The United Nations Security Council is expected to discuss the escalating fighting in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh later Tuesday. The closed door meeting was requested by five European nations — Britain, Belgium, Estonia, France and Germany — as the fighting intensified Monday between forces of Armenia and Azerbaijan in the enclave. A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke to both President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and called for “an immediate stop to the fighting, a de-escalation of tension and a return to meaningful negotiations without preconditions or delay,” according to the Associated Press. Officials in Nagorno-Karabakh say 58 soldiers have been killed since Sunday, when it says Azerbaijan launched an air and artillery attack. The region also reported two civilian deaths. There was no official information about any Azeri military casualties. Both sides exchanged accusations of using heavy artillery. The Azeri defense ministry said Armenian forces were shelling the town of Tartar. The fighting has prompted fears that regional powers Russia and Turkey could be drawn into the violence. Moscow has a defense alliance with Armenia, while Ankara backs Azerbaijan. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Monday for hostilities to immediately end and said the situation “is a cause for concern for Moscow and other countries.” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Armenia’s immediate withdrawal from the region was the only way to ensure peace. The United States called Sunday for the hostilities to end. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus issued a statement saying the U.S. “condemns in the strongest terms this escalation of violence.” The statement urged both sides to work with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs “to return to substantive negotiations as soon as possible.”An image from a video made available on the official website of the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry on Sept. 28, 2020, allegedly shows Azeri troops conducting a combat operation during clashes between Armenian separatists and Azerbaijan.The OSCE Minsk Group is tasked with finding a peaceful solution to the conflict. The OSCE is the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The U.S., along with France and Russia, co-chair the OSCE Minsk Group, which issued a joint statement Sunday concerning the “large scale military actions along the Line of Contact in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.” “We strongly condemn the use of force and regret the senseless loss of life, including civilians,” the co-chairs said. They appealed “to the sides to cease hostilities immediately and to resume negotiations to find a sustainable resolution of the conflict.” They called on the parties in conflict to take “necessary measures to stabilize the situation on the ground,” adding that there is no alternative to a peaceful negotiated solution of the conflict.” Armenia and Azerbaijan declared martial law and troop mobilizations on Sunday amid fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed, primarily ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan. Armenia accused Azerbaijan of attacks on civilian settlements in the disputed region. “Our response will be proportionate, and the military-political leadership of Azerbaijan bears full responsibility for the situation,” the Armenian Defense Ministry said in a statement. The ministry also said its troops shot down two Azerbaijani military helicopters and three drones after Baku’s forces began bombing the breakaway enclave, including its capital, Stepanakert. Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said it had launched a military operation along the “Line of Contact” between the two countries, “to suppress Armenia’s combat activity and ensure the safety of the population.” The ministry confirmed the downing of only one Azerbaijani helicopter and said its crew had survived. Armenian separatists seized Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan in a bloody war in the 1990s that killed an estimated 30,000 people. Talks to resolve the conflict have been halted since a 1994 cease-fire agreement among Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh. Peace efforts in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, mediated by the Minsk Group, collapsed in 2010.
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Month: September 2020
Former Colombian Paramilitary Chief Deported from US to Face Criminal Complaints
Colombian authorities say former paramilitary chief Rodrigo Tovar Pupo is back in the country to answer dozens of criminal complaints stemming from his role in atrocities ranging from mass killings to torture. He was deported Monday from the United States, where he served 12 of a 16-year sentence for drug trafficking. Tovar Pupo was once a high-ranking leader of the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), blamed for massacres during the country’s bloody civil conflict. The AUC is widely believed to have used its battles with leftist rebels to hide their illicit activities, including drug trafficking and extortion.
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Abortion Rights Activists Clash with Police in Mexico
Women demanding that Mexico legalize abortion nationwide clashed with police in the capital, Mexico City, on Monday. Police fired tear gas at groups of protesters, some of whom reportedly threw projectiles, including bottles. The government said nearly a dozen police were injured in the melee. Protesters said they were victims of police brutality.Riot police get covered in red paint by abortion-rights demonstrators during the “Day for Decriminalization of Abortion in Latin America and the Caribbean” march in Mexico City, Sept. 28, 2020.The demonstration in the mostly Catholic country came on International Safe Abortion Day. Abortion is only legal in Mexico City and the southern state of Oaxaca during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Abortion is only allowed in the rest of the country under limited circumstances, such as if a woman has been raped.
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Lifting of Sanctions Against Mali Hits a Snag
The lifting of crippling economic sanctions against Mali by a bloc of 15-West African countries will come later than first thought, even after the appointment of Mali’s new transitional civilian prime minister, Moctar Ouane. ECOWAS imposed sanctions on Mali shortly after last month’s coup that ousted President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. The group said they would lift sanctions after civilian leaders were appointed during the transition period. But the French News Press reports a sticking point with West African leaders may be junta leader Colonel Assimi Goita’s appointment as the transitional vice president. Goita was among the junta leaders involved in the coup. ECOWAS envoy and Nigerian ex-president Goodluck Jonathan said in a statement that the military leaders have yet to satisfy ECOWAS’ demand that a civilian be named as vice president. West African leaders are expected to make a decision on their next step after Jonathan submits a formal report to the leader of ECOWAS, which will be reviewed by the member countries.
