations in space, rejected any suggestion Beijing is acting belligerently in space.

“China always advocates the peaceful use of outer space, opposes weaponizing space or an arms race in space and works actively toward the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind in space,” spokesperson Liu Pengyu told VOA in an email.

“The U.S. has been weaving a narrative about the so-called threat posed by China in outer space in an attempt to justify its own military buildup to seek space hegemony,” Liu said. “It is just another illustration of how the U.S. clings on to the Cold War mentality and deflects responsibility.”

Despite Beijing’s public posture, the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Kruse suggested Wednesday that China’s rapid expansion into the space domain is just as worrisome.

“They’re in multiple orbits that they did not used to be before,” he told the audience in Aspen, Colorado, warning that Beijing has already invested heavily in directed energy weapons, electronic warfare capabilities and anti-satellite technology.

“China is the one country that more so even than the United States has a space doctrine, a space strategy, and they train and exercise the use of space and counterspace capabilities in a way that we just don’t see elsewhere,” he said.

The general in charge of U.S. Space Command described the Chinese threat in even starker terms.

“China is building a kill web, if you will, in space,” said General Stephen Whiting, speaking alongside Kruse at the Aspen conference. 

“In the last six years, they’ve tripled the number of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellites they have on orbit — hundreds and hundreds of satellites, again, purpose built and designed to find, fix, track target and, yes, potentially engage U.S. and allied forces across the Indo-Pacific,” he said.

Whiting also raised concerns about the lack of clear military communication with China about space.

“We want to have a way to talk to them about space safety as they put more satellites on orbit,” he said, “so that we can operate effectively and don’t have any miscommunication or unintended actions that cause a misunderstanding.”
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Netherlands marks 10th anniversary of downing of MH17 airliner

Posted on by SeeEU

Amsterdam — The Netherlands commemorated on Wednesday the 298 victims of flight MH17 with a ceremony attended by the bereaved and representatives from Malaysia, Australia, Britain, Belgium and Ukraine.

Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, as fighting raged between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces, the precursor of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

All 283 passengers and 15 crew on board, including 196 Dutch citizens, were killed, leaving the plane’s wreckage and the remains of the victims scattered across fields of corn and sunflowers.

Based on an international investigation, a Dutch court in 2022 said there was no doubt the plane was shot down by a Russian missile system and that Moscow had “overall control” of the forces of the separatist “Donetsk People’s Republic” in eastern Ukraine since May 2014. Russia denies any involvement.

During Wednesday’s ceremony, which took place at the MH17 monument in the village of Vijfhuizen near Amsterdam, loved ones read out loud the names of all the victims.

Mark Rutte, who was prime minister when the disaster happened and has been a strong critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin ever since, drew applause for his efforts during his time in office to keep the international spotlight on the incident.

The Dutch court convicted two former Russian intelligence agents and a Ukrainian separatist leader in absentia of murder for their role in the transport into eastern Ukraine of the Russian military BUK missile system used to down the plane.

“Justice requires a long, long breath,” said Prime Minister Dick Schoof, who took office earlier this month, adding that “a conviction is not the same as having someone behind bars.”  

Commemorating the victims in his nightly video message, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: “There is no doubt that the judicial process and the overall work of international justice will inevitably lead to entirely fair sentences for all responsible for this crime.”

His foreign minster, Dmytro Kuleba, wrote on X that Russia had twice killed the victims. “First with a missile. Second, with lies that abused their memory and hurt their relatives.”  

Moscow denies any responsibility for MH17’s downing and in 2014 it also denied any presence in Ukraine. However, the EU’s outgoing foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Tuesday called on Russia to finally accept its responsibility.

“The evidence presented makes it abundantly clear that the BUK surface-to-air missile system used to bring down Flight MH17 belonged beyond doubt to the armed forces of the Russian Federation,” Borrell said.

“No Russian disinformation operation can distract from these basic facts, established by a court of law.”
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Kagame opponents and critics say elections in Rwanda neither free nor fair

Posted on by SeeAF

Kigali — Paul Kagame’s win in Rwanda’s presidential election this week was widely expected, although critics say the vote was neither free nor fair.

Lewis Mudge is the central Africa director at Human Rights Watch. Mudge, who lived in Rwanda for several years, said elections there are a mere performance and always produce big wins for Kagame.

“Notwithstanding the economic progress that President Kagame has made, he’s effectively been in power since July of 1994. That progress has not been matched in terms of political and civil rights and that reflects open space for people to have an independent political platform that disagrees with the RPF,” he said.

Kagame won over 99% of the vote, according to preliminary results announced on Monday.

Earlier this year, like many analysts, Strathmore University lecturer Edgar Githua predicted the 66-year-old Kagame would win big but had no doubt the size of the victory would be greatly exaggerated.

“Rwanda is the paradox of Africa. Paradox of Africa because the Rwandese themselves are afraid to talk about their own elections. If you have a vote where 98% votes for one candidate, that is a red flag. Nobody is that popular in this world,” said Githua.

Kagame, who has held various roles since 1994, won by a similar margin in 2017. At a watch party organized by his ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front, he acknowledged that some people found his margin of victory this year suspicious.

“This is a strange thing, that’s why there are many who don’t understand it, criticize it, but instead it [votes] continues to increase. It’s the uniqueness of RPF and the uniqueness of Rwandans,” he said.

Indeed, Kagame’s supporters, including Samuel Kwazera, said they would vote for him forever if they could.

