Belarus: Opposition calls for a day of solidarity on anniversary of major arrest

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya's husband was arrested one year ago, now she has called for a global day of solidarity. She also highlighted the plight of detained blogger Raman Pratasevich.

The Belarussian opposition has called for a day of global solidarity with political prisoners detained by the country's authoritarian government

Belarussian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya called for a demonstration of global solidarity with political prisoners in Belarus on Saturday, the one-year anniversary of her husband's arrest.

Tsikhanouskaya made the call from Lithuania where she has been living in exile since the outbreak of the large-scale protest movement against President Alexander Lukashenko following his widely rejected electoral victory last August.

Tsikhanouskaya took center stage in the opposition movement after her husband Sergei Tsikhanousky, who had planned to run against Lukashenko, was arrested last May.

Watch video00:45
'Lukashenko has crossed a line': Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya

What did Tsikhanouskaya say?

Tsikhanouskaya announced the "Global Picket of Solidarity with Belarus" with a video shared on social media.

She asked people to take part in events to raise awareness about the fate of repression of political prisoners in Belarus, specifically naming the anti-government blogger Raman Pratasevich who was detained along with his girlfriend Sofia Sapega almost a week ago after his flight from Greece to Lithuania was forced to land in Minsk.

Tsikhanouskaya said in her video that the arrest of her husband had "sparked the wave of peaceful protests and solidarity chains across the country."

"That is when the harshest repressions in the modern history of Belarus started," she added.

Why is the Belarussian opposition calling for protests?

According to official results, Lukashenko won last August's presidential elections, but these have been broadly condemned as rigged. The US and EU no longer recognize Lukashenko as the country's legitimate leader.

The popular pro-democracy protests against the government were harshly put down, but the arrest of Pratasevich has brought the world's attention back to the eastern European country.

The EU and US have said they will impose sanctions in the wake of the blogger's arrest. The incident has also once again increased tensions between the EU and Russia, who support Lukashenko's presidency.

Belarussian authorities also raided the offices of the country's largest online news portal Tut.by earlier in the month. The site was shut down and investigators opened legal cases against several reporters.

'A North Korea is being built': Belarusians abroad protest repression

Issued on: 29/05/2021

Protesters hold banners and old Belarusian national flags during a demonstration demanding freedom for Belarus opposition activist Raman Protasevich, in front of the U.S. Embassy in Vilnius, Lithuania, Friday, May 28, 2021. AP - Mindaugas Kulbis

Text by: NEWS WIRES

Belarus's exiled opposition leader vowed Saturday to persist fighting the country's authoritarian regime despite intensifying repression that was thrown into high relief a week ago by the diversion of a commercial airliner and the arrest of a dissident journalist who was aboard

“We are here today to express our determination to continue the struggle for freedom. We will not back down,” Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said at a rally of about 150 demonstrators in the capital of Lithuania. Along with Tsikhanouskaya, thousands of Belarusians have fled to Lithuania since authorities escalated a harsh crackdown on dissent last year.

Many other Belarusians have fled to Ukraine. About 100 of them rallied in Kyiv to denounce President Alexander Lukashenko, whose repression of opposition intensified after massive protests arose following an allegedly manipulated August election that gave him a sixth term in office.

“A North Korea is being built step by step” in Belarus, protester Syarhey Bulba said in the Ukrainian capital.

The diversion of the Ryanair flight and the arrest of 26-year-old Raman Pratasevich and his girlfriend last Sunday epitomized Lukashenko's harsh rule. Belarusian authorities said the plane was ordered to land in Minsk, accompanied by a fighter jet, because of a bomb threat received while it was en route from Athens to Vilnius.

Western countries have denounced the move as a hijacking and demanded freedom for Pratasevich. a founder of a messaging app channel that was widely used to coordinate protests against Lukashenko. He faces a potential prison term of 15 years.

The European Union has banned flights from Belarus in response. The long-term impact of that move is not clear, but many fear that it could drive Belarus into closer relations with Russia, which has dismissed criticism of the plane's diversion. Lukashenko met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday and Saturday.

“From our point of view, the situation requires a thoughtful and constructive examination without hasty conclusions," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Saturday. "But this cascade of hasty conclusions, which were made by European capitals and in Brussels, rather suggests that this approach is not based on an attempt to really clarify the circumstances, but is based solely on emotions.”

Many observers warn that tougher EU sanctions would make Lukashenko easy prey for the Kremlin, which may use his isolation to push for closer integration. Some in the West have even alleged Russia was involved in the flight diversion — something Moscow angrily denies — and will seek to exploit the fallout.

The demonstrations on Saturday also marked the one-year anniversary of the arrest of Tsikhanouskaya's husband, Syarhey Tsikhanousky, a popular blogger and activist who had planned to challenge Lukashenko in last year's election but was arrested after a scuffle at a campaign rally that reportedly injured a police office. Tsikhanouskaya ran against Lukashenko in her husband's place.

The protesters in Ukraine beat a portrait of Lukashenko with slippers, an echo of the slogan “Smash the cockroach” popularized by Tsikhanousky,


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Last year's protests in Belarus, some of which attracted as many as 200,000 people, arose after the country's Aug. 9 presidential election, in which officials said Lukashenko, who has run the country since 1994, got 80% of the vote. Protests alleging the election results were manipulated immediately broke out, and Tsikhanouskaya fled to Lithuania.

The protests continued for months, a significant challenge to Lukashenko. Police cracked down harshly on the protests, arresting more than 30,000 people and beating many of them.

Although the protests died down over the winter, authorities have continued wide-ranging repression of opposition. The Vyasna human rights organization in Belarus said a bicyclist who was arrested at a race that officials deemed an unauthorized gathering has been charged with insulting the president for wearing a T-shirt denouncing dictatorship. The charge carries a possible 2-year prison term.

In the Belarusian capital, Minsk, several dozen people made a small show of defiance Saturday by marching down a main street carrying opposition banners.

