NOBEL PRIZE IMPERIALIST
Ethiopia PM moots possible peace talks with Tigray rebels

TIGRAY WAS ATTACKED BY ETHOPIA

Aymeric VINCENOT
Tue, June 14, 2022, 


Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Tuesday spoke for the first time about the possibility of peace negotiations with Tigrayan rebels, who have been locked in a 19-month war with federal forces.

Dispelling speculation that secret talks were already under way with the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), Abiy said the government had created a committee to consider holding negotiations.

"It is not so simple to conduct negotiations. There is a lot of work to be done (before) and a committee has been set up", Abiy told Ethiopian MPs.

The committee will be headed by Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonen, who also serves as foreign minister, and will draft a report detailing the preconditions for negotiations, he said.


The comments follow the government's declaration of an "indefinite humanitarian truce" in March, paving the way for aid to reach the war-battered region of Tigray for the first time since mid-December.

The conflict has driven hundreds of thousands of people to the brink of famine, displaced more than two million and left more than nine million in need of food aid, according to the United Nations.

"Peace isn't something you hide," Abiy told lawmakers in response to rumoured talks with the rebels.

"We are saying we want peace; doesn't mean we are going to do secret negotiations. Secret negotiations have no substance," he added.
- 'Non-negotiable' -

In an open letter published late Tuesday, but dated Monday, the TPLF said it was ready to take part in a "credible, impartial and principled peace process".

But it lashed out at mediation efforts led by African Union envoy Olusegun Obasanjo, the former Nigerian president.

"The proximity of the High Representative (Obasanjo) to the prime minister of Ethiopia has not gone unnoticed by our people," said the letter by TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael, which also denounced "the silence of the African Union over the war and the atrocities perpetrated by the forces ranged against us".

He also for the first time referred publicly to an "existing agreement" among the rivals to meet in Nairobi for negotiations hosted by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, whose government has been active in efforts to find peace in Ethiopia.

The thorny question of western Tigray -- claimed by both Amharas and Tigrayans -- is among the issues expected to come up in any negotiations.

The TPLF has repeatedly said western Tigray, which has been occupied by Amhara forces since the war erupted in November 2020, is a "non-negotiable" part of Tigray.

"Any lasting solution of the current crisis must be predicated on the re-establishment of the pre-war status quo ante," the TPLF said last week, calling for "the complete and verified withdrawal of all invading forces from every square inch of Tigrayan territory".

The TPLF has already asked the UN Security Council to ensure the withdrawal of Amhara and Eritrean forces from the region.

The conflict began in November 2020 when the government sent federal troops into Tigray to topple the TPLF, the region's former ruling party, saying it was in response to rebel attacks on army camps.

After the TPLF mounted a shock comeback in June, retaking Tigray and then expanding into the neighbouring regions of Afar and Amhara, fighting intensified in the second half of 2021, before reaching a stalemate.

Accounts have emerged of mass rapes and massacres during the conflict, with both sides accused of human rights violations.

The humanitarian situation in Tigray also remains dire, with the region still without essential services such as electricity, communications and banking, while only limited relief supplies are reaching the region.

The UN's humanitarian agency OCHA said in a weekend statement that more than 65,500 tonnes of food had been shipped to Tigray's capital Mekele via road between April 1 and June 6.

"Despite this positive progress, significant gaps remain to address the vast humanitarian needs in Tigray, primarily fuel shortage," it said.

ayv/txw/bp

Phillips and Pereira: two men who loved the Amazon
2022-06-16 


Veteran British freelance journalist Dom Phillips and respected Brazilian Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira shared a passion for the farthest reaches of the Amazon rainforest, where they went missing and were buried, according to a confession obtained by police.

The pair were last seen early on June 5 traveling by boat in Brazil's Javari Valley, a far-flung jungle region near the border with Peru, where Phillips was researching a book.

The region has seen a surge of criminal activity in recent years, including illegal logging, gold mining, poaching and drug trafficking -- incursions Phillips has reported on and Pereira has vigorously fought.

Police said Wednesday that one of two men arrested over their disappearance admitted to having buried their bodies in the jungle. While human remains have been found, they have not been definitively confirmed to be those of Pereira and Phillips.

The two had already traveled there together in 2018 for a feature story Phillips wrote in British newspaper The Guardian on an uncontacted tribe -- one of an estimated 19 in the region.

"Wearing just shorts and flip-flops as he squats in the mud by a fire, Bruno Pereira, an official at Brazil's government Indigenous agency, cracks open the boiled skull of a monkey with a spoon and eats its brains for breakfast as he discusses policy," it began

.

That memorable introduction neatly sums up both men, courageous adventurers who loved the rainforest and its peoples, each defending the Amazon in his own way.

