Conflict-wary villagers have resumed economic and social activities in the scenic Battal valley in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, about three kilometers from Indian army posts set up on ridges directly overlooking a population of about 30,000.
It has been more than two months since the guns have fallen silent after the reinstitution of an 18-year-old cease-fire between India and Pakistan on their de facto Kashmir frontier. Pakistani soldier stands guard on a forward posts near the Kashmir Line of Control as nascent ceasefire holds between India and Pakistan. (Ayaz Gul/VOA)Known as the Line of Control or LoC, the 740-kilometer military line splits the disputed Himalayan region between the nuclear-armed neighbors, with both claiming all of it.
The surprise late-February truce has effectively halted years of frequent exchanges of artillery, mortars and small arms between Indian and Pakistani militaries, badly fraying civilian lives on both sides in the last three years.
“Life before the cease-fire was extremely miserable, particularly for elderly people like us,” lamented Khurshid Bibi, a 69-year-old woman.
The frequent exchange of fire would erupt early in the morning and at times would continue relentlessly for 10 to 12 hours, she said. “We would run for safety, often having no food until the violence would subside. We feel relieved now and wish this stability is permanently sustained.”Keep Your Distance, Kashmir Police Tell Media Police in India-controlled Kashmir cite safety and national security concerns as they tell journalists to stop live coverage of clashes with militants Villagers told VOA the violence would inflict casualties, including on their valuable livestock, cause damage to property and crops, or prevent their timely harvesting and cultivation.
Residents said they are now holding rituals and social activities free of any fear of coming under fire. Health facilities have reopened but education activities remain suspended in the whole of Pakistani-ruled Kashmir like the rest of Pakistan to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
Pakistani military officers said that a “peaceful environment” had ensued the cease-fire, having “a very positive psychological” effect on the people and providing “a sense of security for not losing their own or their loved ones’ lives and limbs.”
Kashmir has sparked two of the three wars between nuclear armed India and Pakistan since both the countries gained independence from Britain in 1947. The territorial dispute remains at the heart of bilateral political and military tensions.
Major-General Wajid Aziz, the top regional Pakistani military commander, told reporters on an army-arranged visit to the Battal sector there had been “no significant” cease-fire violations since the truce went into effect two months ago.
“We are hopeful this current cease-fire continues, sustains and paves the way for further negotiations,” Aziz said. Residents in the Salohi village near the line of control in Kashmir say the India-Pakistan ceasefire allowed them to timely cultivate their land. (Ayaz Gul/VOA)Villager Afzal Ahmed, 30, while pointing to the Indian posts on hilltops near his home said while he and his family have survived the shelling, they lost their livestock, a crucial source of livelihood for people in the area.
“As soon as the cease-fire was announced, I bought these two buffalos so I could resume selling dairy products,” Ahmed said, standing in a small ready-to-harvest wheat field adjacent to his house.
Bilateral tensions dangerously escalated after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government revoked the semiautonomous status of Indian-administered majority-Muslim Kashmir and declared it a union territory in August 2019.
Pakistan denounced the action and downgraded all ties with India, saying it would do so until the neighbor reversed its Kashmir-related actions.
Islamabad said the Indian actions violated a longstanding United Nations resolution, which recognizes the region as a disputed territory.
New Delhi rejected the objection as an interference in its internal affairs but the ensuing months witnessed intense clashes between the Indian and Pakistani militaries along the Kashmir LoC, causing hundreds of civilian and combat casualties on both sides.
India stepped up long-running allegations that Pakistan was sending infiltrators across the frontier, while Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan relentless slammed in domestic and international speeches his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi for stoking Hindu nationalist sentiment against Muslims in India. A girls school near the Kashmir frontier sustained damages in clashes between Indian and Pakistani armies prior to the late February ceasefire deal. (Ayaz Gul/VOA)
Gen. Aziz said about 1.5 million people live along the frontier on the Pakistani side and nearly 30,000 families are directly vulnerable to the Indian fire.
The escalation in the conflict in recent years, he said, prompted the army to help build more than 3,000 family-specific and community bunkers to enable the vulnerable population to seek shelter. But the cease-fire has rendered those bunkers unneeded for now, say villagers.
Mutual tensions have gradually eased since the February truce.
Highly-placed official sources in Islamabad tell VOA the reinstatement of the 2003 cease-fire and recent exchanges of goodwill gestures between Pakistani and Indian leaders stemmed from months of ongoing backchannel peace negotiations.
The sources asserted New Delhi proposed the wide-ranging dialogue between intelligence officials of the two countries a year ago to ease tensions and discuss outstanding disputes, including Kashmir, and Islamabad responded positively.
Last week Pakistan offered to provide essential medical relief supplies to India, which is in the grips of a devastating coronavirus surge and struggling to meet critical hospital needs, including medical oxygen. Indian officials have not yet responded to the offer.
However, critics and residents of Pakistani-ruled Kashmir remain skeptical whether the fledgling cease-fire would hold for long and whether it would lead to a formal, wider peace, citing past experiences and deeply-rooted enmity between the two rival countries.
“It has brought a partial relief to the lives of our people here. But we remain fearful that hostilities could erupt at any time, as we have witnessed in the past,” said Wasim Ahmed Khan, an information technology specialist.
Khan, 42, said he works in Saudi Arabia but came back home on leave after the cease-fire announcement to help his family and parents in the rebuilding process.
“We urge them [Pakistan and India] to use this temporary positive step to find a permeant solution to this problem in line with the wishes of Kashmiri people on both sides,” Khan insisted.
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Month: April 2021
Ukrainian President Upbeat on Chances of Putin Meeting, New Cease-fire
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Monday he was likely to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the conflict in eastern Ukraine, adding that all sides were at the “finish line” of agreeing a new cease-fire.
“It seems to me that everything is going toward the fact that this meeting will take place,” he said.
Zelenskiy has sought a meeting with Putin after the two countries traded blame over a spike in clashes in the Donbass conflict and a build-up of Russian troops near Ukraine’s eastern border and in annexed Crimea.
