Mozambique: Police fire tear gas at opposition leader

The capital of Mozambique, Maputo, was brought to a standstill by strikes and protests on Monday, before police dispersed demonstrators using tear gas. Caught up in the violence was opposition leader Venancio Mondlane.

Opposition leader Venancio Mondlane (right) was speaking to journalists when police fired tear gas

Image: ALFREDO ZUNIGA/AFP

Police in Mozambique fired tear gas at the country's opposition leader and his supporters on the streets of the capital Maputo on Monday.

Venancio Mondlane, the main challenger to the ruling Frelimo party in the recent presidential election, was speaking to journalists close to the spot where his lawyer and a senior opposition party official were killed by unidentified gunmen on Friday night.

Video footage posted to Mondlane's Facebook page shows tear gas canisters being fired as Mondlane, aides, supporters and reporters run for cover.

At least one journalist was injured, according to local media, while several others, including those from DW, inhaled the gas.

Additional footage seen by DW shows at least one protester left limping with a bloodied leg after being struck by a projectile.

Police fire tear gas at protest in Mozambique's capital 03:56

Rising tensions in Mozambique

Tensions have been soaring in Mozambique since elections on October 9.

Results aren't expected until later this week, but preliminary results suggest that Frelimo (the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique) is set to extend its 49-year rule which dates back to the southeastern African country's independence from Portugal in 1975.

Opposition parties have denounced the elections as fraudulent, with Mondlane calling for people to stay away from work and protest on Monday.

Mondlane, who ran as an independent candidate but was backed by the new Podemos opposition party, told reporters that police had tried to prevent him from leaving his own house to join the protest.

"The whole of last night, police cars were at my doorstep," he said. "I was trying to find other ways to leave the house without being noticed. I did. I won't say how."

On Monday morning, the national strike had brought Maputo and other major cities to a standstill with shops closed and streets deserted as a helicopter circled overhead.

Clashes between protesters and police began around 7:30 a.m. when security forces began to disperse groups preparing to take part in the peaceful marches.

After police fired tear gas and gunshots into the air, protesters responded by throwing rocks and pyrotechnics and shouting slogans such as "Save Mozambique" and "This country is ours."

International community condemns violence

Activists and reporters have complained in the past that Mozambique's security forces have violently clamped down on dissent, broken up peaceful protests and disrupted media work, while Frelimo has often been accused of rigging elections, which it denies.

The African Union, European Union and United Nations have condemned Friday's killing of the two opposition figures and called on the authorities to identify the perpetrators.

The head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, said he had "deep concern" over "reported cases of post-election violence and in particular the recent killings."

The European Union, which sent a team of election observers, called for an immediate investigation into the killings "that will bring to justice those responsible for this outrageous crime."

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on "all Mozambicans, including political leaders and their supporters, to remain calm, exercise restraint and reject all forms of violence."

mf/wd (AFP, AP, DW)

Mozambique police and protesters clash following political assassinations

Oct. 21, 2024 / UPI

Members of Mozambican police walk as they disperse people gathering to take part in the peaceful marches called by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane to repudiate the assassination of two members of his party, in Maputo, Mozambique, on October, 21, 2024. Photo by Luisa Nhantumbo/EPA-EF

Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Police and protesters clashed in the Mozambican capital of Maputo on Monday, resulting in the death of at least one demonstrator, as the southern African nation continues to reel from a pair of political assassinations over the weekend.

Mozambique has been rocked by protests since Oct. 12 when partial results from the country's general elections held three days earlier on Oct. 9, showed Daniel Chapo, the candidate for the long-ruling Frelimo Party, in the lead.

The contest has been marred by irregularities, and opposition presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, who was projected to finish second, has claimed victory and called for a national strike for Monday in response to the results.

But that strike turned into a march after Mondlane's lawyer, Elvino Dias, and a representative of his Podemos party, Paulo Guambe, were assassinated in the early hours of Saturday.

Gunmen had opened fire on them while in a vehicle and were killed, according to the Mozambique Center for Democracy and Human Rights, which said 25 bullets were unloaded. A third occupant in the vehicle was also shot but survived.

Protests against their killings on Monday quickly turned violent.

The Mozambique chapter of the Center and Democracy for Human Rights said Monday that a protester was killed in the Bascula Zone of Matundo when police opened fire on demonstrators.

The center also reported police also fired tear gas canisters at journalists and opposition presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane in the capital, and that two journalists, a security guard for the independent politician and two others suffered gunshot wounds during a rally Monday morning, it said.

Video of the incident posted to Mondlane's Facebook account shows him speaking to reporters for more than 20 minutes before the firing of weapons is heard, followed by an explosion near the journalists who then flee the scene.

The Frelimo party has been the only one to the lead the country since it gained independence from Portugal in 1975. In recent years, it has increased its oppression of the opposition. The U.S. State Department's most recent country report on Mozambique highlights reports of the government committing arbitrary or lawful killings of opposition politicians.

Since the election, there have been reports of government security forces opening fire on protesters.

According to Amnesty International, two people were wounded at polling stations on Oct. 10. On Wednesday, at least one person was wounded at a rally for Mondlane when police fired at his supporter.

The United States on Monday issued a statement condemning the killings of Dias and Guambe, calling for a swift and thorough investigation.

"We urge all state institutions, political leaders, citizens and stakeholders to resolve electoral disputes peacefully and lawfully, rejecting violence and inflammatory rhetoric," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

"We also call on all Mozambicans to turn to peaceful means of filing electoral grievances and reject violence and violent rhetoric. The only means to challenge results and demand accountability is through the official complaint process."

African Union Chairman H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat also condemned the killings in a Monday statement while expressing "deep concern" over the post-election violence and recent killings.

The Sala Da Paz election watchdog expressed its concern over the violence at Monday's protest, pointing to the country's constitution that enshrines the right to demonstrate "as one of the fundamental pillars of Mozambican society."

"However, instead of ensuring the free exercise of this right, the security forces resorted to excessive use of force, including the firing of tear gas, rubber bullets, and live ammunition, reportedly to disperse protesters and journalists who were exercising their legitimate constitutional right," it said in a statement.

"This act of repression not only seriously violates the civil and political rights of citizens but also further undermines society's trust in public security institutions, whose duty should be to protect and defend democratic freedoms."

NBA and Nike extend partnership deal for 12 years

New York (AFP) – The NBA and Women's NBA announced a 12-year contract extension with global partner Nike Inc. through 2037 to provide uniforms, apparel, merchandising, marketing and content for the leagues.

The NBA and Nike announced a 12-year extension of their global partnership agreement through 2037 © Garrett Ellwood / NBAE / Getty Images/AFP/File

The exclusive apparel extension comes on the eve of the start of the NBA's 79th season and a day after the New York Liberty won the WNBA crown and also covers the developmental G-League.

"Nike is inextricably linked to basketball and has helped fuel the growth and innovation around our sport for decades," NBA commissioner Adam Silver said.

"With an added focus on youth basketball, our expanded partnership will create even more opportunities for aspiring players to learn and compete at all levels and for fans of all ages to engage with the NBA and WNBA."

The extension's new content provisions include a greater commitment to youth basketball and a deeper investment in the WNBA plus a joint membership to deliver fans of both brands distinctive products, content and experiences.

