The South Sudanese government said Wednesday that it was disappointed with the State Department’s decision to recall the U.S. ambassador to the country.
Ambassador Thomas Hushek was recalled Monday in what was widely viewed as a signal of Washington’s displeasure over South Sudan’s failure to meet an extended deadline for forming a unity government, a critical component of a peace deal aimed at ending a bloody five-year civil war in the eight year-old nation. South Sudan Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mawien Makol called the U.S. diplomatic move “a double standard,” adding that South Sudan’s president and opposition party had agreed that “outstanding issues [in the peace process] have to be given time.”
Makol said Washington’s message to South Sudan had been that “peace should be done inclusively” and that “all stakeholders to the peace must agree to the implementation of the peace.”
The State Department has confirmed the recall of Hushek for consultations.
Earlier this month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted criticism of South Sudan’s failure to form a unity government, adding: “The U.S. will reevaluate its relationship with the Government of South Sudan & work to take action.” Plea for supportSouth Sudan is urging the Trump administration to reconsider its position “and to come back on board and support this country,” Makol told South Sudan in Focus, adding that President Salva Kiir needed support from “longtime partners like the United States” and that Washington’s stance “does not help the [bilateral] relations.”
“[T]he people of South Sudan support the extension of the 100 days [for forming a unity government],” Makol said.
A second extension of the pre-transitional period was approved by parties to South Sudan’s revitalized peace deal earlier this month. The Trump administration warned it would sanction anyone blocking the road to peace in the country.
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Month: November 2019
US Teen’s TikTok Video on Xinjiang Goes Viral
A TikTok post by a young woman, pretending to give eyelash curling advice while actually condemning China’s crackdown on Muslims in Xinjiang, has gone viral on the Chinese-owned app that has been accused of censoring anti-Beijing content.The clip by US teen Feroza Aziz, who describes herself as “17 Just a Muslim”, had millions of views across several social media platforms by Wednesday.But Aziz said she has been blocked from posting on the hugely popular video platform TikTok for a month after uploading Sunday’s clip slamming China, a claim disputed by the app.Part three to getting longer lashes #tiktok#muslims#muslimmemes#Uyghurmuslims#freepalestinepic.twitter.com/OoFpDpYPvj— feroza.x (@x_feroza) November 25, 2019Human rights groups and outside experts say more than one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities have been rounded up in a network of internment camps across the fractious region of Xinjiang.China, after initially denying the camps existed, describes them as vocational schools aimed at dampening the allure of Islamist extremism and violence through education and job training.Aziz starts her video telling viewers: “The first thing you need to do is grab your lash curler.”US Warns China’s Detention of Uighurs to Counter Terrorism Will Backfire
A senior U.S. official has rejected China’s claim that the mass internment of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in China’s Xinjiang region is part of a counter-terrorism program and says it will backfire. The United States co-hosted an event on the sidelines of the U.N.
However, she soon changes the subject, saying: “Then you’re going to put it down and use the phone you’re using right now to search what’s happening in China, how they’re getting concentration camps, throwing innocent Muslims in there, separating families from each other, kidnapping them, murdering them, raping them, forcing them to eat pork, forcing them to drink, forcing them to convert.”This is another Holocaust, yet no one is talking about it. Please be aware, please spread awareness in Xinjiang right now,” she adds, before returning to the eyelash curling tutorial.A previous account owned by Aziz, reportedly from New Jersey, was blocked by TikTok over another alleged violation, but the app denied the current profile had been frozen.”TikTok does not moderate content due to political sensitivities,” a spokesperson told AFP.”In this case, the user’s previous account and associated device were banned after she posted a video of Osama Bin Laden, which is a violation of TikTok’s ban on content that includes imagery related to terrorist organizations. Her new account and its videos, including the video in question, were not affected.”As of Wednesday morning, the post had more than 1.5 million views and 501,900 likes, and 600,000 comments.Two follow-up videos in which Aziz again addressed the Xinjiang camps had both received more than 7,000 views.The eyelash-curling clip had reached far more people on Twitter, where versions of the same video received more than 6.5 million views.Aziz told Buzzfeed: “As a Muslim girl, I’ve always been oppressed and seen my people be oppressed, and always I’ve been into human rights.”Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang decline to comment.”How could I know what’s happening on the (social media) account of one individual?” Geng said at a regular press briefing, adding that Beijing has always urged Chinese companies to comply with international rules and local laws.