Russia began a troop pullback last week and Putin said he was willing to meet Zelenskiy in Moscow. Zelenskiy said he had instructed his chief of staff to contact the Kremlin to discuss when and where the two leaders could meet.
Ukrainian troops have battled Russian-backed forces in eastern Ukraine in a conflict that Kyiv says has killed 14,000 people since 2014. More than 30 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed this year after ceasefire agreed last July collapsed.
Asked if a new cease-fire could be in place for the Orthodox Easter this weekend, Zelenskiy said, “I believe that we are already at the finish line for this agreement.”
Speaking at an event to mark the 35th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Zelenskiy said in a speech he did not want the Donbass conflict area to turn into another no-go zone like the contaminated land around the atomic plant.
“We cannot go back in time and prevent the tragedy at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant,” Zelenskiy said. “But we can definitely do everything today to prevent a future tragedy… which may occur in the occupied Donbass.”
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Indian Capital’s Grim Battle with 2nd Virus Wave Wreaks Havoc Across City
Despair and anguish have gripped India as the desperate search for oxygen, hospital beds and medicine continues unabated, with the country’s health-care system buckling under the deadly second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.In the capital New Delhi, where a more transmissible coronavirus variant has infected entire families, sick family members are desperately seeking medical help for those more severely ill at home or are frantically racing to locate scarce drugs and oxygen cylinders for which a thriving black market has emerged.It’s a city that now depends on family, friends and social media to navigate through its worst-ever health crisis. People are scared to even open windows and doors for fear of catching the virus, and lonely funerals are being held at crematoriums that are working into the night as the death toll climbs relentlessly.49-year-old Leena Roy, her husband, son and elderly parents all tested positive for COVID-19 last week. As her mother’s condition worsened, they joined the desperate search for a hospital bed. Her doctor finally located one in a small nursing home in a Delhi suburb whose owner he knew.Patients breathe with the help of oxygen masks inside a banquet hall temporarily converted into a Covid-19 coronavirus ward in New Delhi, India, April 27, 2021.After being unable for two days to contact doctors treating her mother, Roy dragged herself there despite running a high fever. She could not meet with any doctor, though, because they all were too busy. Her mother later told her the hospital is so overwhelmed that doctors and nurses have no time to make regular rounds of patients.After the experience, Roy decided to treat her 85-year-old father at home. She then began another difficult hunt — locating a nurse who could administer an intravenous drip and hunting for a home oxygen supply. “I made 40 calls yesterday to try and locate an attendant for her. But nobody could provide me one,” says her friend, Suhasini Sood. “She has paid nearly $ 1,000 for an oxygen concentrator but is not sure when it will arrive. The dealer who was supposed to deliver it asked if he could give it to someone who needed it more critically.”As reports of patients dying at two hospitals that ran out of oxygen panicked the city, oxygen concentrators, which can make oxygen at home, have become the most sought-after devices for those who can afford them.People with breathing problems due to the COVID-19 wait to receive oxygen support for free at a Gurudwara (Sikh temple) in Ghaziabad, India, April 27, 2021.Hospitals overstretched and labs overwhelmedIn overstretched hospitals, everything from ambulances to nursing staff are running short. Patients sick with the virus are ferrying family members who turn critical to the hospital. And overwhelmed laboratories are unable to cater to the huge demand for tests for the virus or for chest scans and blood tests needed to determine the severity of the infection, leaving people unsure of what treatment they need.Crematoriums and cemeteries are buckling under the pressure as numbers climb relentlessly of those falling victim to the virus. In New Delhi, city crematoriums are building additional makeshift platforms in parking lots and surrounding parks to cremate the dead.In this aerial picture burning pyres of victims who lost their lives due to the Covid-19 coronavirus are seen at a cremation ground in New Delhi, India, April 26, 2021.Role of social mediaAmid mounting despair, social media has become one of the city’s most sought-after helplines as thousands of volunteers and groups post information on Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp regarding the availability of beds, oxygen cylinders, medical attendants or even food deliveries for the sick to help those putting out desperate pleas.One among the countless messages in Twitter calling for help in the face of the pandemic in India, April 26, 2021.Among them is Network Capital, a business networking group of young professionals that has come together on three WhatsApp groups and a platform called Discord to help in the hour of crisis.“Wherever we hear of availability of beds or oxygen cylinders, it is immediately verified and posted,” says Deepika Khurana, one of the about 1,000 volunteers. “Every lead that works out for someone has been the result of thousands of strangers down the chain diligently linking other people with resources.”Exhausted workers, who bring dead bodies for cremation, sit on the rear step of an ambulance inside a crematorium, in New Delhi, India, April 24, 2021.Volunteers work into the night to gather information. People attending to their family members in hospitals contribute updates. It is not easy. “Even if you update a sheet at 10.30 a.m. on bed availability, it may not be valid by 10.40 a.m.,” according to Khurana. “The unfortunate reality of getting a hospital bed in Delhi today is that you have to land up in a hospital and demand attention.”Experts blame India’s dire situation on a decades-long lack of sufficient attention and spending on public health, and they say the belief the country would not face a second wave made it complacent about variants of the virus. “We missed the variants that began circulating in India in December and lacked the perception of the havoc they could wreck,” says Jacob John, a virologist and public health expert.“Now we are fighting a war without a war room,” he says. “All patients who are not seriously ill should be treated at home and only the critically ill should be in hospitals to alleviate the crisis of shortage of beds. But that is not happening.”
