'Becoming Cousteau' plumbs depths of French ocean explorer

Much of the kit that Cousteau used had to be invented 

Handout THE COUSTEAU SOCIETY/AFP/File


Issued on: 21/10/2021 - 03:52

Los Angeles (AFP)

"Becoming Cousteau," which hits theaters in the United States this Friday, traces the extraordinary life of the man through archive footage and interviews, and was compiled by double-Oscar nominee Liz Garbus.

"I grew up on Cousteau, and I grew up watching his shows... And my feeling was as I revisited this childhood hero of mine, that there were aspects in his life that I certainly did not know," Garbus told AFP in Los Angeles.

Garbus trawled through hundreds of hours of footage -- much of it never released publicly -- to capture a flavor of a life lived underwater.

"Cousteau was a filmmaker and because his imagery was so groundbreaking, I wanted our viewer today to be immersed in that imagery," she said.

Born in 1910, Cousteau had never set out to be a diver. His initial focus was on the skies.

But at the age of 26, just after begining his training as a pilot at France's naval academy, a serious car accident left him unable to fly.

During his convalescence, he was advised to take up spearfishing. It was a piece of advice that would change his view on life forever.

The Calypso was a converted minesweeper - AFP/File

"As soon as I put my head under water, I understood; I had a shock: an immense and completely virgin domain to explore," he said.

That exploration required ever more complicated kit -- kit that did not exist. So Cousteau invented it.

Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's "slightly crazy" sketches, he borrowed a regulator designed for car engines and, with engineer Emile Gagnan, produced the self-contained diving suit that forms the basis of those still in use today.

"I didn't want pipes, I wanted to be completely independent", he says.

After World War II, he mounted the first expedition aboard the "Calypso", a converted minesweeper that set sail for the Red Sea in 1951.

And wherever he went, so did his cameras, thanks to his diving suit and the waterproof camera housings that he had developed.

The footage he brought back was the first glimpse that many people had of the vast underwater world.

While the modern day conception of Cousteau is of a crusading environmentalist, that was a period of his life that came later.

Like countless contemporaries in the post-war years, Cousteau did not show any real ecological awareness, using explosives to bring fish to the surface.

Cousteau's life was one of evolution; from a would-be pilot to a diver to a filmmaker, to an environmental crusader

 PATRICK HERTZOG AFP/File

In order to finance the "Calypso", he even started prospecting for oil, discovering reserves in Abu Dhabi in the process.

"I think I was naive... but I didn't have a penny!", he would later plead after his conversion to environmental protection.
'Sea in distress'

In the 1950s, Cousteau produced "The Silent World", which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1956 and an Oscar for best documentary the following year.

He was furious to see his films classed as "documentaries", insisting that they were "real adventure films", says Garbus.

The following decade, he abandoned the cinema to go into television with a series of documentaries on underwater life, the first of their kind.

He was never entirely at peace with the medium, but recognised it had its benefits -- particularly as his consciousness grew about the need to preserve the natural environment.

"Though it is an aesthetic sacrifice, it is a way to reach millions of people rapidly," he said.

These "films are no more about beautiful little fish but are dealing with the future of mankind."

Cousteau was the only non-politician in the official photos of the 1992 Earth Summit Omar TORRES AFP/File

As a pioneer in the field of ecology, Cousteau was sounding the alarm about "the sea in distress" to the US Congress in 1971.

By the end of the 1980s, he was telling anyone who would listen of the dangers of global warming --long before the mainstream woke up to the damage humanity was doing to the planet.

His influence was such that at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, Cousteau was the only non-world leader in the official photo.

"What Cousteau was able to do because of all the love he had built up over the decades, to translate that love and respect into something that was a crucial message... There's nobody who has that power today," says Garbus.

© 2021 AFP

Reichelt and Germany's Bild: Media giant Axel Springer under pressure

Bild tabloid Editor-in-Chief Julian Reichelt was fired after The New York Times detailed misconduct toward female employees. The case is now making waves internationally.



Julian Reichelt has been under fire for his attitudes towards women and many of his editorial decisions

Bild, which Julian Reichelt led since 2017, is the daily newspaper with the highest circulation in Germany and has shaped the country's media landscape significantly since it was founded in 1952. Known for courting controversy, the media outlet often receives criticism: For example after launching a front-page attack on virologist Christian Drosten, one of Chancellor Angela Merkel's advisers, at the start of the pandemic. The publication regularly garners reprimands from the German Press Council.

