World

Share this

Both leaders of the South Sudan conflict have arrived in Ethiopia Friday to meet face-to-face for the first time since the breakout of fighting after a government row in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, December 16.

President Salva Kiir and the leader of the SPLM-SPLA in the Opposition, Dr. Riek Machar, and are scheduled to each meet separately with Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Dessalegn, before they meet eachother in Addis Abada, Ethiopia.

After months of fighting and many abandoned opportunities to meet or otherwise resolve the conflict, the two leaders are finally meeting after a visit by UN Secretary Genral Ban Ki-moon and the beginnings of economic sanctions by the US.

Ki-moon arrived in South Sudan Monday and met with Kiir and talked to Machar by satellite phone, garnering promises to meet from both parties.

US Secretary of State, John Kerry also visited South Sudan and threatened economic sanctions if the two warring parties did not desist. The US began the first sanctions earlier this week, affecting one army general from each side of the conflict.

From the government side, a member of the presidential guard, Marial Chunuong, was singled out by the US for leading attacks against civilians in and around the capital, Juba, and from the rebel side leader Peter Gadet was targeted for leading an April 17 assault on the city of Bentiu in which 200 civilians were killed.

Also Friday, a delegation from the government and from rebel leader David Yau Yau’s Democratic Movement-Cobra Faction signed a final agreement in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which will end the conflict in Greater Pibor County of Jonglei State. The signatories were Canon Clement Janda, the chairperson of Political and Foreign Relations Committee in the Council of States on behalf of the Government of South Sudan, and General Boutros Khalid, from the Cobra-Faction.

General Boutros Khalid signed on behalf of the Cobra-Faction.

Other progress was made this week, when the two sides signed a recommitment to allow much needed humanitarian provided food supplies to be delivered to people in conflict affected areas. South Sudan is currently facing a major food crisis due to the onset of the rainy season, by which time all crops that will be harvested for next year must be planted, and upon which South Sudan’s scant road system will become mud.

By Day Blakely Donaldson

Source:

Eye Radio

Share this

Transdniestria is “the first liberated part of Novorossiya,” according to Russian Economist Sergei Lebedev. Levedev also said that he saw a new state forming between Russia and Moldova, which spreads across Ukraine.

The statements were published on the website Ruskline.ru Tuesday.

Lebedev said that although “the New Russian Transdniestr Moldovan Republic (PMR),” born in 1990, was the “first liberated territory” and has been maintaining the hope of re-uniting with “Great Russia” since its beginnings, “now the situation has changed radically due to the crisis in Ukraine as well as the complicated situation in Moldova and Romania.”

Lebedev went on to reference Russian President Vladimir Putin, who spoke of Transdniestria in his April 17 public talk, stating that the people of the region “should be allowed to resolve their own fate” and that Russia would support them. Lebedev says that these words by Putin “instantly aroused a tantrum from the Kiev junta, which started to build fortified lines on the border of Ukraine and PMR.”

Putin also told students in April that Odessa–a crucial city to Ukraine as a transit port for liquid gas from Qutar and Turkey, without which Ukraine would depend totally on Russian gas–was once Russian.

Russia has recently been increasing its military force in Transdniestria.

The Ukrainian “blockade” of PMR, which desires reunification with Russia, only serves, according to Lebedev, as “an illustration of [Kiev’s] inadequacy.”

Lebedev went on to say of the situation regarding Transdniestria, “Simultaneously, once again, the Romanian authorities, headed by the ambitious and not entirely sane President Traian Basescu, launched a campaign for the annexation of the Republic of Moldova, which, under the unsettled relations between Moldova and Transdniestria, again exacerbated the conflict on the Dniester.”

Lebedev placed the current situation in the context of historical peoples and lands dating back to the Scythians, Sarmatians and Alans.

Lebedev is a professor of Economics in Russia, although his tract was mainly written framed within historical rhetoric.

By James Haleavy

Source:

Ruskline

Share this

The People’s Council of the People’s Republic of Donetsk (DNR) has scheduled a referendum for May 11, according to Council Chairman Denis Pushkin, despite warnings from Kiev and a request by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The referendum will concern the status of the region–whether it wishes to remain Ukrainian or become Russian. The council moved forward with the referendum after a unanimous vote that the referendum would not be postponed.

“The referendum will be the eleventh of May,” began the ” Interfax ” announcement of the vote by the co-chair of the DNR government, Miroslav Rudenko.

The public council in Lugansk also made the decision to hold a referendum, reportedly, according to spokespeople for that organization.

In recent days, Putin asked pro-Russian separatist forces in Southeastern Ukraine to postpone referendums.

Pro-Russian separatists have been demanding referendums since March, purposing unification with Russia.

By James Haleavy

Source:

Vesti

Share this

Azerbaijan has assumed the Council of Europe chair amid a dire human rights situation within the country. The taking over of the chairmanship of the decision-making human rights institution takes place in light of Azerbaijan’s unseemly track record of human rights abuse, as highlighted in Amnesty International’s report Behind Bar’s: Silencing dissent in Azerbaijan, released recently.

