Iran uprising enters 'political phase' involving Mousavi & influential leaders across civil society

Issued on: 16/02/2023 - 

07:35

Iran has been rocked by a civil uprising since mid-September, sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, accused of breaching the Islamic republic's dress code for women. The movement gradually morphed from a push against repression into a movement calling for all-out regime change. While mass demonstrations have begun to subside, public displays of anger remain, political demands are multiplying across civil society, and a divided opposition, in and outside of the country, insist the endgame is regime change. For more on this new political phase of Iran's civil uprising, FRANCE 24 is joined by Chowra Makaremi, Anthropologist, Iran Specialist and Head of Research for the CNRS at The French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs (IRIS).

Iran anti-government protests: More than 520 protesters killed by security forces

01:43

Issued on: 16/02/2023 - 

It's now 5 months since in Iran, Mahsa Amini, died in police custody, shortly after being arrested for not adhering to the country's rules on how women should cover their heads in public. Her death sparked the biggest political unrest in Iran for years, with thousands of women and men taking to the streets. Many who demonstrated were either arrested or killed. FRANCE 2's team and FRANCE 24's Camille Knight report.

Gatland would not support Welsh players' strike ahead of Six Nations clash

Issued on: 16/02/2023 - 

London (AFP) – Wales head coach Warren Gatland would not support his players if they decided to strike ahead of their Six Nations clash with England.

Strike action is a possibility due to ongoing uncertainty caused by Welsh rugby's professional contracts freeze.

On Thursday the Welsh Rugby Players' Association (WRPA) said the delay was causing "unacceptable strain on mental health and overall wellbeing".

A new financial agreement between the four Welsh regions and the Welsh Rugby Union has still to be confirmed in writing.

That has sparked concern that a sizeable number of players whose contracts expire at the end of this season will head away from Wales due to the huge sense of uncertainty over their futures.

When asked if he would support a player strike, Gatland said: "No."

The New Zealander added: "I completely support the stance that they're taking in terms of wanting to get some resolution of the issues that they have, but I think there's a lot more involved, a lot of things at stake in terms of ensuring that that fixture does take place.

"Like I've said, I'm supportive of the players and the things that they're trying to do, and my role is just to prepare the team for next week."

Wales are due to host England in Cardiff on February 25.

Strike the 'last option'

Former captain Alun Wyn Jones said a strike was the "last option" available to players frustrated by their treatment over a long period of time.

"It's hard to deny, but it's the very last option," said Wyn Jones, the most capped international player of all time, about the possibility of a strike.

"There are people who are really impassioned. Ultimately, if you treat people badly for long enough, you get to where we find ourselves.

"We realise what we do and how fortunate we are to do it, but if this was any other line of work or any other industry for this period of time with this amount of uncertainty, you'd get the same reaction.

Gatland is in his second stint in charge of Wales after a hugely successful spell between 2007 and 2019.

But his return has so far failed to halt a poor run of results with heavy defeats to Ireland and Scotland to open the Six Nations.

"I'm in complete support of the players in terms of the WRPA, which to me in my time here has been incredibly weak as an organisation," said Gatland.

"I've stressed on a number of occasions to the players that they need to be stronger, they need to have more voices, they need to be around the table from a consultation point of view.

"From that regard, I think it's a huge positive for the players and that relationship with the union going forward because they need to be part of all the discussions that take place.

"I'm sure the players, like us, would like things resolved hopefully as quickly as possible."

Reports of a strike threat come at a time of turmoil for Welsh rugby both on and off the field.

Last month, then-WRU chief executive Steve Phillips resigned after a BBC documentary made allegations of sexism at the governing body.

© 2023 AFP

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

French company charged over baby milk salmonella scandal

Issued on: 16/02/2023 - 

Paris (AFP) – French food company Lactalis said Thursday it had been charged over a five-year-old global scandal in which dozens of babies fell sick from salmonella-contaminated powdered formula milk.

Prosecutors brought the criminal charges, also targeting the group's Celia Laiterie de Craon factory, for serious fraud, involuntarily bodily harm and a failure to carry out a recall order for the tainted milk, it said.

Lactalis, one of the world's biggest dairy groups, said it was cooperating with the investigation.

Several babies were diagnosed with salmonella poisoning at the end of 2017 in France after being given milk products, mostly Lactalis-owned Milumel and Picot brands, delivered by the Craon factory, in the northwest.

In France alone, 36 babies showed salmonella symptoms within three days of being given Lactalis products.

Spain and Greece also reported cases, with Lactalis admitting at the time that its powdered milk in more than 80 other countries was affected.