Behind the newspaper is the billion-euro Axel Springer publishing house, which was founded in Germany in the wake of World War II and initially published daily newspapers and magazines. Today, the company is hardly a traditional publishing house, says media scholar Christopher Buschow of the Bauhaus University of Weimar. Springer is more likely to be considered a media company or digital group, whose central revenues are no longer generated solely through journalism, but also by other investments like the job portal Stepstone.

Looking towards the US market

That Axel Springer aims to further expand abroad makes implications of the current scandal at Bild reach beyond Germany. In recent years, Axel Springer has invested heavily in markets abroad, namely the United States and Poland.

"The company's clear goal is to play on the very big stage," Buschow said. "It's recognized that in a platform-based media world, where the big tech giants make the rules in many ways, the United States is key if you want to have a global impact as a media company."

This expansion, he added, "is now being driven forward with a great deal of energy and financial resources." Axel Springer this August purchased US media outlet Politico for $1 billion. In 2015, the company bought Business Insider.

According to Buschow, it's therefore logical that the situation at Bild is receiving special attention abroad due to the fact that Axel Springer aims to be an international player. After all, it was the The New York Times which broke the story in English detailing acts of misconduct by Reichelt that finally led to his ousting.

"The fact that you need foreign coverage to talk about some topics doesn't surprise me," said Buschow. "I have also observed this in other cases, in which German media were extraordinarily quiet — although there would actually have been a lot to report." That's usually the case when the media are are affiliated with specific political parties, he added.

"With issues like this, in which the press landscape as a whole is affected or large powerful media groups are affected, you often need an outside view," he said.

Bild is Germany's most-read publication

Buschow points out that Axel Springer's chief executive, Mathias Döpfner, is also president of the Federation of German Newspaper Publishers (BDZV) — another reason competitors might not want to get mixed up in reporting negatively on the media giant.

Yet The New York Times was not the only outlet to look into allegations. Journalists at Springer's rival publishing company, Ippen, had been investigating sexual harassment allegations against Reichelt, but did not publish their findings.

The New York Times reported they had been pressured by Axel Springer executives not to publish the bombshell report, prompting concerns about press freedom in Germany. Yet the media group denied that pressure from their rival had anything to do with spiking the story, and instead said it was cut to "avoid the impression we might want to economically harm a competitor."

Sexual harassment in the US media landscape

Earlier this year, Der Spiegel also reported on allegations which did not result in Reichelt leaving his post. Instead, Reichelt filed charges against Der Spiegel. The paper wrote an expose on what it described as "the Reichelt system" — what it called his "pattern” of seducing, promoting and then firing young women at Bild.

The scandal perhaps marks a turning point in Germany's #MeToo movement, which has already been well underway in the media scene in the US. A landmark event on that front in the US was the sexual harassment scandal at Fox News involving the network's head, Roger Ailes. In 2016, Fox News journalist Gretchen Carlson filed a lawsuit which brought about an internal investigation at the network and led to a number of sexual harassment claims against Ailes, considered to be a kingmaker by the Republican party.

The story inspired the 2019 film Bombshell starring Nicole Kidman, who plays Carlson, and Margot Robbie, who plays a fictional character harassed by Ailes as she aims to become a TV news anchor.

The movie 'Bombshell' is based on the fall of Roger Ailes of Fox News in the US

In 1996, Ailes was hired by Rupert Murdoch, who was at the time was CEO of media giant NewsCorp. He launched Fox News, hiring outspoken right-wing commentators like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity. The network has since become known for its inflammatory statements and questionable stances, such as casting doubt on where Barack Obama was born; and, more recently, vaccine skepticism.

His reputation damaged, Ailes resigned in 2016 from Fox News. Political commentator Bill O'Reilly was also fired for sexual misconduct. Fox News and the once-top commentator paid out millions of dollars in settlements to accusers.

Isolated and unpaid, Mongolian coal drivers queue at Chinese border

A stream of trucks carrying coal along a once-busy highway has been reduced to a trickle, held up by China and Mongolia's strict Covid-19 measures

 Uugansukh Byamba AFP


Issued on: 21/10/2021 

Tsagaan Khad (Mongolia) (AFP)

Pre-pandemic, the route was packed with drivers delivering the vital fuel to China -- the world's biggest coal importer -- currently grappling with widespread power cuts threatening its economic growth.

But now the line of trucks outside the tiny coal town of Tsagaan Khad has been reduced to a trickle, held up by China and Mongolia's strict coronavirus measures, leaving the drivers stranded without pay or company.

