Tens of thousands protested in the Belarusian capital of Minsk Sunday, the president’s birthday, demanding he resign. Alexander Lukashenko, who turned 66 Sunday, was declared the winner of an August 9 election, amid widespread allegations of voter fraud. Lukashenko, in power for 26 years, denies any election irregularities. The main opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said she would never accept the elections results before fleeing to Lithuania for what she said was her children’s safety. Protesters rally against elections results they say were rigged, in Independence Square in Minsk, Belarus, Aug. 27, 2020.Protests have rocked the country since the election results were announced. On Sunday, protesters convened around Lukashenko’s residence, facing security forces carrying shields and backed by prisoner vans and water cannons. At least 125 people were detained Sunday, Russia’s RIA news agency quoted the Interior Ministry as saying. Russian President Vladimir Putin called Lukashenko Sunday to wish him a happy birthday and invite him to Moscow. Putin has repeatedly offered support to Lukashenko as Belarus faces sanctions from the West.
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Month: August 2020
Afghan President Names Council Members to Push Talks with Taliban
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has revealed the names of the appointed members and leaders of the country’s High Council for National Reconciliation, a body tasked with leading peace negotiations with the Taliban. Political figures, including current and former officials, leaders of political parties, and renowned religious leaders are among the more than 40 council members approved by Ghani, according to a presidential decree issued late on August 29. The list includes former mujahedin leaders Abdul Rasul Sayyaf and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, as well as civil-society activist Safia Sediqqi and eight other women. One of the appointed women was named the deputy of council head Abdullah Abdullah, the former chief executive officer of Afghanistan’s unity government. FILE – Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai speaks during an interview in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sept. 24, 2019.Former President Hamid Karzai was also named but he rejected the appointment in a statement on August 30, saying he declines to be part of any government structure. The High Council for National Reconciliation is to oversee a 21-member negotiating team appointed by Ghani in March to conduct face-to-face talks with the Taliban. The talks are part of an agreement reached between the militants and the United States in February in an effort to end nearly 19 years of war in Afghanistan. On August 26, the Taliban announced it had formed a new 20-member department responsible for Taliban representation at both the intra-Afghan talks and further negotiations with the United States. FILE – Members of a Taliban negotiating team enter the venue hosting U.S.-Taliban talks in the Qatari capital Doha, Aug. 29, 2019.The beginning of the planned peace talks has faced some serious challenges, including the issue of the release of prisoners. The internationally recognized government in Kabul has recently reversed a decision to release the last 320 Taliban prisoners it is holding until the insurgents free more captured soldiers. “The Taliban will have to release our commandos held by them before the government resumes the release of the remaining 320 Taliban prisoners,” Javid Faisal, spokesman for the Afghan National Security Council, tweeted on August 29.
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Forcibly Displaced in Chad Facing Twin Security and Environmental Crises
The U.N. migration agency reports Insecurity and flash flooding is upending the lives of hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people in the Lake Chad Basin.
Chad’s Lake Province borders Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger. The region has been under repeated attacks by multiple armed groups since 2015 forcing millions of people to flee. The International Organization for Migration reports more than 360,000 people in this part of Chad are forcibly displaced. IOM spokesman, Paul Dillon says new figures show a 22 percent increase in the number of people who have fled their homes since April. This, he says, means that over half of the region’s population now is considered displaced because of the protracted insurgency. “Recurrent security attacks and incursions by non-state armed groups since the beginning of the year prompted the Chadian Government in March to declare the departments of Fouli and Kaya, two of Lake Chad’s borderlands departments as war zones,” he said. “Complicating the forced displacement in response to the security issues, the Lake Region is experiencing the highest rainfall in nearly 30 years.” IOM reports flash flooding of villages and fields have prompted nearly 12,000 people to flee between August 8 and 16, one of the highest numbers it has ever recorded in such a short period. Dillon calls this a worrying trend as the displacement keeps recurring with increasing frequency. He says people are facing a double security and environmental crisis amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic. “Three-quarters of the displaced persons IOM identified live in displacement sites, most of which are made from straw and metal structures,” he said. “Many of them sleep in the open without adequate protection from the ongoing, continuing bad weather, with limited access to amenities such as water, hygiene installations, health services and COVID-19 protective equipment.” IOM is providing emergency humanitarian aid to thousands of vulnerable people, including temporary or semi-permanent shelters, and non-food items including hygiene kits, sleeping mats and basic cooking equipment. The agency says it also is involved in a range of peacebuilding, community stabilization and recovery activities.
