Britain’s Prince Andrew has been served with a lawsuit by a woman accusing him of sexually assaulting and battering her two decades ago, when she says she was also being abused by the financier Jeffrey Epstein, according to a Friday court filing. In an affidavit filed with the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Cesar Sepulveda, identifying himself as a “corporate investigator/process server,” said he left a copy of Virginia Giuffre’s lawsuit on August 27 with a police officer guarding the Royal Lodge in Windsor, England, a property Andrew occupies. The London-based Sepulveda said police had told him a day earlier they were instructed not to accept court documents on Andrew’s behalf, but upon his return he was told documents would be forwarded to the prince’s legal team. Spokespeople for Andrew said on Friday that his lawyers had no comment. A source close to Andrew’s legal team said the prince had not been personally served. Andrew, 61, is one of the most prominent people linked to Epstein, charged by Manhattan federal prosecutors in July 2019 with sexually exploiting dozens of girls and women. Epstein, a registered sex offender, killed himself on August 10, 2019, at age 66 in a Manhattan jail. In her lawsuit dated August 9 this year, Giuffre said Andrew forced her to have unwanted sexual intercourse at the London home of Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite and Epstein’s longtime associate. Giuffre also said Andrew abused her at Epstein’s mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, and on a private island that Epstein owned in the U.S. Virgin Islands. In a November 2019 BBC interview, Andrew, who had been a friend of Epstein’s, denied Giuffre’s claims of sexual abuse and said he did not recall meeting her. “I can absolutely, categorically tell you it never happened,” Andrew said. An initial conference is scheduled for Monday afternoon before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan. Maxwell faces a scheduled November 29 trial before a different Manhattan judge on charges she aided Epstein’s sexual abuses. She has pleaded not guilty. In 2017, Maxwell settled a $50 million civil defamation lawsuit against her by Giuffre for an unspecified amount. Maxwell is not a defendant in Giuffre’s lawsuit against Andrew.
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Month: September 2021
CAR Court Accuses Ex-warlord of Crimes Against Humanity
A special court on Friday accused the former leader of a key militia in the Central African Republic of crimes against humanity at the height of the civil war.
Former captain Eugene Barret Ngaikosset, arrested nearly a week ago, was once a commander of the guard of President Francois Bozize, who was toppled in 2013 by the Seleka, a coalition of largely Muslim armed groups.
He then became an important leader of the largely Christian and animist anti-Balaka militias, which Bozize founded to fight the Seleka.
The two groups plunged the country into a bloody civil war, with the United Nations accusing them in 2015 of having committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in 2014 and 2015.
Ngaikosset, arrested September 4 just outside the capital, Bangui, “was accused of crimes against humanity” by two judges of the Special Criminal Court (CPS), the tribunal said in a statement.
Made up of Central African and international magistrates, the court has been tasked with judging serious human rights violations since 2003 in this country that has been locked in civil war since 2013.
CPS prosecutors must decide if Ngaikosset will be placed in custody while awaiting a possible trial, the statement said.
The International Criminal Court in The Hague also could be tasked with handling the former captain’s case.
‘Butcher’Central African media have dubbed Ngaikosset “the butcher of Paoua,” referring to massacres committed by the army in the northwest city of the same name from 2005 to 2007, when he was a commander of Bozize’s dreaded presidential guard.
In a 2009 report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said diplomats had at the time asked Bozize to take legal action Ngaikosset, who it said was implicated in various atrocities in the northwest.
The ex-captain had set up a faction of the anti-Balaka, which means anti-machete, after Bozize’s fall in 2013.
And a report from the U.N., which froze his assets abroad and issued a travel ban, accused him in 2015 of carrying out or supporting actions contrary to international human rights law.
The civil war has dropped in intensity since 2018 but armed groups, some with past links to the Seleka or anti-Balaka, occupied late last year more than two-thirds of the country.
Some elements launched a rebellion at the end of 2020 against the administration of President Faustin-Archange Touadera, who was re-elected on December 27.
His army, with the support of hundreds of Russian paramilitaries and Rwandan soldiers, have today largely reconquered lost territory.
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China Announces $31 Million Aid Package for Afghanistan
China on Wednesday announced a $31 million aid package for Afghanistan, in what appears to be one of the first new foreign aid pledges for the Taliban-ruled country.
The aid will include food, winter weather supplies and COVID-19 vaccines.
“China has decided to urgently provide $30.96 million (200 million yuan) worth of grains, winter supplies, vaccines and medicines to Afghanistan according to the needs of the Afghan people,” according to the state news agency, Xinhua.The announcement of the aid package came the same day China said it was going to maintain communication with the Taliban rulers after they took the “necessary step” of establishing an interim government. FILE PHOTO: China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi listens during a meeting in Manila, Philippines on Jan. 16, 2021.Speaking with counterparts from Pakistan, Iran and Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the aid would help rebuild the war-torn country. He also said China would help combat terrorism and the trade in illegal drugs.
