October’s Turkish energy deal with Libya’s Government of National Accord is the latest flashpoint in growing tensions between Turkey and Greece. As Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul, the effects of the rivalry are spreading in regions of Europe and the Mideast.
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Month: October 2022
Russia Recruiting US-trained Afghan Commandos, Former Generals Say
Afghan special forces soldiers who fought alongside American troops and then fled to Iran after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal last year are now being recruited by the Russian military to fight in Ukraine, three former Afghan generals told The Associated Press.
They said the Russians want to attract thousands of the former elite Afghan commandos into a “foreign legion” with offers of steady, $1,500-a-month payments and promises of safe havens for themselves and their families so they can avoid deportation home to what many assume would be death at the hands of the Taliban.
“They don’t want to go fight — but they have no choice,” said one of the generals, Abdul Raof Arghandiwal, adding that the dozen or so commandos in Iran with whom he has texted fear deportation most. “They ask me, ‘Give me a solution. What should we do? If we go back to Afghanistan, the Taliban will kill us.'”
Arghandiwal said the recruiting is led by the Russian mercenary force Wagner Group. Another general, Hibatullah Alizai, the last Afghan army chief before the Taliban took over, said the effort is also being helped by a former Afghan special forces commander who lived in Russia and speaks the language.
The Russian recruitment follows months of warnings from U.S. soldiers who fought with Afghan special forces that the Taliban was intent on killing them and that they might join with U.S. enemies to stay alive or out of anger with their former ally.
A GOP congressional report in August specifically warned of the danger that the Afghan commandos — trained by U.S. Navy SEALs and Army Green Berets — could end up giving up information about U.S. tactics to the Islamic State group, Iran or Russia — or fight for them.
“We didn’t get these individuals out as we promised, and now it’s coming home to roost,” said Michael Mulroy, a retired CIA officer who served in Afghanistan, adding that the Afghan commandos are highly skilled, fierce fighters. “I don’t want to see them in any battlefield, frankly, but certainly not fighting the Ukrainians.”
Mulroy was skeptical, however, that Russians would be able to persuade many Afghan commandos to join because most he knew were driven by the desire to make democracy work in their country rather than being guns for hire.
AP was investigating the Afghan recruiting when details of the effort were first reported by Foreign Policy magazine last week based on unnamed Afghan military and security sources. The recruitment comes as Russian forces reel from Ukrainian military advances and Russian President Vladimir Putin pursues a sputtering mobilization effort, which has prompted nearly 200,000 Russian men to flee the country to escape service.
Russia’s Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Yevgeny Prigozhin, who recently acknowledged being the founder of the Wagner Group, dismissed the idea of an ongoing effort to recruit former Afghan soldiers as “crazy nonsense.”
The U.S. Defense Department also didn’t reply to a request for comment, but a senior official suggested the recruiting is not surprising given that Wagner has been trying to sign up soldiers in several other countries.
It’s unclear how many Afghan special forces members who fled to Iran have been courted by the Russians, but one told the AP he is communicating through the WhatsApp chat service with about 400 other commandos who are considering offers.
He said many like him fear deportation and are angry at the U.S. for abandoning them.
“We thought they might create a special program for us, but no one even thought about us,” said the former commando, who requested anonymity because he fears for himself and his family. “They just left us all in the hands of the Taliban.”
The commando said his offer included Russian visas for himself as well as his three children and wife who are still in Afghanistan.
Others have been offered extensions of their visas in Iran. He said he is waiting to see what others in the WhatsApp groups decide but thinks many will take the deal.
An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 Afghan special forces fought with the Americans during the two-decade war, and only a few hundred senior officers were airlifted out when the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan. Since many of the Afghan commandos did not work directly for the U.S. military, they were not eligible for special U.S. visas.
“They were the ones who fought to the really last minute. And they never, never, never talked to the Taliban. They never negotiated,” former Afghan army chief Alizai said. “Leaving them behind is the biggest mistake.”
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Kenya’s President Demands End to Extrajudicial Killings by Police
Kenyan President William Ruto said during a meeting Monday with the Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA) that extrajudicial killings by police in the country must end.
Five police officers who were members of a now-disbanded special services unit went on trial Monday for the murders of Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan and Mohamed Zaid Sami Kidwai — two Indian nationals who advised Ruto’s election campaign — and their taxi driver, Nicodemus Mwania.
Four other officers had been tried last week in connection with the deaths.
Ruto wants the IPOA to develop a plan to help end extrajudicial killings in Kenya.
”Extrajudicial killings must come to an end,” Ruto said. “It is illegal, it is unconstitutional, it offends every principle of the right to life.”
