Academics refused permanent UK visas because of field trips abroad

Ebola volunteering in Guinea and gender research in Bangladesh fall foul of hostile environment laws

Anna Fazackerley  Tue 25 Feb 2020 
 

Dr Nazia Hussein, a Bangladeshi expert on gender, race and religion at Bristol University, has had her permanent visa declined after 10 years in Britain because she spent six months researching her subject abroad. Photograph: Sam Frost/The Guardian

When Dr Nazia Hussein spent six months researching class and gender identity in Bangladesh for her PhD at Warwick University in 2009, she had no idea that, a decade later, the Home Office would use this to refuse her application for permanent residency.

Hussein, a Bangladeshi expert on gender, race and religion, now a lecturer at the University of Bristol, was “absolutely shocked” when her application for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) was rejected last year on the grounds that she had spent too many days out of the country during the 10-year application period. This was despite the fact she had submitted clear evidence that her PhD research constituted essential fieldwork and an unavoidable and legitimate absence.

Hussein’s husband had been granted a ILR visa, which had allowed their three-year-old daughter to get a British passport, so after a decade in UK universities it hadn’t occurred to Hussein she might be rejected.

“In their letter the Home Office said I am very qualified and could easily settle back in Bangladesh. They are right that I am very qualified, but I have chosen to be in this country,” she says. “My qualifications are from this country and I have spent the last 10 years teaching young people in this country.”

In January Boris Johnson announced a new global talent visa for top researchers and their teams, declaring post-Brexit Britain “open to the most talented minds in the world”. But academics are warning that the Home Office’s aggressive application of immigration rules will put off overseas researchers from coming to the UK.

Hussein’s experience is not an isolated one. In November, Dr Asiya Islam, a widely respected Indian sociologist at Cambridge University, learned that her ILR had been refused, again after a decade researching in the UK, and for the same reason. The Home Office told her she had spent too many days out of Britain, even though Cambridge had supported her claim that she needed to spend a year in Delhi for her PhD research.

Islam’s case has enraged fellow academics, who say the Home Office doesn’t understand how research works. Two thousand university staff, including 183 professors, signed a letter protesting at her treatment.

However, this is not a new trend. The Guardian has learned that in 2018 the Home Office refused an ILR to Dr Elsa Zekeng, a Liverpool University researcher from Cameroon, because of six weeks she had spent volunteering with Ebola patients in Guinea in 2015 – for which she was awarded a Queen’s medal – and time spent in South Africa collecting samples for her PhD on infectious diseases. She appealed and a judge overturned the decision.

Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and College Union, says: “It is ludicrous that legitimate research activity is causing migrant staff to be refused leave to remain in the UK. The restrictive rules around overseas travel are totally arbitrary.”

Hussein’s PhD supervisor, Prof Christina Hughes, interim deputy vice-chancellor at the University of Kent, said the fieldwork in Bangladesh was important. “Dr Hussein was finding new evidence that challenges the stereotypes of the Bangladeshi woman,” she says. “This sort of empirical investigation gives us a more highly developed understanding of women’s changing economic and social situations globally. And importantly, it provides evidence for challenging racism.”

Like other academics who know Hussein, Prof Hughes is angry about her treatment, and worried about its implications for research in the UK. “She is a phenomenal researcher with a tremendous commitment to making the world a better place.”

Prof Therese O’Toole, director of research in Bristol’s school of sociology, politics and international studies, says Hussein is leading a foundation course to bring more disadvantaged students into the school, as well as working closely with women’s groups to challenge negative representations of Muslim women.

“This government says we are globally open and receptive. But for really great researchers like Nazia to build their lives here and then find all these obstacles thrown in their way sends out entirely the wrong message,” she says.

Hussein says she decided against appealing the Home Office decision because her solicitor warned her that, even though she had a really strong case, the appeal could take so long she risked overstaying her visa and would be unable to work.

“Jobs in academia are not easy to get, and I didn’t want to lose my job,” she says. “And I was really scared. If the appeal went wrong would I have to leave the country? My daughter is here and when I got the letter she was only three.”

She has now been granted a two-year dependent visa, which she applied for on the back of her husband’s residency. In the last year alone the family has spent more than £11,000 in immigration fees.

“The amount of money we’ve spent on visas and the NHS surcharge while we have been here, we could have bought a house instead. That certainly seems a long way off for us now,” she says. “You can’t really plan for the future when you are living in a state of constant uncertainty.”

Meanwhile Zekeng, who now works in industry as well as running an app aimed at reducing unconscious bias in recruitment, says she, too, was horrified to discover her fieldwork had counted against her.

For her PhD she had been working on finding a protein marker to indicate whether a patient had flu, and in 2015 had been given a grant from the Society for General Microbiology to spend two months with experts at the University of Cape Town. She had also been to Senegal collecting patient samples to investigate how symptoms vary across countries.

“I remember sitting on the stairs after I read the letter saying my application had been denied, feeling absolutely shocked and devastated,” she recalls. “The emotional and mental impact was debilitating.”

Zekeng’s appeal was heard in Bradford in September 2018. “My PhD supervisor had written me a stellar letter detailing everything I had accomplished, explaining I was out of the country for my PhD and saying I’d been an outstanding member of the community. Within less than 30 minutes the judge apologised and said I shouldn’t be here. She said I was exactly the sort of person this country should be welcoming.”

Zekeng says she felt vindicated, and cried with the relief. “But I did wonder why I had to go through all that – and what happens to those who can’t appeal.”

The Home Office said: “We welcome international academics and recognise their contribution to the UK’s world-leading education sector. All immigration applications are considered on their individual merits and on the evidence available, in line with the immigration rules.”

Sydney baboon escape: police confirm three animals recaptured at Royal Prince Alfred hospital

NSW health minister says the baboons were being transported to RPA so one could have a vasectomy
Stephanie Convery Tue 25 Feb 2020

File image of a baboon. Police were called to the Royal Prince Alfred hospital in Sydney after reports of baboons on the loose. Photograph: Richard Jones/BBC/John Downer Productions

Three baboons being transported to a major Sydney hospital so one of them could have a vasectomy escaped from their truck on Tuesday afternoon, triggering sightings around the hospital, a police response and widespread interest online.

Callers to Sydney talkback radio station 2GB were first to report they’d seen primates running about the area of the Royal Prince Alfred (RPA) hospital, which is just outside the central business district and adjacent to the University of Sydney.

A caller told presenter Ben Fordham that he’d seen three baboons.