"Nike has always been more than a league sponsor -- we're a strategic partner with an unwavering commitment to growing the game," said Elliott Hill, Nike Inc. president.

"Our collective power, global reach and genuine love for the game will only continue to create new pathways and opportunities for players and fans."

The renewal follows an eight-year deal struck in 2015 that began with the 2017-18 campaign.

Nike has been an NBA partner since 1992 and a marketing partner of the WNBA since its 1997 debut.

"Since our league's inception, Nike has committed to a shared vision for girls and women’s basketball," said WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert.

"Our continued partnership is an opportunity to fortify avenues for development and enhance touchpoints across our dynamic fan base while globally showcasing the WNBA."

Nike also extended its license agreement as an official partner of the NBA players union, the National Basketball Players Association.

"This partnership highlights the reach, influence and impact of our members, driving basketball fandom and inspiring millions of people around the world," said union executive director Andre Iguodala.

© 2024 AFP

Chile launches vaccine that neuters dogs for a year

Santiago (AFP) – Chile has launched a vaccine described as the first of its kind that sterilizes dogs for a year and is expected to be sold in several dozen countries.

A dog is temporarily sterilized with a vaccine described by its Chilean creators as the first of its kind © RODRIGO ARANGUA / AFP

The injection prevents sexual behavior and reproduction, offering an alternative to irreversible surgical castration, its creators say.

"This is the first vaccine of this type in the world for dogs," said Leonardo Saenz, from the University of Chile's veterinary sciences faculty.

The researcher and his team have been working since 2009 to develop the vaccine, which began to be distributed this month in the South American nation.

It stimulates antibodies and stops the production of sex hormones for a year in both male and female dogs.

"Everything is blocked: sexual activity and fertility," Saenz said.

The Egalitte vaccine has been patented in 40 countries, including the United States, Argentina, and Brazil, as well as in the European Union.

In Chile, it costs $50 a shot.

Ivan Gutierrez, a 27-year-old student, took his dog Franchesco to a veterinary clinic in Santiago to be given the injection.

"I didn't really want him to have the operation," he said.

He is not alone in having concerns about surgical castration.

"Most owners are afraid of surgery," said Mariela del Saz, the clinic's veterinarian, noting the risk of cardiorespiratory arrest.

Another method of temporary castration for dogs involves the insertion of a hormonal implant under the skin, but it "can cause side effects," Saenz said.

© 2024 AFP

Biden unveils plan expanding access to contraceptive products

The White House on Monday proposed to expand access to free contraceptive products for 52 million women of reproductive age in the United States with private health insurance, the White House said. Kamala Harris has made the issue of women’s health care access a key part of her platform in her bid for the presidency.


Issued on: 21/10/2024 - 
By: NEWS WIRES

A pack of birth control pills is displayed in this illustration picture taken in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, July 11, 2022. © Hannah Beier, Reuters

US President Joe Biden on Monday announced plans to expand access to contraceptive products, including free over-the-counter birth control, just two weeks before elections where reproductive rights are a key issue.

“This new action would help ensure that millions of women with private health insurance can access the no-cost contraception they need,” Biden said in a statement.

The proposed rule would widen coverage of contraception without cost for 52 million women of reproductive age with private health insurance, the White House said.

Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris described the proposal in a statement as the “largest expansion of contraception coverage in more than a decade”.

The proposal must go through a 60-day public comment period before it is finalized.

The current US health care law requires most insurance plans to cover contraception at no cost, but allows them to require a prescription.

The proposal would extend coverage to over-the-counter products including emergency contraceptives.

In the wake of a 2022 Supreme Court decision that overturned the constitutional right to abortion, Democrats have positioned themselves as the party of reproductive rights, with polls indicating that a majority of Americans support access to abortion.

(AFP)

Biden proposes rule change that would make OTC contraceptives free

Oct. 21, 2024 / UPI

On Monday, the Biden administration issued a proposal for a rule change that will give women access to free over-the-counter contraceptives. “We believe that women in every state must have the freedom to make deeply personal health care decisions,” the president (pictured in 2023 at the White House) said Monday in a statement. “Including the right to decide if and when to start or grow their family.” File Photo by Samuel Corum/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 21 (UPI) -- The Biden administration on Monday proposed a rule change that will give women access to free over-the-counter contraceptives.

Administration officials said the proposal would be the "most significant expansion" for women's contraception coverage under the Affordable Care Act, which more than 50 million Americans rely on for health insurance.

"We believe that women in every state must have the freedom to make deeply personal health care decisions," the president said Monday in a statement. "Including the right to decide if and when to start or grow their family."

If finalized, it would "significantly increase" over-the-counter contraceptive coverage and would allow women for the first time to get OTC contraception at no cost.

The proposed rule change builds on Affordable Care Act requirements that say most private health plans must cover contraception without cost sharing. The White House added it could affect as many as 52 million U.S. women of reproductive age on a private health insurance plan.

On Monday, President Joe Biden called the initiative "a major step" in expanding coverage for "no-cost contraception" under the ACA, also known as "ObamaCare," which he helped implement as vice president under Barack Obama.

But Biden also took direct aim at Congressional Republicans, which was echoed by a Democrat lawmaker on the Hill later in the day.

"Republican politicians have made clear they aren't stopping at overturning Roe and intend to restrict birth control next," Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said Monday afternoon on X.

In Biden's statement, the president said that, since Roe v. Wade's reversal more than two years ago, the GOP has "made clear they want to ban or restrict birth control, defund federal programs that help women access contraception, and repeal the Affordable Care Act."

At least 18 government-approved contraceptives now exist on the U.S. market. It took until the ACA's 2010 passage for contraception to be a requirement for coverage under most insurance plans.

The federal government added on Monday that it's also issuing new guidance to "help ensure that patients can access other preventive services," such as cancer screenings, which must be covered without cost sharing under the law.

According to the White House, the administration so far has lowered coverage costs for health insurance in the marketplace by an average of $800 per year and "more Americans than ever before" have signed up for health insurance through the law.

Last month, the U.S. Treasury revealed that nearly 50M of the more than 345 million people in the U.S. population had so far enrolled in Obamacare since 2014.

"While we fight to protect and expand health care, extremist so-called leaders are attacking reproductive freedom at every turn," Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee and the nation's first woman to serve in the role, said Monday in her own statement.

In January, the Affordable Care Act reached a 20M 'milestone' for new enrollments as the year began. On Monday, the outgoing president called on Congress "to restore reproductive freedom and safeguard the right to contraception once and for all."

This follows other previous Biden administration efforts to expand access of the critical contraceptive care for women. Last year in June, the president signed an executive order to expand free birth control including over-the-counter contraception.

If finalized, the proposed federal rule change will signify the "most significant expansion" of contraception coverage under the Affordable Care Act since earlier efforts in 2012.

New Jersey's Pallone, ranking member on the House Energy Committee, added how Biden and Harris' move "defends" against ongoing GOP political attacks on women's reproductive freedom.

Rwanda orphans build hope from horror 30 years after genocide

Paris (AFP) – Jeanne Allaire Kayigirwa was sure she was going to die three times during the Rwandan genocide in which most of her friends and family were massacred.

