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Sunday, December 24, 2017

Pakistan abolishes military courts

07 January 2017 Saturday

Pakistan’s controversial military courts will no longer be functioning from Saturday after completing their two-year term, officials said.

“The military courts’ two-year term has been completed on Friday. The government has no plans to extend their tenure,” Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan was quoted as saying by local channel Geo TV.

Pakistan had established military courts in January 2015 through a constitutional amendment following a gruesome gun-and bomb attack on an army-run school in northwestern Peshawar city in December 2014, which killed over 140 people, mostly students.

All the terrorism related cases, which were being tried in the military courts, will now be taken up by the anti-terror courts, the interior minister said.

The army courts -vehemently opposed by the human rights and lawyers associations- were set up to try the hardcore militants who, according to the government, otherwise avoid punishment due to weak and cumbersome judicial system.

The country’s Supreme Court, while rejecting the appeals from human rights organizations against army courts, had also upheld the government’s decision.

The military courts tried some 275 cases in last two years, in which 161 militants were handed down death penalties, while over 150 were given varying jail terms. Only 12 out of total 161 death row prisoners were executed during this period, while others’ appeals against their convictions are pending in the supreme and high courts.

Pakistan also lifted a 6-year long de facto ban on capital punishment in December 2014 following the deadly attack on a Peshawar school.

Over 300 convicts have been executed since December 2014, whereas nearly 7000 death-row prisoners are languishing in jails.

- Decision welcomed

Human rights groups, lawyers, and politicians have described the move as “welcoming” and a step in the right direction.

“We have been opposing the military courts since their inception because it was against fundamental human rights,” Mahmood-ul-Hassan, a Karachi-based lawyer and human rights activist told Anadolu Agency.

“But, it’s never too late. If the government has realized the negative effects of army courts on entire judicial process, it’s a step in the right direction, and we welcome it,” he added.

Jamaat-e-Islami, one of the the country’s largest Islamic parties, which had not voted in favor for the formation of the military courts dubbed the government’s decision as “a good development.”

“In a democratic society and government, there is no place for military courts. We should let the normal judicial process continue,” he told Anadolu Agency.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/todays-news/182803/pakistan-abolishes-military-courts.

Pakistani air force chief warns India against full-scale war

November 24, 2016

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan's air force chief has warned arch-rival India against escalating the dispute over Kashmir into full-scale war. Marshal Sohail Aman's warning on Thursday comes as tensions are soaring between Islamabad and New Delhi over the contested Himalayan territory after a day of violent exchanges.

The Pakistani army said Indian fire killed 12 civilians and three soldiers on Wednesday — the deadliest incident in weeks of border clashes. Aman told reporters in the port city of Karachi that "it is better if India shows restrain." If New Delhi escalates the crisis, he says Pakistani troops will "know full well how to deal with them."

Kashmir is split between Indian and Pakistani areas of control and claimed in its entirety by both countries, which have fought two wars over the territory.

Malaysian army 'ready to perform its duty' towards Palestinians

December 10, 2017

Malaysian Armed Forces (ATM) is ready to perform its duty towards the issue facing Jerusalem, Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein on Saturday.

“We have to be prepared for any possibilities. The ATM has always been ready, waiting for instructions from the top leadership,” the Malaysian state news agency Bernama quoted Hussein.

“Let us pray that this dispute would not lead to chaos,” Hussein added.

On Wednesday, Trump announced US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and said the US Embassy would be relocated from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The dramatic shift in Washington’s Jerusalem policy triggered demonstrations in the occupied Palestinian territories and across the world.

Tension has risen across the Palestinian territories since US President Donald Trump’s decision to officially recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Most countries consider East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed after capturing it in a 1967 war, to be occupied territory, and say the status of the city should be left to be decided at future Israeli-Palestinian talks.

While the international community has almost unanimously disagreed with Donald Trump’s announcement, reports suggest that the announcement was done with the pre-agreement of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, with the Saudi Arabia going as far as, allegedly, stating to the Palestinian President to accept a village on the outskirts of Jerusalem as the alternative Palestinian capital.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20171210-malaysian-army-ready-to-perform-its-duty-towards-palestinians/.

Malaysia fire blocks lone exit to Islamic dormitory; 24 dead

September 14, 2017

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — A fire that blocked the only exit to an Islamic school dormitory killed 24 people, mostly teenagers, on the outskirts of Malaysia's capital early Thursday, officials said. A government official said a wall separating the victims from a second exit "shouldn't have been there."

Firefighters and witnesses described scenes of horror — first of boys screaming for help behind barred windows as neighbors watched helplessly, and later of burned bodies huddled in a corner of the room. School employee Arif Mawardy said he woke up to what he thought was a thunderstorm, only to realize it was the sound of people screaming.

Firefighters rushed to the scene after receiving a distress call at 5:41 a.m. and took an hour to put out the blaze, which started on the top floor of the three-story building, Kuala Lumpur police chief Amar Singh said. He said there were at least 24 charred bodies, 22 of them boys between 13 and 17, and two teachers.

"We believe (they died of) suffocation ... the bodies were totally burnt," he said. Singh said 14 other students and four teachers were rescued, with six of them hospitalized in critical condition. The fire broke out near the only door to the boys' dormitory, trapping the victims since the windows were barred, fire department senior official Abu Obaidat Mohamad Saithalimat said. He said the cause was believed to be an electrical short-circuit, though Singh said the investigation was continuing.

Another fire department official, Soiman Jahid, said firefighters heard shouts for help when they arrived at the school. He said they found 13 bodies huddled in a pile on the right corner of the dorm, another eight on the left corner of the dorm and one in the middle near the staircase.

Local media showed pictures of blackened bunk bed frames in the burned dormitory. A resident, Nurhayati Abdul Halim, told local media that she saw the boys crying and screaming for help when the fire broke.

"I saw their little hands out of the grilled windows; crying for help. ... I heard their screams and cries but I could not do anything. The fire was too strong for me to do anything," she said. She added that the school had been operating in the area for the past year.

Noh Omar, Malaysia's minister for urban well-being, housing and local government, said the school's original architectural plan included an open top floor that allowed access to two exit staircases. But he said a wall was built dividing that floor, leaving only one exit for the dorm.

"The wall shouldn't have been there," he said. He added that the school submitted an application for a fire safety permit that hadn't been approved. The Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah is a private Islamic center, known as a "tahfiz" school, for Muslim children, mainly boys, to study and memorize the Quran. Many such schools are exempt from state inspections.

The Star newspaper said there were 519 tahfiz schools registered nationwide as of April, but many more are believed to be unregistered. The newspaper said the fire department had recorded 211 fires in such private Islamic centers since 2015. In August, 16 people fled a fire at a tahfiz school in northern Kedah state. Another tahfiz school was destroyed by a fire in May but no one was hurt.

The worst fire disaster occurred in 1989 when 27 female students at a private Islamic school in Kedah state died when fire gutted the school and eight wooden hostels.

Malaysia to release, deport N. Korean in nerve agent probe

March 02, 2017

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — A North Korean man will be released from custody because of lack of evidence connecting him to the fatal nerve agent attack on Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half brother of North Korea's ruler, Malaysian officials said Thursday. In a major fallout from the assassination, Malaysia also announced it was scrapping visa-free travel for North Koreans.

Officials never said why they arrested Ri Jong Chol four days after Kim was attacked at Kuala Lumpur's bustling airport. On Thursday, Malaysian Attorney General Mohamad Apandi Ali said Ri will be released and deported because he does not have valid travel documents.

The attack was caught on grainy security camera footage that showed two women smearing something on Kim's face as he waited for a flight in Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 13. Malaysian officials say the substance was VX nerve agent, a banned chemical weapon.

Kim was dead within an hour as the fast-acting poison coursed through his body, authorities say. No bystanders reported falling ill. The poisoning has unleashed a serious diplomatic battle between Malaysia and North Korea. While it isn't one of Pyongyang's key diplomatic partners, Malaysia has been one of the few places in the world where North Koreans could travel without a visa. As a result, for years, it's been a quiet destination for Northerners looking for jobs, schools and business deals.