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Illicit Financial Flows Rob African Coffers of $89 Billion a Year
UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD ) economists say the vast sums of money flowing out of Africa through illegal, corrupt practices are undermining progress made by African countries to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.UNCTAD’s just released Economic Development in Africa Report 2020 estimates illicit financial flows out of Africa are costing the continent $89 billion annually.The economists say the scale and scope of illicit capital flight, which is equivalent to 3.7 percent of Africa’s gross domestic product, and the economic consequence of COVID-19, threaten to reverse gains made in health, education and other areas. Nigerian Vice President, Oluyemi Osinbajo warned that the illicit financial flows out of Africa also undermine the foundations of democracy, provide financial incentives for terrorist activities, and fuel conflict on the continent.”The enormity of efforts required to tackle illicit financial flows is evidenced in the many dimensions the scourge presents itself,” he said by video conference from Lagos, Nigeria. “It manifests through harmful tax policies and practices, abusive transfer pricing, trade mispricing and mis-invoicing, legal exploitation of natural resources, as well as official corruption and organized crime. UNCTAD reports the annual $89 billion outflow from Africa nearly matches the combined total annual inflows of official development assistance and foreign direct investment. UNCTAD Secretary General, Mukhisa Kituyi said Africa needs an estimated $200 billion a year to achieve the SDGs, but only about half that amount is available. He said illicit financial flows represent a major drain on capital and revenues in Africa and this puts development prospects on the continent at risk.”Countries with high illicit financial flows invest about 25 percent less in health, 58 percent less in education than comparable countries on the continent,” Kituyi said. “And, half of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa do not have sufficiently developed domestic transfer pricing rules and regulations in their jurisprudence.”That, Kituyi said, is a handicap for governments that have limited capacity to challenge multi-national enterprises in their domestic courts on these illegal practices. The report finds tackling capital flight and illicit financial flows would provide a large potential source of money to finance investments in infrastructure, education, health and productive capacity.UNCTAD economists said curbing illicit capital flight could generate enough capital by 2030 to finance nearly half of the $2.4 trillion needed by sub-Saharan African countries for climate change adaptation
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Greece Steps Up Refugee Transfers from Congested Lesbos
Greek authorities on Monday began transferring hundreds of refugees from the island of Lesbos to reduce chronic overcrowding that caused hardship and fanned tensions with locals. Over 700 people were to sail to the Greek mainland aboard a ferry later Monday, organizers said, three weeks after a sprawling camp on the island burned down. Another group will leave on Thursday, state agency ANA said. Some 2,500 refugees and asylum-seekers are to be relocated overall, following coronavirus tests, according to the migration ministry. Over 12,000 asylum-seekers were left homeless on Sept. 8 after a fire ravaged the Lesbos camp of Moria, Europe’s largest. Six Afghan youths are on trial for arson in connection to the fire. They deny the charges. The Moria camp was notorious for overcrowding, poor sanitation and ethnic gang violence. The fire broke out shortly after more than 30 people there tested positive for the coronavirus. Also Monday, Greek police said they had identified 33 aid workers who allegedly facilitated illegal migration to Lesbos. A Greek police source later said the “preliminary” investigation was still under way. A police statement said the suspects, who worked for four nongovernmental organizations, were part of “an organized network” created to “systematically” facilitate illegal migration to the island. Two other foreign nationals, identified by state TV ERT as an Afghan and an Iranian, were also part of the alleged operation, the police said. No information was given on the aid groups in question, the identities of the suspects or whether any were in custody. The police said the alleged operation was active from at least June, “providing substantial assistance to organized migrant-smuggling networks” in an estimated 32 cases by helping direct migrant boats to shore safely. Meanwhile, Germany has offered to take 1,500 asylum-seekers from Greece, including former Moria residents. For its part, France has offered to take in 500 minors from the camp. Authorities and local residents on Lesbos had long campaigned for the immediate removal of most of the asylum-seekers. After the camp burned down, a makeshift tent facility was hurriedly erected to house some 9,500 people. But the temporary camp, on a hill overlooking the sea, is ill-equipped to handle winter conditions. The government is now in talks to build a smaller permanent camp on the island.
