Thai prime minister acquitted of ethics breach, retains post

December 03, 2020

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s highest court on Wednesday acquitted Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha of breaching ethics clauses in the country’s constitution, allowing him to stay in his job at a time he's fending off calls for his resignation from student-led pro-democracy protesters.

The Constitutional Court ruled on a complaint brought by the Pheu Thai party, the largest opposition grouping in Parliament, that Prayuth had broken the law by continuing to live in his military residence after he retired as army commander in September 2014.

The complaint alleged that he broke constitutional articles barring government ministers from receiving special benefits from state agencies or enterprises because that would amount to a conflict of interest. If a minister is found guilty of violating ethical standards, the official is to be disqualified and forced to step down.

The nine-judge panel agreed with an army explanation that retired senior officers such as Prayuth are allowed to stay in army housing in recognition of their service. The judges ruled unanimously in Prayuth's favor.

The ruling comes as Prayuth has been dealing with a persistent student-led pro-democracy movement that has been holding frequent well-attended rallies demanding that he and his government step down, charging that they came to power illegitimately.

Even before the court convened Wednesday, the protesters had called a rally to respond to the verdict. "Thailand’s justice system has completely lost its integrity. The court’s verdict today shows they look down on the people. This will fuel people’s anger and be the condition that drives our rallies to a higher level,” a protest leader, Parit “Penguin” Chiwarak, told The Associated Press.

The rally attracted several thousand people, and like many other recent ones had a carnival atmosphere at times. But there was also an angry tone when Parit tore up and burned a book written by one of the judges, Nakharin Mektrairat, who in the past decade has become a prominent defender of conservative Thai ideology.

As army commander, Prayuth led a coup in May 2014 that ousted an elected government led by the Pheu Thai party. He then headed the junta that ruled for five years and was also prime minister in the military-guided government.

A general election last year brought to power a proxy party established by the military, which with its allies selected Prayuth to serve again as prime minister. The ongoing protests charge that the 2017 constitution established under military rule gave the proxy Palang Pracharath Party an unfair advantage in the election.

When Prayuth and several of his Cabinet ministers faced a censure debate in Parliament in February, opposition leader Sompong Amornwiwat raised the issue of whether Prayuth had acted illegally by continuing to live at his army residence at a base in Bangkok.

Prayuth’s defense has been that the official residence of the prime minister is undergoing renovation, and also that he faces security concerns. The army argued on his behalf that his military housing is actually a VIP guest house, though critics suggest that if he did not pay at least for water and electricity, he may be breaking the law.

The court said that senior officers such as Prayuth were entitled to live in military housing as special guests in honor of their military careers. Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan and Interior Minister Anupong Paochinda were given the same privilege, former army chief Gen. Apirat Kongsompong declared before his retirement this past September. The court also said the current chief, Gen. Narongpan Jittkeawtae, had explained that the army’s regulations allow it to pay for utilities and other necessary costs in such instances.

In the past 12 years, court rulings have ousted three Thai prime ministers. The court, like the military, is considered a pillar of the country’s royalist establishment, and the ultimate bulwark against threats to it. The three ousted politicians were associated with a former prime minister, populist billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by a 2006 military coup after being accused of abuse of power, corruption and disrespect to the monarchy.

The court's rulings have generally been favorable to Thaksin's opponents and hostile to his supporters, leading to criticism that it it is guided as much by politics as by law.

Thailand's pro-democracy protesters warn of possible coup

November 28, 2020

BANGKOK (AP) — Pro-democracy demonstrators in Thailand, undeterred by arrest warrants and the possibility of violent attacks, held another rally on Friday, poking fun at their critics and warning of the possibility of a military coup.

The potential for violence was illustrated after their last rally on Wednesday, when two men were reportedly shot and critically wounded. Although the incident remains murky and its connection to the rally unclear, it was a reminder that the student protesters are vulnerable, especially because of the passions they inspire among some of their opponents.

The protest movement’s core demands are for Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and his government to step down, the constitution to be amended to be more democratic, and the monarchy reformed to make it more accountable.

Their issue concerning the monarchy is the most controversial because the royal institution by law and tradition is virtually untouchable, and regarded by many as the bedrock of national identity. The military has declared defense of the monarchy to be among its foremost duties.

The protest leaders believe that King Maha Vajiralongkorn holds more power than is appropriate under a constitutional monarchy, and have made that the centerpiece of their campaigning in recent weeks. Although any criticism of the monarchy used to be taboo, speeches at the rallies — as well as signs and chants __ include caustic words about the king and the palace.

In response, Thai authorities this past week escalated their legal battle against protest leaders, charging 12 of them with violating a harsh law against defaming the monarchy. The lese majeste law carries a penalty of three to 15 years' imprisonment, but has not been used for the past three years.

Historically, defending the monarchy has been abused for political reasons. It has also triggered violence, most notably in 1976, when it led to the killings of dozens of students at a university protest against the return from exile of an ousted military dictator. That event was the trigger for a coup, and since then Thailand has had successful coups in 1977, 1991, 2006 and 2014.

There is concern that if the government feels it cannot control the protests, which show little sign of abating, it may impose martial law or be ousted by the army in a coup. Some speakers on Friday evening urged the crowd to take measures to resist any coup that might be launched.

Panupong “Mike Rayong” Jadnok urged both symbolic and actual resistance in case the military tried a takeover. “If a coup is staged, please tie a white ribbon in front of your house. If they take it away, we will just tie one back on again,” he said.

He said people should also abandon their cars in the road, declaring that “A coup cannot be achieved again as long as we come out and seize every intersection across the country.” Resisting any coup attempt was the nominal theme of the rally, which began in a festival-like atmosphere that has marked many of the protest events. Oversized inflatable yellow rubber ducks that became icons of the movement after they were used as shields against police water cannons were joined by balloons in the image of silvery space aliens. The balloons are displayed to mock accusations that foreigners — “aliens” — fund and direct the protest movement.

Earlier Friday, in another sign that the government was stiffening its crackdown, a television commentator who has been covering the protests said he had been summoned by police to face a charge of violating an emergency decree banning the rallies that was temporarily in force in October. The decree was ignored by protesters, with little attempt at enforcement.

Sirote Klampaiboon works with Voice TV, a digital TV and web station that is sympathetic to the protest movement. It has livesteamed all of the major rallies, and the government sought to shut it down but was told by a court that it improperly tried to do so.

Sirote said he was being bullied. “I don’t know what I did wrong. I am not a protester. I went to the protest as a reporter. In my life, I’ve never done anything illegal,” he said on his TV talk show.

Associated Press writer Chalida Ekvitthayavechnukul contributed to this report.

Thai police revive royal defamation law ahead of protest

November 25, 2020

BANGKOK (AP) — Thai authorities have escalated their legal battle against the students leading pro-democracy protests, charging 12 of them with violating a harsh law against defaming the monarchy. News of the charges comes as the Thai capital Bangkok girded for another rally Wednesday as the students push their demands that Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and his government step down, the constitution be amended to make it more democratic, and the monarchy be reformed to be made more accountable.

Police on Tuesday issued summonses for 12 protest leaders to answer charges of lese majeste, defaming or insulting key members of the royal family. The offense is punishable by up to 15 years imprisonment.

The law is controversial, because anyone — not just royals or authorities — can lodge a complaint, so it had in the past been used as a weapon in political vendettas. But it has not been employed for the past three years, after King Maha Vajiralongkorn informed the government that he did not wish to see its use. The king has not publicly commented on the law since then.

According to the legal aid group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, the 12 suspects include top protest leaders known for their public criticism of the monarchy. Many in the student-led protest movement believe the monarchy holds too much power for a constitutional monarchy. But their challenge is fiercely opposed by royalists, who consider the royal institution an untouchable bedrock of national identity.

One of the 12 protest leaders, Parit “Penguin” Chiwarak, posted his response to the summons on Twitter on Tuesday, saying: “I am not afraid anymore. The ceiling (of our demands) is destroyed. Nobody can stop us now.”

The protest movement late Tuesday night announced a change of venue for their latest rally, which was to put a focus on the monarchy. It had earlier announced that it would be held outside the offices of the Crown Property Bureau, which manages the vast fortune controlled by the king.