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UN-Mediated Talks to Reunify Cyprus Under Way
Three days of U.N.-mediated talks are under way to try and reunify the island of Cyprus, which has been divided between Greek and Turkish Cypriots since 1974. That was when Turkey invaded Northern Cyprus in response to a Greek-backed military coup on the island.The Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders, as well as foreign ministers of three guarantor States – Greece, Turkey and Britain, the former colonial ruler of Cyprus — will be holding so-called informal talks over the coming days.U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres convened this meeting to test the waters, so to speak. His spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said the aim of the meeting is to determine whether there is enough common ground for the parties to negotiate a lasting solution to the Cyprus issue within a foreseeable horizon.“The secretary-general will move forward based on the outcomes of the informal talks. The parties are welcome to be creative and the secretary-general will be encouraging them to move—to use diplomatic language—in a sincere and frank manner,” he said.U.N Peacekeepers stand on a guard post in divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus, April 24, 2021.The spokesman said Guterres will hold separate bilateral meetings Tuesday afternoon with the leaders of the two communities. In the evening, he will host a reception for the heads of delegations.On Wednesday morning, Guterres will host a plenary meeting with all five parties, to be followed by bilateral meetings in the afternoon.There have been three attempts to reunify Cyprus since 2004. All have failed. The last attempt occurred in July 2017, six months after Guterres took office. Guterres took a hands-on approach to resolving this intractable issue, energized at the prospect of achieving a diplomatic win so soon after becoming the U.N. chief.Ten days of negotiations in the Swiss Alpine town of Crans Montana also ended in failure.Dujarric said the secretary-general is unwilling to pre-judge the outcome of the talks. He said this is an issue that Guterres knows well as he has participated in discussions before. Dujarric said the secretary-general is neither cautiously optimistic nor pessimistic, but realistic.
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US Weighs Policy on Venezuela as Maduro Signals Flexibility
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government is intensifying efforts to court the Biden administration as the new U.S. president weighs whether to risk a political backlash in Florida and ease up on sanctions seeking to isolate the socialist leader.In the past two weeks, Maduro conceded to longstanding U.S. demands that the World Food Program be allowed to establish a foothold in the country at a time of growing hunger. His allies also vowed to work with the U.S.-backed opposition to vaccinate Venezuelans against the coronavirus and have met with diplomats from Norway trying to revive negotiations to end the country’s never-ceasing political strife.The frenzy of activity comes as senior U.S. officials are reviewing policy toward Venezuela. An interagency meeting, which was originally scheduled to take place Monday and include Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman but was postponed at the last minute, will focus on whether the U.S. should take steps to support an uncertain attempt at dialogue between Maduro and his opponents, said two people who insisted on anonymity to discuss classified diplomatic matters.”All these recent movement points to Maduro trying to get Washington’s attention,” said Geoffrey Ramsey, a Venezuela watcher at the Washington Office on Latin America. “The question is whether the White House is ready to commit to a full-fledged negotiations strategy, or whether it will continue to play it safe and keep the policy on the back burner.”Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza and Jorge Rodriguez, the head of the pro-Maduro congress and a key promoter of dialogue, wouldn’t comment when asked about the recent moves by Maduro.Ramsey said even more goodwill gestures could be on the horizon.Tuesday is the deadline for a committee in the Maduro-controlled congress to present a list of candidates for the National Electoral Council. Behind the scenes, moderates aligned with former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles have been meeting with Maduro representatives to push for the inclusion of two opposition rectors on the five-member board.If the demand is met, it could pave the way for Maduro’s opponents to participate in mayoral and gubernatorial elections later this year.Also in the mix is future of several American citizens jailed in Venezuela. In recent months, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has pressed Maduro and senior aides to release six former executives at Houston-based CITGO who U.S. officials believe are unjustly imprisoned as well as two former Green Berets who participated in a failed raid last year staged from neighboring Colombia and a former U.S. Marine being held on unrelated allegations.So far, the posturing by Maduro has failed to impress officials in Washington.Secretary of State Antony Blinken has described Maduro as a “brutal dictator” and vowed to continue recognizing opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s rightful leader — a position shared by more than 50 nations.Other than promising to work more with U.S. allies and support the delivery of more humanitarian aid to Venezuela, the Biden administration has done little to unwind Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign to unseat Maduro.The politics of engaging with Maduro are treacherous. Past attempts at dialogue have failed to produce a breakthrough and ended up strengthening Maduro, whose grip on power relies on support from the military as well as allies Iran, China and Russia — all of whom have seen their influence expand since Guaidó, with U.S. support, tried to ignite protests by declaring himself president in 2019 after Maduro was re-elected in a vote boycotted by the opposition when several of its leaders were barred from running.That hasn’t stopped others from trying to bring the two sides together, however. This week, the Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, is traveling to Venezuela in what many observers see as an effort by the Holy See to test the waters for another attempt at negotiations like the ones it mediated with former Spanish President Jose Luiz Rodriguez Zapatero in 2016.While the trip’s stated purpose is to attend the April 30 beatification of Jose Gregorio Hernandez, known as the “doctor of the poor” for his caring of the sick in the 1800s, Parolin is the Vatican’s former ambassador to Venezuela and his highly unusual trip suggests more than just saint-making is on the agenda.But both supporters and opponents of more active U.S. engagement agree that the biggest obstacle is Florida. Trump comfortably carried the battleground state in part due to hardline policies preferred by immigrant voters fleeing Cuba, Venezuela and other authoritarian governments. With Democrats holding a slim six-seat majority in the House of Representatives, betting on Maduro to follow through on his word could end up hurting their chances in midterm elections.”As of today, there is simply no reason to believe the Maduro regime is acting in good faith,” said Elliott Abrams, who served as Trump’s special envoy to Venezuela and Iran. He cited Maduro’s failure to honor an agreement last year brokered by the World Health Organization’s regional arm to combat the coronavirus pandemic as just one example.”Every engagement by Biden with the Maduro regime undermines the democratic opposition,” said Abrams, now a senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations. “If