A member of the Canadian Parliament has apologized after appearing naked Wednesday during a virtual legislative session via Zoom.Calling it “an unfortunate error,” District Representative William Amos of Pontiac, Quebec, explained in an email and on Twitter that he was changing in his office after a jog and did not realize his camera was on.William Amos, Canadian lawmaker. (Mélanie Provencher, House of Commons Photo Services)Amos was nude during a question-and-answer session that included Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and fellow lawmakers and legislative staffers. The pandemic has required many Canadian lawmakers to participate in sessions via videoconference instead of in person.As Trudeau concluded an answer from the Parliament chamber floor, Quebec lawmaker Claude DeBellefeuille called attention to Amos, whose image could be seen on the Zoom feed.“We have seen that the member is in very good shape, but I think that this member should be reminded of what is appropriate and to control his camera,” she said, drawing laughter from other members of Parliament.A screenshot obtained by the Canadian Press, a national news agency, that eventually went viral shows Amos standing behind a desk between the Quebec and Canadian flags, his private parts hidden by what appears to be a mobile phone in one hand.Amos said in his apology that he was embarrassed by the incident.“It was an honest mistake, and it won’t happen again,” he said.
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Month: April 2021
US Allies Confirm Troop Withdrawal from Afghanistan
U.S. allies including Britain have announced they too will begin pulling their troops out of Afghanistan, following Washington’s announcement it intends to withdraw all American armed forces personnel by September 11 – the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.Camera: Henry Ridgwell Produced by: Henry Ridgwell, Rod James
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US Allies Announce Afghanistan Troop Withdrawal
U.S. allies have announced they will begin pulling troops out of Afghanistan following Washington’s confirmation that it intends to withdraw all its armed forces by September 11, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, which triggered the U.S.-led invasion.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Kabul Thursday for talks with the Afghan government following the announcement. “We’ve achieved the objective we set out nearly 20 years ago. We never intended to have a permanent military presence here,” Blinken told reporters at the U.S. embassy in Kabul.“The threat from al-Qaida in Afghanistan is significantly degraded. Osama bin Laden has been brought to justice. After years of saying that we would leave militarily at some point, that time has come. But even when our troops come home, our partnership with Afghanistan will continue,” Blinken said.Abdullah Abdullah, Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, center right, walks with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, at the Sapidar Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 15, 2021.Britain, which has 750 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO mission to train Afghan forces, confirmed it would begin withdrawing from the country next month.Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said in a statement Thursday, “The people of Afghanistan deserve a peaceful and stable future. As we draw down, the security of our people currently serving in Afghanistan remains our priority and we have been clear that attacks on Allied troops will be met with a forceful response. The British public and our Armed Forces community, both serving and veterans, will have lasting memories of our time in Afghanistan. Most importantly we must remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice, who will never be forgotten.”Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
FILE – Relatives of three Czech soldiers, who were killed by a suicide bomber in eastern Afghanistan, mourn at the Vaclav Havel Airport in Prague, Czech Republic, Aug. 8, 2018.Among Afghans, the withdrawal of foreign troops provokes mixed feelings. “What we saw during the Taliban, it doesn’t even exist in my memory anymore. I don’t want to think about it because our country is moving toward development, it is moving toward peace,” said Mohammad Karim, a kite maker from Kabul.Fellow Kabul resident Sayed Ahad Azizi also hopes for more stability. “Peace is the only thing that all people want but if foreign troops stay here, the realization of peace in Afghanistan will be impossible,” he said.The Afghan withdrawal is a watershed moment for Afghanistan – and for the West, said Norman. “The initial mission was simply to rout out al-Qaida which have had a haven in Afghanistan under the Taliban. And that mission kind of changed and grew over time to be one of deposing the Taliban, trying to help Afghanistan transition to a more equal democracy et cetera. And I think Western powers, and the U.S. in particular, is seeing the limits of that kind of engagement.”The U.S. and its allies will reflect on what has been achieved in two decades of conflict. For Afghanistan, the fight for democracy and freedom is far from over.