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UNHCR: COVID-19 Thrusting Nicaraguan Refugees into Hunger, Despair
The U.N. refugee agency says tens of thousands of Nicaraguan refugees and asylum-seekers in Costa Rica are going hungry because COVID-19 restrictions have eliminated job opportunities.More than 81,000 Nicaraguans have sought international protection in Costa Rica from rights violations and political persecution in Nicaragua. Before the pandemic, the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees reports, most of the refugees and asylum-seekers could find work to support themselves.This situation has changed dramatically for the worse because of lockdowns and other restrictions imposed to curb the impact of COVID-19. The UNHCR reports more than three-quarters of Nicaragua’s refugee population is going hungry as a direct consequence of these measures.UNHCR spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo said forcibly displaced Latin Americans largely depend on the informal economy to earn a living. These jobs, she said, have essentially dried up because of COVID-19. She said most of these families now eat only two meals a day.“Only 59% of refugee families in Costa Rica are reporting steady work-related income streams as of the end of July. And, this is a staggering decrease from 93% before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. So, this now leaves many also at risk of eviction and homelessness. A fifth of Nicaraguan refugees surveyed in Costa Rica said they now do not know where they will live in the next month,” she said.A recent survey of 21% of Nicaraguan refugees and asylum-seekers indicates at least one member of their households is thinking of returning to Nicaragua because they cannot make a living. Mantoo told VOA more than 3,000 asylum claims in Costa Rica, most from Nicaraguans also have been withdrawn.“Families are reporting that they are considering these returns back to Nicaragua where maybe what is driving them is this pressing socioeconomic condition—the desperation, the hardship, the poverty that they are enduring …That is just the data that we have and it points as part of the bigger picture that we are seeing—sort of a pressing humanitarian situation there for refugees driving premature returns, but also affecting day-to-day lives,” she said. Mantoo said the UNHCR is stepping up cash assistance programs throughout Central America to support vulnerable forcibly displaced people. In face of the worsening situation in Costa Rica, she said her agency and its partners are working with the government to support asylum-seekers and refugees who cannot return to Nicaragua.
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German President Condemns Attempt Break-In to Reichstag
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Sunday condemned an attempt by protesters to break-in to storm the Reichstag, Germany’s parliament building, as an “unacceptable attack on the heart of our democracy.” “We will never accept this,” Steinmeier said in an Instagram message. The incident took place on Saturday evening after some 38,000 protesters gathered in Berlin during the day to protest against the country’s coronavirus restrictive measures. After about two hours, police dispersed the protesters, citing disregard of social distancing rules. The German president called the protesters a “right-wing extremist rabble,” while praised the security forces who “acted extremely prudently in a difficult situation.” “The Reichstag building is the seat of our Parliament and thus the symbolic center of our democracy,” German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer told the newspaper Bild am Sonntag. “The fact that sowers of chaos and extremists are abusing it for their own purposes is unacceptable,” Seehofer added.
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Montenegro Voting for New Parliament; Election to Determine Path Forward
Montenegrins vote Sunday in parliamentary elections, choosing between the path toward EU membership, led by the long-ruling pro-Western party, or closer ties with Serbia and Russia advocated by a coalition of opposition groups.The elections are being held as a dispute over a religious property law opposed by the influential Serbian Orthodox Church brews.The church argues the law permits Montenegro to confiscate its property in efforts to create a separate Montenegrin church, the government has denied the claim.The main pro-Serb and -Russian opposition alliance, For the Future of Montenegro, backs the church.Polls predict the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic, a strong Western ally, in power for about 30 years, will finish first but may not have the votes to form a government alone.Montenegro under the DPS and Djukanovic, broke with Serbia and Russia to join NATO in 2017, after declaring independence from Serbia in 2006.Internally, DPS and Djukanovic, have faced accusations of an autocratic rule, as well as of widespread graft and criminal links.Some 540,000 Montenegrins are eligible to vote in the Balkan country for the 81-seat Skupstina, or Assembly.