“The Chinese side attaches great importance to the Afghan Taliban’s announcement of an interim government,” he said, according to the South China Morning Post. “This is a necessary step in restoring domestic order and moving towards postwar reconstruction.”
Wang also called for the Taliban to sever ties with all terrorist groups, accusing the East Turkestan Islamic Movement of attacks in Xinjiang.
“All parties should strengthen intelligence sharing and border control cooperation to catch and eliminate terrorist groups that have sneaked in from Afghanistan,” Wang Yi said, according to Xinhua.
The United Nations warned this week that Afghanistan faces “universal poverty” by the middle of next year unless more is done to bolster local communities and their economies.Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington told VOA that the international community needs to help the country transition out of a wartime economy.
“If the international community chooses to abandon Afghanistan, the consequences will be unfortunately disastrous, and most immediately it can potentially result in a refugee crisis,” said Ambassador Asad Majeed Khan.
China’s embassy in Kabul remains open, and the Taliban have said they consider Beijing an important partner for rebuilding the country.
“China is a very important and strong country in our neighborhood, and we have had very positive and good relations with China in the past,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told CNN last week. “We want to make these relations even stronger and want to improve the mutual trust level.”
Still, Beijing has not formally recognized the Taliban.
U.S. President Joe Biden said Monday that the U.S. was “a long way off” from recognizing the Taliban. The U.S. State Department said Tuesday that it was disappointed by the lack of diversity in the Taliban’s interim government, noting a lack of women and some cabinet members’ relations with terrorist groups.
China and Afghanistan share a 50-mile border at the end of the narrow Wakhan Corridor.
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Hurricane Larry Expected to Hit Newfoundland Late Friday
The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Hurricane Larry is expected to hit Newfoundland, on Canada’s northeast coast, late Friday as a Category 1 hurricane. In its latest report, forecasters with the hurricane center say Larry is 745 kilometers southwest of Cape Race, Newfoundland, and has maximum sustained winds of about 130 kph. It was moving quickly to the north-northeast about 46 kph and is expected to move faster as the day goes on and reach southeastern Newfoundland Friday night. Southeastern Newfoundland is expected to see hurricane conditions late Friday, with periods of heavy rain, high winds and heavy surf that could cause coastal flooding. Meteorologists with The Washington Post report European weather models show the remnants of Larry will be swallowed by the jet stream over the next two to three days and bring heavy snow to eastern Greenland on Sunday and Monday. Meanwhile, hurricane center forecasters are watching a tropical disturbance over the western Caribbean Sea and portions of Central America and the Yucatan Peninsula. They forecast that system will move north-northwest into the Bay of Campeche and merge with a pre-existing system by Sunday, and a named tropical depression or storm is likely to form before the system moves onshore along the western Gulf of Mexico coast Sunday or Monday. The Washington Post meteorologists, again looking at European weather models, say that storm could bring as much as 12 centimeters of rain to the Houston, Texas, area between Sunday and Wednesday of next week.
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Violence Against Civilians in Eastern DRC Reaching New Heights, UN Says
The U.N. refugee agency is calling for more effective measures to protect millions of civilians in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo subjected to killings, kidnappings and savage abuse by armed groups. Dozens of armed groups have been committing violence against civilians in eastern DRC for more than two decades, but the U.N. refugee agency says the viciousness and magnitude of the attacks have reached a level not seen before. The UNHCR and its partners have recorded more than 1,200 civilian deaths and 1,100 rapes in 2021 in the two most affected provinces of North Kivu and Ituri. The agency says ferocious attacks have driven more than one million Congolese in the eastern part of the country from their homes this year alone. FILE – Victims of ethnic violence are seen at a makeshift camp for the internally displaced people in Bunia, Ituri province, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, June 25, 2019.UNHCR spokesman Boris Cheshirkov says most assaults have been perpetrated by the Allied Democratic Forces, a rebel group with Ugandan roots operating in eastern DRC. He says the group’s attacks have been increasing in brutality and frequency since late 2020. “These reports are coming in again and again. Twenty-five-thousand human rights violations for this year, including extortion, including looting, certainly sexual violence. Horrific reports that our staff and our partners are receiving and the extreme violence against civilians. So, our call is very clear. This is a call that we are constantly making. We need more measures to protect civilians,” Cheshirkov said. Violence and abuse have displaced more than five million people inside the DRC, the second highest number of internally displaced after Syria. Cheshirkov says repeated displacement is putting enormous financial pressure on impoverished host communities, and risking wearing out those communities’ welcome mat. “Harsh living conditions and a lack of food often trigger premature return by displaced people to their place of origin, further exposing them to abuse and violence,” Cheshirkov said. “In fact, returnees account for 65 percent of the serious human rights abuses that we and our partners have recorded.” Cheshirkov notes that the lifesaving needs of this ever-growing displaced population are increasing. But his agency, he says, can only respond to a fraction of them because it is out of money. With less than four months left in 2021, he says the UNHCR has received only 51 percent of the $205 million required to carry out humanitarian operations in the DRC this year.
