WATERBOARDING

9/11 defendant unfit to stand trial, US judge rules


Ramzi bin al-Shibh was first transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2006

By Ece Goksedef

BBC News

A military judge at Guantanamo Bay has ruled one of the five defendants charged over the 9/11 attacks is not fit to stand trial in a death-penalty case.

The defendant Ramzi bin al-Shibh has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, associated psychotic features and a delusional disorder.

His lawyer has long claimed his client was "tortured by the CIA".

Al-Shibh was scheduled to face pretrial proceedings on Friday.

Colonel Matthew McCall in the US base on the eastern tip of Cuba accepted the findings of the doctors which said in August that al-Shibh was too psychologically damaged to defend himself.

The medical board of doctors concluded al-Shibh had become delusional and psychotic, The New York Times reported.

That made him incompetent to either face trial or plead guilty, according to a report filed with his trial judge on 25 August.

According to the report, the military psychiatrists said his condition left him "unable to understand the nature of the proceedings against him or cooperate intelligently".

He was supposed be on trial on Friday with four other defendants, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, believed to be the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

Before the trial, Colonel McCall has decided to remove al-Shibh from the case. The hearing of the other four defendants is expected to proceed as scheduled.

• Life after Guantanamo: 'We are still in jail'
• In a courtroom, just feet away from 9/11 suspects

The five men are accused of conspiring in the plane hijackings in 2001 that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York City, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania.

Al-Shibh, who is from Yemen and 51 years old, was arrested in Pakistan in September 2002, and transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2006.

His lawyers said he was tortured by the CIA and "went insane as a result of what the agency called enhanced interrogation techniques, that included sleep deprivation, waterboarding and beatings".

His mental situation has been an issue since his first court appearance in 2008, according to the US media. He has disrupted some of the hearings over the years with outbursts.

Al-Shibh was accused of helping organise the al-Qaeda cell in Hamburg, Germany, that hijacked one of two passenger jets that crashed into the World Trade Centre in New York.

The Guantanamo camp, in Cuba, was established by then-President George W Bush in 2002 to house foreign terrorism suspects following the 9/11 terror attacks in New York. It is on a US Navy base.

The camp has come to symbolise some of the excesses of the the Bush administration's 'war on terror' due to interrogation methods critics say amount to torture, and detainees being held for long periods without trial.

Forensics: identifying the dead after flood or flames

Carla Bleiker

DW
September 25, 2023

Often the only way to identify the dead after natural disasters, like Libya's floods or Hawaii's wildfire, is with DNA, fingerprints and dental records.

In August 2023, wildfires devastated communities on the island of Maui

Rick Bowmer/AP/dpa/picture alliance

In the midst of darkness, there was good news out of Hawaii. Officials updated the death toll of fires that had ravaged the island of Maui on August 8, 2023 — adjusting the number of victims down. At first, officials had said that at least 115 people had died in the fire. They now say it was at least 97 dead.

Where does a change like this come from?

In the town of Lahaina on Maui, the wildfire obliterated everything in its path. In many cases, medical examiners and law enforcement only had fragments and bones to work with in their effort to identify the dead. In some cases, they thought they had DNA samples from two people, but then the samples were from only person. And some tissue that was first thought to be from humans turned out to be pet remains.

"When the fire broke out, people ran together, they huddled together," Jeremy Stuelpnagel, Maui County physician's coroner, told Associated Press. "They're holding each other in those moments. Some of them were even holding pets."

A few days after the news out of Hawaii, officials drastically reduced their estimate of how many people had died in the floods that hit Libya in mid-September 2023.

Previously, the death toll in Libya was estimated at 11,300 people. Then, on Monday, September 18, 2023, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the number of fatalities was 3,958.

The initial, higher figure had come from Libyan Red Crescent, the lower estimate came from the World Health Organization.

Forensics: Giving 'people who died their identity back'

Mix-ups like this are common, said Megan Bassendale, director of Forensic Guardians, a consulting company based in Canada that helps with identifying bodies after natural disasters.

"In the immediate aftermath of emergencies often the information isn't complete or hasn't been vetted," Bassendale told DW in an email. "The remains really need to go through a proper analysis phase before you know exactly what you are dealing with. Information from the field is vital, but the forensic analysis process is essential to having firm numbers."

When a natural disaster occurs or a mass grave is discovered in a war zone, it's forensic scientists that are called upon to help identify the large number of bodies.

Disasters, such as the flood that caused devastation in Libya, often leave barely recognizable bodies behind or, if it's a fire, nothing but charred remains. The experts have to use every trick in their forensic toolkits to find out who the victims were ― an extraordinarily important task.

