Sri Lanka lifts ban on weedkiller linked to cancer cases


A Sri Lankan farmer sprays pesticide at his rice farm at Piliyandala, just outside the Sri Lankan capital Colombo (AFP/LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI)


Wed, November 24, 2021,

Sri Lanka on Wednesday lifted its partial ban of a weedkiller subject to US lawsuits over claims it causes cancer, after abandoning a campaign to become the world's first completely organic farming nation.

The island country has been in the grips of a severe economic crisis, with a lack of foreign exchange triggering shortages of food, crude oil and other essential goods.

On the weekend, authorities lifted a ban on pesticides and other farming goods, after food shortages saw the price of vegetables double and supermarkets began rationing rice.

Sri Lanka completely banned the use of glyphosate -- classified as a "probable carcinogen" by the World Health Organization -- in 2015.

Three years later it carved out a limited exemption for the tea industry, the country's main export earner.

A government bulletin circulated on Wednesday revoked all remaining restrictions on the weedkiller with immediate effect.

Agriculture minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage confirmed to reporters on Wednesday that all remaining bans on agricultural products had been abolished.

Glyphosate is the active ingredient in weedkiller Roundup and has been widely used around the globe since its introduction in 1974, both on food crops and outside of agriculture on public lawns and in forestry.

German chemicals giant Bayer has been plagued by legal woes since it bought Roundup producer Monsanto in 2018, with a series of claims by cancer patients who say glyphosate caused them to fall ill.

The firm has set aside billions of dollars to cover the costs of the lawsuits.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa banned agricultural chemical imports in May, saying he wanted to make Sri Lankan farming 100 percent organic.

The island had previously spent up to $400 million each year to import fertiliser, much of it given to farmers for free.

Rajapaksa's office admitted the import ban had led to the abandonment of around a third of Sri Lanka's farmlands during the current cultivation season, which began a month ago.

aj/gle/ssy

Kansas City Detective Who Fatally Shot a 26-Year-Old Man In His Own Yard Becomes First White Officer Officer Since 1942 to be Convicted of Killing a Black Man


Nicole Duncan-Smith
Tue, November 23, 2021

A Kansas City, Missouri, police detective has been found guilty of the 2019 killing of a Black father of three. The cop involved in the fatal shooting was the first white officer to face a criminal trial for killing a Black person in the city since 1942.

Justice seems to have been served in the Missouri case, as the 43-year-old Eric DeValkenaere was convicted in a bench trial of second-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action.

Eric DeValkenaere, 43, is charged with involuntary manslaughter after 26-year-old Cameron Lamb as he sat in a pickup truck in his own backyard on Dec. 3, 2019. Photo: 41 Action News/ YouTube screenshot.

Jackson County Circuit Court Judge J. Dale Youngs gave his guilty verdict on Friday, Nov. 19, the same day as the Kyle Rittenhouse trial results, where the 18-year-old was found not guilty on all charges in connection with his shooting three men, two fatally, at the Jacob Blake uprisings in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August 2020.


Twitter took note.

“Wow. Barely an hour after Rittenhouse. In KC, the first white officer in 80 years to face charges for the shooting death of a Black man has been found guilty. In 2019, Eric DeValkenaere went into 29 y.o Cameron Lamb’s backyard w/o a warrant and killed him.” posted Aaron Randle.

561 miles away from Kenosha, this Kansas City judge held the shooter responsible for his actions.

A little under two years ago in December 2019, Cameron Lamb was shot in a pickup truck on his own property by Detective DeValkenaere. Lamb had been tracked to the property after a police helicopter observed him chasing his girlfriend as she sped away from him in her Mustang.

DeValkenaere claimed that Lamb pointed his firearm at another detective and he shot him in order to save his colleague’s life. He testified at trial: “I’m thinking, ‘I can’t let this happen, I can’t let him shoot Troy.’” Troy Schwalm is the other detective.

However, this theory was rebutted at trial, when the prosecution maintained that the 26-year-old Lamb did not have a gun on him when he was shot, despite one being recovered at the crime scene on the floor of the garage underneath Lamb’s arm dangling outside the driver’s side window.