“Mate I’m deadset serious, I’m at RPA, I’m six floors up and I was just having a gaze out at the carpark … and there were three baboons in the carpark,” he said. “I’m deadset serious. They even had shiny red bottoms.”

Flying high, not getting high: the poppy-eating cockatoos of Tasmania are no opiate addicts

Another caller said her daughter and her daughter’s colleagues had been chasing the animals.

“My daughter is an occupational therapist at RPA and she said ‘yes mum, I’ve just helped wrangle them’,” the caller said.

The incident initially prompted mirth on social media, which increasingly gave way to concern for the welfare of the primates.

New South Wales police confirmed on Tuesday evening that they had recaptured three animals just over an hour after reports first emerged.

“Just after 5.30pm officers from inner west police area command were called to a car park on Missenden Road and Lucas Street, Camperdown, after reports three baboons escaped while being transported,” a NSW police spokesperson said.

“They are currently contained and police are working with experts to safely return them to their facility.

“There is no immediate danger to the public but people are advised to avoid the area,” she said.

The NSW health minister, Brad Hazzard, told Guardian Australia on Tuesday that the baboons were on their way to the animal research facilities at RPA from their colony, and had escaped due to a faulty lock on the truck they were travelling in.

The baboon due to undergo the operation was a 15-year-old male, the leader of his troop. He was accompanied by two younger female baboons to keep him calm.

“He was having a vasectomy because there’s no desire for him to continue to breed for the troop, and the other option was to move him from the troop,” Hazzard said.

“This way, he can stay with his family through until old age.”

Hazzard said the baboons were part of a colony bred for research that had been around for about 20 years, but that these particular baboons were not being transported for research.

“I understand they’re extremely well cared for,” he said.

“They are quite placid and behaving themselves far better than one would expect.”

In 2016, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that there was a colony of baboons bred for medical research in western Sydney. The University of Sydney said at the time that research on primates was limited but that “a small number” were still being tested on.

A spokesperson from the University of Sydney told Guardian Australia that they were looking into Tuesday’s incident. NSW Health were contacted for comment.

The Greens senator and animal welfare spokesperson Mehreen Faruqi said on Twitter before the animals were recaptured that she wished them well in their “bid for freedom”.

Mehreen Faruqi(@MehreenFaruqi)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Greens Spokesperson for Animal Welfare has welcomed the Sydney Baboon's bid for freedom.

"I wish them well," she said.

ENDS. https://t.co/dDnu0LrB21

February 25, 2020

Two-Thirds of the World’s Most Polluted Cities Are in India

Iain Marlow and Hannah Dormido, Bloomberg•February 25, 2020 

RESULTING FROM THE PRIMITIVE ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL 

Two-Thirds of the World’s Most Polluted Cities Are in India

(Bloomberg) -- Several Chinese cities, including Beijing, have dramatically improved their air quality in recent years, while Indian metropolises remain some of the world’s worst polluted, according to a new report.

Beijing -- once infamous for its toxic haze -- has reduced smog levels and dropped down a list of the world’s most polluted cities, falling to 199 from 84 three years before, according to the 2019 World Air Quality Report published Tuesday by IQAir AirVisual. In contrast, India still dominated its list of the smoggiest urban areas, accounting for 14 of the top 20.

Despite new government policies meant to address the issue, New Delhi’s air quality has fallen from where it was five years ago, rising to the fifth-worst spot globally and making it by far the world’s most polluted major city, the report said. The worst-ranked city -- Ghaziabad -- is a Delhi suburb, as are a number of others ranked separately in the top 20.

India, China and other Asian countries remain disproportionately affected by toxic air as a result of factors ranging from crowded cities, vehicular exhaust, coal-fired power plants, agricultural burning and industrial emissions. The issue is hardly tangential. The World Health Organization estimates that dirty air kills around 7 million people each year, while the World Bank says it drains the global economy of $5 trillion annually.

Even before the coronavirus outbreak and trade war slowed China’s smog-producing industries, Chinese officials had mobilized the country’s top-down, authoritarian state to implement -- and enforce -- sweeping measures, as well as shifting production away from its biggest cities. A recent report from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air separately found that Beijing and Shanghai had seen “major progress,” while levels of fine particular called PM 2.5 increased in other parts of the country.

India faces a starkly different situation. Across much of northern India, air quality remains catastrophic as politicians prioritize economic growth and spar over responsibility. Many citizens are still unaware of health concerns and resource-starved agencies struggle to carry out new -- or even existing -- measures designed to curb the smog.
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“In Beijing, it’s a priority -- in China, when they say something, they do it, they put the resources in,” said Yann Boquillod, AirVisual’s director of air quality monitoring. “In India, it’s just starting. People need to put more pressure on government.”

A spokesman for India’s environment ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Why Winter Brings Deadly Smog to India’s Capital: QuickTake

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has won praise for promoting solar power and improving emission standards. It has handed out millions of gas canisters to reduce the number of families using smoky household cooking fires. In January of last year, the government also launched the National Clean Air Programme.

But these measures haven’t had a serious impact on increased coal power plant usage, dust left by the thousands of under-regulated construction sites and exhaust from millions of new cars and motorcycles. Air quality experts have also criticized the national program for lacking strong enforcement and funding.

Indians Are Addicted to Cheap Coal Power and It’s Killing Them

Although many Indian cities saw progress between 2018 and 2019, “unfortunately these improvements are not representative of the very recent, but promising National Clean Air Programme” and cleaner fuel standards, according to the AirVisual report.

Instead, the authors said, they signal a lagging economy, which grew at about 5% -- the slowest expansion since 2009 -- compared with 8.3% in 2017. The deadly air also kills roughly 1.2 million Indians each year, according to a recent study in the Lancet.

India, however, was far from the only country that remained deeply challenged by smog. Although several Chinese cities -- including Shanghai -- saw improvement in air quality, Kashgar and Hotan in the restive, western Xinjiang region were among the world’s worst.

Cities across Asia -- including Chiang Mai, Hanoi, Jakarta and Seoul -- saw sharp increases in PM 2.5 levels. Since 2017, Jakarta saw pollution increase by 66%, making it the worst in Southeast Asia. In Thailand, Chiang Mai and Bangkok both saw a number of extremely smoggy days -- some of which led authorities in the capital to close schools -- resulting from construction, diesel fuel and crop fires in surrounding regions.