"If one of your family members disappeared [in a natural disaster], you'd really want to know what happened to them or, in the worst case, be able to bury them. That's what's behind this job — that the people who died get their identity back," said Rüdiger Lessig, doctor of forensic medicine and director of the Institute for Forensic Medicine at the University Hospital Halle in Germany


Fingerprints, DNA samples, dental profiles

There are two groups of identifiers in this work.

One is basic descriptions: my best friend has red hair, my father wears a white-gold wedding band on his left ring finger, my daughter has a tattoo of a hummingbird on her right shoulder.

But these so-called secondary identifiers aren't helpful when a natural disaster has rendered the bodies of the victims unrecognizable. Even medical information (my mother has a c-section scar), another secondary identifier, wouldn't be useful when, say, a fire hasn't left behind any bodies to check for scars.

Floods wreaked havoc on the Libyan city of Derna

Zohra Bensemra/REUTERS

That's where the primary identifiers come in: DNA, fingerprints, dental profiles. Forensic experts diligently collect all human remains from disaster sites to gather these samples so they can be compared against dental records or DNA samples brought in by relatives. Primary identifiers can still be used when secondary identifiers have lost meaning.

"In most cases there's still enough material left that you can get a sample from," Jane Taylor, deputy head of forensics at the International Committee of the Red Cross, told DW. "You have to go into the inside of a bone. Your molar teeth are quite good sources for DNA as well. Somewhere where the internal structure has been protected."
A long, arduous process

Lessig told DW that the examination of one body to take primary identifier samples takes about an hour. That doesn't include the time it may take to get to the site of a disaster where access is difficult. And if experts can only collect remains and have to figure out which of them belong to the same body, the process is drawn out.

Identification is even more difficult when an entire city's infrastructure is wiped out, including, for example, dentists' practices. That means that all dental records that could have been used as comparison material are gone as well. A lack of DNA samples supplied by family for comparison is another factor complicating the process.

"If multiple people from a single family have died, it could be challenging to find people that will be able to give information about those that are missing (and who might be represented among the dead)," Bassendale wrote in her email.
Even if results are unhappy, families grateful for closure

After the Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004, both Lessig and Taylor were part of international teams of experts that set out to identify the more than 5,000 people who had died in Thailand. The teams worked for almost 12 months before they had identified everyone they could.

"It's always important to remind families that it's a long process," Taylor said.

The tsunami that hit on December 26, 2004, killed more than 5,000 people in Thailand and almost 228,000 in total.

: Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/AFP/Getty Images

At the same time, the next of kin don't want anything to be rushed in the search for their loved ones, said Taylor: "It's extraordinarily important for the families that everything is done so that they can know what happened to their family member and if at all possible to have the remains… with them"

Even if the search for a mother, brother or daughter does not end happily, knowing they are dead provides relatives of the victim with desperately needed closure.

Lessig experienced that first hand: On the plane back from Thailand after the tsunami, relatives came up to him and thanked him for the work he'd done.

"You would not believe how grateful family members are, even if it's bad news, when they at least know that the body of their loved one has been identified and they can bury them," Lessig said. "That's how you deal with grief."

Edited by: Zulfikar Abbany

Carla Bleiker Editor, channel manager and reporter focusing on US politics and science@cbleiker

GLOBAL ISSUES

Top European Court to hear landmark youth-led climate case

Holly Young

DW
2 hours ago

Judges in Strasbourg will consider a climate case that could hold governments accountable for moving too slowly to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

A group of youth activists from Portugal wants to hold countries accountable for not acting decisively enough against climate change

Image: Global Legal Action Network


On Wednesday, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) will hear the large-scale climate case of six young people and children from Portugal, who are trying to hold the governments of 32 European countries to account for failing to act on climate change.

The young people, supported by the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), allege the countries — which include Germany, the UK, Russia and Portugal — have not enacted the emission cuts needed to protect their futures.

"The climate crisis is truly a child rights crisis. Without sufficient action children's survival, development, environment and education are at grave risk," said Ulrika Cilliers, Global Director of Policy and Advocacy at UK-based NGO Save the Children, in statement.

The case focuses on countries whose policies lawyers argue are too weak to meet the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) Paris Agreement goal. They cite the country ratings of the Climate Action Tracker.

The plaintiffs range from age 11 to 24 and come from Lisbon and Leiria in Portugal. The case states climate change poses a rising threat to the six young people's lives and their physical and mental well-being. It invokes human rights arguments — including the right to life, a home and to family — as well as claiming discrimination.

"Our generation is living in an age of great danger and uncertainty, so our voice must be heard," Andre Oliveira told DW in 2020 when the case was initially filed with the ECHR. Andre is now 15.