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Guinea-Bissau Presidential Elections Head to Second Round
Guinea-Bissau voters go to the polls for a second round of voting in December to decide on their next president. Results of the first round show that no candidate garnered the 50 percent needed to win outright.Former Prime Ministers Domingos Simoes Pereira and Umaro Sissoco Embalo will face each other in a December 29 runoff election to decide who will be the next president of Guinea-Bissau.FILE – Domingos Simoes Pereira, then-Prime Minister of Guinea-Bissau, speaks during the 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters, Sept. 29, 2014.First-round results announced Wednesday show Pereira winning 40 percent of the vote and Embalo trailing with 27 percent.Cipriano Cassama, the current parliament speaker and a member of Pereira’s majority party, the PAIGC, said while the party is disappointed with not wining the first round outright, it is hopeful of taking home more votes in the second round.Cassama says, “We are going to a second tour with a lot of pride but it’s not the result that we were hoping for, but that is how democracy is. I hope that under the orientation of our party, PAIGC, we can start to work with the direction of the campaign and the structure of the campaign to find a real strategy to give the victory to our candidate.”Pereira, who heads the PAIGC, has appealed to voters with his roadmap for development known as “Terra Ranka,” which roughly translates to “Restart the Country” in Guinea-Bissau’s Portuguese-based Creole.Embalo, a former military officer, is the candidate for newly-formed party MADEM G-15. The party was founded after members broke away from the PAIGC after a political crisis ensued in 2015, when current President Jose Mario Vaz fired Pereira from the prime minister’s position.Cassama said Guinea Bissau needs to move forward from the most recent political stagnation.He says, “Guinea-Bissau is a young country, a country that has a lot of resources and we need to turn the page so that we can initiate socioeconomic development for the country.”Young voters have said their main goal is that Guinea-Bissau move forward.Meanwhile, another round of campaigning will kick off December 13.
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Kenya Debates Reforms after Decades of Electoral, Political Violence
A Kenyan task force has recommended sweeping governmental changes, including restoring the post of prime minister, establishing a mixed cabinet, and devoting more resources to avoid future election unrest. The report by the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) comes two years after Kenya’s heated 2017 election that almost split the country. At a public gathering attended by thousands of Kenyans, President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday bemoaned the country’s strife-laden political challenges and welcomed governmental reforms proposed by the Building Bridges Initiative or BBI in a newly released report.“Our differences are not that big. What is bringing all this problem is political competition our opinions are not that different,” said Kenyatta. “We decided to sit and even look beyond 2017 election why is it after every five years Kenyans must fight each other, we must shed blood, destroy properties, business to come to a halt and fear engulf our people. These questions were the beginning of building bridges initiative idea.”The BBI task force was formed in March 2018 when opposition leader Raila Odinga and President Kenyatta met in the aftermath of the heated 2017 election that almost spit the country.The task force has sought to guide a national discussion on the country’s political future as Kenyatta serves his final presidential term.The report recommends retaining Kenya’s presidential system while empowering the president to appoint a prime minister from parliament in hopes of promoting ethnic diversity and balance in the government.Kenyans are being urged to read the report and provide feedback.Initial reactions appear positive from both the government and key elements of the opposition. Odinga said the BBI report will unite the country.“We want to see a new Kenya and out of this, a new Kenya is going to emerge, Kenya that we all want to see. We want to see all people of Kenya united working together as one people that’s the purpose of this BBI thing,” he said.But praise is not universal. Opposition Senator Ledama Ole Kina of Narok County slammed the proposed BBI reforms.“One of my biggest problems I have with the report is that during the Moi era we talked about the dictatorial state,” he said. “Now we are talking about an imperial presidency where you have given that president all the powers to choose who is going to be the Prime Minister, to choose cabinet secretaries. I think its wrong. Let’s give Kenyans the opportunity to elect their own leaders.”Political commentator Martin Andati says Kenya’s leaders have missed what is really ailing the country.“The issues which have made us fight, the issues that have caused polarization in the country were captured very well by late Kofi Annan in the agenda four issues but none of the agenda four issues is fully being addressed. The solution is in what Kofi Annan told us a lean commission which fairly representative but also having a proper functioning electronic system nobody is talking about that,” he said.Kenyans lived through bouts of political violence in 2017, 2013 and in 2007-2008, when former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan worked to end the strife.Kenyans will have several weeks to read and debate the 156-page report’s recommendations, which could be decided in a referendum or by parliament.