The problem is particularly challenging for South Asian countries. Using a weighted population average, Bangladesh was actually ranked the world’s most polluted country, while its capital Dhaka was the second worst after Delhi. Pakistan was the second-most-polluted country, while Afghanistan, India and Nepal were all in the top 10.

--With assistance from Bibhudatta Pradhan.
To contact the reporters on this story: Iain Marlow in Hong Kong at imarlow1@bloomberg.net;Hannah Dormido in Hong Kong at hdormido@bloomberg.net
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Farmers pile pressure on UK government over chlorinated chicken

Calls for food standards to be enshrined in law to avoid post-Brexit ‘betrayal’ of consumers

Fiona Harvey and Lisa O'Carroll Tue 25 Feb 2020 
 

Campaigners fear chlorine-washed chickens could enter the UK market under new post-Brexit rules. Photograph: Alamy

Farmers have hit back at suggestions the government will allow imports of chlorinated chicken and other low-standard farm produce in trade talks with the US, escalating the row over post-Brexit food standards.

Minette Batters, the president of the National Farmers’ Union, will call for rules on minimum standards for imports to be enshrined in law, and insist that other countries must trade with the UK “on our terms”, rather than seek to water down food rules.

“We must not tie the hands of British farmers to the highest rung of the standards ladder while waving through food imports which may not even reach the bottom rung,” Batters will tell the NFU’s annual conference on Tuesday.


“If the government is serious about animal welfare and environmental protection, and doing more than any previous government, it must put legislation in the agriculture bill.”

Farmers were told last month by Theresa Villiers, the former secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, that chlorinated chicken – which the US wants to be allowed to export to the UK, where it is currently banned on health grounds – would be excluded from any trade talks.

Farmers fear they will face a flood of cheap imports undercutting high-standard British produce, and the potential for the EU to ban UK-produced food if standards were relaxed.


But the government refused to enshrine Villiers’ promises into the agricultural bill going through parliament, and she was sacked in the reshuffle. At the weekend, the new environment secretary, George Eustice, refused to repeat her assurances, reigniting the row and infuriating farmers.

Batters will present the dispute as an issue of public safety. “What is government waiting for?” she will ask. “What is more important to our economy, our health and our environment than the very food we eat?”

She will call for ministers to “show global leadership, insist that UK farms standards are the benchmark for climate-friendly farming around the world, and that whoever wants to trade with us trades on our terms. We must not allow those standards to be undermined by imports of goods which would be illegal for our farmers to produce here.”

Chlorinated chicken has grabbed the headlines but other practices pose a greater potential threat to human health. Within the EU, the use of antibiotics on farm animals falls under strict guidelines, which many other countries lack. Profligate use of antibiotics for meat production is linked to the evolution of superbugs, raising the spectre of a health “apocalypse” that could mean even routine operations become life-threatening.

Batters will say: “In Japan, Australia, China, Canada, Brazil, Malaysia and India, the use of antibiotics is permitted for growth promotion. This isn’t just about chlorinated chicken. This is about a wider principle.”

Kath Dalmeny, the chief executive of the Sustain alliance for better food and farming, accused the government of betraying consumers. “Just last year George Eustice said US imports would have to conform to ‘British law and British standards’ or the US could ‘kiss goodbye to any trade deal and join the back of the queue’,” she said.

“Now, it seems he is prepared to bend over backwards to make the case for the US and their hormone-injected, acid-washed, antibiotic-intensive, low-welfare chicken. This is an outrageous betrayal of the British people and deeply worrying for our farmers. The government should be leading the way in high-quality, high-welfare food, not softening up the public to make low-grade food more palatable.”

A government spokesperson said: “We have repeatedly been clear that we will uphold our high environmental, food safety and animal welfare standards outside the EU. The government will stand firm in trade negotiations to ensure our future trade deals live up to the values of farmers and consumers across the UK.”

Eustice is expected to use his speech to the conference on Wednesday morning to launch a consultation on the future of farm subsidies after the UK leaves the EU.


“We can all agree that we want British farming to be sustainable in the truest sense of the word, an industry which is profitable, competitive and productive while feeding the nation and taking care of our landscapes too,” he will say.

In the agriculture bill progressing through parliament, farmers have been promised a new system of environmental land management contracts, which will reward them for measures to protect public goods, such as water and air quality, cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and preserving wildlife and nature.

However, campaigners are concerned it contains many loopholes, which will reduce the environmental protections currently in operation under EU regulations.

Farmers and land managers will have 10 weeks to respond to the government’s proposals.

SHIT HOLE COUNTRIES BAN
New Donald Trump immigration policy could ban thousands of African immigrants from US

Monsy Alvarado and Alan Gomez, USA TODAY, USA TODAY•February 24, 2020 

WOODLAND PARK, N.J. – In Kansas City, Kansas, the Baraza African Cultures Center has been fielding calls from Nigerians and other African immigrants "highly concerned" about how an expanded travel ban that went into effect last week will affect their families.

And in New Jersey, Steve Nwaaogu, 38, was hoping the travel ban would be temporary, and that a petition to bring his 13-year old daughter from Nigeria to join him, his wife, and son in the United States will be processed and approved this year.

A new Trump administration immigration policy that went into effect Friday has some immigrant communities across the country expressing fear and concern about what happens next for their family members, many of whom will no longer be able to move legally to the United States after waiting years for visas.

“Some are people that came to this country because they were fleeing harm and danger and were so grateful to end up in the United States, and others came for education to build a real future for their families,'' said Andrea Khan, chief operating officer for the Baraza African Cultures Center, which serves refugees and other immigrant communities in the greater Kansas City metropolitan area. "And for the country to turn around and do something like this, they are very much in shock, because that is not the America they know.”

The Trump administration announced the expansion of its controversial travel ban late last month, saying it would add immigration restrictions on citizens from Nigeria, Myanmar, Eritrea and Kyrgyzstan who want to live or work in the U.S. permanently. It also bars citizens from Sudan and Tanzania from the U.S. diversity visa program, also known as the “green-card lottery," which aims to diversify the immigrant population in the United States by selecting applicants from countries with lower rates of immigration.
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The federal government cited security as the reason for expanding the travel ban to those countries, saying they had deficiencies in sharing terrorist, criminal or identity information.

“It is logical and essential to thoroughly screen and vet everyone seeking to travel or immigrate to the United States,'' said Chad Wolf, acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in a statement announcing the new restrictions. "However, there are some countries from whom the U.S. does not receive the necessary information about its travelers and, as a result, pose a national security or public safety risk that warrants tailored travel restrictions.”

