French President Emmanuel Macron hopes the repatriation of the body of General Charles-Etienne Gudin, who was killed in Russia more than two centuries ago, could play a symbolic role in his diplomatic courting of Russian President Vladimir Putin.Gudin, one of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte’s favorite generals, succumbed to gangrene three days after a cannonball destroyed his leg in an 1812 battle 20 kilometers east of the Russian city of Smolensk. Bonaparte reportedly sat at Gudin’s side as he died.If all goes according to French officials’ plan, Gudin’s remains will be returned to Paris in 2020 and reburied with great fanfare in a ceremony Macron hopes Putin will attend.Gudin’s heart is already in the French capital, having been transported there by his loyal troops. In July, a one-legged skeleton was discovered in a wooden coffin in a park in Smolensk. Subsequent DNA tests established it was Gudin’s.If the Kremlin agrees to France’s request, Gudin, who was 44 when he was killed, will be reburied in Les Invalides where the tombs of Napoleon and other military war heroes are located.Russian specialist Hélène Carrère d’Encausse told Le Figaro newspaper that Macron “has a sense of symbols” and sees a reburial ceremony as possibly helpful in his four-month diplomatic campaign to coax Russia into the Western fold.”President Macron is trying to put Franco-Russian relations back on track,” she said.FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with French President Emmanuel Macron at Fort Bregancon near the village of Bormes-les-Mimosas, France, Aug. 19, 2019.Ahead of last August’s G-7 summit in Biarritz, Macron showed how adept he is at using symbols and history when he hosted Putin at his summer residence on the French Riviera. Macron hailed the impact Russian artists and writers had on France, saying they served as a reminder of how Russia is essentially a European nation.It was a far cry from 2017, when fresh from an election victory in which he beat two pro-Kremlin challengers, Macron berated Putin at a joint press conference at the Palace of Versailles. Standing beside the uneasy-looking Russian leader, Macron blasted Russia for seeking to meddle in Western elections by spreading fake news, disinformation and falsehoods. He condemned brutal tactics, including the use of chemical weapons, allegedly employed by the Moscow-partnered Syrian government to regain control over the war-torn Middle East country.Macron’s about-face has made some of France’s allies nervous, especially Russia’s neighbors in Central Europe and the Baltic States. They fear that in his determination to move from hostility to rapprochement with the Kremlin, he risks falling into a trap of rewarding bad behavior for little in return.But Macron has countered that “Europe would disappear” if it does not rethink strategy toward Russia, and that prolonging hostility will push the Kremlin into the arms of an assertive China, which also is courting Russia.Russia reactionEarlier in December, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the Kremlin will look favorably on a request for the return of Gudin’s remains.FILE – Archaeologists work at a site of the supposed burial place of French General Charles-Etienne Gudin in Smolensk, Russia, July 7, 2019.”We know that French and Russian archaeologists indeed made such a discovery and performed a DNA analysis that proved 100% correct,” Peskov said. “So, those are indeed the remains of General Gudin. We know that it is big news for France, and we also know that the agenda has the topic of returning these remains.”He added, “If France sends an official request, Russia will respond positively to returning these remains.”French officials have confirmed that Macron raised the issue in December with Putin during the Ukraine peace talks in Paris. Le Figaro said the reburial “could become a symbol of Franco-Russian fraternity.”Before considering an official tribute to Gudin, Elysée Palace advisers researched Gudin’s life to ensure he was safe from reproach or possible historical embarrassment, French magazine Le Point reported. The advisers were mindful of the political controversy in 2018 surrounding Macron’s praise of General Philippe Pétain as a “great soldier” during commemorations of the centenary of World War I.Jewish leaders and Macron’s political foes argued that Macron’s praise was ill-deserved, as Petain became a Nazi collaborator. Macron was forced to justify the homage.Gudin appears to have passed the “honor” test. He is seen as a valiant warrior, above politics. He served the monarchy before the French Revolution and loyally commanded the armies of the French Republic.
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Month: December 2019
In 2019, Afghan Women Continued Their Quest for Empowerment
In 2019, Afghanistan witnessed two major events. The first was an initial step towards a possible peace deal between the Taliban and the United States. The second was a closely monitored presidential election. Both events directly affect Afghans and in particular Afghan women. VOA’s Najiba Khalil and Lima Niazi spoke to both U.S. and Afghan representatives and filed this report.