"Our families are calling us and saying they need wood, fuel, and clothes to wear in winter," said Davaasuren Tsogtsaikhan, 32, having waited three months to make a single delivery.

"Life is hard here," he said.

Drivers are tested for Covid-19 in Mongolia then bussed over the Chinese border in masks and hazmat suits, where they undergo yet another test

 Uugansukh Byamba AFP

Last year, resource-rich Mongolia exported over 35 million tonnes of coking coal to China -- this year so far is less than a third of that.

Terrified any outbreak might make China slam the border shut, Mongolia has imposed strict coronavirus rules.

Some 3,500 increasingly wretched drivers have been quarantined in camps of 40 people while they wait.

Undrakh Bold told AFP he spent 42 days waiting without making a delivery, having been quarantined outside capital Ulaanbaatar after one member of his group tested positive.

After returning to Tsagaan Khad, the 43-year-old faced another 28 days of waiting.

Truck drivers protest near Tavan Tolgoi, Mongolia's largest coal deposit, on October 16 Uugansukh Byamba AFP

"If all of us test negative, we will be able to transport our coal the next day," the weary father-of-three said, as he queued to be tested.

On the Chinese side, they are not allowed out of their cabs, or even to open windows.

"I want to dump the coal in China, get my money and go back home," he said.
Empty town, few drivers

Drivers are tested for Covid-19 in Mongolia then bussed over the Chinese border in masks and hazmat suits, where they undergo yet another test.

Mongolia's vast South Gobi province is home to 12 billion tonnes of coal reserves -- a key supplier to Chinese iron ore smelters.

But now many drivers are considering finding other work.

Mongolia's vast South Gobi province is home to twelve billion tonnes of coal reserves Uugansukh Byamba AFP

"We worry about Covid test results all day and night," said trucker Davaasuren, preparing to take his first test.

There is already a shortage of drivers, with numbers down by around half according to Tsagaan Khad officials, and the impact on the small town has been devastating.

The main street is empty, with canteens and shops closed.

Strict virus measures are necessary to keep trade flowing, officials say.

If the Covid cases increase and China closes the border, "our economy will collapse," frets Soronzonbold Purevjav, head of Tsagaan Khad's emergency commission.

Terrified that any outbreak might make China slam the border shut, Mongolia has imposed strict coronavirus rules 

Uugansukh Byamba AFP

Anxious not to catch the virus, drivers stay inside their round white tents, dwarfed by huge piles of coal and rows of parked trucks.

"We keep an eye on each other all the time," said Turtulga, a 32-year old driver.
Crunch time

Beijing has maintained a strict zero-Covid policy that has all but closed borders to the outside world.

The gridlock comes as China also battles an energy crunch that has seen widespread power cuts due to record coal prices and tough emissions targets.

Hopes of an easing were raised after China's prime minister Li Keqiang held online talks with his Mongolian counterpart last week.

The pair agreed to increase coal export volumes, according to a Chinese state media readout, with plans to allow double the number of trucks through the border -- as long as they meet strict Covid requirements.

Beijing has maintained a strict zero-Covid policy that has all but closed borders to the outside world 

Uugansukh Byamba AFP

But it will take time to clear the backlog.

Yalagdashgui Naranpil, head of a truck drivers' union, told AFP that the restrictions -- including the closure of another border point -- are making life near-impossible for the country's drivers.

A handful of them protested in Ulaanbaatar last week, wearing face masks, high-vis jackets and holding signs reading "Save the lives of drivers".

"We are on the edge of poverty," Yalagdashgui said.

© 2021 AFP

Covid recovery poses dire climate, health risks: Lancet

  

Populations of 134 countries are now at greater threat from wildfires than at any time previously, and millions of farmers and construction workers are losing income because of the rising number of extremely hot days 

RIJASOLO AFP/File

Issued on: 21/10/2021 - 

Paris (AFP)

The Lancet Countdown is the largest annual study of the impacts of climate change on human health.

It found that up to 19 percent of Earth's land mass was affected by extreme drought in 2020 and warned that climate change posed a major threat to food security, which already affects more than two billion people.

Compared with the historic average, the global population of over-65s lived through 3.1 billion additional extreme heat days last year, it found.

Populations of 134 countries are now at greater threat from wildfires than at any time previously, and millions of farmers and construction workers are losing income because of the rising number of extremely hot days.

And climate change is creating ideal conditions for infectious diseases such as dengue fever, Zika virus, cholera and malaria across a far larger span of the globe than just a few decades ago and including Europe, it said.

