Russian art trove and its tortured history comes to Paris

Issued on: 18/09/2021 - 12:08Mikhail and Ivan Morozov, born into a textile dynasty in the 1870s, went to Paris and came back with treasures that were barely recognised as such at the time, including French painter Pierre Bonnard 

GEOFFROY VAN DERHASSELT AFP

Paris (AFP)

The line-up at the Louis Vuitton Foundation's new exhibition in Paris reads like a who's who of artistic giants from the Belle Epoque: Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet, Matisse, Cezanne...

What is most surprising is that they all come from one collection -- a pair of Russian brothers from the late 19th century who just happened to have an absurdly good eye for who would become the geniuses of their generation.

Mikhail and Ivan Morozov, born into a textile dynasty in the 1870s, went to Paris and came back with treasures -- Manet, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Rodin -- that were barely recognised as such at the time.

Indeed, Mikhail was the first to bring Van Gogh and Gauguin paintings to Russia.

Some 200 of their portraits, sculptures and photographs will be on show at the Louis Vuitton Foundation from Wednesday, on loan from Russian museums.

They had a torturous route through the 20th century -- surviving revolution and years hidden away after World War II.

The new exhibition in Paris has also had its troubles, delayed three times by the pandemic and finally starting a year late.

But it promises to be another successful borrowing from the Russian archives, following the museum's mammoth success with the Shchukin exhibition in 2016-17.

That show -- a similar treasure trove compiled by a contemporary of the Morozov brothers -- drew 1.29 million visitors to the Louis Vuitton Foundation, which it said made it the most successful show in France for half a century.

No doubt much attention will go to the work by Van Gogh, who gets a room apart for his little-known late work "Prisoners Exercising", featuring a familiar ginger-haired figure staring at the viewer, a self-portrait snuck into the grim setting.

- Exile and recovery -

Mikhail Morozov's high living brought him an early death at 33, though he had already amassed 39 masterpieces.

His brother Ivan picked up the baton and became one of the world's great collectors.

But it all came crashing down with the Communist revolution of 1917 in Russia.

Ivan was reduced to being "assistant curator" of his own collection as his home became a state museum, before soon fleeing into exile.

Later, the paintings were sent into hiding in the Ural mountains when the Nazis invaded in 1941.

They spent years out there, fairly well preserved by temperatures that often fell to minus-40 degrees, and it was only in the late 1950s that the Soviet government dug them out and sent them to the Tretyakov, Pushkin and Hermitage collections.

"The Morozov Collection: Icons Of Modern Art" is at the Louis Vuitton Foundation until February 22.

© 2021 AFP

'Frankenstein' first edition sells for a record $1.17 million at auction



Auction house Christie's said an 1818 first edition of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" sold for $1.17 million in an auction, said to be a new world record for a printed work by a woman. Photo courtesy of Christie's

Sept. 15 (UPI) -- A first edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein set a new world record for a printed work by a woman when it was auctioned for $1.17 million.

The three-volume copy of Frankenstein, which still bears its original boards from its 1818 printing, had been projected to sell for $200,000 to $300,000 by auction house Christie's, but the sale closed with a top bid many times that estimate

The sum was reported by Fine Books Magazine to be a new world record for the highest price fetched by a printed work by a woman.

Christie's said the edition was one of only 500 printed in Frankenstein's first run, and the copy sold was the first to be offered for auction since 1985.

Sotheby's to auction only remaining first-run, private copy of U.S. Constitution



The Goldman Constitution is seen at Sotheby's in New York City on Friday. The auction house estimates the document will fetch $15-$20 million on Nov. 23. 

Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 17 (UPI) -- The only remaining copy of the original printing of the U.S. Constitution in private hands is expected to fetch up to $20 million when it heads to auction in November, Sotheby's announced Friday.

The auction house in New York City put the historical document on display Friday to mark Constitution Day, 234 years after it was written. The document will be on display through Sunday.

