Indonesians celebrate Vesak at world's largest Buddhist temple



The procession and countdown to Vesak were livestreamed for those who were not able to attend 

(AFP/JUNI KRISWANTO)

Mon, May 16, 2022, 

Hundreds of lanterns were released into the sky by Indonesian Buddhists celebrating Vesak day at the temple of Borobudur for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic hit the country.

More than a thousand Buddhists from across the archipelago gathered at the largest Buddhist temple in the world, situated in Magelang, Central Java, to commemorate the birth, enlightenment and death of Buddha Siddharta Gautama.

Celebrations on Monday night included prayers and meditation, collecting holy water and the release of flying lanterns symbolising the letting go of negativity.

"This is the first time we were able to hold the celebration since the pandemic started, since we are still in the middle of the pandemic, we limited the number of participants to only 1,200 people," Eric Fernardo, the spokesman for the event, told AFP on Monday.

Only those who received an invitation and a double dose of a Covid-19 vaccine were allowed to enter the sprawling complex of Borobudur to join the ceremonies.

Before the pandemic, the event was usually attended by more than 20,000 people from across the Muslim-majority country and other places.

"After two years of not being able to celebrate Vesak Day here, now we finally can, even though not exactly like before the pandemic as there still are restrictions, but I'm so happy", Christina, a 20-year-old Buddhist who goes by one name, told AFP.

"We can still feel the enthusiasm and excitement, even though the number of attendees are limited," added the student from Jakarta, the Indonesian capital.

Despite the restrictions and stringent health protocols, monks and worshippers reverently followed the three-day procession and ceremonies, including the ritual to collect holy water from the pristine springs at Jumprit in nearby Temanggung district.

The procession and the countdown to Vesak, just before midnight on Monday, were also livestreamed for those who did not have an invitation to attend the event.

Indonesian Buddhists account for less than one percent of the country's more than 270 million people.

Built in the ninth century, the Borobudur Temple was abandoned when the Hindu kingdoms of Java island declined and a majority of Javanese began to convert to Islam.

Buried under volcanic ash and hidden in the jungle, the temple's existence was largely forgotten until the 19th century. It has undergone a major restoration and is today a UNESCO world heritage site.

Str-dsa/lgo/aha

Algerian rapper Soolking plays Harlem's Apollo during debut US tour



As his merengue-inflected single "Suavemente" once again topped France's songs chart, Algerian rapper Soolking was stateside, delighting fans and wooing new followers with his blend of rap and Maghrebian folk music

 (AFP/Angela Weiss)


Maggy DONALDSON
Mon, May 16, 2022,

As his merengue-inflected single "Suavemente" once again topped France's songs chart, Algerian rapper Soolking was stateside, delighting fans and wooing new followers with his blend of rap and Maghrebian folk music.

Already acclaimed in the Francophone world, the Algerian rapper Soolking this year set his sights on North America, where he played historic venues including New York's Apollo and the Globe Theatre in Los Angeles.

"I never thought that one day I would come here to sing," the artist born Abderraouf Derradji told AFP backstage ahead of his set at Harlem's esteemed venue, which launched the careers of icons including Billie Holiday and Aretha Franklin, and where James Brown recorded a groundbreaking live album.

"It's a mythical hall like Paris' Olympia... where so many legendary artists have performed," said Soolking, wearing oval sunglasses and a black beanie.

"It's an honor for me; it's cool."

Born and raised in a suburb of Algiers, the 32-year-old was born to a percussionist father and at a young age began playing music and learning dance.

He first moved to France in 2008, but returned to Algeria to be in the rap group Africa Jungle, with whom he released two albums: "Ched Rohek" and "Eclipse."

The artist returned to France several years later, launching a solo career in 2016, adopting the moniker Soolking and starting to play small venues and drop music online.

He went viral shortly thereafter after performing his song "Guerilla" -- a track about his experience immigrating without papers -- on the popular French radio Show "Planet Rap."

- 'Representing for Algeria' -

With two successful albums under his belt and another on the way, Soolking embarked this spring on a North American tour that along with New York and Los Angeles included dates in Montreal, Houston, Chicago and Washington.

The artist who sings in both French and Arabic is interested in expanding his global reach but isn't terribly concerned with where his fans come from: "The most important thing is my fans."