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Malawi Businessman Convicted for 2019 Attempt to Bribe Judges
Malawi’s high court has found a businessman guilty of attempting to bribe Constitutional Court judges who were ruling on the disputed 2019 presidential election. Thomson Mpinganjira, who owns a commercial bank in Malawi, was arrested in January 2020 by the Anti-Corruption Bureau, or ACB, after the High Court’s chief justice, Andrew Nyirenda, reported he had attempted to bribe the judges. Mpinganjira was accused of offering judges an unspecified amount of money so that a court case over the disputed 2019 presidential election would end in favor of then-president Peter Mutharika. Mpinganjira had pleaded not guilty to six bribery-related charges. But High Court Judge Dorothy DeGabriele, in her judgment Friday, said the court proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Mpinganjira wanted to bribe the five judges. “The court found the accused person under count 1 and 2 for offering an advantage to Justice [Healey] Potani and Justice [Michael] Tembo who were public officers and for the benefit of that advantage to be shared amongst the judges, to induce the judges to make a decision in favor of the respondent. The accused person is hereby convicted accordingly,” DeGabriele said. Mpinganjira’s lawyer, Tamando Chokotho, asked the court to consider giving his client noncustodial punishment, saying his client is a first offender and a responsible man. Reyneck Matemba, Malawi’s solicitor general, dismissed calls for the noncustodial sentence, saying the convict needs a maximum prison term to serve as a lesson to potential offenders. “What the convict wanted to do, the offense which he has committed, is a very serious offense,” Matemba said. “He wanted to defeat the course of justice in one of the most high-profile cases in this country, ever.” Following the conviction, DeGabriele revoked Mpinganjira’s bail and remanded him to Chichiri Prison in Blantyre, where he will await his sentencing.
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Ukrainian President Says War With Russia Is Worst-case Possibility
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Friday that all-out war with neighboring Russia was a possibility, and that he wanted to have a substantive meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Asked at the Yalta European Strategy (YES) summit if there could really be all out-war with Russia, which seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and backs pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine’s east, Zelenskiy said: “I think there can be.” “It’s the worst thing that could happen, but unfortunately there is that possibility,” he added, speaking in Ukrainian. Kyiv says the conflict in eastern Ukraine has killed 14,000 people since 2014. Zelenskiy said relations with the United States had improved, but he bemoaned the fact that Ukraine had not received a clear answer to its request to join the NATO military alliance — a move that would be certain to infuriate Moscow. “We have not received … a direct position on Ukraine’s accession to NATO,” he said. “Ukraine has been ready for a long time.” He said a refusal to admit Ukraine would weaken NATO while playing into Russia’s hands. FILE – A Ukrainian soldier is seen at fighting positions on the line of separation from pro-Russian rebels near Donetsk, Ukraine, April 19, 2021.Tensions between Kyiv and Moscow increased earlier this year when fighting in eastern Ukraine intensified and Russia massed more troops near the border. Moscow accused Ukraine of losing interest in peace talks, while Zelenskiy pushed in vain for a meeting with Putin in the conflict zone. “Honestly, I don’t have time to think about him,” Zelenskiy said on Friday. “I’m more interested in whether we can really meet substantively, not declaratively as he does with some states,” he added. “It seems to me that today … they do not see the sense in resolving issues. End the war and resolve conflict issues quickly — they don’t want this.”
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UN Rights Office Condemns Violent Taliban Crackdown on Peaceful Protesters
The U.N. human rights office has condemned the Taliban’s violent crackdown on peaceful protests in Afghanistan, where women in particular are trying to uphold their rights in the face of the Taliban’s restrictions on women’s place in society.
Despite the risks, Afghan women and men have taken to the streets in defense of their human rights. U.N. monitors say women have been pressing for their right to work, to freedom of movement, to education and to exercise their right to participate in public affairs.
U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani says the protests which are protected under international human rights law, have been met with a severe response by the Taliban.
“We have seen the use of live ammunition, albeit there are reports that they are firing into the air in an apparent attempt to disperse the protesters. Protesters have still been killed. There have been reports of severe beatings as well, and we have also received reports of house-to-house search operations to try to identify those who attended certain protests,” Shamdasani said.
This week, the Taliban reportedly banned so-called unauthorized assemblies and ordered telecommunications companies to switch off internet service on mobile phones in specific areas of the capital, Kabul.
Shamdasani said her office has received credible reports of women’s rights activists and journalists covering protests in the country being arbitrarily arrested and savagely beaten. She said four deaths have been confirmed, although that number is likely to be higher.
“The Taliban are currently in control of Afghanistan, and we are calling on them to abide by the obligations under international human rights law that Afghanistan is bound by. It is very crucial that they do not resort to the use of force. It is in no one’s interest really to see this kind of bloodshed on the streets. It is not going to help to consolidate or stabilize society,” Shamdasani said.