the US is going to engage at any point, it should only be done in the context of serious negotiations between the regime and the opposition, to help those negotiations succeed.”The planned U.S. policy meeting is unlikely to produce any immediate shift and follows at least one previous high-level meeting by senior Biden officials at several agencies — the Treasury, Justice, Commerce and State Departments as well as the White House — to discuss Venezuela.However, it could provide a roadmap for future U.S. actions should momentum toward negotiations build, the two people said, including the lifting of a Trump-era ban on diesel fuel swaps that even some of Maduro’s opponents say is worsening hunger by making it harder to move food supplies to market in diesel-powered trucks.The U.S. must also decide by June whether to allow Chevron to resume limited drilling and oil shipments — a potential lifeline to Maduro, who is desperate for every dollar as oil production under his watch has fallen to its lowest level since the 1930s despite abundant crude reserves. As part of a waiver from sanctions granted last year, the U.S. oil giant and its American partners were ordered to cease all operations except those strictly necessary to maintain its assets in the country.The State Department wouldn’t comment on Monday’s meeting or the status of the review of U.S. policy. However, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere said the U.S. welcomes efforts to relieve the suffering of the Venezuelan people and bring the country’s humanitarian crisis to an end through effective international cooperation.To be sure, not all of the signals coming from Caracas are encouraging.Last week, when the State Department celebrated the World Food Program’s announcement it would begin providing emergency food assistance to 1.5 million Venezuelan children, Foreign Minister Arreaza took to Twitter to accuse the U.S. of “kidnapping” Venezuela’s resources in international banks through “criminal sanctions.”That triggered a bitter exchange which ended with Arreaza vowing to present as evidence of blackmail to the International Criminal Court a tweet by a senior State Department official conditioning sanctions relief on the release of political prisoners and the organizing of free and fair elections.”If Washington’s responses remain exclusively public — via Twitter or television — without a counterpart in a private diplomatic channel, progress or any sort of thaw or transition will be painful and full of mistrust,” said Phil Gunson, a Caracas-based analyst for the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.While Gunson said Maduro’s limited willingness to engage in partial agreements should be reciprocated wherever possible to encourage further opening, overcoming the inertia of the Trump years will be difficult.”There is no quick fix in Venezuela,” said Gunson. “A solution is going to require subtlety and long-term engagement.”
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India Receives First Shipment of Critical Medical Supplies as COVID Infection Rates Continue to Soar
The first shipment of critical medical supplies arrived in India Tuesday as the country continues to struggle with a catastrophic second wave of COVID-19 infections, a situation described as “beyond heartbreaking” by the head of the World Health Organization.A plane from Britain filled with 100 ventilators and 95 oxygen concentrators, which collects atmospheric air and converts it into pure oxygen, landed at the airport in Delhi before dawn. The British high commission in India says a total of nine transport planes will deliver nearly 500 oxygen concentrators and 140 ventilators to the South Asian nation this week.Other nations have also pledged to ship badly needed medical supplies to India. France has promised to send ventilators, oxygen generators and containers of liquid medical oxygen by next week, with Germany, Israel and Pakistan, India’s neighbor and longtime arch-enemy, sending personal protective gear, treatments and diagnostic tests along with ventilators and oxygen.US to Send Oxygen to India Biden administration also plans to send 60 million vaccines doses abroad amid latest wave of coronavirus infections WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva Monday the global health agency “is doing everything we can, providing critical equipment and supplies, including thousands of oxygen concentrators, prefabricated mobile field hospitals and laboratory supplies.”He noted the WHO has already announced 2,600 extra WHO staff members will go to India to help with efforts to fight the disease.The international assistance comes as India reported another 323,144 new confirmed COVID-19 cases Tuesday, marking the sixth consecutive day of more than 300,000 infections. The country’s health care system is nearing complete collapse, with hospitals crammed with so many coronavirus patients that authorities have been forced to convert train carriages into COVID isolation wards.India also posted another 2,771 COVID-related deaths Tuesday, as crematories have been busy night and day burning people’s remains. The capital, New Delhi, remains under a lockdown that was extended Monday for another week.India Posts Fifth Consecutive Day of 300,000-Plus New COVID-19 Infections as World Sends Badly Needed AidUS and Britain begin sending ventilators, protective gear, oxygen equipment and testing supplies to beleaguered South Asian nation This second wave has been blamed on the spread of more contagious variants of the virus, plus the easing of restrictions on large crowds when the outbreak appeared to be under control earlier this year.The situation has prompted many nations to suspend all passenger air travel to and from India. Australia on Tuesday suspended direct passenger flights from India until May 15, leaving thousands of Australians stranded there, including several cricketers playing in the Indian Premier League.India has administered more than 142 million doses of the vaccine, but only 1.6% of its estimated 1.4 billion people are fully vaccinated, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.The country is facing a shortage of COVID-19 vaccines as it struggles with a shortage of raw materials needed to manufacture doses.Having already pledged to send raw materials to India to produce vaccines, the Biden administration announced Monday it will share its stockpile of 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine with other countries, with India likely to be a major recipient. The two-dose vaccine, which has not been approved for use in the United States, will be shipped overseas once they pass a federal safety check.The doses were manufactured at a Baltimore manufacturing plant that ruined 15 million doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine after the ingredients were accidentally mixed with the ingredients that make the AstraZeneca vaccine. The plant was recently shut down by federal regulators over safety concerns.Meanwhile, the executive committee of the European Union has filed a lawsuit against AstraZeneca for failing to fulfill its contract to deliver millions of doses to its 27-member nations.The British-Swedish drugmaker had initially promised to deliver more than 300 million doses by the end of June, but has since cut that number down to just 100 million doses. The company issued a statement saying it “regrets” the European Commission’s action, calling the lawsuit “without merit.”The lawsuit is the latest blow to AstraZeneca’s efforts to produce a COVID-19 vaccine that can be stored at regular temperatures, making it easier to use and cheaper for many of the world’s poorer nations. The vaccine has been plagued by a host of problems, including reports of possible blood clots that prompted many nations to halt their initial rollouts of the vaccine.