'I don't know how we survived': Jeanne Allaire Kayigirwa at her mother's home in Kigali © Guillem Sartorio / AFP

She and her sister hid in the bush for six weeks as the slaughter went on around them, moving on all the time as Hutu extremists hunted Tutsis like them "down with dogs".

"I don't know how we survived," she said.

Much about that time she does not want to remember. "Otherwise I won't be able to go on."

Jeanne learned to live with her demons, but "you cannot wipe a genocide from your memory. It comes back went it wants."


Then one day she took stock. "Am I going to let the killers who wanted to wipe me out also take my second life?

"Or am I going to live it?" said the 46-year-old, who went on to be a top local government official in Paris.

More than a million people died in the genocide organised by the extremist Hutu regime in 1994.

Men, women, children from the Tutsi minority systematically exterminated between April and July 1994 -- often with machetes -- by Hutu forces, and sometimes even by their neighbours, colleagues and even friends.

Three decades after the horror, AFP set out to find Tutsi children who survived the killing and who were adopted or grew up in France.

They talked of the weight of what they witnessed, their feeling of injustice and about living for those who were slaughtered.

Some have remained abroad, while others have been drawn back to Rwanda.

Jeanne lost her father, sister, friends, cousins, aunts and uncles -- "I try not to count".

"They put the guns to our temples the day they came to kill us," she said.
Silences

Moving to France "gave me the chance to study", but more than anything it "helped me because I didn't have to see the killers every day."

Soon after arriving, Jeanne helped found the Ibuka group, a survivor group which keeps the memory of the genocide alive, going out into schools to speak about what happened.

Jeanne grabbed her "second life" in both hands, began a family and worked for the mayor of Paris.

"I feel that by talking about it I am not shutting up the dead who have been silenced."

Surviving the unthinkable: Manzi Rugirangoga at work in Kigali © Guillem Sartorio / AFP

A heavy silence, however, hung over Manzi Rugirangoga's childhood.

Now living back in the Rwandan capital Kigali, Manzi survived the unthinkable as a baby.

He was just 15 months old when his family took refuge in a school with other Tutsis in the southern town of Butare. On April 29, 1994, Hutu militia attacked. His mother, who was carrying him on her back, was killed along with his aunt and uncle.

But he and his sister and brother, who were four and seven, were not.

"The killers didn't spare us, they just said that they didn't want to waste their bullets on us." Instead they were left to "die from hunger and grief".

Manzi's father found him in an orphanage in Burundi three months later.
A terrible injustice

The children survived thanks to an extraordinary rescue operation by the Swiss charity Terre des hommes (Tdh), which has only come to light recently thanks to a book called "The Convoy" by Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse, one of 1,000 survivors its aid workers got out of the country.

"Dozens of members of my family" were killed in the genocide, said Manzi, now 31. "My father is the only survivor on his side." A vet, he was in France on a training course when the genocide began.
Manzi as a child after he was brought to live in France © Guillem Sartorio / AFP

He brought the children to France "because he had very little hope of finding anything in Rwanda".

"I still feel this huge feeling of injustice about what happened," said Manzi.

Little was ever said at home. "People would ask you where you came from, and I knew very little."

It was only after the "shock" of returning to Rwanda for the first time when he was 10 that he felt "an instinctive need" to go home.

"I finally knew where I came from," he said.

After some difficult teenage years, Manzi went back to Kigali on his own when he was 15 to stay with his aunt, and then boarded at high school in the east of the country, where he had to learn Rwandan.

After university in France, he moved back to Kigali.

"Back then, I didn't see my future in France," he said.

Sandrine Lorusso grew up in the same silence. The youngest of nine, she lost both her parents and three siblings in the massacres.

Adopted by her eldest sister and her husband who were living in France, her interview with AFP was the first time the soft-spoken mother-of-two has ever talked publicly about what she went through in Kigali.

"It wasn't something we talked about," said the nurse.

"The killers gathered in front of our house. They took my mother, but they left me and my sister Aline. We ran to our neighbours and a few minutes later we heard gunfire," she said, her voice breaking with emotion.
Panic attacks

She still doesn't know how her father died. He was found in a mass grave.

Growing up, "my brain worked hard to hide" the memories. But things got "complicated" as Sandrine approached adulthood. It all got too much "between the ages of 17 and 24 and I had depression".

The trauma came back with a vengeance when she was pregnant with her first child. "I had inexplicable panic attacks. You try to keep it down but sooner or later it comes out," she said.

When she left for France, Jeanne thought she was also "leaving the genocide" behind her.

"I thought I was going to live a good life, I hoped to never have to see the images of the bones and the ruins. But even if you move 6,000 kilometres (3,700 miles), you bring the genocide with you," she said.

She described how it followed her down French streets where she would notice "spots where people might be able to hide", or be spooked by the "sound of shooting" when she went to the cinema.

"The nightmares have lasted a long time," she said.

Survivor Gaspard Jassef with a photo of him arriving in France with his adopted mother Dominique Jassef © JOEL SAGET / AFP

Gaspard Jassef's memories would not leave him alone either. As a six-year-old, he hid out from the genocide alone in the forest for five months.

"The commemoration of the 30 years (since the genocide) touched me intensely... and I want to sort out of all the unknowns in my head about what happened to me," he told AFP in a Paris cafe.

His little sister and his mother -- a Tutsi married to a Hutu -- were poisoned by their Hutu relatives at the start of the genocide.

Fearful for his "mixed" child, his father told him to hide in the forest. But he never came to find him. He too had been killed, according to information Gaspard has been able to piece together.

In October 1994 -- three months after the genocide ended -- a French nurse called Dominique Jassef, who had been working in a local dispensary, found him in the forest with advanced malnutrition. "I ate what I could. I hunted small animals. I stayed in the trees," he said.

"When my second mother found me, I probably had a week to live," he said. The doctors thought "there was no hope" but the French nurse refused to give up on him, got him treatment and later adopted him, changing his life.

France's shameful legacy

French President Francois Mitterrand with his Rwandan counterpart Juvenal Habyarimana on a visit to Kigali in 1984 © Georges GOBET / AFP/File

Gaspard still has trouble sleeping and is haunted by the day when he had to bury his mother and his sister.

But in "my sadness I have had the great good luck to have had two very loving mothers", he added.

Despite the trauma, he was a brilliant student and worked for several years for a think tank and co-founded the support group, The Adopted of Rwanda.

Even so, "everyday life can be a struggle, and sometimes I feel very old", he admitted.

A deeply social party animal, Gaspard loves nothing more than talking French politics for hours on end. "My blood and my skin is Rwandan and I also feel fully French," he said.

Yet France's role in the genocide of the Tutsi has been an extremely touchy subject.

Paris, which had close relations with the murderous Hutu regime, was for a long time accused by Kigali of "complicity" in the genocide.

A commission of historians in 2021 found that France under the late president Francois Mitterrand had "heavy and overwhelming responsibility" for the genocide but had not been complicit.

The writer Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse makes a distinction between "the absolutely fantastic French people who welcomed her" and "the French politicians and military whose actions should be condemned".

Her host family "really looked after me" and even took her to a psychologist.

Despite the trauma, she was able to "reconstruct" her life. "Of course, you feel fragile," she admitted. "When you have been excluded from humanity... it's a long road back from that," she said.