That could all begin to change in the wake of Kim's death. Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the visa-free arrangement with North Korea will be scrapped from Monday due to national security. He also slammed the North Korean ambassador in Kuala Lumpur who accused Malaysia of "trying to conceal something" and "colluding with hostile forces."

"We don't want to make enemies, but if they had used Malaysia for their own agenda, they should not accuse Malaysia and tarnish our image on the international stage," Zahid said. "We will act firmly to guarantee the safety of our people. Don't ever use Malaysia as a base to do anything you like."

The two female suspects caught in the security footage were charged with murder in a Malaysian court Wednesday. They face the mandatory death sentence if convicted. Both say they were duped into thinking they were taking part in a harmless prank.

"I understand but I am not guilty," Vietnamese suspect Doan Thi Huong told the court in English after the murder charge was read. The other suspect, Indonesian Siti Aisyah, nodded as her translator told her, "You are accused of murdering a North Korean man at the departure hall" of Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

The women did not enter pleas because the magistrate court where they appeared has no jurisdiction over a murder case. Lead prosecutor Iskandar Ahmad told the court he will ask for the case to be transferred to a higher court and for the women to be tried together.

In the surveillance video, Huong was seen clearly in a T-shirt with "LOL" emblazoned across the front. Both women were originally from modest farming villages and had moved to their countries' capitals seeking a better life.

Also Wednesday, the court approved a gag order to prevent police and potential witnesses from making public statements about the case. North Korea is widely speculated to be behind the killing, particularly after Malaysia said that VX had killed Kim. Experts say the oily poison was almost certainly produced in a sophisticated state weapons laboratory.

North Korea's official news agency called that finding the "height of absurdity" on Wednesday, saying the two women could not have used such a deadly toxin without killing or sickening themselves and anyone around them.

North Korea opposed Malaysian officials even conducting an autopsy on Kim, while Malaysia has resisted giving up the body without getting DNA samples and confirmation from next of kin. Kim is believed to have two sons and a daughter with two women living in Beijing and Macau.

Authorities are seeking seven other North Korean suspects, four of whom fled the country the day of Kim's death and are believed to be back in North Korea. Others sought include the second secretary of North Korea's Embassy and an employee of North Korea's state-owned airline, Air Koryo.

Kim Jong Nam was estranged from his half brother, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. He reportedly fell out of favor with their father, the late Kim Jong Il, in 2001, when he was caught trying to enter Japan on a false passport to visit Tokyo Disneyland.

Isolated North Korea has a long history of ordering killings of people it views as threats to its regime. Kim Jong Nam was not known to be seeking political power, but his position as eldest son of the family that has ruled North Korea since it was founded could have made him appear to be a danger.

Malaysia recalls ambassador to North Korea

February 20, 2017

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia's ambassador to North Korea has been recalled from Pyongyang amid rising tensions between the countries over the death in Kuala Lumpur of an estranged scion of North Korea's ruling family.

The Malaysian foreign ministry said in a Monday statement that it had recalled its ambassador "for consultations" and had summoned Kang Chol, North Korea's ambassador to Kuala Lumpur, "to seek an explanation on the accusations he made against the Government of Malaysia."

Kang said Malaysia may be "trying to conceal something" and that the autopsy on Kim Jong Nam was carried out "unilaterally and excluding our attendance." Kim Jong Nam is the half brother of North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un.

The statement called Kang's comments "baseless," adding it "takes very seriously any unfounded attempt to tarnish its reputation."

Malaysia sends first aid ship to Rohingya Muslims

03 February 2017 Friday

Malaysia has sent its first ship carrying 2,300 tons of humanitarian goods to Rakhine state in Myanmar to help the persecuted minority Rohingya Muslim community.

Prime Minister Najib Razak in Klang Port attended the send-off of the aid consisting of food, medical supplies and other basic necessities near the capital Kuala Lumpur on Friday.

The mission has been organized by the 1Malaysia Club and the Malaysia Islamic Organizations Consultative Council with the cooperation of Turkiye Diyanet Vakfi Foundation, which is supported by the Turkish government.

Besides Malaysia, nine other countries have contributed to the mission, including France, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Germany, the U.S. and Bangladesh.

Speaking at the event, Razak said the mission is a testament to the unity of Muslim community globally, when it comes to issue of humanitarianism.

"We the Muslims, can no longer bear our Rohingya brothers and sisters being tortured, raped, burnt alive and killed," he said.

"The flotilla flagging off is a very historic event for Malaysia, to be able to lead such a noble humanitarian effort."

Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim, who is leading the Food Flotilla for Myanmar mission, told reporters the vessel was expected to reach Yangon in five to six days, depending on weather conditions.

Abdul Rahim said the aid will be handed over to Myanmar's Minister of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Win Myat Aye on arrival at Yangon, after which it will be supplied to the Rohingya community.

The ship will sail to Teknaf, Bangladesh, after unloading in Yangon on the same day to provide aid to Rohingya refugees in that country, Rahim said.

"We are going in a team of 230 volunteers and activists from various non-governmental organizations are part of the mission," he added.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/?aType=haber&ArticleID=184184.

AP Exclusive: Anger with China drives Uighurs to Syria fight

December 22, 2017

ISTANBUL (AP) — It was mid-afternoon when the Chinese police officers barged into Ali's house set against cotton fields outside the ancient Silk Road trading post of Kashgar. The Uighur farmer and his cowering parents watched them rummage through the house until they found two books in his bedroom — a Quran and a handbook on dealing with interrogations.

Ali knew he was in trouble. By nightfall the next day, Ali had been tied against a tree and beaten by interrogators trying to force him to say he took part in an ethnic riot that killed dozens in western China. They held burning cigarette tips to Ali's face, deprived him of sleep and offered him only salt water. When he asked for fresh water, they gave it to him — in buckets poured over his head.

That winter night in 2009, Ali recalled years later, would set him on a path that ended on northern Syria's smoldering plains, where he picked up a Kalashnikov rifle under the black flag of jihad and dreamed of launching attacks against the Chinese rulers of his homeland.

Since 2013, thousands of Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority from western China, have traveled to Syria to train with the Uighur militant group Turkistan Islamic Party and fight alongside al-Qaida, playing key roles in several battles. Syrian President Bashar Assad's troops are now clashing with Uighur fighters as the six-year conflict nears its endgame.

But the end of Syria's war may be the beginning of China's worst fears. "We didn't care how the fighting went or who Assad was," said Ali, who would only give his first name out of a fear of reprisals against his family back home. "We just wanted to learn how to use the weapons and then go back to China."

Uighur militants have killed hundreds, if not thousands, in attacks inside China in a decades-long insurgency that initially targeted police and other symbols of Chinese authority but in recent years also included civilians. Extremists with knives killed 33 people at a train station in 2014. Abroad, they bombed the Chinese embassy in Kyrgyzstan in September last year; in 2014, they killed 25 people in an attack on a Thai shrine popular with Chinese tourists.

China is just like the West, its officials say: the country is a victim of terror, and Uighur men are pulled by global jihadi ideology rather than driven by grievances at home. Muslims in the Uighur homeland of Xinjiang, as one Chinese official declared in August, "are the happiest in the world."

But rare and extensive Associated Press interviews with nine Uighurs who had left China to train and fight in Syria showed that Uighurs don't neatly fit the profile of foreign fighters answering the call of jihad.

There was a police trainer who journeyed thousands of miles with his wife and children to Syria, a war zone. A farmer who balked at fundamentalist Islam even though he charged into battle alongside al-Qaida. A shopkeeper who prayed five times a day and then at night huddled with others in a ruined Syrian neighborhood to study Zionist history.

And there was Ali, a short, soft-spoken 30-year-old with a primary school education who knew little of the world beyond his 35-acre farm when he left China, a home that had become unlivable. Sitting cross-legged one recent evening in an empty apartment overlooking a kickboxing gym in Istanbul, he recalled the vow he made the night Chinese police beat him for participating in a riot he never joined.

"I'll get revenge," he said.

SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY

Ali's parents eventually got him out of detention — but it cost them 10,000 yuan ($1,500) in bribes to local officials, no small amount for the family of farmers.

Despite his release, Ali was not free.