"Climate change is here and we're already seeing it damaging human health across the world," said Anthony Costello, executive director of the Lancet Countdown.

"As the Covid-19 crisis continues, every country is facing some aspect of the climate crisis too."

'Bleak outlook'

The assessment found that the five years with the most areas affected by extreme drought have all occurred since 2015.

Disruption to the water cycle due to global heating shortens the time in which plants reach maturity, resulting in small yields putting ever-greater stress on food production.

The Lancet said that yield potential for maize -- a global staple -- had already declined 6 percent compared with 1981-2010 levels.

Wheat has seen a 3-percent yield potential fall, and rice a 1.8-percent fall, it found.

And the marine food upon which 3.3. billion people depend on for either sustinence or income is under "increasing threat", with average sea temperature rising in nearly 70 percent of territorial waters compared with just 15 years ago.

The report also warned that nearly three quarters of countries surveyed said they believed they could not afford an integrated national health and climate strategy.

"This year we saw people suffering intense heatwaves, deadly floods and wildfires," said lead author Maria Romanello.

"These are grim warnings that, for every day that we delay our response to climate change, the situation gets more critical.

"It's time to realise that no one is safe from the effects of climate change."

In an editorial, the Lancet called on world leaders at the forthcoming COP26 summit to divert some of the trillions they are spending on Covid-19 recovery to reduce inequality and safeguard health.

"This year's indicators give a bleak outlook: global inequities are increasing, and the direction of travel is worsening in all health outcomes."

AFP in June obtained a draft of an assessment on the impacts of climate change from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

It warned that rising temperatures would expose tens of millions more to disease, drought and disease as soon as 2050.

© 2021 AFP

Pandemic of anti-vaxxers and COVID deniers hits Romania

Romania is getting crushed by one of the worst coronavirus waves in Europe. Vaccine skepticism and inaction on the part of the president, the administration and authorities are largely to blame.


Romania's health care system has been overwhelmed by an onslaught of unvaccinated people infected with COVID-19

Images documenting the current situation at a university hospital in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, are tough to watch. In a video published last week by the investigative journalism platform Recorder, not a single intensive care unit (ICU) bed is free, while rooms and hallways are filled beyond capacity with sick people waiting for help and medical staff roll corpses in black plastic body bags past them.

All the while, ambulances keep dropping off new patients. Almost all are old and hardly any are vaccinated. Many can barely breathe; some still refuse to get vaccinated. "This onslaught has to do with people being reckless and uninformed," a doctor says. "Politicians have to be much more insistent. If they cared about the well-being of voters, they would be saying: 'Get vaccinated!'"

The video is 16 grueling minutes long, has no commentary and is titled "This Is What a Health Disaster Looks Like."

Romania and Bulgaria have the lowest vaccination rates in the EU and some of the highest infection rates

Scenes such as those in the video are playing out at hospitals across Romania. The country is currently being hit by one of the worst coronavirus waves in Europe. Record infection and death rates have been recorded almost every day since March 2020. On Tuesday, 19,000 new COVID-19 infections and 574 deaths were recorded.

"We're not just in a pandemic," Daniel Coriu, the chair of the Romanian College of Physicians, said on Tuesday. "We're in a disaster." Last week the college published an open letter describing the current catastrophic state of the health care system under the title "A Cry of Despair."

Low vaccination rates, influential anti-vaxxers

Romania is not an isolated case within the European Union. When it comes to seven-day incidence rates and daily death tolls, Latvia, Lithuania and Bulgaria have similarly high numbers. What makes Romania different from other EU countries is that its health care system is so burdened that many hospital directors and doctors say collapse is imminent. Romania and neighboring Bulgaria also have the lowest vaccination rates in the European Union. 

Only about 30% of the population is fully vaccinated in either country — the cumulative EU average is 74.4%. Vaccine skepticism is widespread and is being fueled by nationalist politicians and the influential Romanian Orthodox Church

Vaccine hesitancy fuels COVID-19 infection rate in Romania

On Tuesday, President Klaus Iohannis told Romanians that the pandemic had become "a national drama of appalling proportion" and promised a crisis management meeting of all government decision-makers for Wednesday. Iohannis blamed broad vaccine skepticism for the situation but also singled out "lack of real government agency action" as a reason for low vaccination rates.

As recently as June, Iohannis described the nation's vaccination program as a "success," saying the pandemic had been halted. Center-right Prime Minister Florin Citu said the coronavirus had been "eliminated" back in June — even though experts contradicted him and warned of a fourth wave.