Supporters of the Trump administration's tougher policies on both legal and illegal immigration applauded the travel ban.

“This is more directed at the governments than at the individual immigrants,’’ said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation of American Immigration Reform or FAIR, a group that favors limiting immigration. “The individual immigrants are being put in this position by their own government’s refusal to cooperate and provide the necessary information, or their inability to do so.”

But Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said the travel ban should end and not be expanded.

“President Trump is doubling down on his signature anti-Muslim policy – and using the ban as a way to put even more of his prejudices into practice by excluding more communities of color. Families, universities, and businesses in the United States are paying an ever-higher price for President Trump’s ignorance and racism," he said in a statement.

The ban does not affect citizens from those countries traveling on a tourist, student or foreign worker visas, but only those who seek immigrant visas to relocate to the United States and obtain legal permanent residency. Refugees, existing visa holders and those seeking special immigrant visas, which are granted to those who help the U.S. armed forces abroad, also won't be affected.

The Trump administration said the ban was limited to immigrant visas because it is more challenging to remove a person from the United States if they are admitted with an immigrant visa or green card approval if it's later discovered that they have terrorist connections, criminal ties or found to have misrepresented information.

Thousands of immigrants affected

The travel ban will prevent thousands of people from moving to the United States, and will likely have the most impact on Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa. In 2018, the United States approved nearly 14,000 green cards for citizens of Nigeria, compared to 8,182 for Burma, 2,428 for Eritrea, 908 for Kyrgyzstan, 3,658 for Sudan, and 3,186 for Tanzania, according to data from U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services.

The American Community Survey estimates for 2017 show that 344,979 U.S. residents were born in Nigeria, a huge jump from the 134,940 that reported being born in Nigeria in the 2000 census.

Many Nigerians have left their homeland to pursue education and more high-skilled job opportunities.

"We feel that we don’t belong in that list,'' said Jide Lawore, pastor of Agape House of Worship in Roselle, New Jersey, who was born in Nigeria and who leads a church where nearly 60% of parishioners are immigrants from Nigeria. "We have made a lot of positive contributions to the United States. We are educated, a lot of us are professional people in the United States, we are shocked by it."

The expanded travel ban has already led to criticism over its targeting of African countries, with advocates and others calling the move discriminatory, and the hashtag #Africanban circulating on social media.

Anthony Afolo, president of the Newark African Commission, called the new edict an "immigration ban."

"It's mostly affecting people here, not the people in Nigeria,'' said Afolo. "We are the ones here, we are the ones who have relatives, parents, spouses that are over there that may eventually want to live here."

Nwaaogu, of New Jersey, said he received asylum approval more than two years ago and soon after he was able to petition for his wife and two children. They moved to New Jersey seven months ago, but his 13-year old daughter's paperwork was held up because of an issue with the photograph on her passport, he explained. His daughter lives with her grandmother in Nigeria.

He said after the latest reiteration of the travel ban was announced he reached out to his immigration attorney, who told him that there could be a chance that the travel ban would be placed on hold by the courts, or that Nigeria will get off the list. He said he is still hopeful his daughter will join him soon.

"We will wait to see but we hope she will be here this year,'' he said.
Trump's travel ban has a long history

The expansion of the travel ban came three years after President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States," which became known as the travel ban. That measure prevented citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.

The initial ban was blocked by the courts after protesters gathered at airports across the country to denounce the policy. Months later, Trump revised the travel ban to include nationals from six Muslim majority countries, but that executive order, too, was halted by a federal judge.

The third version of the travel ban, which applies to travelers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and North Korea, as well as some Venezuelan government officials and their families, was upheld by the Supreme Court. The court ruled that the president did have the executive power to broadly restrict immigration and that his anti-Muslim statements did not undermine his authority. The court concluded that the ban was legal because it allowed for case-by-case waivers.

Mehlman of FAIR said he didn’t expect the expanded travel ban to be challenged in court but said that countries in question could make improvements and get off the list.

“You have to trust people on the ground who are saying they are not getting the cooperation that they need,'' Mehlman said, referring to State Department employees. "And we have seen in the past that when cooperation is forthcoming, that these countries can get off these lists.”

The country of Chad was removed from the travel ban in 2018. The White House said at the time that the Central African country had improved its identity-management and information sharing practices sufficiently to meet the baseline security standard.



On the day the racist #MuslimBan & #AfricanBan go into effect, we are standing up in Newark to demand NO Ban and NO Militarization on our streets!#NoAfricanBan #NoMuslimBan #NoBanAct pic.twitter.com/6zJRvTHDhm

— Make the Road New Jersey 🦋 (@MaketheRoadNJ) February 20, 2020

But Badri Kuku, president of the Sudanese Community Center in Iowa City, Iowa, said the U.S. government is punishing Sudan for its past.

“We as Sudanese people have tied hands because of bad government that has happened, but I believe we have one of the best prime ministers who is now doing whatever it takes to bring Sudan back,’’ he said. “Sudan needs help from the whole world, and I don’t support this idea of putting a ban on Sudan.”

John Stauffer said he was pained to see Eritrea included on the list of countries affected by Trump’s latest travel ban. Stauffer worked in Eritrea during a stint in the Peace Corps in the 1960s and later created The America Team for Displaced Eritreans, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that assists Eritreans trying to reach the U.S.

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki has held on to power for nearly 30 years as the leader of the nation’s sole political party. Human Rights Watch says the government’s requirement that young Eritreans perform 18 months of national service, either in the military or civil service, continues to be abused by the government that forcibly extends those terms for years or decades. The United Nations maintains a full-time observer in Eritrea who last year lamented that the nation has not made any improvements to its dismal human rights record.

The situation has become so dire that more than 500,000 Eritreans have fled the nation, many dying on rickety boats trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea, others scattered from Europe to Latin America in their quest to find a safe port.

Stauffer said he can understand the Trump administration’s argument that the government of Eritrea has not been a reliable partner and does not readily share information with the U.S. government. But Stauffer said including Eritrea on the travel ban is dangerously misguided, since the Eritrean government can now force more people to stay in the country under forced labor conditions.

“(The government) is just laughing it up over this,” Stauffer said.

Even more troubling, Stauffer said, is that no Eritrean has ever been involved in any terrorist plot targeting Americans. More than 21,000 have been accepted into the United States as refugees since 2000, and Stauffer said they have been leading productive lives in cities like New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Seattle.