It was late 2009, and Xinjiang was in lockdown. Four months earlier, hundreds of Uighurs had rioted in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, and attacked the Han, China's dominant ethnic group. An estimated 200 people died in the unrest that night, the bloodiest ethnic violence the country had seen in decades and an event that would change Ali's life and that of 10 million Uighurs in Xinjiang.

The government, caught off-guard by the unrest, rolled out an expansive security crackdown and surveillance programs in the region that have accelerated in the last year . Thousands of Uighurs, including moderate Uighur intellectuals, are believed to have been arrested or detained, some of them without trial.

Ali was constantly stopped and questioned wherever he went. He couldn't check into a hotel, buy a train ticket or get a passport.

"I had nowhere to go," he said. "Except out."

As the repression mounted, what began as a trickle of Uighurs fleeing China grew into a mass exodus. In 2013, more than 10,000 left across southern China's porous borders, according to Uighur exiles. Nearly all the Uighurs who spoke to the AP after returning to Turkey from Syria recounted being persecuted by Chinese authorities as a motive for taking up arms.

"The Chinese government had been accusing Uighurs of militancy for a long time when there hasn't been much of a threat," said Sean R. Roberts, an expert on Uighur issues at George Washington University. "That changed after the 2009 crackdown. It's become a self-fulfilling prophecy."

ESCAPE AND ROAD TO SYRIA

Desperate to leave China, Ali paid more than 100,000 yuan ($15,000) to human smugglers and made his way overland through Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia, where he received a Turkish travel document.

In Turkey, Ali drifted in Istanbul, working construction and electrical jobs for $300 a month. Within two months, his brother said he had met people who could take them to Syria, where they could learn weapons training and return to China to "liberate" their friends and family.

"We'll avenge our relatives being tortured in Chinese jail," he said.

Ali agreed, thinking they would go for a few weeks. They ended up spending two-and-a-half years in Syria.

The story of how Ali ended up in a distant war zone echoed the experiences of other Uighurs the AP spoke to in Turkey, who said they joined religious militant groups at first because of grievances against Beijing or support for the idea of a Uighur nation. Most knew little about political Islam that fueled jihadis in other countries, and none said they met with recruiters inside China.

But that changed as soon as they left China's borders. As Uighur refugees traveled along an underground railroad in Southeast Asia, they said, they were greeted by a network of Uighur militants who offered food and shelter — and their extremist ideology. And when the refugees touched down in Turkey, they were again wooed by recruiters who openly roamed the streets of Istanbul in gritty immigrant neighborhoods like Zeytinburnu and Sefakoy, looking for fresh fighters to shuttle to Syria.

Uighur activists and Syrian and Chinese officials estimate that at least 5,000 Uighurs have gone to Syria to fight — though many have since left. Among those, several hundred have joined the Islamic State, according to former fighters and Syrian officials.

As Uighurs streamed out of China, militant leaders have seized upon China's treatment of Muslims as a recruiting tactic. The Islamic State, for instance, regularly publishes Uighur-language editions of its radio bulletins and magazines, while the Turkistan Islamic Party has been releasing videos on a near-weekly basis, said Rita Katz, director of the SITE Intelligence monitoring group.

"How can those who are imprisoned due to their faith be freed? How can they be saved from this humiliation?" a masked Uighur fighter says in a Turkestan Islamic Party video released last year. "Words from our mouths won't help, but jihad for Allah will."

A FARAWAY WAR

From Istanbul, several of the former fighters described taking buses or being driven to the border region of Hatay, where they would cross on foot at night through lightly guarded hills. After a three-hour hike into Syria, cars waited in a forest clearing to whisk them to separate camps dotting the country's north. One fighter said he simply drove in, unobstructed, on the highway from the Turkish city of Gaziantep.

When the Uighurs arrived in Jisr al-Shughour, a strategic town on the edge of Assad's stronghold of Latakia region, men with families, like Ali, moved into a ruined neighborhood of single-story brick homes where 150 families stayed. Single men lived together in larger apartment buildings.

The men undertook three-month training sessions in the use of Soviet AKM rifles, shoulder-mounted rocket-propelled grenade launchers, physical conditioning and mapping.

At the beginning of the course, the trainers showed off their prized cache of captured American M-16s and German G3 rifles, but each fighter received a battered AKM and cheap Chinese ammunition. Boys as young as 12 and 13 — mostly orphans — were taken to a separate camp for religious classes and physical training.

Two fighters said they received boxes of food from IHH, a Turkish Islamic charity group, that included rice, flour, meat and even fish imported from Thailand. One of the fighters said the food supplies were labeled with the foreign fighting group they were being shipped to — for example, "Turkistanis (Uighurs) or Uzbeks."

IHH spokesman Mustafa Ozbek said the group distributes aid in refugee camps near the Syrian border to civilians, but not armed groups.

"All of our aid is conducted officially, documented and reported," Ozbek said.

The Uighurs in Syria have a reputation for administering their territory with a light touch, said Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, a British researcher at the Middle East Forum who has extensively interviewed jihadis in Syria, including Uighur fighters. They don't enforce an Islamic court system or replace local councils — unlike their close allies, the al-Qaida-linked Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, Arabic for Levant Liberation Committee.

Instead, an older Uighur would convene young fighters in the evenings to discuss history and politics. They looked to an improbable model for building an independent homeland: Israel and the Zionist movement.

"We studied how the Jews built their country," Ali said. "Some of them fought, some of them provided money. We don't have a strong background of that."

Few Uighurs spoke Arabic and most didn't mingle with locals, but at one point some residents joked that Uighurs should rename the city Shughuristan, a play on "East Turkistan," the Uighur exiles' preferred name for their homeland. The Uighurs were unconvinced.

"This is not our homeland," Ali and his comrades told the Arabs. "We want our homeland, we don't need yours."

FEARLESS 'PAWNS'

Like Ali, Rozi Mehmet wanted to do something to help his people fight Chinese oppression. His grandfather, a wealthy Uighur farmer, had been executed in the tumult of China's Cultural Revolution in the 1960s.

Three years ago, Mehmet left the ancient oasis town of Hotan and hiked into Syria to join a class of 52 Turkistan Islamic Party trainees.

Within six months, he would be on the front lines with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher strapped to his skinny back, sprinting toward government positions near Jisr al-Shughour.

Jihadi clerics have exhorted Uighurs to take up holy war and reap the rewards of martyrdom. But if he would take a bullet, Mehmet thought as he rushed into battle, he wasn't dying for Islam — or the virgins that the preachers promised. His homeland was the only thing on his mind.

"I didn't feel fear," he told the AP. "If I felt fear, how could I be able to build my country?"

As fighting escalated in 2015 and 2016, hundreds of Uighurs died in its campaigns alongside al-Qaida's Nusra Front, according to two former fighters who fought in northern Syria.

Radical groups have aggressively recruited Uighurs. Al-Qaida's leader promised in a video that Islamic militants would repay the Uighurs by striking at "atheist Chinese occupiers" after the Syrian war. The Islamic State has echoed similar pledges and the group in March released a Uighur-language propaganda video vowing to one day shed Chinese blood if Uighurs would join the Syrian struggle.

As the chaotic opposition splintered and reorganized, groups vied for the Uighurs' support and lauded them for their suicide attacks that often kept the Syrian army off-balance, Mehmet boasted.

An older fighter, also from Hotan, chided the young man, saying he was more cynical about why the Arab jihadis lavished them with praise.

"They praise us, which means they want us to follow them and fight for them," said Rozi Tohti, 40, who fought near the city of Idlib. They "are trying to lure us to become their pawns."

DISSENT IN SYRIA

THREAT TO CHINA

But several Uighur fighters insisted that, in their minds, there was a distinct line between themselves and the Islamic militants they fought beside. Some Uighurs complained about being stuck in Syria instead of attacking China, as they had been promised.

"We fight for them and help them control the country, and then Uighurs are left with nothing," Mehmet said.

After joining the TIP in mid-2015, Uighur fighter Abdulrehim visited a graveyard for fallen militants and wondered why there were no Uighur national banners. At one point, he openly challenged a TIP senior leader, Ibrahim Mansour, about what they were doing in Syria, he recalled.

"We haven't fired a bullet against our enemy, China," he told a group of gathered Uighur fighters. "We always fight alongside international terrorists. What's going on here?"