The report finds an trend of increased repression in Azerbaijan since the October 2013 elections, and documents “how harassment, beatings, and unfair trials, detention and imprisonment are routinely used in Azerbaijan to control and curb the voices of opposition parties, independent media outlets, and any other individuals critical of the government.”

Just last week a court in the capital, Baku, sentenced eight NIDA activists to prison terms of between six and eight years. The charges–drug possession, explosives and intention to “cause public disorder”–
Outside the courthouse after the reading of the sentence, police broke up NIDA supporters and others gathered there, detaining at least 26 activists and journalists.

NIDA–which is the Azerbaijani word for “exclamation”–was founded in 2011 by a small group of young people purposing to enact democratic and social changes in the country. The group currently has 350 members, including several politicians.
At the time, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director of the Europe and Central Asia Programme, Denis Krivosheev, said, “This verdict is an affront to human rights and a timely reminder of Azerbaijan’s continued refusal to respect basic freedoms.”

The Council of Europe is comprised of 47 member states. It is a decision-making human rights institution, based on the principles of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Azerbaijan, the oil-rich country bordering Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Iran between the Black and Caspian seas, assumed the chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on Wednesday, May 14 2014.

By James Haleavy

Sources:

Amnesty International

Share this

Further strictening of Russian internet law passed the legislature Monday, and is expected to further cool Russian internet expression, while Russian President Vladimir Putin explained the law in terms of “the way its done everywhere” to deal with the CIA-initiated internet, and thanked Edward Snowden for playing his part.

Under the law, commonly refereed to as the “bloggers law” because the owner of any website–referred to as a “blog” in the language of the bill–with a daily following of 3,000 or more, including social media followers such as those on Twitter and Facebook, will be forced to register a real identity and address with the government, and will be responsible for any content posted on the site, including its accuracy. Henceforward, no internet user with a basic amount of social media clout will be anonymous legally in Russia, and will be held to the same standards as mass media outlets, but without the protections granted regular media. The law is expected to have a cooling effect on expression on the internet in Russia.

Recently, two of Russia’s largest blogging services, Yandex and LiveJournal–announced that publicly visible counters would stop below the 3000 number.

The law also requires all online platforms–search engines and social networks–to maintain records of everything posted online for the previous six months. The records must be kept inside Russia. In is not clear in the law whether this provision covers Google, Twitter, Facebook, and other international social media.

The new internet regulations will take force August 1.

The legislature also ruled Monday that as of July 1, common swearing will no longer be allowed in movies, television, theater or music. The four words that were banned are those crudely denoting male and female genitalia, sex and prostitutes.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his views of the internet a few weeks ago on a live national TV broadcast, saying, “You know that it all began initially, when the Internet first appeared, as a special C.I.A. project.” “Special services are still at the center of things,” Putin continued, and thanked American fugitive exile in Russia, whistleblower Edward Snowden, for showing the world the efficiency of NSA data collection.

Putin explained the new law, saying that anyone affecting thousands or more people with their opinions should be considered a media outlet, and said that this was “the way it is done all over the world.”

Comparing the new internet laws to the Chinese model, one prominent critic said, “It is part of the general campaign to shut down the Internet in Russia. They have not been able to control it until now, and they think they should implement the Chinese model. But they don’t understand how it works. The Chinese model also stimulates the development of local platforms, while the Russian laws are killing the local platform.”

China employs a policy of tightening censorship of the internet, and has banned all Western social media, including Google, Facebook, YouTube and twitter.

By Day Blakely Donaldson

Sources:

The Wire

Land and Sea Journal

Share this

Following up on threats made Monday, the US has imposed the first sanctions against South Sudan, where the president has not come to the table to discuss peace with the rebels after over four months of fighting has disrupted the nation and displaced over a million South Sudanese.

On Monday, US Secretary of State John Kerry threatened sanctions against the country’s government if they continued to evade peace talks, and on Tuesday Kerry announced travel bans and asset freezes against two participants in the ongoing conflict. The sanstions come under an executive order signed by President Barack Obama last month.

The sanctions were imposed on one individual from each side of the conflict. From the government side, a member of the presidential guard, Marial Chunuong, was singled out by the US for leading attacks against civilians in and around the capital, Juba, and from the rebel side leader Peter Gadet was targeted for leading an April 17 assault on the city of Bentiu in which 200 civilians were killed.

An unidentified Obama administration official commented on the sanctions, saying, “The primary purpose is to isolate and apply pressure to change the decision-making calculus of the key actors involved.”

The leaders of the two main groups at conflict, President Salva Kiir and the rebel leader, former vice president, Riek Machar, agreed Tuesday to requests by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to hold the first face-to-face talks this Friday in Ethiopia.

By Day Blakely Donaldson

Source:

BBC

Share this

In Azerbaijan Tuesday, European Amnesty International members and activists gathered from 2.00 to 3.00 o’clock outside the Council of Europe Chairmanship ceremony to protest human rights abuses in Azerbaijan–the country that will assume the chairmanship of the human rights decision-making institution May 14.

