UN Expert: Myanmar People Betrayed With ‘Vague Declarations’ And ‘Tedious, Endless Wait’ For Action

Tuesday, 22 March 2022
Press Release: UN Special Procedures - Human Rights

War crimes, crimes against humanity committed daily, says Tom Andrews

GENEVA (21 March 2022) – In the face of what he described as war crimes and crimes against humanity in Myanmar, a UN human rights expert today said the victims of these crimes see the international community’s failure to take strong, coordinated action as a betrayal.

“War crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed every day with impunity by the military junta of Myanmar,” Tom Andrews, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, told the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

“The people of Myanmar have been told that the world has a ‘responsibility to protect,’ victims of atrocity crimes, including crimes against humanity and war crimes. As the military junta escalates its ruthless attacks on the people of Myanmar, the people of Myanmar see only endless expressions of concern from the international community, vague declarations that something should be done and a tedious, endless wait for a consensus to act.

“For nearly 14 months, this body and other UN bodies have held meetings, issued statements and passed non-binding resolutions. Some Member States have sanctioned individuals and entities linked to the Myanmar military junta. For the people of Myanmar, these are welcome but insufficient steps to hold to account those responsible for relentless attacks on the people of Myanmar that continue at this very moment.”

Andrews pointed to international action in light of the crisis in Ukraine as a standard by which its response to the crisis in Myanmar can be measured: “Those responsible for the attacks against the people of Ukraine faced severe targeted sanctions personally, and their country’s central bank was sanctioned even as foreign currency reserves were frozen,” he said. “In the space of four days Member States of the United Nations summoned the political will to take tangible action.”

Andrews said the military junta had murdered more than 1,600 civilians, detained more than 10,000, displaced more than half a million, destroyed more than 4,500 homes since the start of this year, spread armed conflict to regions previously at peace, and continued to systematically oppress and persecute the Rohingya in Rakhine State.

“It is clear to me that the generals responsible for these escalating horrors are guilty of crimes against humanity, including the crimes of murder, enslavement, displacement and forcible transfer, enforced disappearance, torture, rape and sexual violence,” Andrews said.

“I also believe that junta forces have committed war crimes including willful killing, destruction of property, torture and inhumane treatment, pillaging, rape, and displacement of civilians, among other crimes.”

In a report to the Council, Andrews highlighted the cost of the junta’s attacks on the people of Myanmar: “The military junta has driven Myanmar into a humanitarian catastrophe marked by a crumbling health infrastructure, half the nation falling into poverty, rampant inflation, and the cruel and outrageous blocking of the delivery of aid to those in desperate need.”

The UN expert expressed his outrage and horror regarding the junta’s attacks on children. “Children are being targeted and killed even as they run with their parents for safety. More than 100 have been murdered since the coup was launched last year. More than 100 children are gone, victims of the military junta’s ruthlessness, brutality, and cowardice.

“As members of this Human Rights Council, a body that can serve as the conscience of the United Nations, I hope that most, if not all, of you are horrified and outraged as well.” Andrews added that nearly one million children have missed routine immunizations; this alone could result in the deaths of 33,000 children this year.”

Andrews implored the Council and its Member States to “stand with and for the people of Myanmar with not only words, but even more importantly, with action. Because for growing numbers of men, women and children in Myanmar, it is a matter of life and death.”

Mr. Thomas Andrews (United States of America) is the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar. A former member of the US Congress from Maine, Andrews is a Robina Senior Human Rights Fellow at Yale Law School and an Associate of Harvard University’s Asia Center. He has worked with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and parliamentarians, NGOs and political parties in Cambodia, Indonesia, Algeria, Croatia, Serbia, Ukraine and Yemen. He has been a consultant for the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma and the Euro-Burma Network and has run advocacy NGOs including Win Without War and United to End Genocide.

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Economic security: A need for a renewed global effort

Amongst the tough lessons learnt by companies, nations and alliances from the pandemic has been the fragility of economies and supply chains in absorbing shocks.

EXPERT COMMENT

CHATHMAN HOUSE

21 MARCH 2022

Theo Beal
Richard and Susan Hayden Academy Fellow at the Queen Elizabeth II Academy for Leadership in International Affairs, Asia-Pacific Programme

Despite the significant private sector successes in keeping products supplied globally, a reassessment of preparedness has intertwined with the pre-existing sentiment of cautiousness towards external economic threats in the 21st century, heightened by the US-China trade war in 2018 and 2019.

