ICC judges acquit former Ivory Coast president Gbagbo

January 15, 2019

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Delivering a stinging defeat to prosecutors at the International Criminal Court, judges on Tuesday acquitted former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo and former youth minister Charles Ble Goude of responsibility for crimes committed following disputed elections in 2010, saying the prosecution failed to prove their case.

Presiding Judge Cuno Tarfusser ordered the immediate release of the 73-year-old Gbagbo and 47-year-old Ble Goude following the judgment that came before their lawyers even had to present a case. Tarfusser later suspended that order ahead of a follow-up hearing on Wednesday.

Prosecutors can appeal. In a written statement, they called the ruling "disappointing and unexpected" and said they would analyze the written decision when it is published "and assess the appropriate next steps."

Gbagbo was the first former president to go on trial at the global court and his case was seen as a milestone in efforts to bring to justice even the highest-ranking leaders accused of atrocities. More than 3,000 people were killed after Gbagbo refused to accept defeat by his rival and current Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara.

Tarfusser said a majority of the three-judge trial panel ruled that "the prosecutor has failed to satisfy the burden of proof" against both men. He said it was a matter of public record that Ivory Coast was wracked by post-election violence in 2010 and early 2011, but he said prosecutors did not present evidence that Gbagbo and Ble Goude formulated a plan for their supporters to unleash violence to keep Gbagbo in power. Prosecutors also failed to prove that speeches by both men incited violence, Tarfusser said.

Neither Gbagbo nor Ble Goude spoke in court. Gbagbo's lawyer Emmanuel Altit called it a victory for justice. "It's also a victory for a man who was wrongly accused, President Gbagbo," Altit told reporters. Both men are expected to return to Ivory Coast, although it remains unclear when that will be possible.

Rights groups lamented the ruling's effect on victims. "The acquittal of Gbagbo and Ble Goude is a crushing disappointment to victims of post-election violence" in Ivory Coast, said Marie-Evelyne Petrus Barry, Amnesty International's West and Central Africa director.

Karim Traore, 36, is one of those victims. "I lost my arm in 2011 because of pro-Gbagbo forces," he said. "We do not understand the decision of the International Criminal Court to release the former president. We, the victims, have not been heard and it is a real shame."

Amal Nassar of the International Federation for Human Rights called on prosecutors to appeal. "The ICC as a whole should learn from its difficulties in convicting (former) political leaders bearing the highest responsibility in the perpetration of crimes and revise adequately its policy," Nassar said in a statement.

As Tarfusser announced the acquittals, supporters of Gbagbo and Ble Goude stood and cheered in the courtroom's gallery. Even before the hearing started, dozens of supporters sang and danced outside the court's headquarters.

In Ivory Coast, there was an outburst of joy and relief in the Abidjan neighborhood of Yopougon, a Gbagbo stronghold. "Above all, we wish to reach out to our executioners of yesterday to make a sincere reconciliation," said Ferdinand Zahibo, a central committee member of Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front party. The government did not immediately comment.

Both defendants had pleaded not guilty to four charges of crimes against humanity including murder, rape and persecution. The ruling was the latest defeat for prosecutors at the world's first global war crimes court.

The case against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who also was accused of involvement — before he became president — in post-election violence in his country, collapsed in December 2014. Last year a former Congolese vice president, Jean-Pierre Bemba, was acquitted on appeal of crimes allegedly committed by his militia in neighboring Central African Republic.

James A. Goldstone, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative, said the acquittal ruling "underscores how important it is that the process to select the next prosecutor yields a person of integrity and sound judgment who is highly skilled at criminal investigation."

The term of current chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda expires in 2021. Gbagbo has been in the court's custody since November 2011 and Ble Goude since March 2014. A former university professor who founded an opposition party well before Ivory Coast embraced democracy, Gbagbo spent much of the 1980s in exile in France. After returning to Ivory Coast, he lost the 1990 presidential vote and spent six months in jail in 1992 for his role in student protests.

He came to power in 2000 in a flawed election. In the 2010 race, Gbagbo placed first in the first round with 38 percent of the vote before losing to Ouattara in a runoff. Ouattara last year granted amnesty to 800 prisoners prosecuted for crimes connected to the 2010 post-election crisis, including Gbagbo's wife, Simone, who also has been indicted by the ICC for crimes against humanity. Ivory Coast has refused to send her to The Hague. Fresh elections are scheduled in Ivory Coast next year.