The target was switched to the head office of the Siam Commercial Bank, a publicly-held company in which the king is the biggest shareholder. The bank’s headquarters are in a different area of Bangkok, far from the district hosting the Crown Property Bureau and other royal and government offices.

The protest movement announced the change of venue was to avoid a confrontation with police and royalist counter demonstrators, which they said they feared could trigger a declaration of martial law or a coup by the military.

Barbed wire had already been installed around the Crown Property Bureau offices and the government had declared an exclusion zone of 150 meters (500 feet) around the property into which it would be illegal for protesters to enter. The bank, as a commercial enterprise rather than a royal office, apparently would not fall into the legal category of areas where an exclusion zone could be declared.

A protest rally on Nov. 17 turned chaotic, as police employed water cannons and tear gas to block the protesters from entering the Parliament grounds. At least 55 people were hurt, including six reported to have had gunshot wounds, incurred in circumstances that remain unclear. Police denied firing live rounds or rubber bullets.

The next day, several thousand demonstrators gathered outside the national headquarters of the police in central Bangkok to protest the use of force. The rally at police headquarters was nonviolent but fueled royalist outrage at the protest movement, as demonstrators defaced the Royal Thai Police sign and scrawled graffiti and chanted slogans that could be considered derogatory to the king.

Prayuth reacted by declaring that the protesters had gone too far and could now expect to be prosecuted for their illegal actions. While protest leaders have faced dozens of charges over the past few months, they have generally been freed on bail, and none have yet come to trial.

A statement issued Wednesday by Free Youth, a driving force in a coalition of protest groups, called Thailand a failed state whose people “are ruled by capitalists, military, and feudalists.” “And under this state, the ruling class oppress the people who are the true founders and heirs of this country,” said the statement, the most strident issued so far in the name of the group.

Many of their rallies have had a light-hearted element, with clever slogans and songs. But the statement declared that “This is not a frivolous fad, it is a fearless fight to light up the future in our generation.”

Thai lawmakers debate demands for constitutional changes

November 17, 2020

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s political battleground shifted Tuesday from the streets to the country’s Parliament, where lawmakers are considering proposals to amend the constitution, one of the core demands of the nation's student-led pro-democracy movement.

Seven draft constitutional amendments are scheduled to be voted on in a two-day joint session of the House and Senate. Constitutional changes require a joint vote of those two bodies. Any that are passed will have to go through second and third readings at least a month after this week’s vote.

Thailand has had 20 constitutions since abolishing the absolute monarchy in 1932 in favor of a constitutional monarchy. It is not expected that Parliament at this point will agree on specific changes for inclusion in a new charter, though the protesters back a draft that would roll back aspects of the current 2017 constitution — enacted during military rule — that granted extra powers to unelected branches of government.

Instead, Parliament is likely to establish a constitution drafting committee to write a new charter. This would allow the government to say it is willing to meet the protesters’ demands at least halfway, while buying time with a process that could extend over many months.

Consensus could also be reached on a draft that would allow all points in the constitution to be amended, with the significant exception of articles concerning the monarchy. Reform of the monarchy is another key demand of the protest movement, which believes the royal institution is too powerful and lacking accountability.

But any consideration of sections concerning the monarchy is fiercely opposed by the government and its supporters, who consider the institution untouchable. The sole draft that calls for considering amending all parts of the constitution is almost certain to be rejected.

The pro-democracy movement, which supports substantial changes to the constitution, says it plans to have its followers surround the Parliament building in a show of strength. The movement has been staging mass rallies of thousands of people around the country for months.

A contending group of a couple of hundred royalists who oppose changes gathered outside of Parliament on Tuesday morning as the session opened and departed ahead of the expected afternoon arrival of the pro-democracy group.

The Parliamentary session is an effort by the government of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha to take the initiative away from the pro-democracy movement, which in addition to seeking constitutional changes and reforms to the monarchy wants Prayuth and his government to step down.

The protesters allege that Prayuth, who as army chief in 2014 led a coup that ousted an elected government, was returned to power unfairly in last year’s election because laws had been changed to favor a pro-military party. The protesters also say the constitution, written and enacted under military rule, is undemocratic.

It is their unprecedented demand for reforms to the monarchy that has caused the most stir. The issue touches a raw nerve in Thailand, where reverence for the royal institution is inculcated from birth and protected by a law that makes defaming the monarch and his immediate family punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

The most controversial amendment is the one proposed by a progressive civic association, the Internet Law Reform Dialogue, which collected about 100,000 signatures to put it on the parliamentary agenda. It seeks many specific changes to the 2017 charter, but its biggest sticking point is that it would allow changes to be made in articles in the constitution covering the monarchy.

Associated Press writer Grant Peck contributed to this report.

Thai Parliament meets to debate political protest tensions

October 26, 2020

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s Parliament began a special session Monday that was called to address tensions as pro-democracy protests draw students and other demonstrators into the streets almost daily demanding the prime minister's resignation and other reforms.

As Speaker of the House Chuan Leekpai began the session, only 450 of the total of 731 members of both houses had signed in for the meeting. The demonstrations by student-led groups in the Bangkok and other cities have three main demands: that Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha step down, the constitution be amended to make it more democratic and reforms be made to the monarchy to make it more accountable.

Chuan cautioned that the Parliament session was not to discuss the monarchy’s role. Public criticism of the monarchy is unprecedented in a country where the royal institution has been considered sacrosanct and royalists have denounced the protesters for raising the issue.

The protesters allege Prayuth, who led a coup in 2014 as the army chief, was returned to power unfairly in last year’s election because laws had been changed to favor a pro-military party. The protesters also say the constitution, written and enacted under military rule, is undemocratic.

In his opening speech Monday, Prayuth said he and his government are aware that this is an era of change, pushed by technology. “But we have to admit that in Thailand, millions, tens of millions, of people do not want to see change though chaos," he said, referring to different points of view over the protesters and their demands. "Everyone has their own beliefs."

He called for Parliament to “creatively find a balance” between competing views. Opposition leader Sompong Amornvivat of the Pheu Thai party criticized Prayuth for his handling of the crisis. He called on the government to listen to all the protesters' demands, to amend the constitution, and to ease tensions by measures such as releasing arrested students and backing off from threats to censor the media.

He ended his remarks with a call for Prayuth's resignation, charging that he was part of the problem. The non-voting session of Parliament is expected to last two days. The protesters have little confidence in the parliamentary path, declaring the government’s efforts insincere.

They noted the points of discussion submitted by Prayuth’s government for debate dealt not with the protesters' concerns but were thinly disguised criticisms of the protests themselves. They concern instead the risk of the coronavirus spreading at rallies, the alleged interference with a royal motorcade by a small crowd earlier this month, and illegal gatherings and the destruction of images of the royal family. Prayuth in his opening remarks referred to these as the reasons for holding the session.

Instead of confronting lawmakers and counter-protesters on Monday, the pro-democracy protest organizers have called for an afternoon march to the German Embassy, apparently to bring attention to the time King Maha Vajiralongkorn spends in Germany.

Vajiralongkorn has for years spent significant time in Germany, but it only became an issue after the death of his father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, in 2016. Bhumibol was king for seven decades, and though he traveled extensively on state visits in the early years of his reign — including being welcomed with a ticker tape parade in New York City — he only left the country once after the 1960s and that was an overnight stay in neighboring Laos.

Vajiralongkorn’s ability to spend time abroad has been made easier by changes his office sought and received to the current constitution that no longer require him to appoint a regent when away from the kingdom.

Germany’s foreign minister, recently questioned in Parliament by a member of the Green Party, expressed concern over any political activities the king might be conducting on the country’s soil. The king in recent weeks has been in Thailand with a busy schedule of ceremonial events.

Protesters’ criticism of the royal institution has roiled conservative Thais. Self-proclaimed “defenders of the monarchy” mobilized last week online and in rallies in several cities, in many cases led by local civil servants.

Thailand's Parliament in September was scheduled to vote on six proposed constitutional amendments but instead set up a committee to further consider such proposals, and then recessed. Constitutional changes require a joint vote of the House and the Senate, but the proposals lack support in the Senate, whose members are not elected and are generally very conservative and hostile to the protesters.