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Navalny ‘Completely Pessimistic’ About Western Curbs on Russian Corruption
After one suspected chemical poisoning, two arrests, 40 days in jail and multiple police raids on his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) offices nationwide, it’s safe to say Russia’s most prominent opposition figure has had a rough year. But for Alexei Navalny, 2019 wasn’t without at least one small victory. His calls for mass demonstrations over the exclusion of opposition candidates from local Moscow elections sparked the largest sustained protest movement in years, prompting state investigators to launch a money-laundering probe and label his group a “foreign agent,” a move that he and others call part of a Kremlin-orchestrated campaign to stifle growing dissent.Despite house-to-house searches for FBK staffers, asset seizures and frozen bank accounts, the well-known blogger and activist says he also maintained a regular jogging routine while preparing new investigative exposes on alleged corruption that fuels the excessively lavish lifestyles at the highest echelons of Russian officialdom.Navalny recently sat down with VOA’s Russian Service to reflect on 2019, the state of the American and Russian political systems, and accusations that he’s been needlessly hard on Moscow banker Andrei Kostin, one of Russia’s most powerful civilians.Just hours after this interview was conducted, Russian officials again raided FBK’s Moscow headquarters using power tools to gain entry before dragging Navalny out by force and confiscating computer equipment. The latest raid came one day after police broke into Ruslan Shaveddinov’s Moscow flat, forcibly conscripting the 23-year-old FBK project manager to serve at a remote military base in the Arctic, a move Navalny has since called tantamount to kidnapping.The following has been edited for brevity.QUESTION: How serious are FBK’s financial losses as a result of these raids, and in what other ways did Russian authorities try to interfere with your work this year?ALEXEI NAVALNY: In order to impede, complicate, and paralyze the foundation’s work, a wide range of tools are used. First, it’s just non-stop “searches,” which are in fact planned confiscations of computers, phones, flash drives — any data-processing electronics of FBK employees, staff, their relatives, neighbors, sometimes even random people. Second, it’s the freezing of accounts, such that people can’t, for example, pay or receive a salary. All accounts and cards are blocked, even for child care and survivor benefits. And then there’s the recently launched criminal case, which allows [officials] to call in anyone in for questioning at any time, along with unending efforts to nightmare and harass people through ostensibly legal actions. And while our people are quite resilient, the pressure strongly affects their relatives.As for finances, we now have several million rubles on the account blocked. The question is not even what the financial losses are, but that we’re prevented from receiving cash inflows. … After the last [election] campaign for the Moscow City Duma, there were quite a lot of [donations], so the authorities are simply trying to block this cash flow, and the campaign to designate us as “foreign agents” means all of FBK’s monetary assets were declared “criminal.”Q: Which events of 2019 were most significant to you?NAVALNY: Undoubtedly the Moscow City Duma elections. Initially, we didn’t think it would have any great national political significance, but the actions of the authorities, which were extraordinary in their stupidity, severity and senselessness, caused these events to resonate nationally. We received, on the one hand, new independent [Moscow City Duma] deputies, and, on the other hand, a huge number of people [were blocked from voting, which only made more people sympathetic to our cause]. So we got new political prisoners, new political stars. … In this sense, the Moscow City Duma elections were the main event.Q: You do what many would call the kind of high-quality investigative journalism, which, in the West, might topple an entire government. Yet your exposes of government corruption aren’t compelling most Russians to protest. Why?NAVALNY: This is indeed a cause of frustration on our part. We grasp perfectly well the quality our investigations, and we see many examples where exposes of less impact trigger government resignations and parliamentary crises in other countries. But in Russia this doesn’t have major consequences due to the general political situation. And it’s not a purely Russian phenomenon — we see similar things in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, any number of other authoritarian countries with staggering levels of corruption. That’s where we also see this unfortunate, conditioned familiarity with corruption: the population already understands the elite stole everything, and the whole country exists only for the enrichment of this elite. And then of course there’s censorship and intimidation. Therefore, we don’t believe that the population is indifferent to our investigations — they know about them, but they’re afraid of the state aggression toward those who choose to protest.Q: You don’t suppose that since quite a lot of people are now connected with state structures in Russia, and because they have families to feed, that corruption schemes have now become the new normal for a significant part of the populace? That the fight against corruption is a threat to a broad class of people?NAVALNY: That’s a good question. Does, say, the deputy head of the consumer market department of the city of Kostroma feel himself a direct part of Putin’s “power vertical”? In fact, the vast majority of officials are not corrupt, if only because corruption isn’t as lucrative in lower-level bureaucracies, [whereas theft of natural resource commodities such as oil and gas] is basically limited to maybe a thousand or so families with direct ties to Vladimir Putin at the highest level of his administration. But yes, in a certain sense, the system is built in such a way — and the belief systems of individuals within the system are built in such a way — that you live a very poor but stable life within the system. And of course you receive some informal privileges by being inside of it, such that your rational choice is to defend it rather than try to change it for the better.Q: Your recent expose showed that Andrei Kostin, president and chairman of Russia’s state-owned VTB bank, gave millions of dollars in gifts, including property, a private jet and a yacht, to his purported romantic partner, Russian state TV presenter Nailya Asker-Zade. Some commentators then accused you of prying into the personal affairs of private citizens as opposed to state officials. How do you feel about such accusations?NAVALNY: Personal life is peoples’ relationships. We are not interested in the relationships, love, passions and dramas that occur in the families of Kostin, Asker-Zade or anyone, not even