“During the genocide in 1994, I was four years old; now it’s 30 years until today you can see the progress and you can see democracy going on, I am proud. I wish myself as I love him that he can be forever, and ever,” he said.

Mudge said while there are Rwandans who will continue to vote for Kagame, this was not a free and fair election.

“For our point as an organization that defends civil and political rights of people in Rwanda to express themselves, our point is the context is very different if you want to express yourself differently, if you want to criticize government policy. There’s simply no space for them to operate,” he said.

Kagame faced two opponents — Democratic Green Party Candidate Frank Habineza and independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana. Both received less than 1 percent of the vote.

Other candidates, including some of Kagame’s most vocal critics, were barred from running for president, including Diane Rwigara.

One of the reasons was that she didn’t garner the 600 signatures of support needed in her application.

Mudge said in Rwanda’s political climate, Rwigara had no chance to get the signatures or a place on the ballot.

“For people like Rwigara and [Victoire] Ingabire, it’s not about this technical aspect of signatures. This is about not allowing compelling, articulate women to run, to take attention, and basically challenging the narrative,” he said.

Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, another critic of Kagame who was a presidential candidate in the 2010 elections, was arrested, tried, and jailed on charges of terrorism and threatening national security. She was released eight years later through a presidential pardon.

She said elections in Rwanda have long been predetermined.

“Persistent wins of presidential elections close to 100% is not a sign of popularity but of lack of competition. … I don’t understand why they refuse to allow the most credible challengers to participate against President Kagame in elections in Rwanda. Of course, this is not only in 2024 but it was the case in 2003, 2010 and 2017,” she said.

Recently Kagame called her a “genocidaire” and said her life will not end well.

“I was surprised to hear President Kagame talking about me being from a genocidaire family but those are accusations used by the government to intimidate everyone who challenges the Rwandan government,” she said.

Analysts acknowledge that Kagame does enjoy real popularity among Rwanda’s electorate, mainly for his ability to guide the East African country toward internal stability and economic progress since the 1994 genocide, when an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists.

At the same time, they say, Kagame continues to stifle dissent, as support for the president and his policies is not unanimous.
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Six killed in China mall fire, people trapped inside 

Posted on by SeeEA

Beijing — Firefighters in China pulled six bodies from a shopping centre on Wednesday, state media reported, with an unknown number still trapped after a blaze broke out in a 14-storey building.

Footage broadcast by state broadcaster CCTV and shared on social media showed thick black smoke billowing out of the tower, located in Zigong in southwestern Sichuan province.

The blaze started in the early evening in a shopping center at the foot of the building, the channel said.

Around 30 people were rescued from the shopping complex, with the fire extinguished by rescuers around 8:20 pm (1220 GMT), CCTV said.

Later footage provided by a drone operator to AFP showed firetrucks and other first responders blocking off the road late at night, continuing to spray down the charred building.

“Six people have been killed,” CCTV reported, adding that search and rescue operations were continuing with people still trapped.

Zigong’s emergency services department received news about the fire at around 6:10 pm and immediately dispatched firefighters to extinguish the blaze, the broadcaster said.

Other images shared on social media — which AFP could not immediately verify — show people gathered in front of the burning building.

The emergency department has called on the public to “not to believe or amplify rumours” about the fire.

Zigong, some 1,900 kilometers from the capital Beijing, is home to nearly 2.5 million people.

Lax safety

Fires and other deadly accidents are common in China due to lax safety standards and poor enforcement.

In January, dozens died after a fire broke out at a store in the central city of Xinyu, with state news agency Xinhua reporting the blaze had been caused by the “illegal” use of fire by workers in the store’s basement.

At the time, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for lessons to be learned from the disaster to avoid further tragedies.

The same month, a fire in a residential building killed at least 15 people.

That fire came just days after a late-evening blaze at a school in central China’s Henan province killed 13 schoolchildren as they slept in a dormitory.

In June last year, an explosion at a barbecue restaurant in the northwest of the country left 31 dead and prompted official pledges of a nationwide campaign to promote workplace safety.

And in April 2023, a fire in a Beijing hospital claimed 29 lives and forced desperate patients to jump from windows to escape.

 
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Learning center helps prepare young refugees for resettlement

Posted on by SeeEA

Indonesia has become a temporary home for thousands of refugees from Asia and Africa. Dave Grunebaum reports from Cisarua, Indonesia, on a program that is helping some of them prepare for the lives that lie ahead of them. (Camera: Dave Grunebaum)
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Hunger drives starving Sudanese to seek refuge abroad

Posted on by SeeAF

Geneva — Hunger and looming famine are driving a growing number of people to flee war-torn Sudan in search of refuge in neighboring countries, according to World Health Organization officials.

Dr. Shible Sahbani, WHO representative to Sudan, recently told journalists that he met Sudanese refugees on a recent mission to Chad who’d left home only because of hunger.

“They say it is not insecurity, it is not a lack of access to basic services, but because they have nothing to eat,” he said at Tuesday’s press conference in Geneva.

An acute food insecurity analysis by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, in late June indicates that 14 months into the conflict, “Sudan is facing the worst levels of acute food insecurity ever recorded by the IPC in the country,” noting that the number of acutely hungry people has risen from 17.7 million to 25.6 million over the last six months.

“There is a risk of famine in 14 areas in greater Darfur, Greater Kordofan, Al Jazirah states and some hotspots in Khartoum if the conflict escalates further, including through increased mobilization of local militias,” says the report.