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Solar Mamas Brighten Rural Malawi
A group of Malawi women is changing lives in villages that have long lived without power by installing and maintaining solar equipment in homes and schools. The women, known as the Solar Mamas, were trained in India as solar engineers, with sponsorship from charities. The solar power has allowed students in rural Malawi to study at night and for their families to earn more income. The women may look like ordinary villagers, but a chat with them reveals they are trained solar engineers.The Solar Mamas are helping to bridge the power gap in rural Malawi, a country where only 10% of the population is connected to the power grid. Charity groups Barefoot and Voluntary Services Overseas, or VSO, sponsored the women’s six-month training in India.Mtisunge Mngoli managed the Solar Mamas’ program at VSO.“We trained illiterate women because we believed that education is not just in the classroom, Mngoli said. “And we wanted to tell people that even women can be solar engineers. So, we purposely selected older women that were about 45 years old and who did not go past standard (Grade) 5.”The women have so far brought solar power to over 200 households in villages around Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe.The program helped some villagers, like Mailosi Banda a tradition leader for Kainja village, get into the battery-charging trade. (Lameck Masina, VOA)The program helped some villagers get into the battery-charging trade and remove lengthy travel to charge mobile phones. The Solar Mamas have also connected schools with solar power, allowing students — for the first time — to attend classes in the early mornings and evenings.Chatsala Primary school in Lilongwe is one of the beneficiaries of the Solar Mamas efforts. (Lameck Masina/VOA)Ethel Phiri is a Grade 8 learner at Chatsala Primary School in Lilongwe.Phiri said, “The coming of solar power here has helped me a lot. Because in the past, I was unable to study at night at home because my parents are poor and could not afford a lamp or a flashlight. But now, I can come here at night to study and work on assignments.”The Solar Mamas have also trained Malawi’s youth in solar engineering so they can become the next generation of Solar Mamas and Papas.
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Pakistan’s Anti-Graft Agency Arrests, Indicts Opposition Leaders
Pakistan’s anti-corruption authorities Monday arrested the leader of the opposition in Parliament, Shehbaz Sharif, after a high court rejected his bail plea in a money laundering case. Sharif, president of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML-N), was taken into custody from the court’s premises in the eastern city of Lahore. His wife, sons and daughters are also accused in the case. Shortly before his arrest, Sharif denied any wrongdoing as the chief executive of Pakistan’s most populous province of Punjab. His elder brother, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, was ousted in 2017 after a court sentenced him to a seven-year jail term for possessing assets beyond his known sources of income. FILE – Supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chant slogans outside the Lahore High court, in Lahore, Pakistan, Nov. 16, 2019.The former prime minister is undergoing medical treatment in London where the Sharif family owns expensive property, the subject of court cases instituted against them in Pakistan. Monday’s legal action against Sharif came hours after Asif Ali Zardari, a former president of the country and leader of another opposition party, was also indicted on money laundering charges. FILE – Former Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari, center, leaves the High Court building, in Islamabad, June 10, 2019.Zardari’s sister, Faryal Talpur, and 13 other people were also indicted during Monday’s hearing in Islamabad. All the accused pleaded not guilty. Anti-corruption officials say the charges stemmed from money laundering through fake Pakistani bank accounts and companies. The illicit financial outflows occurred when Zardari was serving as the president of the country from 2008 to 2013. His Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was leading the ruling coalition at the time. Zardari, widower of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, is a member of the national legislature and faces a number of corruption-related court cases. The former president’s son, lawmaker Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, is chairman of the PPP. He condemned the arrest of his father in a tweet, saying, “Victimization of opposition continues during global pandemic.” Opposition parties allege Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government is “victimizing” its political opponents, in collusion with the country’s powerful military, in the guise of accountability. FILE – Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan speaks in Islamabad, Pakistan, March 16, 2020.Khan and his aides reject the charges and instead accuse PML-N and PPP leaders of stashing billions of dollars in their offshore accounts while in power. Pakistan’s mainstream opposition parties, including PML-N and PPP, formed a new anti-government alliance earlier this month and vowed to launch an anti-government national movement to force Khan to step down. They also denounced the military for meddling in national politics and rigging the 2018 elections to bring Khan to power. “If justice had prevailed, retired Gen. Asim Bajwa would have been arrested,” Maryam Nawaz, Sharif’s daughter, told a Monday news conference in response to her uncle’s arrest. FILE – Pakistan’s army spokesman Major-General Asim Bajwa briefs the media in Peshawar, Pakistan, Dec. 16, 2014.Bajwa is an adviser to Khan and heads the national authority overseeing the multibillion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, known as CPEC. A recent investigative media report accused the former general of amassing overseas assets worth millions of dollars beyond his known income sources, charges Bajwa rejected. Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party (PTI) won the 2018 election, promising to stem corruption and bring to justice those responsible. While addressing the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, the Pakistani prime minister underscored the importance of global cooperation against illicit financial flows from developing countries to rich nations and to offshore tax havens there. “The rich states cannot hold forth on human rights and justice when they provide sanctuary to money launderers and their looted wealth,” Khan said. “I call upon this Assembly to take the lead in efforts to build a global framework to stem the illicit financial flows and ensure speedy repatriation of stolen wealth.”