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Quake Kills at Least 27 in Albania, State of Emergency Declared
The death toll from the strongest earthquake to hit Albania in more than three decades rose to at least 27 on Wednesday, as the country observed a day of mourning.
Among the deaths, which included children, were at least 12 people killed in the coastal city of Durrës, at least 14 in Thumanë, and at least one in Kurbin. Officials say the death toll could increase further, with several people still unaccounted for. Hundreds of others were admitted to the hospital with injuries.
The government declared the state of emergency for the areas affected the most, as rescue crews continued to work to pull people from the rubble.
Albania Quake video player.
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The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was a magnitude 6.4 with an epicenter 30 kilometers northwest of the capital, Tirana. Three hours after the initial quake, a magnitude-5 aftershock struck in the Adriatic Sea.
Several buildings were also destroyed in Durrës and Thumanë.
“For the moment, when all energies are going towards search and rescue, it is impossible to have a detailed account of material damage,” said Defense Minister Olta Xhaçka, adding this was the worst earthquake to hit Albania, since 1979. Some 40 people were killed in that earthquake.Citizens rest at a makeshift camp in Durres, after an earthquake shook Albania, Nov. 26, 2019. Escaped the worst
Prefect of Durrës Roland Nasto told VOA there are nine sites “in the city where crews continue to work to find people,” suggesting the toll might rise.
“[Tomorrow] we will start the process of finding shelter for people who today are under open skies and who will spend the night in tents, some of them – due to the trauma — even refusing to be sheltered in arenas or gyms, afraid to be somewhere with a ceiling,” Prime Minister Edi Rama said on Tuesday.
He later visited Thumanë to assess the damage.
“We want our loved ones to be dug out of the rubble as soon as possible,” said a Thumanë resident, who told VOA’s Albanian Service her cousin and his wife were missing.
Another resident said, “We are trying to find people that are dead or alive. We are afraid to go inside the buildings for fear that they will crumble.”
President Ilir Meta and opposition leader Lulzim Basha also visited areas affected by the quake.
Show of solidarity
Aid and support has poured into the affected areas, with people offering their homes and sending care packages from different parts of Albania. Kosovo’s outgoing government allocated $550,000 for relief efforts and Kosovo’s Security Force sent specialized teams and enlisted help from private companies.
Rescue teams and specialized crews were dispatched from neighboring Kosovo, Italy and Greece.
“Two groups of specialized crews have come from Kosovo, two from Greece, two from Italy, and we expect a specialized group of 40 from Italy,” Nasto said.
Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, who was visiting North Macedonia Tuesday, later in the day visited Albania to offer “any assistance needed to face the catastrophic situation.”
The European Commission said on Twitter that its stands by Albania “at this difficult time following the earthquakes.”
“We have mobilized immediate support to help local authorities, and rescue teams from Italy, Greece and Romania are already on their way,” a statement on Twitter said.
Help also arrived from France, Turkey, Serbia, and the United States.
The U.S. Embassy also sent a statement of condolence.
“The United States stands with our friends in Albania, just as Americans and Albanians have always stood by each other during difficult times. We will continue to closely monitor the situation and stand ready to offer our support,” the Embassy said.
On Wednesday, Pope Francis said he was praying for Albania.
“I would like to send a greeting and express my closeness to the dear Albanian people, who have suffered so much these days,” the pope said. “Albania was the first country in Europe that I wanted to visit. I am close to the victims, I pray for the dead, for the wounded, for the families, may God bless them, the people that I love.”
The Albanian diaspora also was rallying to help, holding several fundraisers to send money to one of the poorest countries in Europe.
“I am so heartbroken for my people back home, for those who have lost lives and loved ones,” New York City Assemblyman Mark Gjonaj, an Albanian American, told VOA.
