Syrians on hunger strike outside Greek parliament

November 24, 2014

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — More than 200 Syrian civil war refugees started a hunger strike Monday in front of Greece's Parliament, urging the government to grant them temporary working and residence rights.

The protesters began gathering last week at Athens' main square, complaining that refugees are being forced to pay exorbitant black-market rates to live in squalid apartments in Athens. "People are living in bad conditions. We get (temporary) travel documents, but we can't go anywhere. We can't work, or go to hospital, or rent a place to live," said Khaldoon Fadel, a 31-year-old former resident of Damascus, who joined the hunger strike.

The hunger strikers said they were only eating sugar. Several dozen of them sat on the marble-paved sidewalk with strips of box tape covering their mouths, and packages of flatbread placed in front of them.

"For an (apartment) that would cost 250 euros ($310) to rent per month, we have to pay 1,000 euros ($1,245)," Fadel said. Fadel, who had worked as a chain store manager and fashion designer for women's clothing before fleeing Syria, made the hazardous journey across Turkey and by boat illegally to the Greek island of Kos.

Greece is a busy entry point for immigrants and refugees seeking entry to the European Union. The financial crisis-hit country has seen a spike in the number of Syrians crossing by boat illegally from nearby Turkey.

Authorities expect a three-fold increase in illegal immigration this year, compared with 2013, with nearly two-thirds of the illegal traffic now coming from Syria. On Sunday, the regional governor of greater Athens, Rena Dourou, visited the protesters and said she had contacted the Greek Orthodox Church and the government to try and make arrangements to provide temporary shelter for Syrian refugees.

France suspends delivery of warship to Russia

November 26, 2014

PARIS (AP) — France suspended the delivery of a warship to Russia on Tuesday, after months of speculation about what would be the biggest arms sale ever by a NATO country to the Kremlin.

French President Francois Hollande's office announced the suspension "until further notice" after growing pressure from allies due to tensions over Russia's actions in Ukraine. The decision exposes France to eventual fines for not fulfilling the contract.

The Vladivostok, meant for delivery this month, is docked at the French port city of Saint Nazaire, where about 400 Russian sailors have spent months training aboard the vessel. A second French-made ship, named the Sevastopol, after a port on the Crimean Peninsula, was slated for delivery next year and recently arrived at the Saint Nazaire docks for finishing touches. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March.

Hollande had said in September that conditions weren't right for a ship delivery given continued violence in Ukraine. Tuesday's statement stopped short of cancelling the two-ship deal, suggesting the French government is reluctant to give up on a contract worth more than 1 billion euros ($1.24 billion) and thousands of jobs during an economic slump.

Russia's ambassador to France told The Associated Press on Tuesday that there's a grace period in the contract and Russia isn't demanding any compensation for the delayed deal yet. But when that period passes, Alexander Orlov said, "France will have to either hand over the ship or return the sum that we paid. That's it."

Suggesting that France suspended the deal under U.S. pressure, he said French-Russian relations are being held "hostage to political games that weren't started by Russia or France, but which all countries of the EU and NATO have been pulled into."

The Vladivostok can carry 700 troops, 16 helicopter gunships and up to 50 armored vehicles. Analysts say the two warships would give Russia an enhanced ability to move large numbers of troops and equipment but were not game-changers for Moscow's military.

Laura Mills in Moscow and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

Tanzania: Maasai group looks likely to keep land

November 24, 2014

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A Maasai community near Tanzania's Serengeti National Park may be able to keep its traditional homeland after the country's president said on Twitter that the government would not take their land.

President Jakaya Kikwete said over the weekend that there never has been and never will be any government plan to evict the Maasai. The advocacy group Avaaz has publicized the case of the Maasai land near the town of Loliondo, making it a global cause that mobilized more than 2.3 million people to sign an Internet petition. Avaaz says there has been a plan to evict 40,000 Maasai from Loliondo to allow a United Arab Emirates company to open a game-hunting business. Avaaz said the government evicted some Maasai communities in 2009 for such a purpose.