Putin. However, when it comes to colossal spending from a state bank, it’s already about corruption, not about personal relationships. And if a state banker spends literally tens of millions of dollars on his mistress, providing her with a standard of living on par with Arab sheikhs, that’s already far, far beyond the limits of a private, personal affair. We try, as far as possible, not to condemn or evaluate Kostin from the point of view of public morality or “family values,” but we certainly reserve the right to discuss his morals from the point of view of corruption, from the point of view of lifestyle, from the point of view of expenditures.Q: There’s the impression that you now regularly visit the United States, where your daughter studies. What’s your impression of American political life?NAVALNY: Unfortunately, I don’t visit so often. I took my daughter to the university and went to shoot a story about Nailya Asker-Zade’s plaque on a bench in New York City’s Central Park, [which she had engraved with a declaration of her love for Kostin]. My feelings are unambiguous and probably align with those of many people, including most Americans: the country is split, the political class is split. Everyone on the left is [feeling] a kind of frustration, demoralization and rage, while those on the right are probably also furious, frustrated and demoralized, because it’s not clear what to do about it or where it’s all headed. It’s still not very clear, for example, why the newspapers consistently reported [that Hillary Clinton had a commanding lead in the race, and then Trump won]. This is a very interesting but difficult time for Americans. But overall, even though I see a lot of exasperated people, I do think checks-and-balances generally works. Nothing so terrible is happening to America. Democracy works.Q: Can Western countries somehow influence Russia’s behavior in terms of corruption and human rights? What mechanisms are effective?NAVALNY: I think we already understand empirically that, unfortunately, they can’t influence anything, and they don’t really want to. There’s always some fictitious geostrategic interests or, perhaps, short-term political interests, some ideas about “peacekeeping missions,” etc … that simply prevent us from taking steps that are long overdue. Western countries need to protect not Russian citizens but themselves from the secondary effects Russian corruption by implementing their own laws. But this isn’t happening. We repeatedly see that, despite the sanctions, despite the fact that there is a lot of talk on this subject, the entire Putin elite feels completely at ease. We haven’t seen any real examples of asset freezes or seizures. On the contrary, we see people under sanctions traveling quite freely and continuing to buy up properties and assets only to register them to their children. And regulators, including American ones, pretend not to notice. … I am completely pessimistic about the role of the West in the fight against corruption in Russia.Q: What are your political plans? The much discussed 2024 [presidential election] is still more than 4 years away; what are you going to do?NAVALNY: It’s still a long time until 2024, but we don’t plan our activities from election to election. Elections take place constantly, and we’re actively engaged in them. We also have the anti-corruption foundation, so we’re engaged in the investigations, and we’ll continue to build a nationwide system combating censorship through YouTube channels and blogs. We have a system of more than 40 headquarters, which now face the main task of learning how to survive under new conditions, in which [the state] is trying to paralyze our entire structure and funding with constant raids. We’ll continue what we are doing, and we’ll reinvent ourselves so that we can do it even more effectively in the new environment. And we’ll try to expand. We have a lot of work to do.Q: Are you going to continue trying to register a political party? You’ve been doing this for a long time, but you keep getting rejected.NAVALNY: As we’ve stated many times, this is our right. Court cases on this issue have been going on for many years, and we are constantly making new attempts to register. We’ll always do it. At the same time, of course, we’re well aware that the Kremlin simply can’t afford to register our party, because then it’s unclear what they will do with it in the elections. But it’s our right, and we’ll continue to defend it.
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Sudanese Praise Transitional Government for Death Sentences
Family members and friends of late Sudanese school teacher Ahmed al-Khair ululated and cheered Tuesday outside a courtroom in the city of Omdurman as 29 intelligence officers were sentenced to death for the torture and killing of al-Khair in the eastern Sudanese town of Khasum al-Girba.The 29 defendants had been found guilty of deadly abuse.The court found that al-Khair was beaten and tortured to death by officers at a detention center after he was arrested in late January. Al-Khair died on Feb. 2, 2019, after spending a week in detention.Hind Awadassaid of the Sudan Teachers Union called the sentencing a good beginning for citizens demanding justice.”It is satisfactory to some extent and it is a good point for now immunity for the people who are in charge. So, the people are now equal in front of the law,” Awadassaid told South Sudan in Focus.Sudanese protesters rally in front of a court in Omdurman near the capital Khartoum, Dec. 30, 2019, during the trial of intelligence agents for the death of teacher Ahmed Al-Khair while in custody of intelligence services.Bakhit Mohammed Ahmed, a teacher and colleague of the late al-Khair, traveled from Khasm al-Girba to Khartoum to attend the hearing.Ahmed said before the sentencing that he did not trust the Sudanese judiciary. He praised the transitional government for making sure justice was carried out.”Until this morning, I had no trust in the Sudanese judiciary. This has quenched my sorrows for my colleague and turned it into joy,” Ahmed told South Sudan in Focus.Al-Mughira Massad al-Kitiyabi, a relative of al-Khair, said he was pleased with the verdict.”This is what we were expecting. The ruling has a healing touch on our wounds and as his family members, we regard the execution as a good point for us, and just on the perpetrators and good for the whole Sudan,” al-Kitiyabi told South Sudan in Focus.Gasim Hussein, a lawyer representing al-Khair’s family, said the ruling shows the Sudanese judiciary is upholding one of the principles of the Sudanese revolution.”This is a new beginning of revising, executing a new history for Sudan, which has been produced by the revolution. Our revolution has contributed to this day and our people have been peacefully calling for a just Sudan and reforms within the judiciary system,” Hussein told South Sudan in Focus.Al-Khair’s killing touched off nationwide protests against then-president Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who was deposed in April.