Thai protesters carry on demonstrations despite warnings

October 18, 2020

BANGKOK (AP) — Pro-democracy activists in Thailand launched their fifth straight days of protests on Sunday, scheduling demonstrations not just in the capital but also at several other locations around the country.

The demonstrators received a new warning from police that they are violating the law. On Saturday, however, few people were arrested as peaceful rallies were held at several points around Bangkok, the capital, with several thousand people taking part.

The protest movement — which is calling for the prime minister's resignation, a more democratic constitution and a reformed monarchy — began in March at universities around the country. After a lull due to the coronavirus crisis, it was revived in late July, building up strength, particularly in Bangkok.

On Sunday, rallies were called in at least a dozen provinces, including Chiang Mai, a popular tourist destination in northern Thailand. The authorities in Bangkok tried in vain to keep people from gathering by selectively shutting down stations on Bangkok’s elevated and underground mass transit lines. On Saturday, after protest organizers urged followers to meet at the city’s Skytrain stations, they ordered all stations to be closed, to little avail.

The current cycle of confrontations began before dawn Thursday, when police broke up an overnight rally outside Government House, which hosts the offices of Prime Minister Prayuth Chaon-ocha. It led Prayuth to declare a state of emergency, banning gatherings of more than five people and allowing the government extra powers to keep the peace.

Protesters ignored the emergency decree and gathered Thursday night in large numbers at a major intersection in Bangkok’s central shopping district. overcoming half-hearted resistance by thin lines of police.

A Friday night rally at a nearby intersection was crushed by a large forced of riot police backed by a truck-mounted water cannon. The use of force was condemned by rights organizations. Police made no efforts to break up Saturday’s gatherings, which ended peacefully at 8 p.m., as scheduled by organizers.

A statement issued late Saturday night by Prayuth’s office said the government had acted within the law in seeking to stop the rallies, and did not intend to deny people their rights. “The situation is very dynamic at the moment," police deputy spokesperson Kissana Phatanacharoen said at a Sunday morning news conference. “There is no formula as to what we do or what we don't do.”

He said that if people failed to obey the law, police would be compelled to enforce it. The protesters charge that Prayuth, who as army commander led a 2014 coup that toppled an elected government, was returned to power unfairly in last year’s general election because laws had been changed to favor a pro-military party. The protesters say a constitution promulgated under military rule and passed in a referendum in which campaigning against it was illegal is undemocratic.

The protest movement became particularly controversial when it adopted reform of the monarchy as a demand. The protesters want it to act within the checks and balances of democracy. The monarchy has long been considered sacrosanct in Thailand, and is protected by a law that makes defaming the royal institution punishable by three to 15 years imprisonment. The issue has angered Thailand’s conservative establishment, especially the army, which considers protecting the monarchy to be one of its main duties.

2 charged with endangering queen as Thai protests continue

October 16, 2020

BANGKOK (AP) — Authorities in Thailand have filed the most severe charges yet in connection with ongoing pro-democracy demonstrations, charging two men under an article of the law covering violence against the queen.

Ekachai Hongkangwan and Paothong Bunkueanum were arrested Friday. They could face anywhere from 16 years to life imprisonment. The move against the two activists comes as the student-led protest movement continues to press its demands, including new elections, changes to make the constitution more democratic and reform of the monarchy to make it conform with democratic norms.

The movement demonstrated its strength Thursday night, when as many as 10,000 supporters turned out for a rally in central Bangkok, defying a ban imposed earlier the same day under a state of emergency. It followed another rally the day before, which was broken up by police.

Police announced Friday they would block roads leading to Bangkok’s Rajprasong intersection, where Thursday's rally was held, after protesters called on supporters to mass again. Lines set up by outnumbered police in the shopping district crumbled under little pressure from the protesters, who continued activities well past midnight.

The legal aid group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights said at least 51 people have been arrested since Tuesday in connection with the protests. Ekachai is a veteran activist who has been physically attacked several times, in apparent response to his criticism of the military. Paothong, a university student also known as Francis Bunkueanum, has been involved in organizing the recent protests.

The Wednesday incident in which the two were allegedly involved was stunning to most Thais, because by tradition and law, members of the royal family are treated with the utmost respect. Video that circulated widely on social media showed members of a small crowd heckling a royal motorcade carrying Queen Suthida and Prince Dipangkorn as it slowly passed. Security personnel stood between the vehicles and the crowd, but there was no visible violence and none was described by witnesses.

It took place during the third major rally in Bangkok called by the protesters. They began at the city’s Democracy Monument, after which several thousand marched to Government House, where the offices of Prime Minster Prayuth Chan-ocha are located.

At the same time, King Maha Vajiralongkorn and other members of the royal family were driving to attend a royal religious ceremony at the Grand Palace. Queen Suthida’s motorcade encountered a small crowd that had gathered at Government House ahead of the main body of protesters.

“We were not notified by the police of the upcoming royal motorcade in which we had no way of knowing because they were not informing us,” Paothong told reporters Friday. “Once we knew that there was a motorcade of the queen and the heir presumptive to the throne I tried to break away from the line and use my megaphone to have everyone move away from the police barriers so the motorcade can pass through easily,” he said.

Prayuth’s declaration of a state of emergency said the measure was necessary because “certain groups of perpetrators intended to instigate an untoward incident and movement in the Bangkok area by way of various methods and via different channels, including causing obstruction to the royal motorcade.”

Prayuth said Friday that his government hopes it could drop the state of emergency ahead of its normal 30-day duration “if the situation improves quickly.”

Thai protesters spark interest in 1976 university massacre

October 06, 2020

BANGKOK (AP) — Anti-government protests challenging the institutions of Thailand's traditional ruling class are not just prompting intense debate about the country's future. They are driving young people to delve into the darkest events of the not-so-distant past.

Academics and researchers say they’re seeing a surge in the number of people wanting to learn about a massacre of students 44 years ago that mainstream Thai history books ignore. At Bangkok’s Thammasat University last week, students who were exploring connections to the troubled past took photographs for “then and now” comparisons to the bloodletting that took place on the campus on Oct. 6, 1976.

At another university in the capital, students hungry for information about the massacre scoured books to write an article for their online newspaper. Like many young Thais, they had known virtually nothing about it.

This year’s protesters are seeking new elections, a more democratic constitution and an end to intimidation of political activists. Their speeches have repeatedly highlighted the 1976 tragedy, piquing the interest of the current generation in what their forebears faced.

“We connect ourselves to the Oct. 6 event because it was when the state used force against those with different beliefs,” said third-year student Ruchapong Chamjirachaikul. "And we can see from the present that there are people and the student movement questioning the power of the established political institutions and the responses are also threats, use of force, and legal intimidation against those with different beliefs.”

Thailand in October 1976 was in ferment after a dictator ousted by a popular uprising three years earlier was allowed to return from exile to serve as a Buddhist monk. Deadly attacks on left-wing activists had escalated, and the government — unnerved by neighboring regimes in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos falling under Communist rule — battled its own armed insurgency in the countryside.

Police that violent September had killed two state enterprise workers trying to paste up anti-dictatorship posters. Students at Thammasat University rallied — as they had been doing frequently since 1973 — to protest against the killings as well as the dictator’s return.

A student drama group staged a skit about the workers' killings; right-wing newspapers and an army-operated radio station trumpeted that the skit was really a thinly disguised attack on the monarchy. Police and organized vigilante groups began gathering outside the university gates on the night of Oct. 5, and the next morning launched an all-out violent assault.

Official accounts say 40 students were killed but the actual toll is believed to be much higher. Photos and film of incredible brutality — wild firing from heavy weapons directed into the campus, desecration of bodies dragged outside — left indelible images. But in time, the massacre became a non-event in Thailand, never included in school textbooks and fading quickly from the national consciousness.

That’s because it raises uncomfortable questions about who was responsible, some academics say, and because it contradicts the official narrative about the unity and goodness of Thai society. “To dig into what happened in 1976, a lot of people are afraid that it will involve the ruling elite and its associates,” said Puangthong Pawakapan, a political science professor at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. “They don’t want people to know about it. They want people to forget about it.”