“It’s like a low-hanging fruit,” he said. “Eritrea is overall in no position to retaliate for anything the U.S. does.”

Monsy Alvarado is an immigration reporter for NorthJersey.com. Alan Gomez is the USA Today reporter focused on immigration and Latin America.

Email: alvarado@northjersey.com Twitter: @monsyalvarado

---30---

As Syrian forces advance on Idlib, families fear being trapped at Turkish border
By Khalil Ashawi, Reuters•February 24, 2020



1-3 / 10
As Syrian forces advance on Idlib, families fear being trapped at Turkish border
Internally displaced boys walk near the wall in Atmah IDP camp, located near the border with Turkey

By Khalil Ashawi

ATMEH, Syria (Reuters) - Syrian government forces are advancing closer to the displaced persons camp where Adnan Abdelkarim and his family have taken shelter along the Turkish border after being uprooted multiple times, and he fears there is nowhere left to go.

"Today the regime is advancing from everywhere and we are trapped along the border," said 30-year-old Abdelkarim.

At the Atmeh camp on the northern edge of Idlib province, uprooted families are arriving in droves as they flee bombardment from air strikes and artillery shelling.

They fear being trapped between the fighting and the closed-off Turkish border. About 50 meters from the camp an imposing gray concrete wall is crowned with barbed wire, blocking their entry to Turkey.

"In the event the regime advances..., either we will die storming the Turkish wall and fleeing with our families...or slaughter ourselves by turning ourselves over," said Abdelkarim.

Backed by heavy Russian air power, Syrian government forces have stepped up a campaign to retake the last rebel stronghold in the northwestern regions of Aleppo and Idlib, sparking an exodus of nearly a million people toward a shrinking pocket along the Turkish frontier.

On Monday, Russian and Syrian warplanes continued to pound eastern and southern areas of Idlib province, according to the Syrian Observatory, a war monitor, and witnesses.

The Observatory said on Monday that pro-Damascus forces had seized control of 10 more towns in southern areas of Idlib province in less than 24 hours. It said fighting continued meanwhile around the Idlib town of Neirab between government forces and rebels backed by Turkish artillery.

"People here have little hope and everyone has started to head toward the border, fearful of the (government) advance," said Ismail Shahine, 37, originally displaced six years earlier from the Hama countryside.

Shahine on Monday prepared a tent to accommodate the rest of his family, which he said would soon arrive from the western countryside of Aleppo, where government forces have retaken large swathes of land from rebels at a rapid clip in recent weeks.
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Fearing a fresh refugee crisis, Turkey has poured thousands of troops into Idlib in the last few weeks and President Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to use military force to drive back Syrian forces unless they pull back by the end of the month.

Turkey hosts about 3.7 million Syrians and says it cannot absorb any more.

As Turkish military convoys continue to enter northern Syria, Shahine and others near the border have pinned their hopes on Erdogan's pledge to force Damascus to retreat.

"Everyone today is waiting for the start of the coming month, for the deadline that Erdogan gave the regime to withdraw," said Shahine. "I am expecting that they will make a move and not leave the Syrian people to fend for themselves."

(Reporting by Khalil Ashawi; Writing by Eric Knecht; Editing by Nick Macfie)

How to save face in Syria: Erdogan's conundrum

Ezzedine SAID,AFP•February 24, 2020


Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is battling not to be the biggest loser from the Idlib campaign (AFP Photo/Mustafa Kamaci)

Istanbul (AFP) - As Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime presses ahead with a relentless campaign, his counterpart across the border in Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is battling to avoid being the big loser in the battle for the last rebel bastion of Idlib.

Erdogan, who has been siding with the rebels opposing Assad, is not only facing a fierce military push by the Syrian forces. He is also having to watch a massive number of displaced people fleeing to the Turkish border while his erstwhile Russian ally, Vladimir Putin, appears to have turned his back.

This month, as many as 17 Turkish soldiers have been killed by Syrian regime forces in the northwest Idlib province and several Turkish military observation posts -- which Ankara thought were safe under deals with Russia, a key Damascus ally -- ended up being surrounded in areas retaken by the regime.

Desperate to prevent a victory by his sworn enemy Assad and a new influx of refugees swarming to Turkey's border gates, Erdogan has threatened an operation against Damascus forces unless they pull back by the end of February.

But at a time of tense relations with Putin over disagreements on Syria, a possible military campaign against the regime risks a confrontation with its guarantor Moscow -- which is for Erdogan akin to squaring the circle.

Erdogan and Putin -- the key international actors in the Syrian conflict -- signed an agreement in Sochi in 2018 establishing a "demilitarised zone" separating the regime forces from the armed opposition and jihadist groups in the Idlib province.

But the deal has been in tatters in recent weeks as Ankara and Moscow have pointed the finger of blame at each other over its failure.




- 'Direct conflict'-

"If the Assad regime fails to retreat to the previous lines at the end of the month and if Turkey and Russia fail to reach an agreement, there is a great chance that we will witness a direct conflict between Turkey and the Assad regime," Ankara-based political analyst Ali Bakeer told AFP.

"The problem for Turkey will not be the Syrian regime but the Russians," he said.

Turkey has already taken in 3.6 million Syrian refugees and has said it is unwilling to open its borders to a new wave from Idlib.

With the growing resentment toward Syrians in Turkey, officials are planning to ease the burden by settling some of them in areas now controlled by the Turkish army following three previous offensives since 2016.

"The new wave of refugee arrivals would be the worst-case scenario for Turkey, not the direct clash with Assad regime," Bakeer said.

If Turkey and Russia fail to revive the Sochi agreement, Erdogan's options are limited.

"One possible scenario is for Turkey to establish a safe zone in what would be left of Idlib and that zone would not be tied to any sort of agreements with Russia or Assad regime," said Bakeer.

Such an area would allow Turkey to house internally displaced people who fled the fighting on the Syrian territory.

- 'Strong resentment'-

"Erdogan is aware of the strong resentment in Turkey against Syrian refugees," Haid Haid, researcher at Chatham House, told AFP.

"That's why it has been framing its military activities in Idlib as a means to prevent more refugees from crossing

"The (political) cost will likely be high for him if he loses many soldiers in Syria and still fails to stop refugees from crossing to Turkey. But he might be able to gain from the crisis if the outcome of his intervention is positive."

Haid also believes that a Turkish offensive against the Syrian regime forces "is still a possibility" if political negotiations between Ankara and Moscow prove fruitless.