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African Union Election Draws Fire for Unopposed Candidate at Top
As the world’s attention focuses on the coming American election, another important vote for a key position is generating controversy in Africa.Chadian politician Moussa Faki Mahamat is running unopposed for reelection as chairman of the African Union Commission. Critics say his run is undemocratic and are seeking an extension of the nomination deadline to November.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shakes hands with African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat at the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Feb. 18, 2020.The uncontested race has provoked outrage from observers of the 55-member African Union, who say the AU is failing to represent the needs of the continent’s 1.3 billion people.Critics of the Ethiopia-based organization are lobbying for the vote to be postponed for at least six months to let more candidates come forward. Moussa Faki Mahamat, the former foreign minister of Chad, has held the post since 2017.Sarfo Abebrese, author of a petition by the Coalition of Supporters Unions of Africa, says the AU postponed the vote four years ago when there were only three candidates for that seat. At the time, the AU said that wasn’t enough.“How come, that four years down the line, at this same time, we are having only one candidate, and people are telling us that that is representative enough? If three wasn’t representative enough, how can one be representative enough? How can we go this way when we are preaching democracy throughout all the 55 African countries? When we are telling the people of Africa that we want to go the democratic way?”Analyst Liesl Louw-Vaudran of the Institute for Security Studies says this vote — cast by African heads of state, not by the general population — is important.“It’s a very important position. The AU commission chairperson also has to represent the continent on the world stage, basically, when it comes to Africa’s relations with the European Union, with China, with the U.S., with the UN. And he has quite a lot of leeway, I would say, although the African Union is an intergovernmental organization, which means it’s not the EU, where the organization can actually tell member states what to do.”That’s why, says pan-African activist Daniel Mwambonu, it’s critical to get a leader who truly represents the continent. Mwambonu says he supports the petition to delay the vote. He spoke to VOA from Nairobi, via Google Hangouts.“He has displayed a lot of incompetency in the organization and running of the African Union organization. At the same time, he has been unable to address issues that are facing people of African descent across the world. And there have been allegations of massive fraud at the African Union — corruption, nepotism — which governs the appointment of people to different positions. Over the years, we have seen that the African Union has failed to attain the objectives it was founded on.”So, if not Mahamat, then who? Critics say one candidate, the AU’s former ambassador to the U.S. — a Zimbabwean national — has been sidelined after she was removed from that position last year.Both critics also alleged the AU has been heavily influenced by former colonial leader, France. Since 2002, four of the five commission chairpersons have come from Francophone nations. Again, Abebrese:“Just by the uproar that came around after the purported sack of Madam Arikana Chihombori-Quao, I would say, and my organization says, that Faki Mahamat is a failure. He is not somebody that should lead Africa for another four years. And we want a change. Now, come to think of it, Madam Arikana Chihombori-Quao herself has filed an application for a nomination to become a runner for that same position. And we have a situation where her nomination has gotten lost at the AU headquarters. And that is very, very strange.”AU members have not been able to meet in person in recent months because of the global coronavirus pandemic. Abebrese says the petition to delay the election has garnered 16,000 signatures. If granted, the vote would be moved to early 2021.
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Poland Rejects Letter From Diplomats Urging Tolerance for LGBT People
Polish leaders on Monday rejected suggestions that LGBT people in Poland are facing any kind of discrimination or depravation of rights, following the publication of an open letter from 50 ambassadors and international representatives expressing their support for “challenges faced” by the LGBT communities in the nation. The ambassadors’ appeal, coordinated by Belgium’s embassy in Poland and published Sunday, comes as an increasingly visible LGBT community in Poland has faced a backlash from the right-wing government, many local communities and the Catholic Church. “Human rights are universal, and everyone, including LGBTI persons, are entitled to their full enjoyment,” the letter said, using the acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people. FILE – Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki speaks during a press conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sept. 17, 2020.At a news conference Monday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said he agreed that every person deserves respect but that he completely disagreed with the ambassadors’ claim that LGBT people were being deprived of that. Morawiecki said no one needs to teach Poland tolerance, “because we are a nation that has learned such tolerance for centuries, and we have given many testimonies to the history of such tolerance.” Poland’s ruling party leaders, including the president, have cast the movement for civil rights for LGBT people as a threat to traditional families. President Andrzej Duda won a second term this year after calling LGBT rights an “ideology” more dangerous than communism. FILE – Polish President Andrzej Duda speaks to a crowd during an event in Gdansk-Westerplatte, Sept. 1, 2020.Meanwhile, dozens of towns in conservative parts of eastern and southern Poland have passed mostly symbolic resolutions declaring themselves to be “LGBT-free zones,” free of LGBT ideology. From her Twitter account Sunday, U.S. Ambassador to Poland Georgette Mosbacher tweeted, “Human Rights are not an ideology — they are universal, 50 Ambassadors and Representatives agree.” The ambassadors’ letter paid tribute to the work of the LGBT community in Poland as it seeks to raise awareness about the challenges it faces. The letter was signed by the ambassadors of the United States, many European countries, including Germany, Ukraine and Britain, and other nations such as Japan and Australia. The letter was also signed by representatives in Poland of the United Nations, the European Union, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the Community of Democracies, which is based in Warsaw.