Philanthropist and educator Dorothy Tapper Goldman, who is the only private owner of a first-edition copy, is selling it to benefit her foundation, which is dedicated to educating the public on democracy.

"The Goldman Constitution ranks as one of the most rare and coveted historical documents that has ever come to auction," said Selby Kiffer, international senior specialist in Sotheby's Books and Manuscripts Department.

"To present a document of this significance in an auction during Sotheby's Evening sales this November spotlights how critical the Constitution remains as a foundational source for our understanding of democracy and the American spirit, which will always have universal appeal that transcends categories."

The Goldman Constitution is seen at Sotheby's in New York City on Friday. Philanthropist Dorothy Tapper Goldman, who is the only private owner of a first-edition copy, is selling it to benefit her foundation, which is dedicated to educating the public on democracy. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI

The auction house estimates the Goldman Constitution will fetch $15-$20 million. It's one of only 11 known copies of the official printing of the document that was produced for delegates of the Constitutional Convention and the Continental Congress.

The document will go up for auction Nov. 23, followed by a group of another 80 constitutional and related documents. An online sale starting that night and running Dec. 2 will include more rare works.

Goldman said her copy of the Constitution was one of her husband's "dearest possessions."

"When it passed to me, I felt an incredible sense of responsibility to care for it, to share it, and to promote our nation's Constitutional principles," she said.

"Through the sale of the collection, we look forward to continuing to contribute to our mission of civics education and a greater understanding of the founding documents."

Pfizer recalls anti-smoking drug Chantix due to potential carcinogen
By HealthDay News

Pfizer announced Friday it is recalling all lots of its anti-smoking drug Chantix due to levels of a potential carcinogen in the medication, though the company said it poses no immediate risk for users. 

File Photo by ChameleonsEye/Shutterstock

Pfizer is expanding the recall of its anti-smoking drug Chantix, also known as varenicline, the company announced Friday.

The nationwide recall of all Chantix 0.5 mg and 1 mg tablets was prompted because they may contain levels of a nitrosamine, N-nitroso-varenicline, that are at or above levels approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Long-term ingestion of N-nitroso-varenicline may be linked to a "theoretical potential increased cancer risk in humans," the company said, adding that no immediate risk to patients taking Chantix exists.

"The health benefits of stopping smoking outweigh the theoretical potential cancer risk from the nitrosamine impurity in varenicline," Pfizer said in its statement.

Nitrosamines are common in water and foods -- including cured and grilled meats, dairy products and vegetables -- so everyone is exposed to some level of these chemicals.

Patients taking Chantix should consult with their doctor about other treatment options. So far, Pfizer has received no reports of adverse events tied to this recall, the company stated.More information

For more on the Chantix recall, visit the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Study Links Chantix to Suicide Risk, but FDA Disagrees

https://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/news/20111103/study-links...

Study Links Chantix to Suicide Risk, but FDA Disagrees. Researchers Say Anti-Smoking Drug Is Linked to Risk of Suicide; FDA and Drugmaker Disagree. Nov. 3, 2011 -- Just over a week after federal ...

• Estimated Reading Time: 4 mins

Foes, allies send fuel to ease crisis in Lebanon

By Dalal Saoud

A woman prepares dinner in her kitchen by candlelight Saturday in Beirut, Lebanon, where fuel shortages have led to power blackouts.

 Photo by Nabil Mounzer/EPA-EFE

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- Fuel shipments have begun arriving in Lebanon, the efforts of foes and allies, to ease a shortage that has crippled life for months with limited electricity and gasoline.

Tankers from Iraq and Iran are rolling in, while the United States is sponsoring long-term solutions by transporting natural gas from Egypt.

Dozens of trucks carrying Iranian diesel crossed Thursday from Syria through an unofficial border crossing into northeastern Lebanon in the first delivery organized by the powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah.

The convoy was greeted by a jubilant crowd that lined the road in Al Ain village, including women clad in black and children, waving Hezbollah flags. Men fired gunshots and rocket-propelled grenades.