"In my country of origin, there's people who listen to me and people who don't listen to me," the rapper continued. "I'm going to look for what's human, because in the end, music is feeling."

As evidenced by his first New York show, Soolking had broken ground in the United States long before he played any of its stages: fans danced and sang along at the Apollo, waving Algerian flags and illuminating their phones.

"It's just amazing to see someone from our country in New York City and their name in lights," said 26-year-old Sarah Hammadi, one of four cousins who traveled from New Jersey to catch the show.

"It's amazing -- he's really representing for Algeria."

"It just feels like you're back at home," seconded her cousin Dilia, 18. "He's such a pop icon in our country... it just brings warmth to our heart."

mdo/caw

UK to unveil unilateral plans for post-Brexit trade in N.Ireland


Media reports say the UK government is planning legislation allowing London to unilaterally override some of the rules around Northern Irish trade

(AFP/PAUL FAITH) (PAUL FAITH)

Joe JACKSON
Mon, May 16, 2022, 

Britain will detail Tuesday how it plans to overhaul post-Brexit trade rules in Northern Ireland which have sparked a political crisis in the province, amid fears it is risking a UK-EU trade war.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss will "set out the rationale for our approach" in a statement to MPs in parliament, according to Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman.

The UK government is yet to confirm what that entails, but media reports have said it is planning legislation allowing London to unilaterally override some of the rules around Northern Irish trade.

London wants to rewrite the so-called Northern Ireland protocol, which it agreed as part of its 2019 divorce deal with the European Union, amid trading frictions since it came into force last year.


The arrangements, which mandate checks on goods arriving into Northern Ireland from England, Scotland and Wales, have angered the province's unionists who claim they undermine its place within the UK.

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Brandon Lewis said Tuesday that the protocol "doesn't work for business, it doesn't work for anybody in Northern Ireland".

He told Sky News that problems should be solved "preferably by agreement with the European Union" but "we will do what we need to do to ensure that products can move to Northern Ireland in the way they should be able to... from Great Britain as part of the United Kingdom's internal market."

The largest pro-British party, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), is currently refusing to resume power-sharing in Belfast with pro-Irish rivals Sinn Fein until the protocol is reworked.

Its stance comes nearly two weeks after Sinn Fein won a historic first victory in elections for the devolved Stormont assembly, which entitle the party to the role of first minister in a joint executive with the DUP.

- 'Legislative solution' -

The impasse threatens to leave Northern Ireland, which suffered three decades of sectarian conflict until a 1998 accord largely ended the violence, without a government.

Johnson is adamant the current situation risks peace and stability in Northern Ireland and that his government has the right to act if the EU refuses to meet its demands.

"We don't want to scrap it, but we think it can be fixed," he told reporters during a visit Monday to Northern Ireland to meet its political leaders.

Reports say the mooted draft law, which will allow UK ministers to selectively disapply parts of the protocol, may not be tabled yet and would in any case take months to progress through parliament.

That could prove insufficient to persuade unionists to resume power-sharing in Northern Ireland, with the DUP saying Monday it needed "decisive action" not "the tabling of legislation".

- 'Keep their word' -

The EU, which has been in discussions for months with the UK over improving the implementation of the protocol, has insisted it cannot be renegotiated.

European leaders have warned London against taking unilateral steps, and suggested it could jeopardise their entire Brexit deal, resulting in punitive tariffs and an effective trade war.

"This is an international treaty, it's international law, we can't just pretend it doesn't exist," Ireland's Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said Monday in Brussels.

Johnson's government says that checks on goods heading to Northern Ireland from England, Scotland and Wales are undermining peace in the province, with unionist protests already turning violent in the past 18 months.

The separate trading arrangements, which bind the province to many European rules, were agreed because it has the UK's only land border with the EU.

Keeping the border open with neighbouring Ireland, an EU member, was mandated in the Good Friday Agreement, given the frontier was a frequent flashpoint for violence.

But it means checks have to be done elsewhere, to prevent goods getting into the EU single market and customs union by the back door via Northern Ireland.