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Turkey Vows Support for Azerbaijan in Escalating Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict
Turkey says it will back Azerbaijan with all means necessary as fighting entered a second day Monday between Azeri and Armenian forces over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, in a sign the conflict could be widening. Monday saw Azeri and Armenian forces exchange heavy artillery fire, with each accusing the other of starting the hostilities Sunday. Observers called the latest fighting over Nargono Karabakh, an enclave inside Azerbaijan but run by ethnic Armenians, the worst since the 1990s. Witness reports put the number of dead, including civilians, at more than 20 and at least 100 wounded. People watch TV in a bomb shelter in Stepanakert, the capital of the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, in this picture released Sept. 28, 2020. (Foreign Ministry of Armenia/Handout via Reuters)Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quick to voice support for Azerbaijan, labeling Armenia “the biggest threat to peace in the region.” The Turkish leader called on “the entire world to stand with Azerbaijan in their battle against invasion and cruelty.” The Armenian foreign ministry on Monday said Turkish military “experts” were “fighting side by side with Azerbaijan.” Turkish government officials declined to comment on the accusations. “Turkey troops will not be on the front line, Azeri forces don’t need them,” said Turkish analyst Ilhan Uzgel. But Uzgel says Ankara remains Baku’s key military ally. “Turkey is already supporting Azerbaijan militarily,” he said, “through technical assistance through arms sales, providing critical military support, especially in terms of armed drones and technical expertise. The line for Turkey’s involvement, is Russia’s involvement; actually, that is a red line for Turkey. Turkey doesn’t want a direct confrontation with Moscow.” An image from a video made available on the website of the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry on Sept. 28, 2020, allegedly shows Azeri troops conducting a combat operation during clashes between Armenian separatists and Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh.Moscow is a vital supporter of Yerevan, and maintains a military base in Armenia. The Russian foreign ministry on Monday called for Armenia and Azerbaijan to exercise restraint. “Armenian-Russian relations are firm and solid,” said Dr. Zaur Gasimov, a Russian affairs expert at Germany’s Bonn University. “Now, having faced with casualties on the front line, Yerevan would search for more support from Moscow.” Ahead of Sunday’s outbreak of fighting, Baku had accused Moscow of emboldening Yerevan with significant arms shipments since July. “500 tonnes of military cargo has been delivered to Armenia. Let us be clear, from Russia,” said Hikmat Hajiyev, head of Azerbaijan department of foreign affairs, in a briefing to foreign journalists in Turkey earlier this month. Hajiyev highlighted the significance of Turkey’s military assistance. “We have seen firm and strong support of Turkey to Azerbaijan. Annually, we have 10 joint military exercises covering land troops, anti-terror special forces operations, and air force exercises.” In what observers interpreted as a message to Armenia, Turkish fighter jets carried out an exercise in Azerbaijan shortly after Armenian and Azeri forces clashed in July. Energy interests July’s fighting in Azerbaijan’s Tovuz region was close to crucial energy pipelines that serve Turkey, causing alarm in Ankara. “This is a very core security issue for Turkey for energy security,” said a senior Turkish energy ministry official speaking to journalists on the condition of anonymity. The official said Turkey “will take any relevant measures” to continue receiving energy deliveries from Azerbaijan. Ankara has long supported Baku in its efforts to retake Nagorno-Karabakh, and Erdogan on Monday asserted that if Armenia immediately leaves the territory that he said it is occupying, the region will return to peace and harmony. A view of a house said to have been damaged in recent shelling during clashes between Armenian separatists and Azerbaijan over the breakaway Nagorny Karabakh region, Sept. 28, 2020. (Handout Photo from Armenian Foreign Ministry)Restoring Azeri control over Nagorno-Karabakh has the strong support of Turkish nationalists, a critical political base for Erdogan.”Two nations, one people” is a popular mantra used by Baku and Ankara to describe the countries’ relationship. Armenian separatists seized Nargono Karabakh from Azerbaijan in a bloody 1990s war that killed an estimated 30,000 people. Turkey appears poised to deepen its cooperation with Azerbaijan, analysts say. “But it’s quite a risky area. The Caucasus, it’s one of Russia’s near abroad, the Caucuses is part of Russian area of influence. They may not tolerate Turkish Azerbaijani military action against Armenia that results in heavy Armenian losses. If Turkey and Azerbaijan are planning to have a huge success through military means, that could put Turkish Russian relations at serious risk.” In recent years, Ankara and Moscow have deepened their relationship, cooperating in Syria and building trade ties that even extend to the purchase of sophisticated Russian military hardware.