Another officer who was first to arrive on the scene testified he did not see a gun on the ground. Prosecution made the case that the scene may have been staged with a planted gun, arguing that Lamb was only holding his phone.

The officer has been suspended without pay pending termination by the Kansas City Police Department.

Attorney Lee Merritt, who spoke for the Lamb family, said, “Today will not bring him back. Justice is going to be short, but this is momentous. This is historic. And it means something.”

Lamb’s mother Laurie Bey echoed her lawyer’s sentiment by sharing that she simply misses her son, “I miss my baby.”

“This just did not have to be. It did not have to be,” she continued. “My son was at his home and he was minding his own business when they took it upon themselves to go into the backyard. He was very needed not only to his family but to the community.”

This case was one of many that put a national spotlight on this particular police department, hoping to push the Kansas City Fraternal Order of Police to consider reform.

More news from our partners:

WILDCAT! WORKERS DIRECT ACTION 

A Chipotle general manager and 4 of his employees FELLOW WORKERS quit after a surge of to-go orders drove them to their breaking points

At least 5 workers at a Chipotle in Austin, Texas told Insider they quit on November 14.

The location's former general manager said the store was too understaffed to meet the demand for food orders.

Chipotle said the Austin location was closed November 15 "due to available labor," but reopened the following day.

A group of five Chipotle employees, including a general manager and kitchen manager, quit their jobs at the end of their shifts on November 14 after working under "impossible" conditions, they told Insider.

Hollis Johnson/Business Insider

Mary Meisenzahl
Mon, November 22, 2021

Peter Guerra, a Chipotle veteran of five years and general manager for six months, worked at the Scofield Farms Chipotle location in Austin, Texas.

"My store was severely understaffed, we struggled just to keep our heads above water," with less and less support from management, Guerra said. He said he was regularly scheduled to work 80 hours a week, but often had to work additional hours to cover for employees who quit and left gaps in staffing.

Chipotle stores operate with two food prep lines: one for customers who order on-site and another for digital orders. Some Chipotle workers have previously told Insider that it's hard to keep up with the rapid rate at which digital orders stack up.

Guerra said the constant pressure to serve so many customers at once made it seem like he was being set up by the company's leadership to fail.

He said he started to hit his breaking point on Saturday, November 13, when digital orders were piling up while a line of customers stretched to the door. He said he didn't have enough workers to meet demand, so he closed the dining room to focus only on digital orders.

He was "in tears" at the thought of facing the same pressure the next day when only one other person was scheduled to work, he said. He had to close the dining room that day, as well.

At the end of his shift on Sunday, November 14, Guerra said he quit.

"I thought, 'this is literally going to kill me if I keep it up,'" Guerra said.

Kitchen manager James Williams also quit that Sunday after working 16 hours on his last day, he told Insider. Trying to manage both the dining room and kitchen, "I was stretched infinitely too thin," he said. When he and Guerra made the decision to close the dining room, both said customers were sympathetic.

"They could see the burnout on our faces," Guerra said of customers who were in line when the store closed. Digital orders continued to come in, and DoorDash drivers were also understanding and told workers to take their time, Williams said. Both told Insider that they finished their shifts and cleaned up the store, before leaving around 1 a.m.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

"Everyone that didn't clock in the next day was assumed to have quit," Williams told Insider. "It was a ghosting process."

A total of five employees of the Austin location confirmed to Insider that they quit on November 14. Chipotle declined to comment on staffing at the store but said that the location is now open.

"The Parmer Lane location was temporarily closed on Monday due to available labor, but reopened Tuesday with normal business hours," a spokesperson told Insider. As of Thursday, November 18, the restaurant still did not appear to be accepting online orders.

"In a few minor instances, there have been challenges with available labor so we made adjustments in these restaurants to temporarily accommodate the needs of the business," the spokesperson said.

Chipotle, like the broader restaurant industry, has seen instances recently of workers walking out and quitting as a symptom of what's referred to as a labor shortage. Business owners say they're unable to find staff and cases even cite a lack of desire to work, while workers say they can demand better pay and benefits in the tight labor market. This mismatch has led to restaurants decreasing hours and closing dining rooms.