The United States, which was a guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement, has expressed alarm at suggestions the UK could scrap the protocol.

jj-cjo/kjm

Biden reestablishes US troop presence inside Somalia

A house destroyed when Al-Shabaab militants attacked a police station on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia in February 2022

(AFP/Hassan Ali Elmi) 

Sebastian Smith
Mon, May 16, 2022, 

President Joe Biden has ordered the reestablishment of a US troop presence in Somalia to help local authorities combat the Al-Shabaab militant group, a senior American official told reporters Monday.

The move reverses an order from Biden's predecessor Donald Trump, who in late 2020 pulled nearly all US forces from the East African nation as he sought to wind down US military engagements abroad during his final weeks in office.

Biden "approved a request from the Defense Department to reposition US forces in East Africa in order to reestablish a small persistent US military presence in Somalia," the official said.

Fewer than 500 troops will be involved, the official said, adding that it will "take a little bit of time to reach that" level in Somalia.


That is slightly smaller than the original footprint of 750 US soldiers who spent years in the country conducting operations against Al-Shabaab, but were then removed under Trump and rebased in neighboring countries Kenya and Djibouti.

In December 2020, just before he left office, Trump directed the withdrawal from Somalia "against the advice of senior US military leadership," the official said.

"Since then Al-Shabaab... has unfortunately only grown stronger," the official added.

- Support from Mogadishu -

The official suggested that Biden's decision had more to do with the security of US forces than with the election on Sunday of a new Somali president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, after more than a year of political instability and a drought crisis.

Somalian leaders over recent years have been constant in their support for cooperation with the US military in battling Islamic extremists, the official said, adding that Washington remains confident the new administration will continue to do so.

Congratulating the newly elected president, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged him to develop "security forces to prevent and counter terrorism and assume full security responsibility from the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia."

By reinserting US troops, Washington will reduce the risks involved in back-and-forth mobilizations of forces that have been conducting counterterrorism operations inside Somalia.

The move would boost efficiency and the effectiveness of special operators, and allow for uninterrupted training periods with local partners.

Pentagon Spokesman John Kirby said Monday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin viewed the current form of operations as "inefficient and increasingly unsustainable."

“The purpose here is to enable a more effective fight against Al-Shabaab by local forces... Al-Shabaab has increased in their strength and poses a threat," he said.

Kirby also insisted that the US forces will act as a supportive element and that Somali forces will continue to be responsible for directly battling extremists.

US troops "will continue to be used in training, advising and equipping partner forces to give them the tools that they need to disrupt, degrade and monitor Al-Shabaab," the Pentagon spokesman said.

"Our forces are not now, nor will they be, directly engaged in combat operations," he said.

sms-mlm-pmh/jh/caw

Sudan sanctuary offers haven for exotic birds
AFP - Yesterday

Tucked away east of Sudan's capital Khartoum, a sanctuary of lush green vegetation has been a haven for dozens of exotic birds from far and wide.


© -Over 100 birds of 13 different species currently inhabit the reserve

"I have a passion for birds," said Akram Yehia, owner of the Marshall Nature Reserve which covers 400 square metres (4,300 square feet).

"I wanted to create an ideal environment that simulates their natural habitat."

Yehia, 45, set up the huge caged aviary in his house's front yard four years ago, and has handcrafted dozens of birdhouses.

He created a habitat of trees, adding a garden pond and mist nozzles for cooling off against Sudan's scorching heat.

Over 100 birds of 13 different species currently inhabit the reserve.

Ring-necked parakeet, rosella birds, as well as Meyers and red-rumped parrots flit across branches and compete over birdhouses in the reserve.

"I have trained and tamed them over the years so they won't attack each another," he said.

Yehia says his favourite is an African grey parrot who answers to the name "Kuku" and has a knack for mimicking human sounds and movements as well.


Sudanese and foreign visitors are allowed to drop in for two to three hours a day only.

"It's only limited time so we don't disturb their habitat," said Yehia.

Business, however, has been impacted since an October military coup that has triggered regular mass protests met by a violent crackdown.

Visits often get called off on protest days as streets are blocked, making it hard to move around the capital.

"The tear gas fired during the protests is very dangerous for the birds," Yehia said.

"I know people living closer to large protest sites and who've lost all the birds they own."

Yehia has also been grappling with increasing expenses in Sudan, where the local currency has plummeted against the dollar, and food and fuel prices have soared.

"I want to expand the reserve but it's very expensive now," he said.