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Russia Joins US in Urging Cease-fire in Nagorno-Karabakh
Russia joined the U.S. and other nations urging restraint from Azerbaijan and Armenia as fierce weekend fighting between the two rival neighbors over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region threatened to spiral into a wider conflict in the South Caucasus region. “We call on all sides in the conflict to show maximum restraint, to reject military methods and refuse any steps that might provoke an undesired escalation of the situation that is de facto already a military conflict,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in remarks to journalists in Moscow on Monday. Peskov added that President Vladimir Putin had discussed the crisis with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan over the weekend but would do the same with the Azeri leader Ilham Aliyev “if necessary.” In this photo released by Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, greets Sahiba Gafarova Chairman of the National Assembly of Azerbaijan during their meeting in Moscow, Russia, Sept. 23, 2020.Underscoring Russia’s delicate global balancing act, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed the need for a cease-fire in phone calls with counterparts from Armenia, Azerbaijan, as well as Turkey — which backs Baku and has been Moscow’s on-again off-again partner amid its military campaign in Syria. The U.S. Department of State also issued a press release saying the U.S. was “alarmed” by “large scale military action,” that had led to “significant casualties.” “We extend our condolences to the families of those killed and injured,” said the A still image from a video released by the Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry, Sept. 28, shows members of Azeri armed forces firing artillery during clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.Much of that animosity has focused on Nagorno-Karabakh — an ethnically Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan’s borders that was the site of a war in the early 1990s that killed 30,000 and displaced over one million people. Further contributing to distrust are religious tensions. Armenia is majority Christian while Azerbaijan is primarily Muslim. The U.S., Russia, and France are co-chairs of a working group that has sought to defuse the conflict under the auspices of the Houses, that locals said were damaged during a recent shelling by Azeri forces, are seen in the town of Martuni in the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, Sept. 28, 2020. (Hayk Baghdasaryan/Photolure via Reuters)Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defense said it had killed over 500 Armenian soldiers and destroyed 26 armored vehicles, weapons stores, and unmanned drones. Armenia’s Defense Ministry countered it had been the Azeris who lost 200 soldiers, 30 armored vehicles, and 30 drones — while saying that 200 of its soldiers had been wounded amid fighting. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan gives a speech at the parliament in Yerevan on Sept. 27, 2020. (Photo by handout / Press service of Armenia’s government / AFP)Armenia’s parliament also condemned what it called a “full-scale military attack” by Azerbaijan on Nagorno-Karabakh. Meanwhile, the separatist government in Nagorno-Karabakh said 28 of its soldiers had died but key ground installations had been retaken by its forces. It also claimed Azeri forces had launched a tank assault against the northeast portion of the enclave. An image grab taken from a video made available on the official website of the Armenian Defense Ministry, Sept. 27, 2020, allegedly shows destroying of Azeri tanks during clashes between Armenian separatists and Azerbaijan.Further muddying the picture, Armenia’s President Armen Sarkisyan accused Turkey — a traditional Azeri ally with its own history of conflict with Armenia — of sending fighters and military jets to join in the battle. Azeri officials rejected the charges. “Rumors of militants from Syria allegedly being redeployed to Azerbaijan is another provocation by the Armenian side and complete nonsense,” said an aide to Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev in comments carried by RIA-Novosti. Wider conflict Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan demanded on Monday that Armenia “leave Azeri territory in Norgorno-Karabakh” and criticized the decade-long OSCE peace talks for failing to resolve the status of the enclave. Armenia’s ambassador to Russia, Vardan Toganyan, said Yerevan was prepared to ask Russia for additional weapons should Turkey enter the conflict directly. The ambassador noted it was too early to say whether the request would be necessary. Russia is historically an ally of Armenia but has sought to maintain good relations with Azerbaijan. While the Kremlin maintains military bases in Armenia, it sells both countries weapons and armaments. With both sides accusing the other of shelling, the International Committee of the Red Cross — which maintains a presence in both countries and Nagorno-Karabakh — issued a statement calling on all sides to take measures to protect civilian life and infrastructure. “We reiterate our commitment to assist and support those affected by this escalation as well as to act as a neutral intermediary”, said the group’s regional director Martin Schüepp. Political observers in Moscow argued only the major powers could bring an end to the most serious escalation between Armenia and Azerbaijan in years. This is ”no longer violations of cease-fire or border incidents,” wrote Dmitry Trenin of the Carnegie Moscow Center in a post to Twitter. “War is resuming. Time for Russia, France and U.S., individually and jointly, to stop it.” #NagornoKarabakh: no longer violations of ceasefire or border incidents. War is resuming. Time for Russia, France and US, individually and jointly, to stop it.