Banners that read "You Broke Their Siege," "From Victory to Victory" and "Thank you Islamic Iran, Thank You Assad's Syria" were raised.

Instead of docking in Beirut as Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah previously threatened in clear defiance of the United States and Israel, the first ship carrying the Iranian fuel to Lebanon headed to the Syrian port of Banyias to discharge its shipment. The move was meant to avoid "provoking anyone," Nasrallah said Monday, announcing the arrival of more such ships carrying petrol and diesel.

The fuel will be distributed free of charge to government hospitals, orphanages, nursing homes, municipalities, civil defense and the Lebanese Red Cross. Other institutions, including mills, bakeries and some private hospitals, will receive the rest at "below cost."

Lebanon received another boost when the first shipment of Iraqi fuel, which will help increase electricity availability by four to six hours a day, arrived in Lebanon on Wednesday.

Last July, Lebanon and Iraq finalized a fuel barter deal under which Baghdad will provide the state-run Lebanese electricity company, Electricite du Liban, with 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil over a one-year period.

The Iranian and Iraqi fuel will help ease Lebanon's acute fuel crisis. However, it will not solve the country's chronic power shortages or fix its acute electricity problem.

Transporting Egyptian natural gas through the Arab Gas Pipeline and possibly Jordanian electricity has recently emerged as a more secure long-term option.

Discussions to secure the Egyptian gas to Lebanon through Syria have been underway for months, with apparent acceptance from Washington and Jordan, which has excess electricity production capacity, the driving force behind it.

The discussions began to take formal shape when a Lebanese ministerial delegation visited Damascus on Sept. 4, with the implicit approval of Washington, for the first time in a decade. The energy ministers of Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon met in Amman a few days later to discuss the gas and electricity transit to Lebanon.

That would not have been possible without U.S. willingness to loosen restrictions under the 2019 Caesar Act that sanctions any dealing with the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Walid Khadduri, a Beirut-based oil and gas expert, said efforts to help Lebanon solve its energy crisis is being "worked on several levels."

"While Iraq and Iran oil have come, the gas from Egypt will take some time," depending on the status of the pipeline in Syria, Khadduri told UPI. "The gas from Egypt is the best option because you cannot smuggle gas and mafias cannot store it. It will go directly to the power station" in Deir Ammar in northern Lebanon.

He explained that the Iraqi agreement is for one year, and theoretically the 1 million tons of fuel oil should cover enough of Lebanese fuel demands but "don't know how much it will be smuggled to Syria, stored or stolen by the mafias."

Lebanon's severe fuel shortages have been partly blamed on smugglers who actively sneaked the country's subsidized supplies into Syria.

While the Iranian fuel was reportedly paid for by Lebanese Shiite traders close to Hezbollah and the Iraqi fuel will be in exchange for Lebanese medical services, the cost of the Egyptian gas will be covered through the World Bank, which closely coordinates with the United States on the matter.

"So Lebanon is not paying anything," Khadduri said. He, however, noted that "nobody gives oil for free."

Although the new fuel sources will not fulfill Lebanon's whole needs, it will close "a big gap" and the long queues at the gasoline stations and power cuts will be less.

Khadduri added that the three fuel sources came at the same time with different groups: the United States on one hand securing the gas from Egypt via the World Bank; Iraq signing a barter agreement with Lebanon; and Iran, through Hezbollah, securing diesel fuel and gasoline.

"It is rather strange that they are taking place at the same time and didn't start earlier," he said. "It is more than a coincidence... it is a competition with each one taking a different role: one gasoline, one gas and one heavy fuel... and so it is complementary."

Riad Tabbarah, Lebanon's former ambassador in Washington, said "there is an agreement" to avoid Lebanon's total collapse and "not let things go out of control and lead to militias re-emerging and a war with Israel."

"Would the Iranian ships [carrying fuel to Lebanon] cross the Suez Canal, sail in the Mediterranean Sea and reach the Baniyas port in Syria while trucks move the fuel from Syria to inside Lebanon... all that without an agreement?" Tabbarah told UPI. "Why they [the United States] turned a blind eye on that at a time Israel continues to bombard Iranian positions in Syria?"