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US Military Aid Life or Death’ for Kyiv
The House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump is focused on whether the White House delayed promised U.S. military aid to Ukraine until its leader agreed to do the president a political favor. While lawmakers investigate the president’s role in the matter, VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine takes a closer look at that military aid at the center of the controversy and why it’s so critical for Ukraine
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Pakistan Court Delays Ruling on Army Chief’s Retirement
Pakistan’s Supreme Court is giving government lawyers an extra day to argue their case in favor of extending the powerful army chief’s term.
Wednesday’s decision adjourns the case until the following day.
The government will use that time to fix what the court says are procedural mistakes made this summer, when Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa was reappointed for another three years.
Khan had hoped to keep Bajwa on for another three years, but his law minister, who resigned on Tuesday, appears to have fumbled the application by not submitting it to the president.
The supreme court temporarily suspended Bajwa’s term extension on Tuesday, just two days before his scheduled retirement.
He will be forced to step down if the court overturns the government’s extension order.
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Possible New Doping Sanctions Loom for Russia
Top Russian officials decried the recommendations by a World Anti-Doping Agency committee to suspend Russia from international competition over tainted athlete doping probes — the latest in a drawn out saga over accusations of Russian state sponsored doping that has roiled global sport since 2014.Russian athletes, unsurprisingly, joined in expressing bitterness about the WADA recommendations. But while some argued the suggested WADA penalties were unduly harsh, others blamed a failure in Russian sport leadership for risking their chance to compete in the next two Olympic Games and perhaps beyond.The recommendations, issued by WADA’s Compliance Review Committee on Monday, alleged evidence of tampering of some 2000 athlete probes at Moscow’s RUSADA testing facility, and called for a four-year suspension of Russia from international competition, including the Olympic Games.Reacting to the pronouncement at a news conference on Tuesday, Russia Minister of Sport In this file photo dated Wednesday, July 24, 2019, Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov speaks to the media in Moscow, Russia. Russia has sent a formal response to the World Anti-Doping Agency, Tuesday Oct. 8, 2019.The charges, argued Lavrov, were carried out by those who “wish to show Russia as guilty in anything and everything.”The Kremlin was more sanguine. A spokesman merely noted that President Vladimir Putin — who has gladly cast Russia’s return to sporting glory as a symbol of the country’s rising global status under his 19-year rule — had no plans to meet with government sporting officials over the issue.WADA is expected to make a final decision regarding the committee’s recommendations on December 9. Whatever the outcome, Russia would have a right to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport for a final ruling.Athletes reactYet athlete anger was also palpable — with leading athletes lashing out at both WADA and Russia’s sporting bureaucracy for failing to lift a doping cloud that has hung over Russian athletics ever since a 2015 WADA investigation detailed widespread cheating at international events.Indeed, just days prior to this week’s WADA committee recommendations, World Athletics, the sport’s global governing body formally known as the IAAF, provisionally suspended top figures from Russia’s Track and Field for helping champion Russian high jumper Danil Lysenko avoid doping tests earlier this year.The charges prompted the immediate full suspension of efforts to reinstatement Russia’s track and field association following its 2015 suspension. Until the most recent violation, the talks reportedly had been making headway.In a letter addressed to Russia’s Minister of Sport and head of Russia’s Olympic Committee, acclaimed high jumper In this Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019 file photo, Gold medalist Mariya Lasitskene, who participates as a neutral athlete, poses during the medal ceremony for the women’s high jump at the World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar.While Russia has acknowledged problems with doping to a degree, it has also argued the country is being unfairly singled out — with Russian athletes being punished en masse for the sins of a few.In turn, the International Olympic Committee made allowances for Russian athletes who undergo additional drug screening to compete as neutral athletes, without state uniform or flag or anthem, at the 2016 and 2018 Olympics.In a statement released Tuesday, the IOC criticized Russia over the doping probe manipulations while suggesting bad actors at RUSADA had sabotaged what it otherwise saw as a good faith effort by Russian Olympic Officials.”The report does not indicate any wrongdoing by the sports movement in this regard, in particular the Russian Olympic Committee or its members,” noted the IOC statement.