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India Sets World Record for Coronavirus Infections in 24 Hours
India reported 78,761 new coronavirus infections in 24 hours on Sunday, the highest single day rise in the world since the pandemic began, while the county is continuing to open its economy.It was the fourth consecutive day that India has registered more than 75,000 infections.With a population of 1.4 billion people, India is the third most infected nation in the world, behind the United States and Brazil, with 3.5 million cases and more than 63,000 deaths, according to official statistics provided by the country’s health ministry.In several European cities Saturday demonstrators rallied against restrictions that have been imposed since the COVID-19 outbreak began.Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Berlin to march against mask-wearing and social distancing rules. Police say they arrested about 300 protesters. In London, demonstrators in Trafalgar Square rallied against what they said is the “medical tyranny” that has been placed on them by masks and distancing.A man with a placard reading in German: ‘Watch out! Covidiot’ takes part in a protest against the increasing coronavirus preventative measures in Zurich, Switzerland, Aug. 29, 2020.A few hundred protesters in Paris demonstrated against the capital’s mandatory mask-wearing mandate.In Zurich, about 1,000 demonstrators skeptical of COVID-19 rules called for a “return to freedom.”U.S. President Donald Trump said in a statement Saturday night that he is extending the federal cost-sharing for the deployment of the National Guard in Louisiana to help with the state’s response to COVID-19 and to help facilitate the Southern state’s economic recovery.Public health departments throughout the United States are calling on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reverse changes the federal agency recently made to its public coronavirus testing guidelines.The Big Cities Health Coalition and the National Association of County and City Health Officials, which represent thousands of local departments, sent a letter Friday to the heads of the CDC and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services requesting that the agencies reverse a decision to stop testing people who have been exposed to the virus but are asymptomatic.The organizations called on the government agencies to reinstate recommendations that people who have been exposed to the virus be tested even if they are asymptomatic.At least 33 states are not following the new CDC guidelines and continue to recommend testing for all people who have been exposed to COVID-19 regardless of symptoms, according to an analysis by Reuters news agency.Johns Hopkins University reports there are more than 25 million COVID-19 cases worldwide. The United States has almost 6 million infections, followed by Brazil with 3.8 million and India with 3.5 million.
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Protests in European Cities Target COVID Restrictions
Demonstrators in several European cities Saturday rallied against restrictions that have been imposed since the COVID-19 outbreak.Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Berlin to march against mask-wearing and social distancing rules. Police say they arrested about 300 protesters.In London, demonstrators in Trafalgar Square rallied against what they said is the “medical tyranny” that has been placed on them by masks and distancing.A few hundred protesters in Paris demonstrated against the capital’s mandatory mask-wearing mandate.In Zurich, about 1,000 demonstrators skeptical of COVID-19 rules called for a “return to freedom.”U.S. President Donald Trump said in a statement Saturday night that he is extending the federal cost-sharing for the deployment of the National Guard in Louisiana to help with the state’s response to COVID-19 and to help facilitate the Southern state’s economic recovery.Public health departments throughout the United States are calling on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reverse changes the federal agency recently made to its public coronavirus testing guidelines.The Big Cities Health Coalition and the National Association of County and City Health Officials, which represent thousands of local departments, sent a letter Friday to the heads of the CDC and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services requesting that the agencies reverse a decision to stop testing people who have been exposed to the virus but are asymptomatic.The organizations called on the government agencies to reinstate recommendations that people who have been exposed to the virus be tested even if they are asymptomatic. At least 33 states are not following the new CDC guidelines and continue to recommend testing for all people who have been exposed to COVID-19 regardless of symptoms, according to an analysis by Reuters news agency. Johns Hopkins University reports there are nearly 25 million COVID-19 cases worldwide. The United States has almost 6 million infections, followed by Brazil with 3.8 million and India with 3.4 million.