Andre and his sister Sofia, pictured in 2020, are two of the six young people who've filed the climate case in Strasbourg

 Image: Nuno Gaspar Oliveira

"It's clearly not the case that young people are the only people vulnerable to the effects of climate change," said Gerry Liston, a senior lawyer at GLAN, in 2020. "But because they stand to endure the worst impacts, we're saying the effects of failing to adequately address greenhouse gas emissions amounts to unlawful discrimination on the grounds of age."

Andre added that the case wasn't about "finger pointing" but giving all the governments being brought to court "a chance to act better and faster."

A first at Strasbourg

While there are numerous recent and ongoing climate cases, many also involving young plaintiffs, this is the first of its kind to be brought to Strasbourg. The international court, set up in 1959, deals with alleged violations of civil and political rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights.

The pressing need for significant and wide-scale action among many large emitters warranted going directly to Strasbourg, rather than through domestic courts which is more common, explains Liston.

According to GLAN, if successful, the 32 countries would be legally bound to tackle overseas contributions to climate change, including that of multinational companies, as well as ramping up emissions cuts.

Many of the young people cited experiencing the deadly Portuguese wildfires of 2017 as motivation

Getty Images/AFP/P. De Melo Moreira

Portuguese wildfires

The plaintiffs belong to three families and became involved in the case after hearing about GLAN's climate work through a local contact.

Many cited seeing climate change hit their doorsteps as encouraging them to act, particularly the deadly Portuguese wildfires in 2017.

"I directly experienced the terror of the fires," said Catarina Mota, one of the four that live in Leiria, which was among the hardest hit by the blazes, back in 2020. Rising sea levels, the constant threat of forest fires and increasingly abnormal temperatures are now part of her everyday reality.

"These changes make me feel apprehensive," she said, adding sometimes the heat makes it hard to breathe or sleep.

Catarina, pictured here in 2020, said governments need to act to make the planet habitable for future generations

 Global Legal Action Network

"What motivated me to be involved in this case was the desire for a world where one can at least survive," said Catarina, who is now 23. "Because if nothing is done by our governments this will not happen."

Climate action, such as this case, is necessary "in order to have a future and a healthy life without fear," plaintiff Claudia Agostinho, now 24, told DW in 2020. "Our generation and all future generations deserve this."
Wave of climate litigation

The Strasbourg case is part of a growing wave of climate litigation around the world.

While there are ongoing cases in many countries — including South Korea, Peru, and Canada — regarding countries' human rights obligations to mitigate climate change, the most recent high-profile example was another youth-led case in the US state of Montana. In the landmark judgement in August, judges ruled the state's Environmental Policy Act unconstitutional because it does not consider the climate impacts of fossil fuel projects, setting an important precedent for similar cases across the US.

The judgement follows another successful 2021 case initiated by young people against the German government over a climate law they said violated their right to a humane future. Germany's top court ruled that the federal government had to update its 2030 emissions reduction targets.

Liston said the case highlights there are people who will suffer the severe impact of climate change in their lifetime

Global Legal Action Network

Politics, protest and the courts

"I think one case inspires the other," said Caroline Schroeder, from Germanwatch, an NGO that supported nine young people with aconstitutional climate complaint in Germany, back in 2020. She sees the Strasbourg case and growing trend of climate litigation as born of the same mounting frustration driving the Fridays for Future movement — namely, that "politics is not doing enough."

"I wish we wouldn't have to bring the cases," said Roda Verheyen, a climate lawyer who worked on the People's Climate Case filed against EU institutions, which was rejected by the European Court of Justice.

"But it is essentially still the case that the level of protection afforded to our children by the legislators is too low. And that's why the courts will keep seeing these cases," Verheyen said in 2020.

Verheyen points out that in emphasizing a general duty to protect rather than challenging a specific law, the Strasbourg case is less concrete than others she has worked on. Yet a win there could have wide-reaching implications for member states, she added, and even a loss could potentially "reinforce the strength of the litigation both in national cases and on the EU level."

It's ultimate strength, Liston argued, is in bringing home the time perspective and imminence of the threat.

"This case shows that there are people who stand to suffer horrendous effects of climate change within their lifetime," said Liston.

The youngest plaintiff, now 11, will be 28 in 2040, the year in which the UN panel of scientists expect many of the most severe consequences of climate change to unfold.

Andre said he hoped the case will bring "acknowledgement of the voice of a generation that lives with high anxiety and increasing fear of incoming catastrophes, but also a generation that has all the hope that things will change."

This article was originally published on September 3, 2020, and updated on September 26, 2023, to include the announcement that the ECHR will hear the case on September 27.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Germany: Copper theft hits crucial infrastructure, business

Dirk Kaufmann
DW

Metal theft by criminal gangs in Germany is alarming the public and businesses. The resulting disruptions will worsen as copper prices rise.