What would help, she said, is an inclusive approach in which the Taliban rulers listen to the grievances of the people. She urged the Taliban to allow the Afghan people to exercise their right of freedom of assembly and to demonstrate peacefully out on the streets.
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With NATO Forces Gone, Russia Looks South to Afghanistan, Warily
Russia has been treading carefully in its dealings with the Taliban, engaging with them but so far withholding formal recognition of Afghanistan’s new rulers.Russian President Vladimir Putin and his aides have been quick to cheer the U.S.-led NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan, presenting it as a strategic setback for Washington. But they fear Afghanistan falling apart and being plunged into a protracted civil war, which could allow the country to become a sanctuary once again for jihadists to hatch plots against Russia and its Central Asian allies, according to Western diplomats and analysts.Commenting last week, Putin said NATO’s 20-year intervention had accomplished nothing. “The result is zero, if not to say that it is negative,” he said. Like his Western counterparts, though, the Russian leader appears also to have been surprised by the speed of the collapse of the government of President Ashraf Ghani and the Taliban’s sweep of the country. When the Taliban seized Kandahar on August 13, Putin’s envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, said he doubted the Taliban would take control of Kabul any time soon. They seized it within two days.FILE – Russian envoy to Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov, left, speaks with Taliban representatives prior to their talks in Moscow, May 28, 2019.With Afghanistan right on its doorstep, there are more downsides and risks for Russia from NATO’s departure arguably than there are for the Western powers, and the Kremlin is casting a wary glance south, according to Paul Stronski, who was director for Russia and Central Asia at the U.S. National Security Council from 2012 to 2014. “Russia has been eying the departure of U.S. troops from Afghanistan with schadenfreude. But the Kremlin does not relish the prospect of an unstable Afghanistan,” Stronski wrote in a commentary for the Carnegie Endowment, a think tank in Washington.“Even though Moscow has publicly cheered the removal of U.S. and NATO troops from the region, Russian officials are sober-minded enough to appreciate the downsides of their departure,” he says. “The key question now is whether Moscow is equipped to deal with a combustible situation along its southern flank that is unfolding far more quickly than anyone might have expected,” he added.Midweek, top Russian and Indian security officials met in Delhi to discuss the implications of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. In the subsequent readouts of their talks for the press, Nikolay Patrushev, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council and a key Putin adviser, and Indian counterpart Ajit Doval highlighted the security dangers, with their officials saying global militant groups operating from Afghanistan pose a threat to Central Asia and to India. They agreed to deepen counterterrorism cooperation.FILE – Taliban fighters atop Humvee vehicles parade along a road to celebrate the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan, in Kandahar, Sept. 1, 2021, following the Taliban’s military takeover of the country.“U.S. withdrawal and Taliban triumph generate an acute security challenge for Russia,” according to Pavel Baev of the Brookings Institution. A former researcher in the Soviet Union’s Ministry of Defense, he says the problem for the Kremlin is the NATO withdrawal “yields no rewards” and presents Moscow with a security “black hole” on its southern flank. Like their Western counterparts, Russian security chiefs are trying to judge whether the Taliban will abide by the promises its leaders made in political talks in Doha, Qatar, to stop Afghanistan once again from turning into a sanctuary for al-Qaida and other global jihadist groups.The Kremlin also is alarmed by the prospects of an increase in opiate drug trafficking, which alone may earn the Taliban $416 million a year, according to a U.N. assessment.Taliban leaders have said they won’t permit any opium poppy cultivation. But with a financial crunch looming for the country — and for the militant group — there are widespread doubts that they will — or can — keep to that promise. Afghanistan is estimated to be responsible for about 80 percent of global opium and heroin supplies.In July, following a string of bilateral talks with the Taliban, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the Taliban leadership was “rational.” He added: “They are sane people. They clearly stated that they have no plans to create problems for Afghanistan’s Central Asian neighbors.”FILE – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, second left, speaks as he attends a conference on Afghanistan with representatives of the Taliban, in Moscow, Russia, Nov. 9, 2018.Baev believes that statement was “an exercise in wishful thinking.” “The best Russian diplomats can hope for is to dissuade the shrewd leadership of the Taliban from launching cross-border attacks northwards,” he says. The Taliban remains proscribed in Russia as a terrorist organization. Its ties with Central Asian jihadists, including Chechen separatists who the Taliban allowed to train in Afghanistan, prompted President Putin in September 2001 to acquiesce regarding the U.S. building military bases in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to facilitate the U.S.-led NATO invasion of Afghanistan. Putin also allowed the U.S.-led coalition to use Russian airspace for the invasion.The Kremlin appears to be readying for the worst, and it has been for some time. In 2012, it signed an agreement with Tajikistan to extend its lease on a military base in Dushanbe until 2042, and in 2016 it started modernizing the base and rearming it, including with armed Orlan-10 drones.Last month, the Russian, Tajik and Uzbek militaries held joint exercises on the Afghan border. Recently, Russia’s defense minister Sergei Shoigu pledged to strengthen military cooperation with the former Soviet republics of Central Asia.