She chose a career where she "fights against death", working for NGOs dealing with AIDs and addiction.

Reconnecting

The 30th anniversary of the genocide has been a big moment for many of the survivors.

Last year Jeanne moved back to Rwanda with her husband and young son.

"I felt I was missing something in France," she told AFP from Kigali. "I wanted to live with my family and my mother again. She is now over 80. I wanted to show my son my homeland and my language and maybe help rebuild the country."

Gaspard said he has finally found a "form of stability" and wants to go back to his village and understand what happened to his father.

Reconnecting with his roots: Manzi Rugirangoga in Kigali © Guillem Sartorio / AFP

Manzi has a heap of projects on the go in Kigali. He has written an "African futurist" novel, founded a publishing house and has invested in farms growing peppers, beans and watermelons.

"Reconnecting with my roots, my family and my history has helped me," he said.

But "the idea that we can totally reconstruct ourselves, and that we don't think about what happened, that is unobtainable," Manzi added.

Back in France, Sandrine wants to get more involved in a group keeping alive the memory of what was done.

She has also thought about going to a therapist. "There are things about what happened in 1994 that I can't remember -- and the genocide has also robbed me of my memories of what went before, of my early childhood."

Since she went back to Rwanda, Beata has found happiness in its particular "light and landscapes" and the spirit of the place.

"Every time I return, I reconnect with who I was," she said.

© 2024 AFP

Unsung heroes who saved 1,000 children from Rwanda genocide

Paris (AFP) – The untold story of how around 1,000 children were rescued from Rwanda during the bloodiest and most chaotic days of its genocide is finally coming to light three decades after they were saved from the slaughter.

Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse, the survivor who has now told the story of Rwanda's children's convoys © JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP

Aid workers risked their lives to get the children -- mostly orphans -- out to safety in neighbouring Burundi in a series of Swiss humanitarian convoys.

Many of the children were wounded or had watched their families being massacred in front of them in the 100 days of systematic slaughter.

Around one million people, mainly from the Tutsi minority, were clubbed, shot or hacked to death with machetes between April and July 1994 by the army and Hutu extremists from the Interahamwe militia.

Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse, who was 15 when she was smuggled out, tells of the little known operation from the inside in her acclaimed new book, "The Convoy".


AFP has also tracked down several other children from the convoys who grew up or were adopted abroad.

Umubyeyi Mairesse was hidden in the back of a truck under a sheet, with orphans sitting on her and her mother to conceal them when they were stopped at Hutu checkpoints.

The Rwandan authorities only allowed children under 12 to be transported on the packed convoys run by the Swiss charity Terre des hommes (Tdh) -- "People of the Earth" in English.

In her book, Umubyeyi Mairesse tells how they held their breath at the roadblocks, trying not to move a muscle as militiamen inspected the trucks, hoping the fear on the faces of the bandaged and traumatised children would not give them away.

'Chaotic'

Orphans fleeing the genocide shelter in a church in Kabgayi, south of Kigali in May 1994 © Alexander JOE / AFP

She took several years to piece together the testimonies of the "children of the convoys" -- now scattered across the world -- who were rescued thanks to the courage of aid workers, nuns, journalists, a diplomat and a priest.

Some had been in Rwandan orphanages before the massacres began, while many were the children of Tutsis killed during the genocide.

"Terre des hommes found itself facing an unbelievable situation," said Jean-Luc Imhof, a longtime Rwanda specialist for the charity.

They "were responsible for more than 1,000 of these children", and with war and the genocide raging all around, the situation was completely "chaotic", he told AFP.

"Lots were really young, some under three years old, but mostly there were between five and 10. Many had been wounded, including with machetes," he said.

As the Tutsi rebels from the Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR) -- who put an end to the massacres -- closed in, the army and the Hutu-led Interahamwe militia sensed defeat and "became crazy", he said.
'Unimaginable cruelty'

The first convoy in early June, which Tdh organised with the International Committee of the Red Cross, for whom Imhof had previously worked, got safely through to Burundi. But another that set off on June 18, unassisted by the ICRC, "was even riskier", said Imhof.

"The convoy went into the incredible unknown -- they were risking their lives at every checkpoint. The soldiers made the children get out... their lives were hanging by very little," he said.

These were deeply traumatised children who had "seen their families massacred" and "taken their trauma with them".

"Their normal had become escaping death multiple times a day," he said,

Orphan and survivor: Claire Umutoni © BERTRAND GUAY / AFP

That was also the case for Claire Umutoni and one of her sisters, who got to Burundi on a July 3 convoy in an escape she still remembers vividly.

"We received a phone call around April 20 from someone whose voice my father recognised. He knew it was one of the dignitaries from the town of Butare, who told him: 'Your time has come.'"

He ordered his five daughters to flee and Umutoni, then 17, suddenly became head of her family, the sisters chased from one hiding place to the next.

Their parents were later murdered with "unimaginable cruelty", she said.

"Bombs were falling near the school where we were staying with several orphans -- the children had all sorts of injuries, both physical and emotional. It was terrible," Umutoni told AFP from her home in Canada.
Clubs and butcher knives

The terror only intensified when they joined the rescue convoy.

"I remember that on the road, there were many of the killers who had carried out genocide fleeing with hammers and machetes... It was chaos because the FPR was at the gates of Butare, but there were still perpetrators who wanted to kill the Tutsis," said Umutoni.

A Hutu militiaman at a checkpoint in Kigali during the genocide in June 1994 

© Pierre BOUSSEL / AFP

At four of the checkpoints she remembers the militiamen armed with "clubs, butcher knives and grenades".

Umutoni and her sisters made it out and were eventually taken in by their aunts.

Her aunt sent her to Canada in 1999 "to start a new life, to start over. And I chose not to spiral into madness," said Umutoni, who now works in Canada's Privy Council Office and is a mother to "three beautiful children".

She returned to Rwanda for the first time in 2008 to bury her parents, who had finally been identified.
'Awakening'

Umubyeyi Mairesse says the 30th anniversary of the genocide is an "awakening" for many of the survivors.

"It is also the start of a broader reconnection for these convoy children -- those who were very young (when they were rescued and who) are finally learning the story. It's powerful," she said.

Since her book came out, several aid workers and convoy children she was not able to track down have contacted her.

"When someone contacts me, I explain that I can send them photos, and we try to identify which convoy they were on."

Orphans queue up for food in Kigali near the end of the genocide in July 1994

 © Alexander JOE / AFP

Several of the convoy children were reunited with their rescuers for the first time at the Shoah Memorial in Paris in June.

When survivor Nadine Umutoni Ndekezi, who now lives in Belgium, began speaking about her memories of the convoy, the emotion was palpable.

"We are here... because you did not give up," she said, thanking the aid workers and journalists for their courage.
'Our heroes'

Umutoni Ndekezi, who was nine at the time, told of how she came across a little boy in an orphanage in Rwanda that she used to look after back home. He had bad head wounds.

He could no longer speak or walk. "He had forgotten everything. I thought that if adults could do that, then I did not want to become an adult... I lost trust in them," she sobbed.

But thanks to the people who rescued them, Umutoni Ndekezi -- now a mental health social worker -- said she "regained hope".

"They stayed true to their values and put their own lives at risk," she told the audience.