"We are very happy, we are heading towards a genuine national reconciliation and we are only waiting for their return to bring about peace," said Assoa Adou, the secretary general of Gbagbo's party.

Associated Press writer Alexis Adele in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, contributed.

African Union urges Congo to suspend final election results

January 18, 2019

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — The African Union continental body issued a surprise last-minute demand late Thursday for Congo's government to suspend the announcement of final results of the disputed presidential election, citing "serious doubts."

Congo's constitutional court is poised to rule as early as Friday on a challenge filed by the election's declared runner-up. Martin Fayulu has requested a recount, alleging fraud. Upholding the results could spark violence in a country hoping for its first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence in 1960.

The AU statement said heads of state and government agreed to "urgently dispatch" a high-level delegation to Congo to find "a way out of the post-electoral crisis" in the vast Central African nation rich in the minerals key to smartphones and electric cars around the world.

"This is truly incredible," tweeted Jason Stearns, director of the Congo Research Group at New York University. "Usually, the African Union defers to the subregion ... in this case they departed dramatically."

Congo faces the extraordinary situation of an election allegedly rigged in favor of the opposition. There was no immediate government comment. Fayulu accuses the administration of outgoing President Joseph Kabila of falsifying the results to declare opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi the winner after the ruling party candidate did poorly. Fayulu has cited figures compiled by the influential Catholic Church's 40,000 election observers that found he won 61 percent of the vote.

Two sets of leaked data show that Fayulu won the election by a landslide, according to an investigation published this week by Radio France International and other media working with the Congo Research Group.

In the first set of data, attributed to Congo's electoral commission and representing 86 percent of the votes, Fayulu won 59.4 percent while Tshisekedi received 19 percent. The second set of data, from the Catholic Church's mission, represents 43 percent of the votes. In it, Tshisekedi and ruling party candidate Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary each received less than 20 percent.

Fayulu, a lawmaker and businessman who is outspoken about cleaning up Congo's sprawling corruption, is widely seen as posing more of a threat to Kabila, his allies and the vast wealth they have amassed. Tshisekedi, the son of charismatic opposition leader Etienne who died in 2017, is relatively untested and has said little since the Dec. 30 election.

The AU statement was issued after Congo's foreign minister and deputy prime minister briefed "a number of heads of state and government" from across the continent on the crisis. It said some of the heads of state would join the AU Commission chair, Moussa Faki Mahamat, in the urgent mission to Congo.

Pressure from African nations is seen as having more of an impact on Congo's government, which was annoyed by Western pressure during more than two years of turbulent election delays. The AU statement reflects serious concern by states about the threat of more unrest in Congo that could spill across borders and destabilize its many neighbors.

But countries have wavered on how to address the crisis. The AU statement came hours after the 16-nation Southern African Development Community backed off its earlier demand for an election recount, instead urging the international community to respect Congo's sovereignty. It stressed the need for stability in a country where conflicts over the past two decades have killed millions of people.

The AU statement noted that SADC leaders attended the wider continental talks. Congo's election had been meant to take place in late 2016, and many Congolese worried that Kabila, in power since 2001, was seeking a way to stay in office. Barred from serving three consecutive terms, Kabila already has hinted he might run again in 2023.

Election observers reported multiple problems, including the last-minute barring of some 1 million voters in the east, with the electoral commission blaming a deadly Ebola outbreak. That alone undermines the election's credibility, some observers said.

All of the election results, not just the presidential ones, have been widely questioned after Kabila's ruling coalition won a majority in legislative and provincial votes while its presidential candidate finished a distant third.

China, German promise closer financial cooperation

January 18, 2019

BEIJING (AP) — China and Germany promised Friday to open their markets wider to each other's banks and insurers, giving Beijing a burst of positive trade news amid conflicts with Washington and Europe.

The two sides affirmed support for a global trading system that other governments worry is threatened by President Donald Trump's "America first" policies. That followed a regular annual meeting between German's finance minister and China's economy czar.

The initiatives reflect Beijing's determination to press ahead with changes aimed at making its state-dominated economy more productive and to reduce reliance on the U.S. market by building commercial ties with other countries.

China has tried without success to recruit Germany as an ally in its tariff war with Trump. Berlin expresses support for free trade but Chancellor Angela Merkel has stressed her government is not taking sides.