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African Union Suspends Guinea After Coup
The African Union said on Friday it was suspending Guinea after a coup in the West African country that saw its president Alpha Conde arrested.The pan-African body said on Twitter that it “decides to suspend the Republic of Guinea from all AU activities and decision-making bodies”.The move came after Guinean special forces seized power on Sunday and arrested Conde, who had come under increasing fire for perceived authoritarianism.The AU had on Sunday condemned the military takeover and called for the release of Conde, who became the country’s first democratically elected president in 2010.Its move came a day after the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) also suspended Guinea and said it was sending a mission to the country to evaluate the situation there. The AU’s Political Affairs, Peace and Security Council said it called on AU Commission chief Moussa Faki to “engage with stakeholders in the region” on the crisis.
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Denmark Lifts All COVID Curbs
With no masks in sight, buzzing offices and concerts drawing tens of thousands, Denmark on Friday ditches vaccine passports in nightclubs, ending its last COVID-19 curb.The vaccine passports were introduced in March 2021 when Copenhagen slowly started easing restrictions.They were abolished at all venues on Sept. 1, except in nightclubs, where they will be no longer necessary from Friday.”We are definitely at the forefront in Denmark as we have no restrictions, and we are now on the other side of the pandemic thanks to the vaccination rollout,” Ulrik Orum-Petersen, a promoter at event organizer Live Nation, told AFP.On Saturday, a sold-out concert in Copenhagen will welcome 50,000 people, a first in Europe.Already on Sept. 4, Live Nation organized a first open-air festival, aptly named “Back to Live,” which gathered 15,000 people in Copenhagen.”Being in the crowd, singing like before, it almost made me forget COVID and everything we’ve been through these past months,” said Emilie Bendix, 26, a concertgoer.Denmark’s vaccination campaign has gone swiftly, with 73% of the 5.8 million population fully vaccinated, and 96% of those 65 and older.’Aiming for free movement'”We’re aiming for free movement… What will happen now is that the virus will circulate, and it will find the ones who are not vaccinated,” epidemiologist Lone Simonsen told AFP.”Now the virus is no longer a societal threat, thanks to the vaccine,” said Simonsen, who works at the University of Roskilde.According to the World Health Organization, the Scandinavian country has benefitted from public compliance with government guidelines and the COVID-19 strategy adopted.”Like many countries, Denmark has, throughout the pandemic, implemented public health and social measures to reduce transmission. But at the same time it has greatly relied on individuals and communities to comply voluntarily,” said Catherine Smallwood, WHO Europe’s emergency officer.With around 500 daily COVID-19 cases and a reproduction rate of 0.7, Danish authorities say they have the virus under control.Health Minister Magnus Heunicke has however vowed that the government would not hesitate to swiftly reimpose restrictions if necessary.Authorities insist that the return to normal life must be coupled with strict hygiene measures and the isolation of sick people.The WHO still considers the global situation critical and has urged caution.”Every country needs to remain vigilant as and when the epidemiological situation changes,” Smallwood said.Denmark has said it will keep a close eye on the number of hospitalizations — just under 130 at the moment — and conduct meticulous sequencing to follow the virus.A third dose has also been available to risk groups since Thursday.Simonsen said the vaccines have so far provided immunity from variants “but if escape variants (resistant to the vaccine) were to appear, we will have to rethink our strategy.”Christian Nedergaard, who owns several restaurants and wine bars in Copenhagen, said that while everyone is happy about the return to normal life, “the situation is still complicated.””The memory of coronavirus will fade very quickly from some people’s minds but not for everyone, and for restaurants this period has for sure been a game-changer,” he said.”The industry needs to think about how to become more resilient.”Travelers entering Denmark must still present either a vaccine passport or a negative PCR test, and masks are mandatory in airports.