"The boy's parents were exterminated. He left with you on June 18 -- I can never thank you enough, you saved our humanity and gave us the strength to move forward."

Other survivors concurred.

"They are our heroes, what they did was incredible," Claire Umutoni told AFP.

"I chose to live in the name of those innocents who were murdered," she declared. "To remain dignified and stand up to the killers" who wanted to wipe her and her sisters from the face of the Earth.

© 2024 AFP

ISLAMIC BANKING

Hezbollah-linked financial firm an economic lifeline for Lebanese

Beirut (Lebanon) (AFP) – Al-Qard al-Hassan, bombed by Israel over it's Hezbollah links, is a lifeline for mainly Muslim Shiite communities battling a years-long financial crisis that has locked Lebanese out of their bank deposits.

A destroyed building at the site of an Israeli air strike that targeted a branch of the Hezbollah-linked Al-Qard Al-Hassan financial firm in south Beirut © - / AFP

The financial firm, officially registered as a charity, has been offering customers credit in exchange for gold deposits on an interest-free basis since the 1980s.

Its beneficiaries are mainly Shiite Muslims, but in a country where a five-year economic crisis has forced many into desperation, Christians and Sunni Muslims have also turned to its services.

The United States has sanctioned the association, accusing Hezbollah of using it as a cover to mask its financial activities and gain access to the international financial system.

On Sunday evening, Israel struck Al-Qard al-Hassan branches in Beirut, the eastern Bekaa Valley and south Lebanon, official media said.

Israel accuses Al-Qard al-Hassan of financing "Hezbollah's terrorist operations".

Al-Qard al-Hassan says it has more than 30 branches nationwide, mainly in Hezbollah bastions including Beirut's southern suburbs, but also in central Beirut and in other major cities such as Sidon and Tyre.
Micro-credits

It provides micro-credits to small businesses, workers and medium-sized agricultural or industrial enterprises.

In recent years it has broadened its activities, even offering loans for solar panels, in a country plagued by long power cuts.

In 2020 and 2021, while the economic crash prevented Lebanese banks from providing loans, Al-Qard al-Hassan said it had granted 212,000 loans worth $553 million "despite the crisis".

The economic crash boosted the group's allure beyond the Shiite community, because it allowed depositors to preserve their savings in gold.

Al-Qard al-Hassan says its loans are available "to all Lebanese", with some Christians and Sunnis also telling AFP they were clients.

"You deposit gold, and they give you its worth in cash. You can then repay (this loan) without interest," a customer told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity out of security concerns.

A building housing a branch of Al-Qard Al-Hassan in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon -- with the country in economic crisis, many Lebanese have turned to the firm's services © Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP

For Hezbollah scholar Amal Saad, Israel's attacks on the financial institution aimed to shake the group's support base.

"These strikes don't actually target Hezbollah's finances or Iran's funding, but the economic lifeline of over 300,000 Lebanese who not only deposit their savings with the non-profit NGO but also rely on it for interest-free loans," Saad said on X.

"While Iran helped establish the organisation in the 1980s, it is now entirely self-funded, overwhelmingly by Lebanon's Shia (Shiite) community" that represents 85 percent of its client base, she said.

A senior Israeli intelligence official, briefing journalists on condition of anonymity, also said the strikes were meant "to affect the trust between Hezbollah and a lot of the Shiite community that uses this system".

'Escape supervision'

Saad added that Israel's targeting of Al-Qard al-Hassan is "part of its strategy to further immiserate an already vulnerable, displaced population," she told AFP, referring to the attacks as "collective punishment" of Lebanese Shiites.

"It's also an expression of Israel's bankruptcy -- it has failed to make any meaningful incursions into South Lebanon... It's resorting to targeting civilian institutions which are of no value militarily," she added.

Israel on September 30 began what it called "targeted" raids against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, a week after it escalated air strikes.

Hezbollah critics say Al-Qard al-Hassan evaded regulations that apply to the banking sector, since it is officially registered with authorities as a charity.

Al-Qard al-Hassan has been caught up in decades-long tensions between Hezbollah's Iranian patron and Washington.

In 2007, the US Treasury froze the institution's assets, and in 2021 imposed new sanctions against several figures linked to it.

Al-Qard al-Hassan, "masquerades as a non-governmental organization (NGO) under the cover of a Ministry of Interior-granted NGO license, providing services characteristic of a bank in support of Hezbollah while evading proper licensing and regulatory supervision", the US Treasury said.

The department has also accused the group of "hoarding hard currency" to build Hezbollah's "support base".

While it claims "to serve the Lebanese people, in practice it illicitly moves funds through shell accounts and facilitators, exposing Lebanese financial institutions to possible sanctions," Treasury added.

© 2024 AFP

London trial probes 2015 Brazil mine disaster

London (AFP) – A trial to determine whether Australian mining giant BHP is liable for one of Brazil's worst environmental disasters opened Monday in London, potentially triggering billions of dollars in compensation to be shared among hundreds of thousands of people.

The ruptured dam unleashed a deluge of thick, red toxic mud 

© Christophe SIMON / AFP


The High Court in the British capital will examine over several months whether BHP is partly liable for the 2015 collapse of a dam at a mining waste site in Brazil.

The rupture killed 19 people and unleashed a deluge of thick toxic mud into villages, fields, rainforest, rivers and the ocean.

The Fundao tailings dam at an iron ore mine in the mountains of Minas Gerais state was managed by Samarco, co-owned by BHP and Brazilian miner Vale.

At the time of the disaster, BHP had global headquarters in Britain and Australia.


A separate case in Brazil has seen Vale and BHP offer to pay almost $30 billion in compensation. This was increased on the eve of the London trial from almost $25 billion.

The amount of damages sought in the London civil trial is estimated at £36 billion ($47 billion), on behalf of more than 620,000 plaintiffs, including 46 Brazilian municipalities, companies and indigenous peoples.
'Justice?'

"It's nearly nine years on now and no one has been held accountable," Tom Goodhead, of law firm Pogust Goodhead which brought the case, told AFP outside the court.

"Whilst this isn't a criminal trial, it acts as a way of holding the company liable and accountable," added Goodhead, who was joined by relatives of victims.

"Will they get justice?" read a banner which showed photos of those killed.

Fernandes's T-shirt shows a photo of her dead daughter and the words: 'This wasn't inevitable' © DOUGLAS MAGNO / AFP

The tragedy in the town of Mariana unleashed almost 45 million cubic metres of highly toxic mining waste sludge, flooding 39 towns and leaving more than 600 people homeless.

The flood killed thousands of animals and devastated protected tropical rainforest.

"It's been really difficult these last nine years but I have to be strong," said Gelvana Rodrigues outside court. Her seven-year-old son, Thiago, was killed following the dam's collapse.

"My hope is to find justice here. In Brazil, it is hopeless."
First stage

The hearing, set to last until March, must determine BHP's potential liability for the disaster.

If it is ruled liable, another trial would take place from October 2026 to determine the damages.

BHP has said the London case is unnecessary because of ongoing legal procedures in Brazil.

In opening submissions to the court Monday, the company laid out as a central argument that it "did not own or operate the dam or any related facilities".

The company estimated that more than 200,000 plaintiffs in the London case had already been compensated.