(AP)

Parents of Belarus dissident journalist join Warsaw rally
Issued on: 29/05/2021 -

Natalia and Dmitry Protasevich, parents of the Belarusian journalist held in Minsk, joined protesters in Warsaw Wojtek RADWANSKI AFP

Warsaw (AFP)

Hundreds of people in Warsaw on Saturday rallied in support of the Belarusian opposition, days after the regime in Minsk diverted a European passenger plane and arrested a dissident journalist onboard.

Among those at the rally were the Poland-based parents of the detained journalist, 26-year-old Roman Protasevich.

"I'm calling on all EU countries and the US to please help us free Roman and (his girlfriend) Sofia, as well as everyone else imprisoned," his mother Natalia Protasevich said at the rally.

"We want to live in a free country, in a country where everyone has the right to express his beliefs," his father Dmitry added.

The crowd chanted "Long live Belarus" and held up the opposition's red and white flag as well as signs with slogans such as "Help Belarus," "Freedom for Belarus" and "North Korea in the Middle of Europe".

Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega, 23, were arrested on Sunday after Belarus scrambled a military jet to divert the Ryanair plane they were travelling on.

Protasevich's parents said their son looked like he had been beaten in a video later released by Belarusian authorities.

The forced landing triggered a global outcry. The EU has banned Belarusian airlines, urged EU airlines not to cross Belarusian airspace and threatened tough economic sanctions on President Alexander Lukashenko's Kremlin-backed regime.

"Things look really bad now. That's why we need to do something, show those fighting back home that they're not alone," said Natallia Burak, a 35-year-old Belarusian living in Warsaw.

"I have a lot of hope now that Europe will help us, because it's hard to fight against a regime that has everything, that has power, whereas here we are just armed with flags," the saleswoman told AFP.

"As a Belarusian, we see a lot of wild and outrageous things. You know, that same week there was a person killed in prison," said another Warsaw rally attendee, 38-year-old software engineer Alexey.

On Wednesday, Lukashenko said he had "acted lawfully to protect our people" from an alleged bomb threat on the plane.

Often dubbed "Europe's last dictator", Lukashenko has retained his nearly three-decade-long grip on power by hounding opponents, jailing and allegedly torturing dissidents, and muzzling independent media.

He and his allies are already under a series of Western sanctions over a crackdown on protests after his disputed re-election to a sixth term last August.

His opponents say the polls were rigged and that political novice Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who ran in place of her jailed husband, was the true winner.

She was due to attend a rally in solidarity with Belarus in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on Saturday.

© 2021 AF

Doctors urge global action against climate-linked health risks


Issued on: 29/05/2021 - 

Doctors for Extinction Rebellion protesters march on the World Health Organization's headquarters in Geneva Fabrice COFFRINI AFP

Geneva (AFP)

Hundreds of health workers marched to the World Health Organization on Saturday demanding that authorities in all countries recognise and act to counter the health risks of climate change.

Around two hundred people wearing white medical coats and facemasks marched or were pushed in wheelchairs two kilometres (1.2 miles) through Geneva's international district to the WHO headquarters.

Some carried giant banners urging action, including a towering thermometer showing the red temperature scale rising towards a burning planet.

Once at the WHO building, representatives of the Doctors for Extinction Rebellion (Doctors4XR) climate activist network handed over a petition to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Signed by more than 1,100 health professionals from around the world, the text slammed the "inertia, inaction and the abyssal distance between speeches and actions".

It demanded that health authorities in every country, who are currently taking part virtually in the main annual meeting of WHO member states, "publicly state that climate change is putting people at risk of death, and act now to preserve life."

"Year after year, declaration after declaration, multilateral institutions -- including WHO -- have warned us: climate change and the loss of biodiversity endanger human health worldwide," the petition said.

Health workers worldwide are already "confronted every day with the consequences of environmental deterioration on our patients and communities," they said.#photo1

"The list of ailments they suffer from is getting longer every day.

"We are seeing more and more respiratory and cardiovascular diseases due to polluted air, loss of working days and deaths due to heat waves, over- and undernutrition due to lack of quality food, and diarrhoea and intoxications due to polluted drinking water.

- 'No vaccine for climate change' -

To make the point, the petition came in an envelope decorated with a drawing of a healthy human at 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit), then "sick" if two degrees were added, in "mortal danger" at +4C and at +5C, "too late", followed by the words: "Same with the planet."

"Despite accumulating evidence, repeated warnings... despite more frequent and more serious natural disasters, including the Covid-19 pandemic," the petition said, "the concrete actions implemented by our governments are not nearly enough."

Tedros hailed the activists, vowing to read their letter to the member states.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has once again highlighted the intimate relationship between the health of people and planet," he said, stressing that it showed "what happens when we are under prepared and fail to cooperate with each other."

In that sense, "the risks posed by climate change could dwarf that of any single disease," he warned.

"The pandemic will end, but there is no vaccine for climate change."

Richard Horton, the chief editor of the Lancet medical journal and one of the signatories, agreed.

"The climate crisis is not merely a threat to health," he said by video link.

"It is a threat to life itself."

Colombia anti-govt protest clashes kill at least 10 in Cali

Rescue workers in the city of Cali on May 28 carry a corpse on a stretcher as protests against the Colombian government entered a second month LUIS ROBAYO AFP

At least 10 people in the city of Cali were killed in a day of anti-government protests, authorities said Saturday, as Colombia enters its second month of demonstrations that have met violent repression.

President Ivan Duque announced Friday he was deploying military troops to Cali while the nation marked a full month of Colombia-wide rallies that have morphed into a broad anti-establishment mobilization.

"Ten people" are dead, "this is the toll we have this morning" in events linked to Friday's demonstrations, Cali's security secretary Carlos Rojas told Caracol radio. Police said eight of the 10 were shot dead.

He spoke after reports of violent street clashes. In one case, a representative from the Cali prosecutor's office said an off-duty investigator had shot at a crowd, killing a civilian, before being lynched by protesters.

Video footage showed a man lying in a pool of blood and another nearby wielding a gun; that man was then attacked by a group of people.