- 'Sharp, caring journalist' -

Phillips, 57, started out as a music journalist in Britain, editing the magazine Mixmag and writing a book on the rise of DJ culture.

Lured by DJ friends, he set off for Brazil 15 years ago, falling in love with the country and the woman who became his wife, Alessandra Sampaio -- a native of the northeastern city of Salvador.

Reinventing himself as a foreign correspondent, Phillips covered Brazil for media including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Financial Times and The Guardian, where he was a regular contributor.

A group of friends and colleagues described Phillips as "one of the sharpest and most caring foreign journalists in South America."

"But there was a lot more to him than pages and paragraphs. His friends knew him as a smiling guy who would get up before dawn to do stand-up paddle. We knew him as a caring volunteer worker who gave English classes in a Rio favela," they said in a statement.

Phillips traveled in and wrote about the Amazon for dozens of stories, winning a fellowship from the Alicia Patterson Foundation last year to fund his project to write a book on sustainable development in the rainforest.

The project took him back to the region he loved.

"Lovely Amazon," he posted on Instagram earlier this month, along with a video of a small boat winding down a meandering river.

- 'Courageous, dedicated' Indigenous advocate -

Until recently working as a top expert at Brazil's Indigenous affairs agency, FUNAI, Pereira was head of programs for isolated and recently contacted Indigenous groups.

As part of that job, the 41-year-old organized one of the largest ever expeditions to monitor isolated groups and try to avoid conflicts between them and others in the region.

Fiona Watson, research director at Indigenous rights group Survival International, called him a "courageous and dedicated" defender of Indigenous peoples.

Pereira was especially revered for his knowledge of the Javari Valley, where he was also FUNAI's regional coordinator for years.

But he was on leave from the agency after butting heads with the new leadership brought in by far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who faces accusations of dismantling Indigenous and environmental protection programs since taking office in 2019.

Pereira "was effectively forced out at FUNAI, basically because he was doing what FUNAI should be doing and have stopped doing since Bolsonaro took office: standing up for Indigenous rights," Watson told AFP.

Pereira frequently received threats for his work fighting illegal invasions of the Javari reservation.

That includes helping set up Indigenous patrols. He and Phillips were on their way to a meeting on one such patrol project when they disappeared.

"Every time he enters the rainforest, he brings his passion and drive to help others," Pereira's family said in a statement.

msi-mel/wd/bfm

Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira: Brazil police find two bodies in search for missing men

Police chief says one of the men arrested in connection with the pair’s disappearance had confessed to killing them

The writer and the activist: how Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira bonded over the Amazon

Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira went missing on 5 June, at the end of a four-day trip down the Itaquaí river in the far west of Brazil. Composite: João Laet/AFP/Getty Images (left); Daniel Marenco/Agência O Globo (right)

Andrew Downie in São Paulo and Tom Phillips in Atalaia do Norte

THE GUARDIAN

Thu 16 Jun 2022

Police in the Brazilian Amazon have found the bodies of two men in the area close to where British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous activist Bruno Pereira went missing 10 days ago.

At a press briefing late on Wednesday, regional police chief Eduardo Fontes said one of the two men arrested in connection with the pair’s disappearance had confessed to killing them.


“On Tuesday he informed us the location where the bodies were buried and he promised to go with us today to the site so we could confirm where the bodies were buried,” Fontes told reporters.


The disappearance of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira

The announcement brought a sad end to a 10-day search which has horrified the nation and underlined the growing dangers faced by those who dare to defend Brazil’s environment and Indigenous communities, which have faced a historic assault under the country’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro.

The location identified by the suspect was 1hr 40min by boat from the river town of Atalaia do Norte and another 3.1km (1.9 miles) by foot into dense forest.

After a day-long operation, involving the army, navy and police force, the Guardian witnessed the bodies being removed from that area, known as the Lago do Preguiça, under the cover of darkness.

Escorted by army troops, they were carried by boat back down the River Itaquaí to Atalaia do Norte, where Phillips and Pereira had begun their final journey.

Scores of locals flocked to the town’s port to watch as officers in camouflage gear loaded the two black body bags on to the back of a federal police vehicle, which set off in a blaze of red and blue lights.

“We are now going to identify the human remains with the most dignity possible,” Fontes said. “When the remains are proved to be those of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira, they will be delivered to the families.”

The news was greeted with relief by Phillips’ wife Alessandra Sampaio.

“Although we are still awaiting definitive confirmations, this tragic outcome puts an end to the anguish of not knowing Dom and Bruno’s whereabouts,” she wrote in a statement. “Now we can bring them home and say goodbye with love.