Salmonella poisoning symptoms can range from relatively benign gastroenteritis, to serious disease in very young children, old people and patients with weakened immunity.

Prosecutors accuse Lactalis of failing to promptly carry out a recall to limit the damage, and said they had identified several problems in its production chain leading to the contamination in the first place.

Lactalis in mid-January 2018 pulled all powdered milk produced by Craon from the shelves, more than 12 million packages.

The company and its reclusive chief executive, billionaire Emmanuel Besnier, were harshly criticised for failing to address the problem publicly for weeks.

In 2018, Lactalis still claimed the contamination had been caused by work done at the factory in the first half of 2017.

But France's leading bacteriology body, the Institut Pasteur, found the bacteria had been present in the site's production since 2005.

Several hundred people filed lawsuits against Lactalis, mostly for fraud, and investigators took dozens of witness statements.

Thursday's charges were "proof of the existence of serious and confirmed evidence in this case", Jade Dousselin, a lawyer for a consumer association of claimants in the case, told AFP.

She said the move was "the first step towards a conviction of those responsible for this big health scandal".

A spokeswoman for NGO Foodwatch, Ingrid Kragl, said she hoped for "exemplary sanctions" that would end what she called a "climate of impunity" for food companies.

A 2022 study of the case submitted to investigators and seen by AFP found Lactalis had shown a "lack of vigilance, or even blindness" concerning repeated signs that its production had become unsafe.

burs/jh/ah/bp

Boat carrying 71 Rohingya refugees lands in Indonesia


By Riska Munawarah and Yayan Zamzami | AP
February 16, 2023

ACEH BESAR, Indonesia — A boat carrying 71 weak and hungry Rohingya Muslims fleeing from refugee camps in Bangladesh landed Thursday in Indonesia’s northernmost province of Aceh, local officials said.

Fifteen-year-old Shorif Uddin, who was on the boat with his parents, said two or three people died while they were at sea because of a lack of food.

“We have been traveling so long and did not have any food to eat. We are really hungry,” he said.

He said the Rohingya had been unable to find work or achieve higher education in the refugee camps and decided to leave Bangladesh for Indonesia.

His parents paid money to board the boat along with other refugees, but the captain fled the vessel as it was passing India, Uddin said.

Miftach Cut Adek, the leader of the tribal fishing community in Lampanah Leungah village in Aceh Besar district, where the boat landed, said it was in good condition and the engine was working.

The 71 Rohingya on board included 21 women and 20 children.

More than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fled from Buddhist-majority Myanmar to refugee camps in Bangladesh after an army-led crackdown in August 2017. Myanmar security forces have been accused of mass rapes, killings and the burning of thousands of Rohingya homes.

Most of the refugees who have left the camps by sea have attempted to reach Muslim-majority Malaysia, but many have ended up in Indonesia along the way.

More than 500 Rohingya landed in Aceh last year. The most recent group was in early January, when 184 people landed on Kuala Gigieng beach, also in Aceh Besar district.

___

Associated Press writer Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

Tensions brew in Germany over refugee arrivals

Femke COLBORNE
Thu, 16 February 2023 


The main road through the northern German village of Upahl is lined with wooden placards, their bright letters standing out against the grey sky and muddy fields.

"Upahl says no", reads one. "Think of our children!" says another.

They are referring to a planned centre for 400 asylum seekers in the town, which itself has a population of just 500.

Like many communities across Germany, the district of Northwestern Mecklenburg, where Upahl is located, has witnessed an increase in arrivals of refugees and asylum seekers in recent months.

Almost 218,000 asylum applications were filed in Germany last year -- more than twice as many as in 2020 and the biggest number since the influx of 2015-16.

In 2022, the largest number of people seeking asylum hailed from war-torn Syria and Afghanistan, followed by Turkey and Iraq.

In addition, more than a million people arrived from Ukraine -- granted a special status that means they do not need to apply for asylum to be allowed to remain in Germany.

To cope with the arrivals, sports halls have been requisitioned in Northwestern Mecklenburg as temporary housing for newcomers.

- Quiet life -

But with current capacity exhausted and between 20 and 30 new arrivals every week, local officials have voted to set up a new centre in Upahl using converted transport containers. It is set to open in March.

"Due to the many people who have come to us (from Ukraine) plus the asylum seekers... we have a situation that we can no longer cope with," Tino Schomann, chief administrative officer for the district, told AFP.

"I need more places, more capacity," he said.

But some locals are opposed to the centre and have staged demonstrations against the plans.