German copper producer Aurubis identified considerable discrepancies in its target inventory during a scheduled review

Thomas Trutschel/photothek/picture alliance

German railway operator Deutsche Bahn has been struggling for quite a while now. Decades of neglect have left the state-owned company's infrastructure and rolling stock in tatters and its finances in disarray.

Deutsche Bahn's precarious funding is now being additionally burdened by a rising number of copper thefts that in 2022 alone cost the company about €6.6 million ($7 million), according to German business daily Handelsblatt. This year, the newspaper found, copper thefts have already led to 2,644 train delays, totaling well over 700 hours.

As criminals destroy cable ducts to get hold of the valuable base metal, supply chains are disrupted and hundreds of thousands of passengers are getting increasingly frustrated about Deutsche Bahn's unpunctuality.

Copper thieves have stopped train lines leaving hundreds of passengers stranded

Image: Bernd Thissen/dpa/picture alliance

But it's not only the German national railway company that suffers from the rising theft of so-called nonferrous metals like copper. Copper wiring and pipes are stolen from construction sites. Even church roofs that are often laid with copper plates are no longer safe from acts of criminal wrongdoing.

The most spectacular copper theft of all time in Germany, though, happened at copper manufacturing and recycling company Aurubis in August. The Hamburg-based company disclosed it was a victim of a major theft involving nearly $200 million (€188.7 million) worth of the base metal.

Critical raw material in short supply

After the news of the theft broke at the end of August, Aurubis, Europe's largest copper producer, said it suspected a criminal gang had stolen some of its metal. The company disclosed that due to "considerable discrepancies" in its inventories it would miss its full-year profit guidance.

Copper is a base metal that is used in multiple appliances and applications due to its good electrical conductivity. It's become even more critical in the transformation of entire industries toward carbon neutrality, says Joachim Berlenbach, founder and CEO of the Earth Resource Investment (ERI) consultancy. He added that he has no doubt that "the demand for copper will increase massively in the future."

"Think of a wind turbine generating electricity by spinning a copper coil through a magnetic field. For each megawatt of wind energy, you need five to nine tons of copper, depending on whether the turbine is onshore or offshore," Berlenbach told DW.

Prices will continue to rise, he said, because "we simply don't have enough of this critical raw material for achieving our decarbonization goals. This is often ignored by advocates of the energy transition."

Transformations in mobility and energy generation will require massive amounts of copper

Jochen Tack/picture alliance

Economic development to drive up copper prices

Berlenbach thinks that a main driver of future copper prices will be the economic development in emerging countries like China and India where rising standards of living will lead to "more cars being driven, more air conditioning systems being installed and more houses with better electrical wiring being constructed."

The ERI CEO said humans have mined 700 million tons of copper in total so far. "We will need about the same amount of copper in the next 30 years," he added, basing his assumption on calculations done at his company.

At the same time, it's becoming "increasingly difficult to explore and mine copper deposits," he said, noting that those are mainly to be found in countries with high geopolitical risk such as Chile and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)), where companies will only invest "if it's economically worthwhile."

Copper is often mined in countries with poor environmental and human rights standards

Where has all the stolen copper gone?

The Aurubis copper fraud took place in the realm of financial bookkeeping which made it possible for the criminals to remain undisclosed for a long time. After all, selling stolen copper on the hugely regulated European recycling market isn't easy, says Ralf Schmitz from the Association of German Metal Traders and Recyclers (VDM).

Every deal or delivery has to be recorded, he told the German daily Tagesspiegel recently, adding: "What gets stolen is known to the traders. This also applies to our eastern neighbor Poland which has a similar system."

Schmitz suspects that metal thieves mainly sell their contraband outside of Germany because open borders facilitate illegal shipments. Or even further afar: "The bulk of the stolen metals is no longer sold in Europe. Most of the material, in my theory, goes overseas in containers."

Dirty copper: The dark side of the energy transition  42:35

'No substitute for copper'

As the prices of copper and other metals rise, criminals are becoming better organized and more ruthless. Police investigating the Aurubis theft have seized firearms and ammunition alongside more than €200,000 ($212,000) in cash and several cars.

ERI CEO Berlenbach said when he hears about copper thefts in Germany he often is reminded about his time in South Africa, where he once worked. "The problem of copper theft was similarly dramatic in South Africa. At one time, all the telephone lines in my neighborhood in Johannesburg were ripped out. It must have been a well-organized gang with contacts to professional buyers."

And yet, Berlenbach can't think of any effective method to protect critical infrastructures like railways and electrical grids from metal theft. "Unfortunately, there is no substitute for copper cables, it's a matter of physics."

This article was originally written in German.

Is the idea of Khalistan, a Sikh homeland, still alive?

Murali Krishnan in New Delhi

DW

Tensions are flaring up between India and Canada over Khalistan separatists, with the row also sending out shockwaves throughout the Sikh diaspora. But the independence movement seems to have lost steam back home.

