It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, May 10, 2022
COMING TO AMERIKA NEXT
El Salvador woman handed 30-year sentence for abortion A court in El Salvador has sentenced a woman to 30 years in prison because she suffered an obstetric emergency that ended her pregnancy. Abortions are banned in the Central American country.
Many women in El Salvador have been sentenced for apparent miscarriages
A court in El Salvador has jailed a woman for 30 years because she suffered an obstetric emergency that resulted in the end of her pregnancy, according to an NGO that was assisting in her defense.
The Citizen Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion denounced the sentence and said it planned to appeal the ruling.
The sentence, which was delivered Monday, could not be immediately confirmed, since courts were closed on Tuesday for Mother's Day.
"The judge acted with partiality, giving greater weight to the version offered by the Attorney General's Office, which was loaded with stigmas and gender stereotypes," the NGO said in a statement. It was the first case of its kind in the past seven years, the group said.
The woman, who has been identified only as "Esme" by the group, was kept in pre-trial detention for two years following her arrest when she sought medical care in a public hospital.
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled in November that El Salvador had violated the rights of a woman identified as Manuela who was sent to prison for breaching the abortion laws. She died while serving her 30-year sentence.
Private Meal With Kingpin Offers Clues to How Marcos Will Rule Philippines
Philip Heijmans Tue, May 10, 2022,
(Bloomberg) -- Ahead of his landslide election win on Monday, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. gave few specifics on how he’d govern the Philippines. But a private dinner he attended soon after entering the race last October may provide clues on his priorities -- and to whom he’s beholden.
Joined by Sara Duterte, the president’s daughter who would later become his running mate, Marcos Jr. sat down with the powerful family that controls most key positions in the tourist hotspot of Cebu, which has more voters than any of the nation’s 81 provinces outside the capital. Sharing laughs over wine, Governor Gwen Garcia -- known as the “Iron Woman of Cebu” -- came away impressed with the only son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
For Garcia, 66, endorsing the man known as Bongbong wasn’t an easy decision. Her father was an opposition lawyer who stood up against his father’s regime before it ended abruptly in 1986. The clan didn’t back Marcos Jr., 64, when he ran for vice president six years ago -- a decision that cost him the election.
But this time around Garcia saw Marcos Jr. as the candidate most likely to deliver two benefits in particular that were more valuable than settling old scores: More money for infrastructure projects, and greater autonomy from the political class in Manila. And on Monday, Cebu was among the places that helped Marcos Jr. win the presidency with the biggest share of the vote since his father won a boycotted election in 1981.
“He will certainly be helping us insofar as tourism infrastructure is concerned,” Garcia said in an interview days before the election at her office in Cebu City, when asked what she expected from Marcos Jr. “But I would really be very, very appreciative if we could finally get ahead on federalism,” she added. “We would wish for that kind of autonomy.”
Marcos Jr.’s resounding victory shows just how powerful family dynasties like the Garcias remain in a nation with a front-row seat to tensions between the U.S. and China. The former American colony has had a mutual defense treaty with the U.S. since the 1950s and sits on the doorstep to Taiwan, making it a crucial player in any potential conflict with China.
Yet most elections in the Philippines are decided by local fiefdoms with narrow interests. Although runner-up Leni Robredo, 57, drew historic crowds in the final weeks of a campaign focused on fighting corruption, ultimately it proved no match Marcos Jr.’s patchwork of alliances with local leaders in the Southeast Asian nation of 110 million people.
The question now is how much Marcos Jr. will give back to the clans that supported him. While the Philippines is forecast to be among Southeast Asia’s best-growing economies this year, one of Asia’s fastest inflation rates threatens to further hurt households that saw incomes decline with the pandemic. A quarter of the population lives in poverty, and the World Bank warned that number could jump as food prices rise.
Running on a broad slogan of “unity,” Marcos Jr. has said he’ll keep most of President Rodrigo Duterte’s economic policies, which for the most part were left to technocrats to design and implement. The Philippines maintained the investment-grade credit rating it won in 2013 even as Duterte announced a “Build! Build! Build!” program that more than doubled infrastructure spending to upwards of $20 billion per year.
The problem for the next administration, however, is finding more revenue to keep the program growing without blowing out the budget, according to Christian de Guzman, senior vice president of the Sovereign Risk Group at Moody’s Investors Service.
“I’m not sure if there’s any low-hanging fruit just because of the situation that we find ourselves in,” he said. “There is indeed a need to narrow the fiscal deficits and stabilize the debt.”
Marcos Jr.’s attention has been primarily focused on building the political alliances he needed to pull off Monday’s victory. After sealing a deal with the Dutertes, who remain the most popular political figures in the Philippines, Marcos Jr. also secured endorsements from parties affiliated with other former presidents, including Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Joseph Estrada -- both of whom faced plunder charges after leaving office.
Marcos Jr. can also thank his dad for some help. The elder Marcos appointed the father of Victor Remulla, governor of vote-rich Cavite province south of Manila, back in 1979 -- and the family is still loyal to this day.
Speaking by phone, Remulla said he became convinced Marcos Jr. had a firm grasp on policy and economic management during conversations between the pair that lasted up to 90 minutes. The 54-year-old politician also defended the country’s dynastic politics, saying it ultimately comes down to delivering for voters.
“Fat dynasties are hindered by the complacency of leadership,” he said. “But it’s really up to the people, and up to the people who serve to make things better for their constituents.”
Following street protests that ousted Marcos Sr. in 1986, the Philippines introduced congressional term limits and a constitutional provision banning political dynasties from government.
But clans have become even more entrenched since then: a 2019 study found that dynasties held four in five governor posts after mid-term elections that year, compared with 57% in 2004. They also controlled two-thirds of seats in congress, up from just under half during the same period, a phenomenon scholars blame for contributing to one of Asia’s highest income inequality rates.
Marcos Jr. opponents see his victory as the culmination of a disinformation campaign on social media that had followers believing his father’s dictatorship was a golden age for the Philippines. And they fear he’ll use his power to sort out his own legal troubles, including ending the official search for some $10 billion allegedly siphoned during his father’s two-decade rule, clearing up a $4 billion estate-tax dispute and keeping Imelda Marcos, his 92-year-old mother, from serving jail time.
Down in Cebu, Garcia is hopeful that Marcos Jr. will give her family and others more power, even as leaders around the world often back away from such promises when entering office. She expressed disappointment in Rodrigo Duterte, who dropped proposals to implement a U.S.-style federal structure where regions can impose taxes and make decisions on things like movement restrictions during the pandemic. Marcos Jr. has so far remained non-committal on the topic.
“Choose some bright spots, start with three or four that have already shown their capability in handling affairs on their own,” Garcia said, adding that Cebu was ready to be a federal state. “Suggestions are welcome, but we know the situation on the ground.”
In a small Cebu fishing village, Marcos Jr. supporter Rene Casqueso has much more modest expectations: The construction of community hospitals and more doctors in small towns. The 43-year-old carpenter has struggled to maintain work during the pandemic, and his family has largely subsisted on whatever they catch.
