Myanmar security forces surround striking rail workers opposed to military coup

Issued on: 10/03/2021 

Anti-coup protesters retreat from the frontlines after discharging fire extinguishers towards a line of riot police officers in Yangon, Myanmar, on March 10, 2021. © Stringer, AP

Text by: NEWS WIRES

Myanmar security forces surrounded the staff compound of striking railway workers opposed to the military junta on Wednesday as ousted lawmakers appointed an acting vice president to take over the duties of detained politicians.

In New York, the U.N. Security Council failed to agree on a statement that would have condemned the coup in Myanmar, called for restraint by the military and threatened to consider “further measures.”

Talks on the statement would likely continue, diplomats said, after China, Russia, India and Vietnam all suggested amendments late on Tuesday to a British draft, including removal of the reference to a coup and the threat to consider further action.

The railway staff in Yangon are part of a civil disobedience movement that has crippled government business and included strikes at banks, factories and shops since the army ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in a coup on Feb. 1.

Security forces have cracked down with increasing force on daily, nationwide protests, leaving the Southeast Asian nation in turmoil.

More than 60 protesters have been killed and 1,900 people have been arrested since the coup, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an advocacy group, has said.

Footage posted on social media showed security forces near the railway staff compound. One person involved in the strike said by telephone they feared an imminent crackdown.

“I think they are going to arrest us. Please help us,” said the person, who asked to be identified only as Ma Su rather than their full name.

In a Facebook live broadcast from the area people chanted:

“Are we staff united? Yes, we are united” and a commentator claimed police were trying to remove barricades and threatening to shoot.

Details could not be independently verified. Police and army officials did not respond to requests for comment.

In Myanmar’s second city, Mandalay, protesters staged a sit-in protest on Wednesday, chanting: “The resolution must prevail”.

On Tuesday, Zaw Myat Linn, an official from Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), died in custody after he was arrested, the second party figure to die in detention in two days.

“He’s been participating continuously in the protests,” said Ba Myo Thein, a member of the dissolved upper house of parliament. The cause of death was not clear. In a Facebook live broadcast before he was detained, Zaw Myat Linn urged people to continue fighting the army, “even if it costs our lives”.

Crackdown on media

In a symbolic gesture, an announcement posted on the NLD’s Facebook page on Tuesday said ousted lawmakers had appointed Mahn Win Khaing Than, who was the upper house speaker, as acting vice president to perform the duties of arrested President Win Myint and leader Suu Kyi. Mahn Win Khaing Than’s whereabouts were not known.

Police on Tuesday also cracked down on independent media, raiding the offices of two news outlets and detaining two journalists.

At least 35 journalists have been arrested since the Feb. 1 coup, Myanmar Now reported, of which 19 have been released.

Some police have refused orders to fire on unarmed protesters and have fled to neighbouring India, according to an interview with one officer and classified Indian police documents.

“As the Civil disobedience movement is gaining momentum and protest(s) held by anti-coup protesters at different places we are instructed to shoot at the protesters,” four officers said in a joint statement to police in the Indian city of Mizoram.

“In such a scenario, we don’t have the guts to shoot at our own people who are peaceful demonstrators,” they said.

The United States is “repulsed” by the Myanmar army’s continued use of lethal force against its people and is continuing to urge the military to exercise “maximum restraint,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Tuesday.

The army has justified the coup by saying that a November election won by the NLD was marred by fraud - a claim rejected by the electoral commission. It has promised a new election, but has not said when that might be held.

               BOYCOTT DICKENS & MADISON CANADA

The junta has hired an Israeli-Canadian lobbyist for $2 million to “assist in explaining the real situation” of the army’s coup to the United States and other countries, documents filed with the U.S. Justice Department show.

Ari Ben-Menashe and his firm, Dickens & Madson Canada, will represent Myanmar’s military government in Washington, as well as lobby Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Israel and Russia, and international bodies like the United Nations, according to a consultancy agreement.

International powers have condemned the takeover, which derailed a slow transition to democracy in a country that has been ruled by the military for long periods since independence from Britain in 1947.

The military has brushed off condemnation of its actions, as it has in past periods of army rule when outbreaks of protest were forcibly repressed.