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Italy Sends Help to Banksy’s Overloaded Migrant Rescue Boat
The Italian coast guard sent help Saturday to a rescue boat funded by British street artist Banksy after the vessel issued urgent calls for assistance, saying it was stranded in the Mediterranean and overloaded with migrants. The coast guard said a patrol boat dispatched from the southern Italian island of Lampedusa had taken on board 49 of “those considered most vulnerable” among the 219 migrants picked up by the ship since Thursday off the coast of Libya. Named after a French feminist anarchist, the Louise Michel started operating last week. Despite the help from Italy, it has still not found a safe port for the rest of the mainly African migrants on board. In this undated handout photo, people pose after being rescued by the Louise Michel, a migrant search-and-rescue ship operating in the Mediterranean and financed by British street artist Banksy, at sea. (MV Louise Michel/Handout via Reuters)The 49 people who were transferred off the ship included 32 women and 13 children, the Italian coast guard said. The Louise Michel, a German boat manned by a crew of 10, issued a series of tweets overnight and Saturday saying its situation was worsening and appealing for help from authorities in Italy, Malta and Germany. “We are reaching a state of emergency. We need immediate assistance,” said one tweet, adding that it was also carrying a body bag containing one migrant who had died. Another tweet said the boat was unable to move and “no longer the master of her own destiny” because of her overcrowded deck and a life raft deployed at her side, “but above all due to Europe ignoring our emergency calls for immediate assistance.” Before Italy’s coast guard intervened, an Italian charity ship, the Mare Jonio, said it was leaving the Sicilian port of Augusta, much farther away than Lampedusa, to offer assistance. Two U.N. agencies called for the “urgent disembarkation” of the Louise Michel and two other ships carrying a total of more than 400 migrants in the Mediterranean. About 200 are on the Sea Watch 4, a German charity ship, while 27 have been on board the commercial tanker Maersk Etienne since their rescue on August 5. The International Organization for Migration and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said in a joint statement they were “deeply concerned about the continued absence of dedicated EU-led search-and-rescue capacity in the Central Mediterranean.” “The humanitarian imperative of saving lives should not be penalized or stigmatized, especially in the absence of dedicated state-led efforts,” they said. In this still image taken from video, a Banksy graffiti in seen on the Louise Michel, a migrant search-and-rescue ship operating in the Mediterranean, Aug. 17, 2020. (MV Louise Michel/Reuters)Italy is the destination of most migrants who have departed from Libya across the Mediterranean in recent years. The influx has created political tensions in Rome and fueled the success of Matteo Salvini’s right-wing League party. The 30-meter long (98-foot) Louise Michel, a former French Navy boat painted in pink and white, was bought with proceeds from the sale of Banksy artwork. The side of the vessel’s cabin features a picture of a girl holding a heart-shaped life buoy in Banksy’s familiar stenciled style. Bristol-born Banksy, who keeps his identity a secret, is known for his political or social-commentary graffiti that has popped up in cities around the world.
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Far-Right Extremists Try to Enter German Parliament
Far-right extremists tried to storm the German parliament building Saturday following a protest against the country’s pandemic restrictions but were intercepted by police and forcibly removed.The incident occurred after a daylong demonstration by tens of thousands of people opposed to the wearing of masks and other government measures intended to stop the spread of the new coronavirus. Police ordered the protesters to disband halfway through their march around Berlin after participants refused to observe social distancing rules, but a rally near the capital’s iconic Brandenburg Gate took place as planned.Footage of the incident showed hundreds of people, some waving the flag of the German Reich of 1871-1918 and other far-right banners, running toward the Reichstag building and up the stairs.Police confirmed on Twitter that several people had broken through a cordon in front of Parliament and “entered the staircase of the Reichstag building, but not the building itself.””Stones and bottles were thrown at our colleagues,” police said. “Force had to be used to push them back.”Germany’s top security official condemned the incident.”The Reichstag building is the workplace of our Parliament and therefore the symbolic center of our liberal democracy,” Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said in a statement.”It’s unbearable that vandals and extremists should misuse it,” he said, calling on authorities to show “zero tolerance.”People gather at the Victory Column as they attend a protest rally in Berlin, Germany, Aug. 29, 2020 against new coronavirus restrictions in Germany. Police in Berlin requested thousands of reinforcements from other parts of Germany.Earlier, thousands of far-right extremists had thrown bottles and stones at police outside the Russian Embassy. Police detained about 300 people throughout the day.Berlin’s regional government had tried to ban the protests, warning that extremists could use them as a platform and citing anti-mask rallies earlier this month where rules intended to stop the virus from being spread further weren’t respected.Protest organizers successfully appealed the decision Friday, though a court ordered them to ensure social distancing. Failure to enforce that measure prompted Berlin police to dissolve the march while it was still in progress.During the march, which authorities said drew about 38,000 people, participants expressed their opposition to a wide range of issues, including vaccinations, face masks and the German government in general. Some wore T-shirts promoting the “QAnon” conspiracy theory while others displayed white nationalist slogans and neo-Nazi insignia, though most participants denied having far-right views.Uwe Bachmann, 57, said he had come from southwestern Germany to protest for free speech and his right not to wear a mask.”I respect those who are afraid of the virus,” said Bachmann, who was wearing a costume and a wig that tried to evoke stereotypical Native American attire. He suggested, without elaborating, that “something else” was behind the pandemic.Another protester said he wanted Germany’s current political