Sahbani has previously described refugees fleeing the Darfur and Kordofan regions as “disturbing, heartbreaking even,” explaining that women and children spoke of “loss of life, loss of belongings, hunger, disease, a lack of basic services and violence, including sexual violence.” All of this, he said, has led to a massive influx of refugees in the neighboring countries.

Displacement milestone

The United Nations humanitarian affairs agency, OCHA, on Tuesday said the conflict in Sudan “has reached another grim milestone” in its displacement crisis.

Citing the International Organization for Migration, it said 12.7 million people have become displaced since war broke out in mid-April 2023, with more than 10 million remaining inside Sudan and more than 2 million displaced as refugees in five neighboring countries.

Sahbani said that Chad, which is hosting more than 700,000 refugees from Sudan, reportedly is receiving between 500 and 700 new arrivals every day.

“The Chad government and the people of Adre have been welcoming. They have opened their system and their homes,” he said. “But this is a system already overstretched, and these are people who have nothing more to share.”

The WHO is calling for stepped up cross-regional efforts to provide lifesaving humanitarian aid to millions of people trapped in Sudan’s escalating and ever more brutal conflict. Officials are specifically calling for a humanitarian corridor from Chad so essential relief can reach millions of starving people in Sudan.

The U.N.-linked health agency also says the Darfur, Kordofan, Khartoum and Al Jazira states are “all but cut off from humanitarian and health assistance due to the relentless fighting.”

It says the situation is particularly alarming in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur where more than 800,000 people are besieged and cut off from access to food, health care and medical supplies.

“The wounded cannot get the urgent care they need; children and pregnant and breastfeeding women are weak due to acute hunger,” WHO representative Sahbani said. “Access is crucially and immediately needed so that we can avert the disastrous health situation.”

Weather could make matters worse

He warned that the situation is likely to worsen with the approaching rainy season, which can affect access to health care across the region.

Sahbani said that he expects flooding to hamper the ability of the WHO and its partners to deliver humanitarian assistance, and that the international community will be needed to urgently “bridge the huge funding gap.”

OCHA said that 30% of the U.N.’s $2.7 billion Humanitarian Response Plan has been funded, “more than halfway through the year.”

“We urgently appeal to donors to make good on their pledges and increase their support,” it said.

Sahbani warned that urgent action and a cease-fire are needed to contain an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe.

“If we do not take action now, the rapidly deteriorating situation in Sudan could spiral out of hand, permitting the unchecked reign of diseases, malnutrition and trauma,” he said.

Commenting on the U.N.-mediated “proximity talks” with Sudan’s warring parties underway in Geneva, the WHO official said, “There were some promising signs.”

“Let us wait for the coming hours, days,” he said. “If we cannot get a cease-fire, we hope that at least we can get the protection of civilians and the opening of humanitarian corridors.”
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Interpol operation nabs 300 in global crackdown on West African crime groups across 5 continents 

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DAKAR — In a global operation targeting West African organized crime groups across five continents, police arrested 300 people, seized $3 million and blocked 720 bank accounts, Interpol said Tuesday. 

Operation Jackal III, which ran from 10 April to 3 July in 21 countries, aimed to fight online financial fraud and the West African syndicates behind it, the agency said in a statement. 

“The volume of financial fraud stemming from West Africa is alarming and increasing,” said Isaac Oginni, director of Interpol’s Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre. “This operation’s results underscore the critical need for international law enforcement collaboration to combat these extensive criminal networks.” 

One of the targeted groups was Black Axe, one of the most prominent criminal networks in West Africa. Black Axe operates in cyber fraud, human trafficking, drug smuggling, and is responsible for violent crimes both within Africa and globally, the agency added. 

Black Axe used money mules to open bank accounts worldwide and is now under investigation in over 40 countries for related money laundering activities, the agency said. The suspects include citizens from Argentina, Colombia, Nigeria and Venezuela. 

In Argentina, following a five-year investigation, the police cracked down on Black Axe and seized $ 1.2 million in high-quality counterfeit banknotes, arrested 72 suspects and froze approximately 100 bank accounts. 

Interpol, which has 196 member countries and celebrated its centennial last year, works to help national police forces communicate with each other and track suspects and criminals in fields like counterterrorism, financial crime, child pornography, cybercrime and organized crime. 

The world’s biggest — if not best-funded — police organization has been grappling with new challenges including a growing caseload of cybercrime and child sex abuse, and increasing divisions among its member countries. 

Interpol had a total budget of about 176 million euros (about $188 million) last year, compared to more than 200 million euros at the European Union’s police agency, Europol, and some $11 billion at the FBI in the United States. 
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First Myanmar refugees from Thai camps move to US under new resettlement program

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Bangkok — The first group of refugees from Myanmar living in Thailand and eligible for a new resettlement program flew out of Bangkok for the United States last week, more than a year after the plan was first announced, U.S. and U.N. officials have told VOA.

Some 90,000 refugees now live in nine sealed-off camps inside Thailand along the country’s border with Myanmar, driven from their homes by decades of fighting between the Myanmar military and a number of ethnic minority armed groups vying for autonomy.

Some have called the camps home since the 1980s, put off from returning to Myanmar by the ongoing fighting and mostly barred by the Thai government from legally and permanently settling in Thailand. Most of the refugees from Myanmar, also known as Burma, are ethnic Karen.

Hoping to give them a viable way out, Thailand, the U.S. government and the UNHCR, the U.N.’s refugee agency, announced a new resettlement program in May 2023, allowing registered refugees in the camps to move to the United States.

