Month: October 2018

PM Formally Apologizes to Australian Child Sex Abuse Victims

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Prime Minister Scott Morrison delivered a formal apology Monday to Australia’s victims of child sex abuse, saying the nation must acknowledge their long, painful journey and its failure to protect them. 

Morrison’s emotional speech given in Parliament before hundreds of survivors followed the conclusion of a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the nations’ highest level of inquiry.

“Today as a nation we confront our failure to listen, to believe, and to provide justice,” he said, adding: “We say sorry.” 

Abuse survivors gathered in Parliament’s Great Hall cried, yelled and applauded as Morrison read the apology.

“I believe you, we believe you, your country believes you,” he said.

The four-year inquest that delivered its final report in December revealed shocking evidence from more than 17,000 survivors and heard allegations against government, church and private institutions, as well as prominent individuals. 

It also heard evidence from leaders such as Vatican Cardinal George Pell, who is charged with committing historical sex abuses himself and was accused of failing to protect children.

The prime minister said in his speech Monday that it was time for Australia to confront key questions. 

“Why weren’t the children of our nation loved, nurtured and protected? Why was their trust betrayed?” he said. 

“Why did those who know cover it up? Why were the cries of children and parents ignored? Why was our system of justice blind to injustice? Why has it taken so long to act? Why were other things more important than this, the care of innocent children? Why didn’t we believe?” 

Morrison said nothing could be done to right the wrongs inflicted on children. 

“Even after a comprehensive royal commission, which finally enabled the voices to be heard and the silence to be broken, we will all continue to struggle,” he said. 

“So today, we gather in this chamber in humility, not just as representatives of the people of this country, but as fathers, as mothers, as siblings, friends, workmates and, in some cases, indeed, as victims and survivors.” 

The lawmakers stood for a minute of silence following the apology, which came with the announcement of government plans to create a museum and research center to raise awareness and understanding of the impacts of child sexual abuse, and to ensure the nation does not forget the horrors victims have suffered. 

The research center will also assist those seeking help, and guide best practices for training and other services. 

The government will also commit to reporting every year for the next five years on the progress of the royal commission’s recommendations. 

It has already accepted 104 of the commission’s 122 recommendations, including a redress payments program, with the other 18 recommendations still under examination. 

The government has also established a new office of child safety, to report to the prime minister. 

Opposition leader Bill Shorten joined the apology, saying Australia had failed tens of thousands of children, across generations. 

“Our nation let you down. Today, we offer you our nation’s apology, with humility, with honesty, with hope for healing now, and with a fire in our belly to ensure that our children will grow up safe in the future,” Shorten said. 

While many survivors and campaigners welcomed the apology, others called for more to be done to address the history of abuse.

In Canberra, Rick Venero, who was abused at a Marist Brothers school in Sydney, said action should be taken against institutions that protected pedophiles.

“(The apology) meant a great deal. It’s fantastic to get that from the Australian people,” Venero said. “(But) it’s pretty shattering actually, to come here and everyone’s behind it, and the power of these institutions means that nothing’s really happening.”

Leonie Sheedy, chief executive of the Care Leavers Australia Network, which advocates for those raised in state care, called on the government to remove a charity tax exemption from institutions that are still deciding whether to opt in to the national redress program for victims. 

She said she’s never healed from being abused. 

“You can learn to live with it, but it never goes away,” Sheedy told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. “It will be with me and all care leavers until the day that they put the lid on the coffin.” 
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Philippines Scrambles to Find Undersea Energy as Import Prices Hit Consumers

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The resource-rich Philippines is doubling up development of its own fuel sources as world oil price hikes hit the largely impoverished population.

On October 17, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte signed a service contract with the Israeli energy exploration firm Ratio Petroleum to scout for fuel under the South China Sea, the Department of Energy in Manila said. It is the first Philippine-foreign energy contract signed since 2013.

The Philippines is talking separately with China, despite a maritime sovereignty dispute, about another joint exploration deal.

Pursuit of joint exploration with foreign countries reflects not only a lack of technological expertise in the Philippines to exploit its own undersea fuel reserves, but also an urgency to find that fuel, experts believe.

“It’s ideal to probably have a good source of oil,” said Jonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist with Banco de Oro UniBank in Metro Manila. “It would be ideal if we can be self-sufficient. It would save money given the rising oil price.”

Price-sensitive consumers

Oil price hikes have rippled around the world this year but hit the Philippines especially hard because food staples such as rice have suddenly started costing more at the same time. Inflation was 6.4 percent August, the highest in Southeast Asia, and 6.7 percent in September.

About one-fifth of the 100 million-plus Philippine population lives in poverty, meaning some feel a pinch when they get gasoline for their motorcycles or buy tickets for public transport.

Duterte, an otherwise popular president, saw his net trust rating fall from 75 to 57 points from December through June in part because of inflation, analysts believe.

Prices for Brent crude oil hit $78.90 per barrel on the world market in September, up from $72.50 a month earlier, for a 40 percent increase over the previous year. Sino-U.S. trade disputes and a cut in oil export loading by Iran have driven the increases. 