Many Uighur militants have grown tired of the war and are looking to leave particularly as Assad's forces gain the upper hand, says Seyit Tumturk, a Uighur activist in Turkey who often speaks to fighters in Syria.

He said it was impossible for Uighurs militants to liberate Xinjiang, currently blanketed with paramilitary forces and riot police. But he said Chinese President Xi Jinping's ambitious project to develop railway lines, ports, and other infrastructure linking various regions to China makes Beijing vulnerable to militant attacks abroad.

The Islamic State took credit in June for kidnapping and killing two Chinese teachers in Pakistan's Baluchistan province, which is a cornerstone of Beijing's so-called Belt and Road infrastructure project. In Kyrgyzstan, state security say a suicide bombing of the Chinese embassy in Bishkek was ordered by Uighur terrorist groups active in Syria and financed by al-Qaida's Nusra Front.

Chinese officials and Western analysts alike say that the Uighurs' experience in the Syrian jihadi melting pot will likely exacerbate violence against "soft" targets outside China. China's foreign ministry called the Turkistan Islamic Party a security threat for the Middle East.

"We hope our brothers, including Syria and Turkey, will work with us, strengthen cooperation and cut off the terrorists' cross-border movements and safeguard regional stability," the ministry said in a faxed statement in response to questions from the AP.

The ministry did not address questions about the causes of radicalization but said that China's government has invested heavily in Xinjiang's economic development, protected its minorities' rights and treated them just as every other ethnic group.

"Of course, when there are those who try to create tension in Xinjiang, the Chinese government's commitment to striking against violent terror and ethnic splittism is unquestioned," it said.

RETURN TO TURKEY AND AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE

By June of this year, Ali had tired of Syria and wanted to get out. For him, the war consisted of spending months at a time manning checkpoints and patrolling borders.

But like many other Uighurs who sought to return to Turkey, he struggled to find a way back. Ali walked for a week to get around a wall built by the Turkish government on the border. He's now back in Istanbul and selling milk.

Although some of the Uighur returnees said they would attack China if the opportunity arose, others balked at the idea.

Uighur community workers are concerned that many of those cast back into Turkish society would struggle to integrate and be easily pulled back into radical groups. Many of the men make $200 to $300 a month, barely enough to cover rent in Istanbul, and spoke poor Turkish. Many faced daily discrimination.

Activists also worry about TIP recruitment continuing unchecked in Turkey, where it appears to have a degree of official support.

This year, Turkish authorities detained TIP members including a former top commander, ostensibly for his own safety, said a diplomat in Beijing and a Uighur activist who was allowed by Turkish officials to speak with him. But Turkey refused to allow Chinese intelligence to interrogate the former commander, deeply frustrating Beijing, the diplomat said.

Uighur leaders say Turkish police also have released several well-known Uighur jihadi recruiters even after the community offered tips that led to their arrest.

"There are suspicions that these recruiters have links with some individuals or agencies within the government," said Omer Kanat, director of the Uyghur Human Rights Project in Washington. "They're turning a blind eye."

Rozi Tohti, the middle-aged fighter from Hotan, sat in a meadow facing the ruined walls of old Constantinople and ruminated on the choices facing his compatriots in Turkey: give their lives to a radical Islamic movement that they did not believe in or struggle to settle into a Turkish society where they did not fit in.

One thing was clear. Returning to their homeland was out of the question.

"Who wants to live in a war zone?" Tohti said. "We once had paradise in our country. But it was being erased by the Chinese, so instead we looked for paradise in Syria."

Turkey slams Austria 'discrimination'

2017-12-17

ANKARA - Turkey on Sunday slammed the incoming Austrian government, a coalition between conservatives and the far-right, for "discrimination" after its program contained a pledge that Vienna will not agree to Ankara joining the EU.

The landmark coalition deal, marking the return to power in Austria of the Freedom Party (FPOe), has sparked ripples of concern throughout Europe after a year of successes for far-right movements in Europe.

The chancellor-elect, Sebastian Kurz of the conservative People's Party (OeVP), already has a deeply-fractious relationship with Ankara due to his staunch opposition to Turkey's EU bid while serving as foreign minister.

"This baseless and short-sighted statement in the new Austrian government's program unfortunately confirms concerns about a political trend based on discrimination and marginalization," the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement.

Accusing the incoming government of "dishonesty", it warned that if realized, the program would bring Austria "to the brink of losing Turkey's friendship" and be met with "the reaction that it deserves".

Turkey's decades-long ambition to join the EU has hit the buffers in recent months as the bloc sounded the alarm over the crackdown that followed the 2016 coup bid aimed at ousting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

While Austria has called for the accession process to be formally halted, this has met with opposition from key EU members, notably Germany.

Meeting Erdogan on his trip to Greece earlier this month -- the first by a Turkish president in 65 years -- Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras also backed Turkey's EU bid.

But last month, the EU cut funds destined to Turkey in the 2018 budget, citing doubts about Ankara's commitment to democracy and human rights in a move supported by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=86461.

Palestinian in Gaza names triplets Jerusalem, Capital and Palestine

December 22, 2017

A Palestinian from the besieged Gaza Strip’s southern village of Khan Yunis has named his three newborn triplets “Quds”, “Asima” and “Filisteen” – meaning “Jerusalem”, “Capital” and “Palestine” in Arabic – in protest against the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Nidal Al-Siqli, 30, told the Anadolu Agency that he chose the names “to emphasize Jerusalem’s Palestinian, Arab and Muslim character”.

“Jerusalem is and forever will be the eternal capital of Palestine,” Al-Siqli stressed.

The Palestinian father noted that Quds and Filisteen are both boys, while Asima is a girl, adding that they were all born yesterday.

Al-Siqli added that he and his wife hope to have another girl to call her Abadiyya, eternal in Arabic.

“I hope the Palestinian and Arab efforts succeed in revoking the US decision soon,” he said.

On 6 December, the US President Donald Trump announced his decision to formally recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and said that the American embassy in Tel Aviv would be relocated to the Holy City. Since then, demonstrations have broken out across the world with Palestinians holding continuous protests since the decision was announced.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20171222-palestinian-in-gaza-names-triplets-jerusalem-capital-and-palestine/.

Palestinian president says no role for US in peace process

December 13, 2017

ISTANBUL (AP) — The Palestinian president said Wednesday his people will not accept any role for the United States in the Mideast peace process "from now on," following President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Mahmoud Abbas spoke at a gathering of heads of state and top officials from Islamic nations at a summit in Turkey that is expected to forge a unified Muslim world's stance against Trump's move. Abbas called Trump's decision a "crime" that threatened world peace. He called on the United Nations to take charge of the peace process and create a new mechanism, arguing that Washington is no longer "fit" for the task.

The Palestinians are committed to a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Abbas said, but after Trump's seismic shift on Jerusalem, Washington is not accepted as a fair negotiator. The speech marked a significant shift in Abbas' approach toward the United States, after years of focusing on courting U.S. goodwill because of Washington's role as sole mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Immediately after Trump's announcement last week, Abbas had said the U.S. effectively disqualified itself as a broker, but Wednesday's speech was more sharply worded and delivered to a global audience.

Last week, Abbas aides said the Palestinian leader would not meet with Mike Pence during the U.S. vice president's planned visit to Israel and the West Bank next week. Abbas had initially planned to meet with Pence in the biblical West Bank town of Bethlehem, but two senior aides have said the meeting would not take place because of Trump's pivot on Jerusalem.

The Istanbul gathering of heads of state and top officials from the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation is also an opportunity for the Muslim world to offer its strongest response yet to Washington's move.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan— the current president of the OIC — called on countries to urgently recognize the Palestinian state and Jerusalem as its capital. Erdogan has been among the most vocal critics of Trump's announcement. In remarks to the summit, he said Israel is an "occupying state" and a "terror state."

Jerusalem's status is at the core of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Trump's Dec. 6 announcement was widely perceived as siding with Israel. It also raised fears of more bloodshed as past crises over Jerusalem had triggered violent outbreaks.