“The first group left Thailand for the United States last week,” a U.S. Embassy official in Bangkok told VOA on Tuesday.

“Resettlement operations are ongoing in cooperation with the UNHCR and the Royal Thai government,” the official said. “The United States appreciates what Thailand has done to facilitate assistance.”

The Thailand office of the UNHCR said the group of 25 left the country on Thursday.

Photos posted online by the head of the UNHCR’s Thailand office, Tammi Sharpe, show Thai and U.N. officials at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport to see the group off.

“The value of the program could be felt,” she wrote. “Wishing those who will be on the receiving end my appreciation in advance.”

Aid groups working in the camps welcomed the start of resettlement.

“We are happy for these people because these people have been waiting to go to resettle for a long time, because along the Thai-Burma border … resettlement has been closed for many years,” Khyaw Paw, who chairs the Karen Women’s Organization, told VOA.

A previous resettlement program saw some 100,000 refugees from the camps resettled abroad between 2005 and 2015, according to the UNHCR, most of them in the U.S.

Democratic reforms that started in Myanmar in 2011 had raised hopes that most of the refugees could eventually return home. But a military coup in 2021 set off a full-scale civil war and has dashed those goals for the time being.

“They are not able to go home, and Thailand has not opened up integration within the country, so for many of the refugees who have been here for a long time, it’s a good opportunity,” Khyaw Paw said of the new program.

Refugee advocates say resettlement also can offer relief from what they describe as deteriorating conditions in the camps.

‘Growing sense of despair’

The Karen Women’s Organization says a growing sense of despair among the refugees over their future has been driving up everything from drug use to domestic abuse, gang violence and suicide.

Refugees are not allowed to work or study outside the camps, and they have told VOA of having meager schooling and job opportunities inside. They have little chance to earn a living on their own and must survive on an average of about $9 in food aid per person each month.

Some four decades after the first of the camps was established, most homes still lack running water or electricity and are little more than huts with bamboo walls and thatched roofs.

“The quality of life is very, very bad in my opinion, and I think if they have a chance [to resettle], I think it will be better for them. When I’m talking about the quality of life, I’m talking about health care, I’m talking about … education, I’m talking about crime,” said Rangsiman Rome, a lawmaker for Thailand’s opposition Move Forward Party.

As chair of the House of Representatives’ border affairs committee, he visited some of the camps a few months ago.

“I know the government tries to do good,” he said. “The problem is they don’t have freedom to go anywhere, so for me it’s abuse of human rights and … it’s better that they should have a quality of life better than this.”

Neither the U.S. Embassy nor the UNHCR would say how many of the roughly 90,000 refugees registered in the camps might ultimately be allowed to move abroad as part of the new resettlement program, or at what pace.

Khyaw Paw and Rangsiman both said UNHCR staff told them in meetings in late 2023 that up to 10,000 could be resettled per year. The UNHCR did not reply to a VOA request to confirm or deny the figure.

In any case, refugee advocates suspect the ultimate number resettled per year will be far less and that the refugees also need other options. They would like to see the Thai government let the refugees legally study, work and ultimately settle permanently in Thailand outside of the camps.

Rangsiman said some refugees looking for a permanent home outside of Myanmar may prefer to settle nearby to avoid the culture shock of moving farther afield, and that Thailand, which for the first time recorded more deaths than births in 2023, could use their labor.

“They have a lot of potential, and in Thailand we are an aging society, and we need human resource for our economy,” he said.

“There’s no need to just relocate them to the U.S.; it [Thailand] could be a choice for them,” he added.

Rangsiman said talks with the government were under way on proposals to resume Thai language courses in the camps, where most instruction now is in Burmese and Karen. He said teaching the refugees to speak Thai, as well, would help them transition to higher education and jobs outside the camps, if someday allowed, and to possibly settle in Thailand for good.

Khyaw Paw has voiced hope the refugees will get more rights to study and work outside the camps.

“If we compare [with] the last parliament, no one talked about refugees,” she said. “So, I think there is progress.”
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UK’s new government announces legislation for ‘national renewal’ as Parliament opens with royal pomp 

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London — Britain’s new Labour Party government promised to calm the country’s febrile politics and ease its cost-of-living crisis as it set out its plans for “national renewal” at the grand State Opening of Parliament on Wednesday.

Stabilizing the U.K.’s public finances and spurring economic growth were at the center of Prime Minister Keir Starmer ‘s legislative agenda, announced in a speech delivered by King Charles III.

“My government will seek a new partnership with both business and working people and help the country move on from the recent cost of living challenges by prioritizing wealth creation for all communities,” the king said in a speech to hundreds of lawmakers and scarlet-robed members of the House of Lords.

Starmer campaigned on a promise to bring bold change to Britain at modest cost to taxpayers. He aims to be both pro-worker and pro-business, in favor of vast new construction projects and protective of the environment. The risk is he may end up pleasing no one.

In a written introduction to the speech, Starmer urged patience, saying change would require “determined, patient work and serious solutions” rather than easy answers and “the snake oil charm of populism.”

The King’s Speech is the centerpiece of the State Opening, an occasion where royal pomp meets hard-nosed politics, as the king donned a diamond-studded crown, sat on a gilded throne and announced the laws his government intends to pass in the coming year.

Labour won a landslide election victory on July 4 as voters turned on the Conservatives after years of high inflation, ethics scandals and a revolving door of prime ministers. Starmer has promised to patch up the country’s aging infrastructure and frayed public services, but says he won’t raise personal taxes and insists change must be bound by “unbreakable fiscal rules.”