An August 2022 report by Human Rights Watch found that the failure of Kenyan authorities to address accountability for past abuses by police heightened the risk for more abuse. George Musamali, a security analyst in Kenya, says arresting the officers and trying them is a sign of progress.
“You’ll find that in Kenya, we’ve been having a lot of misuse of this because sometimes you’ll find that people who are innocent, there is no evidence that these people are a danger to national security,” Musamali said. “You’ll find them being eliminated, and this is what we are trying to deal with right now, And I believe the Ruto government will [get] to the bottom of this.”
Rights groups such as Amnesty International say police abuse could completely end if the inquiries were extended to all other police units.
“Expand the inquiry into other formations,” said Demas Kiprono, campaign manager at Amnesty International. “There are formations that have happened by ATPU [the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit]. There are violations by other police units and formations. There are violations by certain police stations that are notorious.”
Investigations into the killing last week of Pakistani investigative journalist Arshadi Sharif by Kenyan police are underway. According to the police, Sharif’s murder was a case of mistaken identity.
Kenya’s director of public prosecution, Noordin Haji, said last week that 12 police officers, most of them senior officials, will face charges for crimes against humanity concerning a crackdown on post-election protests in 2017.
According to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, 94 people were killed at the time, and more than 300 were injured.
In a statement, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk commended Haji’s decision, which the United Nations says is an advance toward accountability for gross human rights violations in Kenya.
your ad hereZimbabwe Recycler Aims to Turn Plastic Waste Into Useful Items
Mounds of plastic waste in his hometown prompted one Zimbabwean man to build a shredder that helps turn the trash into useful items. He plans to move the project to the capital, Harare, where authorities have been struggling to deal with plastic waste dumped on the streets. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. VOA footage by Blessing Chigwenhembe
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Cameroon Says Hundreds of Its Citizens Deported from Equatorial Guinea
Cameroon says Equatorial Guinea has deported several hundred Cameroonians, some of whom say they were fleeing terrorist and rebel attacks at home. The government of Equatorial Guinea says the deportees were economic migrants and is planning to deport 7,000 Cameroonians in all by the end of the year.
Scores of Cameroonians applauded Monday while welcoming back at least 200 of their citizens who were deported. But the well-wishers are not happy with Equatorial Guinea’s actions. Civilians shouted that by deporting Cameroonians, the oil-rich country is being indifferent to people who have rendered services as mechanics, electricians, bricklayers, miners and other types of workers.
Nguenang Rigobert, one of the deported Cameroonians, says he lost his teaching job in Equatorial Guinea. Nguenang says he, like many Cameroonians in Equatorial Guinea, are victims of what he calls the Cameroon government’s lack of interest in the plight of its citizens outside the country. He says Cameroon should have negotiated for Equatorial Guinea to give Cameroonians more time to acquire resident and work permits.
Nguenang said several dozen of the deported Cameroonians fled their country in part because of its ongoing separatist crisis. Others left because of Boko Haram terrorism in the north.
Some deportees said they were tortured and their property looted in Equatorial Guinea. Others said they spent several nights in detention centers and were freed after agreeing to return to Cameroon unconditionally.
Nouhou Bello, the most senior Cameroon government official in Ocean, the administrative unit where Campo is located, says President Paul Biya asked him to receive the deported civilians and make sure they travel to their towns and villages in peace.
Bello says Cameroonians who have arrived in Campo since Friday have confirmed to government officials that they were in the neighboring state illegally. He says some of the deportees told officials their visas had expired while others acknowledged lacking travel documents when they went to Equatorial Guinea.
Bello called on Cameroonians staying in Equatorial Guinea illegally to return home or risk being locked up.
Earlier in October, the government of Equatorial Guinea said it would embark on a mass deportation of people living illegally in its territory.
Officials said insecurity has mounted due to an influx of about 30,000 economic migrants within the past three years. Equatorial Guinea accused job-seeking youths, especially from Cameroon and Nigeria, of harassment, theft and armed banditry.
Essomba Innocent is an economic analyst at the National University of Equatorial Guinea. He says in January 2020, the country signaled that it did not want illegal economic migrants in its territory and laid the foundation stone for construction of a border wall with Cameroon.
Essomba says in June 2020, Equatorial Guinea agreed to pause the construction of the controversial wall after Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad and Central African Republic agreed to voluntarily repatriate their citizens living in Equatorial Guinea illegally. He says people who are being deported should not ask the government of Equatorial Guinea for compensation for goods they acquired when their stay was illegal.
Equatorial Guinea is a tiny central African nation of around 1.5 million people. The International Monetary Fund reports that the nation took in approximately $45 billion in oil revenues between 2000 and 2013, catapulting it from one of the world’s poorest countries to the one with the highest per capita income on the African continent.