“The President has been very clear – our country needs to attain energy security and sustainability at the soonest possible time,” energy department Secretary Alfonso Cusi said via his department’s website last week.

“We are currently experiencing how our dependence on importation has left us at the mercy of price movements in the global oil markets,” he said. “We need to boost the exploration and development of our own energy resources and the awarding of the petroleum service contract to Ratio Petroleum is a step in the right direction.”

Oil and gas exist; expertise lags

The Philippines controls untapped fuel deposits estimated at $26.3 trillion, the state-run Philippine News Agency said in February, calling that amount “more than enough to free the country from the shackles of poverty.”

But its contractors lack the exploitation expertise available in Western countries, analysts believe. In Asia, Vietnam and Myanmar also rely on foreign partners to tap fuel under the sea.

“Often these frontier economies don’t have good capabilities in that area,” said Rajiv Biswas, executive director and Asia-Pacific chief economist with the research firm IHS Markit.

“Definitely oil and gas technology is a key area where developing countries, especially countries like the Philippines, need the help of big global players who have advanced technology in oil and gas,” Biswas said. Developing countries may also need the foreign contractor’s investment, he added.

Manila is no stranger to foreign oil exploration deals, but deals can be elusive because estimated reserves are not on the scale of places such as the Middle East, while parts of the South China Sea west of the Philippine archipelago are contested. Five other governments claim all or part of the same waters.

Philippine officials brought on Shell Philippines Exploration, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, in 2002 to help explore a major undersea tract called the Malampaya gas field. Gas from that field accounts for 20 percent of domestic electricity requirements but Philippine media say reserves are forecast to start declining by 2022.

China and the Philippines have talked about joint oil exploration since 2017, with China saying it would be willing to accept just a 40 percent share of any discoveries. The two sides still dispute sovereignty in parts of the South China Sea, but since 2016 officials from both have set the dispute aside to work together economically.

The Israeli firm is untested so far, analyst say, but it should pay attention to potential competition. The 7-year contract calls for tapping 416,000 hectares in an undisputed zone for potential oil and gas.

“If they want to get more oil exploration projects in the Philippines, they better measure up, because China is coming in,” said Eduardo Araral, Philippine and South China Sea-specialized associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s public policy school.
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Migrants Fleeing Violence, Continue North as Trump Tweets They Are Not Welcome

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A group of several thousand migrants, mostly from Honduras, spent Sunday night in the southern Mexican city of Tapachula as they continued their trek away from what they say is untenable violence and poverty at home, while U.S. President Donald Trump warned again they are not welcome in his country.

Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reiterated that policy in a statement late Sunday, saying the administration is closely following the progress of the caravan and accusing the migrants of violating the sovereignty, laws and procedures of the countries they are traveling through.

Pompeo said the United States is concerned about violence provoked by some members of the caravan and “the apparent political motivation of some organizers” without giving specifics about either.

He also pledged U.S. support for Mexican government efforts to address refugee and migration issues.

Authorities in southern Mexico largely left the migrants alone Sunday as they walked toward the day’s destination in Chiapas state. 

The Mexican government has pledged to process asylum requests for migrants who apply. The country’s interior ministry reported that on Friday, Saturday and Sunday a total 1,028 people had requested refugee status.

Mexico’s National Migration Institute said it reiterates its duty to safeguard the human rights of migrants who enter its territory.

Trump has threatened to deploy the U.S. military to stop what he calls an “assault on our country at the Southern Border,” and portrayed the migrant group as containing “many criminals.”

“Full efforts are being made to stop the onslaught of illegal aliens from crossing our Southern Border,” he tweeted Sunday. “People have to apply for asylum in Mexico first, and if they fail to do that, the U.S. will turn them away. The courts are asking the U.S. to do things that are not doable!”

Trump blames the opposition Democrats for what he says are immigration laws and border policies that are not strong enough to protect the United States.

“The Caravans are a disgrace to the Democrat Party. Change the immigration laws NOW!” he tweeted.

And he has threatened to cut off financial aid to Honduras and Guatemala, saying those governments are not doing enough to control their populations.

Pueblo Sin Fronteras, an organization that helps the migrant caravans in Central America, says governments in the region have adopted “a policy of fear and racism imposed by the United States” and are not considering the reasons why people are seeking somewhere new to go.

“They are walking in mass exodus because they cannot live in their country anymore due to extreme violence, lack of opportunity, and the corruption and impunity that has expelled them from their homes,” the group said in a statement Sunday.

Mexico’s incoming president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told supporters at a rally Sunday in Chiapas that he would be sending a letter to Trump proposing Mexico, the United States and Canada work together to invest in development in Central America to address poverty.

Lopez Obrador, who takes office December 1, said people who leave their home do so not because they want to, but out of necessity.

He has pledged to offer migrants work visas, and said Sunday that Mexico has to guarantee human rights and that above all, the migrant families, women and children will have protection.

“Nothing bad will happen to the Central American migrants,” Lopez Obrador said.