“Today, we also begin our quest for justice. I hope that the investigations exhaust all possibilities and bring definitive answers on all relevant details as soon as possible.”
Superintendent Eduardo Alexandre Fontes speaking during a press conference in Manaus, Amazonas state. Photograph: Ricardo Oliveira/AFP/Getty Images

Fontes said search teams planned to return to the site on Thursday to locate the men’s boat. The men were last seen travelling upriver and Fontes alleged the suspects tossed the boat’s engine in the river and then filled the vessel with sacks of earth so it would sink.

“We are still investigating,” he said, adding that more arrests were expected. “This was a significant advance.”

The press conference was held in Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, where a series of military and police officials congratulated themselves for the work done, before belatedly recognising the role played by Indigenous people who helped lead the search.

In Atalaia do Norte, Eliseio Marubo, an Indigenous lawyer and close friend of Pereira said: “I feel an indescribable pain because I have lost a brother, I have lost part of my story.”

Tears rolling down his cheeks, Marubo sent a message to the families of the two men who had both sought to champion the Indigenous cause. “You are not alone,” he said. “We will march on together.”

Demonstrators light candles in front of the headquarters of the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), during a protest against the disappearance of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips. Photograph: Raphael Alves/EPA

Phillips, 57, and Pereira, 41 went missing on 5 June, at the end of a four-day trip down the Itaquaí river in the far west of Brazil.

Pereira was accompanying Phillips on a reporting trip for a book about sustainable development in the Amazon but their boat did not arrive as scheduled at Atalaia do Norte, not far from Brazil’s border with Peru.


The writer and the activist: how Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira bonded over the Amazon

However, when Pereira’s friends raised the alarm, Brazilian authorities were slow to respond and it was the Indigenous communities that made the first unsettling discovery on Saturday when they found rucksacks, clothing and personal items belonging to the two men.

Police detained one man on Wednesday, Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, and six days later they arrested his brother Oseney and charged him with “alleged aggravated murder”. One of the men gave police the testimony that lead to the gruesome find.

The investigation was dogged by setbacks, from the sluggish response of the army and navy search teams, to the heavily criticised actions of the Brazilian embassy in London, who told Phillips’ family in the UK that his body had been found, only to retract the statement later.

It also comes amid widespread criticism of Brazil’s policies on the environment and the estimated 235 Indigenous tribes living in Brazil.

Deforestation has soared under Bolsonaro, and government agencies devoted to protecting the environment and Indigenous communities have been undermined.

Pereira was a senior figure in the state Indigenous foundation charged with protecting Indigenous communities but was removed from office in late 2019 after he led an operation to destroy illegal mines operating on Indigenous land.

He later began working with Indigenous rights organisations in remote areas of the rainforest to help them map their territories and protect them from invasions by miners, loggers, and drug-traffickers active in the area.

Late on Wednesday, Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said in a statement that Wednesday’s news had prompted “pain and indignation” and linked the crime to the dismantling of policies to protect Indigenous people.

“Democracy and Brazil can no longer tolerate violence, hatred and contempt for the values ​​of civilisation,” he said. “Bruno and Dom will live in our memory – and in the hope of a better world”.

A crowdfunding campaign has been launched to support the families of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira. Donate here in English or here in Portuguese.

Australia submits more ambitious 2030 emissions target to UN

by Maddison Connaughton

Despite being ravaged by floods, fires and droughts, Australia has long been seen as a

 laggard on climate action.

Australia's new center-left government submitted more ambitious emissions targets to the United Nations Thursday, seeking to end a decade of footdragging on climate change.\

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese raised the country's 2030 emissions reduction target to 43 percent, up from a more modest previous target of 26-28 percent.

The new goal "sets Australia up for a prosperous future, a future powered by cleaner, cheaper energy," Albanese said.

Despite being ravaged by floods, fires and droughts, Australia has long been seen as a laggard on climate action.

The vast continent-country is replete with fossil fuel deposits and is one of the world's top exporters of coal and gas.

Coal still plays a key role in domestic electricity production.

In 2022, MIT ranked Australia 52nd of 76 nations on its Green Future Index, which rates how much countries are shifting towards an environmentally sustainable economy.

The 'climate wars'

But Albanese made emissions cuts a centerpiece of his recent election campaign and pledged to "end the climate wars" that led to decades of policy stasis.

Albanese sought to frame the decision as an economic boon: "What business has been crying out for is investment certainty," he said.

The Business Council of Australia welcomed the raised targets, saying they "should be a line in the sand."

"Australia can't afford to stall progress again because failure will see Australians miss out on new opportunities, new industries and better jobs," the council's chief executive Jennifer Westacott said.

'Seize the opportunity'

Albanese said Thursday that world leaders had "all welcomed Australia's changed position" on climate action during his conversations with them since taking power last month.

The issue of emissions reduction and fossil fuel exports was a key point of tension between Australia's previous government and Pacific leaders, who have labelled climate change the greatest threat to their region.