Earlier, in opening remarks to a pre-summit meeting, Turkey's foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, told OIC foreign ministers that the U.S. decision aims to "legitimize Israel's attempt to occupy Jerusalem."

"They expect the Islamic nation to remain silent," he said. "But we will never be silent. This bullying eliminates the possibility of peace and the grounds for shared life. The U.S.' decision is null for us."

Most countries around the world have not recognized Israel's 1967 annexation of east Jerusalem. Under a long-standing international consensus, the fate of the city is to be determined in negotiations.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Lebanon's President Michel Aoun, Jordanian King Abdullah II and top ministers of numerous nations were also attending the gathering in Istanbul. The secretary general of OIC called on countries that have not recognized Palestine as a state to do so. Yousef bin Ahmad Al-Othaimeen told the summit the U.S. decision on Jerusalem is "an exceptional challenge" facing Muslim nations and that it will fan violence in the region, giving extremists an excuse to sow chaos.

In an emergency meeting in Cairo last weekend, Arab League foreign ministers demanded that the U.S. rescind Trump's decision. In a resolution long on rhetoric but short on concrete actions, the ministers also called for the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution condemning Trump's decision, but acknowledged that Washington would most likely veto it.

Israel has considered Jerusalem its capital since the state's establishment in 1948 and sees the city as the ancient capital of the Jewish people. In the 1967 Mideast war, Israel captured the city's eastern sector and later annexed it in a move that is not recognized internationally.

The Palestinians equally lay claim to Jerusalem and want the eastern part of the city as capital of their future state. Some 320,000 Palestinians live in that part of the city and Palestinians claim a deep cultural, historical and religious connection to the city.

The Old City, located in east Jerusalem, is home to sites holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims. These include the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest site.

El Deeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Karin Laub in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.

Christmas in Jordan dimmed by Jerusalem crisis

2017-12-17

Christmas decorations won’t be illuminated in Jordan and the Palestin­ian territories this year following calls to turn off lights of Christmas trees to protest US President Donald Trump’s deci­sion to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Jordanian and Palestinian Chris­tians were looking forward to the festive season and preparations to celebrate Jesus’s birth were in full swing with Christmas markets, ac­tivities and festive food, until the US move dimmed the spirits.

Fadi Daoud from the Christian town Fuheis in central Jordan said that since Trump’s announcement posts on social media asked that Christmas trees’ lights be turned off as a symbol of solidarity with the Palestinians regarding Jerusalem.

“The decision by Trump evoked a lot of feelings towards Jerusalem and we, as Christians, feel the need to express our disagreement with this decision. That is why many turned to the social networks to ex­press their anger,” Daoud said.

He said the Christian communi­ty, which makes up 6% of Jordan’s population of 9.5 million, had been preparing for a joyful festive season, “which unfortunately was clouded by the development on Jerusalem, sparking anger and igniting emo­tions of both Christians and Mus­lims.”

The Jordan Tourism Board an­nounced the cancellation of Christ­mas celebrations at Jesus’s baptism site in support of Palestinians in Je­rusalem.

East Jerusalem, which Palestin­ians regard as the capital of their future state, is home to several Christian churches and Islam’s third holiest site, Haram al-Sharif.

In the West Bank city of Bethle­hem, the birthplace of Jesus and a major Christian pilgrimage destination south of Jerusalem, Christmas manifestations and displays were dropped and lights of main Christ­mas trees switched off following the announcement of Trump’s decision.

Early celebrations of the holiday season had started in Jordan with bazaars and markets offering hand­made decorations, festive food and activities for families. Visitors, however, were more interested in getting the feel of Christmas than spending money.

“It is a great feeling to be part of any Christmas activities and I am happy to take part in five Christmas bazaars,” said Rowaida Nino, an artisan selling handicrafts. “Some people are here to buy, especially decorations and home-made wine, but many are just window shop­ping. Probably they have other pri­orities.”

“In the past, people were happy to spend more money during the festive season but recently things have changed and most are care­ful about every penny spent,” she added.

Tareq Msalem, head of the Greek Catholic Scout and Guides society, which organizes a Christmas ba­zaar, stressed the growing popular­ity of the festive event.

“Absolutely, we can feel a huge dif­ference at this year’s bazaar. More people are displaying their products such as home-made wines and sweets that attracted many buyers; moreo­ver families en­joy the activities that come with the bazaar,” Msalem said.

Christmas season is also a time for giving and sharing.

“During this month, many ini­tiatives bring smiles to underprivi­leged children,” Msalem said. “We are happy to be part of the ‘Give’ initiative under which we collect used and new toys to give away. This year about 70 children will re­ceive toys, compared to 30 children last year.

“Many families cannot buy toys to their kids. Times have definitely changed to the worse.”

Greek Orthodox pastor George Sharayha said an increasing num­ber of families are impoverished because of the bad economy and inflation.

“Our role is to make them feel the spirit of Christmas in any way we can. Every year we see more fami­lies struggling to meet simple daily life demands,” he said.

A recent World Bank study stated that one-third of Jordan’s popula­tion lives below the poverty line.

The festive season is a time of the year when travel agents offer spe­cial packages to attract foreign and local tourists by promoting biblical sites and the rose-red city of Petra.

“This year we are hoping for the best and so far we have received requests from many tourists who want to celebrate the holidays here in Jordan, which some con­sider part of their pilgrimage to the baptism site,” said Murad Ghsoon, owner of a travel agency in Amman.

“Last year, we did not have much luck due to the events in Karak but this year we hope things will get better and so far it is.”

The Islamic State claimed re­sponsibility for an attack in the southern Jordanian city of Karak that killed ten people in December 2016. Seven Jordanian security of­ficers, a Canadian tourist and two Jordanian civilians were among the dead. Four attackers were also killed.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=86462.

Tunisia elections delayed

2017-12-17

TUNIS - A new date next May has been set for Tunisia's first post-revolt municipal elections, already long delayed, polling officials said Saturday.

The Independent High Authority for Elections said the polling date was set at May 6, rather than March 25 as previously announced, at a meeting with political parties which requested the delay to better prepare for the vote.

The polls have been seen as the final stage in Tunisia's transition to democracy following its 2011 uprising which sparked the Arab Spring revolutions.

Following the uprising, municipalities were dissolved and replaced by "special delegations" -- provisional bodies set up to manage urban centers.

This has coincided with falling standards of living in cities and towns where the collection of garbage has been random and quality of infrastructure deteriorated.

At the election, almost five million Tunisians are eligible to vote to elect the leaders of 350 municipalities.

Tunisia has been praised for a relatively democratic transition over the past six years, during which a new constitution was adopted and legislative and presidential polls held in 2014.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=86458.

Morocco's Islamists elect new leader, walking away from predecessor's populism

2017-12-17

Morocco’s ruling Islam­ist Justice and Devel­opment Party (PJD) has turned the page on populist former Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane with the election of current Prime Minister Saad Eddine El Othmani as its secretary-general.

Othmani won votes from 1,006 of the 1,943 PJD delegates against 912 for Fez Mayor Driss el-Azami, who was reportedly backed by Benkirane. This is Othmani’s second term at the helm of the PJD, which he led from 2004-08.

Othmani succeeded Benkirane, who had stayed at the head of the party for nine years, promoting a populist platform to garner support. Benkirane led Morocco’s govern­ment for more than five years before being dismissed by Moroccan King Mohammed VI in March after the former prime minister failed to form a coalition government.

Analysts differ on whether Othm­ani would fundamentally change the party’s political approach and steer it from the Muslim Brotherhood’s sphere of influence.

However, his election is a clear break from Benkirane, who was per­ceived as representing an “extremist current” in the PJD. Although deny­ing direct links to the Muslim Broth­erhood, Benkirane’s policies were initially influenced by the group’s orientations.

Abdelhakim Karman, a Moroccan researcher in political science and sociology of organisations, attribut­ed Benkirane’s loss to the failure of the PJD leadership to absorb the his­torical, constitutional, institutional and sociological realities in Morocco.

“It was normal that opposing voices from within the PJD came out against the current of extrem­ism led by former secretary-general as desire to adapt and preserve their interests in the Moroccan political arena and thus continue to partici­pate in the government’s work and political game,” Karman told the London-based Al Arab daily.