- 'Almost an urban war' -

"In the south of the city we had a real scene of confrontation and almost an urban war where many people not only lost their lives, but we also had a significant number of injuries," said Rojas.#photo1

After chairing a security meeting in the city, Duque announced Friday "the maximum deployment of military assistance to the national police" would begin immediately.

The official nationwide toll up to Friday in the month of violence was 49 dead, with many more wounded or missing.

Human Rights Watch, which has been reporting a higher toll, says it has counted 63 deaths to date. It called the situation in Cali, a city of 2.2 million, "very serious."

Jose Miguel Vivanco, the rights group's executive director for the Americas, urged Duque to take "urgent measures to de-escalate, including a specific order prohibiting agents of the state from using firearms."

- Poverty, disease, resentment -

Government mediation attempts have been largely futile, unable to contain the fury of increasingly politicized youth battered by the pandemic, angry over the country's deep inequalities, and feeling their voices have not been heard.#photo2

Economists say more than 42 percent of the country's 50 million people live in poverty, with the pandemic plunging many of the most vulnerable into penury.

A third of Colombians aged 14 to 28 are jobless and not in school, according to Hernando Gomez Buendia, author of the book "Between Independence and the Pandemic," and that has led to growing resentment and defiance.

Analysts link the government's militarized history to its response to the protests.

For more than 50 years, Colombia's war against leftist FARC guerrillas eclipsed all other government priorities, with the state emerging from the conflict militarily strong but weak on social redress.

In 2019, the year after Duque took power, students took to the streets demanding free and more accessible public education, better jobs and a supportive government.

On April 28, fury at a proposed tax increase on the middle classes led people onto the streets again.

Though the proposal was quickly withdrawn, it had triggered a broad anti-government mobilization by people who felt they were left to fend for themselves in the health crisis, and who were further angered by the heavy-handed response of the security forces.

Mostly peaceful protests by day have often turned into riots at night and running battles with the armed forces.

Protesters have kept barricades burning countrywide and blocked dozens of key roads, causing shortages of many products.

Meanwhile, Colombia continues to battle record levels of coronavirus infections.

There have been more than 3.3 million confirmed cases, and over 87,200 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally. That has left many Colombian hospitals near collapse.

Colombia deploys military in Cali after protests leave several dead

New deaths were reported in Colombia as nationwide unrest entered its second month. President Ivan Duque is deploying more than 7,000 personnel to the city of Cali, the hub of the protest movement.


Anti-government protests have been evident across Colombia as the country marked one month since the unrest began


Colombian President Ivan Duque vowed to deploy the "maximum" number of military personnel in the western province of Valle del Cauca after several people died in protests in the region on Friday.

The deaths occurred in and around the city of Cali as tens of thousands demonstrated across the country in the latest round of protests that first emerged on April 28. At least 49 people are now thought to have died during the weeks of unrest.


An anti-government protester throws a bag of paint at a police vehicle during clashes on the outskirts of Bogota

Talks to ease unrest break down

The unrest was sparked over tax reform but the protests have since expanded to include wide-ranging demands.

Talks between the Colombian government and the protest leaders, including union leaders who have formed a national strike committee, have stalled. Protest leaders have also been heavily critical of the violent crackdown on civilians.

"From tonight begins the maximum deployment of military assistance to the national police in Cali and the province of Valle," Duque said in a televised message.

He said that more than 7,000 personnel, including members of the navy, would be sent to alleviate road blockades.

Cali goes into curfew

Valle del Cauca Governor Clara Luz Roldan earlier declared a curfew, which would start in the province from 7:00 p.m.

Several deaths were reported in the city of Cali on Friday, although their exact number was not immediately clear. The western city is a flash point in the protests, and serves as a center of the protest movement.

Mayor Jorge Ivan Ospina urged "not give in to the temptation of violence and death."

At least three deaths occurred in clashes between "those blocking and those trying to get through" a barricade, Ospina added.

Local media reported at least one more death on the road between Cali and the town of Candelaria.

Rights groups urge de-escalation

The United Nations human rights office in Colombia on Saturday said it was "extremely concerned" about the current situation in the country.

It said it had reports of several dead and injured as well as one person missing in relation to the unrest and called for dialogue.

Human Rights Watch, which puts the death toll higher than the official one, at 63, said the situation in the city of 2.2 million was "very serious."

Jose Miguel Vivanco, the rights group's Americas executive director, urged Duque to take "urgent measures to de-escalate, including a specific order prohibiting agents of the state from using firearms."

"Colombia can't mourn any more deaths," he said in a tweet.

Second volcano erupts near DR Congo's battered Goma city

Issued on: 29/05/2021 -

Virunga National Park rangers guard the high voltage power line construction site on the solidified lava flow of the Nyiragongo volcano ALEXIS HUGUET AFP/File

Goma (DR Congo) (AFP)

A second volcano erupted Saturday near the eastern DR Congo city of Goma, a week after Mount Nyiragongo roared back into life, causing devastation and sparking an exodus.

"Today the Murara volcano near an uninhabited area of Virunga erupted," government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said, referring to a wildlife reserve that is home to a quarter of the world's population of critically endangered mountain gorillas.

Murara is a small volcano considered a crater of Nyamuragira, which along with Nyiragongo is known for strong volcanic activity.

It is located about 25 kilometres north of Goma, the capital of the North Kivu province.

Located on the shore of Lake Kivu in the shadow of Nyiragongo, Africa's most active volcano, the city has lived in fear since it erupted last Saturday.

The strato-volcano spewed rivers of lava that claimed nearly three dozen lives and destroyed the homes of some 20,000 people before the eruption stopped.

Tens of thousands had fled Goma last Saturday night but many returned when the eruption ended the following day.

Scientists have since recorded hundreds of aftershocks.

They warn of a potentially catastrophic scenario -- a "limnic eruption" that could smother the area with suffocating carbon dioxide.

Goma was quiet on Saturday with limited tremors roughly averaging once every hour, as against once every 10 minutes earlier, an AFP journalist said.