Wednesday’s speech included 40 bills – the Conservatives’ last speech had just 21 – ranging from housebuilding to nationalizing Britain’s railways and decarbonizing the nation’s power supply with a publicly-owned green energy firm, Great British Energy.

The government said it would “get Britain building,” setting up a National Wealth Fund and rewriting planning rules that stop new homes and infrastructure being built.

Economic measures included tighter rules governing corporations and a law to ensure all government budgets get advance independent scrutiny. That aims to avoid a repetition of the chaos sparked in 2022 by then-Prime Minister Liz Truss, whose package of uncosted tax cuts rocked the British economy and ended her brief term in office.

The government promised stronger protections for workers, with a ban on some”zero-hours” contracts and a higher minimum wage for many employees. Also announced were protections for renters against shoddy housing, sudden eviction and landlords who won’t let them have a pet.

The government promised more power for local governments and better bus and railway services – keys to the “levelling up” of Britain’s London-centric economy that former Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised but largely failed to deliver.

Though Starmer eschewed large-scale nationalization of industries, the government plans to take the delay-plagued train operators into public ownership.

The speech said the government “recognizes the urgency of the global climate challenge” — a change in tone from the Conservative government’s emphasis on oil and gas exploration. As well as increasing renewable energy, it pledged tougher penalties for water companies that dump sewage into rivers, lakes and seas.

The speech included new measures to strengthen border security, creating a beefed-up Border Security Command with counter-terrorism powers to tackle people-smuggling gangs.

It follows Starmer’s decision to scrap the Conservatives’ contentious and unrealized plan to send people arriving in the U.K. across the English Channel on a one-way trip to Rwanda.

The speech also tackled an issue that has foxed previous governments: reforming the House of Lords. The unelected upper chamber of Parliament is packed with almost 800 members – largely lifetime political appointees, with a smattering of judges, bishops and almost 100 hereditary aristocrats. The government said it would remove the hereditary nobles, though there was no mention of Starmer’s past proposal of setting a Lords retirement age of 80.

There was no mention of lowering the voting age from 18 to 16, though that was one of Labour’s election promises.

While much of Starmer’s agenda marks a break with the defeated Conservative government of former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Starmer revived Sunak’s plan to stop future generations from smoking by gradually raising the minimum age for buying tobacco.

The speech confirmed that the government wants to “reset the relationship with European partners” roiled by Britain’s exit from the European Union in 2020. It said there would be no change to Britain’s strong support for Ukraine and promised to “play a leading role in providing Ukraine with a clear path to NATO membership.”

Wednesday’s address was the second such speech delivered by Charles since the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in September 2022.

He traveled from Buckingham Palace to Parliament in a horse-drawn carriage – past a small group of anti-monarchy protesters with signs reading “Down with the Crown” – before donning ceremonial robes and the Imperial State Crown to deliver his speech. Police said 10 members of an environmental activist group were arrested near Parliament over alleged plans to disrupt the ceremony.

For all its royal trappings, it is the King’s Speech in name only. The words are written by government officials, and the monarch betrayed no flicker of emotion as he read them out.

“The king has zero agency in this,” said Jill Rutter, senior research fellow at the Institute for Government think tank.
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UK union fails to win recognition at Amazon site after losing ballot, Amazon says

Posted on by SeeEU

LONDON — The GMB union has failed to secure the right to formally represent workers at an Amazon warehouse in Coventry, central England, Amazon said on Wednesday.

The ballot result on union recognition is a blow for the U.K. trade union movement as victory in the ballot would have forced the U.S. e-commerce giant to negotiate labor terms with a U.K. union for the first time.

The Coventry workers have been involved in a dispute over pay and union recognition for more than a year and have carried out numerous strikes.

The GMB union has argued Amazon frustrated its recognition bid by recruiting hundreds of additional workers at the site so the union no longer had the numbers to make the ballot threshold.

Amazon’s treatment of workers has been in the spotlight for years. It has historically opposed unionization, saying its preference has been to resolve issues with employees directly rather than through unions.

However, in 2022, workers at its warehouse in Staten Island, New York, forced the company to recognize a trade union in the U.S. for the first time.

That was seen as key moment for the union movement. However, Amazon workers at two other New York warehouses and one in Alabama have since voted against unionizing.

Amazon does interact with unions in countries such as Germany and Italy. But that is largely because it is required to by government.

Amazon employs about 75,000 in the UK, making it one of the country’s top 10 private sector employers.

Britain’s new Labor government has promised to give workers more rights and unions more power.

It plans to update trade union legislation, removing restrictions on trade union activity and ensuring industrial relations are based around good faith negotiation and bargaining.

Labor says British employment laws are outdated, a drag on economic growth and a major factor in the U.K.’s worst period of industrial relations since the 1980s.
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Paris mayor takes pre-Olympics dip to prove Seine clean

Posted on by SeeEU

Paris — The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, swam in the murky waters of the Seine on Wednesday to demonstrate the river is now clean enough for outdoor Olympic swimming events.

Wearing goggles and a wet suit, the 65-year-old city leader swam breaststroke before immersing her face and beginning a front crawl, covering around 100 meters up and downstream.

She was joined by senior local officials and by Tony Estanguet, a triple Olympic gold medalist in canoeing who heads the organizing committee for the Paris Games, which open next week on July 26.

“Today is a confirmation that we are exactly where we meant to be,” Estanguet said. “We are now ready to organize the games in the Seine.”

Despite an investment of $1.5 billion to prevent sewage leaks into the waterway, the state of the Seine has brought suspense to the build-up to the Paris Games.