This has led to the increasing appearance of national ‘economic security’ in the lexicon of global administrations, certain to be amplified by the impact of the ongoing war in Ukraine on trade and supply in key energy and agricultural sectors.

In the Asia-Pacific region, Japan’s new prime minister Fumio Kishida has established a dedicated Minister for Economic Security and is in the process of legislating a landmark Economic Security Bill.

Similarly, Australia has set up an Office of Supply Chain Resilience within their government infrastructure and a regional Supply Chain Resilience Initiative partnership with India and Japan to minimize supply chain vulnerabilities that could adversely impact their economic security.

However, this is now a truly global concern. The 2021 UK presidency of the G7 argued ‘for a step-change in global economic governance’ with a renewed focus on the collective management of economic and supply chain risks.

The concept of ‘economic security’ encompasses a broad set of interconnected issues and elements, such as investment screening, anti-coercion instruments research integrity, and supply chain resilience. Focusing on supply chain resilience, there are three fundamental issues to consider.

1. A collective understanding of economic security

Transparency is required between like-minded countries as to their specific definitions of economic security and the strategic policies that underpin it. This will assist in the creation of a clearer framework to facilitate cooperation on the issue where policies overlap.

Transparency is required between like-minded countries as to their specific definitions of economic security and the strategic policies that underpin it.

Difficulty lies in national economic security regimes requiring a balance of defensive and offensive policy design dependent on the specific country condition. Primary factors in building strategies are national security concerns and competitive advantage in certain trade sectors.

Japan, for example, recognizes the tension between the protection of their assets and supply chains against vulnerabilities (through non-disclosure of patents and strengthening of core infrastructure) and simultaneously remaining an active member of a thriving liberalized trading system.

Similarly, the United States has stressed a willingness to work with partners to ‘strengthen and diversify the entire supply chain ecosystem over the long term’ whilst being explicit that self-protection from the threats of China is central to their defensive economic security concerns for supply chain resilience and strengthening trade rules against perceived unfair foreign trade practices.

2. Diplomatic and sustainable diversification of supply chains

Redesigning and diversifying global supply chains to reduce reliance on single sources of production is central to the mitigations that countries are exploring to enhance their economic security.

This process triggers diplomatic tension where nations are trying to ‘wean off’ reliance on geopolitical adversaries in critical sectors. Most notably in reserves of rare earth minerals for semiconductors (vital to the production of numerous high-tech products) dominated by China, which is explicitly mentioned in the strategies of critical and sensitive economic areas from Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom’s Integrated Review.

It is imperative that diversification is undertaken with consideration of sustainability and environmental impacts and whether circular economy principles of recycling and material reuse can be embedded.

Diversification leads to approaches such as the establishment of redundant production capability and stockpiling of products that can protect against future shocks. However, it is worth noting that adapting product supply to multiple sources can make risk management and mitigation more challenging.

Secondly, it is imperative that this is undertaken with consideration of sustainability and environmental impacts and whether circular economy principles of recycling and material reuse can be embedded.

Meaningful private sector engagement by governments is vital to the delivery and continuous improvement of supply chain diversification. It’s necessary for governments at both national and international levels to define their role in regulating public-private partnerships as economies attempt to concurrently protect themselves (e.g. to mitigate against threats such as cyberattacks) and grow (e.g. through the utilization of technological advancement).

3. The role of multilateral institutions

There is consensus amongst global powers that multilateral engagement is beneficial for protection against supply chain vulnerabilities and successful import and export diversification.

Amidst the crowd of international institutions, clarity is required about how they will each play specific and complementary roles in achieving economic security goals, particularly to what extent they can broker agreements between competing powers.

Different preferences have been shown for impactful dialogue from multilateral institutions. As one of their leading members, the United States has unsurprisingly cited the benefits of the G7 forum and the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) group with India, Japan and Australia. Whereas the United Kingdom have considered the OECD as an appropriate coordinating organization for developing multilateral approaches to economic resilience.

Transparency and information sharing between nations is the first step in the journey towards meaningful international cooperation on economic security.

Effective trade coordination is paramount in the journey towards economic security. Questions remain as to whether the World Trade Organization is able to sufficiently foster a collaborative environment between members and consequently adapt trade policy.

Amendment to free trade agreements at the bilateral and regional levels may be more effective in sustainably increasing export and import diversification for member countries. The UK’s recent application for membership of CPTPP is considerably driven by the economic security benefits of free trade partnership.