"Allowing Assad to capture Idlib will not only hurt Erdogan domestically, it will likely damage Turkey's reputation and its ability to project power."

For Haid, such a confrontation would not necessarily spell the end of the Turkish-Russian alliance given the burgeoning ties between the two countries in recent years especially in the fields of energy and defence.

"The current alliance between Turkey and Russia is broader than Syria," he said.

"That is why neither of them is willing, at least for now, to destroy it. Idlib is important for Turkey but it is still not considered a deal breaker."

We have nothing left': displaced Syrians wait out war in Idlib

With the closed Turkish border behind them and Russian-backed forces at the horizon, Syrians have nowhere left to run
Martin Chulov Middle East correspondent Fri 21 Feb 2020 

Displaced Syrians walk on the road in Atmeh, in Idlib protectorate, the last area of Syria outside Assad’s authority. Photograph: Burak Kara/Getty

Hemmed against a border wall in Somme-like mud and misery, more than 1 million Syrians are awaiting their fate. Nearby, Iranian-backed militias and what remains of the national army are advancing towards them, as Russian jets pick them off in the crowded fields and ruined towns that are all that is left of opposition-held Syria.

Convoys of the Turkish military, a protector of the displaced that have made it to the province over the last eight years, pass regularly along roads teeming with clapped out cars full of families and remnants of their belongings. Women and children beg them to stop, but they continue on to battlefronts miles from the panic and confusion, their attention diverted from helping the destitute to shaping the final months of the war in Ankara’s interests. Aid workers, who say things have never been worse in Syria, do what they can among scenes they describe as overwhelming and impossible.

Over eight years of slaughter and displacement, the Turks had been the protectors of many people in Idlib – the last part of the war-torn country to remain outside of central government authority – their sole insurance against a final onslaught long considered inevitable and which was launched in mid-January by a conglomerate of forces supporting the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, all bent on retaking control.
A Syrian family ride in the back of a truck as up to 1 million civilians have been displaced by fighting in Idlib since December. Photograph: Burak Kara/Getty

Even in a war that has known few boundaries, the last month of brutality has been almost without precedent. Up to 1 million people are again on the move in Idlib. With the Turkish frontier behind them and an ascendant, vengeful foe over the horizon, they have nowhere left to run or hide.

Across the sodden, chaotic plains of the northwestern province, in the newly energised Russian war rooms, and among European diplomats that have failed to steer the war towards a diplomatic end, a realisation is growing that, one way or another, the most devastating conflict of modern times is grinding to a close. Its cost will be enormous, and will likely be paid over many continents and several generations. But first the people of Idlib need help and aid agencies say it has never been harder to deliver.


Syria: the fight for Idlib

“It’s not just the mind-boggling number of people in need of critical help, but the fact they are constantly moving,” said the Syria director of Mercy Corps, Kieren Barnes. “It’s next to impossible to preposition the quantity of supplies needed. If the fighting doesn’t stop soon, we have to face the terrible reality that our teams may not be able to reach those most at risk.”

A Mercy Corps worker inside Idlib said: “There is panic, confusion and a sense of loss. Many feel like this is the end of the road. I have never seen anything like this.”

Ahmed Naddour, who is now living in a makeshift tent near the border with six family members after four years of the moves that included Damascus, west Aleppo and the far north of Idlib, said: “Everywhere we could have sheltered has been levelled by the Russians. This is it for us. We have nothing left, and I have not admitted that to myself at any point since 2011.”

Nearby are displaced people from all over Syria: Homs, where the uprising began in 2011; Ghouta, where it was crushed by poison gas in 2013; and Aleppo, whose fall in 2016 marked a change in Ankara’s broad support for the anti-Assad opposition and a turning point in the course of the war.

Through it all, Idlib has been a last redoubt, a place where all comers could seek refuge from pro-regime forces, but at the price of living among extremist groups that had been there before and taken instrumental roles in most aspects of civic life across large parts of the province.

The aegis of extremists, including global jihadists, has been an intractable problem for nationalist opposition groups in Idlib that had received Turkish and, until early 2018, western backing in their fight against Assad. Both sides had accommodated each other in earlier clashes and as the final battle drew nearer.

The presence of extremists had been central to the Syrian narrative that all those opposing it were terrorists from the outset. Large numbers of exiles had been sent to Idlib as part of surrender deals negotiated with vanquished opposition communities and forced to co-exist with extremists. The fear that this would dehumanise an entire population of at least 3.5 million people, 80% of which, according to UN estimates, is made up of women and children, has been borne out in the eyes of international observers.

“Yes, there is fatigue about Syria and war in the region in general,” said a regional diplomat. “But this is one of the gravest crises of our lifetimes. They have created a kill box in Idlib and no-one cares about that.”  

Children wait in queue to receive toys. Aid agencies say the continuous movement of people make it difficult to deliver humanitarian aid. Photograph: Burak Kara/Getty

Syrians in Idlib have implored again for international help, but that is unlikely to be forthcoming in the form of any western-backed intervention to stop the Russian-backed push. Even as the US military spokesman for the anti-Isis campaign in Syria and Iraq, Colonel Myles Caggins, called for a stop to the pro-regime offensive on Thursday, he also described Idlib as a “magnet” for extremists who are a “nuisance, menace and a threat”. The words echoed Russia’s stated views and were condemned from inside the province as “an incomplete understanding” of events.

“We are victims of the regime before anyone else,” said Rasha al-Homsi, 26. “Our lives have been reduced to labels that suit others, but don’t reflect what we suffer.”

The UN high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, made a new appeal on Thursday for those trapped in the province to be able to leave. “For these countries, already hosting 5.6 million refugees, of whom 3.6 million are in Turkey, international support must be sustained and stepped up.”

Ankara seems disinclined to open its borders again – a well-known fact to Russia, which is helping Syrian and Iranian forces on the ground. “This will all end in a deal between them both at some point,” the western diplomat said. “But I’m more worried than ever about the carnage this will leave behind and the chaos it will leave for the region and the world.”

Delhi rocked by deadly protests during Donald Trump's India visit

Hindu and Communist groups clash ahead of US president’s visit, with further conflict over controversial citizenship laws


Associated Press Tue 25 Feb 2020
 

Protesters throw stones at police in eastern Delhi on Monday. 

Five people died in violence across the capital. 

Photograph: EPA


Delhi has been hit by a series of deadly protests ahead of a visit by President Donald Trump, with Hindu nationalist and communist groups holding pro- and anti-US demonstrations in the Indian capital.