Many workers have said they feel they have no choice but to leave these demanding service jobs.

GERMANY

COALITION GOVERNMENT

Petrolhead, novelist, trampolinist for post-Merkel cabinet
 

The co-leaders of The Greens party Robert Habeck and Annalena Baerbock are expected to take top jobs in the new German government (AFP/Ina Fassbender)More

Christian Lindner
German politician (FDP)
German politician, federal minister of finance and vice chancellor of Germany

Deborah COLE
Wed, November 24, 2021, 3:20 AM·4 min read

Olaf Scholz, who is on the brink of succeeding Angela Merkel after 16 years as German chancellor, has assembled a team of strange bedfellows to share power at the helm of his centre-left government.

The coalition of Scholz's Social Democrats with the ecologist Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) will place often ideologically opposed leaders of the smaller parties in pivotal jobs.

Here's a look who the top ministers are likely to be and what can be expected of them.

- Car-lover steering economy -

FDP leader Christian Lindner looks set to claim the coveted finance portfolio in the incoming government.

Lindner is known for sharp suits and a firm grip on the wheel of his party, which he has steered back into power after eight years in the wilderness.

The fast-talking 42-year-old would be handed the keys to the job he has been gunning for for years at a crucial moment for the German economy.

The vintage car lover, who used to list his interests outside politics on his website as "anything that can be filled with petrol", would have to oversee a massive green investment programme agreed by the new coalition.

Lindner's enthusiasm for strict fiscal discipline and his desire to see business, not government, take the lead on renewable energy do not make him a natural ally for the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens.

Against the backdrop of surging inflation, his party's tight embrace of balanced budgets could put Lindner, recently engaged to be married, on a collision course with the more left-leaning members of the government.

- 'Super' minister for climate -

Robert Habeck, who is expected to lead a new super-ministry for climate in the incoming government, is the urbane Greens co-leader who helped turn the party into a major electoral force.

The 52-year-old philosopher who has published several novels co-authored with his wife has harnessed his soft-spoken charm as a powerful draw for the ecologist outfit.

Habeck was long seen as a possible finance minister but he appeared to have lost a tug-of-war to Lindner.

Now nearly two months of wrangling has seen Habeck likely to clinch an attractive consolation prize -- a new power centre combining authority for the economy, climate protection and energy policy.

"We are talking here about a moment to change the course of history," Habeck insisted on the campaign train in the run-up to September's general election in which the Greens placed third.

He made headlines in April when, as the higher-profile member of the Greens' leadership duo, he stepped aside in favour of his younger female partner in power, Annalena Baerbock, as the party's first candidate for chancellor.

When her bid for the top job ran into trouble over a plagiarism scandal and dubious bonus payments, Habeck put on a show of loyalty even as pundits asked whether he wouldn't have been the better standard-bearer.

But the father of four let his ambition shine through during the post-election haggling, grabbing the Greens' most high-profile ministry in the cabinet.

- First woman top diplomat -

As a former medal-winning trampolinist, Annalena Baerbock is used to aiming high.

Although the 40-year-old failed in her bid to snatch Merkel's crown and become Germany's first Green chancellor, the expert in international law is poised to become the country's first woman foreign minister.

She has pledged to put human rights at the centre of German diplomacy, promising a tougher ride for Russia and China after the commerce-driven pragmatism of the Merkel years.

Almost from the start of her rocky campaign for the election, Baerbock disappointed lofty expectations with a series of missteps.

But polished television debate performances followed by a record score of 15 percent for the Greens on polling day left Baerbock well-placed to stake a claim to a high-profile post.

The mother-of-two and trained lawyer is described as quick on her feet and determined, with a meticulous attention to policy details.

"She keeps asking questions until she has really understood an issue," a party source told the Handelsblatt daily. "She won't be fobbed off."

Raised on a farm near Hanover, Baerbock had an early taste of politics when her parents took her to anti-nuclear demonstrations in the 1980s, a movement that spurred the creation of the Green party.