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South Africa’s Ethiopian Diaspora Hopeful of Peace Talks
In South Africa the first peace talks between the government of Ethiopia and the leadership of the Tigray region have raised hopes for an end to the nearly two-year-long war. Despite no media access to the talks or to the Tigray region, South Africa’s Ethiopian community remains hopeful of a deal to end the deadly conflict. Linda Givetash reports from Johannesburg.
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Supreme Court Rejects Turkey’s Bid to Stop US Brawl Lawsuits
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected Turkey’s bid to shut down lawsuits in U.S. courts stemming from a violent brawl outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in Washington more than five years ago that left anti-government protesters badly beaten.
The justices did not comment in turning away Turkey’s arguments that American law shields foreign countries from most lawsuits. Lower courts ruled that those protections did not extend to the events of May 16, 2017, when during a visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, “Turkish security forces violently clashed with a crowd of protesters,” as one judge described the situation.
The Supreme Court’s action allows the lawsuits to proceed. In the lawsuits, protesters claim they were brutally punched and kicked, cursed at and greeted with slurs and throat-slashing gestures. One woman slipped in and out of consciousness and has suffered seizures, and others reported post-traumatic stress, depression, concussions and nightmares, according to the complaints.
The high court had put off a decision about whether to intervene for months, asking for the Biden administration’s views on the legal issues presented.
Turkey can be sued in these circumstances, the Justice Department said in its high court filing, concluding that lower courts were correct in finding that the U.S. ally does not have legal immunity.
Lawyers for the Turkish government had told the court that Erdogan’s security detail had discretion to use physical force because it was protecting its head of state in a potentially dangerous situation.
They described some protesters as “supporters of a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization that poses a genuine national security threat to Turkey.”
The altercation was caught on camera and led to criminal charges against some of Erdogan’s security officers and civilian supporters, two of whom pleaded guilty. Most other charges were dropped. The violence occurred as Erdogan was returning to the ambassador’s residence after a White House visit, where he and then-President Donald Trump pledged cooperation in fighting the Islamic State group.
Erdogan remained in his car after it arrived at the ambassador’s residence while an initial skirmish took place. The lawsuits claim that he ordered a second, more violent attack. Turkey says he did no such thing.
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Peace Talks on Ethiopia’s Tigray Conflict Are Extended
Peace talks between warring sides on Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict have been extended into Monday.
An official familiar with the arrangements for the talks confirms that discussions continue in South Africa between Ethiopia’s federal government and representatives from the northern Tigray region.
The African Union-led talks seek a cessation of hostilities in a war that the United States asserts has killed up to hundreds of thousands of people, an estimate made by some academics and health workers.
The first formal peace talks began last week, and South Africa’s government had said they would end Sunday. Representatives of the warring sides have not responded to questions.
Neighboring Eritrea, whose forces are fighting alongside Ethiopian ones, is not a party to the talks, and it is not clear whether the deeply repressive country will respect any agreement reached. Witnesses have told the AP that Eritreans were killing civilians even after the talks began.
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German Climate Activists Glue Themselves to Dinosaur Display
Two environmental activists glued themselves to a dinosaur display at Berlin’s Natural History Museum on Sunday to protest what they said was the German government’s failure to properly address the threat of climate change.
The women used superglue to attach themselves to poles holding up the skeleton of a large four-legged dinosaur that lived tens of millions of years ago.
“Unlike the dinosaurs, we hold our fate in our own hands,” protester Caris Connell, 34, said as museum visitors milled around the display. “Do we want to go extinct like the dinosaurs, or do we want to survive?”
Fellow activist Solvig Schinkoethe, 42, said that as a mother of four she feared the consequences of the climate crisis.
“This peaceful resistance is the means we have chosen to protect our children from the government’s deadly ignorance,” she said.
The museum didn’t immediately comment on the protest.
The activists were part of the group Uprising of the Last Generation, which has staged numerous demonstrations in recent months, including blocking streets and throwing mashed potatoes at a Claude Monet painting.
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Kidnapped French Australian Veterinarian Released in Chad
The veterinarian and conservationist was kidnapped Friday
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EU Mulls Adding Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as Terrorists – German Official
Germany and the European Union are considering adding Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to the list of terrorist organizations, German Foreign Minister Annalina Baerbock said on Sunday.
Last week, Germany announced that it would impose tougher sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran outside of the EU sanctions package.
In an interview Sunday with a German news agency, Baerbock added, “We are also examining how we can list the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization.”