“In this context, the IOC welcomes the opportunity offered by WADA to Russian athletes to compete, “where they are able to demonstrate that they are not implicated in any way by the non-compliance.”Yet some Russians — including leading sporting legends — expressed exasperation over the Russian government’s continued inability to weed out drug offenders and make peace with WADA.“The fact that there are more honest and clean athletes in our country than lying and irresponsible ones is a fact,” wrote Yelena Isinbayaeva, the former two-time Gold medal winner.“So why is it that we still can’t seem to separate these two groups — the honest from the deceitful?” Access of the Moscow RUSADA laboratory doping probes was one of two key condition to WADA’s so-called “roadmap to return” to international competition.Yet from President Putin on down, Russian officials have been loathe to meet WADA’s other supposed requirement: that Russia admit it engaged in a massive doping effort with support from the government and security services to help secure medals — most notably at the Russia-hosted Sochi 2014 Winter Games, in which Russia placed first among nations.Russian officials and, to a degree athletes, argue geopolitics have helped hype the hysteria around Russian doping — with sport long ago joining Ukraine, Syria, election interference, and a myriad of other issues that currently infect Russian relations with the West.Given the political stakes involved, observers puzzled out possible motives behind the latest manipulation of athlete probes at the Moscow lab — with the popular sports.ru website coming to what it admitted was an uncomfortable conclusion: someone in the Russian government had chosen to gamble the Olympic dreams of young Russian athletes rather than admit past doping transgressions.“We don’t have sport in a traditional sense — in Russia, it long ago became a special-operation for winning medals,” said the editorial.“Our manipulation of the database — is, by fact, an admission. It’s proof of a government doping system.”
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Rescuers Scramble to Save Lives After 6.4-Magnitude Quake in Albania
Rescuers were pulling survivors and dead bodies from piles of rubble in Albania on Tuesday after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck the country’s coastal area. The U.S. Geological survey placed the quake’s epicenter about 30 kilometers north of the capital Tirana and at a depth of about 20 kilometers. The earthquake was followed by about 100 aftershocks, including three with preliminary magnitudes of about 5. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports the death toll is rising.
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France Mourns Soldiers Killed in Mali
France said Tuesday it is determined to continue fighting terrorism, despite losing 13 of its soldiers during a counterinsurgency operation in Mali. The deaths of the soldiers late Monday represent France’s biggest military loss in three decades. The 13 troops were killed during a counterterrorism combat operation in Mali, when the two helicopters the troops were on slammed into each other.French President Emmanuel Macron announced his deep sadness over their deaths, and France’s National Assembly observed a minute of silence.French Defense Minister Florence Parly described the men as exceptional soldiers and heroes, who fought for liberty until the end. She said support from allies strengthened France, allowing it to continue the fight against terrorism.Forty-one French soldiers have been killed in Mali since France launched its Barkhane counterinsurgency operation against Islamist militants in the Sahel in 2014.The latest deaths draw attention to the roughly 4,500 French troops stationed across West Africa — raising questions about whether they are stretched too thin.France is supporting a so-called G-5 Sahel alliance, grouping five area countries against armed extremist groups. But experts say the militant groups are strengthening. Regional forces and U.N. peacekeepers have come under attack. Some commentators say France does not have enough military support and the G-5 Sahel alliance has yet to achieve even a symbolic victory.
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Bride Price Custom Honored in Nigeria, Despite Concerns
Critics say the widespread African tradition of giving cash and gifts to a bride’s family before marriage, known as a “bride price,” degrades women by putting a required, monetary value on a wife. In Nigeria, the financial pressure in a recent case ended in suicide, underscoring those concerns. But supporters of the bride price tradition uphold it as a cherished cultural and religious symbol of marriage, as Chika Oduah reports from Yola, Nigeria.