The late Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist, became a Canadian citizen after moving there in the 1990s

Image: Ethan Cairns/ZUMA Press/IMAGO

India and Canada have engaged in tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions as part of an intensifying row over the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist, on Canadian soil.

The 45-year-old came to Canada as a refugee decades ago and had since became a Canadian citizen. He was an ardent advocate of establishing a sovereign state of Khalistan, a Sikh homeland in India's Punjab region.

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claims that Indian agents were involved in the murder of Nijjar. India dismissed the allegations as "absurd." However, Indian officials view Nijjar as a terrorist, a member of the banned Khalistan Commando Force, whom India links to targeted killings of various political and religious figures.
No threat to India's unity

While the accusations from Prime Minister Trudeau are likely to further strain relations between the two nations, the row has also brought renewed focus the issue of Khalistan. Some in India fear a revival of militant Sikh separatism that once threatened to tear the country apart.

Pockets of Punjab are also afflicted by social problems such as a drug epidemic and unemployment. But a senior Indian intelligence official told DW there is not much to worry about.

"There is currently no unrest in Punjab, one of the country's most successful states. Khalistan is not a threat to India's unity, but it could affect its foreign policy because of the sharp rhetoric of the community living abroad," he told DW.

"All mainstream political parties, including in Punjab, have denounced violence and separatism," the official added.

Millions of Sikhs abroad

The Sikh separatist movement has long been a source of tension in Canada-India ties. Canada is home to the world's largest Sikh diaspora, comprising of about 800,000 people, which is roughly 2% of its population. Some 3 million Sikhs are estimated to live outside India, mainly in the UK, the US, Australia, and Canada.

The movement to create an independent Sikh nation, known as Khalistan, led to the killing of tens of thousands of people in the 1980s and 1990s. The violence was inspired by radical preacher Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.

An especially traumatic event for the Sikh community was the storming of the Golden Temple — the holiest shrine for Sikhs — in 1984. Indian security forces allegedly hoped to capture Bhindranwale in a surgical strike, but the operation went awry after they encountered resistance. Officials say hundreds of lives were lost, but Sikh activists claim the death toll was much greater.

Additionally, Sikhs around the world were incensed that their sacred place was violated by police action and former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated in retaliation by Sikh members of her own bodyguard.

Since then, India has outlawed the Khalistan movement and groups associated with it are listed as terrorist organizations under the terror law, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Radicalization easier outside India

Sikh organizations say there is no consensus on the support for Khalistan even if it might have traction amongst the diaspora.

"Sikhs in Punjab and those settled in other parts of the country do not support a separate Khalistan," Partap Singh, secretary general of the Sikh Forum in Delhi, told DW. At the same time, Sikhs feel hurt and have "serious grievances," for the way they've been treated after the India-Pakistan partition, he added.

"There is a need for long awaited healing by political dialogue with full understanding and compassion instead of the use of unethical techniques and forces in spreading hatred against Sikhs," added Singh.

Pramod Kumar, director of the Chandigarh based Institute for Development and Communication, who has studied the issue closely, points out that radicalization of Sikhs was pre-dominant among the community abroad.

"Sikh terrorism is not about to erupt again in Punjab and does not have the legs. The diaspora abroad tries to give it moral muscle," Kumar told DW.

Khalistan 'without bombs and bullets'

He cited the detainment of Amritpal Singh, a radical separatist whom Punjab who was the target of a weeklong manhunt before reportedly surrendering in April this year. His activities raised fears of a resurgence of militant Sikh separatism.

"He anointed himself leader of Waris Punjab De but when he was arrested, it did not prompt significant protests suggesting there was little support. That should have settled the matter," said Kumar.

Still, many Sikh organizations in Punjab remain wary of the future. The latest incident in Canada has forced the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), which manages Sikh places of worship, to express "serious concern" over the allegations levelled by Trudeau against India over the killing of Nijjar.

The organization also strongly condemned what they see as hate propaganda against Sikhs and Punjab by a large section of the media.

But Nijjar's death has apparently struck a different chord with the pro-Khalistani organization Dal Khalsa. After news of Nijjar's death was first reported in July, the Dal Khalsa held a protest march, and many of its activists were arrested.

Its spokesperson Kanwarpal Singh told DW about the movement's vision of the future.

"We believe in a Khalistan which is without bombs and bullets. It will be democratic and without bloodshed and violence. This is something which you cannot rob us of," he told DW.

CANADA'S KHALISTAN

What is Quebec's mood - to stay with Canada or independence?

The sovereignty demand in Quebec -- the French-speaking province of Canada-- is an old one. In October 1995, the Quebec Referendum gave a razor thin majority to the "No" side ie Quebecers decided to stay with Canada. But the demand for Quebec's sovereignty continues to be part of Canada's political ecosystem. Where do Quebecers stand now?