As a teenager Baerbock took part in trampoline competitions, winning three bronze medals in German championships. The sport taught her to "be brave", she has said.

bur-dlc/hmn/bp

Solomon Islands capital under curfew after protesters target parliament


Solomon Islands (AFP/STAFF)

Wed, November 24, 2021

The Solomon Islands capital Honiara was placed under curfew Wednesday after protesters attempted to storm the Pacific island nation's parliament, police said.

Police fired tear gas at the protesters, who had set alight buildings, partly burning down a police station and a hut near the parliament building, a police spokesman said.

He was unable to confirm witness accounts that the protest was a failed attempt to topple Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare.

"A crowd formed in front of the parliament, I don't know the exact numbers but it was a huge crowd," he told AFP.

"They intended to make the prime minister resign, that's the public speculation, but we're still investigating the motives.

"The important thing is police now have control of the situation and no one is out on the streets."

He said police were unaware of any injuries.

Video footage shot by onlookers showed police and protestors facing off along a street and columns of smoke rising from torched buildings.

Images on social media also showed crowds looting food from local stores.

Honiara resident Jeremy Gwao said people in the capital were fearful after the dramatic events.

"Many didn’t know there would be a protest and were shocked," he said.

"There were hundreds and hundreds on the street... and their main aim was to get the PM to step down.

"It was a scary situation and it's still tense. People at the moment don't know what's going to happen and police are trying to keep everything calm."

- 'Devastating consequences' -

Canberra's official Smart Traveller advice service warned Australian nationals in the Solomons capital to be vigilant.

"The situation is evolving in Honiara with civil unrest. Please exercise care, remain where you are if it is safe to do so and avoid crowds," it said.

The violence reportedly involved a group of protesters who travelled to Honiara this week from the neighbouring island of Malaita.

Their grievances are believed to involve perceived neglect by the central government and lingering dissatisfaction at the Solomons' decision to switch diplomatic allegiances from Taiwan to China in 2019.

Many communities in Malaita had forged deep ties with Taipei and the island's local government has repeatedly complained about embracing China.

Such inter-island tensions spurred unrest that led to the deployment of an Australian-led peacekeeping force from 2003 to 2017.

There was rioting following general elections in 2006, with much of Honiara's Chinatown razed amid rumours businesses with links to Beijing had rigged the vote.

Honiara-based lawmakers from Malaita issued a statement this week calling for protesters from their home island to refrain from violence.

"The devastating consequences that such actions will have on our people and future will take this country back 20 years," it said.

Sogavare's office has been approached for comment.

str-ns/je

SPACE WARS

Airbus, Thales Launch French Reconnaissance Space System

France's CERES space system satellites. Photo: Thales

 JOE SABALLA

NOVEMBER 23, 2021

European aerospace firms Airbus and Thales have launched three signals intelligence satellites to bolster the French military’s surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.

Known by the French acronym CERES, the system lifted off on an Arianespace Vega rocket from the country’s spaceport in French Guiana. It will reportedly be positioned at an altitude of 700 kilometers (434 miles) in low-Earth orbit.

The CERES was developed to detect and geo-locate electromagnetic signals emitted by radio communication systems and radars that surface sensors cannot reach. They are designed to allow the military to adapt more quickly and effectively to all operational scenarios.

The system features three identical satellites that carry signals intelligence (SIGINT) payloads and user and ground control segments. It provides in-depth information even in adverse weather conditions.

Airbus integrated the global system and space segments into the CERES, while Thales was responsible for full mission chain, system performance, and supplying the satellite platforms.

CERES satellites. Photo: Airbus

‘Completing Intelligence Capability’

According to the developers, the CERES satellites are based on experience gained from the ESSAIM (communications intelligence) and ELISA (electronic intelligence) micro-satellite demonstrators launched more than a decade ago.

They explained that the technical and o

Airbus, Thales Launch French Reconnaissance Space Systemperational lessons they acquired from these systems were “key” to enabling the CERES’ high performance in electromagnetic detection and compatibility.

Thales executive vice president Philippe Duhamel expressed his belief that the newly-launched system will complete the strategic and tactical defense intelligence capabilities of the French military.

“DGA (French Armament General Directorate) trusts Thales to be in charge of the CERES end-to-end mission performance, for which we rely on our experience of more than 20 years in space-based SIGINT, our unique know-how in satellite payloads, and our wide knowledge in SIGINT and electronic warfare in all environments,” Duhamel said, as quoted by Australian Defence Magazine.