Bento Rodrigues was the first village engulfed by the toxic waste from the BHP-Vale mine © Douglas Magno / AFP

BHP added that the Renova Foundation, which manages compensation and rehabilitation programmes, has already paid out more than $7.9 billion in emergency aid.

The Australian mining giant said the quality of river water contaminated by the fallout has returned to pre-disaster levels.

However, a scientific paper published this year in the Franco-Brazilian geography review Confins said the dam rupture had caused "permanent effects of pollution" on the river Doce and its coastal plain.

In 2019, another tailings dam owned by Vale collapsed in Minas Gerais, killing 270 people and devastating the surrounding environment.

The London trial opened as BHP weighs whether to mount a renewed bid for British rival Anglo American. One $49 billion takeover was rejected in May.

BHP is allowed to come back with a fresh offer on November 29 following a six-month break, according to UK rules.

burs-bcp/rlp

© 2024 AFP

Putin seeks economic unity to challenge Western hegemony at BRICS summit


Two dozen world leaders, including Xi Jinping, Narendra Modi, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan are gathering in Kazan, Russia, for a BRICS summit on Tuesday – aimed at challenging Western dominance. The event is Russia's largest diplomatic gathering since its invasion of Ukraine, showcasing Moscow's defiance of Western isolation. The summit runs from October 22 to 24.

Issued on: 22/10/2024

Russian President Vladimir Putin remotely attends a G20 leaders meeting in Moscow on November 22, 2023 © Mikhail KLIMENTYEV, AFP

Two dozen world leaders are gathering in Russia on Tuesday for the opening of a summit of the BRICS group, an alliance of emerging economies that the Kremlin hopes will challenge Western "hegemony".

The summit is the biggest such meeting in Russia since it ordered troops into Ukraine and comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin seeks to demonstrate that Western attempts to isolate Moscow over the two-and-a-half-year offensive have failed.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- all key partners for Russia -- are scheduled to join the summit, hosted in the city of Kazan from October 22 to 24.

Moscow has made expanding the BRICS group -- an acronym for core members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- a pillar of its foreign policy.


The main issues on the agenda include Putin's idea for a BRICS-led payment system to rival SWIFT, an international financial network that Russian banks were cut off from in 2022, as well as the escalating conflict in the Middle East.

The Kremlin has touted the gathering as a diplomatic triumph that will help it build an alliance to challenge Western "hegemony".
'Brick by brick'

The United States has dismissed the idea that BRICS could become a "geopolitical rival" but has expressed concern about Moscow flexing its diplomatic muscle as the Ukraine conflict rages.

Moscow has been steadily advancing on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine this year while strengthening its ties with China, Iran and North Korea -- three of Washington's adversaries.

By gathering the BRICS group in Kazan, the Kremlin "aims to show that not only is Russia not isolated, it has partners and allies," Moscow-based political analyst Konstantin Kalachev told AFP.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Putin in 2023 over the illegal deportation of children from Ukraine, and the Russian leader abandoned plans to attend the previous summit in ICC member South Africa.

This time round, the Kremlin wants to show an "alternative to Western pressure and that the multipolar world is a reality," Kalachev said, referring to Moscow's efforts to shift power away from the West to other regions.

The Kremlin has said it wants global affairs to be guided by international law, "not on rules that are set by individual states, namely the United States."

"We believe that BRICS is a prototype of multipolarity, a structure uniting the Southern and Eastern hemispheres on the principles of sovereignty and respect for each other," Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.

"What BRICS is doing is gradually -- brick by brick -- building a bridge to a more democratic and just world order," he added.
Security

In Kazan, Putin is set to meet individually with Modi and Xi, as well as the leaders of South Africa and Egypt on Tuesday, followed by separate talks with Erdogan and Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is also undertaking his first trip to Russia since April 2022 to attend the summit. He will sit down with Putin on Thursday, according to a programme shared by Ushakov.

Ahead of the summit, AFP journalists in the city reported heightened security measures and a visible police presence.

The surrounding Tatarstan region, which is some 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from the border with Ukraine, has previously been hit by long-range Ukrainian drone attacks.

Movement around the city centre is being limited, residents advised to stay home, and university students moved out of dormitories, local media reported.
Emboldened

The West believes Russia is using the BRICS group to expand its influence and promote its own narratives about the Ukraine conflict.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned other countries could feel emboldened if Putin wins on the battlefield in Ukraine.

Starting with four members when it was established in 2009, BRICS has since expanded to include several other emerging nations such as South Africa, Egypt and Iran.

But the group is also rife with internal divisions, including between key members India and China.

Turkey, a NATO member with complex ties to both Moscow and the West, announced in early September that it also wanted to join the bloc.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva cancelled his planned trip to the summit at the last minute after suffering a head injury that caused a minor brain hemorrhage.

(AFP)

16th BRICS summit: a test of Moscow's influence in world affairs

 

By Dominic Wabwireh
with AP Last 

Copyright © africanewsAlexander Zemlianichenko/Copyright 2024 The AP. All rights reserved.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to host leaders for the 16th annual BRICS summit, on Teusday aiming to demonstrate that Moscow remains engaged on the global stage showcasing BRICS coalition as a counterbalance to Western influence in international politics and trade.

Putin is set to meet with several global leaders, including Xi Jinping of China, Narendra Modi of India, Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, and Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran.

They will gather in Kazan, Russia, on Tuesday for a BRICS summit, countering expectations that the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and an international arrest warrant for Putin would isolate him.

Raymond Matlala, Chairman of the South African BRICS Youth Association, believes that "BRICS is the voice of the Global South in this multilateral platforms where the West dominate. Really BRICS can take us out of that. And it's the only formation if you look at the G20, whatever, you can name them, African Union, you can name them - no other platform or association can take out, can rescue the Global South from the current global order. It's only the BRICS with the powerful voice and collaboration."

Russian officials are viewing this as a significant achievement.

Yuri Ushakov, an aide to Putin on foreign policy, announced that 32 countries have confirmed their participation, with over 20 sending their leaders.

Ushakov mentioned that Putin is expected to conduct approximately 20 bilateral meetings, and the summit may become “the largest foreign policy event ever hosted” in Russia.

Alexander Gabuyev, the director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, states that Russia aims to crete a platform where it can trade with its partners without the concern of sanctions. "The Russian idea is that if you create a platform on which there is only China, Russia, India and Brazil and Saudi Arabia, many countries that are vital partners for the U.S., the U.S. will not be ready to go after this platform and sanction it. So Russia will have a lot of breathing space. And I think that the West is working behind the closed doors also with these countries trying to discourage them from deeper integration," he said.

For Putin, the summit is important personally because it shows the failure of Western efforts to isolate him, Gabuyev says.

Analysts suggest that the Kremlin aims to project a united front with its international allies while facing ongoing tensions with the West.

Additionally, it seeks to engage in negotiations that could strengthen Russia’s economy and support its military efforts.

For the other participants, this presents an opportunity to enhance their influence and promote their own narratives.

The alliance, which seeks to provide an alternative to the Western-dominated global order, has seen rapid growth this year with new members such as Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia.

This year's summit may pave the way for further growth, as Putin has extended invitations to over two dozen countries that have either applied for or are contemplating joining the expanding group, which includes Azerbaijan, Belarus, Turkey, and Mongolia.