A Canadian flag flies in front of the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. (Photo: Reuters)

Amit Bhardwaj

New Delhi,UPDATED: Sep 22, 2023 14:25 IST

Amidst the growing diplomatic tensions between India and Canada over the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Indian politicians such as Bharatiya Janata Party's Baiyanat Jay Panda have brought back the focus on the Quebec Referendum. They are arguing that if Canada allows anti-India activities in the name of freedom of expression and keeps on supporting the Khalistani elements, then India should also welcome those pushing for the independence of Quebec.

The French-speaking province of Canada has a history of sustained political movement seeking its sovereignty. In October 1995, the Quebec Referendum for its sovereignty was defeated by an extremely narrow margin. But has the mood of this Canadian province changed in the past 28 years?

The Quebec Referendum: To stay or leave Canada?

Quebec sends the second highest parliamentarians to Canada's House of Commons. While the governing Liberal party has 35 MPs from this province, Bloc Québécois -- a political party which has been fighting for the cause of Quebec's sovereignty -- has 32 of 78 elected MPs from the province.

The results of the October 30, 1995 Referendum continue to hold its importance.

In the 1995 Referendum, the voting was carried out in 125 electoral divisions of Quebec. With 93.52% voter turnout, a total 47, 57, 509 votes were cast in this referendum.

With little over 54,000 votes, the Referendum for Quebec's sovereignty was defeated. While 23, 08,360 votes were cast in favour of Quebec's sovereignty, 2,362,648 votes were cast for NO option.

In June 2022, Mainstreet Research -- Canada’s one of the prominent public opinion and market research firm -- had conducted a survey poll on Quebec's sovereignty. Nearly 33 per cent of respondents voted in favour of independence, while 67% of respondents said Quebec should remain part of Canada.

As per the Politico -- one of the prominent news platforms of North America region -- the Mainstreet Research's 2021 polls on Quebec had similar results. It had also reported that Leger 360's survey poll conducted in December 2020 on the Quebec's independence had given identical numbers.

Leger 360 claims to be one of the biggest Canadian market research and analytics company. The latest survey poll on Quebec's independence conducted by Leger had raised the hopes of those with sovereignty movement.

As per Leger's February 2023 survey while 33 per cent Quebecers voted for independence, those in favour of staying with Canada were 51%. Around 10% voters chose either not to answer and opted for "don't know".

It is the drop in respondents choosing to stay with Canada which might have raised the hopes of the Quebec sovereignty movement.

Meanwhile, back in India, it is politicians such as BJP VP Panda who are poking Canada by reminding them about the Quebec sovereignty movement.

"In the spirit of friendship with Canada, we in India must consider facilitating an online referendum on the Quebec independence issue (in gratitude for their allowing Khalistani separatists to try the same on Canadian soil), Panda wrote on the microblogging site X.

Panda while speaking to India Today said, "Canada also has separatist movements -- the most prominent of which is Quebec.

If they give shelter to terrorists who orchestrate violence against Indians and against Canadians also for a separatist movement. My sarcastic tweet was that we should return this friendly gesture of sorts."

Panda referred to the media reports like the one published in Politico claiming that "the polling numbers show a greater support for the Quebec to split from Canada and become independent. But they are not currently allowing referendum".

He further added -- with a smile on his face -- this is the reason he suggested that there are many Indians who can facilitate an online referendum for the cause. 

Edited By:

Manisha Pandey

Published On:

Sep 22, 2023

ALSO READ | India should also help with Quebec referendum: BJP’s Jay Panda jabs Canada

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Germany: Con artist sentenced over fine-art forgeries

An employee of a museum in Munich replaced several paintings with fakes. After auctioning off the originals, he bought a luxury car.

https://p.dw.com/p/4WnhD

A museum employee replaced the original painting "Das Märchen vom Froschkönig" by Franz von Stuck with a forgery

Image: Fine Art Images/Heritage/IMAGO

A museum employee in the German city of Munich confessed to replacing several paintings from a depot with forgeries and putting the originals up for auction.

The Munich District Court found the 30-year-old guilty of three completed and one attempted case of illegally selling cultural property and sentenced him to a suspended prison term of one year and nine months, the court announced on Monday.

The court also ordered the confiscation of more than €60,000 ($63,500) in compensation.

Which paintings were replaced?

The defendant was a technical employee from May 2016 to April 2018 at the museum and had access to the storage room where paintings were kept. According to the court, he replaced the painting "Das Märchen vom Froschkönig" (The Fairy Tale of the Frog King) by Franz von Stuck with a forgery.