“I’m not sure if he understands the plight of the poor, but what I saw was he would meet with the laborers,” Casqueso said about Marcos Jr., as he perched in shallow coastal waters near his home. “I think he has a new way for the Philippines to recover and rise again.”
Who is Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Philippines' next president?
Marcos has won by a landslide in the race to replace President Rodrigo Duterte. Experts say his newfound popularity is the result of a decades-long campaign to improve the family's public image.
Marcos Jr. has seen widespread popularity among young people who do not remember his father's rule
Having secured more than 30.8 million votes in the election held on Monday with over 97% of the ballots counted in an unofficial tally, Marcos is set to replace the current president, Rodrigo Duterte, at the end of June.
A victory for Marcos Jr. makes for a stunning political comeback for his family, which has become synonymous with the massive accumulation of ill-gotten wealth and human rights violations. His late father, Ferdinand Marcos Sr., was toppled in a 1986 uprising after holding power with an iron fist for two decades.
Marcos Jr.'s vice-presidential running mate is Sara Duterte, daughter of the incumbent President Duterte. A likely continuation of Duterte policies
Marcos, 64, has not presented many details about his policies, but is expected to carry ahead the same approach as his predecessor Duterte, pursuing a ruthless consolidation of power.
Critics say Marcos is attempting to rewrite the family's controversial history for a youthful electorate, though they believe he is unlikely to replicate his father's authoritarian style of ruling.
"He made promises [in his campaign] that played well with the public but aren't particularly practicable. So his campaign has focused on gut issues, such as the rising cost of living, and lowering electricity [prices]. But he is providing a vague notion of what he is able to achieve, making it seem more straightforward than it actually is, and people seem to be buying it," said DW Correspondent Janelle Dumalaon.
"This is the battle of the heart and soul of the country," Nicole Curato, a sociologist and political analyst, told DW.
"I don't mean to suggest that Marcos Jr. will impose martial law like his father did, but he will have the executive power to undermine institutions that were created in response to his father's abuse of power," she added. A deades-long public image revamp
Marcos Sr. ruled the Philippines from 1965 to 1986 and he ruled as dictator under martial law from 1972 until 1981. During those years, more than 60,000 people were detained, over 30,000 tortured, and an estimated 3,000 were killed, according to rights groups. He was overthrown in a peaceful revolution in 1986 and died in 1989 while living in exile in Hawaii.
After the Marcos family was allowed to return to the Philippines in 1991, Marcos Jr. and his mother Imelda quickly moved back into politics. Imelda Marcos was elected to congress for four terms.
Marcos Jr. spent 21 years in public office, serving in the legislature and as governor of the family's stronghold in the province of Ilocos Norte. He unsuccessfully ran for vice president in 2016.
Many have said that Marcos' rise to power is the result of a decades-long attempt to improve the image of the family, also through social media. An online campaign across YouTube and Facebook has attempted to frame the time under Marcos Sr. not as a period rife with human rights abuses and corruption, but rather as a time of low crime and prosperity.
A series of questionably edited videos has also sought to convince Filipinos that the stories of corruption on the part of the Marcos family were untrue. Marcos Jr. has also seen widespread popularity among young people who do not remember his father's rule.
Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru
Philippine dictator's son wins landslide presidential victory
Filipinos hold protest after Marcos clan return to power
(AFP/Andrew LEESON)
Andrew BEATTY, Allison JACKSON Mon, May 9, 2022,
The son of late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos cemented a landslide presidential election victory Tuesday, after Filipinos bet a familiar but tainted dynasty could ease rampant poverty -- while dismissing warnings the clan's return would deepen corruption and weaken democracy.
With an initial count almost complete, Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Junior had secured over 56 percent of the vote and more than double the tally of his nearest rival, liberal Leni Robredo.
His now unassailable lead of 16 million-plus votes spells another astonishing reversal in the fortunes of the Marcos family, who have gone from the presidential palace to pariahs and back again in the space of a few decades.
The Marcos victory is a hammer blow to millions of Filipinos who hoped to reverse course after six bloody years of increasingly authoritarian rule by outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte.
Far from repudiating Duterte's excesses, Filipino voters elected his daughter Sara as vice president by a landslide in a parallel vote.
In 1986, Marcos senior and kleptocratic first lady Imelda Marcos were chased into exile by the "People Power" revolution.
Marcos junior steadfastly refused to denounce his family's brutal and corrupt excesses in a campaign marked by a relentless online whitewashing of history.
With memories of the regime fading with time and muddied by countless misleading Facebook posts, Filipino voters turned to Marcos to rekindle past glories that were mostly imagined.
"He will lift our country from the poverty we're experiencing now," said supporter and retired police officer Anthony Sola, who described himself as elated.
The 50-year-old dismissed allegations that the Marcoses stole as much as $10 billion during their last period in power: "I don't believe they stole money, because if they did, they should have been imprisoned already."
Some 43 percent of Filipinos consider themselves poor, and 39 percent more feel they are on the borderline, according to a March poll by the Social Weather Survey.
Delivering a late-night address from his campaign headquarters in Manila on Monday, a tired but beaming Marcos thanked volunteers for months of "sacrifices and work".
But he stopped short of claiming victory, warning that "the count is not yet done". A fully certified tally is not expected before May 28.
On the streets, hundreds of ecstatic supporters set off fireworks late into the night, waved the national flag and clambered onto parked cars to chant in victory. - 'More death, more hunger' -
Rights activists, Catholic leaders and political commentators all had warned about returning the Marcos clan to power.
"This election could have been our biggest chance for radical change," said Mae Paner, a 58-year-old political satirist who was part of the People Power Revolution.
"There will be more death, there will be more debt, there will be more hunger. The Marcoses will steal," she said.
Bonifacio Ilagan, who endured two years of imprisonment and torture under Marcos senior's imposition of martial law, said the election exposed a deep malaise in Philippine society.
It had, he said, laid bare, "how deeply the trickery of historical fraudsters has seeped into the consciousness of Filipinos."
Failed presidential hopeful Leni Robredo, a lawyer and the current vice president, admitted "clear disappointment" about the result but vowed to continue the fight against poor governance.
The 57-year-old had promised to clean up the dirty style of politics that has long plagued the feudal and corrupt democracy, where a handful of surnames hold sway.
In the final weeks before the election, her campaign morphed into a catchall pro-democracy movement that drew almost one million people to a single protest in Manila.
Fearing a backlash from 15 million disgruntled voters -- with many alleging voting irregularities in Monday's poll -- police urged restraint.
"I am appealing to you to remain calm. Let us respect the result of the vote," said acting Philippine police chief Lieutenant-General Vicente Danao.
The country's Commission on Elections indicated that despite long queues and problems with some voting machines, the initial tabulation of votes had gone well.
- Failure to connect -
For the liberal opposition, analyst Mark Thompson said there should be a period of soul searching and a broadening of its message beyond "good governance".