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Malawi Ombudsman: Police Committed Rapes During Post-Election Unrest
A report released under Malawi’s Human Rights Commission this month has found that police raped at least eight women and sexually violated several others, including girls, during October’s post-election unrest. However, authorities are questioning the validity of the report and Malawi police say they will only act after carrying out their own inquiry. The report, released Dec. 18 by Malawi’s ombudsman, says the police assaults occurred in the homes of victims and were carried out in revenge for the stoning death of a fellow police officer. Twenty-five-year-old “Grace,” who is not using her real name, cried as she told a reporter how two Malawian police officers stormed her house in October, looking for her husband. She said they accused him of being involved in street violence, which broke out during ongoing protests over the re-election of President Peter Mutharika in May.Grace says one of the policemen accused her of hiding her husband’s whereabouts and then attacked her, pushing her down and undressing her. He raped her, Grace said, then stepped on her with his boots.Twenty-seven-year-old “Rhoda” — also not her real name — told a reporter a similar story of being attacked by Malawian police. She said that when she told her husband about the attack, he said he could not stay with someone who was raped, for fear of contracting a sexually transmitted disease.Rights officials say Grace and Rhoda are among a number of women and girls who were raped or sexually assaulted by police sent to control post-election violence on Oct. 8. The alleged assaults were outlined in a 62-page report released Dec. 18 by Malawi’s Ombudsman Martha Chizuma and Law Commissioner Rosemary Kanyuka.Chizuma says the investigation, carried out under Malawi’s Human Rights Commission (MHRC), uncovered evidence of the rapes.”We found out that a total of 17 women were sexually violated,” Chizuma said. “Five of them were under 18. One of the five girls was actually defiled. Eight women were raped. The rest, police found them doing their menses so were just violently beaten.”Chizuma said the alleged police assaults appeared to be in revenge for the stoning death of a fellow police officer by election protesters. The report identified suspected officers who were posted to the areas where the assaults occurred.But observers note a lack of evidence, as victims failed to obtain medical exams after the alleged assaults and were unable to identify police officers, whose faces were covered.Police responseMalawi police have not confirmed or denied the assaults, and have taken information from the alleged victims.Police spokesman James Kadadzera says they are carrying out their own internal investigation, which started in October.”And we are saying here that whatever the MHRC report is recommending and whatever our report will recommend, will be followed to its logical conclusion,” Kadadzera said. “Nobody will be shielded but, justice will prevail.”Kadadzera was not able to say when police would finish their probe. Meanwhile, no officers have yet been suspended or detained, and government authorities are questioning the validity of the report.Controversy over commissionersGovernment spokesman Mark Botomani told The Nation newspaper that any action by Malawi’s Human Rights Commission should be scrutinized because there were no authorized commissioners.The MHRC has been waiting for fresh commissioners since a court injunction stopped some controversial appointments by Mutharika.But Chizuma and Kanyuka argue they are still members of the commission as their appointments were not part of the injunction.They have called for immediate disciplinary action against the suspects. Malawi has seen wave of violent protests since Mutharika secured a second term in May, which opposition leaders are challenging in court.Meanwhile, rights campaigners have threatened to hold protests should police fail to act on the recommendation of the report by Jan. 9.
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Arab League Opposes ‘Interference in Libya’ After Turkey Accords
The Arab League called Tuesday for efforts to “prevent foreign interference” in Libya in the wake of military and maritime agreements signed by Turkey with the U.N.-recognized government in Tripoli.Permanent representatives of the pan-Arab organization, in a meeting at its Cairo headquarters requested by Egypt, passed a resolution “stressing the necessity to prevent interference that could contribute to facilitating the arrival of foreign extremists in Libya.”They also expressed “serious concern over the military escalation further aggravating the situation in Libya and which threatens the security and stability of neighboring countries and the entire region.”On Monday, the U.N.’s Libya envoy, Ghassan Salame, said the deals signed by Turkey and the Tripoli government represented an “escalation” of the conflict wracking the North African country.Libya has been mired in conflict since a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 toppled and killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi, with rival administrations in the east and the west vying for power.In November, Ankara signed a security and military cooperation deal and also inked a maritime jurisdiction agreement with the Government of National Accord (GNA) based in the capital.In addition, Turkey is preparing to hold a vote in parliament on deploying troops in support of the GNA which is battling forces of eastern military strongman Khalifa Haftar, who is backed by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Russia.Egypt, in a letter sent to the United Nations last week, said it considers the Ankara-Tripoli agreements “void and without legal effect,” adding that foreign military involvement in Libya amounted to a violation of a U.N. arms embargo in force since the uprising.