Baerbock’s comments come a day after Hossein Salami, the head of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards, warned protesters that Saturday would be their last day of taking to the streets, signaling that security forces might intensify their crackdown on nationwide protests.
The Revolutionary Guards are a part of Iran’s military charged with protecting the country’s Islamic political system. It also controls a huge business empire active in almost all sectors of Iran’s economy.
Iran has been gripped by protests since the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police last month, posing one of the boldest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution.
Iran has accused countries that have expressed support for the protests of meddling in its internal affairs.
In her interview Sunday, Baerbok also said there are currently no negotiations to revive the Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Western countries and Iran.
The U.S. State Department designated the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization in April, 2019.
Some material for this article came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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At Least 132 Die in India Bridge Collapse
Authorities in India say at least 132 people have died following the collapse Sunday of a recently renovated, century-old suspension bridge over the Macchu river in the western state of Gujarat.
Many people have been hospitalized and officials say they fear the death count could rise.
Local media reports said Monday that the nearly 150-year-old bridge opened five days ago after undergoing “seven months of repair work by a private firm.” The reports said the Morbi city bridge had not, however, received the local government’s fitness or safety certificate.
Hundreds of people had crowded onto the bridge during celebrations for the Hindu festival of Diwali, officials said.
Emergency workers and teams of military personnel have been deployed to the site to help in the rescue operation.
Authorities are planning to stop water supply to the river from the nearby check dam and use pumps to de-water the river to speed up the search operation, Agence France-Press reported.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was in Gujarat at the time of the accident, said he was “deeply saddened by the tragedy” in his home state. His office has announced compensation for the families of the dead.
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‘Devastating:’ Afghan Father Speaks About Son Partially Paralyzed by Polio
In Jalalabad, Afghanistan, where health workers are trying to vaccinate children to eliminate endemic poliovirus, six-year-old Ismail is partially paralyzed on his left side, due to the disabling disease. His father says it is devastating news for the family. Abu Baker Alizai has the report, narrated by Roshan Noorzai.
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Burkina Faso Ambush Kills 13 Soldiers: Security Sources
Suspected jihadists have ambushed and killed 13 soldiers in Burkina Faso’s eastern province, security sources told AFP on Sunday, in the latest violence to shake the insurgency-torn west African nation.
Four members of the defense forces were also wounded in Saturday’s attack along the road linking Fada N’Gourma with Natiaboani, one of the sources said.
“Reinforcements have been deployed to secure the zone and carry out a search,” a second source added, confirming the casualty toll. The unit that came under fire had been sent to relieve a detachment from Natiaboani.
The ambush comes after the powerful Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), which is linked to al-Qaida, claimed Friday it carried out an attack on a military base in Djibo, a major northern town that has been under a jihadist blockade for three months.
The army said at least 10 soldiers died and 50 were wounded in that “terrorist” assault on the 14th regiment on Monday.
The army added it killed 18 “terrorists” in mopping-up operations.
GSIM also claimed responsibility for an attack on a supply convoy heading for Djibo on September 26 that left 37 dead – 27 of them soldiers. Dozens of truck drivers are still missing.
That assault helped trigger the latest coup in Burkina just four days later, led by young army Captain Ibrahim Traore.
He became interim president on October 21, vowing to win back territory from jihadists.
It was Burkina’s second coup in eight months, driven by a seven-year insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives and driven nearly 2 million people from their homes.
The new government on Wednesday declared securing the Sahel state’s territory would be top priority.
More than a third of national territory remains outside government control.
The authorities also launched a drive to recruit 50,000 civilian defense volunteers to back up the army as the number of attacks increases.
A U.N. envoy warned this week that 4.9 million people, or a fifth of Burkina’s population, need urgent aid as many “mothers were forced to feed their children with leaves and salt.”
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Three Hurt in Attack on Vigil at Iranian Embassy in Berlin
Three men were injured early Sunday when a pro-democracy vigil outside the Iranian Embassy in Berlin was attacked, German police said.
An officer guarding the property saw several men, whose faces were covered with scarves, tearing down flags and banners from a trailer parked outside.
They then sought to rip open the door of the trailer, and a scuffle and argument erupted between four men who were inside and the attackers.
The men from the trailer chased the other group — and were then attacked by them, police said. Three of the men from the vehicle were injured, with two needing hospital treatment.
The attackers fled by car.
The trailer had posters on it with slogans such as “Women, Life, Freedom,” which has been commonly used in anti-government protests in Iran, German media reported.
There have been large protests in Germany and other European countries in solidarity with women-led demonstrations in Iran sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini.
The Iranian protests, now in their sixth week, are the biggest seen in the Islamic Republic for years.