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UN: New Crisis Looms for Afghanistan
The United Nations’ top official in Afghanistan said Thursday that billions of dollars in assets and donor funds frozen by members of the international community present a “looming crisis” for the country, which is in a dire humanitarian and economic situation.”The understandable purpose is to deny these funds to the de facto Taliban administration,” Deborah Lyons, head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, told a meeting of the Security Council.”The inevitable effect, however, will be a severe economic downturn that could throw many more millions into poverty and hunger, may generate a massive wave of refugees from Afghanistan, and indeed set Afghanistan back for generations,” she said.Lyons said a way must quickly be found to allow money to flow into the country to prevent the total breakdown of the economy and social order.The U.N. warned Thursday, in an economic report, that Afghanistan is on the brink of universal poverty, with as much as 97% of the population at risk of falling below the poverty line.”Safeguards must be created to ensure that this money is spent where it needs to be spent and not misused by the de facto authorities,” Lyons cautioned. “The economy must be allowed to breathe for a few more months, giving the Taliban a chance to demonstrate flexibility and a genuine will to do things differently this time, notably from a human rights, gender and counterterrorism perspective.”Earlier this week, U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths met with a delegation of Taliban leaders, led by co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in Afghanistan. Griffiths said the Taliban had assured him that aid workers could continue their work helping half the country’s people.Baradar “did add that the rights of people in Afghanistan were subject to the culture of Afghanistan,” Griffiths said.On Tuesday, the Taliban announced their interim government made up of 33 men, several of whom are on a U.N. sanctions list, including the Taliban prime minister and foreign minister. No women have been designated to serve in their government, and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs was missing from the announced list.Taliban soldiers stand guard over surrendered Afghan Militiamen in the Kapisa province northeast of Afghanistan, Sept. 8, 2021.Afghanistan’s U.N. ambassador, Ghulam Isaczai, was appointed to his position by the government of former President Ashraf Ghani. He still holds the seat at the United Nations and continues to speak out against the Taliban, urging states to withhold recognition of any government that is not inclusive and based on the will of the people.”The council must use all its diplomatic tools, including the full implementation of existing multilateral sanctions, to make the Taliban engage in sincere and genuine talks for a comprehensive settlement,” Isaczai said.The U.S. envoy addressed some of his remarks directly to the Taliban.”If a new Afghan government upholds its commitments and obligations, brings greater stability to the country and region, demonstrates real inclusion, and protects the gains of the past two decades, we will work with it,” Ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis said.But he warned that Washington would not engage purely on trust.”The Taliban seeks international legitimacy and support. Our message is simple: Any legitimacy and support will have to be earned,” he said.Engagement may largely depend on how the Taliban treat women and girls. During their rule from 1996 to 2001, they imposed severe restrictions on females, including preventing their getting an education or working.Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by the Taliban when she was 15 for advocating for the right of girls to go to school, told the council via a video link that they must protect Afghan girls and women.”Statements are not sufficient,” she said. “The Taliban government must guarantee and protect the rights of women and girls.”The Taliban have stated recently that they would uphold women’s rights in accordance with Islamic law, but what that would look like is not clear.The mandate of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) will expire Sept. 17. Norway and Estonia hold the file on the council and have presented a draft resolution to members for discussion.”We believe that UNAMA’s work to facilitate humanitarian access, monitor and report on human rights, strengthen the protection of civilians, including children, and support women’s participation is more important than ever,” Estonian Ambassador Sven Jurgenson told reporters.Diplomats say a technical extension of the current mandate of up to six months is likely until there is a better sense of what engagement with a Taliban government might look like.
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Afghan Withdrawal Raises Questions, But Saving Lives Comes First, Says Albanian Prime Minister
In an interview Thursday, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said there are questions about how the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan was handled, “but we need to first save the lives [of Afghans].”Rama, whose country is temporarily hosting 4,000 Afghan refugees, said that as a NATO member country, Albania has to take its “share of responsibility” to protect those who worked with the organization in Afghanistan.Rama told Mirwais Rahmani of VOA’s Afghan Service that Afghan refugees can stay in Albania for as long as they wish.This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.VOA: Mr. Prime Minister, thank you so much for your time. Albania was one of the first countries that offered to host Afghan refugees. Tell us why.Prime Minister Edi Rama: Because of who we are. We have a very proud history of having built our life in this country for generations based in our first common law, which says that the house of the Albanians belongs to God and the guest. The accurate translation would be the traveler. And then there is a whole explanation of the duty behind the knock at the door of whomever is behind the door and in whatever situation he, she or they are, you have to open the door and you have to offer shelter to the traveler that is lost or needs refuge or needs to be fed or whatever. So, that is first. Second is our history. Our grandparents did something fascinating and thanks to them, Albania became the first and the last European country that had more Jews after the war than before and independent from their religion.And many Jews were saved by being hidden from Muslim armies. Because we have Muslims and Christians here but independent from their religion, Albania was protecting Jews. And then we were like the Afghans 30 years ago. So, it was at that time us demanding help and knocking on others’ doors for shelter.Now it’s the time to give what we got. And finally, I would say that we owe it to our children. Our children need to inherit this attitude, and every generation should cultivate it when the chance is being presented because, God forbid, we become a cynical rich country.