There were a handful of vehicles on the streets which were semi-deserted and only some small shops were open.

A report on an emergency meeting early Friday said 80,000 households -- around 400,000 inhabitants -- had emptied on Thursday following a "preventative" evacuation order.

- 'Urgent, global support -

Most people have headed for Sake, around 25 kilometres (15 miles) west of Goma where tens of thousands of people are gathered, or the Rwandan border in the northeast, while others have fled by boat across Lake Kivu.

Late Friday, Rwandan President Paul Kagame said those fleeing needed "urgent, global support".

Aid efforts are being organised to provide drinking water, food and other supplies, and workers are helping to reunite children who became separated from their families.

Aid efforts are being organised to provide drinking water, food and other supplies, and workers are helping to reunite children who became separated from their families.

Nearly 10,000 people are taking refuge in Bukavu on the southern bank of Lake Kivu, according to governor Theo Ngwabidje, many of them in host families.

Nearly 3,500 metres (11,500 feet) high, Nyiragongo straddles the East African Rift tectonic divide.

Its last major eruption, in 2002, claimed around 100 lives and the deadliest eruption on record killed more than 600 people in 1977.

A report on Friday issued after experts carried out a risk assessment at the volcano's summit, said "seismicity and ground deformation continues to indicate the presence of magma under the Goma area, with an extension under Lake Kivu".

People should remain vigilant and listen to news bulletins, as the situation "may change quickly", it warned.

Volcanologists say the worst-case scenario is of an eruption under the lake.

This could release hundreds of thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) that are currently dissolved in the water's depths.

The gas would rise to the surface of the lake, forming an invisible cloud that would linger at ground level and displace oxygen, asphyxiating life.

In 1986, one of these so-called limnic eruptions killed more than 1,700 people and thousands of cattle at Lake Nyos in western Cameroon.

 

Sri Lanka faces 'worst-ever beach pollution' from burning ship

Millions of plastic pellets from a container ship ablaze off Colombo have already washed up on beaches, along with other hazardous waste. The disaster threatens the lucrative fishing and tourism sectors.

    

The navy has been roped in to help remove debris washed ashore from the burning container ship

Sri Lanka is facing probably "the worst beach pollution in our history," as a burning container ship continues to spill plastic debris into the sea off the capital, Colombo, a senior environmental official warned Saturday.

Dharshani Lahandapura, head of the country's Marine Environment and Protection Authority (MEPA), said the microplastic pollution could cause years of ecological damage to the Indian Ocean island.

She made the comments as tons of hazardous waste continued to wash up on the shore from the Singapore-registered MV X-Press Pearl, which caught fire 10 days ago while waiting to enter Colombo harbor.

How much plastic and waste has spilled so far?

More than 30 containers, most of them containing chemicals, have already fallen overboard into the sea, and the contents have been washed ashore, spanning over 20 nautical miles (37 kilometers).

Thousands of navy personnel, using mechanical diggers, have already scooped tonnes of tiny plastic waste off the beaches.

Authorities are concerned that millions more of the pellets will wash ashore and threaten fish-breeding shallow waters.

Chemical granules used to manufacture plastic washed ashore on the beaches of Wattala to Negombo, in the suburbs of Colombo

The affected seafront is known for its crabs and jumbo prawns as well as its tourist beaches.

Fishermen have been banned from an 80-kilometer (50-mile) stretch of coast around the vessel.

The Central Environmental Authority (CEA) said the affected region should be declared "hazardous areas" and the public should be ordered to stay away.    

The impact on mangroves, lagoons and marine wildlife in the region was being assessed by environmental experts.

The X-Press Pearl caught fire as it waited to enter Colombo harbor and remains anchored just outside the port. The 25-member crew was evacuated.

The vessel was en route from the Indian port of Hazira to Singapore, with 1,486 containers, most of them carrying chemicals.

Oil spill fears mount

Though the fire was brought under control on Friday, firefighters are now focusing on keeping the engine room cool to prevent an oil spill, Lahandapura said earlier.

Much of the ship's cargo, including 25 tons of nitric acid, sodium hydroxide, lubricants and other chemicals, appeared to have been destroyed in the fire, officials said.

The MV X-Press Pearl has been burning for 10 days off Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo

Authorities believe the fire was caused by a nitric acid leak that the crew had been aware of since May 11.

MEPA has lodged a complaint with police against the captain of the ship, claiming that authorities were not informed of the blaze in time.

This is the second major environmental disaster to hit Sri Lanka in less than a year.

A crew member of the New Diamond was killed when the oil tanker caught fire last September.

The blaze took more than a week to put out and left a 40-kilometer (25-mile) long oil spill.

The government in Colombo has demanded the owners pay $17 million (€13.9 million) for any subsequent clean-up.

mm/csb (AFP, dpa)

Opinion: I'm afraid of being outspoken about Russia's oil industry

A year after the huge Norilsk oil spill, there's just been another leak — one of many. The country's oil giants fear transparency. But transparency has the power to fix the leaking pipes, says Tatiana Kondratenko.

Environmental groups and journalists could help to monitor the country's huge oil industry

"Oil comes from the tap here" — that’s a phrase from my childhood in the heart of Russia’s oil region in the Komi Republic, along with memories of -40 degrees Celsius (-40 degrees Fahrenheit) in winter, the constant tapping sound of oil derricks and clouds of mosquitoes in summer.

Oil here actually doesn't exactly come from the tap — but very often it simply leaks from the pipes.

Marking Norilsk oil spill with another leak

And it's just happened again, another oil spill, almost right in time to mark the anniversary of last year's Norilsk catastrophe that contaminated the Russian Arctic with over 20,000 tons of diesel.




DW's Tatiana Kondratenko

On May 11, I got news from my hometown of Usinsk that there was oil flowing along the Kolva river where locals like to go fishing. The town's mayor declared an emergency after 90 tons of oil had leaked. Around nine tons of fuel had already reached the river before the clean-up began.

The accident originated from a Lukoil pipeline — one of the country’s oil giants and one of the biggest players in Komi.