— Dmitri Trenin (@DmitriTrenin) September 27, 2020
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500 Arrested During Weekend Protests in Belarus
Police in Belarus arrested 500 protesters over the weekend, as demonstrations against President Alexander Lukashenko continued.Lukashenko, who has been in power for 26 years, claimed his sixth reelection in the Aug. 9 election. But many in the country view the outcome as illegitimate. He claimed 80% of the vote.The country’s Interior Ministry said 150 people were arrested Saturday and another 350 on Sunday during protests across 22 cities, according to The Associated Press.Dozens Arrested as Protests Against Lukashenko Continue in Belarus The protests in Minsk, Homel, and other cities came after Lukashenko, in power since 1994, was inaugurated on September 23 in a secretive ceremony Around 100,000 protesters took to the streets in the capital, Minsk.A human rights group said the crackdowns on protesters over the weekend were not as violent as previous clampdowns, during which police used tear gas, truncheons and rubber bullets to disperse crowds. Several protesters were reportedly killed.”Repressions get stuck when more than 100,000 people take to the streets,” said Ales Bialiatski, head of the Viasna Human Rights Center, according to AP. “The authorities’ scare tactics don’t work anymore.” Authorities recently began an investigation into members of the Coordination Council, which was created by the opposition and supports a peaceful transition of power. Alleged charges against members of the group include undermining of national security.Several have been arrested or forced to leave the country, according to reports.On Monday, Svetlana Alexievich, who won the 2015 Nobel Prize in literature, left for Germany. Another council member, Maxim Znak, was jailed earlier this month and has been on a hunger strike since Sept. 18.Both the United States and the European Union have said the election was not free nor fair, and many European countries have refused to recognize Lukashenko after his surprise inauguration earlier this week.
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Kenyan Government Fights Payout for Slum’s Lead Poisoning
Residents of a Mombasa slum won a landmark payout in July over pollution by a lead smelter that poisoned locals. Kenya’s government was ordered to pay $12 million to residents within 90 days because of its failure to enforce environmental regulations with the smelter, which closed in 2014. But the government has appealed the decision.Authorities shut down the lead smelter run by Kenya Metal Refineries EPZ Limited in 2014 due to severe pollution and after several deaths that locals blamed on lead poisoning. But it wasn’t until this past July that an environmental and land court awarded the residents of Mombasa’s Owino Uhuru slum a $12 million payout. It was the first time the Kenyan government was ordered to compensate victims for failing to stop pollution, setting a precedent for future claims. The celebration, however, was short-lived as Kenya’s attorney general’s office said it was dissatisfied with the decision and planned to appeal. Anastasia Nambo, a resident at the informal settlement, says the appeal has dashed their hopes for an early settlement. She says the government has shown that it does not value the residents of the settlement. People in the community are still suffering as a result, but the government has disregarded all this. Nambo says if the government was concerned about their welfare, they would have settled the claim but, instead, they are abusing the court process through the appeal. Forty-eight-year-old Nambo, a mother of four, says the pollution gave her constant migraines and body aches, and she can no longer afford her pain medication. Nambo says her entire family has been affected. They were all tested and found to have been poisoned by the emissions from the lead factory. She says her children’s memories were affected, leading to poor performance in school, and they also complain of joint aches and migraines every day.Smoke from the smelter discolored rooftops and a 2015 report by lawmakers said water in the area was contaminated by lead. The court in July also ordered Kenya’s National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) to clean up remaining pollution. But the government’s appeal has put that clean-up effort in doubt. Kenya activist group Center for Justice Governance & Environmental Action (CJGEA) helped locals with suing the government. Tom Ooko is the programs officer at CJGEA. He spoke to VOA about the case.“It’s been like a decade of suffering for these people,” said Ooko. “When they continue prolonging this more people will continue to suffer and more will die. It also means that there’s no closure for the families that lost their loved ones, and also there’s no health and continuity of sustainable life in this community is at risk.” The attorney general’s office declined to comment on the appeal and requests for comment from the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) went unanswered.
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Cameroon Campaigns for Schools Reopening
Cameroon has launched a campaign to encourage parents to send their children to schools that were closed in rebel conflict areas and for fleeing teachers to return. Cameroon authorities want the schools to reopen by October 5 and say the areas are secure but some parents and teachers question the safety of returning to the schools. Cameroon’s military liberated more than a hundred schools from rebel occupation in weekend fighting that left at least nine rebels and several troops dead. Cameroon’s Ministry of National Education says it has dispatched hundreds of its staff members to English-speaking regions to campaign for schools to reopen on October 5. Bernard Mbuwel, a pedagogic inspector is one of them. He says the future of 400,000 children is at risk should schools remain closed.
“When education is attacked, you have a generation that is failing, there is no succession,” he said. “You have increase in cycle of crisis because conflicts cannot be resolved when the children are not educated. We find children evolving while those that are conflict stricken cannot evolve. The children will not be competitive in the job market because they are not educated.”
Laboratory technician Philomena Ayeah, 41, fled fighting in the English-speaking northwestern town of Batibo to the capital Yaounde in July. She says she wants her younger siblings to have education without which their future remains bleak in a highly competitive world.
“I am very glad for the children to go back to school,” she said. “They should go and learn. They have forgotten so many things. For now they are in the house. They only eat. It is not easy. They play. They have forgotten so many things.”