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Man Sentenced to 15 Years for Role in Slovak Journalist Murder
A Slovak court handed a 15-year prison sentence to a man charged with facilitating the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak in 2018 in a plea deal on Monday, a spokeswoman said.The killing of Kuciak and his fiancee, both 27, at their home outside Bratislava in February 2018 sparked mass protests against corruption in the central European nation, shaking the government. The case will play a role in a parliamentary election due in February.FILE – Suspects in the 2018 slaying of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova are escorted by armed police officers from a courtroom in Pezinok, Slovakia, Dec. 19, 2019.Zoltan Andrusko, 42, was one of five charged in the case but the only to confess and seek a plea deal to act as a witness.The trial of the other four, including entrepreneur Marian Kocner who was a subject of Kuciak’s reporting on fraud cases involving politically connected businessmen, started on Dec. 19 and will continue in January.Andrusko had agreed a 10-year sentence with prosecutors but a court on Monday rejected that deal and proposed a longer sentence, which the defendant accepted, the court said.”This court considers the extraordinary reduced sentence as justified, as well as logical, but the court, by its decision, should seek justice not only for the accused but for all sides of the case, for society, for justice in the law,” newspaper Dennik N cited judge Pamela Zaleska as saying.Prosecutors say Kocner had ordered Kuciak’s killing. He and his accomplices, who have all pleaded not guilty, face up to life in prison if convicted.The case is a test of Slovak judicial independence given that the investigation exposed links between Kocner and police and public officials.The murders stoked widespread public anger and forced Prime Minister Robert Fico to resign last year. His ruling Smer party faces a tight election on Feb. 29.
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Malawi’s Albinos Get Personal Security Alarms But Will They Help?
Malawi is distributing personal security alarms to people with albinism, a condition that causes whitening of the skin from lack of pigmentation. Malawi authorities hope the alarms will protect albinos from attacks by people who believe their body parts have magical powers. But the alarms have only a limited range, raising doubts about their effectiveness. Vendor Chipiliro Laston was nearly abducted in March by three men pretending to be police officers.The men said they were searching houses of villagers suspected of keeping albino body parts, which are used across East Africa for so-called “black magic.”Laston was saved when the men failed to produce identity cards and villagers handed them over to the real police.Speaking about the incident, Laston said “I realized that I can be killed any day because of the way those people came. I was extremely terrified, and I realized that I am being stalked. So, since that time, I still live in fear.”Laston suggests the best way to end attacks is to ensure that courts are giving stiffer penalties to offenders (Lameck Masina/VOA)Police say at least 25 albinos have been killed in Malawi since 2014, and albino graves are often robbed – not for possible jewelry but for bodies.So-called witch doctors use albino body parts in potions or rituals believed to bring good luck, love or wealth.Malawi authorities this year reacted to public pressure by distributing mobile personal security alarms to the country’s estimated 10,000 albinos.Mary Navicha, Malawi’s minister for gender and disability, says it’s all about safety.“As [the] government, we are trying to create [a] conducive environment for the persons with albinism, that’s why we are distributing security gadgets for them to be protected and for them to be safe in their communities.”The alarm sound is activated when the wearer pulls a safety pin but can only be heard within a range of about 100 meters.The Malawian government is distributing devices such as this one as part of efforts to stop attacks on albinos. (Lameck Masina/VOA)Sheriff Kaisi, political scientist at Blantyre International University, doubts the effectiveness of the sound.“You can agree with me that even the sound is not so alarming that people can say ‘There is something happening.’ And it is not in our tradition as Malawians that in many cases that when we hear the sound of an alarm, people start rushing to see what is happening over there,” Kaisi said.Malawi police and local leaders are trying to educate people to react to any alarms.Laston says he feels a little safer with the alarm on, but the limited range deters him from traveling to earn money, so he is struggling to put food on the table.Malawi’s albinos initially refused the alarms when they were first offered in May because authorities labelled them as gifts from President Peter Mutharika.
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The Future of Protest? Catalonians Outwit Spanish Authorities with Phone App
Pro-independence protesters in the Spanish region of Catalonia are using the latest technology to try to outwit authorities. An anonymous smartphone app is being used to coordinate demonstrations – and the latest target was the world-famous “El Clasico” football match between giants Barcelona and Real Madrid. As Henry Ridgwell reports, the protests have intensified since Madrid jailed several Catalan pro-independence leaders in October.
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Brazil’s Bolsonaro Keeps to Far-Right, Faces Tough 2nd Year
Heading into his second year as Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro has held firm to his combative culture-warrior policies while feuding with critics at home and abroad – an approach that has thrilled supporters but eroded his efforts to win allies and lift the world’s 9th-largest economy out of its doldrums.
Bolsonaro’s inauguration last Jan. 1 marked a dramatic break from Brazil’s previous four elections, all won by the left. He vowed to attack the socialist ideology, stamp out corruption and unleash police against crime. As he did that, many moderates felt pushed away.
In a national address just before Christmas, Bolsonaro said he “took over Brazil in a deep ethical, moral and economic crisis.”
“The government has changed. Today we have a president who cherishes families, respects the will of its people, honors its military and believes in God,” he said, flanked by his wife Michelle Bolsonaro, who wore a shirt with JESUS written in large letters.
And he has backed up that stand in deeds, such as stripping some human rights protection from LGBT people and cutting funding for arts projects that challenge “Christian values” as well as in words, inveighing against flamboyant carnival celebrations.
Marco Feliciano, a conservative lower house lawmaker and evangelical pastor, believes Bolsonaro keeps true to values that were ignored by his predecessors.
“At the start of the year, we clearly felt sectors within the government trying to separate the president from the evangelicals, but the president pushed those people away and stayed loyal to those who elected him. Evangelicals were never as honored by a president,” he said.
Long a fringe lawmaker, Bolsonaro became president as an outsider following a deep economic crisis, a sweeping political corruption scandal and amid a wave of populist triumphs around the planet.