The land is close to Serengeti which is considered to be one of the world's natural treasures. The land, used by the Maasai for cattle-grazing, is a vast plain dotted with acacia trees and watering holes, where wildebeest and zebra gather in huge herds for annual migrations. More than 2 million animals migrate north from Serengeti into Kenya's adjacent Maasai Mara reserve every year.

The Tanzanian president's Twitter pledge is "a massive breakthrough," said Sam Barratt, an Avaaz official. But a community leader, Samwell Nangire, said by telephone that he is still wary. He noted that Kikwete said on Twitter that there had never been a plan to evict the Maasai, and Nangire said that isn't true.

"He should have said we had the plan but we dropped the plan," Nangire said. "The plan was there for sure. But he said there was no plan. He should put in writing the commitment. That is what everyone is waiting for."

When the last debate about the Loliondo land broke out last year, the government said it would reclassify the land as a "wildlife corridor" that would have prevented the Maasai from living on it.

Israel leader vows to pass nationality law

November 24, 2014

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's prime minister vowed Monday to pass a contentious nationality law that has threatened the stability of his fragile coalition government, but he left the door open for negotiations to soften it.

The bill formally would identify Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people. But language favored by hard-liners has drawn racism accusations, been questioned by Israel's attorney general and prompted the justice minister to warn that the coalition could fall apart.

Addressing his Likud Party, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was determined to pass it. The bill is "expressing the fact that Israel is the national state of the Jewish people and only theirs, alongside preserving the rights of every single citizen of the state of Israel," Netanyahu said.

Israel's declaration of independence in 1948 defined the country as both Jewish and democratic. The new legislation seeks to enshrine these principles as a Basic Law, Israel's de facto constitution. But elements of the proposal have raised concerns. Among the proposals are making Jewish law a source of legislative inspiration and delisting Arabic as an official language.

"That will endanger really the very sensitive relationship between the Jewish majority and the Arab minority inside Israel," said Ibrahim Sarsour, an Arab lawmaker. A parliamentary vote scheduled for Wednesday was postponed for a week to allow time for a compromise proposal.

The centrist members of Netanyahu's coalition, Hatnuah and Yesh Atid, have vowed to oppose the measure in its current form. Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, leader of Hatnuah, warned that the bill's passage could topple Netanyahu's coalition and force early elections.

Debate over the nationality law comes amid soaring tensions between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs, who make up about 20 percent of the population of 8 million. Over the past month, Palestinian attacks have killed 11 Israelis. The latest attack took place Monday, as an Arab assailant stabbed a Jewish man outside the old city of Jerusalem, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Rosenfeld described the assault as a terror attack and said the victim was taken to a hospital.

Russian envoy: Ferguson shows US racial problems

November 25, 2014

MOSCOW (AP) — The violent protests in Ferguson, Missouri, reflect simmering U.S. tensions over racial discrimination that could undermine the country's stability, a senior Russian diplomat said Tuesday.

The comments by the Russian Foreign Ministry's human rights envoy, Konstantin Dolgov, were among the sharpest from a foreign official as images of violent protests in Ferguson topped newscasts around the world. The protests came after a grand jury's decision not to indict a white police officer in the killing of an unarmed black man, 18-year-old Michael Brown.

"The developments in Ferguson and other cities highlight serious challenges to the American society and its stability," Dolgov said in remarks broadcast by Russian state television. Moscow appeared to relish turning the tables on the U.S. after repeated U.S. criticism of Russia's rights record and its policies toward Ukraine. Relations between the two nations are at their lowest point since the Cold War due to the crisis in Ukraine.

All of Russia's state-controlled nationwide television stations began their newscasts with the footage of street violence in Ferguson, casting it as mounting public anger against the discrimination, injustice and police brutality found in the United States.