Karman warned against expecting that the PJD had changed its identity permanently.

“The exchange of roles between the party’s leadership came after it thought that it was backed by ‘the street’. It then tried to isolate and en­able and control the wheels of state and society,” he said.

“It is a leadership that accepts cer­tain tactical concessions and forms of political accommodation and moderate speech, an equation de­rived from the thought and referenc­es and behavior of Islamist groups themselves,” he added.

However, Abdessalam al-Aziz, secretary-general of the National It­tihadi Congress (CNI), said Othmani won the election thanks to the Unity and Reform Movement’s support (MUR) and that nothing had changed in terms of the party’s Islamist ap­proach.

“I think the PJD leadership’s ties with the MUR will strengthen more after Benkirane’s departure,” said Aziz.

The MUR is the PJD’s religious and ideological wing and has been the threshold for many PJD members, including Mustapha el-Khalfi and Bassima Hakkaoui, who are minis­ters in the current government.

Aziz said “the PJD’s elite, includ­ing many ministers, backed Othma­ni to lead the Islamist party because they want to carry on their partici­pation in the government” despite the past rumors of a party split fol­lowing the national council’s vote against an amendment that would have allowed Benkirane to run for a third term as PJD secretary-general.

“Benkirane’s populist speeches, which drew massive crowds, will no longer continue under Othmani’s leadership,” said Aziz.

Unlike his predecessor, Othmani, a psychiatrist and scholar, is a quiet and calm politician who avoids me­dia confrontations.

Othmani’s government has sought to fight corruption, a problem that the previous government failed to tackle despite Benkirane’s repeated promises.

King Mohammed VI recently im­posed sanctions against scores of Interior Ministry officials, less than a month after he sacked several min­isters and senior officials for failing to improve the economy in the long-neglected Rif region.

Othmani pledged to address shortcomings of the National De­velopment Model, which has been criticized by the king, and curb dis­parities between regions. The gov­ernment is aiming to carry on ma­jor structural reforms to promote a more diversified economy.

Experts said Islamist parties in the Maghreb are being torn between old pro-Muslim Brotherhood lean­ings and the need to walk away from that legacy to integrate their own political environments and help their countries meet socio-economic challenges.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=86454.

Haftar shows signs he will run in Libyan elections next year

Monday 18 December 2017

Khalifa Haftar said he will listen to the will of the "free Libyan people" on Sunday, in the strongest indication that he might run in elections expected next year.

The military commander, who controls vast areas of territory in eastern Libya, made his comments during a military graduation ceremony.

Haftar styles himself as a strongman capable of ending the chaos that has gripped Libya since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

His comments are reminiscent of remarks made by Egypt's General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi when he was testing the ground before becoming a presidential candidate. Sisi was eventually elected in 2014.

Just as Sisi built up wide support after toppling Egypt's ousted president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, supporters of Haftar speak of a similar situation developing in Libya, with rallies held in some eastern cities calling on him to run.

"We declare clearly and unequivocally our full compliance with the orders of the free Libyan people, which is its own guardian and the master of its land," Haftar said in a speech.

He spoke in the eastern city of Benghazi, from where his forces managed to expel rival armed groups in Benghazi after a three-year campaign for control of Libya's second city.

Haftar, a general from the Gaddafi era, also dismissed a series of UN-led talks to bridge differences between Libya's two rival administrations, one linked to him in the east and one backed by the United Nations in the capital Tripoli.

"All the dialogues starting from Ghadames [in northwest Libya] and ending in Tunis and going through Geneva and Skhirat [in Morocco] was just ink on paper," he said, listing host cities of UN talks.

Obstacles

The United Nations launched a new round of talks in September in Tunis between the rival factions to prepare for presidential and parliamentary elections in 2018, but they broke off after one month without any deal.

A major obstacle to progress was the issue of Haftar's own rule. He remains popular among some Libyans in the east weary of the chaos but faces opposition from many in western Libya.

In his speech, Haftar said his forces, known as the Libyan National Army (LNA), could be only placed under an authority that had been elected by the Libyan people, in a further indication that he might take part in the election.

Haftar's supporters had set Sunday as a deadline for a UN deal or calling on the general to take over for several years. The UN has rejected this.

Haftar insisted on Sunday that the mandate of the country's UN-backed government has run out after what he said was the expiration of a tattered 2015 political deal.

The UN-brokered agreement signed in Morocco on 17 December 2015 established Libya's Government of National Accord (GNA) for a one-year period, renewable only once.

Turning point

In a televised speech, Haftar, who has never recognized the GNA's authority, said the "expiry of the Libyan political accord" marked a "historic and dangerous turning point".

"All bodies resulting from this agreement automatically lose their legitimacy, which has been contested from the first day they took office," he said.

The large North African country has been in turmoil since Gaddafi's downfall gave space to militants and smuggling networks that have sent hundreds of thousands of migrants across the Mediterranean to Europe.

Haftar is just one of many players in Libya, which is controlled by armed groups divided along political, religious, regional and business lines.

The president of the eastern House of Representatives backing Haftar, Aguila Saleh, said it was time to start preparing for elections, according to a video posted on social media.

"I urge to join preparing parliamentary and presidential elections," he said.

Source: Middle East Eye.
Link: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/haftar-shows-signs-he-will-run-elections-next-year-393525306.

Gadaffi's son Saif al-Islam 'to run for Libyan presidency'

Monday 18 December 2017

Saif al-Islam, the son of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi who is wanted for alleged crimes against humanity, is to stand in his country's next presidential election, it was reported on Monday.

Spokesman Basem al-Hashimi al-Soul told the Egypt Today newspaper that Saif al-Islam had the support of "major tribes" in his home country and would run on a promise to provide "security and stability".

"Saif al-Islam will run for the upcoming presidential elections which may take place in mid-2018," Soul was quoted as saying.

"Saif al-Islam plans to impose more security and stability in accordance with the Libyan geography and in coordination with all Libyan factions.

"He enjoys the support of major tribes in Libya, so he can run."

The UN-backed Government of National Accord, based in Tripoli, announced last week it hoped to run presidential elections next year in an effort to push forward with the country's national reconciliation program.

Wanted for crimes against humanity

Islam, the second of eight Gaddafi sons, would however face significant hurdles before his nomination is cleared.

He was arrested after his father's death in 2011 and held by the Abu Bakr al-Sadiq Brigade in Zintan until his release this June under an amnesty law passed by a rump parliament based in Tobruk, in the east of the country.

The UK-educated 44-year-old faces investigations by the International Criminal Court for his role in the repression of the 2011 revolt against his father.

He was separately sentenced to death in July 2015 by a Tripoli court, which was controlled by a now-defunct government that rivaled the Tobruk parliament.

However his support in Libya, and the fractious nature of the country post-Gaddafi, was such that the Zintan militias refused to comply with the court.

The claim of his spokesman, Soul, of tribal support is also significant. In September 2015, the self-proclaimed "Supreme Council of the Libyan Tribes" chose Saif al-Islam as the legitimate representative of the country.

This council essentially brings together those tribes who remained faithful to Gaddafi and, while it lacks institutional power, its unity is significant in a country torn between competing factions and shifting alliances.

Source: Middle East Eye.
Link: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/gadaffis-son-saif-al-islam-run-libyan-presidency-518043043.

Catalan separatists regain majority in regional election

December 22, 2017

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Catalonia's secessionist parties won enough votes Thursday to regain a slim majority in the regional parliament and give new momentum to their political struggle for independence from Spain.

It was hardly an emphatic victory, however, as the separatists lost support compared to the previous vote in 2015, and a pro-unity party for the first time became biggest single bloc in the Catalan parliament.

The result left more questions than answers about what's next for Catalonia, where a long-standing push for independence escalated to a full-on clash with the Spanish government two months ago. It was also a blow to Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who as a result of the separatists' defiance ousted the Catalan Cabinet and called the early election hoping to keep them out of power.

Instead, the election's outcome favored fugitive former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, who campaigned from Belgium where he is evading a Spanish judicial probe into the attempt to split from Spain. The investigation could lead to charges of rebellion and sedition that carry penalties of decades in prison.