Aid group Save the Children expressed concern Sunday about children who were sleeping outside in Tapachula and Suchiate either because places were full or the children feared they would be detained once inside.

The group estimates one in four members of the caravan are children.

WATCH: Migrant caravan

​The Red Cross said Saturday that many of the people it is helping along the caravan route, a majority of them women and children, “are suffering from dehydration, stomach infections, and foot injuries as they walk the long journey.”

Walter Cotte, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies regional director for the Americas, said in a statement: “It is imperative that the dignity and security of families are safeguarded and they are kept together.”

 
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Rebel Group Claims South Sudan Ceasefire Has Been Violated

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Rebels of the Federal Democratic Party (FDP) are accusing forces loyal to Riek Machar’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM IO) of attacking FDP forces in Kotkea near Nasir town in Upper Nile State. 

Spokesman Changkouth Bichiock Reth for the umbrella group of opposition parties known as South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA), said FDP commanders Major General Riek Gach Gatluak and Brigadier Ochan Nyuot were captured by opposition forces during the fight over the control of Kotkea.

SPLM IO reaction

SPLM IO Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee Stephen Par told VOA’s South Sudan In Focus that rebels of the FDP have no military posts in Upper Nile.

‘’What is happening in Upper Nile, I don’t think the party [FDP] of Gabriel Changson has forces in Nasir. We are not aware of this,’’ Par said.

However, he admitted his group arrested one person in Nasir for what he called “suspicious activities.”

Reth says the attack by SPLM IO and the arrest of FDP senior military officer Major General Jany Kaway Yoakhor a few weeks is ‘’a flagrant breach of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement signed in December 2017 and a violation of the permanent ceasefire agreed to in Khartoum in June 2018.’’

Looming attacks

Suba Samuel Manase, the spokesman of the rebel National Salvation (NAS), released a statement Saturday accusing the SPLM IO of mobilizing its forces to attack NAS forces in Yei River state.

Manase alleges that NAS intelligence confirmed reports of two groups of SPLM/A –IO forces moving from the village of Panyume in Morobo County to Kajo-Keji, Lanya, and Loka to attack NAS forces stationed in this area.

‘’This information is credible because we have forces on the ground and we monitor the movement of the SPLM IO, and for that matter the information is, indeed, credible.’’ Manase told VOA.

Reth said urged the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the U.S, Norway and the United Kingdom to put pressure on SPLM/A-IO to respect the September 12 peace agreement, release the captured FDP officers, and withdraw from Kotkea.

VOA could not independently verify the accusations by the three rebel groups.

Cease-Fire Monitors

The Ceasefire and Transitional Security Arrangements Monitoring Mechanism (CTSAMM), a body formed by IGAD to monitoring cease-fire violations, has not issued any statement on the latest reports.

Chris Trott, Britain’s special representative for Sudan and South Sudan told VOA last month that the parties involved in the conflict in South Sudan have a chance to show their commitment to peace by implementing the revitalized agreement.

Just days after the signing of the agreement, reports of fighting had surfaced in several parts of South Sudan, according to Jean-Pierre Lacroix, U.N. undersecretary-general for peacekeeping operations.

In an interview with VOA in September, Angelina Teny, a senior member of the rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO), blamed government forces for allegedly attacking rebel strongholds in Central Equatoria and the former Unity state.
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Congo Rebels Kill 15, Abduct Kids in Ebola Outbreak Region

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Congolese rebels killed 15 civilians and abducted a dozen children in an attack at the center of the latest deadly Ebola outbreak, Congo’s military said Sunday, as the violence again forced the suspension of crucial virus containment efforts.

“We condemn this attack,” said the World Health Organization’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, while a WHO regional official said it was “difficult to say how long” work would be affected.

Allied Democratic Forces rebels attacked Congolese army positions and several neighborhoods of Beni on Saturday and into Sunday, Capt. Mak Hazukay Mongha told The Associated Press. The U.N. peacekeeping mission said its troops exchanged fire with rebels in Beni’s Mayangose area.

Angry over the killings, residents carried four of the bodies to the town hall, where police dispersed them with tear gas. Vehicles of aid organizations and the peacekeeping mission were pelted with stones, the U.N.-backed Radio Okapi reported.

The ADF rebels have killed hundreds of civilians in recent years and are just one of several militias active in Congo’s far northeast.

Last month, Ebola containment efforts were suspended for days in Beni after a deadly attack, complicating work to track suspected contacts of infected people. Since then, many of the new confirmed Ebola cases have been reported in Beni and the rate of new cases overall has more than doubled, alarming aid groups.

Health efforts in recent weeks had been starting to show results, and this new attack “will bring us back,” Dr. Michel Yao, the WHO incident manager for Ebola in North Kivu province, told the AP. Colleagues’ work in Beni was suspended on Sunday as residents protested and “a few of our cars were broken,” he said.

“Tomorrow, we don’t know yet,” Yao said, noting that the day after an attack is usually for burials and can be very tense. “We understand. We are sympathetic. It’s not easy to lose relatives. At the same time, it could affect the (outbreak) response.”