"Racial discrimination, racial and ethnic tensions are major challenges to the American democracy, to stability and integrity of the American society," Dolgov said. "We may only hope that U.S. authorities seriously deal with those issues and other serious challenges in the human rights field in their own country and stop what they have been doing all along recently — playing an aggressive mentor lecturing other countries about how to meet human rights standards."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appealed to Americans who were disappointed at the grand jury's decision "to refrain from any violence" and echoed the appeal by Brown's parents "to turn this difficult time into a positive moment for change," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Raad al-Hussein, said he would have to see the evidence to be able to judge the grand jury's verdict. Still he voiced concern at the "disproportionate" number of young black Americans who die in encounters with police officers and the high rate of blacks in U.S. prisons and on death row.

In a statement Tuesday, Zeid urged calm but said clearly there is a "deep and festering lack of confidence in the fairness of the (U.S.) justice and law enforcement systems." Officials in most nations avoided the sensitive subject. In China, where authorities don't welcome scrutiny of the police, the state-run media reported prominently on the Ferguson decision but added little or no commentary. There also appeared to be moves to stifle discussion of the Ferguson news online in China.

Asked whether China, a frequent target of U.S. criticism over its human rights record, had any comment on the grand jury's decision, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the case is an internal U.S. affair but took the opportunity to note that no country is perfect regarding human rights.

"We can learn from each other in this area," she said. On Twitter, well-known jihadis used the grand jury's decision in recruitment efforts, saying it was the result of America's racism and that jihad and revolution would be fitting responses, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.

The group, which analyzes international terrorists' messages, quoted a tweet by a prominent Dutch jihadi in Syria as saying: "March against tyranny and arm yourselves against the true terrorists of our time: The US Government. #FergusonDecision."

In Hungary, where the government has faced U.S. criticism for its crackdown on civil rights groups, news from Ferguson received prominent coverage on state television, which noted "it was predictable that the decision would enrage millions."

In France, Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, who has faced racial slurs herself since taking office in 2012, wrote a series of emotional English- and French-language tweets and Facebook posts in response to the Ferguson decision.

"Racial profiling, social exclusion, segregation, cultural marginalization ... arms .. fear .. Fatal cocktail!" she wrote. Referring to some of those fatally shot in the U.S., she wrote: "How old was #MichaelBrown? 18. #TrayvonMartin? 17. #TamirRice? 12. How old next? 12 months? 'Kill them before they grow' Bob Marley."

Lori Hinnant and Angela Charlton in Paris, John Heilprin in Geneva, Laura Mills in Moscow, Pablo Gorondi in Budapest, Hungary, and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Russia gets greater control over Black Sea region

November 24, 2014

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia tightened its control Monday over Georgia's breakaway province of Abkhazia with a new treaty envisaging closer military and economic ties with the lush sliver of land along the Black Sea.

The move drew outrage and cries of "annexation" in Georgia and sent a chill through those in Abkhazia who fear that wealthy Russians will snap up their precious coastline. It also raised further suspicions in the West about Russian President Vladimir Putin's territorial aspirations after his annexation of Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in March.

Under the treaty signed by Putin and Abkhazia's leader in the nearby Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russian and Abkhazian forces in the territory will turn into a joint force led by a Russian commander. Putin said Moscow will also double its subsidies to Abkhazia to about 9.3 billion rubles (over $200 million) next year.

"I'm sure that cooperation, unity and strategic partnership between Russia and Abkhazia will continue to strengthen," he said. "Ties with Russia offer us full security guarantees and broad opportunities for socio-economic development," Abkhazian President Raul Khadzhimba said.

Russian troops have been deployed in Abkhazia for more than two decades since the region of 240,000 people broke away from Georgia in a separatist war in the early 1990s. Still, Monday's agreement reflected a clear attempt by Moscow to further expand its presence and came only after a change of leadership in the territory.

Coming amid a chill in Russia-West ties over the Ukrainian crisis, the deal raised concern about Moscow's plans. The Black Sea region has always been important for Putin, who justified the annexation of Crimea by saying it would guarantee that NATO warships would never be welcome on the peninsula, the home base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

NATO's secretary-general condemned the treaty, stressing that the alliance supports Georgia's sovereignty. He also called on Russia to reverse its recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, another breakaway province, as independent states.