Delegations led by German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz and China's economy czar, Vice Premier Liu He, signed agreements to cooperate more closely on financial regulation. They included no details or commercial commitments, but Liu said Beijing welcomes "more qualified German banks to participate in the opening and innovation of China's financial market."

The two governments support their institutions doing "cross-border business in banking, securities, insurance and other fields," the vice premier said. Beijing has promised repeatedly to carry out long-delayed commitments made when it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001 to open its banking, insurance and securities markets. The government promised in 2017 to allow full foreign ownership of banks and insurers for the first time but business groups say they need to see details of regulations to know whether those opportunities are worth pursuing.

Chinese regulators have suspended issuing licenses to American companies in finance due to the tariff hikes imposed Trump in the fight over Beijing's technology ambitions. Beijing also faces pressure over technology from the European Union. The 28-nation trade bloc filed a challenge in the WTO in June to Chinese rules it says hamper foreign companies in protecting and profiting from their own technology.

Friday's talks were "also about advancing multilateral cooperation," Scholz said before the event began. He cited Chinese-German cooperation in the Group of 20 major economies and on Africa, taxation and other issues.

"We want to make further progress," he said.

Israel company admits spying on Emir of Qatar

January 14, 2019

The CEO of Israeli spyware company NSO Group has admitted that its software was used to spy on the Emir of Qatar.

In an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth this weekend, Shalev Hulio admitted that his company’s product was used to spy on Emir Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, as well as Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani.

The interview disclosed that NSO’s “Pegasus” software – which can be used to remotely infect a target’s mobile phone and then relay back data accessed by the device – was used to intercept phone calls and text messages made by both the Qatari foreign minister and the Emir. These conversations reportedly concerned “hundreds of millions of dollars in ransom to Iran and Hezbollah for the release of several Qataris,” some of which was allegedly sent to the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani.

This spying was seemingly undertaken at the behest of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Hulio revealed that the Israeli Defense Export Control Agency (DECA) authorized three deals with the UAE for the sale of NSO software, despite the fact that DECA is only supposed to give authorization for the “purpose of fighting terrorism and crime”.

These deals – allegedly mediated by former senior Israeli defense officials with close ties to a senior Emirati official – raised a total of $80 million in revenue for NSO.

NSO’s Pegasus software has come under increasing scrutiny in recent months after the product was revealed to be complicit in the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Though Hulio stressed in the interview with Yedioth Ahronoth this weekend that “Khashoggi was not targeted by any NSO product or technology, including listening, monitoring, location tracking and intelligence collection,” it appears that Saudi Arabia used NSO software to spy on many of Khashoggi’s friends and associates.

US whistle-blower Edward Snowden has been at the forefront of these claims, telling the Israeli newspaper: “I do not pretend that NSO is involved in hacking [directly] into Khashoggi’s phone, so their denial does not take us to a different conclusion. The evidence shows that the company’s products were involved in hacking into the phones of [Khashoggi’s] friends Omar Abdel Aziz, Yahya Assiri, and Ghanem Al-Masarir.”

The UAE is also known to have been using NSO’s software for some time. In 2016, Citizen Lab and Apple revealed there were attempts to infect an iPhone owned by the Emirati human rights activist Ahmed Mansoor. Mansoor had raised the alarm after receiving suspicious text intended to “bait to get him to click on a link, which would have led to the infection of his Apple iPhone 6 and control of the device through a spy software created by the NSO Group”.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190114-israeli-company-admits-spying-on-emir-of-qatar/.

Renewed space rivalry between nations ignores a tradition of cooperation

by Scott Shackelford
Jan 14, 2019

The annals of science fiction are full of visions of the future. Some are techno-utopian like "Star Trek" in which humanity has joined together in peace to explore the cosmos. Others are dystopian, like the World State in "Brave New World." But many of these stories share one thing in common - they envision a time in which humanity has moved past narrow ideas of tribe and nationalism. That assumption might be wrong.

This can be seen in Trump's calls for a unified U.S. Space Command. Or, in China's expansive view of sovereignty and increasingly active space program as seen in its recent lunar landing. These examples suggest that the notion of outer space as a final frontier free from national appropriation is questionable.