Romania is awash with fake news and anti-vaccination sentiment from nationalists and the Orthodox Church

Vaccine 'zombies' myth

It wasn't until the devastating fourth coronavirus wave began to swell in early October that the government finally expanded mandatory rules for masks, set curfews and limited capacity at large public events.

The government has made minimal effort to counter vaccine skepticism — anti-vaxxers protest at will, and fake news posts about new vaccines and vaccination programs circulate widely. Recently, classroom audio secretly recorded by students in the north Romanian city of Botosani caused a stir when the teacher was heard claiming that vaccines were turning people into "zombies" and accusing hospitals of committing genocide "like in Auschwitz."

Archbishop Teodosie of Tomis has claimed that vaccines are unsafe telling the faithful the EU is doing away with them

When it comes to vaccine opposition, priests and bishops in the Romanian Orthodox Church are on the front lines. Last week, Archbishop Teodosie Petrescu, of the southern diocese of Tomis, said vaccines were unsafe, going so far as to claim that the European Union was now stopping them.

To date, very few anti-vaxxers or coronavirus deniers have been investigated. Romania's politicians are especially careful when it comes to the church — an institution that yields outsize sway with voters. In rural stretches of the country especially, a priest's words carry a lot of weight.

Last week, the crush of the fourth wave forced the Romanian government to ask for foreign help for the first time, requesting that other countries send oxygen and ICU beds. Neighboring Moldova, far poorer even than Romania, deployed doctors and medical personnel to help. The Hungarian government pledged to treat Romanian COVID-19 patients — the first of whom have already been admitted to hospitals in southern and southeastern Hungary. That sign of solidarity is doubly meaningful as relations between Hungary and Romania have been fraught of late.

Speaking with public television broadcaster TVR on Tuesday, Romanian Health Minister Attila Cseke warned people not to expect things to get better anytime soon. Cseke said the fourth wave was nowhere close to cresting.

Brazil: Senate calls for Bolsonaro to be charged over COVID response

A Senate committee report has recommended President Jair Bolsonaro be indicted on 10 charges related to his government's handling of the pandemic. The right-wing leader has previously downplayed the virus.

A Brazilian Senate committee has recommended that President Jair Bolsonaro face charges for the way in which he handled the government response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The nearly 1,200 page report is the culmination of 6 months of investigative work and calls for Bolsonaro to be indicted on 10 charges including crimes against humanity.

In addition to the recommended charges, the committee also says that the president should be impeached.

What will happen next?

Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing and claims the inquiry is a political tool meant to sabotage him.

Brazil comes in third position, behind India  and the US, in terms of COVID-19 infections and has had more than 600,000 deaths as a result of the virus.

The right-wing populist leader has downplayed the gravity of the virus, and in the early stages of the pandemic said it was a "little flu."

A vote on the report's recommendations will be held by the investigative committee on October 26. Additions may still be submitted up until that time.

A majority vote is needed before the recommendations can proceed to the prosecutor general's office. From there it will be decided whether charges will be pursued.

kb/wd (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)

New Caledonia separatists call for boycott of independence referendum

This picture shows voting forms at a polling station in the referendum on independence on the French South Pacific territory of New Caledonia in Noumea on October 4, 2020. 

© Theo Rouby, AFP

Issued on: 21/10/2021 - 

Text by: NEWS WIRES

Separatist leaders in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia called Thursday for a boycott of a December independence referendum, urging the government to focus on the Covid crisis.

Members of the pro-independence FLNKS group issued the statement a day after they called on France's minister for overseas territories Sebastien Lecornu to postpone the poll during his visit there.

The government should prioritise fighting the Covid pandemic in the territory, which has claimed 245 lives since September.

Paris agreed the request from the New Caledonia legislature to hold the consultative referendum under the terms of a decolonisation plan, known as the Noumea Accord, agreed in 1998.

But the FLNKS statement said the government -- with the next year's presidential elections in mind -- was insisting on pressing ahead with the vote so as to meet its obligations under the Noumea Accord.

Given the health crisis, it argued, the referendum could not be held properly.

Lecornu, during his visit, said the health situation was "tense" but under control, and only a situation in which the epidemic was running riot could justify postponement of the referendum.

New Caledonia is due to hold what will be its third referendum on independence on December 12, having already twice rejected the proposal.


The Noumea Accord ended a deadly conflict between the mostly pro-independence indigenous Kanak population and the descendants of European settlers.

It allowed for up to three independence votes by 2022 if requested by at least a third of the local legislature.

In a first referendum in 2018, 57 percent voted to remain part of France. In the second, in October 2020, that share decreased to 53 percent.