To visitors, the reserve is a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of Khartoum.

"I never knew that such a place exists in Khartoum," said Anna Shcherbakova, a visitor from Ukraine.

A local visitor, Hossameddine Sidahmed, said he hopes the reserve expands and grows "even more beautiful".

Egypt composer's star rises with 'Moon Knight' fame

eFollowing his score for the Pharaohs' Golden Parade last year, Egyptian composer Hesham Nazih was tapped to write the music for Marvel Studios' latest series, 'Moon Knight' 

(AFP/Khaled DESOUKI)


Bassem Aboualabass
Mon, May 16, 2022, 1

For nearly 30 years, his music has made its way to every young Egyptian's ringtone -- but it's the country's ancient history that recently propelled composer Hesham Nazih to the realm of superheroes.

Following his career-defining score for the Pharaohs' Golden Parade last year -- a grandiose spectacle that saw 22 mummies transferred across Cairo to a new museum -- Nazih was tapped to write the music for Marvel Studios' latest series, "Moon Knight".

The six-episode saga starring Oscar Isaac tells the story of a superhero who draws his powers from an ancient Egyptian god.

"Ancient Egyptian civilisation is extremely appealing for any composer, whether Egyptian or not," the 50-year-old composer told AFP from his studio in Cairo.

But while drawing inspiration from ancient heritage was "not an artistic goal" in and of itself for the musician, it has allowed him to realise his dream of transcending national boundaries.

- Drawing on heritage -

In April 2021, all eyes were on the globally streamed procession of mummies through the capital, when Egyptian soprano Amira Selim, clad in a full-length gown adorned with Pharaonic motifs, took the stage with a haunting performance of the Hymn of Isis.

The ode, the lyrics to which were taken from texts in the "Book of the Dead", was sung in phonetic ancient Egyptian and featured an arrangement of traditional folk instruments along with a classical orchestra, cementing the composer's genre-shattering prowess.

The result was a media fervour that took Nazih himself by surprise, with the piece being shared widely both in Egypt and abroad.

"The audience's reaction was very moving," he told AFP, adding that the parade "holds a special place in my heart" as it showcased the talents of Egyptian artists.

Riding the ancient Egypt high, the virtuoso was selected to compose the score for Marvel's Moon Knight, marking his first foray into Hollywood.

Helmed by Egyptian director Mohamed Diab, the series has proven massively popular among his compatriots -- despite there being no way to legally stream the show there yet -- due in no small part to Diab's insistence on the production being an Egyptian affair.

In addition to a cast and crew that brings together the likes of Egyptian-Palestinian actress May Calamawy and Egyptian editor Ahmed Hafez, the series soundtrack has been peppered with popular Arabic songs, ranging from golden-era classics to modern electro street music known as mahraganat.

"I'm still processing all of it. Moon Knight is a whole other level for me," the composer said. "I was seeing reactions from so many different audiences and cultures."

But Nazih's latest experimentations with ancient Egypt weren't the first time he has drawn from Egyptian heritage.

For the 2014 thriller series "The Seven Commandments", Nazih wove in spiritual Sufi chants, to massive success. The soundtrack was a hit on social media, achieving a long-held dream for the musician.

When he was nine, he explained, he stopped halfway down a street in Alexandria to watch a Sufi ritual in a small mosque, and was haunted by the "majesty" of the scene.

Decades later, he was finally able to channel it into a composition.

- No formal training -

"Music doesn't communicate information, it's pure emotion," according to Nazih, and it was emotion that took him from a career as an engineer to creating more than 40 soundtracks for film and TV over the past three decades.

Having first felt the impact of a great score as a child, he has been chasing that high ever since. "I knew then that I wanted to go into this field, to make people feel what I felt," he said.

His music has defined famous films including 2003's "Sahar El Layali" ("Sleepless Nights" in Arabic), which was almost tipped as Egypt's submission for an Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film that year.

In 2019, Nazih scored "Al-Fil al-Azraq 2" ("The Blue Elephant 2"), Egyptian cinema's highest ever grossing film, earning 100 million pounds ($5.4 million).

Over his career, he says he has seen the once-stringent boundaries between music and film begin to dissolve.