Lukoil claims the clean-up is now almost finished. But locals who take their boats along the river share videos and photos on social media that paint a different picture: The slick is still moving further towards the Barents Sea.

Oil leaks have long been a routine for my region. The only time my sleepy town made headlines across the world was in 1994 due to the biggest oil spill on land, with a mention in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Oil spills happen frequently here, about every three to six months, but news about them usually only circulates in local groups in social networks or are covered by small independent media in the region. To soon be forgotten.

I couldn't find numbers on how many oil spills happen in Komi every year. Across Russia, over 17,000 oil leaks were recorded in 2019, mostly from pipelines, according to the Russian Ministry of Energy.

This data is based on what companies report. The full picture remains unknown. Also because it can be tricky and dangerous for outsiders to find out what's really going on.

Hands off Russia's holy cow

When I think of Russia's oil industry, Lev Tolstoy's Anna Karenina comes to mind. "All was confusion in the Oblonskys' house". Meaning: it’s very complicated.

For Russia's economy, the industry is very important — and it’s a holy cow. Many oil giants have ties with the government and are close to being untouchable.

Meanwhile, ordinary Russians working in oil production see it as a rare sector that still provides relatively good salaries and stability. The flashy images of rich Russian oil oligarchs skiing in Courchevel and hiring private jets — many of whom got their chunk of the oil cake in the 1990s when the USSR collapsed — are indicative of what was possible in Russia. Even getting your own oil derrick.

Today, an ordinary oil worker in Komi lives and works in harsh climate conditions for a monthly pay of around 200,000 rubles (€2,230; $2,720). Their colleagues in Canada or Norway probably just laugh at that.

Omnipresent fear among oil workers

Since they are lucky enough to get into the industry (often thanks to nepotism), oil workers stick to their jobs and don't risk speaking up, even though they have to deal with the problems of the corroding infrastructure on a daily basis. All my talks with local oil workers in Russia's north have always been done anonymously. Fear is omnipresent.

And when I see how reporting on Russian oil companies can backfire on journalists in the form of lawsuits and huge fines of up to 43 billion rubles (€479 million; $610 million) in one case, I'm also afraid of getting too close.

This fear creates self-censorship: I think of my relatives and potential consequences that might follow.

So, fear and lack of transparency accompany the industry. But, in many ways, it also plays against it.

Russia's oil infrastructure is massive: The network of pipelines could circle more than once around the Earth. Yet having been built in the Soviet era, it has approached its expiration date. Pipelines need costly replacements and new technologies to monitor their performance and condition.

Transparency and publicly available information on spills and accidents isn't a threat for the industry. Instead, I see it as an underestimated opportunity with the potential to upgrade Russia's oil industry and prevent environmental disasters.

Citizens, environmental groups and journalists could help to monitor a huge system that's hard to keep track of in this remote territory.

Since the country aims to stay on the fossil fuel path for now, it might even be the last resort to save the broken image of the industry — and to finally clean up the mess in the Oblonskys' house.

Russia’s many and varied environmental issues


VIDEO

 https://tvdownloaddw-a.akamaihd.net/dwtv_video/flv/repoe/repoe20210529_gesamtHD_sd_avc.mp4

When the air stinks, drinking water is brown, and snow is black — something isn't right. People from three different regions of Russia explain the struggles they face due to pollution.Russia is facing a number of environmental issues. The air around one of its biggest landfills is thick, causing problems for residents in the area. Over in Kiselyovsk in Siberia, people are having to walk through snow so polluted by coal from a mine that it has turned black. And in the city of Krasnodar in the south, tap water often comes out brown. Who would want to live in such conditions? These three examples from different areas in Russia are all extreme in their own right, yet together they paint a picture of a country marked by pollution.

Amnesty International: The good, the bad and the ugly?

For the past 60 years, Amnesty International has put its finger in the wound of human rights abuses in all shapes and forms around the world. But it's also faced widespread criticism for some of its more opaque actions


60 YEARS OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Amnesty for forgotten prisoners
In 1961, Portugal's dictator imprisoned two students for raising a toast to freedom. Affected by the news, lawyer Peter Benenson wrote an article that made a global impact. He called for supporting people who are persecuted for no other reason than their convictions. It led to the creation of Amnesty International, a global network that campaigns against human rights violations. PHOTOS 1234567


"It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."

Little did Peter Benenson know at the time that an article he wrote in 1961 would come to shape Amnesty International's code, encapsulated in the words above.

On May 28, 1961, the London Observer published an article entitled "The Forgotten Prisoners," penned by the British lawyer. Perusing the morning papers, he had come across an article about two Portuguese students who were jailed after raising their glasses in a toast to freedom in a restaurant. At the time, Portugal was ruled by the dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar.

Outraged by their detention, Benenson in his piece called for their release and urged readers to write letters to the Portuguese government. But Benenson didn't stop there. His article also listed other human rights violations around the world. He used the term "prisoners of conscience" to highlight the plight of "any person who is physically restrained (by imprisonment or otherwise) from expressing … any opinion which he honestly holds and does not advocate or condone personal violence."

His campaign, Appeal for Amnesty 1961, was effectively the precursor to what would become Amnesty International.

The organization's initial focus of work — forgotten prisoners — gradually expanded as part of its development "from mandate — to mission." In the 1970s, it focused on the treatment of prisoners in several Latin American dictatorships, launching campaigns against torture and the death penalty.

For its work against torture, Amnesty was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977.

A campaign by Peter Benenson to highlight the plight of forgotten prisoners led to the creation of Amnesty International

New issues emerged in the 1980s, including extrajudicial killings, political killings and forced disappearances. Toward the end of the decade, it turned its attention to the growing number of refugees around the world.

Shift in focus

In the 1990s, Amnesty International honed in on armed conflicts, uncovering atrocities in East Timor, Rwanda, and the former Yugoslavia. As of the 2000s, there was a shift in its focus towards naming and shaming economic and social injustices that stemmed from the growing effects of globalization.