But Bolsonaro’s focus on a far-right cultural agenda has generated infighting between military appointees and evangelicals in his administration and whittled away his support in Congress.
While U.S. President Donald Trump, to whom Bolsonaro is often compared, has cemented authority over his Republican Party, Bolsonaro’s spats with his own party’s leaders led him to quit it in November. That leaves him effectively isolated until and if he can create his new party Alianca Pelo Brasil (Alliance for Brazil).
“Bolsonaro started 2019, which was supposed to be his honeymoon year, in positive territory, but he will start his second year in the negative,” said Carlos Melo, a political science professor at Insper University in Sao Paulo. “He will be under a lot of pressure. And that puts him in fighting mood.”
But he’ll need allies to pass some of his cultural agenda through congress. He will also need lawmakers to approve new reforms aimed at slashing costs in efforts to revive an economy that has seen six straight years of negative or stagnant growth.
Bolsonaro’s most ambitious legislative win, an overhaul to Brazil’s pension system that prior governments failed to achieve, came on a watered down version.
Measures still pending include tax reforms and spending caps, some of which will be controversial as the parties head toward a test of strength in October’s mayoral elections. Lawmakers will be involved with the vote from June to the beginning of November.
Congress already has felt comfortable blocking presidential decrees to loosen gun controls, allowing executive orders to expire without ratification, and watering down his bills like signature anti-crime legislation.
Bolsonaro also has feuded with other international leaders, notably the leaders of France, Germany and the government of Norway, over their efforts to protect the Amazon rainforest, a region he sees as key to Brazil’s future. Deforestation there has accelerated in his first term.
That has caused unease even among agribusiness leaders who voted for Bolsonaro, such as “soy king” Blairo Maggi, who have said the president’s handling of the environment jeopardizes Brazil’s exports.
Poor economic results and his aggressive rhetoric have turned off many Bolsonaro voters, and only about 30% rate his government good or excellent the lowest first year performance for an elected Brazilian president since the country’s 1985 return to democracy.
But given the choice to simply approve or disapprove of Bolsonaro, the polls show his popularity runs higher _ roughly on a par with that of Trump in the U.S.
“This is not a weak president,” said Christoper Garman, managing director for the Americas at Eurasia Group.
The Brazilian government’s highest marks come in security. Justice Minister Sergio Moro, whose anti-corruption work as a judge largely contributed to the conviction of past President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s corruption conviction, polls better than Bolsonaro.
Police figures compiled by website G1 show homicides fell 22% to 30,864 cases in the first nine months of the year, compared to the same period in 2018.
Meanwhile, Bolsonaro has also been bothered by investigations into his family that could shake his image of incorruptibility among hard-core supporters.
Prosecutors are investigating allegations that staffers working for his son Flavio, then a Rio state lawmaker, kicked their salaries back to his former driver, a long-time friend of the Bolsonaros.
The 2020 local races could be telling for Bolsonaro’s re-election bid in 2022, according to Claudio Couto, a political science professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation.
“If Bolsonaro fails to get his own party in time he will have to build alliances with politicians of other parties so they can carry his banner. It could be a hard task for a politician that has had trouble in building bridges,” Couto said.
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Abducted Sri Lanka Journalist’s Wife: Military Derails Case
The wife of an abducted Sri Lankan journalist is accusing the military of trying to derail a court case in which nine soldiers have been charged with her husband’s abduction and enforced disappearance nearly 10 years ago.Sandya Ekneligoda, who has struggled for years to seek justice for her abducted husband, Prageeth Ekneligoda, said some officers serving in the military intelligence “are trying to destroy evidence and intimidate the witnesses.”Prageeth went missing in 2010 during the presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the brother of current President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Prageeth, an analyst and cartoonist, wrote against alleged corruption, nepotism and Rajapaksa’s conduct during a military campaign against ethnic Tamil rebels in ending Sri Lanka’s long civil war.The case did not make much headway until Rajapaksa was defeated in the 2015 presidential election and a newly elected government initiated fresh inquiries.The Rajapaksa brothers were returned to power again with the victory of Gotabaya Rajapaksa in last month’s presidential election. They had been critical of investigations of military personnel for alleged crimes against journalists. Gotabaya during his election campaign promised to free all incarcerated soldiers after a period of rehabilitation.Formal charges were filed in the High Court last month against nine army intelligence officers in connection with Prageeth’s abduction. They were released on bail and the case will be taken up again on Jan. 20.Sandya told reporters on Tuesday that among the witnesses are former military personnel. “Let the witnesses speak the truth, what they know and saw without any interference. Let’s allow truth to prevail,” she said.She said that some military intelligence officers “are attempting to intimidate the witnesses through various parties and to disrupt the court case.”She appealed to President Rajapaksa to advise the intelligence officers not to interfere with the case.”Me and my kids would be able to achieve justice only if the judicial process takes place in an independent manner,” she said. “This is a crime, don’t let them interfere with the court’s proceedings. If that happens, we will be deprived of justice.”During former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s tenure, dozens of journalists were killed, abducted and tortured, and some fled the country fearing for their lives. Others were killed or disappeared during the civil war that ended in 2009 with the defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels.In some cases, military soldiers were arrested and later released on bail.