He referred to "a new situation to ease things in the region within an international framework, but this has nothing to do with Iran-U.S. nuclear negotiations, which are at a much higher level, dealing with issues such as the ballistic missiles."

Tabbarah said the Egypt gas deal has been in the making for months and was being "arranged at different levels."

"Everyone plays its role, and when Nasrallah's turn came, he brought the Iranian fuel to Lebanon," he said.

Beating video puts Bulgaria police violence in spotlight

Issued on: 18/09/2021 - 

CCTV footage showing Bulgarian student Evgeni Marchev, 23, being beaten by police at a demonstration has put the issue under the spotlight

 Nikolay DOYCHINOV AFP

Sofia (AFP)

A series of blows and then blackness: Bulgarian student Evgeni Marchev was taking part in his first demonstration in Sofia when police detained and beat him until he lost consciousness.

The incident in July 2020 passed largely unnoticed until last month when CCTV footage of it was shown in parliament and then published in the media.

Despite a long history of police violence going unpunished in the EU country, the images have caused deep shock.

Marchev's case -- like others before it -- may well have remained overlooked.

Since 2000, the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has condemned Bulgaria in 46 cases related to the use of force by police or inadequate investigation of alleged abuses.

Only Romania, whose population is three times bigger than Bulgaria's 6.9 million people, did worse, with 64 condemnations.

However in response to police violence during mass anti-graft protests just over a year ago, Bulgaria's parliament has set up a committee to look into it.

Thousands rallied mainly in Sofia against three-time prime minister Boyko Borisov who has been in office for almost a decade.

He has since been unable to clinch another term after two elections this year returned a fragmented parliament with no one party able to form a coalition government.

A snap poll has been set for November to try to resolve the political crisis.

- 'You will die' -

On July 10, 2020, Marchev attended one of the big anti-Borisov demonstrations with friends in front of the prime minister's office.

When suddenly bottles were hurled at police, they responded by grabbing the 23-year-old and other protesters from the crowd to drag them into the shadows of the government building, where they handcuffed and beat them with fists and kicks, the CCTV showed.

"A policeman kept saying: 'You will die.' I was terrified," Marchev, who remotely studies European law at a Dutch university, told AFP.

The incident in July 2020 went largely unnoticed until CCTV footage of it was shown in parliament and published in the media

 Handout BULGARIAN PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE ON POLICE VIOLENCE/AFP

He blacked out and was hospitalised with concussion.

The beating still haunts him today, he said, adding that he didn't do anything to provoke the police.

Probing the protest violence a year later, lawyer and parliamentary committee chairman Nikolay Hadjigenov dug out CCTV footage -- previously unseen by the public -- of Marchev's arrest.

The video shown in the committee and released to the media "sincerely shocked" the country, Hadjigenov said.

Sofia prosecutors responded saying a probe had been opened in late 2020 into three out of 15 initial complaints of police violence during the protests.

The chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev also denounced the "unacceptable violence", although he had previously defended police actions during the protests that also targeted him personally.

- 'Old totalitarian reflex' -

Lawyer Mihail Ekimdjiev, who has represented many Bulgarian victims of police violence at the ECHR, said impunity stemmed from the country's communist past.

The prosecution has long showed "solidarity (with the police) in line with the old totalitarian reflex", he told AFP.

The signal, he said, was to discourage protests, adding it was clear that "anyone who finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time can be mistreated by those who are supposed to protect us."

Bulgaria's parliament set up a committee to probe police violence during last year's mass anti-graft protests

 Nikolay DOYCHINOV AFP

Past cases have seen police cleared or freed due to the statute of limitations expiring.

They included a Roma man who died in detention in 1998, another Roma who choked during an arrest and a man killed when police fired grenades at his house while trying to arrest him.

The ECHR condemned Bulgaria in all three cases.