(REUTERS)

‘Longyi Revolution’: Why Myanmar protesters are using women’s clothes as protection

Protesters in Myanmar have taken to stringing up traditional women's skirts, called longyis, on clothes lines across streets as a way to protect themselves from security forces. According to old Myanmar traditions, walking beneath clothes that cover women’s private parts is considered bad luck.

BYE BYE BOLSONARO

‘Brazil has no government’: Lula tears into Bolsonaro in comeback speech

"Don't follow any imbecile decisions by the president of the republic or the health minister: get vaccinated," Lula said.

Issued on: 10/03/2021 - 

Text by: FRANCE 24

Brazil's former leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva came out swinging against President Jair Bolsonaro's "imbecile" handling of the coronavirus pandemic on Wednesday as he made his return to the political stage, two days after a judge reinstated his right to run for office.

Lula, who led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, has emerged as a leading contender to face the far-right incumbent next year after a Supreme Court justice annulled his convictions on Monday and reinstated his political rights.

In his first comments since the ruling, Lula, 75, gave a scathing take-down of Bolsonaro's management of the economy and signature policies.

He was especially biting on Bolsonaro's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 266,000 people in Brazil – the second-highest death toll worldwide, after the United States.

"This country has no government," Lula told a news conference. "This country doesn’t take care of the economy, of job creation, wages, health care, the environment, education, young people."

Bolsonaro has repeatedly downplayed the new coronavirus, flouted expert advice on containing it and fuelled vaccine scepticism.

"Don't follow any imbecile decisions by the president of the republic or the health minister: get vaccinated," Lula said.

The former president "managed to sound both serene and angry, both radical and conciliatory," said FRANCE 24's correspondent Tim Vickery. "This is an experienced politician showing that he is still at the top of his game."

Lula, a former metal worker and union leader, led Brazil through an economic boom and is remembered for social programmes that helped lift tens of millions of people from poverty.

Recent opinion polls suggest he is the best-placed politician to unseat Bolsonaro in the October 2022 elections.

>> Lula's return opens door to Bolsonaro showdown in polarised Brazil

But he remains a highly controversial figure after being sentenced to a total of 26 years in jail on corruption charges stemming from a sweeping investigation into a scheme in which top politicians and business executives systematically siphoned billions of dollars from state oil company Petrobras.

He spent more than 18 months in prison, before being released in 2019 pending appeal.

Campaign launch in all but name

Lula called himself the victim of "the biggest judicial lie in 500 years," repeating his claim that the graft charges against him were fabricated to sideline him from the 2018 presidential race, paving the way for Bolsonaro's victory.

He said he planned to "fight tirelessly" for Brazil and that he wanted to resume touring the country once he is vaccinated against Covid-19 next week.

But he declined to say whether he would run in the elections, saying, "My head doesn't have time to think about a 2022 candidacy now."

Still, "his speech was a campaign launch" in all but name, according to political analyst Creomar da Souza, of the consulting firm Dharma.

"He presented his project for the country, which involves a lot of references to his legacy as president," da Souza told AFP.

Lula is still seen as a hero on the left, which argues he was the victim of a conspiracy.

Supporters point to the fact that the lead judge in the anti-corruption probe that ensnared him, Sergio Moro, went on to accept the post of justice minister under Bolsonaro, and that hacked phone messages suggest Moro conspired with prosecutors to ensure Lula was sidelined.

Lula still faces a series of corruption and influence-peddling charges, including the ones he was jailed for, which will now be transferred to a federal court in Brasilia.

But it may already be too late for other courts to rule him out of the 2022 race, said FRANCE 24's Vickery: "In order for him to lose his political rights again he would have to be convicted and then lose again on appeal, and there may not be time for that to happen before the next presidential campaign in October of next year."

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

US Congress passes $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package in key win for Biden

Issued on: 10/03/2021 - 20:16

Text by :FRANCE 24

The House of Representatives gave final approval on Wednesday to one of the largest economic stimulus measures in US history, a sweeping $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill that gives President Joe Biden his first major legislative victory in office.

Approval in the Democratic-controlled chamber came without any Republican support after weeks of partisan debate and wrangling in Congress.

The measure provides $400 billion for $1,400 direct payments to most Americans, $350 billion in aid to state and local governments, an expansion of the child tax credit and increased funding for vaccine distribution.

Hailing its passage, Biden said the stimulus bill would give American workers a "fighting chance".

"This legislation is about giving the backbone of this nation – the essential workers, the working people who built this country, the people who keep this country going – a fighting chance," Biden said in a statement.