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Britain Targets 22 People in First Use of Its Anti-corruption Law
Britain froze assets, imposed sanctions and enacted travel bans on nearly two dozen people accused of bribery, kickbacks and fraud on Monday, marking the first time the nation employed its own sanctioning powers to combat international corruption. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told lawmakers that the sanctions would prevent the United Kingdom from being used as “a haven for dirty money,” according to The Associated Press. “Corruption has a corrosive effect as it slows development, drains the wealth of poorer nations and keeps their people trapped in poverty. It poisons the well of democracy,” Raab said, according to Reuters. The list includes 14 Russians implicated in a $230 million tax fraud case, as well as Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta, members of the Gupta business family at the center of a South African corruption scandal. The Guptas deny wrongdoing. Sanctions were also imposed on businessman Ashraf Seed Ahmed Al-Cardinal, who is accused of stealing state assets in impoverished South Sudan, as well as individuals from Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala. FILE – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press briefing in Brussels, Belgium, March 24, 2021.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he welcomed the sanctions, adding that they strengthened efforts to counter corruption globally. Britain previously imposed sanctions as part of the European Union or United Nations. It has created its own sanctions laws since leaving the EU at the end of 2020. Those laws give the British government the power to penalize those credibly involved in serious violation of human rights and corruption. Sanctioned individuals may not enter Britain, channel money through British banks or profit from the British economy. The so-called Magnitsky sanctions, which the U.S. and several other countries have enacted, are named for Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who was arrested and later died in prison in Russia after accusing Russian officials of a massive tax fraud. Those officials were among those sanctioned Monday. Opposition politicians said Monday’s sanctions are welcomed but aren’t enough because they don’t target corruption in British overseas territories and dependencies. Labour Party foreign affairs spokeswoman Lisa Nandy said Britain remains a haven for “dark money” and urged Raab to increase the powers for financial crime investigators. “The current rate of prosecutions for economic crime is … woefully low, as he knows, and to put it bluntly if he’s serious about what he’s saying today he needs to put his money where his mouth is,” Nandy said, according to the Associated Press.
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US Continues Non-Humanitarian ‘Assistance Pause’ to Pressure Ethiopia to End Tigray Conflict
The United States is pressing Ethiopia to end the conflict in its Tigray region that has been raging for almost six months. U.S. officials are also calling for allied Eritrean troops to withdraw from the region. The United States will continue to pause non-humanitarian assistance to Ethiopia to pressure Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government to do more to stop the “deteriorating humanitarian and human rights crisis,” officials said.“The fighting must come to an end. There must be humanitarian access, which has been a problem,” the State Department’s acting Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, Robert Godec, told VOA on Monday during a briefing by phone.“We need the human rights abuses and atrocities to stop. We need the Eritreans and the Amhara [militia] to leave. And we need, really, an end to this conflict,” Godec added. Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is holding virtual meetings with officials in Kenya and Nigeria, with “strengthening democratic governance” and “building lasting security” high on the agenda, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement. The crisis in the Tigray region is “a regional issue” and “it does pose risks to the entire region,” said Godec, adding the United States is in “close communication” with other African leaders to end the dire situation.It May be ‘Many Months’ Before Full Scale of Tigray Rapes Known, UN Official SaysSurvivor testimony and other indicators may ‘only be the tip of the iceberg’ Abiy launched what he termed a “law and order operation” in the Tigray region in November and ordered Ethiopia’s federal military to detain and disarm leaders of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), saying the group was responsible for inciting attacks on federal army camps. The TPLF is a political group with an armed wing vowing to continue fighting against the federal government. The TPLF held power for more than two decades under former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. On March 26, Abiy said Eritrea had agreed to withdraw its forces from Tigray. But U.S. officials said there is no evidence that such a withdrawal has occurred. Ethiopia: Eritrean Troops Pulling Out of Tigray But it’s not clear how many Eritrean troops have left, and some in Tigray say Eritreans aren’t leaving at allMonday, in a phone call to Abiy, Blinken “pressed for Ethiopia’s and Eritrea’s commitments to withdraw Eritrean troops from Tigray to be implemented immediately, in full, and in a verifiable manner,” said the State Department.The newly appointed U.S. special envoy for the Horn of Africa, Jeffrey Feltman, is expected to travel to Ethiopia in the coming days.On Monday, a State Department spokesperson told VOA the United States will continue its non-humanitarian “assistance pause” to Ethiopia but keep the humanitarian aid to the country.“Given the current environment in Ethiopia, we have decided not to lift the assistance pause for other programs, including most programs in the security sector,” said the spokesperson. Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 23 MB480p | 32 MB540p | 46 MB720p | 114 MB1080p | 198 MBOriginal | 204 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioWATCH: Tigray, Ethiopia: From Conflict to Humanitarian CrisisThe United States had suspended certain foreign assistance to Ethiopia last year following the country’s failure to resolve the dispute with Egypt over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD.) But the State Department said Washington will continue humanitarian assistance to Ethiopia, and is committed to building “an enduring partnership with the Ethiopian people and to the territorial integrity and national unity of Ethiopia.” The armed conflict in Tigray has resulted in thousands of deaths and displaced thousands more inside the country. Hundreds of thousands have also been forced to flee to neighboring Sudan. The Tigray region of more than 5 million people is facing shortages of food, water and medicine, according to the United Nations. The United States is the largest donor of humanitarian assistance in Ethiopia. For the Tigray response efforts only, the U.S. has provided nearly $305 million in humanitarian aid to alleviate the suffering of people in need.Tuesday, Blinken will embark on his first virtual trip to Africa as the top U.S. diplomat. He will meet with Young African Leadership Initiative, or YALI, alumni and discuss a range of topics, including economic development, democracy and good governance, climate change, and health. The chief U.S. diplomat will then meet virtually with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama to underscore shared goals of strengthening democratic governance, building lasting security, and promoting economic ties and diversification. Blinken’s meeting with Kenyan officials will celebrate the 57-year bilateral relationship. He will meet with President Uhuru Kenyatta and Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo to reaffirm the strategic partnership and explore avenues to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Peru Begins Requiring Double Masks
Peru is now mandating that people wear two face masks in places where crowding is possible like commercial buildings. The regulation, aimed at slowing a deadly second wave of the virus, began Monday, and was first reported in Peru’s national newspaper, El Peruano. The paper said a Supreme Decree (#083-2021-PCM) also mandates double masking in malls, grocery stores, shopping arcades, markets and warehouses. Under the new initiative face shields are also recommended along with the double masks. The government still requires people to wear face mask in all public spaces.Additionally, health authorities are conducting intensive epidemiological surveillance to identify any increase in cases of people infected with COVID-19 and responding to the situations.Peru is racing to get people vaccinated as the country’s COVID-19 rates remains among the highest in Latin American, with 1,761,575 confirmed infections and 59,724 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University Covid Resource Center.