Instead, they seem to be discovering it. An anniversary exhibition is drawing a steady stream of curious visitors; while online, the interest is a deluge. In August, as the contemporary protest movement gathered momentum, a Facebook page dedicated to the massacre registered 1.3 million visits. Visits to an online memorial site went up 13-fold.

“The younger generation is trying to understand what happened in the past,” said Patporn Phoothong, who curates the exhibition and the web pages. “They are not only questioning about the present, but looking into the past, trying to understand what happened, what were the problems, limitations and the structural problems that still cause issues today.”

Then, as now, the most explosive issue is the monarchy. Some of today’s protest leaders are demanding significant reform of the royal institution, which is enshrined in law as a constitutional monarchy. For many conservative Thais, whose devotion to the throne is unconditional, that’s an insidious notion.

Veteran politician Warong Dechgitvigrom in August launched the group Thai Pakdee — Loyal Thais — with the declared goal of protecting the monarchy from “nation-haters.” He charged that raising the specter of 1976 is just a way to dupe the young into supporting revolution and the establishment of a republic, a goal explicitly denied by the protesters.

“So these people have to dig out the history of 40 years ago, that happened even before some of these youths were born, just to create hatred in our society,” he said.

Ukrainian Athletes Join Military after Russian Invasion

Wednesday, 2 March, 2022

Less than two weeks ago, Dmytro Pidruchnyi was competing at the Winter Olympics in Ukraine's national colors. Now he's wearing a military uniform and ballistic helmet.

Pidruchnyi is a world champion in biathlon, which combines skiing and shooting, and a three-time Olympian. He returned home from Beijing last week just before Russia launched its invasion of his country.

“I'm currently in my hometown Ternopil serving in the National Guard of Ukraine,” he posted on Instagram on Tuesday under a picture in uniform. “This photo was taken during air alarm.”

Pidruychnyi also made a memorial statement for Yevhen Malyshev, a 19-year-old former athlete on Ukraine's junior biathlon team. The exact circumstances of Malyshev's death are unclear, but the International Biathlon Union said Wednesday he “died this week serving in the Ukrainian military.”

Pidruchnyi is one of many athletes who have joined up with the Ukrainian armed forces.

Tennis player Serhiy Stakhovskiy had been taking some time away from the game after retiring in January following the Australian Open. When Russia invaded, he returned to Ukraine from his home in Hungary and joined up.

“I’m still not sure how I’ve done it. I know that it’s extremely hard on my wife. My kids don’t know that I’m here,” Stakhovsky, who spent nearly two decades on the tennis tour, told the BBC on Tuesday. “They don’t understand war. They’re too little to understand what’s going on.”

Former boxing world champion Vasyl Lomachenko has joined a territorial defense unit, he posted on social media, and world heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk has also been pictured holding a rifle. Usyk is originally from Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

Two other former champions, Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko, have symbolic non-combat roles in Ukraine's defense. Vitali is the mayor of Kyiv and Wladimir is a trusted adviser.

Other athletes are watching from afar.

Figure skater Olga Mikutina was born in Ukraine's second-largest city of Kharkiv, near the Russian border. The city has come under heavy assaults from Russian air and ground forces.

While competing for Austria at the Olympics, the 18-year-old skater said she was trying to block out thoughts of the military buildup near her home city. Now after the invasion, she is posting pictures of the damage to Kharkiv and what she terms a “call for Russian rebellion” against President Vladimir Putin.

Source: Asharq al-Awsat.

Link: https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3506966/ukrainian-athletes-join-military-after-russian-invasion.

Belarus sprinter feels safe, looks to future in Poland

August 12, 2021

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — After all the turmoil of the last week, Krystsina Tsimanouskaya finally feels safe. The Belarusian Olympic sprinter who found refuge in Poland to avoid punishment at home after criticizing team officials at the Tokyo Games says she now hopes to focus on how to keep up a world-class running career.

Speaking in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press at the Olympic Center in Warsaw, the 24-year-old runner said she has already asked Polish officials to help her resume training. “Life changed in one day, and now we are starting it from scratch in a new country,” she said, speaking with her husband, Arseni Zdanevich, by her side. “We are planning to stay in Poland and continue our careers here.”

"We have turned to the Ministry of Sports, turned to the Polish athletics national team, with issues regarding a coach, a group and a place where I can train and many other issues regarding the continuation of my sports career here in Poland,” she said.

She emphasized that she and her 25-year-old husband, an athletics trainer who also has been her coach, feel that it would be a waste to abandon an online training program they launched in Belarus. “We had so many ideas, we planned it to a tiny detail,” Tsimanouskaya said. “We have put a lot of time and effort in it and we would like to keep it going.”

Tsimanouskaya said she and her husband feel secure in Poland, where they arrived separately last week on humanitarian visas. “We are definitely safe now because we are under protection,” she said. The runner recalled the harrowing, confusing moments when she sought Japanese police help at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport, when she was being forced by Belarus officials to leave the Summer Games early and return home.

“They didn't understand first what happened to me,” the runner said of the police. “They thought that I was unwell or lost something. And then I wrote that I was being forcibly taken out of the country and I don't want that to happen.”

She used her phone to translate the desperate plea for help after her grandmother warned her not to return to Belarus. The drama began after Tsimanouskaya criticized her team officials, saying on Instagram that she was put in the 4x400 relay even though she had never run in the event. She was then barred from competing in the 200-meter race that she expected to run in and told to pack her bags.

At home, the standoff set off a massive backlash in state-run media, deepening Tsimanouskaya's fears that she would face reprisals if she returned. When she used Google apps to translate her plea to Japanese police, a suspicious Belarusian official asked what was going on. She told him she forgot something at the Olympic village and needed to return.

Tsimanouskaya described the feeling of safety she finally had after Japanese police took her away from team officials. “I think I already felt secure at the airport when I was with the police,” she said. “I realized that I turned to the police, they are protecting me and my life isn't in danger. I was being constantly escorted, I felt nervous and sometimes my hands were trembling, but I wouldn’t say that I felt unsafe. The only place which would be unsafe for me is Belarus.”

The standoff again drew global attention to the repressive environment in Belarus, where authorities have unleashed a relentless crackdown on dissent following President Alexander Lukashenko’s being handed a sixth term after the Aug. 9, 2020 presidential vote that the opposition and the West saw as rigged.

Huge protests rocked Belarus, and authorities responded by arresting more than 35,000 people and beating thousands. They have ramped up the clampdown in recent months, raiding hundreds of offices and homes of independent journalists, activists and all those deemed unloyal.

Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron fist for 27 years, has denounced his opponents as Western stooges. Asked about Tsimanouskaya at a marathon news conference Monday, he claimed that "she wouldn’t have done it herself if she hadn’t been manipulated.”

Tsimanouskaya said she had been apolitical before the standoff at the Tokyo Games and deliberately refrained from signing petitions challenging the authorities, fearing that would bring harm to her husband and her parents.

She said she had problems with sports officials after posting a message against violence on Instagram and was told she would face dismissal from the country's national team if she did it again. After the airport standoff, her husband said they decided to move to Poland after talking to their parents.

“After consulting with them, we decided that it’s dangerous to return to Belarus at the moment,” he said. "And we decided that I will follow my wife to support her in a new country and build a sports career in Poland. You know, I was more worried for my wife than myself. I believed that they could use me to hurt her somehow.”

Tsimanouskaya and Zdanevich said they badly miss their parents but talk to them on Zoom and hope they could visit Poland someday. They had to leave their dog and cat at their apartment in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, since Zdanevich had to flee quickly, so they asked neighbors and friends to take care of them.

The runner also hopes to sort out a problem with eBay that annulled all bids when she tried to auction a silver medal she has from 2019 to raise money to help Belarusian athletes punished for their political views.

“I was deprived of a chance to take part in the Olympic Games in my event and (eBay) effectively denied me an opportunity to help athletes,” Tsimanouskaya said, voicing hope that the company will correct its mistake and allow her to auction her medal.

And she hopes that Belarus will one day become a democracy. “I hope that a time will come soon when Belarus could be free and people will have freedom of speech,” she said.

Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.

Belarus Olympic runner who feared going home lands in Poland

August 05, 2021

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Belarusian Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, who feared for her safety at home after criticizing her coaches on social media, flew into Warsaw on Wednesday night on a humanitarian visa after leaving the Tokyo Olympics, a Polish diplomat confirmed.

Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz said the 24-year-old athlete had arrived in the Polish capital after flying in from Tokyo via Vienna, a route apparently chosen to confuse those who would endanger her safety. In a statement, the diplomat said he “wanted to thank all the Polish consular & diplomatic staff involved, who flawlessly planned and secured her safe journey.”

The plane that she was traveling on from Vienna was directed to a separate airport building in Warsaw used by government officials. Police vans were seen all over the airport. Passengers from the flight told reporters that one young woman was left on board as they exited the plane and were put on buses to the main terminal.

Tsimanouskaya later was seen with a top Belarusian dissident in Poland, Pavel Latushko, in a photo taken just after her arrival inside the airport building. “We are glad that Kristina Timanovskaya managed to get to Warsaw safely!” Latushko said on Twitter, adding he hopes she will be able to return to a “New Belarus” and continue her career there.

In a dramatic weekend standoff at the Tokyo Games, Tsimanouskaya said Belarus team officials tried to force her to fly home early after she criticized them. She urged the International Olympic Committee to look into the dispute and some European countries stepped in to offer assistance.

It's not clear what's next for the runner — either in her sporting life or her personal one. Before she left Japan, she said she hoped to continue her running career but that safety was her immediate priority. Her husband fled Belarus this week shortly after his wife said she would not be returning, and Poland has also offered him a visa.

“We are very happy that she is here safe,” said Magnus Brunner, a top Austrian government official, after Tsimanouskaya's plane arrived in Vienna on Wednesday afternoon. “But she is scared about her future and about her family.”

At the Vienna airport, the runner was protected by Austrian police officers, public broadcaster ORF reported, and stayed in the transit area. Tsimanouskaya flew first to Austria instead of directly to Poland on the advice of Polish authorities for security reasons, said Vadim Krivosheyev of the Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation.

The drama began after Tsimanouskaya’s criticism of how officials were managing her team set off a massive backlash in state-run media in Belarus, where the government has relentlessly stifled any criticism. The runner said on Instagram that she was put in the 4x400 relay even though she has never raced in the event. She was then barred from competing in the 200 meters.

She accused team officials of hustling her to the Tokyo airport but she refused to board a plane home and was protected by Japanese security. The officials “made it clear that, upon return home, I would definitely face some form of punishment,” Tsimanouskaya told the AP in a videocall from Tokyo on Tuesday. “There were also thinly disguised hints that more would await me.”

The sprinter called on international sports authorities “to investigate the situation, who gave the order, who actually took the decision that I can’t compete anymore.” She suggested possible sanctions against the head coach.

Reached by phone, Dzmitry Dauhalionak, the head of Belarus’ delegation at the Tokyo Olympics, declined to comment. The standoff has drawn more attention to Belarus' uncompromising authoritarian government. When the country was rocked by months of protests following a presidential election that the opposition and the West saw as rigged, authorities responded by arresting some 35,000 people and beating thousands of demonstrators. In recent months the government has orchestrated a strong crackdown on independent media and opposition figures.

President Alexander Lukashenko, who led the Belarus National Olympic Committee for almost a quarter century before handing over the job to his son in February, has a keen interest in sports, seeing it as a key element of national prestige.

And his government has shown it is willing to go to extreme lengths to target its critics. In May, Belarus authorities diverted a European passenger jet to the capital of Minsk, where they arrested an opposition journalist on board.

In the AP interview, Tsimanouskaya expressed concern for her parents, who remain in Belarus. Her husband, Arseni Zdanevich, left for Ukraine shortly after the drama began. Poland has since issued him a humanitarian visa.

Amid Tsimanouskaya's rift with team officials, two other Belarusian athletes announced their intention to stay abroad. Heptathlete Yana Maksimava said she and her husband, Andrei Krauchanka, who won silver in the decathlon at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, would remain in Germany.

“I'm not planning to return home after all the events that happened in Belarus,” Maksimava said on Instagram, adding that “you can lose not just your freedom but also your life” in her homeland. Western leaders have condemned Tsimanouskaya’s treatment by Belarusian authorities.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken denounced Belarusian officials’ attempt to force Tsimanouskaya to return to Belarus for exercising free speech as “another act of transnational repression.” “Such actions violate the Olympic spirit, are an affront to basic rights, and cannot be tolerated,” Blinken said on Twitter.

While Tsimanouskaya said she hoped to continue her sporting career, she could face lengthy procedures if she wants to compete under a different flag. Tomasz Majewski, vice president of the Polish Athletics Association and twice an Olympic gold medalist in the shot put, voiced fears that Tsimanouskaya “will lose the best period of her career" if she changes citizenship.

“These are complicated matters. We know that there will be clear objections from the home team, which will probably make it difficult or even seek the disqualification of the athlete,” he said.

Euro 2020 opening marks return of mega-scale sports events

June 11, 2021

ROME (AP) — Postponed by a year, the biggest sporting event since the coronavirus brought the world to a halt kicks off Friday at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome — a milestone both for European and world sports.

The opening match of soccer's European Championship will be played in the capital of Italy, the first country outside Asia to get struck by the pandemic and the first in the world to implement a nationwide lockdown.

The tournament represents a major step forward on the path toward recovery after one of the darkest chapters in the continent’s history since World War II. More than 1 million Europeans have died in the pandemic, including almost 127,000 Italians.

“After everything that’s happened, now the situation is improving, I think the time has come to start providing fans with something to be satisfied about,” said Italy coach Roberto Mancini, who tested positive for COVID-19 in November but was asymptomatic.

The tournament was postponed last March when countries were scrambling to contain virus outbreaks and major sporting events around the world were canceled or put on hold. Many worry that it’s still not safe to bring tens of thousands of fans together in stadiums across Europe, but organizers hope measures including crowd limitations, staggered arrival times for fans, social distancing rules and lots of hand sanitizer will help prevent a resurgence of virus infections, which have dropped sharply in Europe in recent months.

In Rome, fans entering the stadium are required to bring documentation showing they have been vaccinated against the virus, tested negative in the 48 hours before the match or already had the disease.

The world of sports is watching. If everything goes smoothly, Euro 2020 can give a confidence boost for other major sporting events, like the Tokyo Olympics, scheduled to open on July 23 — also a year late. If it doesn't, it would be a serious setback that could have ramifications beyond soccer.

The virus already has had an impact on the tournament, which for the first time is not being hosted by one or two nations but is spread out across the continent with matches in 11 cities. Spain captain Sergio Busquets tested positive for COVID-19 and will miss the team’s first match against Sweden in Seville on Monday. Another Spain player tested positive, as did two of Sweden’s players. The Spanish squad was getting vaccinated Friday.

Russia winger Andrey Mostovoy then became the first player to be cut from a national team on Friday after testing positive. Italy's opening match against Turkey will bring together the biggest crowd in the country since it went into a full lockdown 15 months ago, even though the stadium will be filled to only 25% of its capacity.

In Rome and elsewhere in Italy, most virus restrictions have been lifted. A midnight curfew and a requirement to wear a mask outside one’s home are the most tangible ways in which the pandemic still affects the daily lives of citizens.

AP Sports Writer Andrew Dampf contributed to this report.

"Super Fan" prepares for Tokyo Olympics without foreign fans

April 12, 2021

TOKYO (AP) — Kyoko Ishikawa was a back-packing Japanese student in Barcelona in 1992 when she says a “miracle happened.” She managed to buy a ticket to the opening ceremony of Spain's historic Olympics.

She said she had only “pocket money” with her — maybe $50 — when some local men offered her a ticket for that price. The real price might have been 10 times that much, she isn't sure. “You came all the way from Japan, so have fun,” she recalled them saying.

"I immediately grabbed that ticket and ran straight into the stadium. When I stepped into the venue and looked around, I got a shock as if struck by lightning.” The rest, as they say, is history. Ishikawa, who is president of an IT company, has attended every Summer Olympics since then, becoming famous as an unofficial “International Olympic Cheerleader.” She relishes joining in with fans from everywhere to cheer for their athletes.