Are Ukrainian Weapons Fueling State Repression in Myanmar?


A Ukrainian BTR-3 armored personnel carrier in Myanmar's largest city of Yangon, February 2021. Photo: Sai Aung Main/AFP

 GUILLAUME PTAK 

 NOVEMBER 23, 2021

After Myanmar’s armed forces seized control of the country in February, the Southeast Asian nation was thrown into chaos. At least 1,000 civilians were killed in demonstrations, and thousands of others fled to neighboring India and Thailand.

Ukraine has been outspoken in condemning the violence. During a UN meeting on Myanmar, Ukrainian Permanent Representative Sergiy Kyslytsya called on the Tatmadaw (Myanmar’s armed forces) to “stop the repression immediately, including the use of lethal force, intimidation, and harassment against peaceful demonstrators.” In June, Kyiv voted in favor of a UN resolution to stop the flow of arms to Myanmar.

However, Ukrainian BTR-3 armored personnel carriers were spotted on the streets of Yangon amid the riots that followed the coup, drawing activists’ attention to the lesser-known but well-established ties between Ukraine’s and Myanmar’s defense industries.

Ukrainian Equipment in Myanmar

Since 2004, a thousand Ukrainian BTR-3 combat vehicles have reportedly been delivered to Myanmar. When asked about the matter by Radio Svoboda in February, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko declared that his government couldn’t be held responsible “for the use of military equipment purchased by another country more than 15 years ago.”

A misleading statement, according to Yadanar Maung, a representative of the NGO Justice For Myanmar. Early in September, the NGO reported that Ukrainian state-owned companies had been shipping aircraft, ship, and tank parts to the country despite the February takeover by the military junta.

While most of the military-technical agreements had been signed under previous governments, activist Maung claims that arms exports and technology transfers have continued — despite the military’s overthrow of the ruling party.

“Continuing to equip the Myanmar military shows a blatant disregard for the lives of the people of Myanmar,” Maung declared to The Defense Post.

Notably, state-owned arms manufacturer Ukroboronservice is claimed to have shipped over 164 kilos of aircraft parts to the Southeast Asian country in May. Meanwhile, Ukrainian engineering company Motor Sich has allegedly exported engines and engine parts to Myanmar on two occasions since the military coup.

A blockaded road to Myanmar’s parliament in Naypyitaw in February after the military detained the country’s leaders. Photo: STR/AFP

Motor Sich’s most recent shipment, including turbojet engine parts, is supposed to have taken place in late May 2021, well after the military takeover.

At the time, Reuters reported that the Myanmar Air Force had been carrying out airstrikes against “anti-junta militias” in the country’s east, displacing thousands. The company did not reply to a request for comments from The Defense Post.
Joint Ventures

In addition to the recent shipments, several joint ventures between Ukrainian state-owned companies and Myanmar’s defense industry reportedly continue, despite the coup.

Chief among them is a joint project between Myanmar’s Directorate of Defence industry and Ukrainian arms conglomerates Ukroboronprom and Ukrspetsexport. The venture involves creating an industrial plant able to manufacture BTR-4 armored personnel carriers, MMT-40 light tanks, and 2SIU self-propelled Howitzers, as well as repair parts.

In October 2020, Ukrspetsexport claimed in a Facebook post that it had signed a contract with the ministry of defense of an unspecified “Southeast Asian country,” now believed to be Myanmar.

According to the post, the deal involved the creation of an industrial plant able to produce a “wide range of spare parts for light armored vehicles” to supply “such spare parts to other military units” and to “perform work on the modernization of light armored vehicles.”



A project very similar to the one described in the post was listed by the 2019 UN Independent International fact-finding mission on Myanmar as a recommended target for arms export sanctions.

At the time, the fact-finding mission reported that Ukraine was “supporting the Tatmadaw’s military infrastructure and production capabilities.” It concluded that Kyiv failed to refrain from transferring weapons to Myanmar, although they “expected or ought to have expected” that those weapons would be used in acts violating international human rights law.