system abolished and a return to the constitution of 1871 on the grounds that the country’s postwar political system was illegal. Providing only his first name, Karl-Heinz, he had traveled with his sister from their home near the Dutch border to attend the protest and believed that the coronavirus cases being reported in Germany now were “false positives.”Germany has seen an upswing in new cases in recent weeks. The country’s disease control agency reported Saturday that Germany had almost 1,500 new infections over the past day.A protester is held by German riot policemen in front of the Reichstag building, which houses the Bundestag lower house of parliament, at the end of a Berlin demonstration called by far-right and COVID-19 deniers on Aug. 29, 2020.Germany has been praised for the way it has handled the pandemic, and the country’s death toll of some 9,300 people is less than one-fourth the amount of people who have died of COVID-19 in Britain. Opinion polls show overwhelming support for the prevention measures imposed by authorities, such as the requirement to wear masks on public transport, in stores and some public buildings such as libraries and schools.Along the route were several smaller counter-protests where participants shouted slogans against the far-right’s presence at the anti-mask rally.”I think there’s a line and if someone takes to the streets with neo-Nazis then they’ve crossed that line,” said Verena, a counter-protester from Berlin who declined to provide her surname.Meanwhile, a few hundred people rallied Saturday in eastern Paris to protest new mask rules and other restrictions prompted by rising virus infections around France. Police watched closely but did not intervene.The protesters had no central organizer but included people in yellow vests who formerly protested economic injustice, others promoting conspiracy theories and those who call themselves “Anti-Masks.”France has not seen an anti-mask movement like some other countries. Masks are now required everywhere in public in Paris as authorities warn that infections are growing exponentially just as schools are set to resume classes.France registered more than 7,000 new virus infections in a single day Friday, up from several hundred a day in May and June, in part thanks to ramped-up testing. It has the third-highest coronavirus death toll in Europe after Britain and Italy, with over 30,600 dead.In London, hundreds of people crowded into Trafalgar Square for a “Unite for Freedom” protest against government lockdown restrictions and the wearing of face masks. The Metropolitan Police warned demonstrators that anyone attending a gathering of more than 30 people may be at risk of committing a criminal offense.
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Thousands March in Mauritius Over Dead Dolphins, Oil Spill
Honking and drumming, tens of thousands of people protested Saturday in Mauritius over the government’s slow response to an oil spill from a grounded Japanese ship and the alarming discovery of dozens of dead dolphins in recent days.The protesters displayed signs such as You have no shame" andI’ve seen better Cabinets at IKEA.”One protester scrawled “Inaction” on an inflatable dolphin held above the crowd.They marched peacefully through the capital, Port Louis, a month after the ship struck a coral reef off the Indian Ocean island nation. It later cracked under the pounding surf and spilled around 1,000 tons of fuel oil into fragile marine areas.’Turning point’It's clear we are at a turning point in the history of our country,'' a commentary in the Le Mauricien newspaper said. Other protests were reported outside the Mauritius High Commission in London and in Paris and Perth, Australia.Addressing the crowd in Port Louis, some speakers called for top officials to step down. There was no immediate government comment.Thousands of people protest in Port Louis, Mauritius, Aug. 29, 2020, over the government's slow response to an oil spill from a grounded Japanese ship.I’d be surprised if it’s not close to 100,000” people who attended the march, local writer Khalil Cassimally said. Public demonstrations aren’t common in Mauritius, but one of the things that really binds people together is the sea,'' he said.It’s one of the jewels of this country, and everyone feels very passionately about this.”Another protest is planned on September 12 in Mahebourg, one of the most affected coastal villages, Cassimally said.Blow to tourismMauritius depends heavily on tourism, and the spill has been a severe blow on top of the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, which has limited international travel.Authorities on Friday said at least 39 dead dolphins had washed ashore but it’s not yet clear what killed them. The government said no fuel oil was found in two necropsies so far and called the deaths a sad coincidence.''Civil society groups should be present as necropsies continue, and independent experts should give a second opinion, local environmental group Eco-Sud said Friday.A protester seeks "justice for our dolphins" in Port Louis, Mauritius, Aug. 29, 2020, in response to the government's slow response to an oil spill from a grounded Japanese ship.Some experts fear water-soluble chemicals in the fuel are to blame.Something that is also concerning is that we don’t know the possible long-term effects. The oil is a new low-sulfur fuel oil that is being introduced to reduce air pollution,” Jacqueline Sauzier with the Mauritius Marine Conservation Society told the journal Nature this week. This is the first time that type of oil has spilled, so there have been no long-term studies on the impacts.''Residents and environmentalists have demanded investigations into why the MV Wakashio strayed miles off course. Its captain and first officer have been arrested and charged withendangering safe navigation.”The ship ran aground on July 25 and began leaking fuel August 6 into the Mahebourg Lagoon, fouling a protected wetlands area and a small island that was a bird and wildlife sanctuary.Volunteers’ effortThousands of civilian volunteers worked for days to try to minimize the damage, creating makeshift oil barriers by stuffing fabric bags with sugar cane leaves and empty plastic bottles to keep them afloat. Environmental workers carefully ferried dozens of baby tortoises and rare plants to shore, plucking some trapped seabirds out of the goo.Meanwhile, Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth blamed bad weather for the government’s slow response. Experts from ship owner Nagashiki Shipping, France and the United Nations have since arrived at the scene, and multiple investigations are underway.The ship’s remaining fuel was pumped out before the vessel finally split in two.