Transparency and information sharing between nations is the first step in the journey towards meaningful international cooperation on economic security. This is critical in avoiding the creation of protectionist economic weapon for nations to deploy against rivals.

Instead, installing economic tools underpinned by legitimate security concerns that both strengthen supply chains and grow competitive trading areas.

Tunisia military judge orders release of president's opponent

TUNIS (Reuters) - A Tunisian military judge on Monday ordered the release of Abd Errazak Kilani, a lawyer and prominent opponent of President Kais Saied, from prison pending trial, Kilani’s lawyer told Reuters.

Kilani was imprisoned this month on a charge of inciting police to break the law. The judge, who had the option of releasing Kilani, did not give a reason for the decision. A trial date has not been announced.

Last summer, Saied suspended parliament and seized most powers, in a move his opponents called a coup. He also changed the supreme judicial council reinforcing the one-man rule.

Kilani’s arrest this month sparked the anger‮ ‬of human rights groups at home and abroad, who accused President Saied of seeking to impose a dictatorial regime and using the military judiciary to target his opponents.

But Saied rejected accusations and said he did not interfere in the judiciary.

Reporting By Tarek Amara; Editing by Cynthia Osterman

Ukraine war threatens food crisis and political upheaval across Africa, warns top economist

The continent is deeply reliant on cereals imports

ByWill Brown IN DAKAR

21 March 2022 •

A grain storage facility in Odesa. Ukraine produces almost 12 per cent of the wheat in the global export market 

CREDIT: Simon Townsley/The Telegraph

The war in Ukraine threatens to lead to food riots, political upheaval and turn back the clock in years of progress in Africa, the continent’s top economist told The Telegraph.

“This war has to come to an end. It's not just a war in Ukraine. It's a war that has global ramifications,” Dr Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, told The Telegraph.

“The price of wheat has gone up by 62 per cent [since the beginning of the war]. The price of maize has gone up by 36 per cent. The price of soya beans by 29 per cent. Now the price of fertilisers, which are very, very critical for food productions, has gone up by 300 per cent – that's three times.”

“And when you couple that with energy prices that are also rising in many African countries, you can see that this is driving inflation. If urgent action is not taken, it could lead to a food crisis in Africa.”
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Dr Adesina is one of the most respected and recognisable public figures on the continent.

For the last seven years, the Nigerian economist has led the African Development Bank, an African Union institution dedicated to fighting poverty and improving living conditions not through short term aid donations but through public and private investment programs.

Mykhailo Golovatyuk in a grain storage facility on a farm in Odesa, Ukraine 

CREDIT: Simon Townsley/The Telegraph


Speaking to The Telegraph in an exclusive interview, he laid out the challenge the war in Ukraine posed to Africa, which is deeply reliant on cereals imports from the two countries.

Dr Adesina said that Covid-19 lockdowns across the continent and a climate change-induced drought across eastern Africa had already severely damaged food production and that the rapidly rising food prices were throwing regional governments a curveball.

Ukraine and Russia export about 25 per cent of the world's wheat, while together, both countries make up about 80 per cent of the world's sunflower oil trade.

Africa relies heavily on both countries for food imports – countries like Benin, Somalia, Tanzania, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Egypt get more than 50 per cent of their wheat imports from Russia and Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the World Food Program, which helps feed tens of millions of people in crises across Africa, buys more than half of the wheat from Ukraine.

“East Africa is particularly of concern to us. Russia and Ukraine supply most of the grains to this region. In fact, East Africa relies on these two countries for 90 per cent of their wheat.”

“The price of food accounts for about 65 per cent of the consumer price index. So you can imagine what [rapidly rising food prices] is going to do for low-income earners in Africa. It's going to worsen poverty. It's going to worsen food insecurity.”

His comments came after the United Nations warned on Friday that Russia's blockade of Ukraine's access to the Black Sea risked triggering famines worldwide.

“For the last three years, global rates of hunger and famine have been on the rise. With the Russian invasion, we are now facing the risk of imminent famine and starvation in more places around the world,” said Michael Fakhri, the UN's special rapporteur on the right to food.

Dr Adesina said that rising food and energy prices could have serious political repercussions for many African countries. “That keeps me very worried…We may have some food riots because people can't survive like that.”

“We saw what happened in Tunisia. The Arab Spring came just because of that. If we don't bring the prices down very quickly, it creates a risk of fragility in already very tense political situations in many African countries.”