Albanese tried to sidestep criticism that higher targets could harm Australian jobs saying he wanted to "seize the opportunity that is there from acting on climate change".

The new targets would give business the certainty it needed to "invest over a longer time frame than the political cycle of three years," he said.

But he has so far refused to set a deadline for phasing out coal, in line with other rich countries.

Even before the announcement, Australia's fossil fuel industry was in flux with many major companies seeking to decarbonise their operations.

On Wednesday, global miner BHP announced it had been unable to find a buyer for its coal mines in the Australian state of New South Wales and would instead close the project by 2030.

The news came just a day after fossil fuel giant BP announced it would take out a 40.5 percent stake in a renewables project in Australia, billed as the largest power station on earth.

Anja-Isabel Dotzenrath, BP's executive vice president of gas and low carbon energy, said the company believed that "Australia has the potential to be a powerhouse in the global energy transition".Time's up: why Australia has to quit stalling and wean itself off fossil fuels

© 2022 AFP

Protests spread in India over new military recruitment system




Protest against "Agnipath scheme" in Jehanabad

Thu, June 16, 2022
By Saurabh Sharma and Jatindra Dash

LUCKNOW, India (Reuters) -Angry crowds in India set an office of the country's ruling party on fire, attacked railway infrastructure and blocked roads on Thursday, in widening protests against a new military recruitment system, police officials said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government this week announced an overhaul of recruitment for India's 1.38 million-strong armed forces, looking to bring down the average age of personnel and reduce pension expenditure.

But potential recruits, military veterans, opposition leaders and even some members of Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have raised reservations over the revamped process.

In eastern India's Bihar state, where protests have flared in around a dozen locations, thousands gathered in Nawada city to demonstrate against the new recruitment system, police official Gaurav Mangla said.

"They torched a BJP office, torched tyres in three prominent areas of the city, damaged a bus and many private vehicles," Mangla told Reuters.

Protesters also attacked railway property across Bihar, settling alight coaches in at least two locations, damaging train tracks and vandalising a station, according to officials and a railways statement.

Police said protests also took place in northern Haryana state and western Rajasthan - both traditional recruiting areas for the Indian military.

The new recruitment system, called Agnipath or "path of fire" in Hindi, will bring in men and women between the ages of 17-and-a-half and 21 for a four-year tenure, with only a quarter retained for longer periods.

Previously, soldiers have been recruited by the army, navy and air force separately and typically enter service for up to 17 years for the lowest ranks.

The shorter tenure has caused concern among potential recruits.

"Where will we go after working for only four years?" one young man, surrounded by fellow protesters in Bihar's Jehanabad district, told Reuters partner ANI. "We will be homeless after four years of service. So we have jammed the roads."

Smoke billowed from burning tyres at a crossroads in Jehanabad where protesters shouted slogans and performed push-ups to emphasise their fitness for service.

Bihar and neighbouring Uttar Pradesh saw protests over the recruitment process for railway jobs in January this year, underlining India's persistent unemployment problem.

Varun Gandhi, a BJP lawmaker from Uttar Pradesh, in a letter to India's defence minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday said that 75% of those recruited under the scheme would become unemployed after four years of service.

"Every year, this number will increase," Gandhi said, according to a copy of the letter posted by him on social media.

(Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal;Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, William Maclean)

As Ukraine crisis rages, Erdogan trains his sights on Kurdish northern Syria

Marc DAOU - Yesterday 

France 24
© Murat Cetinmuhurdar/PPO/Reuters


With international attention focused on the war in Ukraine, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears to be in a good geopolitical position to launch a new military operation against the Kurds in northern Syria. Despite US warnings, Erdogan has threatened an offensive on two strategic Syrian towns near Turkey’s southern border.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has once again started threatening a new military operation in northern Syria in a bid to create his much-wanted buffer zone along the Turkey-Syria border.

Erdogan’s plan, which he was forced to shelve last year, has resurfaced in recent weeks as Ankara has calculated that the war in Ukraine has turned the geostrategic tide in Turkey’s favour.

"We are meticulously working on new operations to fill the gaps in our security line on our southern borders," Erdogan told lawmakers of his AKP party earlier this month. "We will clean up Tel Rifaat and Manbij," two towns west of the Euphrates River, he said before promising to proceed "step by step” in other regions.

Erdogan’s sights are once again trained at territories controlled by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).

Supported and armed by the US military, the YPG formed the bulk of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Arab-Kurdish alliance that fought the Islamic State (IS) group in the US-led international coalition against the jihadist group.

Turkey, however, views the YPG and its parent Kurdish political party, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), as "terrorists". Ankara claims the YPG and the PYD have links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is listed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the US and the EU.