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Harris Vows $310 Million in US Relief as Central America Tackles Migration
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris told Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei during a virtual call Monday that the U.S. will give $310 million in humanitarian relief to Central America, her office said, as the region tackles a wave of migration north. Harris, who leads President Joe Biden’s efforts to address the influx of migrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to the U.S.-Mexico border, met with Giammattei by videoconference, prior to her visit to Central America scheduled for June. “In light of the dire situation and acute suffering faced by millions of people in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, Vice President Harris announced an additional $310 million in US government support for humanitarian relief and to address food insecurity,” a statement from her office said after the meeting. Honduran migrants clash with Guatemalan soldiers in Vado Hondo, Guatemala.It said the two governments will also coordinate law enforcement efforts to tackle criminal organizations whose activities help drive migration and to open migrant resource centers to establish safe, legal migration. “The United States plans to increase relief to the region, strengthen our cooperation to manage migration in an effective, secure and humane manner,” Harris promised Giammattei. Biden has asked Congress for $861 million to address the causes that drive irregular immigration from Central America, within the framework of his $4 billion plan for the region. His proposal is included in the budget project for next year that has yet to be discussed and approved by legislators. More than 172,000 undocumented immigrants, including nearly 19,000 unaccompanied minors, were detained in March at the southern border of the United States, a rise of 71% in a month and the highest level in 15 years. Most of the migrants come from the three countries of the Central American Northern Triangle. That area, vulnerable to natural disasters, was hit by two devastating hurricanes in November and is struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic and a prolonged drought. “We want to work with you to address both the acute causes and the root causes (of migration) in a way that gives hope to the people of Guatemala that there will be an opportunity for them if they stay home,” Harris also told Giammattei during the virtual meeting. Giammattei agreed on the need to “create hope” in Guatemala. “The Guatemalan government wants to be a partner (of the United States) to address … not only poverty but also the many evils that affect us all,” he said. In addition, the president said he looked forward to Harris’ visit in June. Many migrants in recent weeks say they were given new hope by Biden’s reversal of the hardline immigration policies of his predecessor Donald Trump. Biden to Lift Refugee Cap Next Month, White House SaysPresident initially retained historically low 15,000-person limit set by Trump administrationThe changes include allowing unaccompanied children to stay and be united with relatives living inside the United States. The number of unaccompanied children detained after crossing the border illegally, or trying to sneak through official entry ports, doubled in March from February to 18,890, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
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In France, New Museum-Memorial to Terrorism Takes Shape
Last week’s killing of a police worker outside Paris offers a chilling reminder that terrorism has become a grim feature of life in France. Now the country, which has weathered some of Europe’s most horrific terrorist attacks, joins just a handful of nations that are building concrete reminders. The French memorial-museum will be the first devoted not to one specific terrorism incident but to a broader arc of horror over a half-century. For VOA, Lisa Bryant reports from Paris.Camera: Lisa Bryant
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More US Firepower Ready as Afghanistan Withdrawal Gets Under Way
U.S. military planners have a growing number of options should the Taliban, or any other group, decide to target American and NATO troops as they prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan. Two U.S. B-52 bombers arrived at al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar on Monday, charged with providing air cover for the approximately 10,000 U.S. and NATO forces set to depart Afghanistan over the coming months. New: Two B-52 bombers arrive at In this picture taken on Nov. 21, 2016, a U.S. Navy fighter jet takes off from the deck of the U.S.S. Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier.Despite such efforts, top military officials and various government watchdogs have warned that the Afghan forces lack the capacity to withstand a military challenge from the Taliban if peace negotiations collapse. “My concern is the ability of the Afghan military to hold the ground that they’re on now without the support they’ve been used to for many years,” U.S. Central Command’s General Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie told U.S. lawmakers last week. Some details of the U.S. withdrawal are still being worked out. Pentagon officials expect the finalized plan to be presented this coming Friday, but they have been looking at ways to continue supporting Afghan forces from afar. Such solutions could even include virtual calls to help Afghanistan’s air force keep its planes in the air. “We’re looking at how we can continue to support in a responsible way some of their contractual requirements for things like aviation maintenance,” the Pentagon’s Kirby said Monday, emphasizing that the U.S. is committed to ending all in-country assistance. “Our support to the Afghan forces will be primarily financially based,” he said. Despite the planned pullout, Taliban officials have repeatedly threatened to target U.S. and coalition forces if they fail to leave Afghanistan by the start of May — the deadline under an agreement signed between the Taliban and the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump.