The US president plans to sign the bill on Friday, the White House said.

Democrats have described the legislation as a critical response to a pandemic that has killed more than 528,000 people and thrown millions out of work.

"This is a historic day. It is the beginning of the end of the great Covid depression," Democratic Representative Jan Schakowsky said.

Republicans said the measure was too costly and was packed with wasteful progressive priorities. They said the worst phase of the largest public health crisis in a century has largely passed and the economy is headed toward a rebound.

"It's the wrong plan at the wrong time for so many wrong reasons," Republican Representative Jason Smith said.

Democrats were eager to get the final bill to Biden's desk for his signature before current federal unemployment benefits expire on March 14.

The House, which passed an earlier version of the legislation, needed to meet again to approve changes made in the Senate over the weekend.

"There's been a lot of talk about this package being too large and too expensive, but if there was ever a time to go big, this should be it," said Democratic Representative Richard Neal.

The House rejected an effort by Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene to delay proceedings by asking for an adjournment – something she has attempted four times since taking office in January.

The House voted 235-149 to plough ahead, with 40 Republicans joining Democrats in rejecting Greene's effort.

Package popular with voters

Although many Republicans supported coronavirus relief under former president Donald Trump's administration, no Republican lawmaker voted for the bill in the House or Senate, although polls have shown it is popular with voters, even Republicans.

According to a Reuters/Ipsos national opinion poll, conducted March 8-9, 70 percent of Americans support the plan, including a majority of Democrats and Republicans. Among Republicans, five out of 10 say they support the plan, while nine out of 10 Democrats supported it.

The legislation could have high stakes for both parties. If it succeeds in giving the economy a major boost, it also could improve Democrats' political fortunes as they attempt to hold onto their slim majorities in Congress going into the 2022 mid-term elections.

Democrats hold a narrow 221-211 majority in the House and, without Republican support, could afford to lose the votes of only a few of their members. Some Democratic lawmakers in the House had criticised the changes in the bill made by the Senate.

The Senate had removed a $15 per hour federal minimum wage increase by 2025; tightened the eligibility for $1,400 direct payments, capping them at those earning below $80,000, cut the unemployment insurance payment to $300 per week from the House's $400, and targeted some of the state and local government aid to smaller communities.

The massive spending push is seen as a major driver, coupled with a quickening pace of Covid-19 inoculations and a slowing infection rate, in a rapidly brightening outlook for the nation's economy.

Private- and public-sector economists have been marking up their growth estimates, with Morgan Stanley this week pegging 2021 economic output growth at 8.1 percent. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on Tuesday predicted US growth would top 6 percent this year, up from an estimate of around 3 percent just three months ago.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)

Honduran president denies drug trafficking accusations

Issued on: 10/03/2021 - 

Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez during an interview with AFP in January, 2021 Orlando SIERRA AFP/Fil






Tegucigalpa (AFP)

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez on Wednesday denied allegations made by a US prosecutor that he helped smuggle tons of cocaine into the United States.

New York prosecutor Jacob Gutwillig said in federal court on Tuesday that Hernandez was paid a $25,000 bribe by Geovanny Fuentes, who is on trial.

"How can anyone believe false testimonies that I was dealing with drug traffickers," Hernandez wrote on Twitter, reiterating his accusation that his accusers are using a "magic key" to try not to die in a foreign jail.

Gutwillig claimed that accountant Jose Sanchez was present at meetings in 2013 and 2014 where Honduran Fuentes paid the money to Hernandez.

Sanchez was due to tell the New York jury about "the shock, the fear he felt when he saw the defendant sitting with the president," said Gutwillig.

The witness worked at a rice-growing company through which Fuentes laundered money, the prosecutor alleged.

Sanchez will testify that Hernandez told Fuentes "they'd transport so much cocaine into the US they'd shove the drugs up the noses of the gringos," said Gutwillig.

Hernandez, a lawyer who came to power in January 2014 and is in his second term, has styled himself as a champion in the fight against drugs.

US prosecutors consider him a co-conspirator alongside Fuentes but have not charged him.

The president's brother, Tony Hernandez, was convicted of large-scale drug trafficking at a New York trial in 2019.

The sentencing in that case has been delayed several times and is now scheduled for March 23. The brother could be sentenced to life in prison.