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Afghanistan Flash Floods Kill 160, Search for Bodies Continues
Rescuers in Afghanistan continued to search amid mud and rubble for missing people Saturday after flash flooding this week killed around 160 people and washed away homes across the country, officials said.Thirteen provinces, mostly in the country’s north, were affected by floods, according to the Ministry for Disaster Management.In Parwan, just north of the capital, Kabul, 116 people were killed and more than 120 injured, with 15 people still missing, national and local officials said.”Rescue teams are still in the area and searching for the missing bodies,” said Wahida Shahkar, a spokeswoman for Parwan’s governor.Flash flooding hit Parwan early Wednesday, washing away homes and buildings. Local police spokesman Salim Noori said that residents in the worst-affected areas were mostly farmers and informal workers who were already struggling financially and that police were appealing for donations of blood for the many injured.The Ministry of Defense said that Afghan security forces were assisting in recovery efforts and distributing aid. The forces have also been dealing with rising violence from the insurgent Taliban as the start of peace talks in Doha hit delays.NATO said that its forces were also supporting the Afghan military and had flown food, water and blankets to the area earlier in the week.
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UN Slams Guards’ Killings During Madagascar Prison Escape
The U.N. human rights office is condemning excessive use of force by security guards that killed 22 inmates and injured eight others during a mass escape at a Madagascar jail nearly a week ago.Security forces reportedly opened fire as hundreds of men were trying to escape Sunday from Madagascar’s Farangana prison in the southeast of the country. The attempt largely failed. Out of 380 inmates, only 25 were still on the run Saturday.The U.N. human rights office on Friday described the squalid prison conditions as appalling and a hotbed for the spread of COVID-19.Agency spokesman Rupert Colville said it was the seventh attempted prison escape in the country since the coronavirus pandemic began.He said prisoners were living in fear of being stricken with this deadly disease.”As with many other jails, the conditions at Farafangana are deeply troubling. The prison is overcrowded, conditions are generally unhygienic, the food is poor, and inmates lack proper access to health care. Our office has previously engaged with the authorities to express concerns about conditions in the country’s jails, and the resultant dangers of overcrowding during the pandemic.”Relief of overcrowdingColville said in the early stages of the pandemic, U.N. rights chief Michelle Bachelet appealed to all countries to reduce overcrowded prison populations. He said she specifically urged the release of people at risk, including pregnant women, the disabled, the elderly and minors.Colville told VOA that Malagasy authorities were aware of the problematic conditions in their prison system.“The president of Madagascar had embarked on trying to make changes to the prison system, with the main objective of decongesting the prisons. But clearly, more remains to be done,” he said. “And the fact that there have been seven such escapes, and apparently that it happened at the weekend is a factor, because there is less security in the prison on the weekend.”The U.N. human rights office called on the government to conduct a prompt, independent and impartial investigation into the killings and injuries that occurred during the prison escape. It reminded authorities that the use of force must comply with the principles of legality and necessity and that it must be proportional and nondiscriminatory.
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Belarus Revokes Accreditation of at Least 17 Journalists Covering Post-Election Turmoil
Belarusian authorities stripped accreditation from at least 17 journalists from major foreign news organizations who have been covering the country’s turmoil following the disputed presidential election.
The move, taken on August 29 by a commission of the national Security Council, was a major escalation by President Alexander Lukashenko’s government as it continues to face popular protest and international condemnation for the August 9 election, and for the harsh police crackdown on opposition protesters.
The journalists targeted include employees of major Western news organizations including RFE/RL, the BBC, the Associated Press, Reuters, Agence-France Presse, Germany’s ARD television, Deutsche Welle, and Radio France. Without accreditations, journalists are not legally permitted to gather news within the country.