The impact of its work in its first 30 years was very different to that it has and could have today, says Dr. Anja Mihr, program director of the HUMBOLDT-VIADRINA Center on Governance through Human Rights, and a former board member and chairman of Amnesty International Germany.

"Amnesty International, in the early years, developed the mechanisms of raising awareness, calling on governments and the public through letter-writing campaigns. And therefore, during these first 30, 40, maybe even 50 years of its work, it didn't matter so much whether Amnesty International, with its actions, would actually cause a direct response from governments."

Of course, the world has changed dramatically since those times, not least due to globalization and the era of information technology.

"I'm not always sure whether the strength of Amnesty of doing good research, having evidence, is still needed to the same extent today where we have many other entities [such as NGOs and researchers] ... We have other means of finding out what is happening on the ground. We don't need an NGO anymore to tell us what is happening in Myanmar or what is happening in China or elsewhere," says Mihr.

Amnesty International's approach on highlighting human rights abuses will need to adapt to meet future challenges

Not all that glitters is gold

It hasn't all been smooth sailing for Amnesty over the last 60 years. It claims that it doesn't pursue political ideology or "support or oppose any government or system." However, its detractors say that is precisely what it is doing. There have been allegations of one-sided reporting, or a failure to treat threats to security as a mitigating factor.

Part of the problem is that the organization is stuck in the past, says Stephen Hopgood, professor of international relations at SOAS University of London, who specializes in the international politics of humanitarianism and human rights and is author of the book "Keepers of the Flame: Understanding Amnesty International."

"Amnesty is a Cold War-era organization, and the way it was set up and the way in which it functioned, it's a miracle it survived for 60 years in many ways. And it doesn't necessarily represent a failing on Amnesty's part, more a sort of inevitable complexity in a world that's a lot different than the world of the 1960s and the 1970s."

Some of the strongest criticism pertains to its alleged foreign policy bias against either non-Western countries or Western-supported countries. However, Hopgood says that kind of assessment needs to be put into the perspective of the time.

"It was one of the few international organizations campaigning on the principle of freedom of expression. And it tried to do that in the most neutral, fairest way it could by picking prisoners of conscience from the West, from the East and from the developing world ... It was in many respects a very simple time when Amnesty could see who the enemy was, and the enemy was authoritarian governments everywhere."

The policy of neutrality and taking up a position that doesn't take sides has become increasingly difficult to maintain due to today's complex challenges.

"Take the recent war between Hamas and Israel: If you come up with what you think is a neutral position, one response is to say it's terrible when innocent civilians are injured anyway. But those people who are either strongly pro-Israel or strongly pro-Palestinian see this as siding with the enemy, if you're not with us, you're against us effectively. How can the stakes be equal when Israel is so much more powerfully armed and so much more in control?," says Hopgood.

Watch video06:24
Is a lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict possible?

A new era of priorities

In essence, there's been a shift from an era when human rights were viewed as neutral in conflict and war situations — or the way certain governments treated their citizens. And to some degree that is no longer applicable in today's world, say experts.

"That world has been overtaken by popular mobilization around a whole range of deeply problematic and complex issues, such as sex work or abortion ... Both sides will often claim human rights as part of their ideological or ethical position," says Hopgood.

Beyond that, a report published in 2019 found that Amnesty International has a "toxic" working environment, with incidences of bullying, public humiliation, and discrimination. Such problems are often inherent in complex and bureaucratic organizations that bring together people with different perspectives and ethics.

In his book, Hopgood describes how personal sacrifices for a good cause can take their toll, especially without a supportive working environment.

"People would spend two months interviewing prisoners in horrendous prison conditions who have been tortured, and then come back. And nobody in the central organization would want to hear that. You have to keep two months worth of torture inside, write it up and put it out. And you have to live with knowing that for every torture victim you do something positive for, there are tens of thousands of others. And if after all of this, you have a drink at the hotel bar next to the prison where there are people being tortured, that takes a terrible toll on people.

"I think Amnesty is a good example of that kind of deeply ethical but deeply problematic culture."

It is yet to be seen how Amnesty will fare over the next 60 years. Amnesty's role will be shaped by the political landscape in which it finds itself.

"How can we have the biggest and strongest impact? Is it still by raising awareness? Is it still by calling on governments predominantly? Are those who are responsible for human rights violations and those who can change the situation on the ground in favor of human rights still the same actors as 20 or 40 years ago? I would say no. I think the scenery has changed. And so Amnesty's methods have to adapt to the current situation," says Mihr

Amnesty International: The good, the bad and the ugly? | World| Breaking news and perspectives from around the globe | DW | 28.05.2021

OPINION
Don’t give up on us: Afghan girls and women in grave danger when US/NATO troops leave

Trudy Rubin@trudyrubin

Rubin is a foreign affairs columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer


Photo has been used for illustrative purposes. 

"Don’t abandon us!” That’s the message I’m getting from brave, educated Afghan women — as the Pentagon advances the date for the final troop withdrawal from Afghanistan to mid-July.

There is a last minute Pentagon scramble to plans for evacuating 18,000 translators who worked with the US military, but it’s still unclear whether this will happen.

But little thought seems to have been given to the fate of thousands of Afghan women who have been educated and taken up jobs in the past two decades since the Taliban was defeated — or to the fate of millions of girl students. Over one third of Afghanistan’s nine million school children are now female, but those numbers are shrinking as the Taliban shuts down girls’ education in rural areas. Meantime, hardline militants attack and bomb girls’ schools.

A conversation with two brilliant Afghan female university students reminds one of how hard so many Afghan girls have struggled for an education. These gains, about which US officials brag, could disappear overnight if the Taliban takes power.

The students are deeply worried, but have ideas about how Americans can still help.

“Don’t give up on us,” urges Yasameen Mohammadi, a graduate of Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa., who is starting a master’s degree at University of Pennsylvania.