"They need to make clear that they're going to improve the lives of the average Filipino," said Thompson, who is director of the Southeast Asia Research Centre at the City University of Hong Kong.
For Marcos, the coming weeks and months will bring high expectations from poor supporters already angry at a string of post-dictatorship governments, which many believe had failed to materially improve their lives.
"He is yet to set out a coherent, detailed, plan for getting the Philippines' economy back on track after the devastation of the pandemic," said Eurasia Group analyst Peter Mumford.
Marcos will have to try to meet those expectations while keeping the support of several of the country's powerful political dynasties, who will expect patronage in return for delivering blocs of votes.
"One of the key watchpoints under his administration will be whether corruption and cronyism -- already notable risks in the Philippines -- worsen," said Mumford.
bur-arb/amj/cwl
Duterte popularity sweeps daughter to Philippines election win
Outgoing Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte could face international charges over his deadly drug war, but his daughter's thumping victory in the vice presidential race shows his popularity remains sky-high
(AFP/Ted ALJIBE) (Ted ALJIBE)
Cecil MORELLA Tue, May 10, 2022
Outgoing Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte could face international charges over his deadly drug war, but his daughter's thumping victory in the vice presidential race shows his popularity remains sky-high.
Sara Duterte secured more than half the votes in Monday's election, a ringing endorsement for the family name that has become a byword for brutality and impunity in the poverty-plagued country.
More than 6,200 people have officially died in Duterte's anti-narcotics campaign since he came to power in 2016, but rights groups estimate the true figure is in the tens of thousands.
While the deaths have been widely condemned and triggered an International Criminal Court probe, Duterte's swift brand of justice struck a chord with many Filipinos fed up with the bureaucracy, corruption and dysfunction that affects their daily lives.
That popularity has rubbed off on his daughter, who supporters see as a safe pair of hands to continue his legacy -- and protect him from potential criminal charges in the Philippines or abroad when he leaves office.
Sara Duterte's success in the election on Monday cements the family's place at the centre of politics for another six years and ensures the Duterte name stays on the list of powerful political dynasties.
With her running mate Ferdinand Marcos Junior capturing the presidency, the two offspring of authoritarian leaders have been elevated to the nation's highest elected positions.
On the campaign trail, they embraced many of the elder Duterte's policies, alarming human rights activists, journalists and religious leaders.
Duterte, 43, had once been tipped to try to succeed her father in the presidential palace as voter surveys last year put her well in front of other possible contenders, including Marcos Jr.
But she stunned political observers -- and apparently her dad -- by striking a deal with the son of the country's former dictator and instead running for the deputy's job.
When Duterte walked arm-in-arm with Marcos Jr at a society wedding near Manila last November, Filipinos knew a political marriage had also been sealed.
The arrangement also brought together several powerful families that control swathes of the Philippines and have the means to direct voters to support their chosen candidate.
"I think we would have had an entirely different race had Sara Duterte decided to run for the presidency -- probably Marcos would not have run at all," said political analyst Richard Heydarian, after a recent pre-election survey showed Marcos Jr on track to win big.
While her role as vice president will be largely ceremonial, it puts her within a heartbeat of the highest office and in pole position to run for president in six years' time.
She could also wield significant influence in the next administration.
The elder Duterte will be hoping so as he prepares to step down on June 30, making him fair game for prosecution.
- Quick temper -
Until now, Duterte's career has been in lockstep with her father, following him into law and then succeeding him as mayor of Davao City on the southern island of Mindanao.
Known for her quick temper -- she once repeatedly punched a court sheriff in front of TV cameras -- she also has a fondness for big motorbikes and tattoos.
She is married and has three children nicknamed Sharkie, Stingray and Stonefish.
Duterte entered politics in 2007, serving three years as vice mayor while her father was mayor of Davao -- the family stronghold.
They swapped positions for the next three years and she again succeeded him as mayor in 2016 when he won the presidency.
Analysts say Duterte is not a carbon copy of her father, describing her as a more moderate version of a man known for his foul-mouthed tirades.
Yet some had questioned her broad appeal to voters, saying she lacked the charisma and humour of her father -- key traits in a country where personality trumps policy.
Duterte has a fractious relationship with her dad, but has acted as first lady on some of his official trips overseas.
She defended him on the 2016 campaign trail after he sparked international outcry by joking about an Australian missionary who was raped and killed.
The younger Duterte disclosed in a since-deleted Instagram post: "Not a joke. I am a rape victim. But I will still vote for President Rodrigo Duterte."
cgm/amj/arb/qan
Boxing great Pacquiao gets knock out blow in Philippine presidential polls Allison JACKSON Tue, May 10, 2022 Manny Pacquiao, Philippine boxing legend, failed to hit the mark with voters
(AFP/Ted ALJIBE)
Boxing legend Manny Pacquiao quit the sport that lifted him out of poverty to rumble for the Philippines presidency, but his tough talk on drugs and crime failed to hit the mark with voters.
His bid for the top job started in typical bold style: a livestream broadcast of himself riding in a coach emblazoned with "Man of Destiny" through Manila's morning traffic to file his candidacy.
But his vow to jail corrupt politicians and arrest drug users -- despite having admitted using crystal meth and marijuana when he was a younger -- failed to deliver a knockout punch and he lost Monday's election by a huge margin.
An initial tally showed Pacquiao picked up fewer than four million votes, or 6.8 percent of votes counted.
That left him a distant third behind winner Ferdinand Marcos Junior, who got more than half the votes, and runner-up Leni Robredo.
The loss came as no surprise -- pre-election surveys showed Pacquiao had almost no chance of winning.
But the fervent evangelical Christian convert had talked up his chances of victory until the last moment.
"I believe there are more poor people than rich ones," Pacquiao told reporters on Monday as he voted in his southern home province of Sarangani.
"We want to assure them that the majority of the poor will unite to show the rich that there are more people suffering in poverty in this country," said Pacquiao, who lives in an enclave of billionaires and foreign ambassadors when he is in Manila.
The failed tilt for the country's highest elected office has cost Pacquiao more than just money and pride -- he also had to give up running for a second term in the celebrity-packed Senate, which he likely would have had a strong chance of winning.
In an interview with AFP in November, Pacquiao, a former congressman, ruled out a sporting comeback if he lost the presidential election.
"I'm already turning 43 years old, so it's enough for me, I'm done," said the father of five.
Pacquiao said he would instead grow fruit on a 20-hectare (49-acre) property in Sarangani.
"It's also quiet (there), I like that," he said.
- Deeply admired -
Pacquiao is deeply admired across the archipelago for his rise from desperate street kid to one of the greatest pound-for-pound fighters of all time.
But he has stirred controversy as a politician and devout Christian.
Pacquiao was a high profile supporter of Duterte's deadly drug war and push to restore the death penalty.
His credibility took a punch from his own admission of past drug use, while homophobic comments cost him a lucrative sponsorship deal with sportswear giant Nike.