In 2006, Brazil, Russia, India, and China established the BRIC group, which became BRICS in 2010 with the inclusion of South Africa.

The purpose of this coalition was to unite significant developing nations as a counterbalance to the political and economic influence of wealthier countries in North America and Western Europe.

From the beginning, BRICS members have contended that Western nations hold sway over key global institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, which provide financial assistance to governments, highlighting the need for a counterbalance to amplify the voices of emerging economies.

In 2014, BRICS launched a New Development Bank aimed at financing infrastructure projects, and in January, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the U.A.E. were invited to join.

However, a Saudi official later clarified that Riyadh had not formally joined the group.

Argentina was also invited, but President Javier Milei withdrew in December 2023 shortly after taking office.

Nevertheless, the newly enlarged group represents around 3.5 billion people—45 percent of the global population—and their combined economies exceed $28.5 trillion, accounting for approximately 28 percent of the world economy.

If Saudi Arabia were to join, BRICS members would collectively produce about 44 percent of the world's crude oil.

UPDATED

Moldovans narrowly vote to secure the country’s path toward EU membership


Moldova’s President Maia Sandu leaves after delivering a speech during a press briefing after the polls closed for the presidential election and the referendum on whether to enshrine in the Constitution the country’s path to European Union membership, in Chisinau, Moldova, early Monday.

(Vadim Ghirda / Associated Press)

By Stephen McGrath

Oct. 21, 2024

CHISINAU, Moldova —

Moldovans voted by a razor-thin majority in favor of securing the country’s path toward European Union membership, electoral data showed Monday, following a ballot that nearly caused a major setback for the pro-Western president, who accused “criminal groups” of trying to undermine the vote.

With 99.41% of the 1.4 million votes counted in the EU referendum held Sunday, the “Yes” vote stood at 50.39%, to 49.61% who voted “No,” according to the Central Electoral Commission.

The “No” vote had looked to be ahead right until the last few thousand votes were counted from the country’s large diaspora. A loss would have been a political disaster for the pro-Western government, which strongly supported the pro-EU campaign.

On Monday, President Maia Sandu reiterated claims that unprecedented voter fraud and foreign interference had undermined the votes, calling it a “vile attack” on Moldova’s sovereignty.

“Unfortunately, the justice system failed to do enough to prevent vote rigging and corruption,” she told a news conference. “Here, too, we must draw a line, correct what went wrong, and learn the lesson. We heard you: we know we must do more to fight corruption.”



Moldovan authorities claim that Moscow has intensified a “hybrid war” campaign to destabilize the country and derail its EU path. The allegations include funding pro-Moscow opposition groups, spreading disinformation, meddling in local elections and backing a major vote-buying scheme.

In Brussels, the European Union’s executive branch, the European Commission, said that its services had also noted Russian interference in Moldova, and it underlined its continued support for Moldova on its EU accession path.

“This vote took place under unprecedented interference and intimidation by Russia and its proxies, aiming to destabilize the democratic processes in the Republic of Moldova,” spokesperson Peter Stano said.

Stano told reporters that allegations of vote buying, the bussing of voters and disinformation are only the most recent forms of Russian interference, and that attempts to undermine Moldova and its support for the EU have been going on for months.

In the presidential race that was held at the same time, Sandu won the first round with 42% of the vote in a field of 11, but failed to win an outright majority. She will face Alexandr Stoianoglo, a Russia-friendly former prosecutor general who outperformed polls with around 26% of the vote, in a runoff on Nov. 3.




By the time polling stations closed at 9 p.m. Sunday, more than 1.5 million voters — about 51% of eligible voters — had cast ballots, according to the Central Electoral Commission.

Cristian Cantir, a Moldovan associate professor of international relations at Oakland University, told the Associated Press that earlier polls might have “overestimated the pro-EU feeling” inside Moldova and the referendum would have failed to pass without votes from outside the country.

“It’s going to be particularly problematic because ... it’s going to feed into narratives that are pushed by the Kremlin and pro-Russian forces,” he said.

U.S. national security spokesman John Kirby echoed Russian interference concerns this week, saying in a statement that “Russia is working actively to undermine Moldova’s election and its European integration.” Moscow has repeatedly denied it is interfering in Moldova.

In early October, Moldovan law enforcement said it had uncovered a massive vote-buying scheme orchestrated by Ilan Shor, an exiled pro-Russia oligarch who currently resides in Russia, which paid 15 million euros to 130,000 individuals to undermine the two ballots.




Shor was convicted in absentia last year of fraud and money laundering and sentenced to 15 years in prison in the case of $1 billion that went missing from Moldovan banks in 2014. He denied the allegations, saying the payments were legal and citing a right to freedom of expression. Shor’s populist Russia-friendly Shor Party was declared unconstitutional last year and banned.

On Thursday, Moldovan authorities foiled another plot in which more than 100 young Moldovans received training in Moscow from private military groups on how to create civil unrest around the two votes. Some also attended “more advanced training in guerrilla camps” in Serbia and Bosnia, police said, and four people were detained for 30 days.

A pro-Western government has been in power in Moldova since 2021, a year after Sandu won the presidency. A parliamentary election will be held next year.

Moldova, a former Soviet republic with a population of about 2.5 million, applied to join the EU in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, and was granted candidate status that summer, alongside Ukraine. Brussels agreed in June to start membership negotiations.

McGrath writes for the Associated Press.

Russian interference did not represent 'critical mass' in Moldova vote, expert says

Modified: 21/10/2024 - AFP

Video by: Mark OWEN

Moldovans voted by a razor-thin majority in favor of securing the country’s path toward EU membership, after the pro-Western president accused foreign interference and “criminal groups” of trying to undermine the vote in the former Soviet republic. FRANCE 24's Maria Gerth Niculescu reports from Chisinau. Mark Owen speaks to Clara Volintiru at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. She says that Russian interference did not represent a 'critical mass' in the vote.

Moldova’s president bet big on the EU referendum. It may cost her dearly

ANALYSIS

Moldova has voted to enshrine its EU membership aspirations in the nation’s constitution by a razor-thin margin after a campaign awash with accusations of Russian interference and political repression. It’s an awkward moment for President Maia Sandu, who organised the vote to coincide with her own bid for re-election – and failed to win the absolute majority needed to triumph in the first round.


Issued on: 21/10/2024 -

AFP
By: Paul MILLAR

Moldova's incumbent President and presidential candidate Maia Sandu attends a news briefing dedicated to the preliminary results of a presidential election and a referendum on joining the European Union, in Chisinau, Moldova October 21, 2024. © Vladislav Culiomza, Reuters


It wasn’t until the final votes trickled in from Moldova’s far-flung diaspora that the final decision became clear. By an eyelash-thin margin of 50.46 percent, Moldovan voters at home and abroad had cast their ballots calling for the dream of EU membership to be enshrined in the nation’s constitution, nudging the country of some 2.6 million people on an irreversible path to a European future. As mandates go, they don’t come much more meagre.