Replacing the Kurds with ‘Arab populations’

"Erdogan's threats against the Kurds should always be taken seriously," warned Fabrice Balanche, a professor at the University of Lyon-II and research associate at the Washington Institute.

Officially, Erdogan’s stated objective is to eliminate the PKK, but in reality, Ankara has the Kurdish presence in northern Syria in its sights.

In the immediate aftermath of the Arab Spring, Syria’s Kurdish minority had a de facto embryonic state in the north and northeast of the country as the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad weakened the Damascus regime. In 2016, the Kurds of Syria established the autonomous federal zone of Rojava in areas abandoned by Assad’s forces in what some experts believe was a bid by Damascus to deter the Kurds from joining the ranks of the rebellion.

Ankara, however, rejects the slightest hint of Kurdish autonomy near its borders, perceiving it as a threat to Turkey’s territorial integrity amid fears that military bases and training camps in Kurdish hands will eventually benefit the PKK. Erdogan therefore wants to create a 480 kilometre-long and 30 kilometre-wide buffer zone between Turkey’s southern border and the Syrian territories east of the Euphrates River.





Since the start of the conflict in Syria, Ankara has displayed “complete opposition” to an autonomous Syrian-Kurdish presence south of its border, said Balanche, and has launched several offensives in the region. “The objective has not changed: to replace the Kurds by Arab populations displaced by the conflict and by local pro-Turkish militias loyal to Ankara’s interests in order to constitute an Arab belt, a sort of anti-Kurdish buffer zone, in northern Syria,” he said.

"Eventually, given that the Turks have already created the Syrian National Army (SNA), which includes Islamist militias and has about 70,000 men, the territories taken from the Kurds could become a self-proclaimed Republic of Northern Syria, like the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,” said Balanche.

The Mediterranean island of Cyprus has been divided since 1974, following a Turkish invasion, between the Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). While the Republic of Cyprus is an EU member, the TRNC – which was self-proclaimed in 1983 – is recognised only by Ankara and not the rest of the international community.

A ‘winning’ calculation

Since 2016, Erdogan has launched a number of military operations in northern Syria, including a March 2018 offensive that enabled his troops and their Syrian Islamist fighters to seize control of the northern Afrin district. The Kurdish forces that lost Afrin retreated further south to Tel Rifaat.

During Turkey’s last military offensive, in October 2019, Turkish forces targeted the border towns of Ras al-Ain and Tal Abyad further east, disconnecting Kurdish-held areas and displacing tens of thousands of people.

The threat of a new offensive comes as international attention is focused on the war in Ukraine, presenting Turkey with a geopolitical opportunity that Erdogan does not want to pass.

"Calculating that this is the right time to go on the offensive again in Syria, Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants to take advantage of the situation since the West is focused on the war in Ukraine and on Russia, which is at the heart of their concerns,” explained Balanche. “In a way, he is asking the West what is their priority: to thwart the Kremlin's plans in Europe or to support the PKK? Presented like that, his calculation is not a losing one."

In a June 9 speech delivered in the western Turkish province of Izmir on the final day of military exercises, Erdogan stressed that, “We hope none of our true allies will oppose our legitimate concerns".

"Erdogan's calculation could well be a winning one,” said Balanche, noting that the Turks, “with their aerial and technological superiority, managed to drive YPG forces in just three months from Afrin, located in a mountainous stronghold that the Kurds thought they could never lose.”

A year later, Ras al-Ain and Tal Abyad were taken in a single month. "The Turks could have even gone further were it not for Russian mediation and a ceasefire," explained Balanche. “If Recep Tayyip Erdogan decides to launch an offensive against Kobane or Manbij, where the population is 85 percent Arab, he could easily manage the same results."

US warnings, Russia’s tacit agreement

By all accounts, it appears that nothing can stop the Turkish president from achieving his goals in northern Syria – despite US warnings.

On June 1, at a joint press conference in Washington with visiting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken noted that, “any escalation there in northern Syria is something that we would oppose, and we support the maintenance of the current ceasefire lines. The concern that we have is that any new offensive would undermine regional stability.”

But Balanche is not sure Washington’s warnings will stop Turkey. “The Americans have protested and will protest even more if Turkey takes action against the Kurds they have promised to protect. But they do not have the means to prevent it," he said.

The Biden administration can place sanctions against Ankara, but Turkey holds too many geostrategic cards, including a veto power on a NATO membership bid by Sweden and Finland.

Like the US, neither the Iranians, nor the Assad regime, nor its Russian sponsors are keen to see the Turks take over parts of Syrian territory.

"The Iranians have set red lines, namely not to touch Shiite areas, nor Aleppo, while Assad’s army is not able to oppose the Turkish military machine,” noted Balanche.