"What clearly distinguishes Bulgaria (from other countries with police violence) is the impunity," said Krasimir Kanev, chairman of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee human rights group.

- No longer 'alone' -

The parliamentary committee this week published a list of proposals to reform law and order and end police impunity, including introducing checks and controls.

But it will now fall to MPs elected later in the year to take up the proposed changes.

Marchev says he doesn't hold out much hope from any prosecution probe but is relieved a public discussion is now under way.

Before the video sparked an outcry, he had spoken out about the beating and said he'd felt "alone".

Before the video sparked an outcry, Marchev said he'd felt 'alone' Nikolay DOYCHINOV AFP

Other victims did not, often "for fear" of jeopardising their work and future, he said.

"I had started to ask myself if I had not been exaggerating," he said, having faced accusations in the media and on social networks of "slandering police and staining Bulgaria's image".

But, he insisted, he did not regret his actions. "The battle will be long, the road to true democracy is strewn with many difficulties."

© 2021 AFP

Documentary 'Sabaya' shows rescue of 'IS' sex slaves

Hogir Hirori's award-winning documentary portrays the struggles of activists determined to save Yazidi girls and women who were captured by the "Islamic State."



The niqab makes it difficult to identify Yazidis living in the camp

Right at the beginning of the film Sabaya, the defeat of the "Islamic State" (IS) terror group in Syria is announced on the radio.

But the news doesn't have much impact on the task undertaken by Mahmud and Ziyad, volunteers of the Yazidi Home Center. They are on their way to the notoriously dangerous internment camp al-Hol, where an estimated 73,000 individuals from 58 countries — most of them suspected supporters and families of IS militants — are living in tents.

Hidden among them are Yazidi girls and women who were kidnapped by IS to serve as sex slaves, called "sabaya."

The abductions took place five years earlier, when IS captured the province of Sinjar in Iraq. The 2014 massacre against the Yazidis in the region marked the beginning of the genocide of the ancient religious minority.

Watch video 12:03 Aftermath of a genocide: Yazidis of Sinjar Immersive cinema

Mahmud, Ziyad and the small team of the Yazidi Home Center work to locate and save the captive Yazidi — and filmmaker Hogir Hirori joined them to document their dangerous rescue missions.

As one expedition leads to a car chase and a shoot-out on a bumpy road, Hirori's camera stays still, not missing a second of the action. "But I didn't expect to survive that," the filmmaker told DW through an interpreter at the German premiere of his film.

Sabaya opened the Human Rights Film Festival Berlin, held as a hybrid online and on-site event from September 16-25. Even though the Berlin event was the first the director could personally attend due to COVID, Sabaya has already been shown at 30 international festivals, winning the 2021 World Documentary Directing Award at Sundance among other prizes.

Documentary filmmaker Hogir Hirori

The director, who has been living living in Sweden since 1999, was born in Kurdistan, not too far from Sinjar. Sabaya is his third film in a trilogy on the impact of war in the region, following The Girl Who Saved My Life (2014) and The Deminer (2017).

Through his immersive filmmaking style, Hirori offers the audience rare access to the al-Hol camp. Even though many of the detainees have since been relocated, it is estimated that there are still more than 60,000 refugees in the overcrowded camp controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led military alliance that served as a partner of the US in the war on IS in Syria.

To gain the trust of the Yazidi Home Center team and the people they rescue, the documentary filmmaker spent a long period with them: "When they accepted to let me film, they expected me to stay a day or two, or maybe a week, but I was with them for a year and a half," Hogir said.

Children sold from one violent man to the other

What makes the documentary particularly poignant is the stories shared by the women and girls following their rescue from al-Hol.

Some of them were only 12 when they were abducted, right after they had to witness the killing of their entire family.

One survivor recounts how she was sold to 15 different men, who beat her up so badly she ended up with a hole in her head and missing teeth.