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India to Restore Text Messaging Services in Kashmir
Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir will restore text messaging services in the disputed region on Wednesday, almost five months after India’s government downgraded its semi-autonomy and imposed a strict security and communications lockdown, an official said Tuesday.Local government spokesman Rohit Kansal said the decision was made after a review of the situation.He said broadband internet services in government-run hospitals will also be restored. The curbs on broadband internet and mobile internet services for other users will remain.Authorities fear that insurgents and separatists demanding independence from Indian rule will use the internet to provoke protests in the region that could morph into large-scale street demonstrations.Tensions in Kashmir, which is divided between Pakistan and India but claimed by both in its entirety, have escalated since New Delhi’s surprise decision in early August to downgrade the region’s semi-autonomy.India followed the move by sending in tens of thousands of extra troops, detaining thousands of people and blocking cellphone and internet services.The government had earlier said the restrictions on communication services were “in the interest of maintenance of public order.”Some communications services, like post-paid and landline phones, were restored in October in a phased manner.Kashmir’s troubles began in 1947, with the first days of Indian and Pakistani independence, as the two countries both claimed the region in its entirety. They have since fought two of three wars over their rival claims, with each administering a part of the territory, which is divided by a heavily militarized line of control.On the Indian side, most public protests were peaceful until 1989, when armed rebels rose up demanding the region’s independence or merger with Pakistan. Nearly 70,000 people have been killed in that uprising and the ensuing military crackdown.
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UN Chief: Young People Inspire Hope for Future of the Planet
In his New Year’s message, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres presented a gloomy assessment of the past year and pinned his hopes for a better future in the year to come upon the world’s young people.Guterres said he looks forward to 2020 and the decade to come with a mix of dread and hope. While welcoming in the New Year, he suggested the uncertainty and insecurity of what lies ahead is cause for reflection and concern. He said he considered persistent inequality and rising hatred, a warring world and a warming planet as ever present threats to stability and peace. He said climate change is not only a long-term problem but a clear and present danger. He said the world cannot afford to see the present generation fiddling around while the planet burns. “But there is also hope. This year, my New Year’s message is to the greatest source of that hope: the world’s young people. From climate action to gender equality to social justice and human rights, your generation is on the frontlines and in the headlines. I am inspired by your passion and determination. You are rightly demanding a role in shaping the future and I am with you. The United Nations stands with you — and belongs to you,” Guterres said.In September, the United Nations presented its top environmental award to a global student movement known as Fridays for Future. The movement, inspired by Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, is demanding action to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are leading to climate change.Guterres, who views global warming as a grave threat to life on Earth, champions the young activists who are agitating to forestall such a catastrophic outcome. He said the world needs young people to keep speaking out and to keep thinking big. He urged young people to keep pushing boundaries, to keep up the pressure.He ended with “I wish you peace and happiness in 2020. Thank you.”
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World Welcomes 2020
People across the world are gathering for traditional celebrations to welcome the year 2020.Revelers in New Zealand and other Pacific islands were among the first to celebrate the new year with fireworks displays.Events elsewhere in the world are being overshadowed by other concerns, including in Australia where the fireworks show in Sydney is going forward as other communities in the country cancel theirs due to fears of making a wildfire crisis worse.In Hong Kong, the usual fireworks show was canceled due to what officials said were security concerns in the city that has seen months of pro-democracy protests.Planet Fitness, in partnership with Time Square Alliance, tested the “air worthiness” of the confetti prior to Times Square’s New Year’s Eve 2020 celebration in New York City, Dec. 29, 2019 in New York.Events are scheduled to take place as the new year rolls around in major cities from Berlin to Dubai and London to New York.
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Somalia’s Shabab Ends Bloody Decade Resurgent, Unbowed
In the past decade, Somali Islamist group al-Shabab has lost territory, suffered defections and faced mounting U.S. air strikes, but analysts say the group is as strong a threat as ever, flourishing under the country’s weak government.Despite years of costly efforts to combat the group, al-Shabab managed once again to detonate a vehicle packed with explosives in Mogadishu, slaughtering 81 people on Saturday in one of the deadliest attacks of the decade.”The real hallmark of al-Shabab is its resilience,” said Matt Bryden, director of Nairobi-based think tank Sahan.”Leaders of the movement have been killed in drone strikes and commando raids, several master bombmakers have been killed and yet al-Shabab continues to wage conventional and guerilla warfare against enemy forces, build bombs, and build an effective underground financial and administrative infrastructure.”Bryden said the al-Qaida affiliate’s ability to inflict mass casualties in Somalia and elsewhere in the region highlights the fragility of a central government mired in feuds and more focused on staying in power than fighting the Islamists.Shifting fortunesAt the start of this decade, al-Shabab was at its zenith.It controlled major urban centers including parts of Mogadishu while the internationally-backed government clung to a sliver of territory in the capital.Somalia had plunged into chaos after the 1991 overthrow of president Siad Barre’s military regime led to famine and decades of anarchic clan warfare.Al-Shabab emerged from the youth wing of the Islamic Courts Union, a rival to the internationally-backed government established in 2004, which briefly controlled large parts of Somalia.But in the second half of 2011 the group’s fortunes appeared to be waning, as