While Russia has said a Turkish operation in northern Syria would be “unwise”, Moscow is not categorically opposed to Erdogan’s plan since the Kurds have refused to return under the Assad regime’s control – and therefore under Russian protection.

And at a time when Russia is facing serious pressure from the West, Moscow is not inclined to sabotage its cordial relations with Turkey, a loose cannon in the NATO fold.

During his visit to Ankara on June 8, Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was very understanding of what he called Turkish "concerns" even as Moscow called on Ankara to “refrain from actions that could lead to a dangerous deterioration” of the situation in Syria.

For their part the Kurds, who were abandoned by Donald Trump in December 2018, once again find themselves with their backs against the wall. "They are quite resigned, and no longer believe in the political project of autonomy. The Turkish offensive of 2019 dampened their hopes, since they saw their Western allies, despite their promises, did nothing to support them,” said Balanche. “They are therefore expecting a new Turkish operation and know that they will not be able to hold out for long and that no one will come to their rescue.”

Erdogan also knows this. Back in August 2019, he warned that "as long as the [YPG-controlled areas] have not disappeared, Turkey will not feel safe”. Three years later, and with a war raging in Ukraine, the Turkish leader appears determined to do what it takes to “feel safe”.

This article is a translation of the original in French.

DR Congo to combat sectarian 'stigmatisation' amid Rwanda tensions

Thu, June 16, 2022, 


The Democratic Republic of Congo has pledged to combat stigmatisation and "manhunts," the national broadcaster said Thursday, a day after an anti-Rwanda protest descended into sectarian looting.

Friction between the DRC and its eastern neighbour Rwanda has surged in the past few weeks over the M23 rebel group.

The government in the DRC's capital Kinshasa accuses Rwanda of backing the rebels, a charge that Rwanda has repeatedly denied.

On Wednesday, several thousand people protested against Rwanda in the eastern city of Goma, rushing the border post with the country and later ransacking Rwandan-owned businesses.


According to an AFP reporter present, some protesters also stopped cars to search for Rwandan nationals -- or speakers of the country's national language Kinyarwanda.

The Congolese High Defence Council, which is chaired by the president, has ordered the interior minister and police chief to "take all necessary measures to avoid stigmatisation and manhunts," a government spokesman said.

The council also recommended suspending agreements with Rwanda, spokesman Patrick Muyaya was quoted on DRC's national broadcaster on Thursday as saying.

Relations between Kinshasa and Kigali have been strained since the mass arrival in DRC of Rwandan Hutus accused of slaughtering Tutsis during the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

But relations have nosedived over a recent resurgence on fighting by the M23.

A primarily Congolese Tutsi militia that is one of scores of armed groups in eastern DRC, the M23 leapt to global prominence in 2012 when it captured Goma.

It was forced out shortly afterwards in a joint offensive by UN troops and the Congolese army.

The rebels resumed fighting last November after accusing the Kinshasa government of failing to respect a 2009 agreement under which the army was to incorporate its fighters.

Clashes intensified in March, causing thousands of people to flee, and on Monday the rebels took the trading town of Bunagana.

bmb/mbb/jhd/eml/ri

Fraught ties between DR Congo and Rwanda date back decades



Wed, June 15, 2022


The Democratic Republic of Congo and its smaller eastern neighbour Rwanda are at loggerheads over a rebel group blamed for bloody attacks in eastern DRC.

The row has seen the DRC accusing Rwanda of supporting the M23 group, an allegation Rwanda denies.

Here is a backgrounder on the quarrel, whose roots are decades old:
- Migration and genocide -

During the Belgian colonial era, thousands of Rwandan farmers moved into the fertile hills of Congo's Kivu region, sowing the seeds for rwandophone communities variously known as the "Banyarwanda," "Banyamulenge" or "Banyabwisha."

Further crises in Rwanda and Burundi spurred further waves of migrants into the Congo, and eventually self-defence groups formed as ethnic Rwandans came under pressure on the western side of the border.


The 1994 genocide in Rwanda became a turning point.

More than a million Rwandan Hutus fled into Congo. Many of them were troops or militiamen who had taken part in the bloodletting, which claimed the lives of some 800,000 people, mostly members of the Tutsi minority as well as moderate Hutus.

The influx became a major source of friction. Rwanda's post-genocide regime, led by the country's current president Paul Kagame, accused armed groups of launching attacks on its territory.
- Regional wars -

In 1996, Uganda and Rwanda supported a rebel campaign against the army of Congolese dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, who was overthrown the following year by a coalition led by opposition leader Laurent-Desire Kabila.

But relations between Kabila and his former allies swiftly broke down.

In 1998, a new Rwandan-backed rebellion broke out in Kivu, eventually sucking in other countries around the region and dozens of armed groups.