Three protesters were killed during clashes in several parts of the Indian capital, the Press Trust of India news agency reported, and police said one officer died in the violence. An unnamed health official said on Tuesday that another two had died, Reuters reported.

Eleven police were injured as they were hit by rocks trying to separate rival groups, New Delhi police said.

'Namaste Trump': India welcomes US president at Modi rally

On the pro-US side, Hindu nationalists held a prayer meeting in which they put a vermilion mark on the forehead of Trump in a poster, blessing him, while a priest chanted Hindu hymns wishing Trump success in his endeavour for strong ties with India.

Vishnu Gupta, president of Hindu Sena, said: “Through a fire ritual we are invoking God to bless America and India.’’ He said he wanted Trump and Modi to fight radical Islam and the spread of terrorism.

Elsewhere in New Delhi, dozens of supporters of the Communist party of India carried a banner reading “Trump go back”. Anti-Trump street demonstrations also broke out in the cities of Gauhati in the north-east, Kolkata in the east and Hyderabad in the south.
The cars of protesters opposing a new citizenship law are set ablaze in Delhi, India. Photograph: Yawar Nazir/Getty Images

Doraisamy Raja, the Communist party’s general secretary, accused Modi of succumbing to US pressure on access to the Indian market rather than protecting India’s interests.

American dairy farmers, distillers and drugmakers have been eager to break into India, the world’s seventh-biggest economy, but talks between Washington and Delhi appeared to have fizzled. Still, the two leaders are scheduled to announce agreements at a news conference on Tuesday, capping off Trump’s two-day visit.

Also in Delhi, police fired tear gas as clashes erupted between hundreds of supporters and opponents of a new citizenship law that provides fast-track naturalisation for some foreign-born religious minorities but not Muslims.

Critics say the country is moving toward a religious citizenship test. At the rally in Ahmedabad, Trump praised India’s history of religious tolerance, saying many faiths “worship side by side in harmony”.

The protesters blocked a busy road in a north-eastern district of Delhi, replicating similar sit-ins in several parts of India since the law was passed in December.

Police used tear gas as the rival groups hurled rocks at each other in the area on Monday and set some houses, shops, vehicles and a petrol pump on fire. Police closed access to two metro stations in the area.

Delhi’s highest elected official, Arvind Kejriwal, tweeted that the violence was “very distressing”.

The New Delhi television news channel said authorities deployed paramilitary forces to defuse the situation.

Tiny Chinese seaweed is oldest green plant fossil ever found

Proterocladus antiquus carpeted seafloor 1bn years ago and was size of rice grain


Reuters Mon 24 Feb 2020
 

A Proterocladus antiquus fossil dating back 1bn years. The image was captured using a microscope as the fossil itself is 2mm long. Photograph: Virginia Tech/PA
Scientists have found in rocks from northern China what may be the oldest fossils of a green plant ever found: tiny seaweed that carpeted areas of the seafloor 1bn years ago and were part of a primordial revolution among life on Earth.

Researchers on Monday said the plant, called Proterocladus antiquus, was about the size of a rice grain and boasted numerous thin branches, thriving in shallow water while attached to the seafloor with a root-like structure.

It may seem small, but Proterocladus – a form of green algae – was one of the largest organisms of its time, sharing the seas mainly with bacteria and other microbes. It engaged in photosynthesis, transforming energy from sunlight into chemical energy and producing oxygen.

“Proterocladus antiquus is a close relative of the ancestor of all green plants alive today,” said Qing Tang, a Virginia Tech post-doctoral researcher in paleobiology who detected the fossils in rock dug up in Liaoning province near the city of Dalian and lead author of the study published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
Digital recreation of ancient microscopic green seaweed living in the ocean, while the foreground shows the seaweed being fossilised. Photograph: Dinghua Yang/Virginia Tech/PA

Earth’s biosphere depends heavily on plants for food and oxygen. The first land plants, thought to be descendents of green seaweeds, appeared about 450m years ago.

There was an evolutionary shift on Earth perhaps 2bn years ago from simple bacteria-like cells to the first members of a group called eukaryotes that spans fungi, plants and animals. The first plants were single-celled organisms. The transition to multicellular plants such as Proterocladus was a pivotal development that paved the way for the riot of plants that have inhabited the world, from ferns to sequoias to the Venus flytrap.

Proterocladus is 200m years older than the previous earliest-known green seaweed. One of its modern relatives is a type of edible seaweed called sea lettuce.

Proterocladus represents the oldest unambiguous green plant fossil. Fossils of possible older single-celled green plants are still a matter of debate.

Ancient fossil 'may prove scorpion was first land-dwelling animal'

Plants were not the first to practice photosynthesis. They had an ancestor that apparently acquired the photosynthesis cellular apparatus from a type of bacterium called cyanobacterium.


This ancestor of all green plants gave rise to two major branches, one of them includes some aquatic plants and all land plants while the other – the group to which Proterocladus belongs – is made up exclusively of aquatic plants.

Shuhai Xiao, a Virginia Tech paleobiologist and study co-author, said: “Proterocladus antiquus is the sister of the evolutionary great, great grandmother of all green plants alive today.”

The fight to save CHamoru, a language the US military tried to destroy

Residents of the Mariana Islands are pushing to revive their indigenous language amid fears it might soon die out


Anita Hofschneider in Guam Wed 12 Feb 2020 
 

Bertilia Yamasta teaches her kindergarten class at at P.C. Lujan Elementary in Guam to speak CHamoru, the traditional language of the Mariana Islands. Photograph: Anita Hofschneider/The Guardian


Bertilia Yamasta moves a pointer across letters of the alphabet decorating the wall of her classroom. She’s standing before more than a dozen kindergarten students dressed in green-collared shirts who squirm on the carpet as she leads them in familiar recitations.

“A, å, b, ch, d,” the group says, calling out the alphabet backwards and forwards.

The students are speaking in CHamoru, the indigenous language of the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific. And they’re among a shrinking number of people in the Marianas who actually know their ancestral tongue.


Guam: life in the nuclear firing line – in pictures


Yamasta’s class, at PC Lujan elementary, is the first publicly funded CHamoru immersion school on Guam, the southernmost and most populous island in the archipelago. The program is part of a broader effort to preserve and revitalise the CHamoru, also spelled Chamorro, language, which like many other indigenous languages worldwide is at risk of disappearing. 