Puigdemont, who got the most votes of any separatist candidate, greeted the results with delight and called them a rebuke to Spain's central government. "The Spanish state has been defeated," Puigdemont said. "Mariano Rajoy has received a slap in the face from Catalonia."

In a televised appearance from Brussels, the 54 year-old former journalist didn't make clear if he would try to return home, where an arrest warrant awaits him. The other main winner was Ines Arrimadas, the leading unionist candidate. Scoring 25 percent of the votes, her pro-business Ciutadans (Citizens) party won 37 seats, which will be the biggest single bloc in the 135-seat regional assembly.

"The pro-secession forces can never again claim they speak for all of Catalonia," Arrimadas said, promising her party will continue to oppose the separatists. "We are going to keep fighting for a peaceful co-existence, common sense and for a Catalonia for all Catalans."

But pro-independence parties — Puigdemont's Junts per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia), left-republican ERC and the anti-capitalist CUP — together won 70 seats, two above a majority but two less than in the previous parliament. The three groups fell short of winning a majority of votes, though, getting 48 percent of the total.

"The election has resolved very little," said Andrew Dowling, a specialist in Catalan history at Cardiff University in Wales. "Independence has won but in a way similar to 2015 — majority of seats but not in votes."

Dowling said that with the independence vote not reaching over half of the ballots cast, the European Union was not likely to get involved although the bloc will be keen on seeing the Spanish government actively address Catalonia's grievances.

Rajoy has said that taking over control of the region again would be something he would consider if independence is sought by a new Catalan government. Spain's constitution bars secession. Thursday's election saw a record turnout of nearly 82 percent of the 5.5 million eligible voters in Catalonia.

The election was held under highly unusual circumstances, with several pro-independence leaders either jailed or in self-imposed exile for their roles in staging a banned independence referendum that was declared illegal by Spain's highest court.

Eight of the absent politicians were elected as lawmakers. Unless their status changes, they will have to renounce their seats and pass them on to other party members or else the pro-independence bloc could be down a crucial share of votes.

Weeks of campaigning involved little debate about regional policy on issues such as public education, widening inequality and unemployment. At the heart of the battle instead was the recent independence push that led to Spain's worst political crisis in decades.

Tensions have been high in Catalonia since an Oct. 1 referendum backed independence, when Spanish police used rubber bullets and batons against voters who tried to block them from removing ballots from polling stations. Separatist regional lawmakers made a unilateral declaration of independence Oct. 27, prompting Spain's national government to take the dramatic step of firing the regional government and dissolving the Catalan parliament. Courts later ordered the arrest of the former Catalan leaders.

No incidents were reported during voting Thursday. A new Catalan attempt to secede would also be an unwelcome development for the European Union, which is already wrestling with legal complications from Britain's planned exit from the bloc. Senior EU officials have backed Rajoy, and no EU country has offered support for the separatists.

Catalonia's independence ambitions also have scant support in the rest of Spain. The outcome of the political battle is crucial for the region, which accounts for 19 percent of Spain's gross domestic product. An economic slowdown has been the most immediate consequence of the Catalan independence push. Spain's central bank last week cut its national growth forecasts for next year and 2019 to 2.4 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively, cutting a percentage point off its previous predictions and citing the conflict in Catalonia as the cause.

Associated Press writer Aritz Parra reported this story in Barcelona and AP writer Ciaran Giles reported from Madrid. AP writers Joseph Wilson and Karl Ritter in Barcelona, Lorne Cook in Brussels and Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed to this report.

Free at last: A UN without US diplomatic blackmail

December 22, 2017

Not for the first time, the free world has stood up for truth and justice in Palestine. The General Assembly’s vote against President Trump’s decision on Jerusalem was a victory for the rule of law over the law of the jungle. It now leaves both the US and Israel isolated, disgraced and humiliated.

Washington’s threat to cut aid to countries that voted not to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was an insult to the UN and a vicious assault on the sovereign rights of its members. In their customary delusional manner, Israelis believed the US threat was enough to force compliance. They were mistaken; people around the world are simply tired of their arrogance and unethical conduct.

As it stands, Trump’s threat is consistent with a long-standing policy of US blackmail and intimidation exerted within the UN to further Israel’s illegal claims. It was no different from the threats issued to impoverished nations to extract the controversial UN Partition Resolution 181 in 1947.

When that vote was taken, it narrowly gained the two-thirds majority to be adopted – 33 countries voted in favor, 13 opposed and ten abstained. Haiti, Liberia and the Philippines all opposed the partition plan initially but were forced to change their position following the intervention of officials “at the highest levels in Washington”, including President Harry Truman. They were threatened with the withdrawal of US financial aid. James Forrestal, the then Secretary of Defense admitted that “the methods that had been used…to bring coercion and duress on other nations in the General Assembly bordered closely onto scandal.”

By allowing itself to be used in such a scandalous manner to facilitate the claims of one people, the UN had done immense damage to its credibility. It had, in fact, violated one of the most fundamental principles of its Charter namely, “respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples” (Article 1).

There were, apart from Forrestal, other US officials who were prepared to acknowledge the wrong done to the Palestinian people. Commander E.H. Hutchison, who chaired the Jordan-Israel Armistice Commission after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, recalled that “every step in the establishment of a Zionist state” was “a challenge to justice”.

While there are parallels between what happened in the General Assembly in 1947 and 2017, there are, nonetheless, striking differences. Both presidents, Trump and Truman, sought to exploit an international crisis to bolster their domestic standings. However, what the incumbent president does not realize is that the free world has moved on from the days of diplomatic blackmail. So, whereas two-thirds were coerced to vote for partition in 1947, 70 years on two-thirds exercised their free will and voted for peace and the rule of law.

Where does this crushing defeat leave Israel and its mercurial Prime Minister, Benyamin Netanyahu? For sure, Israel will become more isolated among the community of nations. Instead of countries moving their embassies to Jerusalem many will now consider severing or curtailing diplomatic contact with the Zionist state. South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) has taken the lead by adopting a resolution at its national conference to downgrade the South African embassy in Israel to a liaison office.

As for Netanyahu, the UN defeat will, almost certainly, increase calls for his resignation. He is, in political terms, damaged goods, even to the point of being toxic. Only the delusional would want to be associated with him.

Instead of disparaging the UN as “the house of lies”, the Israeli prime minister and his fellow travelers should be eternally grateful to the world body for voting to partition Palestine. Gratitude, regrettably, has never been in their lexicon.

In years gone by, Israel was aided and encouraged by a combination of blind American support; indifference on the part of western powers; and the complicity of “leading” Arab countries. If nothing else, yesterday’s vote at the UN on Jerusalem must mark the beginning of the end of that long chapter of subterfuge.

Political disasters can sometimes be turned into opportunities. This scandalous attempt by the Trump administration to trample roughshod over the UN, in defiance of international norms and standards, must be seized as an opportunity to review Israel’s membership of the world body. After all, it was admitted to the world body on condition that it respects the terms of partition and allows the Palestinian refugees to return (Resolution 273). Israel has not only refused to honor the terms of its membership; it has systematically undermined the UN Charter and brought the world body into disrepute. Surely, the UN would be a much better organisation without member states like this.

As for the Arab leaders who were misled into believing that Donald Trump can realize their grand ambitions, they too must think again.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20171222-free-at-last-a-un-without-us-diplomatic-blackmail/.

Catalan vote fails to clarify Spanish region's future

December 22, 2017

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Elections in Catalonia have failed to clarify the restive region's immediate future, exposing a deep and broad split between those for and against independence from Spain. The Spanish government called the snap election after Catalan separatist parties unilaterally declared independence in October, following a referendum deemed illegal by Spanish authorities.

Spain's government fired the regional government, arrested some of its leaders and dissolved the Catalan parliament. Here is a look at the outcome of Thursday's ballot:

WHO WON?

The pro-Spain Ciutadans (Citizens) collected the most votes in what was the biggest electoral triumph so far for the party founded just over 10 years ago.

Ciutadans, led by 36-year-old lawyer Ines Arrimadas, has been the main opposition to the pro-independence movement in Catalonia.

However, it was a bittersweet victory for the business-friendly party because its 37 seats in the 135-seat regional assembly aren't enough for it to form a regional government on its own.