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Shooting Stops in West Darfur but Thousands Need Help After Ethnic Clashes
Violence in the West Darfur capital of El Geneina has stopped after days of deadly ethnic and tribal clashes, but people who fled their homes urgently need food, water, shelter, and sanitation, according to the U.N. refugee agency.No shootings have been reported over the past four days, according to a statement released Wednesday night by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), but the fighting displaced thousands of people, many of whom have taken refuge in scores of sites across El Geneina.The number of people affected by the conflict between Arab and Masalit fighters is still unclear as official assessments have yet to take place. More than 1,800 people fled into neighboring Chad since the recent clashes erupted on April 3, “bringing the total number to 5,000 including those who fled since January,” said the U.N. statement.West Darfur Clashes Trigger Mass Exodus into Chad Recent deadly ethnic and tribal clashes in Sudan’s West Darfur region have forced nearly 2,000 people to flee into neighboring ChadPower has been restored to some parts of the town, but the city water supply remains cut off. The price of one barrel of water has jumped from 79 cents to an unprecedented $5.24. Sanitation continues to be a problem with limited facilities available at gathering sites, raising concerns about disease outbreaks said the U.N. Health facilities are also running out of medicine and supplies.El Geneina Teaching Hospital Doctor Adam Zachariah calls the situation horrible.“Calm has returned to the town but the displaced persons are suffering. Hundreds of them are living on the streets because public institutions are already full and when night comes it is a bit cold and yet the majority of them flee with nothing and at the end of the day their security in that open space is not guaranteed,” Dr. Zachariah told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus.The death toll continues to climb as security personnel patrol affected neighborhoods, according to Zachariah. El Geneina Teaching Hospital confirmed 207 deaths and more than 230 injured people from the clashes. Forty-two of the injured were airlifted to Khartoum for further medical attention.West Darfur Tribal Clash Death Toll Rises to 87 Thousands have fled the state capital, El Geneina, where fighting has raged for several days Dr. Zachariah accused state authorities of not protecting medical workers who respond to health emergencies. He said last weekend, a group of doctors and nurses were brutally attacked by armed men in military uniform as the group returned to their homes at night.“In case of any emergency anywhere, we are supposed to quickly respond immediately and save the lives of the people, but at the moment this is not the situation; our medical staff are not given any consideration for protection at all,” Zachariah told VOA.The head of Sudan’s Sovereign Council, General Abdul Fatah Al Burhan, and a delegation of military and intelligence officers, visited El Geneina on Monday.Al Burhan’s delegation did not visit any of the injured at El Geneina Teaching Hospital or the hundreds of displaced persons sheltering in open spaces around the town, according to Zachariah.“He visited only the military institutions and he only instructed the military leaders to increase more troops into the state to help in maintaining the security in the area and he tried to console people that such incidents will not happen again, which is just a political statement,” said Zachariah.A rapid needs assessment is required in order to begin distributing relief aid, said the U.N. Access to safe drinking water and sanitation remains a major problem said the UNOCHA statement. It noted half of the sites where the displaced are gathering are inaccessible and that overcrowding is increasing the risk of disease outbreaks.
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Diaspora Expresses Concerns About Haiti’s Security During Town Hall on Referendum
Members of Haiti’s diaspora expressed concerns Tuesday about the country’s ongoing insecurity, the economic crisis and the lack of information about the new draft constitution, during a virtual event hosted by the Haitian Embassy in Washington.The two-hour event, streamed live on Facebook, got off to a late start and struggled with technical issues. But it offered the diaspora an opportunity to ask Haiti’s top election officials questions about the draft constitution, which includes new privileges and representation for Haitians living abroad.A small group of people at the embassy, who were socially distanced and wearing face masks due to COVID-19 restrictions, asked questions. Others submitted questions on social media.President Jovenel Moise said a new constitution is needed to fix problems in the current charter, which was adopted in 1987. Critics say Moise’s effort is just an attempt to consolidate power. Among the proposed changes of interest to Haitians living abroad are the ability for the diaspora to run for office and the designation of a set group of lawmakers in the Chamber of Deputies to represent them in Parliament.The 2018 U.S. census estimates there are more than 1 million Haitian Americans living in the United States. The largest group resides in South Florida.The top concern raised by town hall participants was insecurity.”Everyone’s scared,” said a woman who identified herself as a former singer and activist who has been living in the U.S. since the 1980s.The Haitian minister-delegate in charge of elections, Mathias Pierre, blamed bad actors.”The government understands we have a security issue, but we want to tell people that the issue is not a coincidence — whenever there are elections, there are security issues,” the minister said. “This has happened in the past. We have had kidnappings around elections. I was talking to a politician who told me as soon as Jovenel (Moise) is gone, the insecurity will end. Does he know something we don’t know?”Pierre acknowledged that kidnappings are a major concern and told the audience the government has taken measures to address it. He cited a state of emergency in neighborhoods where the kidnappers reside and hold captives, and the establishment of specialized cells within the national police force tasked with addressing abductions.FILE – Demonstrators march near a burning road block during a protest against the government of President Jovenel Moise, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 28, 2021.Others worried about the ongoing economic crisis. Many Haitians living in the United States would like to buy and build homes, invest and open businesses in Haiti but are hesitant to do so.”The economic crisis is a consequence of the political instability,” Pierre said. “When you have a society where democracy cannot function properly, it causes economic crises. That’s why we need to have elections to elect officials who can help the country move forward.”A man who identified himself as a lawyer asked why the electoral process had not been more inclusive.”I have some issues with why there is no effort made to have more people participate in the process” he said.”The participation of the diaspora is not easy,” Guylande Mesadieu, president of the Provisional Electoral Council, said. ” If it were easy, we would have done it already. We are committed to working toward 5% of the diaspora being represented in the government. The government is very interested in having the diaspora participate in the process. That’s why we traveled here today to talk to you about the constitution.”Only 7% of eligible Haitian voters participated in the 2015 presidential election that brought Moise to power, according to Pierre. He said diaspora participation could make a difference.”If the diaspora decides to seriously participate in the process, we can up our participation rate to 36%. And then, you’ll see what your participation means to the process,” he told the audience.The last question pertained to making it easy for people who live far from the embassies and consulates to vote.”If that hasn’t been done, it’s a waste of time,” the questioner said.”The CEP (Provisional Electoral Council) has several scenarios that it has planned for,” Pierre responded. “We have created platforms. We have technology to help us determine where the voters are. We are looking at different scenarios, and I think the diaspora will be the first to know. This constitutional referendum will be a test not only for us but also for the diaspora.”Many questions went unanswered because of time constraints, but Haiti’s ambassador to the U.S., Bocchit Edmond, vowed to hold more town halls soon.”I know your time is precious, and if you took the time to come here, it’s because you thought it was important. Thanks to those watching online,” Edmond said. “We are available to address your concerns. I would like for the diaspora to participate, and we will do everything in our power to make that happen.”