“While support for EU integration remains high, it is fragile, as the referendum results demonstrate,” said Mikhail Polianskii, a research associate with the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt. “This result is not entirely unexpected, given where Ukraine finds itself 10 years after its ‘European moment’ of Euromaidan. Generally, the polls demonstrate that Moldovans do not support either Russia or Ukraine in this war – the majority wants ‘peace’ in their neighborhood, even though there is an unprecedented amount of Ukrainians now living in Moldova.”

It was a punch to the gut for Moldovan President Maia Sandu – one poll last month had put public support for the pro-EU camp at a convincing 63 percent. The disappointments kept coming. The former World Bank economist had organised the non-binding referendum for the same day as the country’s presidential election. Although a marked improvement on her 2020 election result, Sandu’s final score of just over 42 percent fell short of the absolute majority she needed to become the first Moldovan president to be elected for two terms.

Instead, bruised and furious, she will be heading into a frantic second round in just two weeks’ time, pitting her against former prosecutor general Alexander Stoianoglo, who won a better-than-expected 26 percent of the vote on the Party of Socialists’ slate. Depending on the decisions made by the rival opposition camps over the next fortnight, it could be tight – Renato Usatii, who came third with just under 14 percent, backed Sandu in 2020. He has said he’s unlikely to do it again.





Speaking before the final results were announced, Sandu was quick to praise both outcomes as hard-fought victories in the face of the full weight of Russian interference. Sandu has said the government has “clear evidence” that foreign-backed criminal groups had tried to buy off 300,000 voters in a cynical effort to throw Moldova’s Western realignment off kilter.

The allegations echo the announcement by Moldovan police earlier in October that Israeli-Moldovan oligarch and former politician Ilan Shor, now living in Russia after having been sentenced in absentia to 15 years’ in prison on graft charges, was involved in a network responsible for transferring $15 million in Russian funds to 130,000 Moldovans in an attempt to buy their votes ahead of the polls.

Shor has rejected the characterisation of these “pension top-ups” as voter bribery, and the Russian government denies all meddling in Moldova’s political processes. The Kremlin has called on Sandu to provide evidence to back up allegations of electoral fraud, while also casting suspicion on the abrupt rise in support for Sandu and the pro-EU campaign as the final diaspora votes came in.

Moldova, which applied for EU membership status in March 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, has had a complicated relationship with its neighbours. Now lying between Ukraine and Romania, with whom it shares a language, the lands now called Moldova spent more than a century under Russian imperial rule before declaring independence in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. The fledgling nation joined greater Romania three months later, though it still held onto a distinct cultural identity right up until its annexation by the Soviet Union under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany.

The Soviet Union’s collapse in the last years of the 20th century splintered the country further, with the Russian-backed breakaway state of Transnistria declaring its independence on the east banks of the Dniester River. The region of Gagauzia, largely peopled by Turkic communities who have maintained close cultural ties with Russia, also enjoys an uneasy autonomy. Since independence, the impoverished nation has struggled to strike a balance between its disparate communities, each with distinct – and competing – connections to the country’s patchwork past.

“In Moldova, significant opposition is rooted in concerns over economic stability and cultural identity, possible loss of independence to Romania and possible effects of decoupling from Russia – as the country remains extremely dependent on Russia economically in some key areas,” Polianskii said. “The anti-EU sentiment could coalesce into a formidable challenge for the incumbent Sandu in the second round.”

Although Moldova was granted EU candidate status in June 2022, Chisinau-based sociologist Vitalie Sprinceana said these rival visions of Moldova’s history could not easily be ignored in the push for European integration.

“Since the war in Ukraine, the government in the beginning adopted, in my mind, a very good position, being very cautious – but then embraced some kind of verbal militarism that also struck a nerve in some people,” he said. “Because Moldova, whether we like it or not, is a country that is not only divided, but it holds many historical legacies, different ethnic groups with different memories, and no one has worked to put them together. And I think repressing the opposition just by saying that it is pro-Russian, that also has created a bit of a negative reaction.”

Ultimately, he said, many voters may well have seen the EU membership not just as a referendum on the country’s geopolitical future but on the performance of the president herself.

“I think the referendum was put together with the presidential election to just consolidate Maia Sandu’s image as the pro-European politician,” he said. “As much as the current government wanted to transform the referendum into a kind of existential question – EU or Russia, or whatever – people understood that basically the referendum was about re-electing Maia Sandu. And because of that, the results of the referendum in my mind should not be read only as ‘the country’s divided’, but also as a criticism towards the current government.”

Despite the government’s efforts to frame both votes as a stark choice between East and West, Polianskii said, the choice facing voters had been rather more restricted.

“What’s really interesting in these elections, and without precedent really, is that candidates who directly or indirectly maintain reasonably good ties with Moscow did not field a single candidate,” he said. “The pro-Russian opposition is now divided, and the war in Ukraine is one of the central reasons for it. The ex-general prosecutor Stoianoglo is often portrayed as a ‘Moscow-candidate’ but he has been and remains a staunch supporter of European integration … So Russia does not really have a candidate in this race, even though some candidates tried – very cautiously – to connect to the pro-Russian electorate, like Gagauzia.”

Having swept to power in 2020 on a pro-European, anti-corruption platform, Sandu has fought a bitter campaign against what she describes as Russian influence in Moldova. Some of the measures have been severe. In June this year, Sandu approved broad changes to the legal definition of “high treason” that, Amnesty International said, “risks criminalising views and opinions that should be protected under international law”.

A political party linked to the disgraced oligarch Shor was ruled “unconstitutional” and banned last year after having organised anti-government demonstrations in the capital Chisinau. A number of Russian-language TV stations and social media channels connected to Shor – or, in some cases, just accused of being part of Russia's "information war" against the country – have also been shut down in recent months.

Stoianoglo has also sought to push his credentials as a victim of political persecution. After Sandu’s Action and Solidarity Party won the 2021 parliamentary elections, they dismissed him from his role as prosecutor general, accusing him of failing to investigate high-profile oligarchs. The decision became an embarrassment when the government awkwardly failed to produce evidence that Stoianoglo was linked to the oligarchs in question, and a scandal when the European Court of Human Rights ruled that he’d been denied the right to a fair trial.

This has not stopped the authorities from continuing to take legal action against the former prosecutor general. Three days after declaring his candidacy for president, a Moldovan court announced after 18 months of inaction that it would be proceeding with a criminal case against him for abuse of power.

“When Maia Sandu came there was also the war in Ukraine, there was the energy crisis in 2021-22, and that kind of gave them, in their minds, the green light to be harsher on their opponents – and sometimes that harshness was not justified,” Sprinceana said.

02:18



This hardline approach to curbing what the government considers “destabilising” political activities may have put off voters already frustrated with the government’s slow progress on anti-corruption measures and judicial reform.

“Sandu’s approach towards purging pro-Russian influences from politics has indeed been contentious,” Polianskii said. “Her administration’s actions against the Shor party and similar entities have raised concerns about fairness of political process in the country, potentially alienating voters who view these efforts as politically motivated rather than purely legal or ethical measures.”

Ultimately, Polianskii said, Sandu’s odds of getting elected to a historic second term rest on her ability to consolidate her support base at home and abroad – and strike urgently needed deals with a handful of erstwhile political rivals.

“Overall, the chances that she will win in the second round are still quite high,” he said. “Even if defeat cannot be completely ruled out – as her ‘negative’ rating is quickly closing in on her support numbers.”