The overnight attack came after two medical agents with the Congolese army were shot dead by another rebel group — the first time health workers have been killed in this outbreak.

It is a “dark day” for everyone fighting Ebola, Congo’s health minister said.

Mai Mai rebels surged from the forest and opened fire on the unarmed agents with the army’s rapid intervention medical unit outside Butembo city, the ministry said.

The daytime attack appeared premeditated, with civilians left unharmed, the statement said. The medical agents had been placed in “dangerous zones” to assist national border health officials.

Confirmed Ebola cases have now reached 200, including 117 deaths.

Health workers in this outbreak, declared on Aug. 1, have described hearing gunshots daily, operating under the armed escort of U.N. peacekeepers or Congolese security forces and ending work by sundown to lower the risk of attack.

Community resistance is also a problem, and Congo’s health ministry has reported “numerous aggressions” against health workers. Early this month two Red Cross volunteers were severely injured in a confrontation with wary residents in a region traumatized by decades of fighting and facing an Ebola outbreak for the first time.

“Health agents are not a target for armed groups,” Health Minister Oly Ilunga said. “Our agents will continue to go into the field each day to fulfill the mission entrusted to them. They are true heroes and we will continue to take all necessary measures so that they can do their job safely.”

On Wednesday, WHO said it was “deeply concerned” by the outbreak but announced it does not yet warrant being declared a global emergency. An outbreak must be “an extraordinary event” that might cross borders, requiring a coordinated response. Confirmed cases have been found near the heavily traveled border with Uganda.

In the latest example of the rumors that pose another serious challenge to containing the virus, the health ministry said 22 youth in Butembo dug up the body of an Ebola victim and opened the body bag, “wanting to verify that no organs had been taken from the body by health workers.”

They ended up touching highly infectious bodily fluids, the ministry said. “The next day, they agreed to be vaccinated,” joining the more than 20,000 people who have received vaccinations so far.
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Russia Wants Explanation of Trump Withdrawal from Arms Treaty

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Russia says President Vladimir Putin will ask for an explanation this week from U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton when he visits Moscow about President Donald Trump’s intention to pull the United States out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty because of alleged Russian violations of the pact.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Sunday Trump’s action “would be a very dangerous step,” accusing the U.S. of trying to assume “total supremacy” in the world.

The agreement was negotiated in the late 1980s, signed by then U.S. President Ronald Reagan and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. It required the elimination of short-range and intermediate-range nuclear and conventional missiles by the United States and Russia.

In announcing the withdrawal, Trump said Saturday, “Russia has violated the agreement. They have been violating it for many years. And we’re not going to let them violate a nuclear agreement and go out and do weapons and we are not allowed to.”

Trump said the United States will develop the weapons unless Russia and China agree to stop manufacturing their own similar weaponry, although China is not part of the pact.

“If Russia’s doing it and if China’s doing it, and we are adhering to the agreement, that is unacceptable,” Trump said.

Russia has denied violating the treaty.

Britain said it stood “absolutely resolute” with the United States in the dispute, although another American ally, Germany, called Trump’s move “regrettable.”

Gorbachev, now 87, attacked Trump’s action, telling the Interfax news agency, “Is it really so hard to understand that dropping these agreements… shows a lack of wisdom? Getting rid of the treaty is a mistake.”

He said the two countries “absolutely must not tear up old agreements on disarmament. All the agreements aimed at nuclear disarmament and limitation of nuclear arms must be preserved to save life on Earth.”

 

U.S. officials have previously alleged that Russia violated the treaty by deliberately deploying a land-based cruise missile in order to pose a threat to NATO. Russia has claimed that U.S. missile defenses violate the pact.

Beatrice Fihn, the executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize-winning campaign coalition, said that “by declaring he will leave the INF Treaty, President Trump has shown himself to be a demolition man who has no ability to build real security. Instead, by blowing up nuclear treaties, he is taking the U.S. down a trillion dollar road to a new nuclear arms race.”

Dmitry Oreshkin, an independent Russian political analyst told the Associated Press, “We are slowly slipping back to the situation of Cold War, as it was at the end of the Soviet Union, with quite similar consequences, but now it could be worse because Putin belongs to a generation that had no war under its belt. These people aren’t as much fearful of a war as people of [former Soviet leader Leonid] Brezhnev’s epoch. They think if they threaten the West properly, it gets scared.”

 
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Saudi Arabia: ‘Huge and Grave Mistake’ in Killing of Journalist

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Saudi Arabia says it made “a huge and grave mistake” in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi inside its Istanbul consulate and vowed those responsible for it would be held accountable.

Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told Fox News on Sunday that Saudi agents “did this out of the scope of their authority,” calling it “a rogue operation.”

The country’s top diplomat offered his condolences to Khashoggi’s family, but disclosed no new information about how the writer was killed, where his body is or if Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s de facto ruler, was involved.

“There obviously was a tremendous mistake made and what compounded the mistake was the attempt to try to cover up,” al-Jubeir said. “That is unacceptable in any government.”

Saudi Arabia said Saturday the 59-year-old Khashoggi was killed October 2 after an argument leading to a fist fight, an explanation that has drawn widespread international scorn and skepticism, including from U.S. President Donald Trump.  The U.S. leader said Saturday, “Obviously there has been deception, and there has been lies.”

Al-Jubeir said in the television interview, “This is an aberration.  This is a mistake and those responsible will be punished for it.  We want to make sure that we know what happened and we want to make sure that those responsible be held to account.”  Saudi Arabia says it has fired five key officials linked to the death and arrested 18 others.

Critics are questioning how a team of 15 Saudi agents could fly to Istanbul to meet Khashoggi and eventually kill him without the crown prince’s knowledge and consent.  But al-Jubeir said, “There were not people closely tied to him,” although news accounts have said that several Saudi security officials close to Mohammed were involved.

Khashoggi was living in the U.S. in self-imposed exile, writing columns for The Washington Post that were critical of Mohammed and Saudi Arabia’s intervention in the conflict in Yemen.

Trump told the newspaper that Saudi Arabia has been an “incredible ally” of the United States for decades and it is possible the crown prince did not order Saudi agents to kill Khashoggi.

“Nobody has told me he is responsible. Nobody has told me he is not responsible,” the U.S. leader said. “We have not reached that point … I would love if he was not responsible.”

After the Saudis’ explanation Saturday for Khashoggi’s death, Trump at first said it was credible. But numerous U.S. lawmakers, including Trump’s Republican colleagues, are calling for sanctions against Riyadh. Turkish investigators say Saudi agents tortured Khashoggi, decapitated him and then dismembered his body.

Trump told the Post that “something will take place” in response to Khashoggi’s death, but said the United States should not let the incident disrupt a possible $110 billion weapons sale to Riyadh he announced last year.

“It’s the largest order in history,” Trump said. “To give that up would hurt us far more than it hurts them . Then all they’ll do is go to Russia or go to China. All that’s doing is hurting us.”

But one Trump supporter, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, told Fox News on Sunday, “I don’t think arms should ever be seen as a jobs program.”

Other U.S. lawmakers voiced skepticism of the Saudi explanation for Khashoggi’s death.

Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CNN he believes Mohammed bin Salman was responsible, saying, “Yes, I think he did it.”

A Trump critic, California Congressman Adam Schiff, told ABC News, “This ought to be a relationship-altering event for the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, that we ought to suspend military sales, we ought to suspend certain security assistance.”

U.S. officials are faced with reconciling the Saudi explanation for Khashoggi’s death and Turkey’s claim an audio recording exists of Khashoggi’s torture and death. Trump denies U.S. officials have heard the audio or read transcripts of it, but the Post quoted sources saying that Central Intelligence Agency officials have listened to the audio. Verification of it would make it difficult to accept the Saudi explanation for Khashoggi’s death.

European leaders and the human rights group Amnesty International expressed skepticism about the Saudi explanation.

Britain, Germany and France issued a joint statement condemning the killing of Khashoggi and said there is an “urgent need for clarification of exactly what happened.” They said the Saudi explanation for the journalist’s death needs to be supported by facts in order to be credible.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he will announce details of his country’s investigation on Tuesday.

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the circumstances around Khashoggi’s death are deeply troubling, and called for a thorough, credible and transparent investigation.

Amnesty International called on Saudi Arabia to “immediately produce” Khashoggi’s body so an autopsy can be performed.

Amnesty’s director of campaigns for the Middle East, Samah Hadid, said a United Nations investigation would be necessary to avoid a “Saudi whitewash” of the circumstances surrounding Khashoggi’s death. Hadid said such a cover-up may have been done to preserve Saudi Arabia’s international business ties.

 

 

 

 
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17 Killed in Taiwan Train Derailment

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At least seventeen people were killed in a train derailment on a popular coastal route in Taiwan Sunday.

Another 132 were injured, the Taiwan Railways Administration said in a statement. All of the train’s eight carriages derailed, and five of them were flipped over, according to the statement.

Local news reports say that as many as 30 people remain alive and trapped inside the carriages in the northeastern Yilan county.

Photos of the scene show the Pyuma Express lying zig-zagged across the track.
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Ethiopian Marathoner who Made Rio Protest Returns from Exile

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The Ethiopian marathon runner who made global headlines with an anti-government gesture at the Rio Olympics finish line returned from exile on Sunday after sports officials assured him he will not face prosecution.

Feyisa Lilesa’s return from the United States came several months after a reformist prime minister took office and announced sweeping political reforms. He received a warm welcome at the airport from the foreign minister and other senior officials.

 

Feyisa said the new government is “a result of the struggle by the people” and he hopes it will address concerns after years of repression in Africa’s second most populous nation.

 

The silver medalist crossed his wrists at the finish line in 2016 in solidarity with protesters in his home region, Oromia, who like many across Ethiopia were demanding wider freedoms.

 

Feyisa later said he feared he would be imprisoned or killed if he returned home. But he became a symbol of resistance for many youth until the pressure on the government led to a change of power, with 42-year-old Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed taking office in April. Abiy is the country’s first leader from the Oromia-based Oromo ethnic group.