But since the beginning of July, with heavy rain finally giving way to sunnier weather, samples have shown the river to be ready for the open-water swimming and the triathlon.

“On the eve of the Games, when the Seine will play a key role, this event represents the demonstration of the efforts made by the city and the state to improve the quality of the Seine’s waters and the ecological state of the river,” Hidalgo’s office said on Tuesday.

The Socialist politician had originally planned to swim last month but had to delay because bacteria indicating the presence of fecal matter were found to be sometimes 10 times higher than authorized limits.

The long wait for her dip had sparked jokes and memes on social media, with one viral AI-generated image showing her looking like the wrinkled Gollum character from the Lord of the Rings movies after her amphibious exploit.

President Emmanuel Macron, who had promised to join the Seine bathers, was a notable absentee as he is occupied by a political crisis caused by his decision to call snap parliamentary elections last month.

The Seine is set to be used for the swimming leg of the Olympics triathlon on July 30-31 and Aug. 5, as well as the open-water swimming on Aug. 8-9.

Strong currents

The locations chosen for open-water swimming have also caused difficulties at past Olympics, notably ahead of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and those in Tokyo in 2021.

“It’s been raining all over France. Summer has been very late to arrive and so have the good results,” said Marc Valmassoni from clean-water campaign group Surfrider which has been conducting weekly tests on the Seine since last year.

“They’re not excellent, they’re not terrible, they’re average. But at this time the water is swimmable.”

Cleaning up the Seine has been promoted as one of the key legacy achievements of Paris 2024, with Hidalgo intending to create three public bathing areas for the city’s residents next year, a century after swimming was banned.

“We’re not doing it for three days of competition in the Seine,” Estanguet told AFP during an interview last week. “We’re going it above all for environmental reasons… I’m proud that we’ve served as an accelerator.”

Authorities have invested in new water treatment and storage facilities in and around Paris, as well as ensuring that thousands of homes and canal boats without wastewater connections are linked up to the sewerage system.

Major storms still overwhelm the Paris underground waste-water network, however, some of which dates back to the 19th century.
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Increased security around Trump is apparent, agents wall him off from RNC crowds

Posted on by SeeUS

Milwaukee —  On the floor of the Republican National Convention Tuesday evening, vice presidential candidate JD Vance greeted and shook hands with excited delegates as he walked toward his seat.

It was a marked contrast from former President Donald Trump, who entered the hall a few minutes later and was separated from supporters by a column of Secret Service agents. His ear still bandaged after an attempted assassination, Trump closely hugged the wall. Instead of handshakes or hellos for those gathered, he offered fist pumps to the cameras.

The contrast underscores the new reality facing Trump after a gunman opened fire at his rally in Pennsylvania Saturday, raising serious questions about the agency that is tasked with protecting the president, former presidents and major-party candidates. Trump’s campaign must also adjust to a new reality after he came millimeters from death or serious injury — and as law enforcement warns of the potential for more political violence.

Trump campaign officials declined to comment on the stepped-up security and how it might impact his interactions going forward.

“We do not comment on President Trump’s security detail. All questions should be directed to the United States Secret Service,” said Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose agency oversees the Secret Service, said Monday that he could not discuss “specifics of the protection or the enhancements made, as they involve sensitive tactics and procedures. I can say, however, that personnel and other protective resources, technology, and capabilities have been added.”

The Secret Service had already stepped up Trump’s protection in the days before the attack following an unrelated threat from Iran, two U.S. officials said Tuesday. But that extra security didn’t stop the gunman, who fired from an adjacent roof, from killing one audience member and injuring two others along with Trump.

The FBI and Homeland Security officials remain “concerned about the potential for follow-on or retaliatory acts of violence following this attack,” according to a joint intelligence bulletin by Homeland Security and the FBI and obtained by The Associated Press. The bulletin warned that lone actors and small groups will “continue to see rallies and campaign events as attractive targets.”

Underscoring the security risks, a man armed with an AK-47 pistol, wearing a ski mask and carrying a tactical backpack was taken into custody Monday near the Fiserv Forum, where the convention is being held.

The attack has led to stepped-up security not only for Trump. President Joe Biden’s security has also been bolstered, with more agents surrounding him as he boarded Air Force One to Las Vegas on Monday night. Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also received Secret Service protection in the shooting’s wake.

Trump’s campaign has also responded in other ways, including placing armed security at all hours outside their offices in Florida and Washington, D.C.

Trump has already scheduled his next rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Saturday. That’s where he will appear with Vance for their first event as a presidential ticket.

But the new posture complicates, at least for now, the interactions Trump regularly has with supporters as he signs autographs, shakes hands and poses for selfies at events and on airplane tarmacs.
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European experts expect economic measures, military personnel changes from China’s Third Plenary Session

Posted on by SeeEA

Vienna — European experts watching China’s Third Plenum say this week’s high-level meetings are unlikely to touch on political reform but will likely introduce several measures to reverse the nation’s economic downturn.

“Any measures to be announced on China’s key economic problems will be moderate and gradual, like Chinese medicine, as opposed to a shock therapy,” said Alicia Garcia-Herrero, a senior researcher at the Belgian think tank Bruegel.

The Spanish economist listed eight key problems facing the current Chinese economy: stagnation in real estate; tight local government finances; deflationary pressure; sluggish consumer consumption; an aging population; a decline in foreign investment in non-manufacturing industries; increased social security costs, such as pensions and medical care; and the failure to achieve transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry.