"Life in Upahl is so beautiful because everything is very quiet," said Jan Achilles, 46, an environmental analyst who is also a community representative.

The container centre would change that, he says.

Retired truck driver Bernd Wien, 66, who has lived in Upahl since 1980, has been at all the demos.

"We just want to live here quietly, to enjoy our retirement," he said.

After months of pleading from local officials across Germany for more help to deal with new arrivals, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser on Thursday hosted a meeting to address the issue.

But despite a promise from Faeser that the government was "standing side by side" with local communities to "shoulder this great humanitarian feat", no concrete measures were agreed.

Reinhard Sager, head of the German Districts Association, called for Chancellor Olaf Scholz to take the matter into his own hands.

"The municipalities in Germany are really doing a great job and the willingness of private individuals to help is still great," Sager said.

But "we urgently need to relieve the pressure on (local authorities) -- the pressure is considerable and is increasing from day to day, from week to week."

- Far-right fears -

In 2015-16, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party harnessed anger at Germany's influx of asylum seekers to win votes and ultimately enter parliament for the first time.

Right-wing extremists have been spotted at recent protests in Upahl and elsewhere, and fears are growing that the current tensions could provide a further boost to the far-right party.

"The general situation is ultimately far more dramatic than in 2015 due to the war, inflation, economic crises and new refugees," Hajo Funke, a political scientist at the Free University of Berlin, told AFP.

According to a recent survey by pollster INSA, around half of Germans -- 51 percent -- believe the country is taking in too many refugees.

Upahl resident Anika Reisch, 38, has sympathy for people coming to the village "who are traumatised, who are worried about the future".

But the mother of two, who runs an insurance business around the corner from the planned new centre, still does not want it on her doorstep.

"It can't go well for the people who come here either. They have no privacy at all. They can't... come to terms with everything they have experienced. That can't go well for either side," she said.

Lazy-faire? 'We work hard!' French productivity among Europe's best, market elusive to youth, elders

Issued on: 16/02/2023 

06:20  Video by:Genie GODULA

A fifth day of nationwide strikes and protests in France tested the government's resolve on a controversial pension reform, the flagship policy of President Emmanuel Macron’s second term. For more on this latest in a series of protests, FRANCE 24 is joined by Bruno Palier, Professor and CNRS Research Director at Sciences Po Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics.

France on 5th day of pension reform protest, less disruptive

Issued on: 16/02/2023 - 

01:50© france 24
Video by:Liza KAMINOV

France is bracing for a fifth day of nationwide strikes and protests Thursday against a pension reform that is the flagship policy of President Emmanuel Macron’s second term. This latest round is expected to be less disruptive that on previous occasions, with the Paris Metro working normally and most schools unaffected. FRANCE 24's Liza Kaminov reports.

France pension reform: 5th day of mobilisation before a still hypothetical vote in the Assembly

Issued on: 16/02/2023 

01:51
Video by:James ANDRÉ

"We believe in the withdrawal of this reform": With fewer but still determined demonstrators, the unions mobilised on Thursday for the fifth time against the pension reform project to maintain the pressure on the deputies, who still hope to be able to debate the legal age by midnight on Friday thanks to the withdrawal of numerous amendments. In the middle of school holidays, with the exception of the Ile-de-France and Occitania regions, the mobilisation is expected to decrease. FRANCE 24's James Andre reports from the Bastille in Paris, the site of the start of today's protest march.

Struggling 'peripheral France' at centre of new protests

Eloi Rouyer and Adam Plowright in Paris
Thu, February 16, 2023 


France is in the grip of a fresh wave of protests, with support for demonstrations particularly strong in small and medium-sized towns, often overlooked areas of the country that are simmering with resentment, experts say.

On the fifth day of protests and strikes against President Emmanuel Macron's proposed pension reform on Thursday, trade union leaders headed to the southwestern city of Albi to stress that their movement has broad national backing.

The picturesque centre with narrow medieval streets and 13th-century cathedral suffers from the same problems afflicting many such places in France: boarded-up shops, high unemployment and worries about public services.


Far poorer than nearby regional powerhouse Toulouse, which thrives thanks to its aerospace industry, Albi is the sort of town where the sometimes-violent "Yellow Vest" protests against Macron proliferated in 2018-19.

"It's important to show that this movement is present across the whole of France," the head of the hard-left CGT union, Philippe Martinez, told reporters Thursday in winter sunshine outside a glass factory in Albi.

"It's not only about Paris," he added, echoing a widely felt sentiment in so-called "peripheral France" where many begrudge the political and economic power concentrated in the capital.