He added that the increased price of liquified gas meant that more Africans were returning to cooking with charcoal which is far more polluting and extremely damaging for the health.

East Africa has been hit by climate change-related droughts 

CREDIT: Brian Inganga /AP

However, the World Food Prize winner argued that Africa was more than capable of looking out for itself but that it needed to invest massively in boosting agricultural production.

He pointed to one of the Bank's flagship programs that rapidly boosted food supplies in seven African countries.

According to Dr Adesina, simple methods like delivering heat-tolerant wheat varieties to farmers boosted wheat production per hectare by about 75 per cent in Sudan and 260 per cent in Ethiopia in just two years in the target areas.

According to African Development Bank statistics, this allowed Ethiopia to reduce its wheat imports by more than 50 per cent.

“We have what it takes. We need financing to feed Africa and advert a food crisis,” says Dr Adesina. “When Covid-19 struck, we were not ready. But for this, we are ready.”

U.N. Chief Warns of ‘Catastrophe’ With Continued Use of Fossil Fuels

António Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, said instead of replacing Russian oil, gas and coal, nations must pivot to clean energy.


António Guterres, the U.N. Secretary General, at the organization's headquarters in New York City this month.Credit...Andrew Kelly/Reuters


By Lisa Friedman
March 21, 2022

WASHINGTON — Countries are “sleepwalking to climate catastrophe” if they continue to rely on fossil fuels, and nations racing to replace Russian oil, gas and coal with their own dirty energy are making matters worse, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres warned on Monday.

The ambitious promises world leaders made last year at a climate summit in Glasgow were “naïve optimism,” Mr. Guterres said. Nations are nowhere near the goal of limiting the average global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century. That’s the threshold beyond which scientists say the likelihood of catastrophic impacts increases significantly. The planet has already warmed an average of 1.1 degrees Celsius.

And the pollution that is dangerously heating the planet is continuing to increase. Global emissions are set to rise by 14 percent in the 2020s, and emissions from coal continue to surge, he said.

Yes, There Has Been Progress on Climate. No, It’s Not Nearly Enough.
Nations have started making progress on climate change. But we’re still on track for dangerous warming unless those efforts accelerate drastically.

“The 1.5 degree goal is on life support. It is in intensive care,” Mr. Guterres said in remarks delivered to a summit The Economist is hosting on sustainability via video address.

“We are sleepwalking to climate catastrophe,” he said. “If we continue with more of the same, we can kiss 1.5 goodbye. Even 2 degrees may be out of reach. And that would be catastrophe.”

Mr. Guterres’s speech comes as the European Union is trying to find ways to reduce its dependence on Russian oil and gas, and countries like the United States are scrambling to increase fossil fuel production to stabilize energy markets. President Biden and European leaders have said that the short-term needs will not upend their longer-term vision of shifting to wind, solar and other renewable sources that do not produce dangerous greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate Forward There’s an ongoing crisis — and tons of news. Our newsletter keeps you up to date. Get it sent to your inbox.

But the U.N. secretary general said he fears that strategy endangers the goal of rapid reduction of fossil fuel burning. Keeping the planet at safe levels means slashing emissions worldwide 45 percent by 2050, scientists have said.

In Glasgow in November world leaders promised to stave off climate change and, for the first time, planned to “phase down” coal — the dirtiest fossil fuel. Leaders from 100 countries also pledged to stop deforestation by 2030, a move considered vital since trees absorb carbon dioxide. The United States, Europe and about 100 other nations also said they would cut methane emissions 30 percent by 2030. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas produced from oil and gas operations.

But there has been almost no progress, Mr. Guterres said. In addition, rich countries most responsible for polluting the planet have not met their obligation to help the poorest countries — already “slammed” by high inflation, rising interest rates and debt — to develop clean energy, he said.

At the same time, he warned, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is upending global energy markets, further undermining climate goals.

“As major economies pursue an ‘all-of-the-above’ strategy to replace Russian fossil fuels, short-term measures might create long-term fossil fuel dependence and close the window to 1.5 degrees,” Mr. Guterres said.

He cautioned countries could become so focused on the immediate need to fill the oil, gas and coal gap “that they neglect or kneecap policies to cut fossil fuel use.”

Understand the Latest News on Climate Change

Card 1 of 4

A messaging battle. The general public in the United States is broadly supportive of a determined move away from fossil fuels. Climate scientists and oil executives, however, have very different views of how that energy transition should play out.