The demonstrators called on the Azerbaijani government to assume a leadership position as Chairman in protecting human rights national and internationally. Activists also called on the Committee of Ministers to pressure Azerbaijan release its detained prisoners of conscience immediately, including NIDA activists.

NIDA–which is the Azerbaijani word for “exclamation”–was founded in 2011 by a small group of young people purposing to enact democratic and social changes in the country. The group currently has 350 members, including several politicians. Eight NIDA activists were sentences recently to jail terms of six to eight years for spurious crimes.

By Cheryl  Bretton

Source:

Amnesty International

Share this

Italian newspaper La Repubblica has published a Wikileaks cable that shows that the Vatican communicated with US diplomats in October, 1973, and expressed support for the Pinochet coup in Chile.

In the communication, between Vatican second in command, Secretary of State Giovanni Benelli, and US diplomats, Benelli expressed, “grave concern, and to Pope Paul VI regarding the successful leftist international campaign to completely distort the realities of the situation in Chile”.

Benelli also expressed concern about an alleged terrorist leftist campaign purposing to demoralize the Board of Governors in charge of the country after the September 11 coup.

Of the aftermath of the coup, Benelli said, “we must admit that there has been bloodshed in cleansing operations in Chile, but the embassy in Santiago, Cardinal Silva and Chilean bishops in general have assured Pope Paul that the board is doing everything possible to bring the situation back to normal and that the international media stories that speak of a brutal crackdown are unfounded”.

Benelli also stated, “The Vatican is convinced, and the Nunciature has confirmed that during the last months of the Allende government, the Embassy of Cuba was serving as arsenal to distribute weapons made in Eastern Europe to the Chilean workers.”

La Repubblica is a newspaper related to Wikileaks in its function of spreading previously secret cables throughout the world.

By Day Blakely Donaldson

Source:

The Clinic

Share this

Mykhailo Koval, the acting defense minister of Ukraine, made statements Tuesday explaining that anti-terrorism operations taking place in Southeastern Ukraine–based on “liquidation” of diversionists and terrorists–are not performed with haste in order to prevent casualties among the civilian population.

The defense minister told a story explaining the situation Tuesday at the briefing after the closed session of parliament.

“One of the ambassadors of the Central European State asked me why the anti terrorism operation goes so slow,” said Koval. “I answered that we have two options. The first option involves the use of heavy artillery. We could raze this settlement to the ground, put a yellow-and-blue flag and report on the performance of tasks. The second option–which is what we do–is block, step by step, and liquidate the diversionists and terrorists, as well as avoid involvement in the fighting of the civilian population. I asked the diplomat ‘What option would you chose,’ and he said, ‘I select your Ukrainian variant.’ So you should understand that our participants of the counter-terrorism operation work according to this option.”

By Day Blakely Donaldson

Source:

Puterak Olexandr at the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense

Share this

Polygamy has been legally approved by President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya. The bill was passed into law by the Kenyan parliament in a vote which caused female legislators to storm out of parliament in protest. The president signed the bill April 29.

The office of the president released a statement about the law. “Marriage is the voluntary union of a man and a woman, whether in a monogamous or polygamous union,” the statement read.

The law does ban “bride prices,” despite earlier proposed drafts of the bill. Neither does it require men to seek the consent of existing wives before subsequent marriages, which was among the demands of opponents of the bill.

“At the end of the day, if you are the man of the house, and you choose to bring in another party – and there may be two or three – I think you should be man enough to agree that your wife and family should know,” commented female lawmaker Soipan Tuya.

In Kenya, 80 percent of the population practice customary forms of marriage. The law applies to marriages that take place under customary law.

Human rights activists have opposed the legislation, which has been under discussion since 2007. Kenya is a signatory to the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which guarantees social and political equality to women, including “as equal partners in marriage.”

The law also attempts to harmonize the various forms of union practiced in Kenya, and provide a precedent minimum standard of what constitutes marriage. The law also outlaws marriage between minors; the age of consent to marriage is set at 18.

By Cheryl Bretton

Source:

Zegabi

Share this

Three big issues in Ukraine were set for a nationwide referendum May 25, but the majority of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, voted against the referendum Tuesday.

The three issues pressing in Ukraine that were to be addressed in the referendum were territorial integrity, the status of the Russian language in Ukraine, and decentralization of power.

The bill to hold the referendum was proposed on Monday. The vote against the referendum was not a landslide; 154 members voted in favor of the referendum.

Parliamentarian Alexander Briginec called the proposed referendum “populism,” and wrote, “The referendum should be held, but not during the war.”

Pro-Russian groups have occupied buildings throughout Southeastern Ukraine since March. Earlier this month, the Ukrainian parliament passed law to crack down on separatists, providing maximum sentences of 12 years for actions that purpose territorial changes.

Dozens of people have so far died in the clashes between pro-Russian forces and nationalist Ukrainian forces in Southeastern Ukraine.

By Day Blakely Donaldson

Source:

Voice of Russia