Another rescued Yazidi child shown in the film was taken as a 1-year-old baby.
Mothers separated from their rape-born children

Before they return to Sinjar, the rescued women and children are temporarily taken care of by Mahmud's family. His mother cooks for them and his young son plays with them, offering a calming refuge from years of atrocities, but the survivors are caught between dealing with their past trauma and facing bleak perspectives for the future. Not only their family has been decimated, they fear being stigmatized as a former sabaya.

The situation is particularly wrenching for women with children born from IS fathers, since they cannot return to their community with the kids; the Supreme Yazidi Spiritual Council has determined they could not accept children born from rape.

Yazidi women cannot return to their community with a rape-born child

Complicating matters, as Hirori points out, according to Iraqi laws, those children are automatically born as Muslims and must therefore be raised as Muslims. For now, the filmmaker says, the only available solution is to relocate the Yazidi mothers and their children to another country.

Risking his life to make this film even though he also has young children, one of Hirori's main motivations was to reactivate the calls for action from the international community: "I wanted to make this documentary so no one could say I didn't know or never heard of it," he said at the film festival in Berlin.

Also risking their life are the volunteers of the Yazidi Home Center, which includes former sabaya agreeing to work as infiltrators in the al-Hol camp to track down Yazidi detainees amid the mass of IS women who are instrumental in keeping them captive.

Adding to the challenge of identifying the captive Yazidi, the women are to wear a niqab, the dress ultra-conservative female Muslims wear to cover the faces.

Activists collect photos of the missing Yazidi in their efforts to rescue them

In the film, Mahmud and Ziyad are in constant communication with the infiltrators, spending their days and nights preparing the next rescue mission, comparing pictures of the captive Yazidis, equipped only with a cell phone with a bad internet connection.
Still thousands missing

The Yazidi Home Center managed to save 206 people. Of the estimated 7,000 Yazidi girls and women who have been enslaved by IS since 2014, there are between 2,000 - 2,800 still missing, according to various estimates.

Since the completion of the film, Ziyad, the director of the Yazidi Home Center had to flee Syria due to increased IS attacks, but he keeps on working on reuniting Yazidi mothers with their children from abroad. Mahmud's home is also a target and can no longer serve as a shelter for the girls.

Hirori hopes that larger government bodies will get involved to save these women who have been largely forgotten by the international community amid other crises: "If individual activists, only equipped with a mobile phone with a poor connection and a small gun can achieve so much, then a major organization can do much more."

THE PLIGHT OF THE YAZIDI MINORITY IN IRAQ

The Yazidis: A history of persecution

For hundreds of years, the Yazidi community has been persecuted for its religious views, an amalgamation of Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam. Throughout their history, they have been killed, forced to convert to other religions and even taken as slaves. While the Kurdish-speaking minority community in northern Iraq had been attacked before, 2014 marked a tragic turning point in history.

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Germany: Second climate activist on hunger strike hospitalized in Berlin

Another climate activist on hunger strike in Berlin has been taken to the hospital after fainting. Six activists calling themselves "the last generation" have not eaten since the end of August.


The activists want to meet candidates aiming to be the next chancellor of Germany

A 19-year-old climate activist on a weeks-long hunger strike outside the German parliament was taken to the hospital on Saturday, a spokesperson for the Charite hospital said.

The spokeswoman said it was unclear if the teen intended to continue her hunger strike.

Six climate activists began an open-ended hunger strike in front of the Reichstag building, home to the German lower house of parliament, on August 30.



German climate activists on hunger strike amid election

They said their hunger strike would continue until leading candidates running to replace Chancellor Angela Merkel in the upcoming German election agreed to discuss the climate crisis with them.

The activists have also called for the creation of a citizens' council to give politicians a list of measures that need to be adopted immediately to protect the climate.

"We are full of concern for the health of Lina and the rest of us and have to watch desperately as politicians close their eyes to the condition of the hunger strikers and of our planet," the group wrote on Twitter.

Second hospitalization

On Tuesday, a hunger striker was temporarily admitted to a hospital, but he continued his strike after being discharged.