No reason for the government’s decision was provided.
It was not immediately clear if journalists from Russian state-run and state-funded news media, such as the TASS news agency, Vesti TV, or the RT channel, faced a similar loss of accreditation.
‘Desperate, ominous move’
At least 17 journalists had their accreditations canceled, the Belarus Association of Journalists reported.
“Stripping our journalists of accreditation on grounds of ‘extremism’ is a desperate and ominous move by an authoritarian government to stifle the independent media and ruthlessly control the availability of credible information inside Belarus,” acting RFE/RL President Daisy Sindelar said in a statement. “It’s a violation of international standards and an assault on the Belarusian people who rely on us.”
Four journalists from RFE/RL’s Belarus Service were hit by the move, and one from Current Time, the Russian-language TV network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.
Others include two from the BBC, two from AP, two from AFP, two from ARD, and two from Reuters.
Many of those affected are Belarusian citizens.
Reuters journalist Tatyana Melnichuk told RFE/RL that she had been informed that her accreditation had been revoked via a telephone call from the Foreign Ministry.
“They told us that our accreditation, like the accreditations of the BBC journalists, had been revoked and that we had to return them today or on Monday,” Melnichuk said. “They didn’t give any reason.”Detained Journalists in Belarus Face Charges for Covering Post-Election ProtestsAt least 35 journalists, and more than 260 people overall were detained during Aug. 27 protests in Minsk, according to a list compiled by the human rights center Vyasna US calls for ‘restraint’
The U.S. Embassy in Minsk called on Belarusian authorities to “demonstrate restraint.”
“We stand by our long-term commitment to support Belarus’ sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the aspirations of the Belarusian people to choose their leaders and to choose their own path, free from external intervention,” the statement said.
Two days earlier, around 50 journalists were detained while covering postelection protests in Minsk; the group included employees from Belarusian outlets such as TUT.BY, BelaPAN, and Belsat.
In all, more than 260 people were detained during at the time, according to the human rights center Vyasna.
The Belarusian Association of Journalists said most of the journalists detained at the time were released after police checked their documents.
Four journalists who refused to hand over their smartphones for police to check were charged with participating in an unauthorized protest, the association said. A Swedish journalist will also be deported, it added.
The detentions came after nearly three weeks of protests against the official results of the election, which gave Lukashenko a landslide victory.
Demonstrators and opposition leaders are contesting those results, charging that the vote was rigged in Lukashenko’s favor.
During their detention on August 27, RFE/RL journalists were searched by police, who appeared to be looking for recording equipment. Their laptops and cameras were seized, and they were ordered to open the photo galleries and other information on their mobile phones. In at least one case, a journalist was told to delete images of riot police.
One RFE/RL photographer was threatened with misdemeanor charges if he refused to comply with police orders.
Meanwhile, many websites of news organizations have seen curtailed access within Belarus amid reports that of sporadic Internet access.
Several bloggers also remain in prison, including a consultant for RFE/RL’s Belarus Service on digital strategy. His detention in Zhodzina prison outside of Minsk has been extended to October 25.
Protesters, who are planning another demonstration in Minsk on August 30, have been largely defiant despite a brutal police crackdown, and widespread evidence of beatings and torture of detained protesters.
The leading opposition candidate, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, told the European Parliament this week that at least six people have been killed in the crackdown and dozens of protesters have gone missing after being detained by authorities.
With reporting by Current Time.
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Diplomats Warn Zimbabwe Against Using COVID-19 to Restrict Citizen Rights
President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s ruling party has dismissed as “rubbish” a statement by Western diplomats warning Zimbabwe’s government not to use the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext to stifle citizens’ rights. The statement was delivered while more than a dozen citizens are in hiding for fear of persecution or prosecution for organizing an anti-government protest.
Seven countries, including the U.S., have urged Mnangagwa to keep the inauguration pledge he made in 2018 to respect human rights. Western diplomats joined forces in a statement saying their countries would continue to assist Zimbabwe in addressing the humanitarian crisis caused by recurring droughts and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“But COVID-19 must not be used as an excuse to restrict citizens’ fundamental freedoms. Freedom of the press, of opinion, of expression, and of assembly are all universally recognized human rights and are guaranteed by the Zimbabwean constitution. The government also has a responsibility to investigate and prosecute those responsible for violating human rights,” said the seven embassies in their diplomatic message.