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 2 MB480p | 3 MB540p | 3 MB1080p | 9 MBOriginal | 16 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioEdi Rama: Thirty years ago, “it was at that time us demanding help and knocking on others’ doors for shelter. Now it’s the time to give what we got.”VOA: I’m sure you saw the chaos and tragedy in Kabul airport during the last two weeks of August. Many believe it was a result of hasty withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan. What’s your take on this?Rama: As I said and I want to repeat, for sure what happened in the last weeks and what the world saw live from Kabul, from the airport, from the scenes of desperate people losing gravity and falling from the sky will absolutely raise many questions – many questions about our civilization, about our democratic world, about NATO, about the future of NATO and how we should see and shape it. But it’s not the time to enter in this (conversation) until the last person that is in need is saved from whatever the danger might be for him or her in Afghanistan. We should take care of human lives, and then of course, the discussion will follow. But on the other hand, I have to say that, you know, it’s quite hypocritical to put the blame on the United States and on the administration and just wash their hands like Pontius Pilate. After all we have been in this together. Yes, there are questions, of course, and the withdrawal had its problems, and it’s obvious but we need to first save the lives. And the blame on the withdrawal, the whatever mismanagement of the withdrawal, the dramatic episodes of the withdrawal, should not be alibis or should not be instruments to forget the real thing – the lives of people.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 3 MB480p | 4 MB540p | 4 MB1080p | 13 MBOriginal | 22 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioEdi Rama: “The withdrawal had its problems and it’s obvious, but we need to first save the lives.”VOA: I talked to some Afghan evacuees in Albania. Their main concern is the uncertainty surrounding the process of their application. An Afghan evacuee, while thanking your government for the warm hospitality, had a question for you: in case their application or resettlement process takes months or years, will the Albanian government provide them with health services and education opportunities for their children?Rama: Thank you for the question. It’s a very good question. First of all, they should forget months. It will not be months. It will be more than months because the mass of applications and the massive bureaucratic work that has to be done back in the [United] States for so many people that have been parked, as they said, in different places in Europe or elsewhere, is huge. So, it will be more than months. Secondly, we have already decided that we will offer them free health care.The concern of the kids and the young students is a common concern. So, we are working to come up with a plan, we are working to be able to create a network of teachers because we can put them right away in our schools. But it’s in Albanian, and we need to somehow give them some continuity to have their language and English, so we are working on that. And we will not let them, you know, drag in the places they are for more than months without sending those kids to school, without being able to see a future. At the same time, I would invite all of them to think about integrating while waiting – they are great people.VOA: The U.S. might not take in those Afghans who fail security background checks, or their cases are rejected. How will Albania deal with such a scenario? Are you ready to take in those Afghans who will have no other place to go, or is there any alternative solution?Rama: They are at home here. They should feel at home here, and if they want to stay, they are welcome. We will never tell them to leave the country because they don’t fulfill criteria. We’ll never tell them they have to apply for a visa clearance in Albania. We suffered a lot from visa regimes, and we are not going to be now a visa regime country for them, so they are more than welcome to stay.VOA: What’s Albania’s reaction to the Taliban’s government in Afghanistan? Will Albania, as a country that hosts hundreds, if not thousands, of Afghans, recognize a government led by the Taliban?Rama: Albania had its Taliban. They were not Islamic Taliban. They were Marxist and Leninist Taliban. And we saw religion being bombed. We saw God being declared illegal. We saw our own culture of the 20th century being bombed. We saw the jailing of artists, of writers, of play writers. We saw a total lack of freedom of expression. We saw full nationalization, and private property being dumped and being bombed and so many other things that, you know, you have seen in that country. Every comparison has its weakness. So, I’m not going further. But no, we will not be part of any club that will recognize this regime.Let me add this. While I said this, I say also the other thing, that it’s important to build communication, it’s important to talk with that regime. Because for the sake of all that need to be helped, demands it. So, one of the strengths of our Taliban regime was that not only didn’t they want to talk to others, but the others didn’t want to talk to them. So, this is something to be remembered.
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UN Chief Says He Fears Afghanistan-like Situation in Sahel
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told AFP on Thursday that he feared the return to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan would encourage influential jihadist armed groups in the Sahel, as he called for a strengthening of “security mechanisms” in that region.”I fear the psychological and real impact of what happened in Afghanistan” in the Sahel, Guterres said in an interview. “There is a real danger. These terrorist groups may feel enthusiastic about what happened and have ambitions beyond what they thought a few months ago.”Guterres said it is “essential to reinforce security mechanisms in the Sahel,” because it “is the most important weak point, which must be treated.””It is not only Mali, Burkina or Niger. Now we have infiltrations in Ivory Coast, in Ghana,” he added.He noted that France will reduce its presence in the region and cited news reports that Chad wants to withdraw some troops from border areas around Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali.”This is the reason why I am fighting for there to be an African counterterrorism force with a mandate under Chapter 7 [which provides for the use of force] of the Security Council and with dedicated funds, which can guarantee a response to the threat level,” he added.Insufficient capacity to respond”I fear today that the response capacity of the international community and the countries of the region are not sufficient in the face of the threat,” he said.The U.N. chief has been trying for several years to give the G5 Sahel force – Chad, Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso – a U.N. mandate accompanied by collective funding from the world body.France supports Guterres, but the U.N.’s leading financial contributor, the United States, has rejected the move.”This blocking must be ended. It is absolutely essential,” said the secretary-general.He said he was worried about fanatical groups where death “is desirable,” with armies “disintegrating in front of” these types of fighters.”We saw this in Mosul in Iraq, in Mali during the first push towards Bamako, we saw it in Mozambique,” he said. “This danger is real, and we must seriously think about its implications for the terrorist threat and the way in which the international community must organize itself in the face of this threat.”