An archipelago of around 270,000 inhabitants located about 2,000 kilometres (1,250) miles east of Australia, New Caledonia has been a French territory since 1853.

(AFP)

Chile fishermen protest to demand return to Port of Valparaiso

 

View of smoke as fishermen set tires on fire during a protest in the Port of Valparaiso, Chile Raul ZAMORA ATON CHILE/AFP

Issued on: 21/10/2021 - 

Santiago (AFP)

More than 200 fishermen, in boats of different sizes, protested in the port. They set fire to at least five huge tires hanging on the walls of the pier, according to AFP images.

The tires are there to prevent ships from colliding when they dock.

Uniformed Chilean Navy officers on patrol boats, who are in charge of port security, tried to put out the fires with jets of water from hoses that they also aimed at the fishing boats in an attempt to move them away.


"Naval personnel made use of rubber bullets with compressed air and fired them at the different boats that were in the sector," said Valparaiso's maritime governor Nelson Saavedra.

He said that fishermen responded with "stones, benzine, accelerant, paint bombs and also ran into the Navy boats."

Maritime police shoot tear gas at a fishing boat protesting in the Port of Valparaiso, Chile Raul ZAMORA ATON CHILE/AFP

The protesters said at least three of their numbers were injured. The fishermen are demanding the government fulfill an agreement to build a new dock at the port for their use.

The workers expect to be "compensated for the next four years during which they will be without a cove where they will not be able to work," the fishermen's lawyer, Felipe Olea, told local media.

Eight years ago, the fishermen were removed from an area of the Port of Valparaiso where they operated due to construction being done there.

They were transferred to the coastal town of Quintero, 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Valparaiso.

   

View of smoke as fishermen set tires on fire during a protest in the Port of Valparaiso, Chile 

Sebastián CISTERNAS ATON CHILE/AFP

The Port of Valparaiso, the country's second-largest, moved 9.3 million tons of cargo in 2019, while annually receiving at least 40 cruise ships and 100,000 visitors.

© 2021 AFP

Sudan’s fragile transition to democracy at stake as rival camps flex muscles

Sudanese protesters take part in a rally demanding the dissolution of the country's transitional government in Khartoum on Saturday, October 16, 2021. 

© Marwan Ali, AP
Text by: Benjamin DODMAN

Issued on: 21/10/2021 

Supporters of Sudan’s transitional government have called for mass rallies in Khartoum on Thursday amid fears the military is plotting to withdraw its support for an uneasy power-sharing agreement, more than two years after a popular uprising led to the overthrow of veteran autocrat Omar al-Bashir.

The call to protest sets the stage for a possible showdown between rival camps in the Sudanese capital, where supporters of military rule have held a sit-in outside the presidential palace since Saturday, calling for the dissolution of the country’s embattled transitional government.

The looming confrontation on the streets caps a month of escalating tensions between the military and a coalition of civilian political parties, who have ruled the country under a precarious power-sharing deal following Bashir’s removal in April 2019.

The two camps have repeatedly traded barbs since an apparent coup attempt in late September, with army leaders demanding a cabinet overhaul and politicians accusing the military of plotting a power grab. Civilian officials have blamed both Bashir loyalists and the military for stirring up unrest, including in the east of the country where tribal protesters have been blocking shipping at the crucial Red Sea hub of Port Sudan, exacerbating shortages stemming from the country’s long-running economic crisis.

Pleading for unity last week, Abdallah Hamdok, Sudan’s civilian prime minister, said the attempted coup had “opened the door for discord, and for all the hidden disputes and accusations from all sides". In this way, he added, “we are throwing the future of our country and people and revolution to the wind."

Ousting Bashir, and then what?

The escalating tensions in the troubled nation of 40 million have raised alarm bells in the region and beyond – though experts sound unsurprised. If anything, it is remarkable that Sudan’s uneasy transition has made it this far, says Professor Natasha Lindstaedt of the University of Essex, stressing the toxic legacy of three decades under Bashir’s autocratic rule.

“Bashir was a very personalistic dictator who caused institutions around him to decay, leaving behind a weak state and an institutional void,” she explains. “With this type of regime what often follows is complete collapse and chaos, as in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, [Muammar] Gaddafi’s Libya or [Ali Abdullah] Saleh’s Yemen.”