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Thousands Commemorate Italy’s Fascist Dictator Mussolini
Several thousand black-clad fascist sympathizers chanted and sang in praise of the late Italian dictator Benito Mussolini on Sunday as they marched to his crypt, 100 years after Mussolini entered Rome and completed a bloodless coup that gave rise to two decades of fascist rule.
The crowd of 2,000 to 4,000 marchers, many sporting fascist symbols and singing hymns from Italy’s colonial era, was larger than in the recent past, as the fascist nostalgics celebrated the centenary of the March on Rome.
On October 28, 1922, black-shirted fascists entered the Italian capital, launching a putsch that culminated two days later when Italy’s king handed Mussolini the mandate to start a new government.
The crowd in Predappio, Mussolini’s birthplace and final resting place in the northern Emilia-Romagna region, also was apparently emboldened by the fact that a party with neo-fascist roots is heading an Italian government for the first time since World War II.
Organizers warned participants, who arrived from as far away as Rome, Belgium and the United States, not to flash the Roman salute used by the Fascists, or they would risk prosecution. Still, some couldn’t resist as the crowd stopped outside the cemetery where Mussolini is buried to listen to prayers and greetings from Mussolini’s great-granddaughter, Orsola.
“After 100 years, we are still here to pay homage to the man this state wanted, and who we will never stop admiring,” Orsola Mussolini said, to cheers.
She listed her great-grandfather’s accomplishments, citing an infrastructure boom that built schools, hospitals and public buildings, reclaimed malaria-infested swamps for cities, and the extension of a pension system to nongovernment workers. She was joined by her sister Vittoria, who led the crowd in a prayer.
The crowd gave a final shout of “Duce, Duce, Duce!” Mussolini’s honorific as Italy’s dictator.
Anti-fascist campaigners held a march in Predappio on Friday to mark the anniversary of the liberation of the town — and to prevent the fascists from marching on the exact anniversary of the March on Rome.
Inside the cemetery on Sunday, admirers lined up a handful at a time to enter his crypt, tucked away in a back corner. Each was given a memory card signed by his great-grandaughters with a photo of a smiling Mussolini holding his gloved hand high in a Roman salute. “History will prove me right,” the card reads.
Italy’s failure to fully come to terms with its fascist past has never been more stark than now, as Italy’s new premier, Giorgia Meloni, seeks to distance her far-right Brothers of Italy party from its neo-fascist roots.
This week, she decried fascism’s anti-democratic nature and called its racial laws, which sent thousands of Italian Jews to Nazi death camps, “a low point.” Historians would also add Mussolini’s alliance with Nazi Germany and Japan in World War II and his disastrous colonial campaign in Africa to fascism’s devastating legacies.
Now in power, Meloni is seeking a moderate course for a new center-right government that includes Matteo Salvini’s League party and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia. But her victory gives far-right activists a sense of vindication.
“I would have voted for Lucifer if he could beat the left,” said organizer Mirko Santarelli, who heads the Ravenna chapter of the Arditi, an organization that began as a World War I veterans group and has evolved to include caretaking Mussolini’s memory. “I am happy there is a Meloni government, because there is nothing worse than the Italian left. It is not the government that reflects my ideas, but it is better than nothing.”
He said he would like to see the new Italian government do away with laws that prosecute incitement to hatred and violence motivated by race, ethnicity, religion and nationality. It includes use of emblems and symbols — many of which were present in Sunday’s march.
Santarelli said the law punishes “the crime of opinion.”
“It is used as castor oil by the left to make us keep quiet. When I am asked my opinion of Mussolini, and it is clear I speak well of him, I risk being denounced,” Santarelli said.
Lawyer Francesco Minutillo, a far-right activist who represents the organizers, said Italy’s high court established that manifestations are permissible as long as they are commemorative “and don’t meet the criteria that risks the reconstitution of the fascist party.”
Still, he said, magistrates in recent years have opened investigations into similar manifestations in Predappio and elsewhere to make sure they don’t violate the law. One such case was closed without charges last week.
To avoid having their message misrepresented, Santarelli asked the rank and file present not to speak to journalists. Most complied.
A young American man wearing a T-shirt with a hand-drawn swastika inside a heart and the words “Brand New Dream,” plus a fascist fez, said he had timed his European vacation to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the March on Rome so he could participate in the march in Predappio. He declined to identify himself, other than to say he was from New Jersey, and lamented there was no fascist group back home to join.
Rachele Massimi traveled with a group four hours from Rome on Sunday to participate in the event, bringing her 3-year-old who watched from a stroller.
“It’s historic,” Massimi said. “It’s a memory.”
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