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Turkish Writer Altan Released From Prison: Lawyer
Turkish journalist and writer Ahmet Altan was released from prison on Wednesday, his lawyer said, after the top appeals court overturned a verdict against him following a ruling by a European court that his rights had been violated.
The 71-year-old Altan has been in prison in western Istanbul since September 2016, on charges related to an attempted coup in July 2016.
He was detained over allegations that he disseminated subliminal messages related to the coup attempt during a TV program, as well as articles he had written criticizing the government.
He denied the charges, which he and his lawyer said were politically motivated.
Altan’s case was one of those considered to be symbolic of the crackdown on dissent under President Tayyip Erdogan following the attempted coup. Ankara says the measures were necessary given the security threats facing Turkey.
He was sentenced to life in jail in 2018 without parole for attempting to overthrow the constitutional order but the ruling was overturned by the Court of Cassation, the top appeals court.
Altan was then re-tried and sentenced to more than 10 years for aiding a terrorist organization. He was briefly released due to time served but re-arrested after the prosecutor objected.
Altan was released again on Wednesday due to time served after the Court of Cassation overturned the second ruling, his lawyer Figen Calikusu said.
“This has been a judicial persecution that went on for longer than four years and seven months. Ahmet Altan was held with a completely empty file,” she said.
“He was considered the perpetrator of the coup attempt for articles he wrote,” Calikusu added.
His case will now return to the lower court, which could decide to resist the ruling by the Court of Cassation but Calikusu said she expected Altan to be acquitted.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday that Altan’s right to liberty and security, as well as his freedom of expression had been violated since he was accused without reasonable suspicion.
Nacho Sanchez Amor, the European Parliament’s rapporteur on Turkey, welcomed the ruling by the Court of Cassation, adding that all charges should be dropped.
Turkey accused Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen of orchestrating the coup. Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, denies involvement.
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France Advises Citizens to Leave Pakistan for Security Reasons
France advised its citizens and companies Thursday to temporarily leave Pakistan, citing “serious threats to French interests” in the South Asian nation.The move follows violent protests this week across large parts of Pakistan by activists of the radical Islamist party Tehreek-i-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), which has been demanding that Islamabad expel the French ambassador over the publishing of anti-Islam cartoons in France.“Due to the serious threats to French interests in Pakistan, French nationals and French companies are advised to temporarily leave the country,” France’s embassy said in an email to its estimated 500 citizens in living in Pakistan. “The departures will be carried out by existing commercial airlines,” it said.Police officers guard a road blocked with shipping containers, near the French consulate, in Karachi, Pakistan, April 15, 2021.There was no immediate reaction by Pakistan’s foreign ministry.Pakistani officials said Wednesday that three days of clashes between TLP supporters and police killed two law enforcement personnel and wounded nearly 600 others, including dozens of protesters.The unprecedented attacks against police prompted the Pakistani government to declare the TLP a banned organization under the country’s anti-terrorism laws. TLP members took to the streets in major cities Monday, shortly after authorities in the eastern city of Lahore detained their leader, Saad Rizvi. They blocked highways across major cities, paralyzing business and daily life.Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, left, and Religious Affairs Minister Noor-ul-Haq Qadri, give a press conference addressing anti-France violence, in Islamabad, April 15, 2021.Pakistani Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Thursday said police and paramilitary forces had dispersed the protesters in most, but not all, places.Ahmed defended Rizvi’s arrest, saying Rizvi was planning to lead a march on Islamabad to besiege the capital in connection with the TLP’s demand for the expulsion of the French ambassador. The interior minister dismissed the demand as illegitimate, saying entities like the TLP cannot be allowed to dictate terms to the Pakistani state.The TLP has risen to prominence in Pakistan in recent years. Along with demonstrations against France, the party has pressured the Pakistani government into not repealing or reforming the country’s harsh blasphemy laws, which critics say often are used to intimidate religious minorities and settle personal disputes.
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UNHCR to Help Mexico Deal with Rising Tide of Asylum Claims
The United Nations refugee agency is scaling up programs in Mexico to help the country tackle the growing number of asylum applications and assist asylum seekers while their claims are being processed.
The number of people seeking asylum in Mexico has increased dramatically in recent years. Mexico’s Commission for Refugee Assistance says that between 2014 and 2019 registered asylum claims jumped from just 2,000 to 70,000 per year — a spike of over 3,000 percent. FILE – Migrants recently expelled from the U.S. after trying to seek asylum sit next to the international bridge in the Mexican border city of Reynosa, March 27, 2021.The United Nations refugee agency reports that asylum applications dropped significantly throughout most of last year because of COVID-19 border closures and other movement restrictions. However, UNHCR spokeswoman Aikaterini Kitidi says numbers have risen sharply in the first quarter of this year, reaching an all-time monthly high of more than 9,000 claims in March. “The majority of asylum applications are related to violence affecting hundreds of thousands of people in parts of Central America, including threats, forced recruitment, extortion, sexual violence and murder. It is also an indication of the significant efforts that Mexico is making to offer protection to those fleeing for their lives,” she said. Kitidi says the UNHCR is working to shrink the huge backlog of asylum claims. She says the agency is helping Mexico expand its asylum procedures by boosting its registration and case processing capacity. “We have also scaled up our own programs to assist asylum seekers with their claims and to help recognized refugees integrate into their host communities. Among others, we launched an innovative program under which refugees are relocated and able to take advantage of job and educational opportunities in cities in central and northern Mexico,” she said. FILE – Four-year-old Arony Maude from Honduras rests next to her uncle Edgar Omar, also from Honduras, and the rest of her family along a motorway, on their way to the United States, in El Ceibo, Tabasco, Mexico, March 26, 2021Kitidi says U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has asked the UNHCR for help in ending the Remain in Mexico Program. This program was instituted by former President Donald Trump’s administration. It allows U.S. border officers to return non-Mexican asylum seekers to Mexico until their claims are heard in a U.S. immigration court. This policy has come under intense criticism from human rights activists. They say it exposes thousands of vulnerable migrants and asylum seekers to exploitation, kidnapping, extortion and sexual assault from criminal gangs operating in Mexico.