Critics also accused the high-school dropout of lacking intellect and barely turning up to sessions in Congress and the Senate, which had raised questions about his ability to run the country of 110 million people.
And he risked valuable political capital last year in a public spat with Duterte that led to a deep fracture inside their political party.
Pacquiao announced his retirement from boxing in September, shortly before declaring his run for the presidency.
Asked when the star would concede defeat, a spokesperson said Pacquiao was "resting" after the months-long campaign and voting.
"Senator Pacquiao conveys his heartfelt thanks to the journalists and wishes you will continue to enjoy the freedom of expression."
amj/cgm/oho
After EU shuns Russia, will Moscow shut door to Syria humanitarian aid?
Humanitarian groups want all relevant political players to be part of discussions on Syria's future and aid drives. But after Russia is snubbed at a donor conference, will Syrians pay the price?
At this year's donor conference for Syria, many in the international community highlighted the urgent need to continue supporting Syrians
As Russia's war in Ukraine rages on, the EU hosted the sixth international donor conference for war-ravaged Syria, with the bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warning that Syria should not be forgotten.
"Now it is Ukraine in the headlines. But don't give up on Syria," he said, highlighting how 11 years of war in the country has destroyed the lives of the people of Syria and resulted in 90% of Syrians continuing to live in poverty.
"The Russian war will increase food and energy prices and the situation in Syria will become worse,'' he added.
Russia shunned
Fifty-five countries and 22 international organizations, including the United Nations, EU institutions and EU member states, took part in the donor conference that raised $6.7 billion dollars for Syria and its neighbors' sheltering refugees, compared to $6.4 billion last year.
The Russian Federation — a key player in the conflict in Syria — was not invited to the conference.
"The EU has invited partners who have a genuine interest in contributing to world peace. Russia has proven not to have this, with its illegal invasion of Ukraine," Dan Stoenescu, head of the EU Delegation to Syria, told DW.
Russia has been a strong ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since 2011, when the conflict began, and continues to support the Syrian regime's military operations. While Moscow has repeatedly said that its actions target only terrorist activities in Syria, the UN has accused Russia of its direct involvement in bombing civilian areas and committing war crimes together with the Syrian regime.
The EU's foreign policy chief stressed that Tuesday's donor event is for both Russia and the Syrian regime to understand that all countries participating in this conference will not relax sanctions nor normalize relations until there are "credible commitments for political reforms" in Syria.
Lifeline to Syira's northwest
Humanitarian organizations fear that Russia's isolation from the donor conference could be detrimental to humanitarian aid efforts, especially in northwestern Syria.
At a US House of Representatives subcommittee meeting in March this year, humanitarian aid advocates highlighted how Russia could close Syria's last UN-mandated humanitarian aid channel, in retaliation to tense situations with the West over the war in Ukraine.
The UN Security Council had administered four cross-border humanitarian aid channels into Syria in 2014. However, Russia and China used their UN veto powers to discontinue three of these channels. Moscow has always argued that humanitarian aid which does not pass through the Syrian regime's channels should be discontinued.
Currently, only one UN-mandated cross-border humanitarian aid channel — the Bab al-Hawa crossing in northwest Syria, has been allowed to remain open until July 2022, after Russia made a compromise in the UN Security Council last year.
This crossing in the Idlib region of Syria is controlled by Syrian rebel factions and the jihadist alliance Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. Some 4 million people live in this region and more than 2.6 million are internally displaced Syrians who are dependent on humanitarian aid delivered by the UN and UN-backed NGOs through Turkey.
Juliette Touma, regional chief of advocacy for UNICEF in the Middle East, told DW that the renewal of this border crossing, to deliver humanitarian aid via Turkey, is a lifeline for nearly 1 million children who live in the northwest of Syria and who rely (almost exclusively) on cross-border assistance.
"What is key for UNICEF is to be able to reach every child in need wherever they are, regardless of who controls the region," she added.
Amid fears of Moscow closing this crossing post in July, the international humanitarian NGO Human Appeal also highlighted that there is no "secure" alternative aid in Syria's northwest.
"There is currently no feasible alternative to humanitarian aid reaching the millions of vulnerable people in Northwest Syria. The existing cross-border model can be trusted by both donors and beneficiaries. If this model is not renewed in July that will leave millions of Syrian civilians with no secure aid corridor alternative," Raya Homsi, institutional funding manager at Human Appeal, said in a statement.
However, the EU's foreign policy chief was optimistic — and said Russia would not consider halting the aid crossing since it would put more than 1 million people's lives in a dire situation. "I think Russia will not do it. They should not do it," he told reporters in Brussels.
Stoenescu, the head of the EU Delegation to Syria, also told DW: "The EU will continue advocating for humanitarian exemptions, opening and de-politicization of cross border operations."
Meanwhile, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, said she discussed with the deputy foreign minister of Turkey ways to move forward with the cross-border resolution in Idlib. She also added that she plans to focus the UN Security Council's attention on getting a resolution passed before 10 July.
"Millions of Syrians are dependent on this cross-border aid and, while we have supported cross-line aid coming from Syrian regime-controlled areas, that is not going to be sufficient to provide for the broader needs of the Syrian people it complements," she told reporters in Brussels Tuesday.
Humanitarian aid reaches a rebel-held area in northwest Syria through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, which the UN Security Council approved in 2014, three years after the start of the Syrian conflict
'Empower local communities'
Aside from addressing concerns about humanitarian aid channels and pledging their financial commitment to support Syria, Imran Riza, the UN's resident coordinator and humanitarian coordinator for Syria, highlighted that countries should balance lifesaving assistance with early recovery and resilience programs to help the people of Syria.
"We should be trying to help people produce their own food to be less dependent on assistance and help them attain a bit more control over their own lives and thus dignity," he told DW.
"The main thing that we keep hearing from people is that they need jobs, livelihoods to sustain themselves and take care of their families. So assistance should focus on empowering local communities."
"In a sense, it's a win-win because such recovery assistance is the only thing that will also reduce the trend of increasing humanitarian needs and costs while responding to the stated priorities of affected Syrians," he added.
Leonid Kravchuk, the first president of Ukraine, was a Soviet apparatchik who made mistakes — but was nonetheless a stroke of good fortune for his country. DW's Roman Goncharenko looks back on his life.
In every country, there is a number one: the first to become its head of state. In Ukraine, it was Leonid Kravchuk. An apparatchik responsible for ideology and propaganda, he found himself at the helm of the second-largest Soviet republic in the fateful year of 1991 — and became the man who led Ukraine to independence from Moscow. Kravchuk played a key role in the disintegration of the communist empire more than 30 years ago.
He died aged 88, according to Ukrainian officials and media reports on Tuesday.