Whether the industrial complex construction is complete has neither been confirmed nor denied. When reached for comment by The Defense Post, Ukroboronprom representative Julia Marko stated that the conglomerate’s economic activities are “protected by commercial confidentiality” and as such couldn’t be disclosed without the consent of unnamed “third parties.”

“All enterprises of the State Concern operate within the framework of current legislation and international obligations of Ukraine,” she assured.

This answer skirts the fact that there is currently no formal embargo on selling weapons to Myanmar. According to activist Maung, whether or not to export weapons to Myanmar is not a legal but a moral question. “Ukraine should not have transferred arms to Myanmar, knowing that the military there is committing gross violations of human rights, including the crime of genocide,” he argued.
‘Embattled Democracy’

In June 2021, the UN General Assembly adopted a non-binding resolution calling for an arms embargo against the Southeast Asian nation. Ukraine was among the 119 countries to support the motion.

On a number of occasions, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has described Ukraine as an embattled democracy fighting off Russian authoritarianism, going so far as to declare that his country was “the security wall of this philosophy of existence, of European civilization, human rights, and freedoms.”

Zelensky’s sentiment was echoed at the UN meeting on Myanmar by representative Kyslytsya: “Ukraine knows how painful it is when a choice of people is stolen by a corrupt regime, hence we stay strong with the democratic forces of Myanmar, its people who are entitled to live according to their choice under the leadership they elect.”

In light of Ukraine being accused of supplying one of the world’s most repressive regimes with the means to silence those very same “democratic forces,” those words now seem to ring hollow.

Four Killed in Israel Strikes on Syria: War Monitor

Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Israel has routinely carried out air strikes inside Syria.

An Israeli F-35I fighter jet takes part in a multinational air defense exercise at the Ovda Air Force Base, north of the Israeli city of Eilat, on Nov. 11, 2019.

 Photo: Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images

 STAFF WRITER WITH AFP 

NOVEMBER 24, 2021

Two civilians were among four people killed by Israeli strikes on Wednesday that targeted a part of Syria where fighters loyal to Lebanon’s Hezbollah are based, a monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group that relies on sources on the ground, said the Israeli missiles struck an area near three villages in the west of Homs province.

The raid killed four people, including two civilians, said the war monitor, although it was unable to determine whether the other two deaths were civilians or soldiers.

The official Syrian news agency SANA, citing a military official, said two civilians had been killed and seven people wounded in the strikes that were conducted at dawn.

“The (Israeli) aggression resulted in the death of two civilians and injured six soldiers and one civilian,” the military official was quoted as saying.

The strikes targeted positions in the central part of the country, it said, without giving further details on the location.

Syria’s air defenses “repelled the aggression and shot down most” of the missiles, SANA said, quoting the same source.

The Israeli military, which rarely acknowledges individual strikes on Syria, declined to comment on “reports in the foreign media.”

Israel has said repeatedly it will not allow neighboring Syria to become a launchpad for its arch-foe Iran.

Since civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes on Syrian territory, targeting government positions as well as allied Iran-backed forces and Hezbollah fighters.

Similar strikes on November 3 hit positions held by the Syrian government and its pro-Iranian allies near Damascus, said the Observatory.

On October 30, five pro-Iranian militiamen were killed in an Israeli strike that destroyed Hezbollah and Iranian weapons and ammunition near the Syrian capital, the monitor said.

An Israeli strike in mid-October killed nine pro-government fighters near the T4 airbase east of Palmyra in central Syria, according to the same source.

Bangladesh resumes moving Rohingya refugees to flood-prone island

Bangladesh has resumed moving Rohingya refugees to a remote and flood-prone island, authorities said Wednesday, despite criticism from aid groups and claims some are being relocated against their will.

© - Nearly 20,000 Rohingya refugees have already been sent to Bhashan Char and Bangladesh eventually wants to move about 100,000 to the remote and flood-prone island

© Tanbir Miraj About 850,000 Rohingya are packed into camps along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border

Nearly 20,000 members of the stateless minority, who fled neighbouring Myanmar in 2017 after a brutal military crackdown, have already been sent to Bhashan Char island.