She was born a refugee after her parents fled Taliban rule in the 1990s. When her family returned to Afghanistan in 2005, her father chose the poor Dasht e Barchi neighbourhood of Kabul, because he wanted to send Mohammadi to the unique Marefat School. The school was founded by another returned refugee, the visionary Aziz Royesh, who sought to give equal educational opportunities to girls.

“My dad would always say ‘I’m ready to sell my eye for your education,’” Mohammadi recalls. “Marefat really gave me motivation, and our teachers were hopeful for the future. I grew up at a time when girls were treated like human beings.”

I visited the Marefat school in 2010 and was deeply moved by the steely determination and optimism of female high school students. (Most are from the Shiite Hazara minority whom the Taliban persecutes as infidels.) Their open confidence was a far cry from my 1999 visit to Kabul under the Taliban when girls’ education was banned and girls snuck into secret schools.

Mohammadi was helped by the New-Jersey based Afghan Girls Financial Assistance Fund (AGFAF) to attend high school and college in America, and now wants to create educational projects for people in war zones. With AGFAF’s help and fundraising, she built the first library for the blind at the Kabul School for the Blind.

“Part of me is very scared and worried about a Taliban takeover,” she says, “but looking at friends and cousins at home and seeing how far they have come … I can’t wrap my head around it, how the Taliban are so savage and closed-minded. People who fought for an education, I don’t know how they can fight back.”

Qamarnisa Ayoub is also struggling to imagine Afghanistan’s future. She hopes to return to Kabul as a doctor. (“My dad wanted me to be Minister of Health,” she recalls.) With AFGAF’s help she attended Wagner College in New York City and is now a student researcher at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

But her high school, the Sayed Ul-Shuhada school, was bombed this month, targeting girls who were leaving classes and killing around 90 students. “The school was badly damaged,” she says, and students are still dying. It’s harder for them to convince parents to let them attend.”

The school will never run out of students, Ayoub says, because so many parents still want to educate their daughters. (When she attended, the girls attended classes in tents and only received their own building three years ago.)

“But many teachers are fearful of returning. Ayoub is working with AGFAF to raise money to help purchase 16-20 security cameras and hire 5-7 private guards, along with rebuilding classrooms.”

Mercifully, the Andeshagah library she built at the school in summer 2017 under AGFAF’s supervision, which was used for adult literacy, computer classes, and a learning centre, was not wrecked.

The contrast between girls’ gains over the past two decades and what may lie ahead is staggering. Her two nieces still bike to school and play soccer, which she wasn’t permitted to do when she was in high school. “There is going to be a dramatic change if the Taliban come back,” she says, “and all these opportunities will go away.”

Pakistan: Taliban donations, recruitment on the rise

As NATO forces begin their withdrawal from Afghanistan, some clerics and Islamist groups sympathetic to the Afghan Taliban are accused of intensifying efforts to solicit support for the militant group.



Clashes erupted earlier in May between Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters in the Busharan area in Helmand province, Afghanistan

Concerns have been growing in Pakistan over intensified clashes in Afghanistan, with some politicians and civil society organizations fearing that they could prompt local militants to join the Afghan Taliban.

On Sunday, Afghan forces confronted Taliban fighters near Mihtarlam, a city of around 140,000 people and the capital of Laghman province.

Clashes have escalated in Afghanistan since US and NATO forces began their withdrawal of troops on May 1, with insurgents attempting to capture new territory. Foreign forces are set to pull out by September 11.

Analysts warn that Afghanistan is at risk of surging violence similar to that of the 1990s when the Taliban rose to power and thousands of Pakistanis joined the Afghan Taliban to fight the Northern Alliance.

Recently, videos have emerged on Pakistani social media platforms showing clerics soliciting support for the Afghan Taliban and calling for donations.

The Afghan Taliban is banned in Pakistan, but some clerics or Islamist groups sympathetic to the militant group have been known to recruit on their behalf.
'Openly collecting donations' in Balochistan

A former senator and leader of the nationalist Pukhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party in the western Pakistani province of Balochistan, who did not want to be named, claims the Taliban is already carrying out recruitment to fight the Afghan government.

"Come to Balochistan, and I will show the villages and areas where clerics are openly attending the funerals of those Pakistanis killed in Afghanistan while fighting for the Taliban," he told DW, adding that recruitment will pick up pace once foreign troops have completely departed from the war-torn country.

Watch video04:19
Afghanistan: Taliban's return to power 'likely'

Muhammed Sarfraz Khan, the former director of the Area Study Center of Peshawar University, told DW that clerics from North and South Waziristan to Kurrum and Khyber in Pakistan are "luring" people into joining the Taliban as state authorities turn a blind eye.

They are openly collecting donations, he said, adding that the withdrawal of foreign troops will have a severe impact on the northwestern and western provinces of Pakistan, the regions which are home to tens of thousands of Afghan Taliban supporters, according to the expert.

'Government is watchful'

Political analyst Rahimullah Yusufzai, meanwhile, said Pakistanis are unlikely to join Afghan Taliban forces, at least not in large numbers as they did during the Soviet War in Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989.

"The situation is much different now because the government is watchful. It will not allow people to cross over into Afghanistan and fight for the Taliban," Yusufzai told DW.

"However, in remote areas close to the Afghan border, people might still go to fight and collect donations," he said, adding that some Afghan students studying in Pakistani seminaries might support the Taliban and head to Afghanistan.

"They can see the victory of the Taliban and the situation is in their favor," he said.

Peshawar-based analyst Samina Afridi also believes that support for the Afghan Taliban in Pakistan's so-called tribal belt has dwindled.

"There are pockets of support for the Afghan Taliban in North and South Waziristan, but most of the people in other parts of the KP (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) want schools, hospitals, roads and infrastructure, not any militancy, be it from the Afghan Taliban or any other group," she told DW.

Afridi said clerics sympathetic to the Afghan Taliban might begin recruitment or collect donations but that such actions would be "vehemently" resisted by anti-war grassroots organizations like the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement.