'A monkey with a grenade'
Ukraine owes its first president a great deal, yet at home, his legacy is seen as controversial. Kravchuk's landmark decision, in the early 1990s, to relinquish the massive nuclear arsenal his country had inherited from the Soviet Union — the third largest in the world at the time — is considered his biggest mistake, especially since the annexation of Crimea and now, in the face of Russia's war in Ukraine. But this is unfair: Newly independent Ukraine was politically and economically weak, and hardly in a position to withstand the pressure from the West and Russia.
In an interview with DW, Kravchuk once described his country as a "monkey with a grenade." The cost and responsibility nuclear weapons entailed were too great for Kyiv to take on, he said, so the nuclear button remained in Moscow. Kravchuk did the right thing. Of course, he should have negotiated better security guarantees, but no one at the time thought that Russia would one day wage war on Ukraine.
Ukraine's depressing reputation as a champion of corruption and missed opportunities also has its roots in Kravchuk's tenure. The criticism is justified. In particular, the bankruptcy of the Black Sea Shipping Company, which had hundreds of cruise ships stationed in Odesa, is a major blot on his record. But even his association with oligarchs, and his controversial support for pro-Russian forces, after his term in office do not change the fact that, in hindsight, his presidency was a stroke of luck for his country.
Former Ukrainians Presidents Viktor Yushchenko (left), Leonid Kuchma (center) and Leonid Kravchuk (right) at an extraordinary session of the Ukrainian parliament in Kyiv in January 2014
The communist ideologue who changed sides
Born in 1934 in a region that was then in Poland before becoming part of western Ukraine, Kravchuk was a farmer's son who climbed the Communist Party career ladder. He became a lecturer in propaganda, and in the final years of the Soviet Union he rose to the highest echelons of power — all the way to the politburo, or central ruling body, of Soviet Ukraine, where he headed the department that oversaw ideology.
In August 1991, the fate of the Soviet Union was sealed with the failure of the coup against its president, Mikhail Gorbachev. Leonid Kravchuk had been chairman of the Ukrainian parliament for just over a year. On August 24, 1991, under his leadership, the parliament voted in favor of Ukrainian independence, and three months later, on December 1, its decision was confirmed by referendum. Kravchuk was elected the first president of Ukraine that same day. About a week later, he, his Russian counterpart Boris Yeltsin, and the Belarusian parliamentary leader, Stanislav Shushkevich, signed the agreement that announced the dissolution of the USSR.
The power-hungry Yeltsin was clearly the driving force behind this declaration, but if Ukraine had not been involved, history would have taken a different path. Kravchuk was in the right place at the right time. He came across as moderate and statesmanlike, and was a compromise figure that suited both nationalists in western Ukraine and pro-Russian communists in the east.
Leonid Kravchuk died at the age of 88
Peaceful transition of power
Kravchuk steered Ukraine through difficult years. Europe's second-largest country, with a population of around 52 million, was forced to re-learn everything. It had no experience of being an independent state. Its transition from a planned to a market economy, and from party dictatorship to democracy, was a painful one. Millions of Ukrainians found themselves living in poverty. The shopping cart that came to symbolize the deprivations of the period was nicknamed a "kravchuchka."
But Ukraine survived — and Kravchuk should take some of the credit. For all his faults, as president he succeeded in maintaining peace and political stability in the country. This was quite an achievement at a time when most of the other former Soviet republics were riven by civil war.
Nonetheless, public opinion turned against him, and early presidential elections were held in the summer of 1994. Kravchuk lost to his prime minister, Leonid Kuchma. This, too, was a new and important experience: the peaceful transition of power. Many other ex-Soviet republics envied Ukraine for this. It was perhaps Kravchuk's greatest achievement, along with the survival of Ukraine as an independent state — something that was by no means inevitable.
This obituary was originally written in German.
German Foreign Minister Baerbock visits Ukraine
The unannounced trip is the first by a member of the German government since the war there began. Baerbock has said the "worst crimes imaginable'' perpetrated in Bucha would not unpunished.
Baerbock lit a candle in memory of victims in a church in Bucha
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock arrived in Ukraine on Tuesday on the first trip there by a Cabinet member since the Russian invasion on February 24.
However, Berlin is now giving considerable military support to Ukraine to help it fight off Russia's invasion in a radical break with former restrictions on sending arms to conflict regions.
What is Baerbock doing on her visit?
At the start of Baerbock's trip, she visited the city of Bucha near Kyiv, which has become notorious as the scene of alleged atrocities by Russian troops before they were forced to withdraw at the end of March.
She was accompanied by the Ukrainian prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, who has been overseeing the collection of information on allegations of rape, torture and other suspected war crimes by Russian forces. Baerbock was accompanied by Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova (R.) during her Bucha visit
After hearing accounts of the atrocities, Baerbock said those responsible must be brought to justice.
"We owe this to the victims," she told reporters. "And those victims, as we can feel here so intensely, those victims could have been us," she added. Baerbock tweeted that "We will collect evidence as an international community. I have pledged Germany's complete support in investigating the war crimes to the Ukrainian prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova: politically, financially and personnel-wise."
Later, while visiting the Kyiv suburb of Irpin, which has also suffered severe devastation, Baerbock expressed her deep-felt admiration for the courage shown by the Ukrainians in their fight against the invading Russian forces.
"You are a very brave country, and all that we can do is stand at your side," Baerbock said.
"Being the foreign minister of a country during peacetime is easy. But it is a completely different matter being a mayor during a war. You have my greatest respect," she told Irpin Mayor Oleksandr Markushyn.
Baerbock witnessed scenes of destruction in Irpin
What has she said at her press conference?
In the afternoon, Baerbock announced the reopening the German Embassy in Kyiv, which has been closed since mid-February.
Speaking at a press conference with her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, she said the embassy would operate at first with a skeleton staff.
Baerbock also said that Ukraine could become a full member of the European Union but that there could be "no shortcuts." She said she was confident that the country would be granted "clear candidate status" but that there should be "no empty promises" about what happened after that.
The minister also announced that Germany would in future do completely without energy imports from Russia, which she described as an "aggressor."
She said Germany was reducing its dependence on Russia energy "to zero — and that will stay that way forever."
Baerbock also said that training would start in a few days to familiarize Ukrainian soldiers with the self-propelled armored howitzers that Germany is going to deliver to Ukraine in cooperation with the Netherlands.
Kuleba, in his turn, thanked Germany for its support.
He said there were still issued being discussed between Berlin and Kyiv but that he was sure that solutions could be found to all of them.
Baerbock held talks and a press conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba
Talks with Zelenskyy
Baerbock's visit coincides with one by Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra, who arrived in Ukraine unannounced.
With Hoekstra, she held talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday afternoon following those with Kuleba.
"I can't convey how happy I am to be here today in a free Kyiv," Baerbock wrote on Twitter, sharing an image of her shaking Zelenskyy's hand. "The courage required on the side of the Ukrainians to ensure this is moving. My message is clear: Ukraine can count on our support, not just militarily, and not just today. We will be here just the same when this war is over, when Vladimir Putin will have failed in his goals, when Ukraine begins to plan its free future."