Prosecutors say he was the middle man between accused trafficker Fuentes and the president.

President Hernandez was linked to drug trafficking at his brother's trial by Leonel Rivera, the leader of a Honduran drug trafficking gang called "Los Cachiros."

"The false testimonies of drug traffickers are obvious lies. The drug traffickers gave their 'sworn statement' that for $25,000 the drug traffickers bought total impunity," wrote Hernandez.

"But 10 days before my election (in 2013) Los Cachiros decided to abandon their billion dollar empire to negotiate their surrender to the US."

In the trial of Tony Hernandez, Rivera said the president received millions of dollars in bribes from drug traffickers to protect the cocaine shipments to the United States.

"How can anyone believe false statements that I dealt with drug traffickers when it's a proven fact that Los Cachiros tried to make a deal with the US," said the president.

Mexican lawmakers to vote on legalizing marijuana



Issued on: 10/03/2021 -

A man smokes a joint in Mexico City, where lawmakers are preparing to vote on the legalization of recreational marijuana use Pedro PARDO AFP

Mexico City (AFP)

Mexican lawmakers were expected to vote Wednesday on whether to legalize recreational marijuana use -- a move that could transform the land of the drug cartels into a huge regulated market.

The sweeping reform is partly aimed at curbing drug-related violence that claims thousands of lives each year in the Latin American nation.

The step would make Mexico, home to 126 million people, one of just a few countries, including Uruguay and Canada, to legalize cannabis for recreational use.

"In theory, it will create the largest legal market in the world due to Mexico's production capacity," said Lisa Sanchez, director of Mexico United Against Crime, a non-governmental organization.

In Mexico, "marijuana grows in natural conditions without the energy investments that are made in Canada, for example," she said.

The lower house of Congress, the Chamber of Deputies, began debating the bill Wednesday ahead of a planned vote, following its approval by the Senate in November.

It could still be sent back to the Senate for a new vote following changes by the lower house.

The opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and conservative National Action Party (PAN) vowed to vote against the bill.

But it is expected to be approved because President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's Morena party dominates both chambers.

- 'Achieving peace' -

"The law would contribute to achieving peace," Morena lawmaker Ruben Cayetano said.

PRI legislator Mariana Rodriguez, however, voiced concern that legalization would increase "the rate of consumption and addiction."

A landmark Supreme Court ruling in 2015 opened the door to the recreational use of marijuana in Mexico.

But it is still illegal to carry more than five grams (0.18 ounces), which would increase to 28 grams under the proposed law.

Up to eight plants would be allowed to be grown at home for personal consumption.

Pro-legalization activist Genlizzie Garibay said that although Mexico is "entering the discussion late," the law is "a step forward" for society, producers and consumers.

But she described it as an "elitist law... written from fear, stigma and positions of power."

Activists are concerned that cannabis would remain on the list of prohibited substances under the health law, and would not be decriminalized for possession of more than 28 grams.

- Fines and arrests -

"The production and sale will be legal, but possession will still be subject to the threat of police action, fines and possible arrests," said Sanchez.

"It does not solve one of the main problems in Mexico: the misuse of security and justice resources," she added.

The reform may also end up preventing farmers from marginalized and poor areas from entering the legal business, activists say.

They warn that labeling, production and seed requirements are standard for established companies, but not for traditional producers.

Legalization also risks a backlash from drug cartels who control the lucrative illegal trade.

In 2020, Mexican authorities seized 244 tons of marijuana.

Lopez Obrador sees the legalization of some drugs as a way to improve security in a country plagued by drug-related violence.

More than 300,000 people have been murdered since the government deployed the army to fight the cartels in 2006.

© 2021 AFP

Saudi court upholds prison sentence for women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul

Issued on: 11/03/2021 -

Saudi activist Loujain al-Hathloul is seen on her way to court in the Saudi capital Riyadh on March 2, 2021. 'Today was the first day Loujain appeared in court without being handcuffed or blindfolded,' her family said in a statement © Fayez Nureldine, AFP

Text by: NEWS WIRES

A Saudi court on Tuesday upheld the original sentence of women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul, who had championed women’s right to drive and for an end to Saudi Arabia’s male guardianship system

Hathloul was sentenced in December to nearly six years in prison under broad cybercrime and counterterrorism laws after a lengthy trial that drew widespread international condemnation, but she was released last month having served half of her custodial sentence.