"This so-called treaty does not contribute to a peaceful and lasting settlement of the situation in Georgia," Jens Stoltenberg said. "On the contrary, it violates Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity and blatantly contradicts the principles of international law, OSCE principles and Russia's international commitments."

The U.S. also said it wouldn't recognize Russia's move and expressed continued support for Georgia's sovereignty. "The United States will not recognize the legitimacy of any so-called 'treaty' between Georgia's Abkhazia region and the Russian Federation," the U.S. State Department said in a statement.

Abkhazia's former leader, Alexander Ankvab, was forced to step down earlier this year under pressure from protesters who reportedly were encouraged by the Kremlin. Khadzhimba, a former Soviet KGB officer, was elected president in an early vote in August that Georgia rejected as illegal.

Unlike Ankvab, who had resisted Moscow's push to let Russians buy assets in Abkhazia, Khadzhimba has appeared more eager to listen to Russia's demands. The Georgian Foreign Ministry denounced the new agreement as a "step toward the de-facto annexation" of Abkhazia and called on the international community to condemn the move.

Russian-Georgian relations were ruptured by war in August 2008 after former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili attempted to restore control over South Ossetia. The Russian military routed the Georgian forces in five days and Moscow recognized both rebel provinces as independent states.

The Georgian Dream bloc led by Russia-friendly billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, which unseated Saakashvili's party in the 2012 vote, has sought to repair ties with Moscow. But while economic relations have improved, political ties have remained frozen because of Moscow's refusal to compromise on the status of Georgia's separatist regions.

Saakashvili's United National Movement party has accused the Georgian government of kowtowing to Moscow. "The Georgian government has done practically nothing," said party leader David Bakradze, who urged the government to join Western sanctions against Russia and opt out of political talks with Moscow.

The deal with Abkhazia appears to reflect Moscow's concerns that Saakashvili's party could mount a political comeback and push for stronger ties with the West.

Lynn Berry in Moscow and Misha Dzhindzhikhashvili in Tbilisi, Georgia contributed to this report.

Iran hardliners resist possible nuclear deal in rare protest

2014-11-23

TEHRAN - Tensions over a possible nuclear deal between Iran and world powers were on display Sunday outside an atomic facility in Tehran where a rare protest saw hardliners criticize government negotiators.

While the crowd was small -- about 200, mostly students, gathered at the entrance to the Tehran Research Reactor -- the event was the first such officially approved demonstration in months.

It coincided with the penultimate day of talks in Vienna between Iran and the United States and other leading states about a permanent nuclear deal.

"Nuclear energy is our absolute right," and "Sanctions won't stop us," read placards held by protesters, many of them suggesting there should be no compromise on Iran's disputed atomic activities.

They chanted "Death to America" while a designated speaker rounded on the conduct of the year-long negotiations which entered their final 36 hours with a deal hanging in the balance.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani and Mohammad Javad Zarif, the foreign minister who is leading the talks in the Austrian capital, "do not know how to do diplomacy", the speaker said.

One woman held a banner that said: "The centrifuges are not working, nor is the economy," alluding to Rouhani's pledge to restart talks with the West to help Iran's sanctions-hit economy recover.

One demonstrator, a medical student who did not want to give her name, said she was "pessimistic about the Americans involved in the negotiations."

"We want an agreement where if we give something we get something in return, and what we want is a total removal of sanctions," she said.

Despite the protest back home, an Iranian source in Vienna signaled openness to extending the talks by six months or even up to a year.

Such an extension would be under terms of an interim deal reached in Geneva a year ago that traded a temporary freeze on some of Iran's nuclear activities for limited sanctions relief, the source said.

"We are still focused on agreeing to a kind of political" understanding which would not be written but which would allow for negotiators to fine-tune technical aspects of the agreement later, the source said.

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and United States plus Germany -- the so-called P5+1 -- have been locked in talks with Iran since February to turn the interim Geneva accord into a lasting agreement.

Such a deal is aimed at easing fears that Tehran could develop nuclear weapons under the guise of its civilian activities.

The Islamic republic denies it wants to build an atomic bomb and insists its nuclear program is entirely peaceful.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=69039.