Instead, the “monumental undertaking” of Bashir’s ouster has seen relatively little bloodletting – aside from a bloody June 2019 crackdown on protesters – and, so far, a bumpy but largely peaceful transition, notes Lindstaedt, who has written extensively about attempts to transition from authoritarian to democratic regimes.
Sudan's PM urges restraint as army and civilian divisions deepen

01:26

“It could’ve turned into a civil war, but it didn’t,” she says. “Some feared a Libyan-style plunge into chaos or a military takeover, as in Egypt. In the end, Sudan took a middle way, even though the unity between civilians and the military is largely a façade.”

Civilian leaders remain suspicious of the army’s intentions, while key military figures are fearful of losing privileges acquired during the Bashir era. Some have been unnerved by calls for the extradition of the former strongman and his allies to the International Criminal Court, where they are wanted for alleged war crimes in Darfur.

Other civilian goals include purging Bashir’s allies, seizing assets and putting the military’s extensive economic holdings under civilian control.

The trouble, says Lindstaedt, is that Sudan is largely deprived of the key requirements for a successful democratic transition, such as political parties and functioning state institutions. Moreover, its civilian leaders have struggled to find much common ground beyond their opposition to Bashir, undermining their pitch in a sprawling country scarred by regional conflicts and a biting economic crisis.

“The civilian camp is too weak, too loose a coalition of different groups and interests,” adds Lindstaedt. “It needs a platform, a programme that is not just, ‘We don’t want Bashir’.”

Fake news and real grievances

Divisions within the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) – the umbrella civilian alliance that brought together Bashir’s opponents in 2019 – have presented the military with an opening to portray itself as the one stable entity that is above the fray, says David Kiwuwa, a professor of international studies at the University of Nottingham-Ningbo in China.

“Are they [the military] looking with glee as the civilian camp starts to unravel? Of course they are, because the more the civilians are unable to get their act together, the more they put the military in sharp contrast,” he explains.

Politicians have accused army leaders of exploiting divisions in the civilian camp and fanning popular discontent against the transitional government. They point out that pro-army demonstrators have been bussed into the capital, swelling the ranks of anti-government protesters, and have been left alone by unusually lenient security forces.

Senior military figures, like Mohamed Hamdan “Hemeti” Dagolo, the former head of the notorious Janjaweed militia and current head of the ruling Sovereign Council, have spoken disparagingly of politicians’ self-interest and compared it with the military’s purported selfless dedication to the good of the nation.

The battle for public opinion has also moved online, Reuters reported on Tuesday, noting that Facebook has recently shut down large networks used by Bashir loyalists to spread misinformation and agitate for a military takeover in Khartoum and civil disobedience in the east.

Fears of manipulation are certainly founded, says Michelle Gavin, the Ralph Bunche senior fellow for Africa policy studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, though cautioning that they should not distract from the real concerns and discontent voiced by the Sudanese people.

“While it is very likely that the apparent popular enthusiasm for military government is orchestrated by those in the security services who fear losing access to power, there are genuine grievances they can seize on to bolster their case,” she points out. “There is no question that many Sudanese civilians are impatient with the pace of reform and economic recovery, and dismayed by infighting within the transitional government that distracts from tackling larger social issues.”

Two years after Bashir ouster, protesters in Sudan decry slow political reform

01:36

Only a month ago, civilian officials were celebrating signs that Sudan’s protracted economic crisis was easing following promises of debt relief and international financing. Since then, however, unrest in the east has resulted in Khartoum experiencing acute shortages of bread and imported staples. This in turn has stoked anger at the government and overshadowed its less tangible achievements.

“The transitional government has made some progress, for instance in negotiating peace deals with rebellions, in matters of justice and reconciliation, freedoms in the public space and political prisoners,” says Kiwuwa. “But, at the end of the day, it’s matters of bread and butter that are the real pressing concern.”

Nation building

After precipitating the fall of Bashir back in 2019, will spiralling bread prices – a traditional trigger of popular uprisings – now help the military topple civilian rulers?

According to Kiwuwa, the Sudanese army will be reluctant to attempt the kind of takeover that brought Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to power in neighbouring Egypt, abruptly ending the country’s experiment with democracy.

Sudan’s power-sharing deal “was always going to be an uneasy marriage", he says. “But we haven’t necessarily reached a tipping point. The military is still wary of being seen to shove aside its civilian partner, which would spell the failure of the revolution and trigger widespread anger. It needs civilian help.”

Moreover, Sudan’s powerful military is no match for the Egyptian army with its sophisticated military apparatus and huge economic leverage, he adds.