 

Ethiopia’s government did not immediately comment Sunday on the runner’s return.

 

Asked by The Associated Press if he has any political ambitions, Feyisa said: “I don’t have any ambition in politics! Actually I didn’t get close to politics, politics gets close to me.”

 

Feyisa broke down in tears while speaking about youth who lost their lives during the years of protests. “I will continue to remember those who lost their lives for the cause. Many people lost their lives for it.”

 

Turning his attention to running, he said his next race will be the Dubai Marathon in January.

 

“My training while I was in exile was not good, so it has affected my performance,” Feyisa said. He missed two races in recent weeks as he prepared to return to Ethiopia. “I will resume my regular training after a week.”
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UNHCR: People Seeking Asylum Have Legal Right to Enter US

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The UN refugee agency indicates Washington is on shaky legal ground in barring Central American asylum seekers from entering the United States. The UNHCR reports people fleeing persecution and violence have a right to international protection.

The UN refugee agency does not question the sovereign right of any nation to control its borders. But, it does say international law governs the way countries must behave toward refugees and asylum seekers.

The UNHCR says it recognizes the arrival of thousands of Honduran migrants in the caravan at the U.S. borders will be overwhelming. But, Spokesman Charlie Yaxlie says closing the border to the caravan is not a solution and will likely cause harm to those who have a legitimate fear for their lives.

“We wish to reiterate and underline that any individuals within that group that are fleeing persecution and violence, they need to be given access to territory and they need to be allowed to exercise their fundamental human rights to seek asylum and have access to refugee status determination procedures,” he said.

Yaxlie says this principle is not only set out in international law but is also part of the national legislation of all countries concerned. He says it is important for governments to follow the law. He tells VOA the U.S. has not always stuck to the letter of refugee law.

“I think there has been well documented some of their issues around the separation of children in the U.S. We have repeatedly called for families not to be separated and for detention not to be used,” he said.

Yaxlie says the UNHCR continues to work with the United States on ensuring their operations are in line with their obligations under international law.

In the meantime, the Geneva-based International Red Cross Federation reports Red Cross volunteers across Central America are accompanying the migrants along their journey. It says they are providing first aid and water and working to reunite families who have become separated along the way.

 

 

 
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Angola Says 380,000 Illegal Migrants Exit in weeks

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About 380,000 illegal migrants, mostly from the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, have left Angola in less than a month during a massive operation targeting diamond smuggling, a minister said Saturday.

On a visit to Dundo in northern Angola on the border with DR Congo, Pedro Sebastiao dismissed allegations that the migrants had been violently expelled and often beaten by police.

Sebastiao, a state minister and the head of presidential security who is in charge of the operation, told traveling reporters that diamonds worth more than $1 million had been seized.

He said that the migrants had all left voluntarily, and 231 premises for illegal diamond trading had been closed and 59 weapons seized.

“Angola is a democratic and lawful state,” he said. “It must be made clear that ‘Operation Transparency’ is not based on any xenophobic sentiment against citizens of neighboring countries or any other nationality.”

Speaking at the Chitato border post, he said the crackdown across northern and western Angola was “legitimate” and was to ensure that the country’s diamond reserves were correctly exploited.

There was “illegal immigration and the plundering of our natural resources without any contribution to the treasury,” he said, adding the operation was scheduled to continue for two years.

After pouring across the border in recent weeks, many Congolese have described being brutally thrown out of Angola after sometimes living there for more than 10 years.

‘Left with almost nothing’

Migrants who had crossed back to the frontier town of Kamako told AFP this week that their houses had been burnt by police and gangs of Angolan youths, and some had been attacked with machetes and beaten as they fled.

With 1,000 arrivals crossing some border posts every hour, many have been left in DRC Congo without shelter and adequate food and water as authorities struggle to cope.

“During displacement, DRC nationals have experienced violence and human rights abuses, and many have arrived with almost nothing,” ACAPS, an humanitarian crisis group, said in a briefing note.

“Although the Angolan government claims all returns are voluntary, there have been reports of forced returns,” it added.

This week DR Congo threatened to take international action against Angola over the allegedly violent expulsions.

Clashes have been reported between Congolese, Angolan security forces and local Angolans in several provinces especially in Lunda Norte, which borders on DRC.

Local media and an NGO reported that several migrants have been killed.

Oil-rich Angola attracts hordes of Congolese as it is relatively stable and offers better employment prospects.

DR Congo has an abundance of mineral wealth but is rocked by unrest unleashed by rebel groups and militias from within and neighboring nations such as Uganda and Rwanda.   

Angola and DR Congo share a 2,500-kilometer (1,550-mile) land border, the longest in Africa.
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Meghan’s Schedule in Australia Cut Back after Hectic Start

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The pregnant Duchess of Sussex has had her schedule cut back during her first royal tour, after a hectic start to her visit to Australia and the South Pacific with husband Prince Harry.

The tour is an extremely busy one, with the royal couple scheduled to attend more than 70 engagements during a 16-day trip across four countries.