Germany and the Netherlands are coordinating closely over providing Ukraine with military assistance.
Ahead of those talks, a spokesman for Hoestra said the minister would "officially" reopen the Dutch Embassy in Kyiv, where some staff returned to work at the end of April.
Baerbock visited Ukraine once before as foreign minister in early February, before Russia's invasion began. Among other things, she toured the front lines in the Donbas region, which has been the scene of fighting between Moscow-backed separatists and government forces since 2014 and is now the focus of Russia's military operations.
Diplomatic tensions
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has so far declined to say when he intends to make a visit to Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The diplomatic path for him to do so seems to have been cleared following a hiccup in Berlin-Kyiv relations after a perceived snub of Germany's head of state by the Ukrainian government.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier had planned to go to Kyiv with leaders from Poland, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania in mid-April. However, he was told not to come at short notice. The refusal was thought to have been linked to Steinmeier's policy of detente towards Russia when he served as German foreign minister.
Scholz said at the time that the situation had become a problem and that it could also prevent him from visiting Ukraine while the issue remained unresolved.
Following a phone call between Steinmeier and Zelenskyy last Thursday described by the Ukrainian president as a "good, constructive, important conversation," however, the spat appeared to be resolved.
According to Steinmeier's office, both he and Scholz have now been invited to Kyiv,
Sri Lanka president warns of racial tensions amid economic crisis Sri Lanka's ruling party supporters storm anti-government protest camp in Colombo
By Uditha Jayasinghe and Alasdair Pal Tue, May 10, 2022,
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's president urged people on Wednesday to reject what he called attempts to foment racial and religious disharmony, as clashes broke out in many parts of the country over the government's handling of a devastating economic crisis.
Violent street protests killed eight people this week and even the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's elder brother as prime minister and a curfew have failed to douse public anger. The government has ordered troops to shoot at anyone damaging public property or threatening lives.
Sri Lankans have blamed the Rajapaksa dynasty for the economic meltdown that has left the country with only about $50 million in reserves, stalling most imports and leading to massive shortages of fuel, cooking gas, and other essentials.
Protesters set the family's ancestral home in the south on fire earlier in the week.
"This is the time for all Sri Lankans to join hands as one, to overcome the economic, social & political challenges," Rajapaksa said on Twitter.
"I urge all #Srilankans to reject the subversive attempts to push you towards racial & religious disharmony. Promoting moderation, toleration & coexistence is vital."
It was not immediately clear what prompted the president to issue the warning. However, Sri Lanka has a long and bloody history of ethnic tensions.
Rajapaksa and his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa, who resigned as prime minister on Monday, were in key government positions when a 26-year civil war ended in 2009 after security forces overcame militants from the minority Tamil community.
Sinhalese Buddhists are the majority in the country of 22 million which also has Muslim, Hindu and Christian minorities.
A police spokesperson said two shooting incidents were reported on Tuesday night, including one in the southern town of Rathgama that wounded four people.
"The situation is now calm," Nalin Thalduwa said.
In Weerakettiya, a southern town that is home to the Rajapaksas, police and military patrolled the streets, with shops and businesses shut due to the curfew.
On Monday, video footage from local media showed the ancestral home of the family ablaze, while multiple attacks on houses and election offices of lawmakers were also reported.
(Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe and Alasdair Pal; Writing by Krishna N. Das; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Sri Lanka crisis not over despite PM Mahinda Rajapaksa's exit
There seems no immediate end in sight to the island nation's economic turmoil and escalating anti-government protests amid high public anger toward the president and his influential family.
The prime minister's decision to step down has so far done little to calm public anger
The resignation of Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday amid mass anti-government protests and rising public fury marks a watershed moment for a powerful dynasty that dominated the island nation's politics for years.
The move to quit his post came on a day when clashes between government supporters and opponents killed seven people, including a member of parliament from the ruling Sri Lanka People's Front party (SLPP), and injured over 200.
The violence broke out in the capital Colombo on Monday afternoon when over 1,000 supporters of the SLPP broke into an anti-government protest camp outside the office of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is Mahinda's younger brother.
Armed with iron bars, clubs and sticks, they attacked the protesters and burnt down the tents used by them. Anti-government protesters then attacked buses carrying government supporters who were leaving the capital after meeting with the prime minister.
Police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse the skirmishers, after having initially done little to hold back the government supporters, Reuters reported.
In the violence, more than 50 houses belonging to SLPP members, including that of former cabinet ministers, have been set on fire across the country and at least 40 vehicles of the ruling party supporters have been destroyed. Curfew and state of emergency
To bring the situation under control, the government gave emergency powers to its military and police.
The military can detain people for up to 24 hours before handing them to police, while private property can be searched by force, including private vehicles, the government said in a gazette notification on Tuesday.
"Mahinda's resignation is the first step but this should have taken place a long time ago. Now, the president has to step down. People are on the streets because institutions of governance, including law enforcement, are seen as corrupt," Kishali Pinto Jayawardena, a constitutional lawyer, told DW.
"Imposing curfews and a state of emergency simply will not stop that," he added.
Rights groups and foreign diplomats based in Colombo have expressed concern about the potential for human rights abuses after the government granted sweeping powers to security forces.
"The nature of Mahinda Rajapaksa's departure has made things far worse. It is hard to see how his brother, Gotabaya, can hang on in office further given the volatile atmosphere in the country," a foreign envoy in Colombo, who asked not to be identified, told DW.
"There are still discussions about forming a unity government but it has become more difficult with the chain of events and the path has become more complicated," said the diplomat. A crippling economic crisis and shortages of food, fuel and medicine
The country of 22 million people is confronting acute shortages of fuel, food and medicine as it struggles to pay for essential imports amid a severe debt and balance of payments crisis.
Former Finance Minister Ali Sabry, who resigned on Monday, along with the rest of Rajapaksa's cabinet, told Reuters that Sri Lanka had as little as $50 million in foreign reserves.
"Over 60% of Sri Lanka's workforce are daily wagers, and in rural areas there is unspeakable distress. Given the galloping prices of almost everything, it won't be long before there are full scale food riots," Faraz Shauketaly, a senior journalist, told DW. The economic crisis has stoked public discontent with the government dominated by Mahinda Rajapaksa (l) and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa (r)
The government said it hopes to restructure the country's huge debts and is in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and is seeking further financial assistance from China and India.
Gotabaya refuses to step down
Despite growing public anger and calls for his resignation, President Gotabaya has refused to step down, instead repeatedly calling for a unity government led by him.
But the opposition has so far refused to join such a government.
"For a unity government to function, there must be confidence in the political establishment and independent oversight institutions. Plugging that trust deficit and ensuring the rule of law is the need of the hour. The time for political deal-making is over,” Jayawardena underlined.
Jehan Perera, executive director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, an NGO, told DW that there has been a hardening of public sentiment against the government.