Her cheering style at Olympic venues is well-known among the Japanese. She wears the traditional Japanese costume for festivals and a headband that says “Victory" written in Japanese. In her hands she holds folding fans emblazoned with the Japanese flag.

But Tokyo will be very different. There will be no fans from abroad to entertain: Local organizers have barred tourists because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Local residents are expected to be allowed into venues, but in limited numbers.

Naotoshi Yamada, who was known in Japan as “Uncle Olympics," died in 2019. He had attended every Summer Olympics since 1964, easily identifiable as the cheering face of Japan. Ishikawa said she first met Yamada at a baseball game in Barcelona and served as his “deputy” ever since. Now she is on her own, and in very unusual circumstances. But her mission will be the same: to cheer for athletes from around the world on behalf of fans who could not attend.

She said she views the Olympics as a way “for children and young people to experience the importance of diversity and identity.” She said that was her initial impression when she first entered Barcelona's Olympic stadium and saw “the energy created by the melting pot” of many different people.

“The opportunity to have that experience will be gone this time,” she said. “I feel very disappointed.”

Spectators from abroad to be barred from Tokyo Olympics

March 20, 2021

TOKYO (AP) — Spectators from abroad will be barred from the Tokyo Olympics when they open in four months, the IOC and local organizers said Saturday. The decision was announced after an online meeting of the International Olympic Committee, the Japanese government, the Tokyo government, the International Paralympic Committee, and local organizers.

The move was expected and rumored for several months. Officials said the risk was too great to admit ticket holders from overseas during a pandemic, an idea strongly opposed by the Japanese public. Japan has attributed about 8,800 deaths to COVID-19 and has controlled the virus better than most countries.

“In order to give clarity to ticket holders living overseas and to enable them to adjust their travel plans at this stage, the parties on the Japanese side have come to the conclusion that they will not be able to enter into Japan at the time of the Olympic and Paralympic Games,” the Tokyo organizing committee said in a statement.

About 1 million tickets are reported to have been sold to fans from outside Japan. Organizers have promised refunds, but this will be determined by so-called Authorized Ticket Resellers that handle sales outside Japan. These dealers charge fees of up to 20% above the ticket price. It is not clear if the fees will be refunded.

“We could wait until the very last moment to decide, except for the spectators," said Seiko Hashimoto, the president of the organizing committee. "They have to secure accommodations and flights. So we have to decide early otherwise we will cause a lot of inconvenience from them. I know this is a very tough issue.”

IOC President Thomas Bach called it a “difficult decision.” “We have to take decisions that may need sacrifice from everybody,” he said. The financial burden of lost ticket sales falls on Japan. The local organizing committee budget called from $800 million income from ticket sales, the third largest income source in the privately finance budget. Any shortfall in the budget will have to be made up by Japanese government entities.

Overall, Japan is officially spending $15.4 billion to organize the Olympics. Several government audits say the actual cost may be twice that much. All but $6.7 billion is public money. About 4.45 million tickets were sold to Japan residents. Organizers are expected next month to announce the capacity at venues, which will be filled by local residents.

The ban on fans from abroad comes just days before the Olympic torch relay starts Thursday from Fukushima prefecture in northeastern Japan. It will last for 121 days, crisscross Japan with 10,000 runners, and is to end on July 23 at the opening ceremony at the National Stadium in Tokyo.

The relay will be a test for the Olympics and Paralympics, which will involve 15,400 athletes entering Japan. They will be tested before leaving home, tested upon arrival in Japan, and tested frequently while they reside in a secure “bubble” in the Athletes Village alongside Tokyo Bay.

Athletes will not be required to be vaccinated to enter Japan, but many will be. In the midst of Saturday's meeting, Bach and others were given a reminder about earthquake-prone northeastern Japan — and Japan in general.

A strong earthquake shook Tokyo and triggered a tsunami warning as Bach and others made introductory remarks before the virtual meeting. The strength was put a 7.0 by the U.S. Geological Survey and the location was in northeastern Japan, an area hit by a huge earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

“I think the screen is shaking. Have you noticed the screen is shaking,” Tamayo Marukawa, Japan's Olympic minister, said as she made her presentation from Tokyo talking remotely to Bach visible on a screen in Switzerland. "We’re actually in the midst of an earthquake right now.”

Officials there said there were no immediate reports of damage.

Ozil leaves Arsenal for Turkey's Fenerbahce

January 18, 2021

Footballer Mesut Ozil confirmed at the weekend that he is leaving Arsenal for Turkish club Fenerbahce. The 32-year-old, who has Turkish roots, arrived in Istanbul yesterday to have a medical and complete the deal.

Ozil told Turkish NTV yesterday that he is "very happy, very excited" to be joining Fenerbahce and would "wear the shirt with pride".

He was quoted by Al Jazeera as saying that he is a Fenerbahce fan. "That is why I am very happy to be coming to Turkey to play for the club. I'm very excited. God gave me the chance to wear this shirt as a Fenerbahce fan. God willing, I will wear it with honor and do everything I can for the team."

The German-born World Cup winner has faced almost a year of frustration at Arsenal after apparently being frozen out by manager Mikel Arteta. Ozil was omitted from Arsenal's English Premier League and Europa League squads at the start of the current season. The last time he played for Arsenal was in a 1-0 win over West Ham on 7 March last year.

Despite the long break from first team football, Ozil insists that he is match fit, telling NTV, "I haven't played a match in a while, but I am physically fit, I have no issues." He pointed out that he had continued to train with the first team at Arsenal throughout his prolonged absence from the match day squad.

Ozil's contract with the London club was due to expire at the end of the 2020/21 season. He has reportedly agreed to a £285,000-a-week pay cut to join Fenerbahce on a free transfer. However, he will scoop a £4.5m signing bonus on top of a £225,000 reward if Fenerbahce qualify for the Champions League, as well as £445,000 if the club wins the Turkish Super League.

According to Turkish media reports, the former German international player is signing a three-and-a-half-year deal with the Istanbul side, which is currently second in the league behind Besiktas.

It is not yet clear what squad number Ozil will wear. His preferred number 10 is currently worn by striker Mbwana Samatta. He tweeted "67" with a heart emoji yesterday, prompting his Twitter followers to conclude that it is his new shirt number. Al Jazeera, however, noted that the digits correspond to the first two numbers of the post code of Zonguldak in Turkey, where the player's family come from.

Source: Middle East Monitor.

Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210118-ozil-leaves-arsenal-for-turkeys-fenerbahce/.

Russia can't use its name and flag at the next 2 Olympics

December 17, 2020

GENEVA (AP) — Russia will not be able to use its name, flag and anthem at the next two Olympics or at any world championships for the next two years after a ruling Thursday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The Lausanne-based court halved the four-year ban proposed last year by the World Anti-Doping Agency in a landmark case that accused Russia of state-ordered tampering of a testing laboratory database in Moscow. The ruling also blocked Russia from bidding to host major sporting events for two years.

Russian athletes and teams will still be allowed to compete at next year’s Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, as well as world championships including the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, if they are not banned for or suspected of doping.

One win for Russia is the proposed team name at major events. The name “Russia” can be retained on uniforms if the words “Neutral Athlete” or equivalents like “Neutral Team” have equal prominence, the court said.

The burden of proof was also shifted away from Russian athletes and more toward WADA when their doping history is vetted for selection to the Olympics or other sporting events. Russian athletes and teams can also retain the national flag colors of red, white and blue in their uniforms at major events. That was not possible for Russians at the past two track world championships.

Even with those concessions, the court's three judges imposed the most severe penalties on Russia since allegations of state-backed doping and cover-ups emerged after the 2014 Sochi Olympics. WADA president Witold Bańka hailed the court's decision despite its preferred ban being cut to two years.

“The (CAS) panel has clearly upheld our findings that the Russian authorities brazenly and illegally manipulated the Moscow Laboratory data in an effort to cover up an institutionalized doping scheme,” Bańka said in a statement.