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Blinken in Afghanistan to Sell Biden Troop Withdrawal
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced visit Thursday to Kabul where he told Afghan leaders that while the United States will soon begin withdrawing its remaining troops from the country, it remains committed to Afghanistan.“The partnership is changing, but the partnership is enduring,” Blinken said as he met with President Ashraf Ghani and other officials.The visit came a day after U.S. President Joe Biden announced all U.S. troops will be out of Afghanistan by September 11 of this year.“We respect the decision and are adjusting our priorities,” Ghani said Thursday.A senior State Department official told reporters that while the United States will no longer have military assets in Afghanistan, it will still be capable of confronting any threat that emerges.Blinken also spoke Thursday to a group of mostly U.S. soldiers at the American embassy, offering praise for the military’s efforts since the first forces were deployed to the country in 2001.“What you and your predecessors did over the last 20 years is really extraordinary,” Blinken said.While at the embassy, Blinken met with half a dozen Afghan civil society members, but made no comments while reporters were present. Naheed Farid, a member of Afghanistan’s parliament who was part of the session, answered a reporter’s question about Afghanistan’s future by saying, “My views are very pessimistic.”President Joe Biden speaks from the Treaty Room in the White House on Wednesday, April 14, 2021, about the withdrawal of the remainder of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.Biden made his announcement in a televised speech on Wednesday, declaring that “war in Afghanistan was never meant to be a multi-generational undertaking.”He said the United States can no longer justify staying there two decades after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. ”We went to Afghanistan because of a horrific attack that happened 20 years ago,” Biden said at the White House. ”That cannot explain why we should remain there in 2021.” Biden spoke in the Treaty Room, the same place where, on October 7, 2001, then-President George W. Bush announced airstrikes on Afghanistan. “We cannot continue the cycle of extending or expanding our military presence in Afghanistan hoping to create the ideal conditions for our withdrawal, expecting a different result,” Biden said in his remarks. ”American troops shouldn’t be used as bargaining chips between warring parties in other countries.” The U.S. leader said he is now the fourth president to oversee an American troop presence in Afghanistan — among two Republicans and two Democrats — and vowed to not pass the responsibility on to a fifth. Biden, announcing the withdrawal would begin May 1, added that the United States would continue its diplomatic and humanitarian work in Afghanistan and ”we will continue to support the government of Afghanistan.” The president, amid widespread concern his decision will lead to a wider civil war in Afghanistan, also said Washington and its allies would support training and help equip nearly 300,000 Afghan forces, as well as support peace talks between the Afghan government and Taliban fighters. He also called on countries in the region, especially Pakistan, but also China, India, Russia and Turkey, to do more to support Afghanistan. FILE – Upon landing after a helicopter rescue mission, Tech. Sgt. Jeff Hedglin, right, an Air Force Pararescueman, or PJ, drapes an American flag over the remains of the first of two U.S. soldiers killed minutes earlier in an IED attack.The way forward President Ghani said that he spoke to Biden in the hours prior to the official announcement and his government ”respects the U.S. decision and will work with our U.S. partners to ensure a smooth transition.” On Twitter, Ghani added that Afghanistan’s security and defense forces ”are fully capable of defending its people and country, which they have been doing all along and for which the Afghan nation will forever remain grateful.” Afghanistan’s proud security and defense forces are fully capable of defending its people and country, which they have been doing all along, and for which the Afghan nation will forever remain grateful.— Ashraf Ghani (@ashrafghani) Taliban political deputy Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, center, arrives with other members of the Taliban delegation for an Afghan peace conference in Moscow, Russia, March 18, 2021.Taliban reaction The Taliban on Wednesday said it wants all foreign forces out of Afghanistan ”on the date specified in the Doha Agreement,” and that ”if the agreement is adhered to, a pathway to addressing the remaining issues will also be found.” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid added on Twitter, ”If the agreement is breached and foreign forces fail to exit our country on the specified date, problems will certainly be compounded and those (who) failed to comply with the agreement will be held liable.” News of the U.S troop withdrawal plans had already prompted the Taliban to cancel its participation in a 10-day peace conference between Afghanistan’s warring sides later this month in Turkey. President Biden warned the Taliban that if ”they attack us as we draw down, we will defend ourselves and our partners with all the tools at our disposal.” Meanwhile, a pessimistic U.S. intelligence report predicted that a peace deal is unlikely in the next year and the Taliban — an enemy of the democratically elected government of Afghanistan — will make battlefield gains. “The Afghan government will struggle to hold the Taliban at bay if the coalition withdraws support,” said an unclassified version of the report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The U.S. ability to collect intelligence and act on threats will diminish when American troops leave Afghanistan, CIA Director William Burns testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee. “When the time comes for the U.S. military to withdraw, the U.S. government’s ability to collect and act on threats will diminish. That’s simply a fact,” said Burns, adding that the United States would, however, retain ”a suite of capabilities.” Several prominent senators of the opposition Republican party are assailing Biden’s troop withdrawal decision. ”Apparently, we’re to help our adversaries ring in the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks by gift-wrapping the country and handing it back to them,” said Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor early Wednesday. “I beg you, President Biden, reevaluate this. Don’t lock yourself in because things are going to change quickly in Afghanistan for the worse,” Senator Lindsey Graham told reporters following Biden’s speech. ”This is not going to end well for us.” Biden’s decision is winning praise from those who believe the United States is no closer to winning the war today than it was more than a decade ago or would be in the future. “President Biden has made the right decision in completing the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan,” said former President Barack Obama, under whom Biden served as vice president. ”There will be very difficult challenges and further hardship ahead in Afghanistan, and the U.S. must remain engaged diplomatically and through our development efforts to support the Afghan people, particularly those who have taken extraordinary risks on behalf of human rights.” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said the ”previous approach of maintaining thousands of U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan has not led to a resolution, and a new approach is required.” Some analysts view Biden’s decision as the best of an array of bad options. “There’s probably no option that significantly reduces the level of violence. There’s also probably no option on the table to build the Afghanistan that the United States probably had in mind when they invested more than a trillion dollars in the war,” said University of Chicago Assistant Professor Austin Wright, whose research focuses on insurgents and Afghanistan. Margaret Besheer at the UN, National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin, Ayaz Gul in Islamabad, and White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report
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UN Envoy: South Sudan has Potential, Needs to Hold Elections
David Shearer said Wednesday he’s leaving the top U.N. job in South Sudan convinced the world’s youngest nation has the potential to become a tourist destination to rival any country in East Africa and the oil and mineral riches to spur economic progress — if it can eliminate corruption and establish a transparent and open government.As the country approaches its 10th anniversary of independence from Sudan on July 11, it has a transitional government in place following a 2018 peace agreement, and a 2020 cease-fire. Shearer said in an interview with The Associated Press that though “it’s all moved too slowly,” it’s now time to focus on elections “and have a legitimate, popularly elected government.”That needs to be the rallying cry as we go forward — to bring everybody on board and to put pressure on the government to actually speak up and hold those elections,” he said. “That doesn’t mean to say winner needs to take all, because that can create all sorts of problems. But we do have to allow people to have their say in what comes next.”There were high hopes for peace and stability once South Sudan gained its long-fought independence from Sudan. But the country slid into ethnic violence in December 2013 when forces loyal to President Salva Kiir, a Dinka, started battling those loyal to Riek Machar, his former vice president who belongs to the Nuer people.Numerous attempts at peace failed, including a deal that saw Machar return as vice president in 2016 only to flee months later amid fresh fighting. The civil war has killed nearly 400,000 people and displaced millions.Intense international pressure followed the most recent peace deal in 2018, and in February 2020 a coalition government led by Kiir, with Machar as his deputy, was formed.’Huge animosities’As U.N. special representative for South Sudan, Shearer was head of the largest U.N. peacekeeping mission, with over 14,000 troops and 1,500 police, and in charge of political dealings as well. He was a former member of New Zealand’s parliament and has held a variety of U.N. posts including in Iraq from 2007-09.Looking back on why an oil-rich country born with high expectations has ended up in such a dire situation, Shearer said that after independence “the elites” — the generals during the war who found themselves in government — had “huge animosities” toward each other and struggled to be on top.He said transforming the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, which became the ruling party of the new country, into a state is still in progress.”They’re thinking as a movement: How can we continue to hold power as we move forward? And that’s a very big difference … (from) the strategic vision of, where is South Sudan going to be in five, 10 years time?” he said.’A step along the way’Shearer said another key issue is that financial resources coming to the government “are siphoned off by these very people (the elites), and there is very little understanding of where the money’s going.” It’s not going to services for the people of South Sudan and there’s problems with holding the government accountable, he said.Looking ahead, Shearer said the peace agreement ends with elections, though “I don’t believe that’s the end of the peace process — that’s a step along the way.”To hold elections, the appointed legislature, which hasn’t met, needs to approve a constitution and electoral legislation, he said.There also has to be some serious messaging between now and the election “to make sure that although one person will be president, everybody else will have a role to play,” he said.Shearer said Kiir and Machar “are working together,” though they are still rivals, and he expects both to run for president.The U.N. Security Council has asked for a feasibility study due in mid-July on holding elections.The U.N. envoy said there were growing voices for election preparations to begin but the bottom line was there was stability now in the country.”The conflict that’s happening now is at a much smaller level,” he said. “It’s intercommunal, it’s resource related, it’s tribal, often started by leaders. But it’s much less than it was three years ago.”He shared his vision of what South Sudan should like like in five or 10 years: “What I’d really like to see is a government that is transparent and open with its finances, where it’s starting to take its own responsibility providing services, and it’s turning around with the confidence to say to the international community: `You don’t need your peacekeepers here. We need development, people to help us with our development and our economic progress, and we need you to transition and the rest of you guys need to start thinking about moving out,'” Shearer said.He said the potential in South Sudan is immense. “If you had stability, you would have a tourist industry that could rival any of the countries in east Africa — the Nile, the animals, and its extraordinary,” and the country also has fertile soil, oil, teak and minerals.”It’s all there, it just needs good governance. So that would be what I wish for more than anything else,” Shearer said.