Meghan, who is due to give birth in the spring, skipped an event in Sydney on Sunday morning, leaving Harry to attend a cycling competition at the Invictus Games alone.

She later joined the prince to watch sailing events, and at a lunchtime reception hosted by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Kensington Palace said the royal couple had moved to reduce Meghan’s schedule ahead of their visit to Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand in the second phase of their tour.

“After a busy program, the duke and duchess have decided to cut back the duchess’s schedule slightly for the next couple of days, ahead of the final week-and-a-half of the tour,” the palace said in a statement.

Meghan’s envisaged role on a scheduled Monday trip to Fraser Island, off Queensland state in Australia’s north, was unclear, with the palace statement saying only that “the Duke will continue with the engagements on Fraser Island.”

The couple are due to leave Australia for Fiji and Tonga on Tuesday. They will return to Sydney on Friday night for the final days of the Invictus Games, Harry’s brainchild and the focus of their tour, before finishing off with a visit to New Zealand.

Harry spent considerable time at the lunchtime reception chatting with competitors assembled for the Invictus Games, which gives sick and injured military personnel and veterans the opportunity to compete in sports such as wheelchair basketball, and to find inspiration to recover.
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Public Trust in Vaccines Plummets After Philippines Dengue Crisis

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The ability to fight future pandemics could be at risk following a plunge in public confidence in vaccines in the Philippines, according to a report from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

The plummeting trust can be traced to 2015, when the government of the Philippines began a large-scale dengue fever vaccination program after an increase in cases of the mosquito-borne disease.

An election in 2016 saw a change in government, as President Rodrigo Duterte came to power.

Then, in November 2017, the French company Sanofi, which makes the vaccine, called Dengvaxia, said it posed a risk to people who had not previously been exposed to dengue fever. If they later became infected, they could have a more severe case of dengue, according to the company.

 

WATCH: Public Trust in Vaccines Plummets After Philippines Dengue Crisis

Philippines concern to outrage

Most countries adapted to Sanofi’s announcement by updating guidelines and labeling. In the Philippines, public concern turned to outrage, which was fueled by a highly politicized response from the government, according to lead researcher Professor Heidi Larson.

“This was an opportunity to jump on the previous government for all their wrongdoings ‘Why did you get this vaccine?’ And it became an uproar and created not only quite a crisis around this vaccine, but it bled into other areas of public confidence in vaccines more broadly,” Larson told VOA in a recent interview.

The researchers measured the loss in public trust through their ongoing Global Vaccine Confidence Index. In 2015, 93 percent of Philippine respondents strongly agreed that vaccines were important. This year, that figure has fallen to just 32 percent, while only 1 in 5 people now believes vaccines are safe.

​Risk of pandemic

“This dramatic drop in confidence is a real concern about risks to other diseases such as measles, on the one hand. On the other hand, too, Asia is ripe for a pandemic in influenza viruses to take hold, and in the case of a pandemic or an emergency outbreak, that’s not a time when you can build trust,” said Larson, who also cautioned that misinformation played a big part in undermining confidence in vaccines.

“The role of social media in amplifying those concerns, in amplifying the perception of risk and fears and their public health consequences, is dramatic,” Larson said.

Large-scale immunization programs are in the trial stage to tackle some of the world’s deadliest diseases, like malaria. Meanwhile, containing the outbreak of any future pandemic, like influenza, would likely rely on emergency vaccinations.

The report authors say it is vital that governments and global institutions do more to build public trust in vaccines.
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Former Dutch PM Kok Dies at 80

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Wim Kok, a former Dutch prime minister who helped forge the country’s famed consensus-based politics and oversaw pioneering legalisations of euthanasia and gay marriage, died Saturday of heart failure. He was 80.

Kok led two centrist coalitions between 1994 and 2002, overseeing a period of recovery and then of strong economic growth.

A labor union leader earlier in his career, he was one architect of the country’s famed “polder,” or consensus model, in which unions agreed to restraint on pay in exchange for more jobs, while employers and the government guaranteed support and retraining after layoffs.

As prime minister he reined in spending on health care, pensions, education and child benefits, using the savings to promote employment.

In a world first, euthanasia was legalized in the Netherlands in 2002, formalizing decades of practice.

Though Denmark had first legalized gay partnerships in the 1980s, the Netherlands followed in 1998 and became the first to erase any distinction between same-sex and other marriages in 2001.

Kok was friends with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. President Bill Clinton as they crafted the moderate center-left “Third Way.”

“Shaking off ideological feathers is not a problem only. For a political party like ours, it’s also a liberating experience,” Kok said of steering Labor toward the political center.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte praised Kok as someone who “stood above political parties.”

Kok was “totally reliable, totally upright and always focused on solutions,” Rutte said in a statement.

Internationally, Kok was strongly pro-European, helping to seal European economic and monetary union at the Amsterdam summit in 1997.

Bosnian war

His political career ended in two dramas. Shortly before pivotal 2002 elections, his entire cabinet resigned over the role the Dutch military played as U.N. peacekeepers in Bosnia.