- Huge turnout -

Previous rounds of protest since January 19 have drawn more than a million people onto the streets across France -- some of the biggest demonstrations in decades -- with the largest rallies in Paris.

But the demonstrations in small and medium-sized towns have caught attention because of their size relative to their population.

Places such as Saintes, near the cognac-producing vineyards of western France, or central Saint-Marcellin, source of a famous soft cheese of the same name, have seen crowds of thousands denounce Macron and his government.

In remote Mende, a southern town located along what is sometimes called the "diagonale du vide" ("the empty diagonal") that transects France, around a quarter of the 12,000 inhabitants turned out for a protest in January.

The left-leaning Jean Jaures Fondation, a think-tank in Paris, mapped this phenomenon in a recent report which concluded that the protests were bringing together anti-Macron "Yellow Vest" supporters, unionised workers, and other left-wingers.

"The people who are furthest from the biggest towns, from public services, who are dependant on their cars, which is a cost-of-living problem, are those that are most likely to oppose Emmanuel Macron," Antoine Bristielle, a public opinion expert at the foundation, told AFP.

During his election successes in 2017 and again last year, pro-business Macron attracted mostly urban, educated, wealthy and more elderly voters. The opposite was true for his closest rival, far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

- Covid after-effects? -

The former investment banker has been vilified as a "president of the rich" since his first months in office, when he cut wealth taxes and brought in changes to labour law to make it easier to fire workers.

Macron's pension reform will see the retirement age raised to 64 from 62.

It is widely perceived as being unfair on people who did not attend university, who tend to start their working life earlier than graduates -- among whom retirement around 64 or 65 is already common.

"In these (small and medium-sized) towns, there are a lot of workers who started early, who didn't go to the regional capital to study, who work in jobs like transport, construction or restaurants which are physical and sometimes difficult professions," said author and pollster Jerome Fourquet.

They are also places where the biggest employer is often the highly unionised public health sector, the Ifop polling group expert told CNews channel Wednesday.

Some of Macron's closest political allies had warned the 45-year-old leader about the risk of antagonising people, given the cost-of-living crisis linked to the war in Ukraine and the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Fourquet said small towns contained a high proportion of nurses or pharmacists, workers in old people's homes or supermarket cashiers who toiled during Covid despite the dangers.

They have the impression "of having been put on a pedestal during Covid but the only response, the only compensation for these efforts has been to ask them to work two more years in their careers," he said.

adp-sl/tgb/bp

Kenya cholera outbreak: Cholera spreads in 15 counties in 4 months

Issued on: 16/02/2023 -

01:50

For several months, the World Health Organisation has been warning of a record increase in cholera outbreaks worldwide, an acute diarrhoeal disease that can lead to death from dehydration within hours if left untreated. In Africa, 10 countries have reported outbreaks. Among them is Kenya, which has launched a vaccination campaign to prevent the situation from getting worse. FRANCE 24's Bastien Renouil and Vivianne Wandera report.

Nigeria currency crisis: Protests break out over cash shortage

Issued on: 16/02/2023 -

01:47© france 24

Nigeria's central bank is continuing its push to update the country's currency, but a shortage has led to a cash crisis. With ATMs short of notes and some businesses refusing to accept old-style bills, frustration is running deep. In Wednesday people protested the move by blocking streets and burning tyres. The protests come just as inflation picked up again in January - hitting almost 22%. FRANCE 24's correspondent in Lagos Sam Olukoya tells us more.

Lebanese protesters smash bank facades as crisis bites

Thu, Feb 16, 2023, 

Dozens of angry demonstrators attacked several banks in Beirut on Thursday after the Lebanese pound hit a record low, AFP journalists said, amid a deepening economic crisis.

Lebanon's cash-strapped banks have imposed strict restrictions on withdrawals, barring depositors from accessing their savings, especially those in US dollars.

The pound is trading at about 80,000 to the greenback on the black market versus 60,000 at the start of the month, according to exchange rate monitors.

On Thursday, around 50 protesters smashed the facades of four banks and burned car tyres in the central Beirut neighbourhood of Badaro, AFP journalists at the scene reported.

The attacks came after calls by the "Depositors' Outcry Association", a group that supports depositors' attempts to withdraw their money.

"They stole, seized and looted our money three years ago," said protester Pascal al-Raisi.

"There are owners of millions of dollars among us without even a penny in their pockets.

"There is no other solution. We will escalate until we regain our rights."

Depositors have carried out similar attacks in recent months to demand access to their savings from banks, which have repeatedly closed for days.