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US Intelligence Sees ‘Significant Risk’ in Afghanistan Withdrawal
The plan to pull troops from Afghanistan could give terrorist groups like al-Qaida and Islamic State a chance to regenerate the capabilities they would need to carry out an attack against the United States, according to top U.S. intelligence officials.Their warning, coming the same day U.S. President Joe Biden formally announced his decision to end America’s longest-running war, touches on the deep-rooted concerns many current and former U.S. officials have voiced about pulling 2,500 to 3,500 troops from Afghanistan, along with thousands of trainers and contractors.It also may serve to fuel further criticism of the withdrawal, with critics seizing on fears that the conditions that allowed Afghanistan to become a haven for terrorists could soon return, despite nearly two decades of fighting.”There is a significant risk once the U.S. military and the coalition militaries withdraw,” Bill Burns, recently confirmed director of the CIA, told lawmakers Wednesday.“The U.S. government’s ability to collect and act on threats will diminish. That’s simply a fact,” he said, cautioning that al-Qaida and IS in Afghanistan “remain intent on recovering the ability to attack U.S. targets, whether it’s in the region, in the West or ultimately in the homeland.”But the stark warning was accompanied by a plea for lawmakers to be “clear-eyed.”No matter how much al-Qaida and IS may want to strike the U.S., Burns said, “the reality is that neither of them have that capacity today.”Other top intelligence officials also made the case that the terror threat that caused the U.S. to go to war in Afghanistan in the first place is no longer the preeminent danger it was.“There are terrorist groups, whether it’s al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), in other parts of the world, who represent much more serious threats,” Burns said. #Afghanistan: “I was at the table for a number of discussions leading up to the decision” per @ODNIgov Dir Haines “I’m not sure that the decision was made in a specific meeting”
— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) April 14, 2021Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told lawmakers the danger posed by Afghanistan has also been eclipsed by threats from countries such as China — which she called an “unparalleled priority” — as well as Russia, Iran and North Korea.”We have now over 2,000 investigations that tie back to the Chinese gvt” per @FBI’s Wray “On the economic espionage investigation side alone, it’s about a 1300% increase over the last several years.”
“We’re opening a new investigation into China every 10 hours”
— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) April 14, 2021Even domestic extremists from a “broad range of ideological motivations pose a greater immediate threat,” Haines said.Lawmakers, however, like Marco Rubio, lead Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, voiced concern.“There’s a very real possibility in the very near future, sadly, tragically and in a heartbreaking way, the Taliban will regain control of all or substantial portions of Afghanistan,” he said.”If they do, I think it’s almost certain that al-Qaida will return,” Rubio added. “No one can deny it’s going to have serious security implications for our country for years to come.”Recent assessments, both from the U.S. and other countries, indicate decades of counterterrorism pressure has significantly degraded al-Qaida’s leadership and its overall numbers in Afghanistan.While officials believe al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri remains in hiding in Afghanistan, they say he is not in good health, and other high-ranking deputies have been killed, including Zawahiri’s likely successor, Abu Muhammad al-Masri, who was gunned down last August in Iran.Earlier this year, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency said al-Qaida and its affiliate, al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), had fewer than 200 members in Afghanistan and that the groups barely seemed to be active over the last few months of 2020.The DIA assessment, though, warned that al-Qaida officials would likely welcome the U.S. departure, seeing it as a chance to regenerate. And it cautioned that what al-Qaida operatives remained in Afghanistan appeared to be well-integrated into the Taliban’s command-and-control structure.Military and intelligence assessments of IS in Afghanistan, known as IS-Khorasan, indicate the group is no longer able to hold territory as it once did. But officials said earlier this year that new leadership has allowed the group, which may have as many as 2,500 fighters, to stabilize.“We are concerned about the group’s demonstrated interest in conducting external operations,” a U.S. official told VOA on the condition of anonymity, because of the sensitive nature of the intelligence.Burns, the CIA chief, told lawmakers that much of what happens next will likely depend on how closely the Afghan Taliban adhere to their deal with the U.S., in which they promised to sever ties with al-Qaida and to prevent any terror group from using Afghanistan to launch attacks against the United States.But even if the Taliban fall short, Burns told lawmakers, U.S. intelligence will be keeping a close watch on al-Qaida and IS.“The CIA and all of our partners in the U.S. government will retain a suite of capabilities, some of them remaining in place, some of them that we’ll generate, that can help us to anticipate and contest any rebuilding effort,” he said.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 8 MB480p | 11 MB540p | 14 MB720p | 26 MB1080p | 58 MBOriginal | 69 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioChina, Russia Viewed as Top Threats to US in Intel AssessmentRussiaU.S. intelligence chiefs Wednesday also voiced growing concerns about Russia’s military buildup in Crimea and along the borders of Ukraine, warning the force could form the basis for a limited military incursion.”The Russians have positioned themselves to give themselves options,” Lieutenant General Scott Berrier, DIA director, said. “They could actually be going into a series of exercises starting anytime, or they could, if they chose to, perhaps do a limited objective attack.”CyberLawmakers also heard concerns about so-called blind spots that are allowing adversaries, including China and Russia, to carry out cyber operations against the U.S.