The state-run Xinhua News Agency has said decisions on such matters are expected from this week’s Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, which is to address policy matters spanning the next decade.

Garcia-Herrero said China’s possible approaches include providing modest subsidies to low- and middle-income households to stimulate consumption; structural measures to slow down the aging of the population; opening up investment access to attract foreign investment; increasing local government taxes to make up for shortfalls caused by falling land prices; delaying retirement; and reducing government administrative costs to achieve fiscal balance.

Chinese policymakers will need to make some hard choices. A lack of social benefits prompts people to save for future emergencies, which reduces private consumption. Stimulating consumption will require greater government spending, including a better social welfare system, but this will hurt an already deteriorating fiscal position.

It remains to be seen to what extent China’s economic decision-makers agree on establishing a social safety net and carrying out consumption-oriented structural reforms.

Garcia-Herrero said that in the long term, the way to solve China’s economic woes is to expand local fiscal autonomy and develop high-end manufacturing, although neither seems likely in the short term.

The plenum is expected to focus on reforming the fiscal and taxation systems, and specific measures may include transferring consumption tax and value-added tax from the central government to local governments.

President Xi Jinping has stressed the importance of vigorously developing “new quality productivity” and promoting China’s industrial upgrading and “high-quality development.”

Alexander Davey, an analyst at MERICS, told VOA, “The past reforms of investments of vast resources and personnel into modernizing China’s industrial system and promoting scientific and technological innovation will continue.”

But he said it is uncertain whether those investments “will negatively impact the extent to which Beijing can allocate resources for local governments to service health care, education, infrastructure, government employee wages, etc.”

Analysts say the Chinese modernization development model, which relies on high-end manufacturing exports to drive the economy, could exacerbate trade disputes between China and its major export destinations. The United States and Europe have recently accused China of “overcapacity” of electric vehicles and have imposed anti-dumping investigations and tariff measures.

Davey said Chinese-style modernization “could be used as pretext for how Beijing decides to retaliate [against] Brussels’ tariffs on Chinese EVs, among other EU de-risking actions towards China. Beijing may target European imports like brandy, wine, and certain types of cars, framing them as unnecessary luxury goods in its march towards common prosperity, imposing tariffs accordingly.”

The China watchers also said specific plans for personnel changes at the top level of the People’s Liberation Army are expected.

Two former Chinese defense ministers, Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu, were expelled last month from the party and the military.

Francesco Sisci, an Italian Sinologist, told VOA, “We know the focus will be the PLA and the economy. The domestic economy is not doing well with private consumption shrinking and the military is under immense stress for the unprecedented purge of two ministers of defense. The PLA seems in disarray, which is extremely dangerous.”

Adrianna Zhang  contributed to this report.
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Trump’s former foes pay homage at Republican Party convention

Posted on by SeeUS

The U.S. Republican Party put some of Donald Trump’s intra-party former foes briefly back in the spotlight on the second night of its nominating convention. VOA’s chief national correspondent Steve Herman was on the convention floor Tuesday and has details from Milwaukee.
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Indonesian volunteers teach young refugees

Posted on by SeeAF

Cisarua, Indonesia — In a middle school level class, students are learning about planetary science from the gases of Jupiter to the exosphere on Mercury.

That might seem no different than lessons at many schools around the world, but this session is happening at a learning center for refugees in Indonesia.

Paying close attention is Afnaan Guleid, a 13-year-old whose family fled from Somalia to the Southeast Asian country. She said in her native country her family had to worry about violence, but now she can focus on her dreams.

“I want to be a scientist when I grow up because I love to do experiments and discover things,” Guleid said.

She is one of the 85 students at the Cisarua Refugee Learning Center. The entire curriculum is in English, whether the students are learning math, science, social studies or basic life skills. And beginning this year, qualified students could join an online program to work toward an American high school diploma.

Massoud Azimi, 15, is one of them. Azimi is a refugee from Afghanistan who has been in Indonesia for eight years but, along with his family, is scheduled to be resettled in the United States within the next few months.

 “The programs at this learning center are helping me prepare for school in America,” Azimi said. “It’s strengthening my academic skills.”

Cisarua is a town in the hills, a few hours’ drive from the country’s largest city, Jakarta, which has become a hub for many refugees in Indonesia.

A spokesperson for the United Nations refugee agency told VOA there are about 12,600 refugees and asylum seekers in the country and approximately 1,300 of them are in Cisarua.

Refugees said the town’s milder temperatures and lower cost of living compared with Jakarta make it an attractive place.

But most, if not all, of these refugees hope to eventually be resettled in a third country. The U.N. refugee agency said the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are accepting refugees from Indonesia, but the process typically takes at least seven years and placement is not guaranteed.

While Indonesia allows refugees to enroll in public schools, the Cisarua Refugee Learning Center offers its students a chance to focus on their English, which is a skill they will need if they are resettled.

“We are trying to prepare them for the next country that they are going,” said Reza Hussaini, the school’s principal, who is a refugee himself from Afghanistan.

The learning center has refugees who fled violence or persecution in countries in Asia and Africa, including Yemen, Iraq, Sudan, and Myanmar. “We have students from different cultures, students from different religions, students from different countries,” Hussaini said. “There is a diversity of culture here.”

Zahra Sakhawat is a 12-year-old from Afghanistan who dreams of becoming a doctor. She said the students at this learning center feel a connection because it fosters a sense of community.

“Everyone is very kind and dear with each other,” she said.