"Film composers aren't recognised as true filmmakers by directors because they're musicians, but they're not recognised as musicians by their peers because they belong to the world of cinema," he said.

But things might be changing. In 2018, Nazih was the first musician to receive the Faten Hamama prize at the Cairo International Film Festival, which is awarded to renowned figures in cinema, but had previously only ever gone to directors and actors.

Three years later, he was also recognised in the musical world, winning a lifetime achievement award at the Cairo Opera House Arabic Music Festival.

bam/sar/sbh/bha/jsa

Ukraine's museums eye Russian focus on east with suspicion


In WWII, the Soviet invaders 'acted like bulldozers', says architecture professor Mykola Bevz  AND WHAT ABOUT THE NAZI'S

(AFP/Yuriy Dyachyshyn)

Charlotte PLANTIVE
Tue, May 17, 2022

To get into the Potocki Palace, a gem of Ukrainian architecture, you have to show your ID, slip past the armed soldiers and duck under some scaffolding.

All that, just to see some bare picture rails.

Life has resumed a semblance of quasi-normality in Lviv, western Ukraine, since Russian forces pulled out of the Kyiv region to focus their offensive on the south and east.

But museums in the self-styled capital of culture only dare open their doors a chink, convinced the invaders will pillage Ukraine's culture as they have its villages.

"We'd like to open up a bit more but security is complicated," explained Vassyl Mytsko, deputy director of the Lviv National Gallery. Ukraine's largest fine arts museum has 21 sites, housing a vast collection of 65,000 works of art.

"How can we be sure the Russians aren't just gathering their strength again so they can chuck all their rockets at us?"

The staff of the National were taken by surprise when Russia invaded on February 24. "We didn't think the strikes would get this far" and threaten Lviv, Mytsko said.

The museum curators were "stunned" at first but soon got to work wrapping up sculptures and paintings -- some of which are worth millions -- and squirreling them to safety in secret locations, where they remain to this day.

The Potocki, opened exclusively for AFP, is no exception.

Workers are using the absence of its precious paintings to give the bare walls a coating of bright red paint following the removal of works including Georges de la Tour's "Payment of Taxes."

Since early May, two of the National's other sites more than an hour away from Lviv have started reopening to the public. On occasions.

There is no question, however, of the museums in the city itself unlocking their doors "until there is major change -- politically or on the ground", Mytsko said.

Kremlin troops have already bombed a museum near Kyiv dedicated to artist Maria Primachenko and another in Kharkiv about philosopher Grigori Skovoroda, so they remain a threat to Lviv, he said, adding: "They want to destroy Ukraine's identity and its European roots."

- 'Skilful' -

Roman Shmelik, head of the Lviv History Museum, is just as suspicious.

The museum's collection is spread across ten buildings, some dating back to the 16th Century, but only two opened on May 1 -- one to let people use its cafe, the other for a children's exhibition. The buildings were otherwise empty, their treasures under wraps elsewhere.

Shuddering, Shmelik recalled how the Soviets had taken control of Lviv in the Second World War and turned the museum into a "propaganda tool".

"They took out the permanent exhibition and replaced it with one glorifying the Red Army," he spluttered, still indignant.

Right across the country, the Soviets "acted like bulldozers", concurred Mykola Bevz, a professor of architecture at Lviv University who was instrumental in obtaining UNESCO heritage status for his city.

Lviv, with its 3,000 monuments, was nonetheless better able than other cities to fend off Soviet "urban planning", he opined.

Firstly, because the "cradle of Ukrainian patriotism" only belatedly fell into Soviet hands -- the east of Ukraine became part of the USSR in 1918 -- and secondly, because "there was an intellectual movement that mounted a skilful resistance".

In addition, the citizens of Lviv succeeded in saving a historic part of the city that was to be razed to make way for a huge square for military parades, Bevz added.

Mytsko said his predecessor at the National, Boris Voznitsky, had, by skilful ruses, succeeded in enriching the museum's collections of religious works, despite the official Soviet policy of atheism.

Shmelik, who identifies with these defenders of Ukrainian heritage, stressed the importance of protecting Lviv's museums "to contribute to the formation of our national identity".

His response to Russian President Vladimir Putin's assertion that there is no such thing as Ukrainian identity because Russians and Ukrainians are the same people?