“They are utilizing U.S. infrastructure,” said General Paul Nakasone, National Security Agency director. “They realize that if they can come into the United States and use an internet service provider in a period of time … we cannot surveil that.”“They understand the timeline for a warrant to be done,” he added.”What our adversaries are doing right now, it’s not spear-phishing. It’s not guessing passwords” per @CYBERCOM_DIRNSA “It’s utilizing supply chain operations. It’s using zero day vulnerabilities…We call that, ‘above best practices'”
— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) April 14, 2021
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Haitian Diaspora Shares Concerns About Haiti’s Security During Town Hall on Referendum
Members of Haiti’s diaspora expressed concerns Tuesday about the country’s ongoing insecurity, the economic crisis and the lack of information about the new draft constitution, during a virtual event hosted by the Haitian Embassy in Washington.The two-hour event, streamed live on Facebook, got off to a late start and struggled with technical issues. But it offered the diaspora an opportunity to ask Haiti’s top election officials questions about the draft constitution, which includes new privileges and representation for Haitians living abroad.A small group of people at the embassy, who were socially distanced and wearing face masks due to COVID-19 restrictions, asked questions. Others submitted questions on social media.President Jovenel Moise said a new constitution is needed to fix problems in the current charter, which was adopted in 1987. Critics say Moise’s effort is just an attempt to consolidate power. Among the proposed changes of interest to Haitians living abroad are the ability for the diaspora to run for office and the designation of a set group of lawmakers in the Chamber of Deputies to represent them in Parliament.The 2018 U.S. census estimates there are more than 1 million Haitian Americans living in the United States. The largest group resides in South Florida.The top concern raised by town hall participants was insecurity.”Everyone’s scared,” said a woman who identified herself as a former singer and activist who has been living in the U.S. since the 1980s.The Haitian minister-delegate in charge of elections, Mathias Pierre, blamed bad actors.”The government understands we have a security issue, but we want to tell people that the issue is not a coincidence — whenever there are elections, there are security issues,” the minister said. “This has happened in the past. We have had kidnappings around elections. I was talking to a politician who told me as soon as Jovenel (Moise) is gone, the insecurity will end. Does he know something we don’t know?”Pierre acknowledged that kidnappings are a major concern and told the audience the government has taken measures to address it. He cited a state of emergency in neighborhoods where the kidnappers reside and hold captives, and the establishment of specialized cells within the national police force tasked with addressing abductions.FILE – Demonstrators march near a burning road block during a protest against the government of President Jovenel Moise, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 28, 2021.Others worried about the ongoing economic crisis. Many Haitians living in the United States would like to buy and build homes, invest and open businesses in Haiti but are hesitant to do so.”The economic crisis is a consequence of the political instability,” Pierre said. “When you have a society where democracy cannot function properly, it causes economic crises. That’s why we need to have elections to elect officials who can help the country move forward.”A man who identified himself as a lawyer asked why the electoral process had not been more inclusive.”I have some issues with why there is no effort made to have more people participate in the process” he said.”The participation of the diaspora is not easy,” Guylande Mesadieu, president of the Provisional Electoral Council, said. ” If it were easy, we would have done it already. We are committed to working toward 5% of the diaspora being represented in the government. The government is very interested in having the diaspora participate in the process. That’s why we traveled here today to talk to you about the constitution.”Only 7% of eligible Haitian voters participated in the 2015 presidential election that brought Moise to power, according to Pierre. He said diaspora participation could make a difference.”If the diaspora decides to seriously participate in the process, we can up our participation rate to 36%. And then, you’ll see what your participation means to the process,” he told the audience.The last question pertained to making it easy for people who live far from the embassies and consulates to vote.”If that hasn’t been done, it’s a waste of time,” the questioner said.”The CEP (Provisional Electoral Council) has several scenarios that it has planned for,” Pierre responded. “We have created platforms. We have technology to help us determine where the voters are. We are looking at different scenarios, and I think the diaspora will be the first to know. This constitutional referendum will be a test not only for us but also for the diaspora.”Many questions went unanswered because of time constraints, but Haiti’s ambassador to the U.S., Bocchit Edmond, vowed to hold more town halls soon.”I know your time is precious, and if you took the time to come here, it’s because you thought it was important. Thanks to those watching online,” Edmond said. “We are available to address your concerns. I would like for the diaspora to participate, and we will do everything in our power to make that happen.”