Cameroon’s military reports that within the past four days, troops chased separatist fighters from at least a hundred schools in the English-speaking Northwest region. The Catholic church in the area said the corpses of two soldiers were seen in the northwestern village of Kikaikelaki. FILE – Deben Tchoffo, Governor of the English-speaking Northwest region of Cameroon in Bamenda, Feb. 6, 2019. (E. Kindzeka/VOA)Deben Tchoffo, the region’s governor did not confirm troops were killed but says at least 9 separatist fighters lost their lives and 12 others were arrested in Kumbo, Ndop, Santa, Bafut and Wum.
“It was not an easy process, but they [military] are doing their best to secure the region and it is hoped that come 5th of October we must have improved on the security of this region to allow schools to resume,” he said. “We have asked the population to organize themselves in vigilante groups to create security around the schools.”
Tchoffo said the attacks on schools used by fighters as hideouts is carried out at the same time as the campaign to reopen the schools.
Separatists’ spokesperson Capo Daniel admits that some fighters were attacked. Capo says the separatists now want privately owned schools to reopen in the country’s Anglophone regions after 4-years of closure. He says fighters have been asked to keep government schools closed. “In terms of the Cameroon government schools, we have complete non tolerance which is a complete ban of all schools that are sponsored or functioning under the Cameroon Ministry of National Education,” he said. “In areas that we control we have opened up community schools and the teachers who are providing education are doing so on a voluntary basis. The government of Cameroon this week said the military will escort teachers and students who want to return to schools in various towns and villages. Teacher Shuri Quinta, 26, who escaped from Kumbo to Yaounde after she was attacked in June for encouraging schools to reopen says their security is not assured. “Continuous kidnapping and beating of staff [teachers] and students of this region is an indication of inadequate security. I so much long for schools to reopen but in a secured atmosphere. It therefore falls on both sides of the ongoing conflict to guarantee this security and to institute confidence building measures otherwise we are going to be heading for an illiterate society and its associated ills,” she said. The United Nations says Cameroon’s four-year separatist conflict has left over 3,000 people dead and half a million displaced. The crisis started in 2016 when teachers and lawyers took to the streets to complain about the overbearing influence of the French language in the bilingual country. The military responded with a crackdown and separatists took up weapons claiming that they were defending civilians. They asked for a school shutdown and vowed to make the English-speaking regions ungovernable.
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India Tops 6 Million COVID-19 Cases
India’s tally of coronavirus cases topped six million on Monday as the country – currently the second worst hit – continued to have the highest daily number of new cases in the world.With no let-up in sight, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Indians to follow rules that mandate wearing face masks. “These rules are weapons in the war against corona. They are potent tools to save the life of every citizen,” he said in a monthly radio address Sunday.The virus has surged since public transport, businesses, markets, hotels, restaurants and bars reopened in most cities after India began easing its stringent lockdown. Two million cases were added in the last 23 days.“We have seen the most rapid rate of rise of infections in the last few weeks and that testifies to the fact that our control strategies have not really been effective post the lockdown,” according to K. Srinath Reddy, President of the Public Health Foundation of India in New Delhi. “There was greater laxity in wearing masks and in holding crowded events, giving the virus easy access to people. This could have been slowed down.”A volunteer of District Magistrate (DM) office dressed as Yamraj, or Hindu God of death, and Civil Defense officers fine people for not wearing masks inside a shop in New Delhi, India, Sept. 28, 2020.Although the number of daily cases has dropped marginally in recent days, giving some optimism that the peak may have passed, health experts caution that the coming festival season poses a challenge. “Static crowds, indoors or outdoors, or slow-moving crowds in shopping areas will be problematic in terms of triggering super spreader events, especially when people are not wearing masks,” Reddy said.No more lockdownsHowever, authorities have indicated that the country will not impose any more lockdowns as the focus turns to reviving India’s battered economy and most public health experts agree that shuttering the country cannot stop but only delay the virus.With the number of fatalities due to the virus in India likely to touch 100,000 within days, public health experts say the stress should be on controlling the death toll. On Monday, the health ministry reported 95,542 deaths.Commuters wearing masks wait at a traffic intersection in Kochi, Kerala state, India, Sept.28, 2020.Meanwhile, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, also called on citizens to guard against a sense of complacency. “We are far from having achieved any kind of herd immunity which necessitates that all of us should continue following Covid-appropriate behavior,” the health minister said during an interaction with social media users.Herd immunity happens when a large part of the community develops antibodies against the virus, acting as a wall against its further spread.After recent surveys in some of India’s densely populated cities such as the Indian capital, Mumbai and Pune have shown that nearly 30 percent of the people have antibodies for coronavirus, some health experts had expressed optimism that the country could eventually achieve herd immunity but others say it could be months or years before that happens, if it ever does.Meanwhile, Prime Minister Modi in his address to the United Nations General Assembly Saturday pledged to help produce potential coronavirus vaccines for other countries, saying India’s huge pharmaceutical industry would be an asset in the pandemic.“As the largest vaccine-producing country of the world, I want to give one more assurance to the global community today,” he said “India’s vaccine production and delivery capacity will be used to help all humanity in fighting the crisis.”
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