Zimbabwe’s Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said Saturday the government would not comment on the group’s statement by the U.S., Germany, Poland, Britain, Canada, Norway and the Netherlands.FILE – Tafadzwa Mugwadi, spokesman for the ruling Zanu PF party, seen here July 21, 2020, in Harare, dismissed concerns by Western diplomats as “rubbish,” saying they had no right to lecture Zimbabwe about human rights. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)Tafadzwa Mugwadi, a spokesman for Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF party, dismissed the statement by Western diplomats.
“This is just a piece of rubbish. Nothing new except the usual rhetoric from culpable players whose hand has always been visible as far as disturbances in this country are concerned. Under what circumstances or basis do they have to instruct the government or people of Zimbabwe to stop from blaming them? How are they immune when they are equally blaming the government? They are blaming a government on whose neck they imposed these illegal sanctions. It’s just a bunch of nonsense,” Mugwadi said.
Zimbabwe’s political opposition and rights groups say Mnangagwa is moving away from his promise not to follow the playbook of his predecessor, long-time leader, the late Robert Mugabe, whose 37-year rule was littered with human rights abuses.
The head of Human Rights Watch in southern Africa, Dewa Mavhinga, says the government must investigate the claims instead of dismissing them.Dewa Mavhinga, the southern Africa Director at Human Rights Watch, seen here Aug. 29, 2020, in Harare, says the Zimbabwe government must investigate claims of rights abuses by state agents. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)“This is very important that the Zimbabwe government demonstrates that it respects human rights. Without this demonstration for respect for human rights, all efforts to revive the economy, for international re-engagement, will be wasted because no one wants to do business with a country that does not respect rights, a country that brutalizes its own citizens, a country that looks the other way when there are obvious cases of abductions and torture of citizens by state agents,” Mavhinga said.
A hashtag #ZimbabweanLivesMatter is trending on social media, but the government insists there is no crisis.
Rights groups and the opposition say the government is looking for a number of pro-democracy activists who are in hiding, saying they fear being arrested for organizing an anti-government protest, which security forces thwarted in July.
Journalist Hopewell Chin’ono and opposition leaders Jacob Ngaruvhume and Job Sikhala are in prison on charges of stoking violence ahead of the march against poverty and corruption, which was to take place July 31.
Earlier this month, South Africa, which is the current chair of the African Union, sent envoys to engage with both the government of Zimbabwe and relevant stakeholders, to “identify possible ways in which South Africa can assist Zimbabwe.” However, they left after meeting only with President Mnangagwa.
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Navalny Associate: Kremlin Involved in Opposition Leader’s Poisoning
A close ally of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny says authorities in Moscow are reluctant to investigate Navalny’s alleged poisoning, because the Kremlin was behind it, despite its denials.
Lyubov Sobol, a lawyer at Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation and a prominent opposition activist, said in an interview that all the existing evidence points to the Kremlin.
“For me, it’s absolutely obvious, I’m not afraid to speak it out loud, that behind the poisoning is exactly the Kremlin,” said Sobol. Simply, nobody else could do it. Again, the method of the poisoning is the sign of that. Neuroparalytic poison is something that you can’t buy at a pharmacy. It’s a combat substance. And because of that, they will not investigate it,” Sobol said.FILE – Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, center, his wife Yulia, right of him, and opposition activist Lyubov Sobol, second from left, take part in a march in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 29, 2020.Navalny’s associates made a request to Russia’s Investigative Committee for authorities to launch a criminal investigation that could lead to charges of an attempted assassination of a public figure, but say they got no response.
“They understand that any investigation will lead to the Kremlin,” Sobol said. “They’re not launching a criminal probe because they will have to answer at some point what the results of the investigation of this criminal case are.”
Russia’s Prosecutor General office said Thursday the inquiry launched last week did not find any indication of “deliberate criminal acts committed against” Navalny.
The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said last week he saw no grounds for a criminal investigation before the cause of Navalny’s condition was fully established.
Navalny, a well-known critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and a corruption investigator, fell ill August 20 while flying to Moscow from Siberia, prompting an emergency landing in Omsk.
His personal doctor and aide said Navalny had drunk black tea at an airport café, which she believed was laced with poison.Last weekend, Navalny was transferred to the Charité Hospital in Berlin, Germany, for an “extensive medical diagnosis.” Doctors there found traces of “cholinesterase inhibitors,” a neuroparalytic substance, in his system. He reportedly remains on a ventilator in a medically-induced coma. German doctors describe his condition as serious but not life-threatening.
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