"A unity government under President Gotabaya's leadership is a non-starter and it's difficult to envisage it including members of the former Rajapaksa government," he said. An uncertain, uneasy future
Meanwhile, opposition leader Sajith Premadasa has called for the abolishment of the executive presidency, arguing that there should be a separation of powers among the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government.
Malik Cader, a leading lawyer, shared a similar view.
With Mahinda Rajapaksa resigning, the parliament will now elect a new prime minister and cabinet until next elections are held.
"The new government is expected to bring amendments to abolish the executive presidency," Cader told DW.
Ahilan Kadirgamar, a political analyst at the University of Jaffna, said the protests will likely continue until the president steps down.
"The Rajapaksas have lost all legitimacy to govern and the longer they remain, the more the chances of the country being pushed toward a state of anarchy," Kadirgamar told DW.
"There needs to be a new leadership to pull Sri Lanka out of this crisis. Protests are likely to continue until the president resigns."
Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru
The rise and fall of a political dynasty that brought Sri Lanka to its knees
Issued on: 10/05/2022
At the height of their power, four brothers from Sri Lanka’s Rajapaksa dynasty held the presidency and the prime minister’s office as well as the finance, interior and defence portfolios, among others. But just when the Rajapaksa clan seemed invincible, an economic crisis of their own making led to their undoing. But does that spell the end of South Asia’s most powerful political family?
On August 12, 2020, an extraordinary display of family power was under way at the Temple of the Sacred Tooth, one of the most sacred Buddhist sites in Sri Lanka, in the central city of Kandy, the political capital of ancient kings in the island nation.
Following a landslide victory in August elections, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa swore in a cabinet that included two of his brothers and two nephews, sharing multiple portfolios among the family.
The Rajapaksas have a tradition of temple swearing-in ceremonies, a symbolism-heavy acknowledgment of the Sinhala Buddhist populism that kept propelling them into power. Over the past few years, as the family’s political fortunes enlarged, the investiture entourage of officials, diplomats and media teams dutifully trekked to sacred temples on historic sites, where yet another Rajapaksa was granted yet another portfolio. The concentration of power and mismanagement though, have been unholy.
At the inauguration of the new cabinet, the president took on the defence portfolio, contravening a constitutional amendment barring the country’s head of state from holding a cabinet post.
His powerful brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, became Sri Lanka’s new prime minister and was also named head of three ministries: finance, urban development and Buddhist affairs.
The president then swore in his eldest brother, Chamal Rajapaksa, as minister for irrigation, internal security, home affairs and disaster management. Chamal’s son Sashindra was made junior minister for high-tech agriculture. The prime minister’s son Namal became minister of youth and sports.
Barely a year later, Basil Rajapaksa was named finance minister, taking over the important portfolio from his brother, the prime minister.
At the height of their power, the Rajapaksas appeared invincible as they signed mega infrastructure contracts and amassed fortunes while cracking down on minorities and journalists – and successfully evaded accountability in a state where they held all the reins.
For several years, human rights defenders condemned the reprisals, massacres, crackdowns, corruption and cronyism of South Asia’s most powerful political dynasty. Their calls went unheeded by an electorate willing to overlook assaults on liberties and persuaded by the cult of strong leaders preferring action over compromise.
But that was before the island nation descended into its worst economic crisis since its independence from Britain in 1948. As an acute foreign currency crisis sparked fuel shortages, power cuts and spiraling inflation, the tide finally began to turn against the Rajapaksa clan as Sri Lankans struggled to cope with a disaster of their elected government’s own making.
This week, as peaceful anti-government protests turned violent, symbols of the Rajapaksa family power came under attack in scenes unimaginable two years ago.
On Monday night, crowds stormed the prime minister’s official Temple Trees residence in Colombo, forcing the army to conduct a predawn operation to rescue Mahinda Rajapaksa and his family. The prime minister by then had already submitted his resignation letter to his younger brother, the president, clearing the way for a “new unity government”.
Meanwhile in the southern province of Hambantota, mobs attacked the Rajapaksa Museum in the family’s ancestral village of Medamulana. Two wax statues of the Rajapaksa parents were flattened and mobs trashed the building as well as the ancestral Rajapaksa home nearby.
It was a violent assault on a clan that has held feudal power since colonial times and has used patronage and privilege to rise from local to national power, placing family members in strategic positions along the way.
From rural roots to national power
The Rajapaksas are a rural land-owning family from southern Sri Lanka whose ancestors have represented their native Hambantota on state and regional councils since pre-independence days.
Prominent families have always played an important role in Sri Lankan politics. But the Rajapaksas were not part of the urban political elites in the decades following independence. While families such as the Bandaranaikes – which produced three Sri Lankan prime ministers and one president – dominated the national scene, the Rajapaksas were part of the rural elites in the country’s Sinhalese Buddhist southern heartland.
The current president’s father, D. A. Rajapaksa, was a parliamentarian representing Hambantota district. But it was his second son, Mahinda, who catapulted the clan into national dominance when he rose from opposition leader in parliament to prime minister in 2004.
A year later, Mahinda won the 2005 presidential poll with a narrow margin, aided, according to his opponents, by a call for an election boycott by the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), a militant group better known as the Tamil Tigers.
It was Mahinda’s first win in the bloody fight against the Tamil Tigers based in Sri Lanka’s neglected north, home to the country’s Tamil minority.
Brother in arms
As president, Mahinda initiated a pattern of leadership that would serve his family’s political fortunes, earning him the moniker of “clan leader” of the rising Rajapaksas.
The transition from a rules-based order to one of family networks began shortly after the 2005 presidential inauguration when, according to family lore, Mahinda emerged from the investiture room and spotted his younger brother, Gotabaya.
A former army officer, Gotabaya had moved to the US only to return home ahead of the 2005 to work on his brother’s election campaign.
According to biographers, the new president tapped Gotabaya’s shoulder and told his brother – who had left the army as a lieutenant colonel – that he was going to be Sri Lanka’s new defence secretary.
The Rajapaksa’s consolidation with the military had begun. It wasn’t long before Mahinda was ready to unleash a war that would “end” the Tamil Tigers, as he promised his electorate.
Enter the ‘terminator’
By the time Mahinda was elected president, the Tamil Tigers had dropped their demands for an independent state in the north and were asking for greater autonomy under the terms of a Norway-sponsored ceasefire.
The agreement, it was hoped, would usher in a peace deal that would end a brutal civil war that had killed tens of thousands of people over two decades.
The Rajapaksa brothers instead oversaw a military operation that would defeat the Tamil Tigers, earning the support of Sri Lankans eager to end the civil war. But for the country’s Tamil minority, it unleashed a period of state violence against civilians that drew condemnations from the UN and international human rights groups over the abductions and disappearances of suspected Tamil Tiger supporters as well as “journalists, activists, and others deemed to be political opponents” by “armed men operating in white vans, which became a symbol of political terror”.
Gotabaya was particularly implicated in the infamous 2009 “White Flag Incident” when Tamil Tiger members and their families, after contacting the UN, Red Cross and other Western governments, agreed to surrender to Sri Lankan authorities only to be gunned down by the army.