Walking to the courthouse on Wednesday morning before the appeals hearing, Hathloul, 31, told reporters she hoped Riyadh’s Special Criminal Court would amend her sentence – her first public comments since her 2018 arrest. The court, however, ruled that it would stand.

Hathloul was detained in May 2018 and sentenced in December to nearly six years in prison on charges that United Nations rights experts called spurious.

The court suspended two years and 10 months of her sentence, most of which had already been served. Hathloul, whose release is conditional, remains under a five-year travel ban

Hathloul rose to prominence in 2013 when she began publicly campaigning for women’s right to drive in Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy.

Saudi law had previously banned women from driving but it was changed in June 2018, allowing them to do so.

She was arrested for the first time in 2014 while attempting to drive across the border from the United Arab Emirates – where she had a valid driver’s licence – to Saudi Arabia.

She spent 73 days in a women’s detention facility, an experience she later said helped shape her campaigning against the conservative kingdom’s male guardianship system.

In recent years, the kingdom has chipped away at the heavily criticised guardianship system, which assigned each woman a male relative – a father, brother, husband or son – whose approval is needed for various big decisions throughout a woman’s life.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration, which has taken a tough stance over Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, has urged Riyadh to release political prisoners including women’s rights activists.

Washington said earlier this month it was encouraged to see some activists – including Hathloul – had been released. But it urged Saudi Arabia to lift travel bans, commute sentences, and resolve cases including those of the women’s rights activists.

Saudi authorities released two activists with U.S. citizenship on bail in February pending trials on terrorism-related charges.

In January, a Saudi appeals court nearly halved a six-year prison sentence for a U.S.-Saudi physician and suspended the rest, meaning he did not have to return to jail.

(REUTERS)

A blunt US letter aims to revive the Afghan peace process, but jolts women on a special day

“They believe that because women want justice and accountability, they will be an impediment to the peace process and that’s why their voices are being excluded these days.”

Issued on: 09/03/2021

Women attend an event to celebrate International Women's Day

 in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, on March 8, 2021. © Noorullah Shirzada, AFP

Text by: Leela JACINTO

A leaked letter from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Ashraf Ghani instructing the Afghan president to comply with new initiatives to restart the peace process to enable a US troop pullout caught Afghan women’s rights activists by surprise on International Women’s Day and underscored the disconnect between Washington’s words and deeds.

International Women’s Day has been a major event on the official Afghan calendar since the 2001 US invasion toppled the Taliban. Over the past two decades, schoolgirls, teachers, activists, female politicians and professionals have attended numerous events across the country on March 8, marking women’s rights achievements and highlighting the many challenges still confronting Afghan women.

This year, the pandemic forced the annual Women’s Day commemorations online, but Afghan leaders as well as ambassadors of donor countries tweeted greetings, posted statements and bestowed awards in virtual ceremonies.

On official Taliban platforms though, March 8 passed without a mention.

Over the past seven years, the Taliban has engaged in a peace process in Doha, Qatar, which has seen them negotiating in luxury hotels with US and Afghan government delegations that include female negotiators, employing technology and media-savvy strategies that earned them a “Taliban 2.0” moniker, distancing the Islamist movement from its brutal reign in the 1990s.

But on Monday, March 8, while the world marked International Women’s Day, the Taliban decided to commemorate a 2002 engagement with US forces in a remote valley near the Afghan-Pakistan border that neither side won. A statement posted on Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid’s Twitter account had all the old flourishes of “jihadi heroism” but no mention of women, whether they were present or had any opinions about the “historic” battle.

Almost two decades later, Afghan women’s rights activists say their voices are once again being drowned out, this time not by the clamour of war, but in a rush to hammer out a peace that can enable a US troop pullout without adequate security and human rights guarantees for civilians on the ground.

‘We will never compromise our dignity’

Afghanistan, with its “forever war”, is the most vexing foreign policy dossier that US President Joe Biden inherited from his predecessor. Shortly after Biden’s inauguration, the White House announced a review of a February 2020 US-Taliban agreement, which was welcomed by top Afghan officials.

While all parties agree on the need to end one of the modern world’s longest-running conflicts, the timetable of the Trump era agreement, that will see a pullout of US troops in Afghanistan by May 1, is widely viewed as hasty and destabilising.