Active debate is ongoing as of this writing as to the consistency of the 2015 Space Act with international space law, which permitted private firms to own natural resources mined from asteroids. Some factions in Congress would like to go further still with one bill, the American Space Commerce Free Enterprise Act. This states, "Notwithstanding any other provision of law, outer space shall not be considered a global commons."

This trend, especially among the space powers, is important since it not only will create precedents that could resonate for decades to come, but also because it hinders our ability to address common challenges - like removing the debris orbiting the planet.

End of the golden age

In 1959, then-Sen. Lyndon Johnson stated, "Men who have worked together to reach the stars are not likely to descend together into the depths of war and desolation." In this spirit, between 1962 and 1979 the United States and the former Soviet Union worked together and through the U.N. Committee for the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space to enact five major international treaties and numerous bilateral and multilateral agreements concerning outer space.

These accords covered everything from the return of rescued astronauts and liability for damage from space objects to the peaceful use of outer space. They did not, though, address space weaponization outside of the weapons of mass destruction context, or put into place mechanisms for managing an increasingly crowded final frontier.

Progress ground to a halt when it came time to decide on the legal status of the moon. The Reagan administration objected to the Moon Treaty, which stated that the moon was the "common heritage of mankind" like the deep seabed, in part because of lobbying from groups opposed to the treaty's provisions. Because no organized effort arose in support of the treaty, it died in the U.S. Senate, and with it the golden age of space law. Today, nearly 30 years after it was first proposed, only 18 nations have ratified the accord.

Rise of collective action problems

Since the breakup of the Soviet Union space governance has only gotten more complicated due to an increasing number of space powers, both public and private. National and commercial interests are increasingly tied to space in political, economic and military arenas. Beyond fanciful notions of solar energy satellites, fusion energy and orbiting hotels, contemporary political issues such as nuclear nonproliferation, economic development, cybersecurity and human rights are also intimately tied to outer space.

The list of leading space powers has expanded beyond the U.S. and Russia to include China, India, Japan and members of the European Space Agency - especially France, Germany and Italy.

Each regularly spends over US$1 billion on their space programs, with estimates of China's space spending surpassing $8 billion in 2017, though the U.S. continues to spend more than all other nations combined on space related efforts. But space has become important to every nation that relies on everything from weather forecasting to satellite telecommunications. By 2015, the global space industry was worth more than $320 billion, a figure that is expected to grow to $1.1 trillion by 2040.

Private companies, such as SpaceX, are working to dramatically lower the cost of launching payloads into low Earth orbit, which has long stood at approximately $10,000 per pound. Such innovation holds the promise of opening up space to new development. It also raises concerns over the sustainability of space operations.

At the same time, the Trump administration's public desire to launch a Space Force has fueled concerns over a new arms race, which, if created, could exacerbate both the issues of space weapons and debris. The two issues are related since the use of weapons in space can increase the amount of debris through fragments from destroyed satellites. For example, China performed a successful anti-satellite test in 2007 that destroyed an aging weather satellite at an altitude of some 500 miles. This single event contributed more than 35,000 pieces of orbital debris boosting the amount of space junk by approximately 25 percent.

Without concerted action, Marshall Kaplan, an orbital debris expert within the Space Policy Department at Johns Hopkins University, argues, "There is a good chance that we may have to eventually abandon all active satellites in currently used orbits" due to the growing problem of space junk.

Avoiding a tragedy of the space commons

The tragedy of the commons scenario refers to the "unconstrained consumption of a shared resource - a pasture, a highway, a server - by individuals acting in rational pursuit of their self-interest," according to commons governance expert Brett Frischmann. This can and often does lead to destruction of the resource. Given that space is largely an open-access system, the predictions of the tragedy of the commons are self-evident. Space law expert Robert Bird, has argued that nations treat orbital space as a kind of communal pasture that may be over-exploited and polluted through debris. It's a scenario captured in the movie "Wall-E."

But luckily, there is a way out of this scenario besides either nationalization or privatization. Scholars led by the political economist and Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom modified the tragedy of the commons by showing that, in some cases, groups can and do self-organize and cooperate to avoid tragic over exploitation.

I explore this literature on "polycentric" governance - complex governance systems made up of multiple scales, sectors and stakeholders - in my forthcoming book, "Governing New Frontiers in the Information Age: Toward Cyber Peace." Already, we are seeing some evidence of the benefits of such a polycentric approach in an increasingly multipolar era in which there are more and more power centers emerging around the world. One example is a code of conduct for space-faring nations. That code includes the need to reduce orbital debris. Further progress could be made by building on the success of the international coalition that built the International Space Station such as by deepening partnerships with firms like SpaceX and Blue Origin.