Enduring drought. Drought conditions are likely to continue across more than half of the continental United States through at least June, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. Nearly 60 percent of the continental United States is experiencing drought.

An Amazon tipping point. The Amazon is losing its ability to recover from droughts and land-use changes, a study found, adding to concern that the rainforest is nearing a point where much of it will be replaced by grassland, with vast consequences for biodiversity and climate change.

Struggling to adapt. The dangers of climate change are mounting so rapidly that they could soon overwhelm the ability of both nature and humanity to adapt, according to a major U.N. report. The lack of prompt action is pushing some scientists to go on strike.


“This is madness,” he said. “Addiction to fossil fuels is mutually assured destruction.”

Last week the International Energy Agency warned that the world faced its first global energy crisis, and recommended that major economies conserve energy by implementing 10 strategies, from carpooling to traveling by train instead of airplane.

In his speech, Mr. Guterres said wealthy nations should be dismantling coal infrastructure to phase it out completely by 2030, with other nations doing so by 2040. He called for an end to fossil fuel subsidies and a halt to new oil and gas exploration. Mr. Guterres also said private sector financing for coal must end.

“Their support for coal not only could cost the world its climate goals,” he said. “It’s a stupid investment — leading to billions in stranded assets.”

The American Petroleum Institute, which represents oil and gas companies, said in a statement that the industry “can responsibly develop America’s vast resources while at the same time reducing emissions to address climate change.”

President Biden has promised a rapid clean energy transition in the United States but it has not started yet. Legislation he has championed to hasten the shift to renewable energy, the Build Back Better Act, is stalled in Congress. Meanwhile, his plans to stop new oil and gas leasing have faced challenges in the courts.

Lisa Friedman reports on federal climate and environmental policy from Washington. She has broken multiple stories about the Trump administration’s efforts to repeal climate change regulations and limit the use of science in policymaking. @LFFriedman
A version of this article appears in print on March 22, 2022, Section A, Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: Warning of a ‘Catastrophe’ With the Use of Fossil Fuels. 

More from the U.N. on climate change

Time Is Running Out to Avert a Harrowing Future, Climate Panel Warns
Feb. 28, 2022

United Nations Warns of ‘Catastrophic Pathway’ With Current Climate Pledges
Sept. 17, 2021

U.N. Chief Warns of a Dangerous Tipping Point on Climate Change
Sept. 10, 2018

Air pollution cut India’s solar energy output by a third

The scientists said air quality was so bad that shortwave radiation from the sun was not able to reach solar panels on the ground

ByHarriet Barber,

GLOBAL HEALTH REPORTER

21 March 2022 •

India dominates the list of cities that have particle pollution levels more than 20 times the World Health Organization guidelines 

CREDIT: Ritesh Shukla/Getty Images

India lost almost a third of its solar power potential between 2001 and 2018 due to air pollution, scientists have found, in a blow to the country's clean energy transition.

A study by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi said the country lost 29 per cent of its utilisable “global horizontal irradiance potential”, or the radiation that generates solar power, over the 17-year period.

India dominates the list of cities that have particle pollution levels more than 20 times the World Health Organization guidelines. Nine of the world’s 10 most polluted cities are in South Asian country.

Health experts regularly warn that air pollution is a leading cause of death – killing 1.25 million people in India every year and seven million globally – but the impact on renewable energy is less reported.

Air pollution is diminishing India's capacity to harness power from the sun, the IIT has warned CREDIT: Sam Panthaky/AFP Contributor


For the study, the IIT scientists considered the “soiling effect”, which is the presence of solid dust, and “atmospheric attenuation”, the scattering of light due to gaseous pollutants in the air.

According to the team, India could have relied less on fossil fuels for power if it had met its clean air targets by generating more renewable energy.

India aims to reach net zero emissions by 2070 and to meet fifty percent of its electricity requirements from renewable energy sources by 2030.

The researchers said that if the National Clean Air Programme is successfully implemented – reducing aerosol pollution by 20-30 per cent by 2024 compared to 2017 levels – and household emissions are mitigated through cleaner fuel, the additional solar energy generated would translate to an “economic benefit of $325-845 million annually”.

The researchers said the impact of attenuation and soiling was “greatest” in the eastern power grid, “with 16 per cent less sunlight reaching horizontal solar panels” in the period.

Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security

The Blame Game

March 21, 2022

The origins of today’s catastrophe lie in the Western mindscape.

The immediate blame for the catastrophe engulfing Ukraine lies with the criminal regime in the Kremlin, and its deluded and vengeful leader, Vladimir Putin. But the deeper responsibility lies with countries that are many times bigger, richer, and more powerful than Russia. They could have constrained and deterred it. They failed to do so. If Western leaders had grasped Russia’s designs on its neighbors, tens of millions of Ukrainians would right now be continuing the free, safe, happy lives they enjoyed before February 24th.

This lethal obliviousness is a puzzle. Decision-makers in Berlin, Brussels, London, Paris, and Washington DC are not stupid. They have access to the best information in the world. Yet in plain sight, Russia for decades pursued intolerable aims by means of murderous crimes coupled with outrageous lies. Why did Western leaders ignore this?

Chiefly because they were ignorant. “Eastern Europe” never quite registered on the mental maps of these Western politicians and officials. They had not been on holiday there. They had no friends from these places. They had rarely read the literature. Scientific genius was appropriated by other countries (Marie Curie lost the second half of her surname, Skłodowska, and counted as French, not Polish). Only among classical music buffs did the captive nations form even a bridgehead in Western minds, thanks to composers such as Fryderyk Chopin, Béla Bartók, Leoš Janáček, and Arvo Pärt. The huge, even suffocating, influence of Russia, a cultural superpower, helped make smaller countries in-between seem, literally, marginal.

This mental desert is a product of the past 100 years. It started with Stalin’s isolationist policies in the interwar period and was entrenched by the Iron Curtain. In earlier centuries it would have seemed as bizarre as north European ignorance of the continent’s southern half, or vice versa. But for the post-war generations in western Europe, “Eastern Europe” was — literally — a gray area: backward and remote.

This was an unpleasant shock for the people who emerged from their decades of torture-kidnap after 1989. Their family and neighbors in the free world had largely forgotten them. Many viewed their reappearance as a costly and potentially risky nuisance. The strange relatives, with their bad teeth, odd clothes, heavy accents, and old-fashioned mores, were expected to be quiet and grateful, not to express vigorous, well-informed views about the continent’s future security. Only Czechoslovakia’s Václav Havel, with his extraordinary literary gifts and philosophical insights, briefly punctured the cloud of unknowing.

Russia, by contrast, was pampered. Keeping a “pro-Western” leadership safely in the Kremlin was far more important than anything else.

Ignorance begets arrogance. People from the region who warned the West about, for example, the Kremlin’s use of ill-defined “Russian-speakers” as a geopolitical lever were patronized, belittled, or told to solve the problem by giving this mythical political category extra rights.

Arrogance begets complacency. When Russia started making mischief in Western countries they responded by dismissing the problem as a mere irritant.

Greed compounded the problem. As Mark Twain noted, it is hard to make a case to someone whose livelihood depends on them believing the opposite. The “Caviar Express” trundled through Western corridors of power, offering passengers juicy fees and luxurious sinecures. Murders, cyberattacks, energy blackmail, corruption, gangsterism, and most of all full-blown revanchism went largely unpunished, while wishful thinking drenched decision-making.

With Ukraine’s flag now a fashion accessory and President Volodymyr Zelensky reprising Havel’s brief stint in the spotlight as the moral leader of the free world, the West’s once-bare mental maps are vividly painted.

But chiefly in shades of bloody red. For the bill is due. And the innocents, not the ignoramuses, are paying.


Photo: A woman stands in a smashed window inside a residential building damaged as a result of shelling by Russian troops in Sviatoshynskyi district, Kyiv, capital of Ukraine. Credit: Oleksandra Butova/Ukrinform/NurPhoto.


Edward Lucas

Europe’s Edge is an online journal covering crucial topics in the transatlantic policy debate. All opinions are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position or views of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis.

German LNG Terminal’s Developers Seek Fast Track to Cut Russian Gas Reliance

Bloomberg News, Bloomberg News

BC- German-LNG-Terminal’s-Developers-Seek-Fast-Track-to-Cut-Russian-Gas-Reliance , Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- The developers of a planned German liquefied natural gas terminal are pushing to fast-track the project as part of efforts to cut dependence on Russian supplies.

The facility in Brunsbuettel near Hamburg has been planned for several years, though recently faced setbacks and permitting delays. But following the invasion of Ukraine, the German government this month stepped in as a partner for the terminal as Europe looks to wean itself off Russian energy, such as importing LNG from countries like the U.S. and Qatar.

For the Brunsbuettel site, that could mean speeding up the permitting process so construction can start next year, and raising the terminal regasification capacity, according to German LNG Terminal GmbH, the company developing the project.

“They are in a hurry, they are pushing, they want the terminal to be built as soon as possible,” Marcel Tijhuis, senior business developer at German LNG Terminal, said at a conference in Vienna. “With the entry of the German government, we hope the permitting process will get a really big push.”

German state-owned lender KfW will own half of the project, with Nederlandse Gasunie NV owning 40% and acting as an operator, and utility RWE AG holding a 10% stake, Tijhuis said.

While permits could take a year without the recent shareholder changes, construction could begin in 2023 and operations in 2025 if they’re secured this year, he said in an interview on the sidelines of the event.

The project could also start before it’s fully completed. Once a regasification plant is built onshore, arriving vessels can feed LNG there, and then onwards in gaseous form to grids, without the need to wait for tanks to be built, he said.

Depending on approval from the regulator, the terminal regasification capacity can be increased to 10 billion cubic meters a year from 8 billion cubic meters, Tijhuis said. Supply is expected to come from RWE and Axpo Holding AG, but German LNG Terminal has also seen a surge in interest from other companies.

Gasunie is also involved in a floating LNG terminal at Eemshaven in the Netherlands, which could start by October and supply 5 billion to 8 billion cubic meters a year. 

Exmar, Gasunie Reach Pact for 5-Year Charter for LNG Terminal

The Gate LNG terminal in Rotterdam is also set for expansion, potentially to as much as 20 billion cubic meters, from 12 billion cubic meters now, Tijhuis said. The facilities will help meet demand in the Netherlands, Germany and northwest Europe as a whole, he said. 

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

Opinion: In four years of his rule, Imran Khan has proven he is Pakistan’s Donald Trump

Many similarities between the two leaders are startlingly close.

Pervez Hoodbhoy, Dawn.com

File photo: Former US President Donald Trump and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. | AFP

In September 2015, Dawn carried my op-ed article, “Pakistan’s Donald Trump”. This was 16 months before Trump became President of the United States and about three years before Imran Khan became Prime Minister of Pakistan.

It generated much commentary – both ways. Days later, Washington-based analyst Michael Kugelman published his riposte, also in Dawn, dismissing my comparisons as “merely superficial”. He concluded that “Naya Pakistan may be naïve, but it is neither nasty nor nefarious”.

Seven years is an eternity in the world of politics. What has Naya Pakistan come to mean? Since 2015, much has happened: Trump narrowly won the presidency but failed at re-election. Since then, he has not stopped trying to claw his way back to power. Khan was the winner in the controlled elections of 2018 and has had nearly four years of selling Naya Pakistan. His fate presently rests upon the no-confidence motion before Parliament.

Redoing comparison

To redo the Trump-Khan comparison is timely. Certainly, some similarities I had alluded to earlier remain unaltered. Then, as now, the political toolkits of both men include abundant use of abusive language for firing up supportive mobs. So is making promises that, even if unfulfillable, help generate fantasies in their followers.

The first time around these tools, together with practised theatrics, worked well. Once installed in power, the orange-skinned president cultivated an ecosystem of sycophants, sellers of snake oil and white extremists.

In a blizzard of disinformation, his political opponents were blamed for all failures of governance and economic mismanagement. The Washington Post says Trump’s false or misleading claims total 30,573 over four years. Impressive.

But Americans soon realised that although Trump was brilliant before the cameras, on governance he was clueless. The economy, race matters and foreign relations headed south. Relations with European allies plummeted even as the Putin-Trump personal rapport grew stronger. When voters rejected Trump for a second term, this was incomprehensible to a man who adored himself beyond limit.

To reverse the election results he tried everything but, unfortunately for him, American democracy proved too robust. The Department of Justice and the military flatly rejected his proposal to seize voting machines and redo the elections. The siege of Capitol Hill – in a country with 200 years of democracy – shocked the world.

Startlingly close similarities

While places, times, and people are obviously different for Pakistan, many similarities are startlingly close – and growing closer. Khan is already concocting an explanation for his possible ouster: he is being punished by the West for his independent foreign policy and jihad against Islamophobia. He threatens to unleash hell upon turncoat members of his own party and, of course, the opposition.

On March 27 – D-Day at Islamabad’s D-Chowk – Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is mobilising party and state resources for holding what it says will be the “biggest rally” in Pakistan’s history. The goal: to message parliamentarians, both Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Opposition, that they must not enter Parliament to vote on the no-confidence motion.

One significant difference separates Capitol Hill from D-Chowk. Whereas Trump brought out his supporters with winks and nods, nothing has been left to the imagination here. Pakistan’s Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry says all parliamentarians arriving to vote on that day would have to pass through a million Khan supporters on their way to the National Assembly and – even more significantly – on their way back as well. There they will face a lynch mob.

How violent it all gets on D-Day, and the final outcome, cannot be presently known. The siege of the Capitol left American democracy hanging by a thread. Nevertheless, the system was robust enough to blunt the worse.

Khan’s legacy

In Pakistan, what lies ahead may or may not end with Khan’s ouster. But what will be his legacy when he does finally go?

On democracy: depriving parliamentarians of their right to vote is a slap in the face to democracy and decency. That this violates the Constitution is clear as day. But, to be honest, worse has happened before. Four martial laws have trampled the Constitution under the boot. And, even without overt constitutional violations, crooked politicians and generals have stuffed their pockets for decades and parked their assets in unreachable places.

On the economy: today’s galloping inflation, repeated returns to the International Monetary Fund, more whitewashing of black money, dramatic fall of the Pakistani rupee and performance levels well below that of India and Bangladesh, are significant negatives. But do not blame Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf alone. Pakistan’s systemic economic weaknesses stem from overspending on defence, elite capture of national wealth, and a hopelessly under-skilled workforce. That is why China–Pakistan Economic Corridor’s new infrastructure led to insignificant industrialisation. The same would have happened in a Pakistan Muslim League (N) or Pakistan Peoples Party government.

On foreign relations: the world noticed Prime Minister Khan hailing Osama bin Laden a martyr, calling the Taliban liberators, shaking hands with Putin just before the Ukraine war, wantonly spiting the European Union although it is one of Pakistan’s economic props and sending relations with Saudi Arabia crashing down. Still, these are reversible. A new Prime Minister can set things right.

On education: Khan’s toxic legacy will be nearly irreversible. While Madrasas do exactly today what they have done for decades and centuries, Punjab’s regular schools now function more as Madrasas and less as schools.

Even the super-rich are only partly exempted. The kind of mixed-up, confused and ignorant generations that the so-called Single National Curriculum will produce is absolutely terrifying. On the higher education front, Khan has disembowelled the Higher Education Commission and made it a hotbed of intrigue.

When Khan proclaimed Naya Pakistan would be Riyasat-i-Madina, most people thought it was a metaphor for a cleaner, more equitable Pakistan. Our friend from Washington can be forgiven for thinking this as neither “nasty nor nefarious”.

Almost everyone failed to see the hidden text: the head of any religious state must claim divine sanction in some form. With near-daily fiery pontifications on his ideas of moral behaviour and proper dress, Khan’s “high vision” is fully before us. And, just in case you are unsure whether Naya Pakistan’s head should stay or go, please remember that “only animals can be neutral”.

This article first appeared in Dawn.

Pakistan editors council slams Imran Khan for baseless allegations against media

The Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors on Sunday reprimanded Prime Minister Imran Khan and demanded that government tender a collective apology over false and baseless allegations against the media.

ANI | Islamabad | Updated: 21-03-2022

Representative Image . Image Credit: ANI
Country:
Pakistan

The Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors on Sunday reprimanded Prime Minister Imran Khan and demanded that government tender a collective apology over false and baseless allegations against the media. "Why not an application be submitted for action against you under the PECA Ordinance?" Daily Times quoted CPNE President Kazam Khan as saying in a statement while addressing Imran Khan.

CPNE president added that no one has abused the freedom of expression more than Khan. "Mr Prime Minister, you must be well aware of the punishment of slander in Riasat-e-Madinah. The court is requested to review its verdict of Sadiq and Amin regarding the prime minister," he stated according to the media outlet.

The Prime Minister was asked by the CPNE president to name media outlets that are receiving domestic and foreign aid. "Not just names, give evidence against them as well ... otherwise you need to tender an apology," he told the prime minister, adding that any restrictions on freedom of the press and baseless allegations against media will be challenged at every forum. "CPNE will also approach the court for legal proceedings under the defamation laws." (ANI)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)