Yamasta’s class is the first publicly-funded CHamoru immersion school on Guam, where US military forces once banned the language and burned CHamoru dictionaries. Photograph: Anita Hofschneider/The Guardian

Rufina Mendiola, who leads the Guam department of education’s CHamoru studies program, says the class is still a pilot program but the plan is to expand it through fifth grade.

“We cannot just stop now. We need to look ahead,” she says.

Mendiola’s sense of urgency reflects the diminishing number of CHamoru speakers. Although there’s little data about how many people still speak CHamoru, it’s clear the language is vulnerable.

The Mariana Islands are divided into two administrative areas – Guam in the south, which is a US territory with a population of 165,000, and the Northern Marianas, which has a population of about 60,000 people and, like Puerto Rico, is a commonwealth of the US.


A decade ago, the US census estimated there were about 25,827 CHamoru speakers on Guam, just 2,394 of whom were under the age of 18, and only 14,176 CHamoru speakers in the rest of the island chain.

Robert Underwood, the former president of the University of Guam, says most of the fluent speakers are likely to be over the age of 50.

“In another 20 to 30 years there may not be any real first-language speakers of CHamoru,” he says.

Underwood is leading a new effort to document the language backed by a $275,000 (£210,000) grant from the National Science Foundation.

But even if the language survives, centuries of colonisation have already irrevocably changed it. The Mariana Islands spent more than 300 years under Spanish colonial rule. Today it’s far more common to hear CHamoru speakers use Spanish numbers to count rather than the traditional numeric systems. And many words have been lost, such as the names of some colours.
Sacrificed on the altar of Americanisation

American military rule on Guam in the first half of the 20th century further contributed to the language loss. The US navy banned CHamoru in 1917 “except for official interpreting”. The naval administration even burned CHamoru-English dictionaries.

It wasn’t until the mid-1970s that the ban on speaking CHamoru in schools was lifted, says Michael Bevacqua, a CHamoru language educator on Guam. Until then, schoolchildren who spoke CHamoru were punished, and their parents were sometimes even fined.

Bevacqua says that after the second world war, many parents on Guam were afraid that teaching their children CHamoru would limit their chances of success in the US.

“One of the things that they sacrificed on the altar of Americanisation was their language,” he says. That’s why today children like those in Yamasta’s class are a “novelty”.


Ann Marie Arceo is determined to change that. In 2005, Arceo founded Chief Hurao Academy, a nonprofit organisation that offers a CHamoru summer immersion program, an after-school immersion program and a CHamoru-language preschool.

Arceo says on the first day of registration, she expected 10 children to show up. Instead, there were more than 200. The overwhelming interest reflects a broader cultural renaissance in Guam, where there’s been a resurgence in pride in CHamoru history and identity.

“This millennial generation is wanting to know who they are and thirsting to fill an identity somehow,” Arceo says.

But creating fluent CHamoru speakers isn’t easy.

CHamoru language schools need funding, and that’s not always available. Federal funding recently expired for a similar language immersion program in the Northern Mariana Islands.
Experts warn that without intervention, there may not be any first-language speakers of the CHamoru language within 30 years. Photograph: Anita Hofschneider/The Guardian

Guam’s new immersion program has two years of funding, but getting the program off the ground is still challenging. At the start of the school year, Yamasta says her students were mostly quiet and unsure. A few knew a little CHamoru and one got frustrated to the point of tears. Yamasta felt overwhelmed translating lesson plans and looking for materials to help her teach effectively.

But several months in, the children are constantly chatting in CHamoru. Every week Yamasta uses to make a new CHamoru-language book out of rough paper to help the children read. She bought child-sized kitchen and cashier sets to help them practice useful vocabulary. Their parents attend weekly CHamoru classes themselves to help keep up the language use at home.

On a recent afternoon, Yamaste watches as her class scrambles to finish addition and subtraction problems.

One by one, the children run up to her with their completed math worksheets and declare, “Esta manayan!” to indicate they’re finished.

“Maolik,” she tells them, which means good. “It makes me so proud,” she says.

Thai geologist shot dead in second mining-related killing in Bougainville

Channon Lumpoo, 27, was shot as he conducted exploration activities for a new gold mine in the region
Dickson Sorariba in Port Moresby Tue 25 Feb 2020 
 

Bougainville has a fraught relationship with mining. Disputes over the Panguna mine (pictured) were the catalyst for the decade-long civil war that devastated the region. Photograph: Ilya Gridneff/AAP


A Thai geologist working at a new gold mine in Bougainville has been shot dead in the second killing at a mining project in the autonomous region of Papua New Guinea in recent months.

Channon Lumpoo, 27, was shot by a high-powered weapon on Monday in the Kokoda constituency of south Bougainville.

Channon was a geologist with Austhai Geophysical Consultants, which is attached to a Philippines-owned company SRMO, and was involved in exploration activities at the time of his death.


Bougainville referendum: region votes overwhelmingly for independence from Papua New Guinea


Deputy police commissioner and chief of the Bougainville police service, Francis Tokura, said police were conducting investigations around Arawa because they were unable to travel further inland between South and Central Bougainville where the killing took place.

Bougainville police said the remoteness of the location made it impossible to conduct proper investigations.

Late last year, a Papua New Guinean geologist was killed in a similar manner.

Tokura said the incident continues to overshadow the image of the Autonomous Bougainville Region, which voted overwhelmingly for independence from Papua New Guinea in a referendum late last year.


Mining is a fraught subject in Bougainville, with disputes over the Panguna gold the catalyst for a decade-long civil war in the region, which ended with a peace agreement in 2001.

Tokura blamed the foreign companies operating on the island for not following proper protocols.

“If the companies had followed proper process in talking to the rightful landowners prior to conducting exploration activities, I’m sure we would have avoided such unwarranted deaths,” said Tokura.

The deputy police commissioner has called on all companies intending to enter Bougainville to talk to rightful landowners and report to the Bougainville police and the ABG government before conducting their business.

“Mining is a very sensitive issue and there are various factions who claim ownership of these mines. I appeal to all companies intending to do exploration activities to refrain from such investment until all issues are sorted out,” said Tokura.

He said there are illegal weapons still in the hands of locals and any misunderstanding may result into unnecessary killings.

The body of the Thai national killed is at the morgue in Buka while preparations are done to fly the body to Port Moresby for a postmortem.

The Thai consulate in Port Moresby said it was aware of the death of its citizen. It declined to make further comment when contacted.