This is not a "keep it simple, stupid" response to the challenges in space governance. But it does recognize the reality of continued national control over space operations for the foreseeable future, and indeed there are some benefits to such an outcome, including accountability. But we should think long and hard before moving away from a tried and tested model like the International Space Station and toward a future of vying national research stations and even military outposts in space.

Coordination between sovereign nations is possible, as was shown in the golden age of space law. By finding common ground, including the importance of sustainable development, we earthlings can ensure that humanity's development of space is less a race than a peaceful march - not a flags and footprints mission for one nation, but a destination serving the development of science, the economy and the betterment of international relations.

Source: SpaceWar.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Renewed_space_rivalry_between_nations_ignores_a_tradition_of_cooperation_999.html.

China launches Zhongxing-2D satellite

Xichang (XNA)
Jan 11, 2019

China sent Zhongxing-2D satellite into space on a Long March-3B carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province at 1:11 a.m. Friday.

The satellite has entered the preset orbit.

The Chinese-made communication and broadcasting satellite will provide transmission service for the country's radio, television stations and cable television networks.

The Zhongxing-2D satellite and Long March-3B carrier rocket were developed and produced by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

This was the 298th mission of the Long March rocket series.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/China_launches_Zhongxing_2D_satellite_999.html.

Vladimir Putin gets lavish welcome on visit to ally Serbia

January 17, 2019

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Vladimir Putin received a hero's welcome in ally Serbia on Thursday as the Russian president attempted to maintain political and economic influence in the Balkans, which is increasingly looking Westward.

Putin's presidential plane was escorted over Serbian airspace by MiG-29 fighter jets he recently donated to Serbia as he arrived for the one-day visit. Church bells tolled, guns saluted and people waved Russian and Serbian flags on Putin's route through the Serbian capital, Belgrade.

Serbia has maintained close links with traditional Slavic ally Russia despite formally seeking European Union membership. It has refused to join Western sanctions against Russia over Ukraine and has pledged to stay out of NATO.

Putin has recently stepped up efforts to restore Moscow's influence in the former communist countries of Eastern Europe. Putin and his host, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, praised the relationship between the two countries. Putin handed a top Russian honor to Vucic, who gave a puppy of a Serb dog breed to the Russian president.

Vucic thanked Russia for its support for Serbia's claim over Kosovo, a former province that declared independence in 2008, and added that "however small," Serbia has been a "reliable partner" to Russia.

Several bilateral agreements were signed, including on the supply of Russian gas and weapons to Serbia. On the gas, Putin said Russian companies are ready to invest about $1.4 billion into a stretch of a pipeline that would go from Turkey via EU-member Bulgaria to Serbia and then on to Hungary, "but in the end, everything will depend on other countries, including the European Union."

Putin's visit come as thousands have been holding weekly demonstrations against Vucic because of what they see as his autocratic rule. Tens of thousands of Vucic's right-wing party supporters were bused into the capital on Thursday to gather in front of the St. Sava Orthodox church, which the two presidents visited. They were chanting slogans including "Serbia-Russia, we don't need the European Union!"

Vucic's critics say the gathering was staged to suggest that the Serbian leader has many more supporters than opponents, who have been marching the same route since December to demand free elections and media.

Several liberal Serbian rights groups issued a statement on Thursday protesting "glorification of Vladimir Putin's authoritarian regime." It said that Putin's visit "indicates that the Serbian rulers are ready to sacrifice human rights and better living standards of citizens because of their servile attitude toward Putin's regime."

Russia's interest in Serbia relates to its strategic position between East and West. Of Serbia's eight neighbors, five are NATO members and two more are seeking membership; and four are in the EU and two more are working toward accession. Serbia remains Moscow's only ally in the region.

Unlike NATO, Putin formally does not oppose Serbia's EU path and analysts believe that this is because he wants a staunch ally — or perhaps a Trojan horse — within the 28-nation bloc. Putin's popularity in Serbia is mostly because the Kremlin is supporting Serbia in its rejection of Kosovo's independence. In contrast, most Western countries have recognized Kosovo's statehood.

AP writer Jovana Gec contributed.