International pressure is also being brought to bear, with a flurry of high-level officials recently stopping in Khartoum, including World Bank President David Malpass and US Special Envoy Jeffrey Feltman. Washington has warned that any military takeover would result in a return to the sanctions that hobbled the country under Bashir, and a rollback of debt forgiveness and international financing that are among the transition's biggest achievements.

As for the motley coalition that makes up Sudan’s “civilian” camp, it has “no other option than to continue the conversation, hoping to build some form of consensus in the years to come", says Kiwuwa.

“Sudan is facing an existential problem in how to build a Sudan for all the Sudanese,” he adds. “But you need to reach a measure of consensus in the first instance in order to understand what institutions to build.”

FROM MONARCHY TO SINGLE PARTY STATE
Democracy languishes 30 years after Cambodia peace deal

Premier Hun Sen, now in his fourth decade in power, has led a sustained crackdown on dissent 

Manan VATSYAYANA AFP/File

Issued on: 21/10/2021 

Phnom Penh (AFP)

The Paris Peace Agreements, signed on October 23, 1991, brought an end to nearly two decades of savage slaughter that began with the Khmer Rouge's ascent to power in 1975.

The genocidal regime wiped out up to two million Cambodians through murder, starvation and overwork, before a Vietnamese invasion toppled the communist Khmer Rouge but triggered a civil war.

The Paris accords paved the way for Cambodia's first democratic election in 1993 and effectively brought the Cold War in Asia to an end

Aid from the West flowed and Cambodia became the poster child for post-conflict transition to democracy.

But the gains were short-lived and Premier Hun Sen, now in his fourth decade in power, has led a sustained crackdown on dissent.

"We did a great job on bringing peace, but blew it on democracy and human rights," said former Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans, one of the architects of the peace deal.
Violence and graft

Evans said it was a mistake to agree to Hun Sen's demands for a power-sharing arrangement after the 1993 election.

"Hun Sen has amassed vast fortunes for his family... while almost 30 percent of Cambodians live barely above the poverty line," he said.

Rights groups say the veteran strongman maintains his iron grip on the country through a mix of violence, politically motivated prosecutions and corruption

 Manan VATSYAYANA AFP

Rights groups say the veteran strongman maintains his iron grip on the country through a mix of violence, politically motivated prosecutions and corruption.

Exiled opposition figurehead Sam Rainsy said the international community lacked the will in 1993 to stand up to Hun Sen, who had been installed as ruler by the Vietnamese in 1985.

"The West had a tendency to wait and see and look for imagined gradual improvements in governance. That clearly did not work," he told AFP.

"Cambodian politicians also have to accept some blame. Too many found it easier to accept a quiet but lucrative life in government than to say what they really thought."

Human Rights Watch said that under Hun Sen, "even the patina of democracy and basic rights" has collapsed in recent years.

In 2017, the Supreme Court dissolved the main opposition, the Cambodia National Rescue Party.

And since the 2018 election -- in which Hun Sen's party won every seat in parliament -- the authorities have arrested scores of former opposition members and rights campaigners.

Around 150 opposition figures and activists are facing a mass trial for treason and incitement charges, while the main opposition leader Kem Sokha is facing a separate treason trial.

Covid-19 has seen more curbs, with over 700 people arrested according to the UN rights body, which has warned that most may not have had a fair trial.

The spokesman for the ruling Cambodian People's Party insisted it was the "will of the people" to have one party in parliament.

"We have peace, we have political stability, it reflects that we correctly implement the principles of democracy, and there is no abuse of human rights either," Sok Eysan told AFP.

Political dynasty

There has been some international censure -- the European Union withdrew preferential trade rates last year over rights abuses -- but the pressure shows little sign of translating into change.

"The reality is Cambodia has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of China, like Laos next door, and that means Hun Sen has been able to comfortably thumb his nose at any potential economic or political pressure from elsewhere," Evans said.

In this file photo taken in 1993, people wait to cast their ballots in the country's first democratic election at a mobile polling station in Phnom Penh Romeo 

GACAD AFP

Speculation has simmered that the 69-year-old Hun Sen is grooming his eldest son Hun Manet -- a four-star general educated in Britain and the United States -- to take over the leadership one day.

But in March, the veteran ruler said he would no longer set a date for his retirement, and activists have little hope that a change in leadership will bring a new direction.

"In Cambodia, we don't have real democracy," Batt Raksmey told AFP.

Her campaigner husband was jailed in May for allegedly inciting unrest after he raised environmental concerns about a lake on the edge of Phnom Penh.

"People have no freedom to speak their opinion," she said. "When they speak out and criticise the government, they are arrested."

© 2021 AFP