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Hurricane Olaf Barrels Toward Mexico’s Los Cabos Resorts
Tropical Storm Olaf strengthened into a hurricane in the Pacific on Thursday as it churned toward the beach resorts of Los Cabos on Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, meteorologists said. Olaf was packing maximum winds of 145 kilometers per hour (90 mph), making it a Category 1 hurricane, the lowest on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. At 7 p.m. local time (0000 GMT Friday) the storm was about 72 km (45 miles) southeast of the seaside resort of Cabo San Lucas and moving northwest at 16 kph (10 mph), it reported. Mexico’s National Meteorological Service warned that Olaf was likely to make landfall as a Category 2 storm. A hurricane warning was in effect for a stretch of Baja California coastline from Los Barriles to Cabo San Lazaro. The storm was expected to move near or over the southern part of the peninsula on Thursday night and into Friday, forecasters said. “Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion,” the hurricane center said. A dangerous storm surge was expected to be accompanied by large, damaging waves near the coast, it added, warning that heavy rainfall may trigger “significant and life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides.” Authorities set up storm shelters, and schoolchildren in the state of Baja California Sur were told to stay home on Friday. Ports were closed for smaller boats, and 24 flights were canceled at the Los Cabos and La Paz airports. The hurricane comes at a time when Mexico is still recovering from a 7.1 magnitude earthquake and major flooding in parts of the country.
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WHO: Africa to Receive 25% Fewer COVID Vaccines Than Expected
Africa is slated to receive 25% fewer COVID-19 vaccines by the end of the year than it was expecting, the director of the World Health Organization’s regional office for Africa said Thursday.The African continent, already struggling with a thin supply of vaccines while many wealthy nations initiate booster shot programs, has fully vaccinated just more than 3% of its residents.The global vaccine sharing initiative COVAX announced Wednesday that it expects to receive about 1.4 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of the year, as opposed to the projection of 1.9 billion doses it received in June.”Yesterday, #COVAX shipment forecasts for the rest of the year were revised downwards by 25%, in part because of the prioritization of bilateral deals over international solidarity.” – Dr @MoetiTshidi— WHO African Region (@WHOAFRO) September 9, 2021Matshidiso Moeti, WHO’s Africa director, said during a press conference Thursday that the United States has thrown away three times as many vaccine doses as COVAX has delivered to African countries since March.COVAX delivered more than 5 million doses to Africa in the past week, but the U.S. Centers for Disease and Prevention said that as of September 1, U.S. pharmacies have thrown away more than 15 million doses since March.The United States and other wealthy nations have been under increasing pressure to donate their surplus of COVID-19 vaccines to poorer countries as the pandemic wreaks havoc across the globe with the emergence of new and more contagious variants of the coronavirus, which causes COVID-19.Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, on Wednesday implored wealthy nations to forgo COVID-19 vaccine booster shots for the rest of the year to ensure that poorer countries have more access to the vaccine. Tedros had previously asked rich countries not to provide boosters until September.Also on Thursday, Turkey’s health minister said the country is soon likely to approve a locally made vaccine, which began late-stage trials in June, for emergency use. Ankara expects it will start mass producing “Turkovac” this October.Italy sent teams to the island of Lampedusa to inoculate newly arrived immigrants. Lampedusa is one of the main arrival points for African migrants from Libya and Tunisia. Roughly 40,000 migrants from North Africa have arrived in Italy so far this year, twice as many as in 2020.In Los AngelesMeanwhile, the Los Angeles Board of Education approved a measure Thursday that would mandate vaccinations against COVID-19 for all students 12 years and older. Students would be required to receive their first dose by November 21 followed by a second dose by December 19 in order to be fully vaccinated by the next semester.The measure also requires students participating in in-person extracurricular activities to receive both shots by the end of October. The district will allow medical or religious exemptions.Los Angeles is the largest school district in the U.S. to impose a mandatory vaccination policy. The district is the nation’s second-largest, with just more than 600,000 students.In JapanSeparately, Japan announced Thursday that it would extend its current coronavirus state of emergency for Tokyo and 18 other areas until Sept. 30. Two prefectures will be shifted from full emergency status to more targeted restrictions.The state of emergency was first imposed for the city and a handful of other prefectures just weeks before the start of the Tokyo Olympics as Japan struggled under the surge of new infections sparked by the delta variant and a sluggish vaccination campaign.Japan currently has more than 1.6 million confirmed infections, including 16,600 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, with nearly 50% of its population fully vaccinated.Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters.
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