The conflict was essentially over control of the region's mineral wealth, which in 2000 even prompted a violent confrontation between Rwanda and Uganda over the mining town of Kisangani.

In 2002, Rwanda and the DRC signed a peace agreement, but relations have been marked ever since by suspicion and mutual accusations of cross-border meddling through rebel groups.
- CNDP -

In 2004, an rebellion broke out in South Kivu province and then spread to North Kivu led by two former army officers. The Kinshasa government accused Rwanda of backing them, a charge it denied.

Two years later, one of the rebel leaders, Laurent Nkunda, launched his own militia, the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), which again the DRC said was backed by Kigali.

But in 2009, in a remarkable but brief about-turn in relations, Rwandan troops entered the DRC with Kinshasa's blessing to conduct an operation against a Rwandan Hutu rebel group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

Nkunda was arrested during this operation.
- M23 -

In 2012, a new rebel group emerged among Congolese Tutsi rebels, led by former CNDP members who had been incorporated into the DRC army under a peace deal signed on March 23, 2009.


They used that date as the inspiration for their name -- "the March 23 Movement," or M23. According to a UN report, the M23 was backed by Rwanda.

In November 2012, the group briefly seized DR Congo's eastern city of Goma.

But a year later, the group was defeated and forced out of the country by a joint UN and Congolese army offensive.

In late 2013, in Nairobi, the M23 and Kinshasa signed an accord that included provisions allowing former rebels to be incorporated into the military to reintegrate into civilian life.

But the M23 became aggrieved at what it said was Kinshasa's failure to implement the deal.

The group made an armed comeback last November. Violence escalated in North Kivu in late March, prompting thousands of people to flee.

The DRC accuses Rwanda of supporting, funding and arming the rebels. Rwanda denies the charge, and instead accuses the DRC army of backing the FDLR.

bur-at/mbb/sba/ri/jj

Spain ‘arrests protesting climate scientists’ amid earliest summer heatwave in history

Harry Cockburn
Thu, June 16, 2022

Scientists poured red dye over the front of the Congress building in Madrid in April to highlight global inaction on the climate crisis (Extinction Rebellion)

Scientists in Spain who took to the streets in April to protest lack of action on the worsening climate crisis have reportedly been summoned to Spanish police stations this week, with at least ten activists arrested.

During the protests, which were part of a broader demonstration by thousands of scientists around the world to highlight "the urgency and injustice of the climate and ecological crisis", civil disobedience actions included spraying the facade of the national congress building in Madrid with red paint.

According to an article in newspaper El Periodico, a dozen Spanish scientists were called in to speak to police to answer for their role in the civil disobedience campaign.

The article said the protesters included professors, researchers, doctors, regular members of Spain’s Higher Council for Scientific Research and members of the panel of experts on Climate Change for the UN, who took action to "denounce the criminal climate inaction of successive governments in recent decades".

According to Scientist Rebellion – a sister organisation to Extinction Rebellion – those arrested were charged with criminal damage.

A spokesperson for the organisation told The Independent: "Yesterday, more than 10 scientists and activists of Scientist Rebellion were arrested in a very irregular procedure, some of them spending several hours in police custody. They were all charged with criminal damage and "attack to the state institutions" for their non-violent action in April, that consisted in throwing dyed water to the facade of Congress. The stains were removed in half an hour."

They added: "The second charge relates to the claim that the parliamentary session was interrupted due to the action, a fact that several Spanish politicians have already denied."

Scientist Rebellion said the police in Spain are using "authoritarian" tactics and "trying to intimidate our activists".

In a Twitter post, the group said: "Yesterday, Spanish police phoned up fellow scientists who participated in our global mobilisation in April, asking them to report to the police station this morning.

"As this was not a formal procedure, some of our activists decided not to go."


One of the arrested scientists, Mauricio Misquero, wrote on Twitter: "They have kept me in jail for seven hours, because according to them I am the organiser of the action on April 6 for carrying the megaphone and crying my eyes out."

He added: "This summer we are going to exceed 50 degrees."

Following the demonstrations back in April, Peter Kalmus, a climate scientist at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion lab who recently joined Scientist Rebellion and also got arrested during the April civil disobedience campaign, in which he chained himself to the doors of the JP Morgan Chase building, explained why scientists are taking action.

He said: "We need a billion climate activists. I encourage everyone to consider where we’re heading as a species, and to engage in civil disobedience and other actions.

The time is now. We’ve waited far too long. Mobilise, mobilise, and mobilise. Mobilise before we lose everything."

The police action comes as Spain faces a deadly heatwave, set to worsen this week with temperatures forecast to approach 50C.