The case centered on accusations that Russian state agencies altered and deleted parts of the database before handing it over to WADA investigators last year. It contained likely evidence to prosecute long-standing doping violations.

The CAS process was formally between WADA and the Russian anti-doping agency, which refused to accept last year's four-year ban. The Russian agency, known as Rusada, was ruled non-compliant last year — a decision upheld Thursday by the three judges.

Rusada was also ordered to pay WADA $1.27 million to cover investigation costs, plus it was fined $100,000 and ordered to pay 400,000 Swiss francs ($452,000) toward legal costs. The Russian agency can appeal the sanctions to the Swiss supreme court in Lausanne.

The acting CEO of Rusada, Mikhail Bukhanov, said at a news conference in Moscow “it appears that not all of the arguments presented by our lawyers were heard." The judges' 186-page ruling is expected to be published by CAS in the next few weeks.

In a brief extract in the court's statement, the judges said their decision to impose punishments less severe than WADA wanted “should not, however, be read as any validation of the conduct of Rusada or the Russian authorities.”

The ruling does allow Russian government officials, including President Vladimir Putin, to attend major sporting events if invited by the host nation’s head of state. When a four-day hearing was held in Lausanne last month, 43 Russian athletes and their lawyers took part as third parties arguing they should not be punished for misconduct by state officials not working in sports.

Giving WADA the lab database by a December 2018 deadline was a key condition for Rusada being reinstated three months earlier when a previous expulsion from the anti-doping community was lifted. WADA investigators in Moscow eventually got the data one month late. Evidence of doping tests and emails appeared to have been deleted or changed, and whistleblowers like former lab director Grigory Rodchenkov were implicated.

WADA investigators went to Moscow two years ago to collect the database and begin verifying evidence that would help sports governing bodies prosecute suspected doping violations dating back several years.

Although Russia would be stripped of hosting world championships in the next two years, events can be reprieved. Governing bodies have been advised to find a new host “unless it is legally or practically impossible to do so.”

Russia is scheduled to host the 2022 world championships in men's volleyball and shooting. The president of the shooting federation is Vladimir Lisin, a billionaire with close ties to the Kremlin. Last year, the International Olympic Committee described the database tampering as “flagrant manipulation” and “an insult to the sporting movement.”

On Thursday, the IOC merely noted the verdict, adding it would consult sports governing bodies and the International Paralympic Committee “with a view to having a consistent approach in the implementation of the award.”

Russia's Kremlev defies Olympic concern to win boxing vote

December 12, 2020

GENEVA (AP) — Umar Kremlev of Russia was elected president of the troubled International Boxing Association on Saturday despite concerns of Olympic officials about his candidacy. The governing body, known as AIBA, said Kremlev won more than 57% of the vote in a five-candidate contest involving 155 national federations.

The International Olympic Committee last year stripped the AIBA of its responsibility to organize boxing at the Summer Games amid concerns over the integrity of Olympic bouts, governance and finance.

It is far from clear that Kremlev’s victory will help solve AIBA’s main challenge — regaining that recognition before the Paris Olympics in 2024. Boxing will take place at the Tokyo Olympics which open next July, but the IOC has cut AIBA out of organizing the men’s and women’s tournaments and qualifying events next year.

“The question of recognition of AIBA will only be reviewed after the (Tokyo) Olympic Games," the IOC said Saturday in a statement noting Kremlev's victory. IOC President Thomas Bach confirmed this week that AIBA had been made “well aware” of the Olympic body’s concerns about some candidates, who he did not identify but was understood to include Kremlev.

“I am the most clean candidate," Kremlev said in translated comments at a virtual news conference broadcast from Moscow. “There is no concern about my candidacy and my history.” The IOC had been skeptical about Kremlev's offer last year to clear AIBA’s $16 million debts if the sport’s Olympic status was retained. Kremlev has been head of the Russian Boxing Federation since 2017.

“Getting rid of AIBA’s debt will be the first priority,” Kremlev told voters on Saturday, in a statement released by the governing body based in Lausanne, Switzerland. “My administration will aim to raise $50 million within two years, all of which will be used to rebuild AIBA.”

Kremlev said at the news conference he would begin announcing agreements with sponsors next week, and predicted it would take three or four months to enact reforms that could persuade the IOC to reinstate AIBA.

Kremlev will complete the presidential term of Gafur Rakhimov, who American authorities allege is involved with international heroin trafficking. Rakhimov has denied wrongdoing. Rakhimov resigned months after being elected two years ago by AIBA members who defied IOC warnings not to pick him.

Kremlev's win was sealed when the contest was down to three candidates. He got 86 votes against 45 for Boris van der Vorst of the Netherlands and 19 for AIBA's interim president, Mohamed Moustahsane of Morocco.

Russians are now presidents of three governing bodies of Summer Games sports. Billionaires Alisher Usmanov and Vladimir Lisin lead fencing and shooting, respectively. Usmanov is known to have a good relationship with Bach, a German lawyer who won a gold medal in fencing at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Usmanov spent $8.8 million at auction last year on a document written in the late-19th century by IOC founder Pierre de Coubertin, and donated it to the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.

Asked Saturday if he could enlist Usmanov's help to rebuild AIBA's relationship with the IOC and Bach, Kremlev acknowledged: “We are friends. But I am not going to benefit from my personal connections.”

West Asks for Russia to Be Suspended from Interpol

Monday, 7 March, 2022

Several Western countries, including the UK and the United States, have called on Interpol to suspend Russia from the international law enforcement organization, according to British Home Secretary Priti Patel.

The UK, United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have requested "the immediate suspension of Russia's access to its systems", Patel tweeted on Sunday.

The grouping asked Interpol's executive committee to make a decision this week, reported AFP.

"Russia's actions are a direct threat to the safety of individuals and to international law enforcement cooperation," Patel added.

While Patel did not specify the reason for the request, Western allies have been seeking to diplomatically and economically isolate Moscow over its invasion of Eastern European neighbor Ukraine.

On Sunday, US chief diplomat Antony Blinken said Washington had seen "very credible reports" that Russia had committed war crimes during the incursion, particularly in the treatment of civilians.

At the UN Human Rights Council last week, members overwhelmingly voted to establish an investigation into allegations of abuses committed by Moscow's forces in Ukraine.

Interpol, a network of 194 member countries, aims to facilitate the policing of international crimes.

Source: Asharq al-Awsat.

Link: https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3515991/west-asks-russia-be-suspended-interpol.

Russia Hits Ukraine from Air, Land and Sea with Civilians Trapped

Monday, 7 March, 2022

Russian forces pummeled Ukrainian cities from the air, land and sea on Monday, with warnings they were preparing for an assault on the capital Kyiv, as terrified civilians remained trapped in besieged Mariupol.

The relentless fire has pushed more than 1.5 million people across Ukraine's borders as refugees, though many others are displaced internally or trapped in cities being reduced to rubble by Russian bombardment, AFP said.

International sanctions intended to punish Moscow have so far done little to slow the invasion, and Washington said it was now discussing a ban on Russian oil imports with Europe.

The comments sent the price of Brent crude soaring to near a 14-year high, with markets in Tokyo and Hong Kong slumping.

On the ground, air sirens sounded in cities across the country, including the capital Kyiv, and intense aerial bombardment continued in the city of Kharkiv, which has endured almost non-stop fire in recent days.

"The enemy continues the offensive operation against Ukraine, focusing on the encirclement of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mykolayiv," the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a statement.

Russian forces "began to accumulate resources for the storming of Kyiv", the statement added.

In the south of the country, regional military officials said Russia had shelled the village of Tuzly in the Odessa region from the sea, targeting "crucial infrastructure sites" but causing no injuries.

And Russia's Interfax reported a large explosion that set alight a fuel depot Monday morning in Lugansk, a town held by pro-Russian separatist rebels.

In Kharkiv, Russian fire hit a university and apartment block in the northeastern city, blowing out all the windows and leaving the façade completed blackened and charred.

In the tangle of splintered wood and mangled metal strewn across the ground in front of the building lay several dead bodies next to a car.

The legs of one person, dressed in brown trousers and black boots could be seen next to a blue surgical mask alongside the back of the car, its roof caved in under the weight of rubble.