"We're Ukrainian and we have nothing to prove," he sniffed.

chp/cat/am/gil/cdw

CONSCRIPTS

Young, poor and from minorities: the Russian troops killed in Ukraine




Russia has been remarkably tight-lipped on the number of its soldiers killed (AFP/SERGEY BOBOK)

Stuart WILLIAMS
Tue, May 17, 2022

The bulk of the thousands of Russian soldiers killed in Moscow's onslaught against Ukraine are very young, have poor backgrounds and many are from ethnic minority groups, observers say.

There has been close attention on the numbers of Russian generals and high-ranking officers killed since the invasion launched by President Vladimir Putin on February 24, which has proved far more costly than the Kremlin wished.

But with observers believing the Russian toll could now be exceeding the 15,000 Soviet soldiers killed during the 1979-1989 occupation of Afghanistan, the losses among Russian rank-and-file soldiers have been devastating.

Russia has been remarkably tight-lipped on the number of its soldiers killed, giving a toll of 498 soldiers killed on March 2 and updating this to 1,351 on March 25, with no more information since.

Ukraine puts the toll of Russian soldiers at 27,000 and while most Western sources find this high, they also give figures many times higher than the Russian estimates.

"Russia has now likely suffered losses of one third of the ground combat force it committed in February," the British defence ministry said Sunday, indicating that some 50,000 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded.

In a rare nod to the potential significance of the losses, though without going into any numbers, Putin paid tribute to those killed at Russia's Victory Day commemorations on May 9.

"We bow in front of our comrades in arms who died courageously in a just fight, for Russia. The death of every soldier and officer is a cause of grief for us and an irreplaceable loss for loved ones," he said, announcing a package of measures to help the families of those wounded or killed.

- 'Remember them' -

The Russian-language website Mediazona said it had been able to confirm the deaths of 2,099 Russian soldiers in action up to May 6 from open sources alone.

It said that the largest proportion of those killed where age was mentioned was among 21- to 23-year-olds, and 74 had not even reached the age of 20.

A regional breakdown showed most of the dead came from the south of Russia, including the mainly Muslim Northern Caucasus region, as well as central Siberia.

Only a handful of deaths were recorded of soldiers from Moscow and the second-largest city, Saint Petersburg, which are considerably more affluent than the rest of Russia.

The largest numbers of confirmed deaths (135) were of soldiers from the Muslim Northern Caucasus region of Dagestan followed by Buryatia, home to the Mongol Buryat ethnic group, in Siberia (98).

"The largest number of soldiers and officers within the ground troops comes from the small towns and villages of Russia. It is related to socio-economic and, consequently, educational stratification," Pavel Luzin, a commentator for the Riddle Russia online news site, told AFP.

"The requirements for military service in the ground troops are relatively low, and the best and educated soldiers and future officers go to other branches of the Russian armed forces like air and space forces, strategic rocket forces and navy," he added.

Local media and Telegram channels in Dagestan, which for years battled an Islamist insurgency and is one of Russia's poorest regions, have been filled with images of grieving relatives receiving condolences from state officials.

In one example, Kamil Iziiev, head of the Buynaksky district of Dagestan, on May 6 posted a video on his Telegram channel showing him giving posthumous state awards to families of five inhabitants of Dagestan killed in the war, accepted by wives and mothers wearing the Muslim headscarf.

"You have to live on as mothers of children whose fathers heroically gave up their lives. Dear relatives, I ask you to remember that a person is alive so long as they are remembered. So let's remember these guys," he said.

The very first Russian soldier officially confirmed by Moscow to have been killed was Nurmagomed Gadzhimagomedov, a young Dagestani who state media said died while saving fellow troops. He was posthumously decorated by Putin with the Hero of Russia award on March 4.

His death prompted Putin to publicly pay tribute to the role played by non-Russian ethnic groups in Moscow's assault, saying he was "proud of being part of this world, this powerful, strong and multinational people of Russia."

- 'Hidden resistance' -

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan sparked a national trauma –- chronicled in Nobel prize-winning author Svetlana Alexievich's harrowing oral history "Boys in Zinc," named after the lining of the coffins in which the young soldiers came back –- and contributed to the collapse of the USSR.