The facilities are basic, no high-tech science labs. The learning center is funded entirely by private donations. There are also English classes for adults, which often attracts parents of the students.

All the teachers are volunteers, and many are refugees themselves, including a 39-year-old man whose identity VOA agreed to conceal out of concerns for his family’s safety in his native Myanmar. He fled the country’s civil war just four months ago because Myanmar’s junta, which staged a coup in 2021 was about to conscript him into the army.

“They were going to force me to fight for their military. So, I will not do it because I will never help the military,” he said. He has a university degree in computer science and hopes he will have a chance to study artificial intelligence in a new country.

In the meantime, he said he is enjoying the opportunity to share his computer and math knowledge as a volunteer at the Cisarua Refugee Learning Center. The school started 10 years ago and has become a model for similar refugee programs that have opened elsewhere in Indonesia.

“All of the refugees deserve a chance to prepare for their futures,” Hussaini said.
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Washington-Seoul alliance is a ‘nuclear alliance,’ US official says

Posted on by SeeUS

WASHINGTON — A high-ranking U.S. official stressed Tuesday that the U.S.-South Korea alliance is a “nuclear alliance,” reinforcing the South Korean government’s description of the two allies, after the United States and South Korea signed new deterrence guidelines last week. 

Vipin Narang, U.S. acting assistant secretary of defense for Space Policy, told VOA’s Korean Service in an exclusive interview that “when we formally extend nuclear deterrence to our allies, it is a nuclear alliance, and South Korea is an example of that.”

Narang explained that it would be similar to what the United States has with the European allies through NATO. 

“NATO publicly says, for example, that so long as nuclear weapons exist, NATO will be a nuclear alliance. And the relationship with ROK, similarly, is a formal extension of U.S. nuclear,” he said, referring to South Korea with the abbreviated form of its official name, the Republic of Korea. “We commit to defend South Korea with all capabilities.” 

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said earlier on Tuesday in a Cabinet meeting that South Korea’s alliance with the United States has been upgraded to a “nuclear-based alliance,” adding that the U.S nuclear assets will now be “specially assigned to missions on the Korean Peninsula” under the newly agreed guidelines between the two allies. 

On Thursday, Yoon met U.S. President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington, reaffirming their commitments to the Washington Declaration unveiled in 2023, which outlines the two countries’ commitment to engage in deeper dialogue and information sharing to strengthen nuclear deterrence efforts on the Korean Peninsula.

According to the joint statement released after the two leaders’ latest meeting, Biden reiterated that the U.S. commitment to extended deterrence to South Korea is backed by “the full range of U.S. capabilities, including nuclear.” 

In line with such a move, Narang, who co-chairs the Nuclear Consultative Group, a bilateral body set up by the United States and South Korea under the Washington Declaration, met his South Korean counterpart, Cho Chang Lae, in Washington last week and signed “the United States and Republic of Korea Guidelines for Nuclear Deterrence and Nuclear Operations on the Korean Peninsula.” 

The guidelines, according to the Department of Defense, provide principles and procedures to assist policymakers and military officials of both countries “in maintaining an effective nuclear deterrence policy and posture.”

Narang emphasized that the guidelines would help the Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) evolve in accordance with the threats by the U.S.-South Korea alliance.

“The guidelines document is the not the end, it’s the beginning, and sort of sets up the NCG as an enduring body,” he said. “The NCG is a living body, and the work streams evolve with the threat environment and the capabilities, just as North Korea’s capabilities continue to expand and diversify.” 

However, he made it clear that only the U.S. president will be able to authorize the use and employment of U.S. nuclear weapons, while underscoring Washington and Seoul will be approaching the extended deterrence “as equal partners.”  

“We have extended deterrence relationships. We need conventional support from our allies,” he stressed. 

His remarks come amid growing skepticism in South Korea over the U.S. extended deterrence, especially after Russia and North Korea signed a defense pact, which indicated Moscow’s willingness to engage in full-fledged military cooperation with Pyongyang. 

An increasing number of South Korean people are calling for South Korea’s own nuclear weapons, arguing that the U.S.-ROK alliance’s existing deterrence strategy would not be enough to protect South Korea from the possible attacks from North Korea, if it joins hands with Russia. 

The acting assistant secretary of defense gave a strong warning against South Korea having its own nuclear weapons.

“It would be in violation of the NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty),” Narang said, adding that South Korea would probably face international sanctions. 

He also suggested that Seoul would be “an international pariah” and would become vulnerable to North Korea’s nuclear attacks during the time it is pursuing nuclear weapons. 

Experts in Washington remained cautious about what the new guidelines could mean for the extended deterrence for South Korea. 

“It shows that the United States is taking seriously South Korea as a partner in all aspects of defense,” said Scott Snyder, president of Korea Economic Institute of America.

Snyder told VOA’s Korean Service on Tuesday that the decision to employ a nuclear weapon should be made in a closely integrated manner between Seoul and Washington. 

“If it’s not integrated, the alliance will fail,” he said. 

He added that the decision will heavily depend on the U.S. inclination.  

Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the Rand Corporation, told VOA’s Korean Service on Tuesday that it is difficult to see the U.S.-South Korea alliance as a “nuclear alliance.” 

“If South Korea has been given a role in planning the nuclear options, yes, but the U.S. has been implying that that hasn’t occurred,” Bennett said. 

“If they are a nuclear alliance, then it ought to describe in what way it’s a nuclear alliance – is South Korea being included in planning how nuclear weapons will be used? That’s what President Yoon asked for. It’s not clear to me.” 
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