African Union peacekeeping force AMISOM pushed them out of their last bastions in Mogadishu.Since then they have had to abandon most of their strongholds — but they still control vast rural areas and have maintained a presence in urban centers through an extensive intelligence network.”They win support through co-option or coercion. They have a steady supply of finances through a network of taxation and extortion,” Murithi Mutiga, a Horn of Africa expert with the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank, told AFP.A report by a U.N. expert panel in November said the group’s “mafia-style” taxation system allowed it to generate revenue even in areas it does not control, such as Mogadishu port.In a sign of its capacity to infiltrate government institutions, a female suicide bomber who blew herself up in government offices in Mogadishu in July, killing the city’s mayor, turned out to have been an employee working under false identity, their report said.The militants have also turned to making home-made explosives and some of their deadliest attacks have been in recent years, such as the 2017 Mogadishu truck bombing which left 512 dead.Al-Shabab has also managed to expand its network in the region, especially in Kenya which has suffered several devastating attacks in retaliation for it sending troops into Somalia in 2011.Most recently in January 2019, 21 people were killed in a siege on an upscale Nairobi hotel, notably carried out by Kenyan-born Shabab operatives.Shabab not government prioritySince the main AMISOM offensive ended in 2015, control of territory has largely remained stagnant.Mutiga said one of the biggest mistakes that had been made in the fight against al-Shabab was that they were often ousted from villages without “a viable plan for what would come next.”And with roughly 20,000 African Union peacekeepers set to leave in 2021, analysts say the ragtag national army is nowhere near ready, with a piecemeal approach seeing Britain, Turkey and the EU holding their own separate training programs.”We see no coherent security force emerging that can credibly challenge Shabab, especially if AU troops pull out,” said Bryden.However he said the main hurdle to fighting al-Shabab was that it was not a priority of the central government.Rather Mogadishu has engaged in political feuds with federal states, focused on gaining control in regional administrations in a bid to boost their chances for re-election with parliamentary polls due in 2020 and a presidential vote in 2021.”The Somalis are fighting this war with one hand and maybe one foot tied behind their backs,” said Bryden.He said more police and national army resources were currently deployed to secure an electoral process in the central region of Galmudug than to offensive operations against al-Shabab.”That means that the government that is receiving the vast majority of international support and resources to fight al-Shabab has at best ranked that battle as a second priority.”Somalia’s government is officially transitional, as the country still has an incomplete constitution.Negotiations had been initiated under previous governments on completing the constitution and agreeing the architecture of the country’s federation but the present government has halted the talks, said Bryden.”Somalia can’t be ruled only from the center — it is too decentralized politically and economically. There are too many powerful forces outside Mogadishu,” he said.Despite an increase of U.S. airstrikes under President Donald Trump that have killed more than 800 people since April 2017, observers believe al-Shabab will continue to wreak havoc well beyond 2020.”Al-Shabab appears to be closing the decade in as strong a position as it has been in in 10 years,” said Mutiga.
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Germany’s Merkel Urges Climate Action in New Year Message
Chancellor Angela Merkel is telling Germans in her New Year message that “everything humanly possible” must be done to tackle climate change.Merkel said that there is good reason to be confident about the 2020s in her annual televised message, the text of which was released ahead of its broadcast Tuesday. But she pointed to challenges such as the effect of digitization on people’s jobs and, above all, climate change.”The warming of our Earth is real. It is threatening. It and the crises arising from global warming were caused by humans,” she said. “So we must do everything humanly possible to deal with this challenge for humanity. That is still possible.”Merkel said that was the principle behind a recently agreed German package of measures aimed at addressing climate change, which include a carbon dioxide pricing system for the transport and heating sectors and lowering value-added tax on long-distance rail tickets.She acknowledged criticism both from people who are worried about being overburdened by the measures and from those who think they don’t go far enough, but said they provide the “necessary framework.””It’s true that, at 65, I am at an age where I personally won’t experience all the consequences of climate change that would arise if politicians didn’t act,” she said.”It is our children and grandchildren who will have to live with the consequences of what we do or don’t do today,” Merkel added. “So I am putting all my energy into Germany making its contribution — ecologically, economically, socially — to getting a grip on climate change.”That is also a priority of the European Union’s new executive Commission, headed by Ursula von der Leyen — a former German defense minister. Germany will hold the EU’s rotating presidency in the second half of 2020.”Europe must raise its voice more strongly in the world,” Merkel said, pledging to work for that during the EU presidency. She pointed to planned meetings with Chinese and African leaders.Merkel, Germany’s leader since 2005, has said that her current fourth term as chancellor will be her last.Protection against hatredUnlike last year’s, this New Year message contained no reference to infighting in the often-tense coalition government of her center-right Christian Democratic Union and the center-left Social Democrats. It remains uncertain whether the coalition will last until the end of the parliamentary term in 2021.Merkel did, however, stress the need for authorities to protect local government officials and “all people in our country against hatred, hostility and violence, against racism and anti-Semitism.”This year saw the killing of a regional government official from Merkel’s party, Walter Luebcke, who had vocally supported Merkel’s welcoming stance toward refugees in 2015. The suspect is a far-right extremist.And in October, a man tried to force his way into a synagogue in Halle on Judaism’s holiest day, later killing two passers-by before being arrested. The suspect posted an anti-Semitic screed before the attack.
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