But barely two months before the May 1 deadline, Afghans this week have been jolted by a letter from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, which was leaked by the Afghan Tolo TV station on Sunday.

Blinken’s bluntly worded letter instructed the Afghan leader to display “the urgent leadership that President Biden and I ask of you in the coming weeks” while making it “clear” that the US is “considering the full withdrawal of our forces by May 1st”.

While US State Department officials have refused to comment on the veracity of the letter, Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of Afghanistan peace council, confirmed to reporters in Kabul that a similar letter was sent to him. The US has asserted that “all options remain on the table” for its 2,500 troops in Afghanistan and stressed that no decisions have been made about its military commitment after May 1.

The letter sparked a flurry of denunciations by top Afghan officials that overshadowed International Women’s Day commemorations and underscored the threats to the country’s democratic and civil society gains over the past two decades.

“They have the right to decide on their 2,500 troops. We also have the right to decide on the fate of our 35 million people," Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh told an event in Kabul. "We will never compromise our dignity. Our dependency on the outside world does not mean we obey illegitimate demands," he added.

The letter refers to new “roadmap for peace” proposals, which were also leaked by Tolo TV, and informed Afghan leaders that Washington will ask the UN to convene a meeting of envoys from Russia, China, India, Iran and the US to “discuss a unified approach to supporting peace in Afghanistan”.

Turkey will also be asked to host of meeting of senior Taliban and Afghan government representatives, noted Blinken.

“These are the first indications of this administration’s policy review on Afghanistan,” explained Michael Kugelman from the Washington, D.C.-based Wilson Center in an interview with FRANCE 24. “It seems this administration is going to make a very ambitious effort to create better conditions on the ground, a more fortuitous environment for a troop pullout, and the US wants progress on the peace process.”

Something old, something new

But the devil lies in the details of the latest bid to jump-start the moribund peace process, and that has raised alarm bells in Afghanistan.

On the one hand, the new initiative seeks greater participation of regional players – including Russia and Iran – while using Turkey as a mediating power between the Taliban and the Afghan government. But on the other hand, it reimposes terms on the two Afghan parties engaged in negotiations that both sides have emphatically rejected in the past.

The proposal calls for an immediate ceasefire, which the Taliban have repeatedly rejected. It also provides details on the establishment of a transitional government of non-elected representatives that Ghani has opposed. The Afghan president insists that “fair, free and inclusive elections” is the only way to form an Afghan government.

“The letter suggests that the Taliban somewhat miraculously agree to something they have vowed not to, and there’s very little stated on how to move things forward to get to a very ambitious end,” said Kugelman.

The reappearance of the old peace process stumbling blocks has dismayed several Afghans.

“Everyone was expecting the policies of this administration to be different from that of the Trump administration because of the flawed [February 2020] agreement between the US and the Taliban. It was done based on the interests of the US to withdraw the troops and not necessarily on bringing peace in Afghanistan," explained Belquis Ahmadi of the Washington, D.C.-based United States Institute of Peace.

"It gave a lot more recognition to the Taliban at the expense of the inclusion of the Afghan government and the vast majority of the Afghan population, including women, who have paid a hefty price in the ongoing war,” said Ahmadi, who is also a board member of Women for Afghan Women, an NGO that runs domestic violence shelters and other programmes across Afghanistan.

The Arg presidential palace’s intransigent inhabitants

The US sidelining of a democratically elected Afghan government in the peace process has enraged many Afghans, including critics of the Ghani administration who argue that for all its flaws, the country’s fledgling democratic structures are the most cherished legacy of the US-led intervention.

The US and the Taliban are the only signatories to the February 2020 agreement, which does not include the Afghan government, an entity that the Taliban views as a “puppet administration” – an opinion the US, by its actions, appears to support, according to Afghans worried about their country’s future.

Last year, the Ghani administration complied with a controversial prisoner release stipulated in the February 2020 agreement, which called on the Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners in exchange for the Taliban’s release of 1,000 Afghan soldiers. France was one of the countries that raised an objection to “the release of individuals sentenced for committing crimes against French nationals, particularly soldiers and humanitarian workers”.

The Biden administration’s race to end “the forever war”, coupled with its pointed directives, sets the stage for another round of acrimonious misgivings between Kabul and Washington, believes Kugelman.