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Chad’s Military Rulers Name Civilian Prime Minister; Opposition Protests
Chad’s new military rulers named a civilian politician, Albert Pahimi Padacke, as prime minister of a transitional government on Monday, a week after President Idriss Deby’s battlefield death, but opposition leaders quickly dismissed the appointment. Padacke served as prime minister from 2016 to 2018 and was seen as an ally of Deby, who ruled Chad for 30 years. A military council seized power after Deby was killed as he visited troops fighting rebels on April 19. Opposition politicians have called the military takeover a coup, and two said on Monday the army had no right to pick a premier. The transition and the wrangling around it is being watched closely in a country that is a power in central Africa and a longtime Western ally against Islamist militants across the Sahel. The military council is headed by Deby’s son, Mahamat Idriss Deby, and has said it will oversee an 18-month transition to elections. Mahamat Idriss Deby, a general, has been declared the national president and has dissolved parliament. FILE – The son of the late Chadian president Idriss Deby, general Mahamat Idriss Deby, right, attends the state funeral for the late Chadian president Idriss Deby in N’Djamena, April 23, 2021.But the council is coming under international pressure to hand over power to civilians as soon as possible. The African Union has expressed “grave concern” about the military takeover, while France, the former colonial ruler, and some of Chad’s neighbors are pushing for a civilian-military solution. The U.S. State Department said the naming of a civilian prime minister is “potentially a positive first step in restoring civilian governance,” adding that Washington is continuing to closely monitor the situation. “We would urge that this moment be taken to move the country forward in a democratic direction and that the people have an opportunity to really have a democracy, have a representative government,” Robert Godec, acting assistant secretary of the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs, told reporters. Despite Padacke’s appointment, the council is still likely to be the ultimate authority. Although an ally of the late Deby, Padacke ran against him several times. He came second with 10% of the vote in an election on April 11 that was boycotted by several opposition leaders who said it was rigged. Deby, who took power in a rebellion in 1990, was declared winner with about 79% of the vote just before he was killed. International human rights groups, who had long criticized Deby’s repressive rule, have said the election campaign was marked by violence and intimidation. “(Padacke) was prime minister under Deby, and we will not accept for him to lead the transitional government,” said Dinamou Daram, president of the Socialist Party Without Borders. “The junta wants to continue with the system of the old regime. We reject this way of proceeding,” he told Reuters. Yacine Abderamane, president of the opposition Reformist Party, also rejected Padacke’s nomination. “It is not up to the transitional military council to designate a prime minister in this isolated manner. We want there to be talks between political parties, civil society and other actors in order to reach a consensus,” he said. A coalition of civil society groups and opposition politicians has called for a peaceful protest Tuesday in N’Djamena to demand a return to “constitutional order.” One civil society leader said he was optimistic that Padacke would be open to talks to ease political tensions. “He is a major player who can achieve dialogue with all sides and move the political process forward toward peaceful elections,” said Mahamat Digadimbaye, national coordinator for civil society and human rights associations.
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US Keeping Wary Eye on Russian Troops Near Ukraine
U.S. officials are not yet convinced Russia is making good on its word to de-escalate in Crimea and along its border with Ukraine following a weekslong military buildup, insisting it is “too soon to tell.” The Pentagon on Monday said it appears some Russian troops have pulled back, though the danger remains. “We have seen some departure of some forces away from Ukraine,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters, adding that the U.S. military is “going to keep watching this very, very closely.” “It’s too soon to tell and to take at face value Russian claims that what they said was an exercise is now over in there and they’re pulling everybody back,” he added. US, West Wary of Russian Claims That Military Buildup Near Ukraine Is OverPentagon says ‘it’s too soon to tell’ whether Moscow’s assurance can be taken at face value U.S. and Western officials have repeatedly raised concern over what they have described as the largest massing of Russian forces since Moscow gave the order to invade and seize the Crimean Peninsula in 2014. European officials last week said that at the height of the latest buildup, more than 100,000 Russian forces had positioned themselves within striking distance of Ukrainian territory. Bigger Than 2014: US Calls Out Russian Military Buildup Along Ukraine BorderThe Pentagon’s assertion that Moscow is massing more forces than it did when it invaded and annexed Crimea follows EU assessment that 150,000 Russian troops are now in the regionIn contrast to U.S. and Western concerns, Russian officials have continually accused Ukraine of being the cause of trouble in the region. On Monday, Russian’s foreign ministry said Russian President Vladimir Putin used a call with French President Emmanuel Macron to highlight Kyiv’s “provocative actions” in eastern Ukraine. 🇷🇺🇫🇷📞 Состоялся телефонный разговор Владимира Путина с Президентом Франции Эммануэлем Макроном. Особое внимание уделено внутриукраинскому конфликту. Выражена обеспокоенность в связи с эскалацией напряжённости на Юго-Востоке Украины.🔗 https://t.co/vf8ezliI9Apic.twitter.com/6cI5UhrwDm— МИД России 🇷🇺 (@MID_RF) April 26, 2021Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced this past Thursday that military exercises involving troops along the border with Ukraine were over and that they would return to their permanent bases by May 1. Later that day, a NATO official told VOA the alliance had taken note of the Russian announcement, adding, “Any steps towards de-escalation by Russia would be important and well overdue.” VOA’s Nike Ching contributed to this report.