Pretending that the painting had belonged to his great-grandparents or grandparents, he offered the original for auction at a Munich auction house, which sold the painting for €70,000 ($74,000) to a gallery in Switzerland. He was left with €49,127.40 in cash after the deduction of auction costs.

He also stole the paintings "Die Weinprüfung" (Tasting the Wine) by Eduard von Grützner and "Zwei Mädchen beim Holzsammeln im Gebirge" (Two Girls Gathering Wood in the Mountains) by Franz von Defregger from the museum's storage. The paintings brought him a further total of around €12,000.
Forgeries fund luxury lifestyle

In total, the defendant collected €60,617 euros for the pictures. He spent the money to pay off debts and finance a luxurious lifestyle. According to the court, among other things, the man bought himself "a new flat, expensive wristwatches and ... a Rolls Royce."

In court, the man had reportedly not only confessed but also shown "sincere remorse and insight."

"He stated that he had acted without thinking. He could no longer explain his behavior," the court reported. The verdict is final.

Germany: Study shows former East and West growing apart

Richard Connor
DW

Most Germans believe those living in parts of the country once separated by the Iron Curtain have little in common.

    The East Side Gallery — a part of the Berlin Wall that remains to this day

     Image: Winfried Rothermel/picture alliance 

The East Side Gallery on the River Spree in Friedrichshain is a 1.3-kilometer-long section of the so-called Hinterland Wall, which artists from all over the world painted in 1990. It was located in front of the death strip and a second wall. The area near the Oberbaumbrücke is a tourist attraction, but several wall elements have already been removed in the course of construction projects.

Image: DW/V. Esipov

Six in ten Germans believe the differences between people in the former East and West Germany are greater than what unites them, according to a survey published on Tuesday.

The findings appear to show that, in contrast to the German government's own assessment, the two sides of the country are growing apart.
How the numbers look

Only 37% of people said they believed people in the East and West had now largely grown together as one nation, while 60% saw more division than unity.

The figures show a marked difference with a previous study in 2019, when some 51% saw the country growing together compared with 45% convinced there was more division.

Skepticism was higher in the latest survey among older Germans and those in the former East where, 34 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, 75% were most aware of the divide.

Differences were foremost also in the minds of 69% of Germans aged 60 and above.

The survey, conducted for the news magazine Stern by the polling company Forsa, has taken place regularly over the past 20 years.

The last time the assessments were so pessimistic was in 2008.

Tracing the division of Berlin

On November 9, 1989 the border separating East and West Berlin suddenly opened, and the Berlin Wall became history. DW traces the remnants of the wall that divided the city.

Image: Britta Pedersen/ZB/dpa/picture alliance
Brandenburg Gate
The Berlin Wall divided Berlin for 28 years, two months and 27 days, from August 1961 to November 1989. The Brandenburg Gate had long been the symbol of the division of Germany. Even after the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, there was no passage here. That changed on December 22, 1989. Since then, Berliners have been able to walk unhindered through the landmark of their city again.Image: picture-alliance/dpa

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People who would vote for Chancellor Olaf Scholz's center-left Social Democrats, which leads Germany's ruling three-way coalition, were the most pessimistic of all, with 71% seeing mostly division.

Neoliberal Free Democrat voters were the only voting group more likely to have a positive assessment than a negative one — 48% compared with 46%.
Berlin set to publish own findings

The German government is set to publish its own findings about East-West cohesivity on Wednesday, but a sneak preview from online news outlet The Pioneer pointed to a different conclusion.

"If you look closely, East and West Germany — despite numerous ongoing differences — turn out to be regions of a united country after 33 years of shared history," it was cited as saying.

East and West Germany were officially reunited on October 3, 1990, less than a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989.

In terms of gross domestic product per capita, the five former East German states — excluding Berlin — are still at the bottom of the league in a federal comparison and there are simmering resentments.

A study published last week showed that more than three decades on, eastern Germans remain underrepresented in country's top job positions.

South Korea, China and Japan make plans for rare summit

Diplomats from Beijing, Seoul, and Tokyo have met to explore restarting regular three-way summits to foster regional cooperation. The initiative has been on hold for the past few years.

The meeting was attended by deputy foreign ministers from the three nations

Image: ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/Getty Images

South Korean, Chinese and Japanese senior diplomats agreed on Tuesday that their national leaders should meet at the "earliest convenient time," Seoul's Foreign Ministry said after a rare meeting.

The sides are seeking to reboot trilateral exchanges after regular annual meetings were put on hold because of strained relations and the COVID-19 pandemic.
What has been agreed?

The Foreign Ministry of South Korea, which hosted the exploratory talks, said in a statement that specific dates for the leader talks remained under discussion.

Seoul has proposed that the summit should take place in late December. However, the ministry said the three countries' top diplomats would initially meet "in a couple of months."