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Biden Announces End to ‘America’s Longest War’
President Joe Biden announced his plan to withdraw all 2,500 American troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, months later than the May 1 deadline that the Trump administration and the Taliban agreed on last year. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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Russia Targets Student Magazine With Raids, Criminal Charges
Russian authorities on Wednesday charged four editors of an online student magazine with encouraging minors to take part in illegal activity for a report about the nationwide protests supporting jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny.All four were ordered by a court not to leave their residences for the next two months and were banned from using the internet and communicating with anyone other than immediate family, lawyers and law-enforcement agencies.The charges, which carry a potential sentence of three years in prison, come amid heightened pressure on independent news media.Police raided the Moscow apartments of the four DOXA magazine editors as well as the apartments of two of the editors’ parents and the magazine’s offices before taking the editors in for questioning, according to DOXA and a human rights group involved in their defense. DOXA said the actions were connected to a video the magazine ran about the protests calling for Navalny’s freedom, which took place throughout the country on two consecutive weekends in January, among the largest shows of defiance in a decade.The video talked about the pressure that school and university students faced before the protests and described threats of expulsion, which it said were unlawful, for participating in the demonstrations.Russia’s media and internet watchdog Roskomnadzor demanded that DOXA delete the video. The magazine complied, but filed a lawsuit contesting the order.DOXA said Wednesday that the video contained “no calls for unlawful actions — we were saying that young people shouldn’t be afraid to express their opinion.””The pressure the journalist community has faced recently is unprecedented, but we won’t stop our work. We will continue to cover what’s important for young people and will continue to stand up for their rights,” the magazine’s statement read. Navalny’s chief strategist, Leonid Volkov, faces similar charges, although he left Russia in 2019. On Wednesday, he expressed “unconditional respect and support” on Facebook for the four DOXA editors: Armen Aramyan, Natalya Tyshkevich, Vladimir Metelkin and Alla Gutnikova.As the four appeared one-by-one in front a judge on Wednesday evening, dozens of supporters gathered near the courthouse in central Moscow. Some carried banners saying “We are DOXA” and “Get your hands away from DOXA.” Navalny, who is President Vladimir Putin’s most visible foe, was arrested on Jan. 17 upon returning to Russia from Germany, where he had spent five months recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. He was later sentenced to about 2 1/2 years in prison on the grounds that his long stay in Germany violated terms of a suspended sentence on a previous conviction for financial misdeeds. The crackdown on DOXA came several days after police searched the apartment of a prominent investigative journalist, Roman Anin, chief editor of the Vazhniye Istorii website. The website said the raid was likely linked with a 2016 story Anin wrote for the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta that alleged a lavish super-yacht belonged to Igor Sechin, head of Russian state oil company Rosneft.Novaya Gazeta was ordered to retract the story as a result of a civil court case, but a criminal case on the matter has been pending for years.”Coverage of some important issues — protests, corruption, and so on — is perceived as hostile criminal activity, so none of the journalists who honestly do their job can feel safe now,” said Damir Gainutdinov of the Agora human rights organization that is providing legal support to three of the DOXA editors.
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Sources: US Set to Slap New Sanctions on Russian Officials as Soon as Thursday
The United States will announce sanctions on Russia as soon as Thursday for alleged election interference and malicious cyber activity, targeting several individuals and entities, people familiar the matter said.The sanctions, in which 30 entities are expected to be blacklisted, will be tied with orders expelling about 10 Russian officials from the United States, one of the people said.The White House, the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Treasury Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.The action will add a new chill to the already frosty relations between Washington and Moscow, which has tested the West’s patience with a military buildup near Ukraine.The wide-ranging sanctions would come in response to a cybersecurity breach affecting software made by SolarWinds Corp. that the U.S. government has said was likely orchestrated by Russia. The breach gave hackers access to thousands of companies and government offices that used the company’s products.Microsoft President Brad Smith described the attack, which was identified in December, as “the largest and most sophisticated attack the world has ever seen.”The United States also intends to punish Moscow for alleged interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. In a report last month, U.S. intelligence agencies said Russian President Vladimir Putin likely directed efforts to try to swing the election to then-President Donald Trump and away from now-President Joe Biden.Washington’s expected action is likely to exacerbate tensions in a relationship that slumped to a new post-Cold War low last month after Biden said he thought Putin was a “killer.”In a call on Tuesday, Biden told Putin that the United States would act “firmly” to defend its interests in response to those actions, according to U.S. officials’ account of the call.Biden also proposed a meeting with Putin “in a third country” that could allow the leaders to find areas to work together.In the past few weeks, Washington and its NATO allies have been alarmed by a large build-up of Russian troops near Ukraine and in Crimea, the peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.”The hostility and unpredictability of America’s actions force us in general to be prepared for the worst scenarios,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters last week, anticipating the new sanctions.
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UN Security Council to Meet on Tigray
A new meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Tigray in Ethiopia, where fighting continues, will be held Thursday at the request of the United States, AFP learned Wednesday from diplomatic sources.This session will be held behind closed doors, like the last meeting, which was held on March 4. At the time, China and Russia opposed the adoption of a unanimous declaration calling for an “end to violence” in Tigray. Beijing and Moscow consider the armed conflict in Tigray since the beginning of November an “internal affair.”On Thursday, the 15 members of the council are expected to hear a briefing on the situation by U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock, while the obstacles to the delivery of aid to the populations have not ceased, according to the U.N.In early March, Lowcock demanded that Eritrea withdraw its troops from Tigray in the first recognition by a U.N. official in New York of Eritrea’s involvement in the fighting.The Eritrean army has been accused by the U.N. services in Geneva of atrocities in Tigray that are likely to constitute “war crimes and crimes against humanity.” Asmara dismissed the charges.At the beginning of November, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced the dispatch of the federal army to Tigray to arrest and disarm the leaders of the TPLF (Front for the Liberation of the People of Tigray), whose forces are accused by Addis Ababa of having carried out attacks against military camps of the federal forces. At the time, Abiy assured the U.N. Secretary-General that the operation would be completed in a few weeks. In early April, however, he indicated that the Ethiopian army continued to fight in Tigray, where the rebels had adopted, according to him, “guerrilla” tactics.It is not known how many Eritrean soldiers are still in the region and whether some have indeed left in recent weeks, as Abiy claims.
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