The draconian censorship measures imposed by Moscow in the Ukraine conflict –- which mean that what the Kremlin terms a "special military operation" cannot even be called a war in Russia –- have kept dissent to a minimum, with few daring to express alarm over the losses.

A rare voice has been that of Natalia Poklonskaya, a former prosecutor in the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea who became a Russian MP and Russian official after the annexation.

Taking issue with the use of the letter 'Z' by the Russian authorities as a propaganda image, she said it "symbolised a tragedy for both Russia and Ukraine. Why? Because Russian soldiers are being killed."

Luzin said the lack of open signs of protest in provincial Russia and ethnic minority regions over the losses did not mean that there would be no reaction in the future.

"But their reaction will not be an open resistance but a hidden one -- they will start to avoid conscription and contract military service," he said.

sjw/js/ach

NATO NATION BUILDING

Rival Libya government enters capital prompting clashes

In February, the parliament in the eastern city of Tobruk designated former Libyan interior minister Fathi Bashagha as prime minister. (AFP)

17 May 2022

Clashes break out between rival armed groups shortly after Fathi Bashagha enters the western city

TRIPOLI: The rival government appointed by Libya’s eastern-based parliament said Tuesday it had arrived in the capital, where the unity government has refused to cede power, prompting fighting between their militia backers.

Its press service announced “the arrival of the prime minister of the Libyan government, Mr. Fathi Bashagha, accompanied by several ministers, in the capital Tripoli to begin his work there.”

Clashes broke out between rival armed groups shortly after he entered the western city, an AFP journalist reported.

In February, the parliament in the eastern city of Tobruk designated former interior minister Bashagha as prime minister.

But he has failed to oust the Tripoli-based unity administration led by premier Abdulhamid Dbeibah, who has said repeatedly he will only cede power to an elected government.

Dbeibah’s government was formed in 2020 as part of United Nations-led efforts to draw a line under a decade of conflict since a NATO-backed revolt toppled dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.

Dbeibah was to lead the country until elections last December, but they were indefinitely postponed and his political opponents argue that his mandate has now finished.

The rise of Bashagha’s government gives the North African country two rival administrations, as was the case between 2014 and a 2020 cease-fire.

Indonesian farmers stage protests against palm oil export ban


PUBLISHED : 17 MAY 2022 
REUTERS

Indonesian palm oil farmers take part in a protest demanding the government to end the palm oil export ban, outside the Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs office, in Jakarta, Indonesia on Tuesday. (Reuters photo)

JAKARTA: Hundreds of Indonesian smallholder farmers on Tuesday staged a protest in the capital Jakarta and in other parts of the world's fourth most populous country, demanding the government end a palm oil export ban that has slashed their income.

Indonesia, the world's top palm oil exporter, has since April 28 halted shipments of crude palm oil and some of its derivative products in a bid to control soaring prices of domestic cooking oil, rattling global vegetable oil markets.

Marching alongside a truck filled with palm oil fruit, farmers held a rally outside the offices of the Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs, which is leading the government policy.

"Malaysian farmers are wearing full smiles, Indonesian farmers suffer," one of the signs held up by protesters read. Malaysia is the second-largest producer of palm oil and has said it aims to supply markets left open by Indonesia's export ban.

In a statement, the smallholder farmer's group APKASINDO said since the announcement of the export ban the price of palm fruit had dropped 70% below the floor price set by regional authorities.

Meanwhile, APKASINDO estimated that at least 25% of palm oil mills has stopped buying palm fruit from independent farmers.

The protesters also planned to march to the presidential palace, the group said. Similar protests were also being held in 22 other provinces, it said.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo imposed the export ban on palm oil and its derivative products used in the making of cooking oil after a series of policies failed to control the price of the basic household food item.

A survey this week showed the approval ratings for Jokowi, as the president is popularly known, hit the lowest level since December 2015 due to rising prices. Figures released by pollster Indikator Politik Indonesia showed that satisfaction with Jokowi fell to 58.1% in May to the lowest since December 2015 when the president's approval rating had slumped to 53%.

Chief Economics Minister Airlangga Hartarto has said the ban would stay in place until bulk cooking oil prices drop to 14,000 rupiah (33.2 baht) per litre across Indonesia.

Trade Ministry data showed as of Friday, bulk cooking oil was priced on average at 17,300 rupiah per litre as of Friday.