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India Posts Fifth Consecutive Day of 300,000-Plus New COVID-19 Infections as World Sends Badly Needed Aid
The head of the World Health Organization said India’s situation is “beyond heartbreaking” as the country reported nearly 353,000 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Monday, the fifth consecutive day of more than 300,000 coronavirus infections.”WHO is doing everything we can, providing critical equipment and supplies, including thousands of oxygen concentrators, prefabricated mobile field hospitals and laboratory supplies,” WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus told a briefing from Geneva.He noted the WHO has already announced 2,600 extra WHO staff members will go to India to help with efforts to fight the disease.India’s health care system is malfunctioning amid a catastrophic second wave of the virus, with hospitals filled beyond capacity and unable to care for any new patients and a shortage of oxygen canisters so dire that some COVID patients are literally gasping for air. Municipal workers prepare to bury the body of a person who died of COVID-19, in Gauhati, India, Apr. 25, 2021.India also posted 2,812 COVID-related deaths Monday, another one-day record, as crematories have been busy night and day burning people’s remains. The capital New Delhi has extended a lockdown that was set to expire on Monday for another week. This second wave has been blamed on the spread of more contagious variants of the virus, plus the easing of restrictions on large crowds when the outbreak appeared to be under control earlier this year.Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has come under fire for holding packed political rallies and allowing an annual Hindu religious festival that attracted millions of pilgrims, urged all Indians to get vaccinated in his monthly radio address Sunday and not be swayed by what he called “any rumor about the vaccine.” India has administered almost 138 million doses of the vaccine, but only 1.6% of its estimated 1.4 billion people are fully vaccinated, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. People wearing protective face masks wait to receive a vaccine for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a vaccination center in Mumbai, India, Apr. 26, 2021.World sends badly needed aid U.S. President Joe Biden announced Sunday that the United States will send raw materials to India to produce vaccines, plus ventilators, rapid diagnostic testing kits and personal protective equipment. From his Twitter account, he said, “Just as India sent assistance to the United States as our hospitals were strained early in the pandemic, we are determined to help India in its time of need.” Several transport planes left Britain Monday for India, carrying hundreds of items including ventilators and oxygen concentrators, which collects atmospheric air and converts it into pure oxygen. Other countries, including France and Germany, have said they will also help, along with India’s neighbor and sometimes foe, Pakistan. India now has more than 17.3 million total cases — just second behind the United States — including 195,123 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins. India’s death toll is fourth behind the U.S., Brazil and Mexico. Thailand, which has banned travelers from India, is undergoing its own surge of new coronavirus cases. The government ordered the closure of movie theaters, gyms and parks beginning Monday and lasting until May 9, as it posted 2,048 new cases, bringing its overall casualty rate to 57,508 infections, including 148 coronavirus-related fatalities. The Philippines announced Monday that its total coronavirus case count since the pandemic began has topped one million. The country is facing a surge of infections in the capital, Manila, and surrounding regions.EU Will Let Vaccinated Americans Visit This Summer, Top Official SaysIt’s not clear exactly when travel will resumeMeanwhile, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, told The New York Times Sunday that American tourists who have been fully vaccinated will be allowed to visit the European Union this summer. Von Der Leyen said the rapid pace of vaccinations in the United States, along with advanced talks between officials in the U.S. and the E.U. over the issue of official vaccine certificates as proof of immunity, will enable the 27-member bloc’s executive body to restore trans-Atlantic travel. And Hong Kong and Singapore announced Monday they would launch a two-way “travel bubble” beginning May 26 that would do away with mandatory quarantine periods for visitors to either destination. The bubble was initially set to begin last November, but was postponed due to a surge of COVID-19 infections in Hong Kong.
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US to Send Oxygen to India
The United States is pledging to send oxygen to India as soon as possible and tens of millions of vaccine doses abroad in stages, in response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and intense pressure on America for significant help. “We want to work in partnership with India,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Monday. “We are committed to getting the assistance they need, whether that’s oxygen, PPE, therapeutics, tests or raw materials for vaccines.” A “strike team” of U.S. public health experts will be dispatched to India, a senior administration official said. Up to 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, could go to other countries in stages once it clears federal safety reviews, according to the White House. A man receives a dose of COVISHIELD, a coronavirus vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India, as others wait for their turn at a vaccination center in Mumbai, India, April 26, 2021.”Right now, we have zero doses of available of AstraZeneca,” said Psaki, who explained the release of vaccines for other countries is still weeks away and would likely initially total 10 million doses. “We will consider a range of options from our partner countries, and of course, much of that will be through direct relationships,” she said. U.S. President Joe Biden spoke on Monday with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in what a senior administration official described as “a warm and positive call.” On Twitter, Modi said he “underscored the importance of smooth and efficient supply chains of vaccine raw materials and medicines,” adding that the partnership between the two countries “can address the global challenge of COVID-19.”Had a fruitful conversation with Health workers wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) carry wood to prepare a funeral pyre for a coronavirus victim during a mass cremation at a crematorium in New Delhi, India, April 26, 2021.India, with a population of 1.3 billion, has an official tally of 17.3 million infections and nearly 200,000 deaths from the coronavirus, according to Health Ministry data. Some health experts say the true number of total cases could be as much as 10 times higher, due to a lack of testing. India’s situation is “beyond heartbreaking,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. Ideally, the United States should send “35 million to 40 million AstraZeneca vaccines that it has in storage but will not be using to India or Brazil or any other country that really needed them right now. But I don’t think India has a shortage of vaccines as much as a shortage of other supplies,” said Aparna Pande, director of the Hudson Institute’s Initiative on the Future of India and South Asia. India is the world’s leading vaccine manufacturer and earlier this year was engaged in a diplomatic push to export doses. But now, domestic demand for vaccines in the country exceeds the supply. Soaring infections India’s coronavirus caseload had been under control last year due in part to lockdowns. But according to Pande, the government failed to bolster its underfunded health care infrastructure and “to convince the majority of Indians that the pandemic was still in their midst and they needed to remain vigilant. The result is before all of us.” Oxygen tankers are seen on a special “Oxygen Express” train upon their arrival at a goods yard amid the coronavirus pandemic in Navi Mumbai, April 26, 2021.”Support from the U.S. is welcome, and the PPEs, oxygen, ventilators, medications and support from the CDC will help,” Pande said. “However, unless and until the case numbers come down, there is little anyone can do. The case numbers are overwhelming India’s weak health care system. India also needs to vaccinate a majority of its population, but as of now, the numbers vaccinated is extremely low.” The crisis India faces will have geopolitical ramifications, Pande told VOA. “All the soft power India gained from its vaccine diplomacy and pandemic-related support to its neighbors and allies is of little use if the country does not have the capability to take care of its own citizens,” she said. China and Russia are now among those offering oxygen and medicines to India and its neighbors, which will have an impact on the effort by India and like-minded countries to contain Chinese influence in the region, according to Pande. “India’s desire to be a leading global player will only be achievable if the country invests in its domestic capabilities,” Pande said. “What we see before us is an inability by the Indian governmental apparatus to plan and strategize in advance, but rather to leave things till the end with the hope that it will resolve itself or others will come in and help. This is not how a wannabe global power behaves.” Meanwhile, India’s government has ordered Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to take down some social media posts that are critical of its delayed and flawed response to the pandemic. “That certainly wouldn’t be in line with our view of freedom of speech around the world,” Psaki replied when asked Monday about the censorship. Modi has also come under fire for holding election rallies in several states that attracted thousands of people to stadiums amid the pandemic.
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