- 'Murder, deliberate murder' -

Ukraine's President Volodymr Zelensky raged against the growing destruction and death toll, accusing Russian troops of "murder, deliberate murder" in an address.

"We will not forgive, we will not forget, we will punish everyone who committed atrocities in this war on our land," he said. "There will be no quiet place on this Earth except the grave."

Twelve days of fighting have killed hundreds of civilians and wounded thousands. An unending stream of people -- mostly women and children -- has poured into neighboring countries in what the UN calls Europe's fastest growing refugee crisis since World War II.

But some have found themselves trapped, including in the southern city of Mariupol, where a second attempt to allow civilians to flee some of the worst violence of the conflict collapsed on Sunday.

Both sides accused each other of breaching a ceasefire agreement, with the International Committee of the Red Cross warning of "devastating scenes of human suffering" in the strategic city on the Azov Sea.

One family who did manage to leave the city described spending a week without heat or electricity and running out of food and water.

"On the road, we saw there were bodies everywhere, Russians and Ukrainians... We saw that people had been buried in their basements."

- Putin vows 'neutralization' -

Meanwhile, the mayor of Irpin, a small town outside Kyiv, described seeing two adults and two children killed "in front of my eyes" when a shell hit them.

"It is impudence, they are monsters. Irpin is at war, Irpin has not surrendered," Oleksandr Markushyn said on Telegram, adding that part of the city was in Russian hands.

AFP journalists saw civilians clambering over a bombed out bridge as artillery fire sounded around them. The body of a civilian killed while fleeing lay on the road, partially covered with a blanket, next to a grey suitcase.

Western allies have imposed unprecedented sanctions against businesses, banks and billionaires in a bid to choke the Russian economy and pressure Moscow to halt its assault.

But the Russian leader Vladimir Putin has equated global sanctions with a declaration of war and warned that Kyiv is "putting in question the future of Ukrainian statehood".

Moscow has been forced to restrict sales of essential goods to limit black-market speculation, while on Sunday payment giant American Express halted operations there, a day after Visa and Mastercard announced similar steps.

Despite harsh punishments for those voicing dissent, protests in Russia against the Ukraine invasion have continued, with more than 10,000 people arrested since the operation began.

Putin has pledged the "neutralization" of Ukraine "either through negotiation or through war", and expectations remain low for a third round of Russian-Ukrainian talks set for Monday.

- Kyiv preparing for assault -

NATO allies have so far rebuffed Ukraine's calls for a no-fly zone, with one senior US senator, Marco Rubio, saying Sunday that it could lead to "World War III" against nuclear-armed Russia.

Putin has threatened "colossal and catastrophic consequences not only for Europe but also the whole world" if a no-fly zone is imposed.

In the Ukrainian capital, troops have been preparing for the expected Russian assault on Kyiv, including planting explosives on what they say is the last intact bridge standing in the way of advancing forces.

If they try to cross, the Ukrainians will blow up the bridge and "sink as many enemy tanks as we can while we do it", said a fighter who gave his name as Casper.

Kyiv has urged the West to boost its military assistance, with Zelensky pleading for Russian-made planes that his pilots are trained to fly.

A barrage of Russian missiles destroyed an airport in central Ukraine's Vinnytsia, said Zelensky, underscoring his appeal for help.

Moscow has also warned Ukraine's neighbors against hosting Kyiv's military aircraft, saying they could end up involved in armed conflict.

Weapons, ammunition and funds have poured into Ukraine from Western allies as they seek to bolster Kyiv.

Blinken said Washington was "working actively" on a deal with Poland to supply it with American jets.

There are also ongoing concerns about the safety of Ukraine's nuclear sites after the Russian attack on Friday on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant -- Europe's largest.

The UN nuclear watchdog has expressed "grave concern" about the situation at the plant, and France said it would include iodine tablets, which help protect against the effects of radiation exposure, to Ukraine along with other medical supplies.

Source: Asharq al-Awsat.

Link: https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3515851/russia-hits-ukraine-air-land-and-sea-civilians-trapped.

Iran Vows to Avenge the Death of 2 IRGC Members in Syria

Thursday, 10 March, 2022

Israel awaits with anticipation Iran's retaliation for the airstrike on Syria that killed four people on Monday, including two of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

Syrian state media said that two civilians were killed during the attack, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said they were two Syrian militants fighting with pro-Iran militias.

The Observatory said the two dead Iranians killed were affiliated with al-Quds Force. Six militiamen were also wounded, it added.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said revenge for Monday's strike will be taken, adding that holding Israel accountable for such attacks "is one of the main goals of the resistance (forces) in the region."

The IRGC's Sepah News website said: "Guard colonels Ehsan Karbalaipour and Morteza Saidnejad were martyred, a crime committed by the Zionist regime, during a rocket attack on the suburbs of Damascus, Syria, yesterday morning."

The site stated that Israel would "pay for this crime."

The strike's target was an ammunition depot operated by Iran-backed militias near Damascus international airport.

SOHR said Israel has carried out raids in Syria at least seven times this year.

Iran is Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's strongest ally in the conflict. The Syrian army and thousands of Iranian-backed militants are fighting the Syrian opposition, backed by the Russian air force.

According to Walla's military correspondent, Israel is aware of Iran's determination to respond to the killing of the two IRGC members.

The Israeli army raised the state of alert and readiness of its units operating the "Iron Dome" systems along the border with Syria and stated that it was preparing for a possible missile attack from Syria.

In April, Iran admitted to casualties among its forces during an Israeli attack on sites in Syria, including seven fighters killed in an attack on T4 airport east of Homs. A month later, Iran responded with a barrage of missiles fired by armed militia at Israeli sites.

The Quds Force unofficial Telegram channel reported that Iran retaliated for the death of its members at the Syrian T4 base after an Israeli raid that killed seven Iranian forces in 2018.

The channel reported that Tehran responded by bombing an Israeli base in the occupied Golan with fifty missiles, noting that Israelis did not report the attack and the damage incurred.

Several Israeli experts admitted that the firing of 50 missiles from Syria at Israeli bases was an unprecedented matter that surprised observers.

Source: Asharq al-Awsat.

Link: https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3522911/iran-vows-avenge-death-2-irgc-members-syria.

Endangered bat not seen in four decades found in Rwanda

Kigali (AFP)

March 9, 2022

A critically endangered species of bats not sighted in 40 years has been found in Rwanda, with the "incredible" discovery delighting conservationists who had feared it was already extinct.

But the Hill's Horseshoe Bat was in fact still clinging to life in Rwanda's Nyungwe Forest -- a dense rainforest that is home to endangered mountain gorillas -- the consortium behind the discovery said.

There had been no information on the population of the mammals and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2021 listed them as critically endangered.

Rediscovering the lost species "was incredible", Jon Flanders, director for Bat Conservation International (BCI), said in a statement late Tuesday.

"It's astonishing to think that we're the first people to see this bat in so long."

The Texas-based non-profit had partnered with the Rwanda Development Board and Rwanda Wildlife Conservation Association to conduct surveys in the jungle starting in 2013.

In 2019, after a 10-day expedition scouring the caves in the forest, the scientists found the bat.

"We knew immediately that the bat we had captured was unusual and remarkable," BCI's chief scientist Winifred Frick said.

"The facial features were exaggerated to the point of comical."

But it took them another three years to verify its species.

The creatures of the night have long been infamous as fanged monsters or vectors of disease, with the coronavirus pandemic doing little to improve that image after scientists said Covid-19 likely originated in the animals.

From the tiny two-gram "bumblebee bat", to the giant Philippine flying fox with its 1.5-metre (five-foot) wingspan, bats make up a fifth of all terrestrial mammals.

Some 40 percent of the 1,321 species assessed on the IUCN's Red List are now classified as endangered.

Human actions -- including deforestation and habitat loss -- are to blame.

For the researchers in Rwanda, the elusive discovery marks the beginning of a new race to save the once lost species from disappearing again.

"Now our real work begins to figure out how to protect this species long into the future," said Flanders.

Source: Terra Daily.

Link: https://www.terradaily.com/reports/Endangered_bat_not_seen_in_four_decades_found_in_Rwanda_999.html.