Bangladesh eventually wants to rehouse 100,000 of its approximately one million Rohingya refugees to the island, moving them from cramped relief camps on the mainland.

But hundreds already sent there have since been arrested in coastal towns after fleeing the island, and dozens died in August after a fishing boat carrying escapees capsized.

Another 2,000 Rohingya will nonetheless be transferred this week, the country's deputy refugee commissioner Moozzem Hossain told AFP, more than six months after the last group was sent there.

"Navy ships will bring them to the island on Thursday," he added.

The UN refugee agency signed a deal with Bangladesh authorities to provide help and protection to refugees on the island last month.

Hossain told AFP that all relocations were completely voluntary, but several refugees said they were being forced to move there.

"We don't want to go to Bhashan Char," a Rohingya woman told AFP by phone, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

She said a Rohingya community leader in the camps had added her name to a list of people seeking to relocate without her consent.

"If I go to Bhashan Char, I will not be able to go back to Myanmar. I will not go," she added.

One Rohingya community leader, who also asked to remain anonymous, said Bangladeshi authorities had told him and his peers to each provide lists of at least five families to be relocated.

- Cyclone threat -

About 850,000 Rohingya are packed into camps along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. Most fled a Myanmar military clampdown in 2017 that the UN says could be genocide.

Bangladesh has been praised for taking in the refugees who poured across the border but has had little success finding them permanent homes.

Bhashan Char is 60 kilometres (37 miles) from the Bangladesh mainland and lies at the heart of the Meghna estuary, an area prone to powerful cyclones that have killed around one million people in the last 50 years.

Human Rights Watch has urged Bangladesh to halt further relocations until it could guarantee freedom of movement for the refugees.

The watchdog said Tuesday that Rohingya leaders were being coerced into persuading camp residents to move to Bhashan Char, including by confiscating their identity documents.

"Bangladesh's October agreement with the UN doesn't provide a free ticket to forcibly relocate Rohingya refugees," said Bill Frelick, HRW's refugee and migrant rights director.

str-sa/gle/mtp

Video: Lessons from Bangladesh: Living with floods (Dailymotion)

Sydney nanny loses extradition appeal over Pinochet-era crimes


The Augusto Pinochet regime presided over thousands of murders, tortures and forced disappearances as Latin America was ravaged by Cold War-fuelled violence

 (AFP/MARTIN BERNETTI)


Wed, November 24, 2021, 

An Australia-based former nanny lost her second appeal against extradition to Chile on Wednesday where she allegedly served as a member of the feared secret police during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

Adriana Elcira Rivas Gonzalez, now in her late 60s, faces seven charges of aggravated kidnapping carried out in the 1970s including the 1976 disappearance of senior Communist Party official Victor Manuel Diaz Lopez.

She has been fighting extradition since being arrested and detained by Australian authorities in February 2019 for her suspected involvement in kidnappings under the US-backed Pinochet regime, which toppled the democratically elected socialist government of President Salvador Allende.

The military junta presided over thousands of murders, tortures and forced disappearances as Latin America was ravaged by Cold War-fuelled violence.

In June this year, Rivas lost her first Federal Court appeal against a 2020 lower court's ruling that she was eligible to be extradited to Chile.

Now, a full bench of the federal court has confirmed that decision.

"In this appeal, much of Ms Rivas' submissions were directed to the assertion that she is not guilty of the offences which are the subject of the extradition request," said a ruling by three Federal Court judges, Debra Mortimer, Robert Bromwich and Stewart Anderson.

"Guilt or innocence forms no part of the international extradition process," they said, adding that this was a matter for the Chilean courts to decide.

"The appeal is dismissed," the judges concluded, finding Rivas was eligible for extradition and should also pay Chile's costs.

Chile formally requested her extradition in 2018 from Sydney, where she had been working as a nanny and a cleaner in the city's Bondi area.

Rivas has lived in Australia for three decades and was previously arrested while visiting Chile in 2007, but later fled to Australia while on bail.

In a 2013 interview with Australian broadcaster SBS, Rivas claimed she was innocent, but defended the use of torture in Chile at the time.

"They had to break the people -– it has happened all over the world, not only in Chile," she said.

bur-djw/arb/ssy