A study by the Netherlands Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies found Kok’s first cabinet blundered badly by sending Dutch troops to defend Srebrenica, a U.N.-declared safe zone, during the Bosnian war.

Outmanned and outgunned, the Dutch battalion did not fight to defend the enclave when battle-hardened Bosnian Serb forces stormed it in 1995. The Dutch looked on helplessly and even helped separate women from men and boys as the Bosnian Serbs prepared to slaughter 8,000 Muslim civilians in the worst mass murder in Europe since World War II.

Kok said in a recent interview the failure would haunt him forever. “That book will never be closed,” he said, “for many people, and for some that goes more intensely than for me. But it also weighs on me.”

After Kok’s resignation in April 2002, as his caretaker government prepared for elections, the Netherlands suffered its first political assassination of the post-World War II era.

Pim Fortuyn, the first of a new generation of Dutch populists, had declared the Kok years a “disaster” due to the country’s liberal immigration policies. Fortuyn was gunned down by an animal rights activist. That ushered in an era of political instability and a debate on immigrants, integration and Islam that dominated Dutch politics for the following decade and continues to the present day.

After leaving office, Kok served on the boards of Royal Dutch Shell and ING, among others, and lobbied unsuccessfully for a European Constitution.

He is survived by his wife, Rita, and three children.
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New York Witches to Aim Hex at Justice Kavanaugh

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Melissa Madara was not surprised to receive death threats Friday as her Brooklyn witchcraft store prepared to host a public hexing of newly confirmed U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh this weekend.

The planned casting of an anti-Kavanaugh spell, one of the more striking instances of politically disgruntled Americans turning to the supernatural when frustrated by democracy, has drawn backlash from some Christian groups but support from like-minded witch covens.

“It gives the people who are seeking agency a little bit of chance to have that back,” Madara said. The ritual was to be livestreamed on Facebook and Instagram at 8 p.m. EDT Saturday (1200 GMT Sunday).

Seated at a desk phone among bird skulls and crystal balls at Catland Books, the occult shop she co-owns, Madara said the Kavanaugh hex is expected to be the most popular event the store has hosted since its 2013 opening, including spells aimed at President Donald Trump. Madara declined to provide details of what the latest ritual will entail.

More than 15,000 people who have seen Catland Books promotions on Facebook have expressed interest in attending the event, vastly exceeding the shop’s 60-person capacity.

​Irate, threatening calls

Not everyone is a witchcraft fan. Madara said she had fielded numerous irate calls from critics, with at least one threatening violence. 

“Every time we host something like this there’s always people who like to call in with death threats or read us scripture,” she said.

As far as supporters go, some are sexual assault survivors still angry that the U.S. Senate confirmed Kavanaugh’s lifetime appointment to the nation’s highest court despite accusations that he had sexually assaulted multiple women.

Kavanaugh has denied the allegations, and an FBI investigation failed to corroborate his accusers’ accounts.

Democrats hope lingering outrage over Kavanaugh, particularly among women, will translate into election gains for them Nov. 6. Republicans are likewise trying to seize on anger among conservatives at how they perceive Kavanaugh was mistreated.

Counter hexes and prayers

Believers in mysticism on both sides of the political divide are taking matters into their own hands.

Plans for the Catland Books event have sparked “counter hexes” around the country by those seeking to undo the spell that the Brooklyn witches cast against Kavanaugh, Madara said.

Even mainstream clergy was joining the fray. Rev. Gary Thomas of the Diocese of San Jose in California said Friday that he would include Kavanaugh in his prayers at Saturday mass.
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Tanzania Arrests 104 for Plotting ‘Radical Camps’ in Mozambique

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Tanzanian police have arrested 104 suspected militants planning to establish bases in neighboring Mozambique, where scores of people have been killed

in Islamist attacks over the last year, a senior official said.

Forty attacks have been carried out since October 2017 in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, an area near the Tanzanian border close to where companies are developing one of the biggest natural gas finds in a decade.

More than 100 people have been killed, often by decapitation.

At a news conference on Friday, Inspector General of Police Simon Sirro said security forces had launched operations over the last few months against “criminals” in eastern and southern areas, but that some of them had managed to flee.

“During that operation, some criminals were arrested and some … died, and a few escaped. Those who escaped are the ones trying to cross the border to Mozambique to establish a base,” he told reporters.

“After questioning them, they said they were going there to join radical camps,” Sirro added.

Earlier this month, Mozambique put 189 people, including foreigners, on trial on accusations of involvement in Islamist attacks in Cabo Delgado.

The province is near one of the world’s biggest untapped offshore natural gas fields, and Anadarko Petroleum is seeking to raise $14 billion to $15 billion for a liquefied natural gas project in the region.

In June, President Filipe Nyusi vowed to be relentless and firm in detaining those responsible for the attacks.

Mozambique has no history of Islamist militancy, and authorities have been reluctant to ascribe the attacks to Islamists. About 30 percent of Mozambique’s 30 million people are Roman Catholics, while 18 percent are Muslim.
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