The Rajapaksa brothers have repeatedly denied responsibility for the disappearances. They also maintain that they did not give the shoot-to-kill order during the “White Flag” surrender.
Falling into the ‘Chinese debt trap’
Gotabaya’s tough on security position boosted his popularity in the 2019 presidential polls just as it helped his politically more experienced brother, Mahinda, win parliamentary elections the next year.
But it was economics, not security, that proved to be the Rajapaksa clan’s undoing.
Horrified by the gross human rights violations in Sri Lanka, Western governments began dropping Sri Lanka from aid disbursement lists. With aid and concessionary borrowing avenues drying up as Sri Lanka upgraded to lower-middle-income status, the government began relying heavily on commercial borrowings to finance the national budget.
The Rajapaksas were also increasing their reliance on Chinese investment. A massive port project in the family’s native Hambantota soon emerged as a textbook example of the “Chinese debt trap”, with Sri Lanka borrowing from Chinese banks to pay for commercially unviable projects at onerous rates.
Chinese investments in a number of unfeasible mega projects, mostly in Hambantota, are the subject of numerous economic reports, with analysts apportioning blame to different parties. But in the real world, there was no doubt that life was getting increasingly difficult for Sri Lankan citizens.
As the country’s sovereign debt ballooned, the Rajapaksas resisted national and international calls for an International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement and debt restructuring, insisting that Sri Lanka would service its debt.
Meanwhile, Basil Rajapaksa, who was made finance minister in 2020 despite the corruption cases against him, was dubbed “Mr. Ten Percent” as allegations circulated that the family was siphoning off state funds.
His nephew, Chamal Rajapaksa’s son Sashindra, was involved in a disastrous ban on chemical fertiliser imports, which hit the country’s critical agricultural sector.
As the pandemic shut down tourism, Sri Lankans began to despair of their country’s ruling clan.
On May 9, when Rajapaksa supporters attacked peaceful protesters assembled in Colombo, the floodgates of rage against the powerful political dynasty opened.
A day after the deadly violence, Mahinda’s son Namal, who was sports minister before his resignation earlier this year, insisted the family was merely going through a "bad patch".
At 36, Namal is widely seen as the primary Rajapaksa successor, and he has a vested interest in downplaying the troubles the family is facing.
But analysts familiar with Sri Lanka’s culture of dynastic patronage are not yet willing to write off the Rajapaksas as a political force. "The Rajapaksa brand still has support amongst the Sinhalese population," Akhil Bery from the Asia Society Policy Institute told AFP.
"Though much of the blame can be placed on the Rajapaksas now, their successors will inherit the mess, leaving space for the Rajapaksas to remain politically relevant."
ABOLISH 2ND AMENDMENT
US gun deaths soared in 2020 amid pandemic: CDC The number of gun deaths in the United States soared in 2020 against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said
(AFP/GEORGE FREY)
Tue, May 10, 2022,
The number of gun deaths in the United States underwent an "historic" increase in 2020, possibly due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and poverty, according to a report by health authorities published Tuesday.
The US racked up 19,350 firearm homicides in 2020, up nearly 35 percent as compared to 2019, and 24,245 gun suicides (up 1.5 percent), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in its report.
The CDC deemed both the murders and suicides by firearm "persistent and significant US public health concerns."
The firearm homicide rate stood at 6.1 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2020, the highest for more than 25 years.
The proportion of murders involving guns increased most notably among men, teenagers and young adults, and in African-American and Native American communities, the CDC said.
No region of the United States has been spared, although homicides have risen the most in counties with high poverty rates and large ethnic minority populations.
People also die by suicide more often in poor, non-metropolitan and rural areas.
"One possible explanation is stressors associated with the Covid-19 pandemic that could have played a role" in the rise, said Tom Simons, an expert in violence prevention at the CDC.
"These include changes and disruptions to services and education, social isolation, economic stressors such as job loss, housing instability, and difficulty covering daily expenses," he told reporters.
The report also notes that the risk of violence is linked to "longstanding systemic inequities and structural racism" in the country.
The report cites tensions between the public and law enforcement, noting the wave of protests in 2020 after the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis, spikes in weapons purchases, and a rise in the number of cases of domestic violence.
"Firearm deaths are preventable, not inevitable," said Debra Houry, director of the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, recommending "a comprehensive approach focused on reducing inequity."
She cited the "promising" work of street outreach workers in reducing tensions in high-crime neighborhoods, as well as mediation programs set up in some hospitals to help young people wounded in the streets "break the cycle of violence," and the work of suicide prevention programs.
Houry also noted the need to address underlying economic factors by offering housing aid or tax credits, and ensuring "livable wages" to lift disadvantaged families out of poverty.
Another avenue being explored is the role of improving the environment, with the creation of green spaces or the cleaning-up of waste lots.
"Revitalized vacant lots in communities have been associated with reduced firearm assault, with particular benefits in areas with the highest poverty,” she said.
cyj/jh/sst
Homicide, suicide deaths from guns jumped 35% in 2020, CDC reports
May 10 (UPI) -- The number of homicides involving guns in the United States rose by more than one-third in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to 2019, data released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed.
From year to year, a 35% increase in the number of killings involving guns in the United States was reported, the agency said.
As a result, in 2020, the country had its highest gun-related homicide rate in more than 25 years, the CDC said.
Firearms were involved in 79% of all homicides nationally in 2020, up from about 75% in 2019, the agency said in the "Vital Signs" report published Tuesday.
In addition, 53% of all suicide deaths across the country during the first year of the pandemic involved guns, up from just over half in 2019, according to the CDC.
"The tragic and historic increase in firearm homicide and the persistently high rates of firearm suicide underscore the urgent need for action to reduce firearm-related injuries and deaths," CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a press release.
"By addressing factors contributing to homicide and suicide and providing support to communities, we can help stop violence now and in the future," she said.
Minorities, particularly Black Americans and American Indian and Alaska Natives, saw the bulk of the national rise in homicides in 2020, according to a study published Monday by JAMA Internal Medicine.
This was true for homicides involving firearms, as well, the new CDC data revealed.
Among Black Americans, gun-involved killings rose 38% from 2019 to 2020, compared to less than 30% for other racial and ethnic groups, the agency said.
States in the mid-Atlantic region -- Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C. -- saw the biggest spike in gun-involved homicides, at 51%, it said.
Gun-involved suicides nationally rose by just under 2% between 2019 and 2020, but increased 15% in people ages 10 to 24 years and 6% in those ages 25 to 44 years, according to the CDC.
Although the gun-involved homicide rate spiked most prominently in large metropolitan areas, the firearm suicide rate actually rose more, by about 3%, in more rural regions nationally, the agency said.
"Firearm deaths are preventable -- not inevitable," Dr. Debra Houry, acting principal deputy director and director of the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, said in a press release.
"Everyone has a role to play in prevention," she said.