All three candidates for chancellor have called on the hunger strikers to end their protest. The candidates said they were prepared to have private meetings with the strikers following the September 26 election.

Environmental organizations such as Greenpeace also urged the activists to end their hunger strike. The groups said they share the activists' concerns but appealed out of fear for their health and welfare "not to put young lives at risk."


Another activist was temporairly admitted to a hospital for treatment earlier this week

British Unions Call for Review of UK Gun Sales to Colombia






Trade Union Congress UK | Photo: TUC

Published 16 September 2021

Britain’s Trades Union Congress, which is currently holding its annual congress (10-13 September), has unanimously passed a motion in support of Colombian trade unionists, protesters and activists which called on the British government ‘to review security and trade partnerships with Colombia in response to human rights abuses’.

The motion also expressed support for the 2016 peace agreement, which continues to face many challenges, as well as for all member unions to support Justice for Colombia’s campaigning.

The motion was moved by the POA prison officers union and seconded by the BFAWU bakers union.

Read the full motion below.

>>>>

C17 Colombian government violence; justice for Colombia

Congress pays tribute to the Colombian people for their commitment to human rights, peace and social justice through trade union-led, national strike protests that have mobilised millions of people.

Congress condemns the horrific abuses against protesters committed by security forces under President Ivan Duque. Between 28 April and 30 June, human rights groups documented the police having committed over 4,000 acts of violence, 44 killings of protesters, 82 permanent eye injuries, 28 cases of sexual violence and over 2,000 arbitrary arrests.

Colombian government ministers made dangerous and unfounded insinuations linking protesters to criminal organisations and legitimising police violence against them.

Colombian trade unionists also face stigmatisation even as they are being killed. According to the International Trade Union Confederation, 22 Colombian trade unionists were murdered between March 2020 and April 2021, the world’s highest figure.

Congress is concerned that Britain’s free trade agreement with Colombia and its training of Colombian security forces is giving the green light to state violence, while impunity still surrounds most killings of trade unionists and social activists.

Congress resolves to:

i. call on the British government to review security and trade partnerships with Colombia in response to human rights abuses

ii. pressure the British government to demand accountability for perpetrators of state violence and full investigations into killings of trade unionists and social activists

iii. lobby the British government to increase its efforts to support full implementation of the 2016 peace agreement

iv. support the vital work of Justice for Colombia by affiliating at national, regional and branch levels.

Colombian President Duque is Rejected At The Madrid Book Fair



Citizens protest against Ivan Duque's presence in Madrid, Spain, Sept. 2021. | Photo: Twitter/ @La_Directa

Published 17 September 2021 

He ratified his alliance with the U.S. by requesting the Biden administration not to relax the blockade against the Bolivarian revolution.

On Thursday, about 30 bookstores rejected the presence of President Ivan Duque in Spain arguing that Colombian writers who denounced State terrorism in their country have been banned from the Madrid book fair, where the far-right politician was expected to take part.

That criticism, however, was not an isolated act. During the last few days, hundreds of citizens have held rallies in Madrid to denounce the violation of human rights and other crimes committed by the Duque administration. As a result of this environment, the Colombian president announced that he would not present his autobiographical book at the book fair.

"We come to Spain exclusively to strengthen cooperation in tourism, trade, and security," the right-wing politician said to justify his decision, implying that the Madrid fair no longer guaranteed the existence of "political neutrality."

"Neutral literature does not exist," the Spanish writers recalled, adding that the Colombian army, police, and paramilitary groups left 78 people dead, 800 citizens injured, and 91 people missing during the latest protests.

Despite this, the Spanish Council of Ministers approved to grant Duque the "Order of Isabella the Catholic," one of the highest recognitions that this country grants to foreigners.

During his official visit, the Colombian president took the opportunity to ratify his alliance with the United States by requesting the Biden administration not to relax the blockade against the Bolivarian revolution.

"A presidential election is needed as soon as possible in Venezuela," Duque said, thus evidencing his role within the U.S. strategy aimed at pressing for the departure of Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro.