It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Friday, April 01, 2022
Ethiopia: Supreme Court upholds bail for journalist
The top court has upheld the order to release the journalist, who has been imprisoned for four months without charges. Freelance video journalist Amir Aman Kiyaro, who works with The Associated Press, poses for a photograph at his wedding in October 2021 in Ethiopia [AP Photo]
Published On 31 Mar 202231 Mar 2022
Ethiopia’s Supreme Court has upheld the order to release on bail journalist Amir Aman Kiyaro, who has been imprisoned for four months without charges, rejecting a police effort to block his bail.
The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the appeal by police against bail that had been granted by a lower court earlier this week for Kiyaro, an Ethiopian video journalist accredited to The Associated Press.
That ruling said Kiyaro should be freed on bail while prosecutors determine whether or not to press charges against him.
The bail of 60,000 Ethiopian birr, about $1,170, has been paid, but Kiyaro remained in custody Thursday while police processed the bail paperwork before his expected release, according to his lawyer.
Kiyaro, 30, was detained on November 28 in Addis Ababa under the country’s war-related state of emergency powers.
He is accused of “serving the purposes” of what the government has classified as a “terrorist” group by interviewing its officials, according to reports by Ethiopian state media, which cited federal police. Local journalist Thomas Engida was arrested at the same time and faces similar charges. Ethiopia’s Supreme Court also ruled that Engida should be released on bail.
If the journalists are found guilty of violating Ethiopia’s anti-terrorism law or the state of emergency law, they could face sentences of seven to 15 years behind bars, federal police inspector Tesfaye Olani has told state media.
Despite the granting of bail after four months of police investigation and detention, it still remains uncertain whether prosecutors will proceed to press charges against Kiyaro.
The state of emergency was lifted in February as the government cited changing conditions in the deadly conflict between Ethiopian forces and those of the northern Tigray region.
“We are relieved that journalist Amir Aman Kiyaro has again been granted bail,” Julie Pace, the AP’s executive editor, said. “However, Ethiopian authorities continue their investigation against him. We urge the Ethiopian authorities to drop their baseless investigation against Amir, an independent journalist targeted for his work.”
Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders urged Ethiopian authorities to immediately release Kiyaro and Engida and to not press any charges against them. “They should be freed with no further delay and the case be dropped!” said the group in a tweet.
SOURCE: AP
CANADIAN RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL DELEGATES TALK TO POPE
‘I needed to be here’: Indigenous delegates speak their truths
Al Jazeera speaks to Indigenous delegates meeting with Pope Francis to demand an apology for residential schools.
Metis, Inuit and First Nations leaders, residential school survivors and youth are in Rome, Italy to demand an apology from the Catholic Church for its role in residential schools in Canada [Amber Bracken/Al Jazeera]
Warning: The story below contains details of residential schools that may be upsetting. Canada’s Indian Residential School Survivors and Family Crisis Line is available 24 hours a day at 1-866-925-4419.
Rome, Italy – Representatives of the Metis, Inuit and First Nations peoples in Canada travelled to Rome this week at the invitation of Pope Francis to discuss the impacts of Canada’s residential schools.
The federally funded institutions operated from the late 1800s until 1997 with the goal of forcibly assimilating Indigenous children into the mainstream European culture.
Over 150,000 Indigenous children from across the country attended the schools and experienced physical, sexual, emotional, verbal and spiritual abuse. Thousands died while in attendance
The Roman Catholic Church administered more than 60 percent of the schools and despite multiple pleas from survivors for an apology, the church has not yet given one.
During their meetings in the Italian capital, the Indigenous delegation – made up of community leaders, residential school survivors, and youth – told the pope about the horrors of the residential school system and asked for him to come to Canada to apologise on Indigenous lands.
Al Jazeera spoke to five delegates about the visit’s importance and what they hope to achieve.
Norman Yakeleya, Dene, First Nations delegate, survivor of Grollier Hall residential school in Inuvik, Northwest Territories
Former Dene Nation National Chief Norman Yakeleya is a residential school survivor [Amber Bracken/Al Jazeera]
Yakeleya was taken from his parents and sent to the residential school at age five. He was kept there until his late teenage years and says he endured verbal, physical, spiritual and sexual abuse
“We paid the price as survivors, and my mother and all mothers paid the price for sending their kids to attend.
“At that time, we didn’t talk about it. We didn’t feel and we certainly didn’t trust anybody. Everything was kept in secrecy under the cloak of the Roman Catholic Church because those people [weren’t supposed to] do those things, we were told. They worked for God. So, we lived in our own jails with our own hurts and not knowing what to do and how to say things.
“When you’re hurt, especially by sexual abuse, as a young boy, you don’t talk about it. There’s a lot of shame. How can another man do that to you? And then try to live a good life as the Bible teaches us? How can you forgive that?
“Sometimes it doesn’t seem like there’s hope. But I get to live another day here.
“‘This too shall pass,’ it says in the Bible. The Bible also says ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you. We have asked the pope [to hear us], now we’ve received this invitation, now we’re going to knock on his door, and it shall be opened to us.”
Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, intergenerational residential school survivor
Obed is president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, which represents 60,000 Inuit in Canada [Amber Bracken/Al Jazeera]
“I’ve always had mixed feelings about all of the work that we’ve been doing on this.
“It is essential for reconciliation and for healing and for justice but it also is something that’s uncomfortable at times, because the relationship between, whether it be the Catholic Church or the Anglican Church or other faith-based organisations, and the Inuit has not been good over time.
“There are many who still aren’t willing to forgive or to enter into a partnership with the Catholic Church or other institutions, so we walk that line about who we bring into this conversation and how much time we spend on it. I’m happy that I have been able to bring forward the Inuit, but it’s something that’s quite stressful.
“I had a very positive feeling about the genuine nature of this engagement. Now, where we go from here is more clouded.
“We feel that the pope has an authority that goes far beyond what anyone else in the world has. So, we asked him to intervene and for Father Rivoire [a fugitive Oblate priest, now 93, who is accused of sexual assault against numerous Inuit children] to voluntarily go to Canada to face charges. If that does not happen, we’ve asked the pope to intervene with the French government to try to find a way for Father Rivoire to stand trial in France.
“The pope talked about how this is unacceptable. He also talked about how he never wants to see sexual abuse again at the hands of anyone related to the church. It was good to hear him so clearly talk about what he believes in and how categorically wrong it is what has happened to Inuit. I think the Inuit people who were in the room were very thankful to hear that from the pope and I’m sure that as we move forward in this, his personal attention to this particular part of the residential school experience and the cascading negative effects and that lack of justice is going to be integral in us getting justice.”
Lorelei Williams, Salish/Coast Salish from Skatin Nations/Sts’Ailes, intergenerational residential school survivor
Lorelei Williams says she felt she needed to be in Rome to see what’s happening with her own eyes [Amber Bracken/Al Jazeera]
Williams’s parents, now deceased, were survivors of the St Mary’s Indian Residential School in Mission, British Columbia.
“What’s happening here in Rome right now, I just can’t believe it’s actually happening. It’s something I needed to see with my own eyes. For the children, for the missing and murdered [Indigenous women and girls] and for my parents, I just felt like I needed to be here.
“I totally feel like the government killed her [my mother]. The government has killed all our people. I say that because any Indigenous survivor who has passed away is because of that trauma from the residential schools.
“I’m grateful to see what is coming out of it, coming out in the media. It opens people’s eyes more. But I have trust issues with the government, I have trust issues with the churches. I always have hope, but I won’t be shocked if nothing comes out of it [from the church].”
Cassidy Caron, president of Metis National Council
Caron says Metis elders and residential school survivors told her ‘the greatest gifts that we can bring to Pope Francis are our stories and our truth’ [Amber Bracken/Al Jazeera]
“I’m here to represent our people, their perspectives and the diversity of perspectives of the Metis Nation.
“It has been a whirlwind. I keep telling everybody that I feel as though we’ve been here for two weeks, but it’s only been, so far, three days. I think it’s a testament to how busy we are and how much work we’re getting done during the time that we are here.
“We’ve worked with our elders and our survivors who told us that the greatest gifts that we can bring to Pope Francis are our stories and our truth. And during the meeting with Pope Francis, that’s what we did.
“Our people have not received the recognition or the compensation that they deserve. And so, we were able to share that and talk about how we have a vision for moving forward with truth, reconciliation, healing, and justice.
“Regardless of the outcome of this trip, we now know we have marching orders from our community members regarding what’s needed. And we can start working towards that regardless of who joins us on our journey. It would be wonderful if the Catholic Church wants to join us on this journey. But for me, I want to be able to make a difference and create a brighter future for our community.”
Taylor Behn-Tsakoza, member of Fort Nelson First Nation, Assembly of First Nations youth representative
Taylor Behn-Tsakozo says she strongly feels the spirits of her ancestors guiding her [Amber Bracken/Al Jazeer
“To be in Rome for the first time has been exciting but being part of the delegation just really makes the experience more meaningful and purposeful and all those kinds of things for me.
“It’s hard to explain, but I could just feel it in my heart: When I walked, every step I took was like, you know, it was like someone was helping me. Then being in that room in front of the pope, he seemed to acknowledge and be responsive to what we were saying.
“This isn’t just some checkmark with reconciliation. This is just another step. And I think when we go home, that’s what’s going to matter most … when we go home, [that we] continue to hold the Catholic Church accountable.
“And there’s also a personal journey and healing towards reconciling that we have to deal with ourselves because all the healing that needs to be done to walk through this journey of justice and reconciliation.”
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
Ukraine says all Russian forces have left Chernobyl power plant
Russian troops have left the nuclear facility, Ukraine’s state nuclear company says, after weeks-long occupation.
Energoatom said Russian soldiers got 'significant doses' of radiation from digging trenches at the highly contaminated site [File: Gleb Garanich/Reuters]
Published On 31 Mar 202231 Mar 2022
All the Russian troops that occupied the Chernobyl nuclear power station have now left the site, officials in Kyiv said, as heavy fighting continues to rage on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital and other fronts.
“There are no longer any outsiders on the territory of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant,” Ukraine’s state agency in charge of the Chernobyl exclusion zone, Energoatom, said on Facebook.
The UN nuclear watchdog, IAEA, also confirmed that it had been informed by Ukraine that Russian forces handed control of the power plant and “moved convoys of troops”.
There was no immediate comment from the Russian authorities.
Though Russian forces seized control of Chernobyl soon after Moscow’s February 24 invasion, the plant’s Ukrainian staff continued to oversee the safe storage of spent nuclear fuel and to supervise the concrete-encased remains of the reactor that exploded in 1986, causing the world’s worst nuclear accident.
Earlier on Thursday, Energoatom said those workers had flagged that Russian forces were planning to leave the territory.
“The information is confirmed that the occupiers, who seized the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and other facilities in the exclusion zone, have set off in two columns towards the Ukrainian border with the Republic of Belarus,” it said in a statement.
Energoatom said Russian soldiers got “significant doses” of radiation from digging trenches at the highly contaminated site. The troops “panicked at the first sign of illness,” which “showed up very quickly,” and began to prepare to leave, it added
In a separate online post, Energoatom said the Russian side had formally agreed to hand back to Ukraine the responsibility for protecting Chernobyl.
It shared the scan of a document setting out such an arrangement and signed by individuals it identified as a senior staff member at Chernobyl, the Russian military official tasked with guarding Chernobyl, and others.
The authenticity of the document could not immediately be verified. There was no immediate comment from the Russian authorities, who have denied that its forces have put nuclear facilities in Ukraine at risk.
‘Further negotiations’
Ukraine has repeatedly expressed safety concerns about Chernobyl and demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops, whose presence prevented the rotation of the plant’s personnel for a time.
Earlier on Thursday, the head of Energoatom urged the UN nuclear watchdog to help ensure Russian nuclear officials do not interfere in the operation of Chernobyl and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, which is also occupied by Russian soldiers.
The pullout came amid continued fighting and indications that the Kremlin is using talk of de-escalation as cover while regrouping and resupplying its forces, and redeploying them for a stepped-up offensive in eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine is seeing “a buildup of Russian forces for new strikes on the Donbas, and we are preparing for that”.
Meanwhile, a convoy of buses headed to Mariupol in another bid to evacuate people from the besieged port city, after the Russian military agreed to a limited ceasefire in the area. A new round of talks aimed at stopping the fighting was scheduled for Friday.
The Red Cross said its teams were headed for Mariupol with medical supplies and other relief, and hoped to take civilians out of the beleaguered city.
Tens of thousands have managed to get out in the past few weeks by way of humanitarian corridors, reducing the city’s population from a pre-war 430,000 to an estimated 100,000 as of last week, but other efforts have been thwarted by continued Russian attacks.
At the same time, Russian forces shelled Kyiv suburbs, two days after the Kremlin announced it would significantly scale back operations near both the capital and the northern city of Chernihiv to “increase mutual trust and create conditions for further negotiations”.
Despite the fighting raging in those areas, the Russian military said it committed to a ceasefire along the route from Mariupol to the Ukraine-held city of Zaporizhzhia.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said 45 buses would be sent to collect civilians who have suffered some of the worst privations of the war.
Greenwashing? UN appoints panel to probe firms on climate efforts
The 16-member panel will make recommendations before the end of the year on the standards and definitions for setting net-zero targets.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that governments have the lion’s share of responsibility to achieve net-zero emissions, adding that this was particularly true for the Group of 20 major emerging and industrialised economies
[File: Robert Bumsted/AP Photo]
Published On 31 Mar 2022
The head of the United Nations announced the appointment Thursday of an expert panel led by Canada’s former environment minister to scrutinise whether companies’ efforts to curb climate change are credible or mere “greenwashing”.
Recent years have seen an explosion of pledges by businesses — including oil companies — to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to “net zero” amid consumer expectations that corporations bear part of the burden of cutting pollution. But environmental campaigners say many such plans are at best unclear, at worst designed to make companies look good when they are actually fuelling global warming.
“Governments have the lion’s share of responsibility to achieve net-zero emissions by mid-century,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, adding that this was particularly true for the Group of 20 major emerging and industrialised economies that account for 80 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.
“But we also urgently need every business, investor, city, state and region to walk the talk on their net-zero promises,” he said.
The 16-member panel will make recommendations before the end of the year on the standards and definitions for setting net-zero targets, how to measure and verify progress, and ways to translate that into international and national regulations.
In addition to examining net-zero pledges by the private sector, it will also scrutinise commitments made by local and regional governments that don’t report directly to the UN. However, it will not “name and shame” individual companies, UN climate envoy Selwin Hart said.
The panel includes prominent Australian climate scientist Bill Hare, South Africa-based sustainable finance expert Malango Mughogho and the former long-time governor of the People’s Bank of China, Zhou Xiaochuan.
It will be chaired by Catherine McKenna, who was Canada’s minister of environment and climate change from 2015 to 2019.
McKenna urged businesses not to view net-zero pledges as a “get out of jail free card”, and said she backed the idea of including all emissions in the new standards, including those resulting from the use of a company’s product.
One outside expert called the creation of the new panel “well overdue”, noting that targets such as “net zero” are interpreted in different ways by companies and officials.
Harry Fearnehough, a policy analyst at the NewClimate Institute, said the think-tank had recently reviewed several major companies and found “a number of critical issues with net-zero pledges, many of which are misleading consumers, regulators and shareholders”.
Gilles Dufrasne of the non-profit organisation Carbon Market Watch also welcomed the UN new expert group, but urged it to issue clear and meaningful recommendations.
“Just like the targets it will aim to regulate, this group needs to go from words to actions, and deliver strict criteria that put an end to greenwashing,” he said.
A report last month by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that more than three billion people worldwide are already at risk from global warming.
The panel will publish another report next week which is expected to confirm that the world is not on track to meet the goal of capping temperature rise at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) by the end of the century, which was laid down in the 2015 Paris climate accord.
“If we don’t see significant and sustained emissions reductions this decade, the window of opportunity to keep 1.5 alive will be closed – forever,” said Guterres. “And that will be disaster for everyone.”
SOURCE: AP
US rights groups welcome Title 42’s likely end, want more details
Rights advocates welcome the reported plan to end the US border restriction in May, but demand an immediate end to expulsions.
Rights groups, the United Nations, and progressive Democratic leaders have blasted the Title 42 policy as a violation of US and international laws [File: Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters]
Washington, DC – Immigration rights advocates in the United States have called on the Biden administration to provide more information on reported plans to lift a contentious rule along the US-Mexico border that has blocked most people from seeking asylum in the country.
Rights groups on Thursday said they are still waiting for confirmation that the administration will revoke the policy, known as Title 42, by May 23, as several news outlets reported this week. While they welcomed the likely end to Title 42, the groups say they need clarity on whether expulsions would continue during the “phase-out” period.
“One of our key questions is whether or not they will continue to expel people seeking refugee protection during that period … That would be very concerning,” said Eleanor Acer, refugee protection director at Human Rights First, a US-based group.
“We welcome the commitment to end Title 42 order, that’s an important step forward,” Acer told Al Jazeera, “but we also would like to see the restoration of asylum and the upholding of asylum law along the border.”
The policy
Former US President Donald Trump first invoked Title 42 in March 2020, citing the need to limit the spread of COVID-19 in the US. Under the order, most asylum seekers apprehended at the US’s southern border are sent back to Mexico, or to their country of origin, within hours, without the chance to file an asylum claim.
Rights groups, the United Nations, and progressive Democratic leaders have blasted the policy as a violation of US and international laws, and an evasion of US responsibility towards people seeking protection in the country.
Despite the criticism, President Joe Biden, who took office in January of last year, has kept the order in place, and according to official data, more than 1.7 million Title 42 expulsions have been carried out since 2020.
But Biden’s administration faces increased pressure to end the border restriction as most vaccine and mask mandates have ended in much of the US, and as more Americans are vaccinated and infections rates are declining.
Thousands of people are believed to be in shelters or camps on the Mexico side of the border with the US, waiting for a chance to apply for asylum [File: Go Nakamura/Reuter]
“It has become increasingly untenable in a world of widespread vaccinations and easy access to COVID tests to claim that we continue to need to expel asylum seekers to stop the spread of COVID-19,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior policy counsel at the American Immigration Council.
“Title 42 has been an utter failure by all measures,” Reichlin-Melnick told Al Jazeera. “It hasn’t protected the public’s health, it has actively harmed asylum seekers and it has failed to limit the number of people coming to the border.”
Source of confusion
Rights groups say Title 42 also has been a source of confusion at the border, with asylum seekers subjected to the policy being expelled without any official procedure or documentation, spurring repeat crossings.
They also say it has inflicted massive human rights abuses on people seeking refuge. Human Rights First has documented nearly 10,000 reports of kidnapping, torture, rape, and other violent attacks against people sent to Mexico under Title 42 from the start of last year through March 15.
The rule came into sharp focus in September last year, when more than 15,000 Haitians, among them many children, camped under a bridge in southern Texas hoping to claim asylum. Haiti has been reeling from rising gang violence and political instability, but the US quickly emptied the camp and expelled the vast majority of people under Title 42.
Guerline Josef, co-founder and executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance, a US-based support and advocacy group, said approximately 21,000 Haitians were flown back to Haiti under Title 42 since the Biden administration took office.
But many other Haitian asylum seekers have been waiting for months or even years in shelters and migrant camps in Mexico, hoping for a chance to apply for asylum in the US. Josef told Al Jazeera that she worries about what will happen to them should the border reopen.
“There is a large number of Haitians who were forced back to Mexico. The majority of those people are still waiting at the US-Mexico border to have access to asylum,” Josef said. “We are extremely worried as to what that will look like for Haitians and other Black migrants.”
There is also concern among rights groups that the lifting of Title 42 would be blocked in court [Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters]
What is the plan?
On Wednesday, after news agencies and local news outlets reported that the US planned to lift Title 42 in May, Biden told reporters that his administration would make a decision on the rule “soon”.
Hours later, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a fact sheet detailing its preparations for a potential increase in asylum seekers arriving at the border, which included deploying more personnel and expediting asylum claims.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), upon whose advice Title 42 has been invoked, also is expected to issue a decision this week on whether or not to extend the order.
Acer at Human Rights First said more than two years of Title 42 has been “a humanitarian travesty” that has led to human rights abuses, spurred disorder at the US-Mexico border, and tarnished the standing of the Biden administration.
While she is waiting to get more information about Washington’s plan should the policy be rescinded, Acer told Al Jazeera it is critical for the Biden administration to make clear that it intends to put in place an asylum system that meets international norms and requirements.
“The most important thing for the administration to do is to be clear that the United States has the capacity to effectively manage its borders and welcome people who are seeking refugee protection.”