This month, the Association of Banks in Lebanon declared an open-ended strike, saying the crisis was affecting the entire financial system.

Lebanon's economic crisis has left many struggling to make ends meet in a country where poverty rates have reached 80 percent of the population, according to the United Nations.

The pound's plunge has triggered a wave of price hikes including on fuel, food items and other basic goods.

Lebanon is being run by a caretaker government and is also without a president, as lawmakers have repeatedly failed to elect a successor to Michel Aoun, whose mandate expired at the end of October.

rh/mz/dv

Chagos islands dispute: HRW condemns UK, US actions on archipelago

Issued on: 16/02/2023 - 

01:47

Britain is accused of crimes against humanity against the Chagossians. These people were expelled in the 1960s and 1970s from the Chagos archipelago in the Indian Ocean. The reason for their misfortune was the US base in Diego Garcia. Human Rights Watch claims that "the British government secretly planned, with the United States" their deportation to Mauritius and the Seychelles. FRANCE 24's Adboolah Earally and Laurent Berstecher report.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_of_the_Chagossians

Expulsion of the Chagossians - Wikipedia 

The United Kingdom, at the request of the United States, began expelling the native inhabitants of the Chagos Archipelago in 1968, concluding its forced ...

https://www.hrw.org/report/2023/02/15/thats-when-nightmare-started/uk-and-us-forced-displacement-chagossians-and

“That's When the Nightmare Started”: UK and ... - Human Rights Watch 

2 days ago ... The reality was that a community had lived on Chagos for centuries. The Chagossians are predominately descendants of enslaved people, forcibly ...

https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/02/15/interview-uk-us-treatment-chagossians-continuing-colonial-crime

Interview: UK, US Treatment of Chagossians a Continuing Colonial ... 

2 days ago ... The Chagos islands are a group of islands located in the Indian Ocean. Before the British forcibly evicted their inhabitants, they were home to ...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/15/chagos-islanders-full-reparations-exile-colonial-crime-human-rights-watch-trial

Chagos islanders must get full reparations for forced exile, says NGO 

2 days ago ... Human Rights Watch also demands trial for 'appalling colonial crime' of expulsion – and continuing ill treatment – of Chagossians.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-and-borders-bill-chagossian-nationality-factsheet/nationality-and-borders-bill-chagossian-nationality-factsheet

Nationality and Borders Bill: Chagossian nationality factsheet 

Jan 16, 2023 ... the Chagossians are the former residents of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) also known as the Chagos Islands, who were removed .....

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/07/reclaiming-chagos-islands-british-colonization/638444

They Bent to Their Knees and Kissed the Sand - The Atlantic 

Jun 15, 2022 ... Uprooted and desperately poor, the Chagossians formed small communities in Mauritius, the Seychelles, and the United Kingdom, with little ...

https://minorityrights.org/minorities/chagossiansilois

Chagossians/Ilois - Minority Rights Group 

They came largely from Madagascar and Mozambique. Britain took over the exploitation of the Chagos Islands in 1814, and continued to practice slavery there ...

https://www.africanews.com/2023/02/15/forced-displacement-of-the-chagossians-by-uk-usa-a-crime-against-humanity-hrw

Forced displacement of the Chagossians by UK, USA a "crime ... 

2 days ago ... Human Rights Watch also said in report published Wednesday (Feb. 15) that Britain and the U.S. should pay compensation to the Chagossians ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_Garcia

Diego Garcia - Wikipedia 

As of August 2018, Diego Garcia is the only inhabited island of the BIOT; the population is composed of military personnel and supporting contractors. It is one ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Support_Facility_Diego_Garcia

Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia - Wikipedia 

Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia is a British Ministry of Defence facility leased to the United States Navy, located on the atoll Diego Garcia in the ...

https://veteranlife.com/military-history/diego-garcia

Inside Diego Garcia: The Most Mysterious U.S. Naval Base 

The island of Diego Garcia is a British Indian Ocean Territory near the tip of India. This military installation is located on the Chagos Archipelago, which is ...

https://www.stripes.com/branches/navy/2022-12-12/diego-garcia-navy-indian-ocean-china-8396930.html

Future of US Navy base in Diego Garcia hinges on UK-Mauritius ... 

Dec 13, 2022 ... Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia hosts units from the U.S. Navy, Air Force and Space Force and the U.K. Royal Navy. Located in the center of ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuZFo6zGKH4

Secret US Military base | Diego Garcia Island | Geopolitics - YouTube 

Jan 9, 2023 ... In this video we'll learn about US Nuclear Submarine in Indian Ocean | Secret US Military base | Diego Garcia Island