Tuesday's meeting was attended by Japan's Senior Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Funakoshi Takehiro, South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Chung Byung-won and China's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nong Rong.

What do the parties have to gain?

The trilateral meetings are partly intended to ease Chinese concerns about tighter relations between Japan and South Korea, who both agreed to end bilateral economic, legal and trade disputes.

Those disagreements stemmed from Japan's 1910 to 1945 occupation of the Korean Peninsula, which has long soured relations between Seoul and Tokyo.

For Beijing, the meeting represents a chance to leverage trade ties, counter the strengthening of US ties with its two allies and strengthen communication on security and defense matters.

For Japan and South Korea, there is the prospect of avoiding conflicts and maintaining a stable security relationship with China. They are also seeking Chinese help in slowing down and possibly stopping North Korea's nuclear development program.

The last summit was in 2019. The three countries had planned to hold a summit every year starting in 2008, but diplomatic issues and the pandemic got in the way.
What China, Japan, South Korea said

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the three countries would "work together to strengthen practical cooperation... and make new contributions to regional peace, stability and prosperity."

"We unanimously believe that carrying out cooperation is in the common interests of the three parties," he said.

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said there was a shared need to restart summits "as soon as possible."

"I believe it is very valuable to discuss the various challenges the region faces," she told a briefing in Tokyo.

A senior South Korean official told the Reuters news agency that China had been proactive in seeking three-way cooperation, particularly since Seoul's bilateral ties with Beijing soured over the deployment of a US THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea in 2017.

"I'm sure there should be some discomfort on their side regarding our increasingly close trilateral security partnerships with the United States and Japan," the official was quoted as saying on condition of anonymity.

rc/fb (AFP, Reuters)

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

UK suspects Wirecard's Jan Marsalek of spying for Russia

The fugitive former manager of German financial services firm Wirecard has been accused by British prosecutors of involvement in conducting espionage on Russia's behalf. He's already being tried in absentia in Germany.

Marsalek is already wanted, and being tried in absentia, in Germany, but is now also on the radar of British prosecutors

Image: Frank Hoermann/SVEN SIMON/picture alliance


The public prosecutor's office in London on Tuesday accused former Wirecard chief operating officer Jan Marsalek of involvement in a spying network for Russia.

German news outlet Der Spiegel had first reported the development, citing sources in the prosecution service, shortly before Tuesday's announcement.

Marsalek is named as part of a case against five Bulgarian nationals in the UK that was made public last week. The Austrian businessman is said to have been a contact person for the oldest of the five people arrested, who is accused of organizing and managing the cell's operations.

The cell is accused of surveilling and reporting on people and places of interest to Russia within the UK.

However, Marsalek is not charged as part of the case.

The Bulgarian suspects appeared via video link in a hearing at Westminster Crown Court in London on Tuesday.

What else did UK prosecutors say?

Marsalek's communications with the 45-year-old man were said to concern obtaining military equipment on behalf of Russian, the provision of espionage tools, communication interception and "arranging physical surveillance and hostile activity against targets of the Russiean state," accordign to the prosecution.

He further tasked the group with "surveillance against locations of relevance to Russia including a NATO base in Germany." There are dozens of US military bases in Germany, an indirect result of World War II and the period when defeated Germany was occupied by the major powers that defeated it.

The Bulgarian suspects, three mena and two women aged between 45 and 29, were arrested in February, but the case against them was made public last week. They all lived in southeast England, either in London or Norfolk. Though their names are in the public domain, DW won't name them in this story as their identities would most likely be protected at this stage were the case being tried in Germany.

The cell is thought to have been active from August 2020 through February 2023, a timeline that matches Marsalek's rapid flight from Germany as his Wirecard business fell apart almost exactly.

Thought to have fled to Russia after Wirecard's collapse

Marsalek's ties to Russia were well known and German authorities, currently trying him in absentia in connection with Wirecard's collapse in 2020, believed he fled to Minsk and probably later Russia as prosecutors closed in on him that summer.

Wirecard was a payment and banking service that rapidly went insolvent in 2020 when it became apparent it had far fewer assets than it had reported

Image: CHRISTOF STACHE/AFP/Getty Images

Wirecard rapidly went insolvent in mid-2020 as a series of corrupt business practices and cases of fraudulent reporting were unearthed, showing the lender to have reported having almost €2 billion in assets that were not in fact in its possession and were "missing."

The company had rapidly grown and risen to take a spot on Germany's DAX stock market of the country's 40 largest publicly traded blue chip companies in 2018, soon before its business model began unravel.

Marsalek's contacts to Russia have made him a person of interest for at least three different intelligence agencies since 2020.

He is currently being tried in absentia in Munich.

msh/jcg (dpa, AP, Reuters)