“This, to me, is a signal that US-Afghan relations could find itself on a collision course very soon. This is the first time the new US administration has endorsed the idea of a transitional government, something President Ghani has said he would not agree to ‘as long as I am alive,’” said Kugelman referring to a comment that was widely reported in the Afghan press earlier this year.

The collapse of trust between Washington and successive occupants of Kabul’s Arg presidential palace has been another fallout of the Afghan conflict. Ghani’s predecessor, Hamid Karzai – Afghanistan’s only leader to hand over power in a peaceful transition – ended his term in acrimony as media reports quoted senior US officials questioning the Afghan leader’s mental stability and quipping that the man in the Arg was “off his meds”.

Ghani – an economist and former World Bank official – was initially viewed as a welcome break from Karzai, with US officials hailing his experience in Western academic and multilateral institutions. But the honeymoon period soon ended, with US media reports levelling familiar criticisms of yet another isolated, intransigent Afghan leader surrounded by loyalists.

“Washington has trouble getting along with Afghan presidents,” Kugelman conceded. “It’s the unfortunate story-line of the US role in Afghanistan.”

Afghanistan’s dead courageous women award winners

Another recurring narrative has been the US mismatch between words and deeds on the issue of Afghan women’s rights. In 2001, when the US launched its Afghanistan military operation, then US first lady, Laura Bush, declared the war on terrorism was a “fight for the rights and dignity of women” in Afghanistan.

Two decades later, the fight's sights have tightened, with the US accepting Taliban pledges to cut ties with al Qaeda under the terms of the February 2020 agreement while effectively trusting the Islamist movement to handle threats from the Islamic State (IS) group and other jihadists operating on the terrain.

The discourse of commitment to women’s rights however continues.

In Afghanistan, International Women’s Day this year was overshadowed by Blinken’s letter, with national air waves and social media chatter dominated by politicians denouncing the perceived concessions to the Taliban.

Meanwhile in Washington, D.C., a new US first lady commemorated courageous women on Monday, awarding 21 women with the International Women of Courage Awards.

US First Lady Jill Biden awarded “fearless” women from 15 countries – including Belarus, China, Iran and Myanmar – in a virtual ceremony hosted by the State Department. But Afghanistan’s award winners were all dead. The 2021 International Women of Courage Awards were given posthumously to seven Afghan women who were assassinated in 2020 while serving their communities.

Assassinations and attacks targeting prominent women in politics, education, law enforcement and civil society tripled last year and could increase as the spring fighting season begins. While the IS group has claimed some attacks, most are unclaimed, with the government and the Taliban often blaming each other.

According to Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission, 65 women were killed and 95 wounded in targeted attacks in 2020. The attacks have increased suspicions of a Taliban campaign to hollow out Afghan civil society, particularly of women, before the group gains effective control of the country following a US troop pullout.

“The Taliban deny responsibility, but at the same time they reject calls for a ceasefire. If they were really not involved, the least they could do is declare a ceasefire so people – and women – can see who’s responsible,” said Ahmadi. “Their refusal to negotiate a ceasefire tells a different story.”

Not the right time for justice and accountability

In a 2019 statement released before a Doha meeting between Taliban and Afghan government representatives, the group committed to women’s rights “within the Islamic framework of Islamic values”. But the statement also denounced "so-called women's rights activists" who were encouraging women to break Afghan customs.

Despite their Taliban 2.0 media-friendly strategy, the group has declined to provide details of their vision of Islamic – or Sharia – law, a vague set of jurisprudence subject to different interpretations by various schools of Islam.

“I personally feel Sharia, or Islam, is being used as a tool to advance their political ambitions,” said Ahmadi. “I don’t think even the Taliban themselves know how to answer this because they have been asked publicly and behind closed doors, but they have failed to elaborate.”

Thousands of miles away from Doha’s luxury hotels, the situation on the ground for women in Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan is deteriorating, with local commanders changing unwritten rules that affect women and girls at whim.

Taliban commanders in the northeastern Takhar province, for instance, banned girls from going to school beyond Grade 7 last week, according to Ahmadi. “I don’t know where these decisions on age and grades come from. My interpretation of Sharia is that women have no limits to an education,” she said.

Afghan women’s rights issues that once dominated international headlines now slip past news agendas, said Ahmadi amid fears that the accelerated peace process pace in the coming weeks could push these topics further off the radar.

Speaking to FRANCE 24 shortly after a virtual meeting with 32 female activists from across Afghanistan, Ahmadi said the women reported feeling abandoned by the world, and particularly by the foreign press.