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Report: South Sudan Rebels, Government Trade in Illegal Timber Sales
A United Nations report accuses South Sudanese rebel and government military commanders of illegally logging and selling teak and mahogany trees in the former Central Equatoria and Eastern Equatoria States. A rebel spokesman denies the allegation, while a spokesperson for the South Sudan Peoples Defense Forces declined to comment.A Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition spokesman denies rebels loyal to Riek Machar are doing business selling ecologically sensitive trees.”If there are still forces of IO in Kajo-Keji area, they are still waiting for the second phase [cantonment] and it is not that they are doing business as put across [in the U.N. report]. One thing the U.N. is doing is to put confusion when peace is moving on well like that,” Colonel Lam Paul Gabriel told South Sudan in Focus.In a 33-page, Nov. 22 report, the U.N. Panel of Experts said they received “credible information” indicating Major General Moses Lokujo of SPLA-IO Division 2B was “directly involved in the taxation of teak and mahogany” being illegally harvested in Liwolo, Kariwa, Kendire, Kala, Ajio, Lora Manglotore, Bori, Lowili and Katire payams, all of which are under the control of opposition forces.The report also said Lokujo has been active in transporting logs across South Sudan’s borders with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. Gabriel said U.N. experts connected Lokujo to the illegal activity because of logging in Kajo-Keji.”The truth is, the logging is done by the community approved by the landlords,” Lokujo told South Sudan in Focus.Gabriel criticized the U.N. for calling teak logging illegal in rebel territory, saying the SPLA-IO has the right to serve civilians under their protection.”What do they mean like illegal in a controlled area of SPLA-IO? It is supposed to be legal because that thing moved through the community and it comes up to the level of government [IO leadership]. During war, there are those who are loyal to the government, and there are those who are loyal to the rebels, they will always be loyal to us and those with the government will be loyal to the government,” Lam told South Sudan in Focus.Gabriel was featured in a video documentary entitled, “The Profiteers,” for his role as a middle man who facilitated the transportation of timber from rebel-controlled areas in Yei, South Sudan, to Uganda.After the video was shared widely on social media, the SPLA-IO deputy spokesman recorded a Facebook live-video in which he denied any involvement in the timber business.The Panel of Experts report said opposition forces harassed community members who refused to follow their orders, leading many to flee to refugee camps in Uganda.Gabriel strongly disagreed with the U.N. findings, saying people were fleeing clashes between the SPLA-IO and competing rebels of the National Salvation Front (NAS).”After NAS attacked us in 2017 in Kajo-Keji and we lost, three quarters of these civilians — they went back to Uganda. We fought for seventeen days against the forces of Thomas Cirilo and all these IDPS there moved to Uganda. But the U.N. to restrict it to the harassment of the SPLA-IO, they have already taken sides with forces of Thomas Cirilo,” Lam told VOA.According to the U.N. panel, timber traders pay the SPLA-IO up to $600 for the right to log and $800 to transport logs through their territories.The logs are mainly sold in neighboring Uganda for $400 to $600 per log, according to “The Profiteers.”The U.N. experts said South Sudan Peoples Defense Force commanders in Pageri and Ajaci counties in the former Eastern Equatoria State have traded in timber since April 2017.The U.N. experts said the SSPDF, especially units of its Tiger Division deployed in Moli, are illegally cutting timber and taxing logging companies.The Panel says the beneficiary of the illegal logging was Major General Johnson Juma, head of administration and finance for the SSPDF.The Panel of Experts said illegal tree logging in South Sudan has left locals with no income in those areas.The South Sudan Peoples Defense Forces Spokesman Major General Lul Ruai declined to comment on the U.N. allegations.
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Top Maltese Officials Quit amid Probe into Reporter’s Murder
There senior officials in Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s government stepped down Tuesday in connection with a probe into the murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.Press reports have linked Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi, Economy Minister Chris Cardona and Muscat’s chief of staff Keith Schembri to the Caruana Galizia investigation.All three deny any wrongdoing. Their resignations follow the arrest last week of Maltese hotelier and power company director Yorgen Fenech in relation with the case.In her blog, Caruana Galizia wrote boldly about corruption and investigated the affairs of Maltese politicians and business figures, as well as those doing business with the European Union member.Eight months before she was killed by a car bomb in October 2017, Caruana Galizia alleged in her blog that a company called 17 Black Ltd., listed in the Panama Papers, was connected to Maltese politicians. The company belonged to Fenech, the businessman.Economy Minister Cardona said Tuesday he was stepping down pending the investigation and the ongoing proceedings related to Caruana Galizia’s case. He was summoned by police for questioning last Saturday.