Israel police close probe into Shireen Abu Akleh funeral violence
AFP / Jun 16, 2022,


Al Jazeera TV journalist Shireen Abu Akleh

JERUSALEM: Israeli police said Thursday they had concluded an internal investigation into violence at the funeral of slain Al Jazeera TV journalist Shireen Abu Akleh -- without however releasing any findings.

The police launched the probe following an international outcry after the veteran reporter's coffin was almost dropped when police attacked the pallbearers during her funeral last month.

Thousands had attended the service in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, and images of the unrest were broadcast live on TV. Israeli authorities blamed Palestinian protesters for the ugly scenes.

Police commander Kobi Shabtai said Thursday that "we cannot remain indifferent to these harsh images and we must investigate so that sensitive events of this order are not violently disturbed by rioters.

"The police under my instructions investigated to assess the action of its forces on the ground in order to draw conclusions and improve the operational progress in this type of event," he said in a statement.

The results of the probe were presented to the minister of public works, said a police spokesperson.

Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist working for the Qatar-based broadcaster, was shot and killed last month while covering an Israeli army operation in Jenin camp in the occupied West Bank.

A Palestinian probe said that an Israeli soldier shot her dead in what it described as a war crime.

Israel has denied the allegations, arguing that she could have been killed by a Palestinian gunman.

Abu Akleh's brother Anton rejected out of hand the police probe into the unrest at her funeral.

"We don't care what Israel says or does, everything is clear from the photos. The police are the aggressors," he told AFP. "They are trying to cover up their actions and mistakes."

 

SEE

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for Shireen Abu Akleh 

French legislative elections: Macron party neck and neck with left-wing bloc

Issued on: 13/06/2022 - 

01:56 Video by: FRANCE 24

French President Emmanuel Macron and a new left-wing union were neck-and-neck in initial estimates of the first round of parliamentary elections, polls showed on Sunday, although it will remain hard to predict if he will get a majority or not. Less than two months after re-election, Macron faces a strong challenge from a united left-wing bloc that polls show could deprive the president of an outright majority even if it does not take control of parliament.

Second round of voting is June 19th.

Hard-left leader sees win in French vote, himself as new PM

Issued on: 12/06/2022 - 


00:43  Video by: FRANCE 24

Leftist parties that had nearly disappeared from the French political landscape have grown wings in the runup to Sunday’s legislative elections and now threaten to weaken President Emmanuel Macron. FRANCE 24's Cole Stangler reports from the France Unbowed headquarters in Marseille.

France parliamentary elections: Abstention rate predicted at 53%, an-all time high

Issued on: 12/06/2022 

03:08
French voters return to the polls on Sunday in the first round of parliamentary elections. Voter abstention is estimated at 53%, an all-time high, according to an Ipsos projection for FRANCE 24. FRANCE 24's James André tells us more.

Grant makes history as first female winner on European men's tour

Sun, June 12, 2022,


Sweden's Linn Grant made history on Sunday when she became the first female winner of a European men's tour event with a nine-shot triumph at the Scandinavian Mixed.

The tournament, featuring men from the DP World Tour circuit and women from the Ladies European Tour (LET) all playing the same course, saw the 22-year-old Swede claim her third title in just six starts this season.

"I just hope that people recognise women's golf, more sponsors go to the LET and hopefully this pumps up the women's game a little bit more," she said.

Grant did not put a foot wrong at Halmstad Golf Club, stretching her overnight lead from two shots to seven with five birdies in the first six holes.


She kept her card clean with three successive pars despite pouring rain before making another birdie on the tenth.

Grant picked up further shots at the 11th and 14th to get to 24 under par and win by the biggest margin on the DP World Tour -- the rebranded European Tour -- so far this season.

"It's huge. Just playing at home and having the crowds here, my family by my side, boyfriend on the bag - it's crazy and I'm proud of myself," Grant told europeantour.com.

"Pontus (Grant's caddie and boyfriend) has been amazing, keeping me calm and doing everything right. The crowds are, like always, amazing. Swedish crowds!"

When asked if she particularly wanted to beat the men this week, Grant said: "For sure - the most important thing!

"It's a nice feeling. All week I just felt like it's the girls against the guys and whoever picks up that trophy represents the field."

Henrik Stenson, the 2016 British Open champion, finished in a tie for second on 15 under alongside Marc Warren.

Tournament co-host Annika Sorenstam hailed Grant, who was born in Helsingsborg where her grandfather settled after leaving Scotland.

"What a performance. I'm so excited and so happy for Linn," 10-time women's major champion Sorenstam told Sky Sports.

"She has played very well, running away from the field, but it has been nice to see her play really solid golf. This golf course is not as she has made it seem.

"This shows that we can play against each other in a fair competition. I hope we can use this and people see the quality of women's golf - Linn couldn't prove it any other way."

dj/pb