“The general view is that women are opposed to peace, so they are not being heard,” explained Ahmadi. “They believe that because women want justice and accountability, they will be an impediment to the peace process and that’s why their voices are being excluded these days.”

One killed in University student protests in Johannesburg

In tonight's edition: At least one person has died and two students have been injured in clashes between South African university students and police over tuition fees at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Ivory Coast's Prime Minister Hamed Bakayoko, who was seen as a possible successor to President Alassane Ouattara, has died in Freiburg in south-westGermany, two days after his 56th birthday. And South Africa's first black, female helicopter pilot runs a foundation training women in aerospace and aviation.

Desert country Jordan aims for green with

10-million tree campaign

Issued on: 09/03/2021

Credits: Jordanians take part in the planting of eucalyptus and carob saplings near the forest of Kufranjah north of Amman, on February 11, 2021. – On a bare hill in Jordan's verdant Ajloun region, dozens of people plant saplings as part of a reforestation effort that aims to reach 10 million trees in 10 years. (Photo by Khalil MAZRAAWI / AFP

Kufranjah (Jordanie) (AFP)

On a bare hill in Jordan's verdant Ajloun region, dozens of people plant saplings as part of a reforestation effort that aims to reach 10 million trees in 10 years.

"The trees in our region are beautiful," says 11-year-old Mohammed al-Ananza, helping his father Mustafa plant a carob sapling.

"It's a real shame that we have lost so many to fires... We should work together to protect them," he says as they work near the Kufranjah forest north of the capital Amman.

Forests make up only one percent of the desert kingdom's territory, according to the agriculture ministry, though Jordan also has an estimated 23 million orchard trees, half of them olives.

Forest fires strike almost every year in the Middle Eastern country due to high summer temperatures, in a trend scientists expect to intensify with climate change.

The blazes are often started by picnickers' barbeques or carelessly discarded cigarettes.

There were 499 fires in wood and forest areas last year alone, according to the agriculture ministry.

"We must make up for what has been lost in the fires," said Belal Qtishat, head of the nature protection department at the environment ministry.

"It's the only way to fight desertification and climate change and to protect biodiversity."

Eucalyptus and carob saplings are planted near the forest of Kufranjah, north of Jordan's capital Amman, part of a reforestation effort that aims to reach 10 million trees in 10 years Khalil MAZRAAWI AFP Photo

- Region-specific -

Mahmoud al-Ananza watched on as his grandson and son got to work on the hill in Kufranjah.

The family has volunteered but agriculture and environment ministry employees were also among the 150 people in charge of planting 30,000 trees in the area.

"I was born here and I can tell you that if you plant cypress trees, eucalypts, olives, carob or oak, they will grow on their own," the man in his 70s said, wearing a traditional red-and-while keffiyeh scarf.

The programme focuses on species that, after the initial phase of taking root, can survive without a lot of additional water.

Mohamed Daoudia, agriculture minister at the time of the project's launch last month, said fires were the biggest problem for Jordan's wooded areas.

"Illegal tree felling only represents one percent of the damage to forests," he told AFP.

In October, 50 hectares (over 120 acres) of olive and forest trees burnt in the Ajloun region, while a year earlier in Jerash province, 80 hectares went up in flames.

Qtishat, of the environment ministry, said the reforestation project aimed to rehabilitate only "the regions fit for doing so".

"We don't plan to cover the whole kingdom with trees because each part of the country has its own special features," he said.

- Benefits for bees -

The aim of the first stage is to create forests in Karak and Tafila provinces south of the capital, planting in each area 30,000 commonly found trees like eucalyptus, jujube and carob.

The campaign began in Kufranjah, which Qtishat described as "Jordan's lungs".

The kingdom also plans to work on fire prevention by setting up monitoring posts and patrols, providing its civil defence with specialised vehicles and carrying out forest surveillance using drones.

Former minister Daoudia described the reforestation programme as both "ambitious and realistic".

He said results would be seen in the next four to five years, and that the greening campaign would also benefit bees and honey production.

Jordan produces an average of 250 tonnes of honey a year.

"Our nurseries produce 2.5 million forest trees a year and 500,000 fruit trees. So in theory, we could plant 10 million trees in four years," Daoudia said.

"But we decided on 10 years in order to do the job well."