Cardona said he had “absolutely no connection with the case,” but added that after police asked for further clarifications, he felt “duty-bound to take this step in the national interest.”Mizzi, the tourism minister, said he was resigning “in the national interest.” He reiterated that he had no business connection with Fenech, and no connection with 17 Black.Prime Minister Muscat himself announced the resignation of his chief of staff Schembri.Asked of the reasons behind Schembri’s decision, Muscat told reporters it was premature to speculate on “whether he is being questioned or what he is being questioned about.” He added, however, that the timing of the resignation was “unfortunate.”Schembri served as Muscat’s chief of staff since 2013.Muscat on Friday described the investigation as “the biggest our country has seen,” but contended that no politicians were tied to the journalist’s murder.Three people were arrested in December 2017 on suspicion of detonating the bomb that killed 53-year-old Caruana Galizia as she drove near her home. The trial has not yet begun, and the mastermind has yet to be identified.
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More Protests in Colombia as Duque Makes Changes to Tax Reform
Colombian unions and student groups will hold another protest on Wednesday in honor of a teenage demonstrator who died after being injured by a tear gas canister, as President Ivan Duque announced changes to his unpopular tax reform proposal.Other demonstrations are expected to continue on Tuesday, the sixth straight day of protests following a 250,000-person march last week organized by the National Strike Committee.The largely peaceful protests have attracted thousands of marchers to reject economic reforms, police violence and corruption.The committee said in a statement early on Tuesday it would demand “a permanent negotiation” with Duque, but talks lasted only about two hours, with committee leaders demanding Duque meet only with them, sans business leaders or other sectors.The committee has demanded the tax reform, which includes a cut in duties on businesses, be rejected.
Shortly after the meeting, Duque told journalists the proposal will be modified to return value added tax to the poorest 20% of Colombians and lower contributions to healthcare by minimum wage pensioners – half of the retired population – from 12% to 4% over three years. There will also be three days each year without VAT.The proposals will cost some 3.2 trillion pesos ($931 million), the government said.Duque denies supporting rumored economic plans that have galvanized many protesters – including a cut to the minimum wage for young people. Demonstrators have also highlighted what they say is a lack of government action to stop the murder of hundreds of human rights activists and asked Duque to fully implement a 2016 peace deal with leftist rebels.Asked as he left the meeting what the government could do to end protests, Confederation of Colombian Workers president Luis Miguel Morantes told Reuters “it is a negotiation, there will be things that go to a certain point, there will be a fair balance, there will be other things we have to wait for, like changes in laws, it’s very relative.”The committee wanted an “exclusive” dialogue, but the government would like them to form part of national discussions, said official Diego Molano.”They must understand that there are other sectors which also want to debate the issues of employment, who have proposals for young people,” Molano told journalists.The death on Monday of protester Dilan Cruz, 18, is likely to fuel further criticism of the crowd dispersion tactics of the ESMAD riot police, which include tear gas and stun grenades.Cruz, who was injured on Saturday, has become a symbol for many young protesters. On Tuesday mourners were gathering at makeshift shrines outside the hospital where he was treated and the place where he was hit.
The strike committee said it would ask Duque to shut down the ESMAD and “purify” the police.The committee will increase the intensity of the strike on Wednesday “in homage to the symbol of the national strike Dylan Cruz,” the statement said, using a different spelling of Cruz’s first name than that used by his sister and the government.($1 = 3,433.94 Colombian pesos)
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Chile’s Pinera Asks for Help From Military Even as Abuse Allegations Mount
Chilean President Sebastian Pinera on Tuesday asked lawmakers to allow troops back on the streets to defend key public infrastructure, even as a human rights group reported “grave” abuses by security forces over five weeks of sometimes violent riots.The continuing protests in Chile over inequality and a shortfall in some social services have left at least 26 dead and thousands injured. They have also hobbled the capital’s public transport system, once the envy of Latin America, and caused billions in losses for private business.Chilean President Sebastian Pinera arrives to La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago, Chile, Nov. 4, 2019.Riots have erupted in countries across Latin America, including Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia in recent weeks as regional unrest has spiraled into violence and demands for broad-based reforms.Pinera sent a bill to Congress Tuesday morning to allow the military to protect transmission lines, electric plants, airports, hospitals and other public infrastructure in order to assure “basic services.”He said the move would “free up the police force … to protect the security of our citizens.”Pinera’s announcement came shortly after international rights group Human Rights Watch said in a report that police had brutally beat protesters, shot teargas cartridges directly at them, and ran over some with official vehicles or motorcycles.”There are hundreds of worrying reports of excessive force on the streets and abuse of detainees,” said Jose Miguel Vivanco, director of Human Rights Watch’s Americas division, after meeting with Pinera on Tuesday.The group stopped short of alleging the abuses had been systematic, but its conclusions were in line with a report last week by Amnesty International on the seriousness of many violations. More than 200 Chileans have suffered severe eye injuries alone in clashes with police using rubber bullets.Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have recommended an immediate overhaul of police protocols and accountability measures to address the mounting allegations of abuse.Police and military officials have said any cases of alleged abuse are under investigation by civilian courts.New clashesRoadblocks snarled traffic around the Chilean capital Santiago on Tuesday around midday, as protesters set up burning barricades on major streets and highways around the city.Police used water cannons to disperse protesters in front of the La Moneda presidential palace shortly after Pinera’s speech there. Many took to the city’s main boulevard afterward, bringing traffic to a standstill.”This never ends,” Rosa Olarce, a pharmacy worker, told Reuters as she waited for a bus. “We’ll see what comes of it.”Pinera in his speech Tuesday morning ticked off a list of reforms, from boosting the minimum wage to slashing the prices of medicines and public transportation, aimed at quelling the protests.The country’s normally fractious political parties have also agreed to work together on a new constitution.However, protests continue, in smaller numbers but with intense violence at their fringes, driven by mistrust that politicians will keep their promises to bring significant change, and enduring fury over the police handling of demonstrators.
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Kenya Vetting Some 40,000 People Who Want to Shed Refugee Status at Dadaab Camp
Kenyan authorities have begun a month-long vetting process at the Dadaab refugee camp near Somalia to determine who qualifies as a Somali asylum-seeker and who is a Kenyan citizen.Thousands of Somalis have called the camp home since 1991, when political instability sparked by the fall of President Siad Barre’s government forced them to flee their country. But a number of Kenyans also call the camp home after escaping the effects of a severe drought.The Dadaab refugee camp is home to about 200,000 people. The government says they include some 40,000 Kenyans of Somali descent who falsely claimed to be Somali refugees in order to receive free food assistance from aid agencies and eventual passage to the West.Thirty-year-old Abdirashid Mohamed is a Kenya-born ethnic Somali who was falsely registered as a refugee when Dadaab opened in 1991.Mohamed says, “I was young when I was registered as a refugee. I was young and I couldn’t think on my own. We registered as a refugee due to our problems. These people came to our area and at the time free food was being provided. I don’t think there is someone who can stay away in a place where free food is given out. That is how we ended up being refugees.”Mohamed, a taxi driver like tens of thousands like him, says he didn’t want to be a refugee anymore. He was able to provide documents proving that he is a Kenyan citizen, meaning he will be free to leave Dadaab when authorities clear him to do so.Twenty-five-year-old Bashir Ahmed, a high school graduate, was born at Dadaab four years after it opened. His parents are Kenyans of Somali descent. His family registered at the camp in order to get free food, water, and medicine.FILE – Somali refugees walk along a dirt road in northern Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp, Dec. 19, 2017.But Ahmed says his family’s desperation cost him his freedom for a while.“My parents are Kenyans; even with relatives in the nearest Garissa town, I couldn’t visit them or go on with my education, so I was just staying at home without any movement.”
Hussein Abdirahman, Dadaab’s assistant country commissioner, explained the government’s decision to determine who at the camp is legally Kenyan.“There are people who have been suffering – some of them were young when their fingerprints were taken into the database and the mistake was their parents…they cannot secure identification cards; they cannot secure passports because of maybe a mistake done by their parents. I think as a country we are giving our youth who maybe could have gone in other wrong ways, maybe could have done something that is not right we bring them to close we give them their citizenship so that they feel they are part of the country,” Abdirahman said.Kenyan authorities have said the camp – which they have sought to close – is a recruiting ground for al-Shabab militants. There have been concerns the militants from Somalia have used the camp to plan and carry out attacks in Kenya and Somalia.The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, reports that more than 80,000 Somali refugees have returned home in the past five years.Ahmed was successful in defending his Kenyan status and says he is looking forward to pursuing a university education after four years at home.“Since I finished high school, I have not continued with my studies. I was at home. I didn’t have an identification card to go to the nearest town. Since I am expecting to get a Kenya identification card, I will study further. It was the main thing I was missing,” Ahmed said.The vetting process ends next month.
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