Pakistanis accused of Taliban support

Islamabad, Pakistani religious organizations and several Pakistani Taliban have also been accused of throwing support behind the Afghan Taliban

Watch video02:31
Afghanistan: Troop departures endanger those left behind

During the 1990s, Pakistan was among the three countries that recognized the Taliban-governed Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

In recent years, critics called Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan "Taliban Khan" for suggesting that the Afghan Taliban should be engaged in talks despite the group's insurgency between 2004 and 2016. Sporadic attacks have also been carried out in recent years.

Prominent Pakistani Taliban member Asmat Ullah Mauvia reportedly joined the Afghan Taliban in the fight against foreign troops and the Ghani government.

More recently, Pakistani Taliban leader Adnan Rasheed was also reported to have joined the Afghan Taliban.

Rasheed was convicted of an attack on former Pakistani president, General Pervez Musharraf, in December 2003 and imprisoned. In 2012, however, the Pakistani Taliban stormed the Bannu Prison, freeing hundreds of militants including Rasheed.

Pakistani religious parties like Jamiat Ulema Islam of Maulana Fazl ur Rehman and the Jamiat Ulema Islam Sami ul Haq Group have also been accused of supporting the Afghan Taliban.

Warnings for India

Muhammad Iqbal Khan Afridi, a parliamentarian from Pakistan's ruling party, said authorities have placed strict measures to prevent cross-border movement of militants, such as setting up fences at the border with Afghanistan.

Afridi dismissed claims of Afghan Taliban recruitment or donation campaigns.

The parliamentarian did, however, warn India against using Afghan soil to create problems for Pakistan, saying New Delhi would face dire consequences for doing so.

Remains of 215 Indigenous children were found at a former residential school in the province of British Columbia this week.

The Kamloops Indian Residential School, founded in 1890, became the largest school in the residential school system with enrollment peaking in the early 1950s at 500 Indigenous children [Library and Archives Canada/Handout via Reuters]

AL JAZEERA 29 May 2021

Indigenous people across Canada are grappling with the discovery of the remains of more than 200 Indigenous children, including some as young as three, at the site of a former residential school in the western province of British Columbia this week.

Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation chief Rosanne Casimir announced (PDF) on Thursday that the remains of 215 children were found on the grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School, saying “an unthinkable loss that was spoken about but never documented” had been confirmed.

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“To our knowledge, these missing children are undocumented deaths,” Casimir said.

“Some were as young as three years old. We sought out a way to confirm that knowing out of deepest respect and love for those lost children and their families, understanding that Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc is the final resting place of these children.”

The discovery of the mass grave has spurred “a collective pain and trauma” for Indigenous communities across Canada, said Danielle Morrison, an Anishinaabe lawyer. “Currently there [are] fires being lit, pipes are being lit, and ceremonies being held to honour all of those lost lives of those precious children,” she told Al Jazeera.

“This news is a stark reminder of the violence inflicted by the residential school system and the wounds carried by communities, families and Survivors into the present,” the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba also said in a statement.

For more than 100 years, Canadian authorities forcibly separated thousands of Indigenous children from their families and made them attend residential schools, which aimed to sever Indigenous family and cultural ties and assimilate the children into white Canadian society.

The schools, which were run by churches from the 1870s until 1996, were rife with physical, mental and sexual abuse, neglect, and other forms of violence, and they created a cycle of intergenerational trauma for Indigenous people across Canada.

Founded in 1890 and run by the Catholic Church, the Kamloops Indian Residential School eventually became the largest school in Canada’s residential school system, counting 500 children at its enrollment peak in the early 1950s.

“The residential schools were opened with the sole purpose of removing the Indian from the child,” Morrison said. “It was to assimilate Indigenous people in Canada and it’s essentially, in the words of one of the superintendents at the time, to get rid of the ‘Indian problem’.”

During an online commemoration on Saturday, Karen Joseph, CEO of the Reconciliation Canada charity, said the discovery in Kamloops marked the first time a “whispered knowing was made real” and its effect is being felt across the country, especially by residential school survivors.

“Although those children that we are referring to right now went to the Kamloops Indian Residential School, we know that all of those children were not from Kamloops. That was the nature of residential schools, it was to take our children as far away from our homelands,” Joseph said.

“The grief is not localised into that community, and it is a huge burden that they are carrying right now.”

‘Cultural genocide’

In 2015, a national truth and reconciliation commission said the Canadian government had committed “cultural genocide” by forcing more than 150,000 Indigenous children to attend residential schools.

“The question of what happened to their loved ones and where they were laid to rest has haunted families and communities,” the commission said in its report, about the children who never returned home. “Throughout the history of Canada’s residential school system, there was no effort to record across the entire system the number of students who died while attending the schools each year.”

More than 4,100 children died due to disease or in an accident at the schools have been identified to date, the commission said, but efforts continue to identify others.

Derek Fox, deputy grand chief of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation in Ontario, said on Saturday that the discovery in Kamloops “shows how the legacy of the Residential School system continues to impact the lives of Residential School survivors and the families of those who never returned home”

“Even after all these years there are new tragedies of the Residential School system coming to light,” Fox said in a statement.

The Canadian government formally apologised for the residential school system in 2008, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday that the discovery of the children’s bodies “is a painful reminder of that dark and shameful chapter of our country’s history”.

In an open letter to Trudeau on Saturday, Chief R Stacey Laforme of Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation urged him to lower flags across Canada and declare a national day of mourning for the children.

But observers have pointed out that residential school survivors have been forced to sue Ottawa to seek reparations and accountability for what happened to them.

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Last year, CBC News reported the government had spent 3.2 million Canadian dollars ($2.6m) fighting a group of survivors of St Anne’s Indian Residential School, an Ontario residential school rife with abuse, in court over a 10-year period

Others have also pointed out that while the residential schools may be closed, Indigenous children continue to be taken away from their families in disproportionate numbers across Canada.

According to census data, more than 52 percent of children in foster care in 2016 were Indigenous, while Indigenous children made up only 7.7 percent of the country’s total population.

“This is not a historical event,” said Joseph during the online event on Saturday. “This continues today – the loss of our children and the loss of our people for no other reason than the colour of our skin.”