The real winners turned out to be the pro-independence groupings, who together have a majority in the new Catalan parliament.

Though they have the opportunity to control the assembly, they scored less than half of the votes —48 percent of the total. That could be a source of vulnerability that political opponents will likely use to argue that most Catalans oppose independence.

WHO LOST?

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative Popular Party came last with just three seats, down seven, in what was a major blow to the country's governing party.

Rajoy argued that the unrest in Catalonia over its October bid for independence had hurt the economy in what is Spain's richest region, accounting for about one-fifth of the country's national income. By appealing to their pockets, Rajoy had hoped Catalans would turn against the separatists.

The Citizens party, emboldened by its strong showing in Catalonia, could become a stronger challenge for the Popular Party on a national level.

WHO WILL TAKE POWER?

Parties demanding independence won 70 seats, giving them a parliamentary majority, though they didn't get as many seats as they did in the last election two years ago.

The separatists' slim parliamentary majority will allow them together to negotiate the formation of a government. Past squabbles between them suggest it won't be easy.

Together for Catalonia snared 34 seats, making it the most popular separatist party. Its leader is Carles Puigdemont, the fugitive former Catalan president. He campaigned from Belgium where he is evading a Spanish judicial probe into the October attempt to split from Spain. The investigation could lead to charges of rebellion and sedition that carry penalties of decades in prison if he returns to Spain for a possible trial.

The left-wing republican ERC party collected 32 seats. Its leader and Puigdemont's former No. 2 Oriol Junqueras is being held in jail near Madrid while the investigation continues. The radical, anti-capitalist CUP has four seats.

A major question is who from their ranks those three parties might agree on to become Catalan president and what conditions they would each impose on each other and what they will seek from Madrid.

WHAT ABOUT SPAIN?

The elections kept alive the turbulent issue of Catalan independence, which has scant support in Spain.

The likely continuing political unrest and uncertainty is unwelcome for investors if the early market response Friday is anything to go by. The Madrid stock exchange slid 1.6 percent at the open but soon recovered to trade only 0.9 percent lower in late morning trading.

Investors "are wisely taking a little risk off the table" after seeing the Catalan result, ETX Capital senior market analyst Neil Wilson said in a note.

Spain's central bank last week blamed the uncertainty in Catalonia for its decision to cut its national growth forecasts for next year and 2019 to 2.4 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively.

THE MISSING

Eight of the separatist lawmakers elected, including Puigdemont and Junqueras, are either in jail or are fugitives from Spanish justice in Brussels following the October secession bid.

By law, they can formally accept their seats as deputies without being present. However, parliamentary rules do not allow fugitive or jailed lawmakers to vote in absentia. That means that unless their status changes, the eight may have to renounce their seats and pass them on to other party members.

Otherwise, the separatists would be short of the majority necessary to elect a new government and pass laws in the regional assembly.

THE TIMETABLE

Rajoy is expected to announce the date of the inaugural Catalan parliament session in the coming weeks, but rules say that it will need to be before Jan. 23.

At that opening session, the parliament chooses a house speaker who will call on a candidate to try to form a government within 10 days. The first investiture vote for a new Catalan president must be held by Feb. 6.

In that first vote, the candidate needs an absolute majority of votes. If the candidate fails, he or she will have another chance within 48 hours when they need to have only more votes in favor than against. Failing that, the parties will have two months to form a government or fresh elections will be called.

Governing Catalonia, meanwhile, will remain in the hands of central authorities in Madrid, until a new Catalan Cabinet is chosen. Rajoy has not ruled out invoking the constitutional article that allows him to seize control of the region if the new government breaks the law again by seeking unilateral independence.

Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal. Ciaran Giles in Madrid contributed to this report.

Greek terracotta workshop produces an army of gods

December 23, 2017

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Haralambos Goumas is a man who fashions gods out of clay — a reversal of most ancient creation myths in which the gods make the men. Over the past half-century, Goumas, 67, has produced thousands of large terracotta statues of ancient Greek deities, mythical figures and fabulous beasts, mostly for use as architectural and garden ornaments.

They are a rare survival of a vanishing art in recession-plagued Greece, all made by hand using traditional techniques in a western Athens workshop squeezed in among warehouses, small industries and a railyard.

"I guess that in my lifetime I have made many more statues than those in China's Terracotta Army," Goumas told the Associated Press. Like the 2,200-year old, life-sized sculptures of about 9,000 soldiers and imperial officials dug up in northwestern China, many of Goumas' pieces stand in tidy ranks, in a yard fronting the long, metal-roofed shed with its old-fashioned wood-fired furnace where he works.

Others are scattered apparently randomly: an Athena here, a horse or a satyr there, among bulls' heads, griffins, sphinxes, garden urns or busts of 5th-century B.C. Athenian philosopher Socrates and the 19th-century Greek poet Dionysios Solomos. There's even a Christ somewhere.

Most draw from the neoclassical tradition that dominated Greek urban architecture from the 1830s to the 1920s, and was blitzed during unbridled post-World War II redevelopment. Once rejected as trite remnants of an irrelevant past, the original neoclassical terracotta statues that decorated facades, niches and pediments are now highly-prized antiques.

The tenth of 12 children, Goumas was born next to the workshop — initially his father's porcelain fittings business — that was still surrounded by vineyards and orchards, with the Acropolis dominating the landscape to the east. All his brothers worked there at some point, though he is the only one to have persevered.

"It's very hard, physically demanding work," he said. "It's not so easy to breathe in the smoke from the furnace, or lift these very heavy statues — some weigh 100 kilograms (220 pounds) and the moulds can reach 300 kilograms."

Although past retirement age, Goumas hopes to continue working and at the same time to create a school for young artists on the site, provided he can raise the necessary funds. "Then I'll never have to leave this place," he said. "I have made so many gods that I believe one or other will help me. (Otherwise,) what did I make them all for?"

French, Niger presidents discus migration, extremism

December 23, 2017

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron promised more than 400 million euros ($474 million) in aid over four years to Niger during a visit and told the country's president he was ready to strengthen France's presence in the Sahel.

Macron spoke alongside President Issoufou Mahamadou Saturday after the two met to discuss the fight against extremism, migration and development in Niger. "We are ready to strengthen our presence in the Sahel, because the fight against terrorism is essential," Macron said. Though he emphasized that there were other major issues of concern discussed.

"The lasting stabilization of Libya and the fight against migration and human trafficking," he said African migrants travel through Niger and Libya in the hopes of making it to Europe, and many die in the vast desert. Thousands of West African migrants are being repatriated in recent weeks by their governments amid outrage over recent video footage in Libya showing a migrant slave auction.

Niger President Mahamadou said the root causes of migration are poverty, insecurity and a democratic deficit. He said a development plan is being put in place. "If we manage to respond to this and we succeed in reducing rural poverty...If we manage to fix it in the villages, we could manage to bring a substantive solution to the question of migration and Niger is determined to pursue these efforts," he said.

Macron announced bilateral aid amounting to more than 400 million euros to Niger for 2017 to 2021 that will go toward security, development and democracy projects. The French president visited Niger on Friday and Saturday, wanting to encourage Niger's growing military efforts to fight terrorism in West Africa. France has thousands of troops there in its largest overseas military operation and wants African forces to take a more prominent role.

Late Friday, Macron visited and dined with soldiers stationed in Niger who are fighting against extremism in the Sahel, reassuring them that France wouldn't abandon the region to extremists. "The Sahel is a priority. It's that which plays a part in the future of the African continent, but equally and without doubt, a part of our future. We must not leave the Sahel in the hands of terrorists," he said late Friday amid 500 soldiers with Operation Barkhane at Niger's airport in Niamey, the capital.

In a show of support for French troops based in Niger, he brought with him the chef from the Elysee presidential palace, who oversaw a meal for the French troops in addition to American, Canadian and German forces.

He encouraged the soldiers to remain vigilant and courageous, while also emphasizing that the military response isn't the only answer to defeating extremists such as al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and Boko Haram in the region.

Macron supported the newly formed G-5 Sahel force that will work alongside the operation and is made up of African soldiers from Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Mali and Burkina Faso. A coordinated strategy across countries is needed, he said.