Kiszczak, who helped impose martial law in Poland, dies

November 05, 2015

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Gen. Czeslaw Kiszczak, a Polish general and communist-era leader who played a key role in imposing martial law in 1981 but eight years later also took part in talks that allowed for a peaceful transition to democracy, died on Thursday in Warsaw. He was 90.

After Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, the nation's top leader at the time, Kiszczak was the most important figure in the crackdown aimed at crushing the pro-democracy Solidarity movement. Martial law included the mass round-up and internment of Solidarity activists, curfews and other harsh measures.

Both men long argued that they acted to stave off a Soviet invasion. With Poland under Soviet control at the time, many believed that Moscow would invade to crush democratic change, as it did in Czechoslovakia in 1968.

"I saved the country from terrible troubles," Kiszczak said years later. Kiszczak was also the last prime minister of communist Poland, a job he only held for less than three weeks in 1989 before the country's transition to a free-market democracy.

He died on Thursday in Warsaw, according to his family. Jaruzelski died in 2014. Both men remain deeply controversial. They are hated by many Poles for repressions that caused the suffering of many Poles, accused of acting in the interests of Moscow, but they have also won some grudging praise for stepping away from power without violence.

Still, many Poles find it infuriating that Jaruzelski and Kiszczak went to their deaths without facing punishment for martial law and other repressive measures, while some lower level police officers have faced convictions. More than 100 Poles were killed in the crackdown.

In the quarter century of democratic Poland, Kiszczak was tried in court multiple times for his role in imposing martial law, but he never served prison time. One of the most serious accusations against him is connected to the massacre of nine miners who were shot by riot police in 1981 for protesting martial law. Another 25 were wounded.

At times he was acquitted, at other times found guilty, but he always managed to avoid punishment amid appeals, retrials and the expiration of the statute of limitations.

Luxembourg: 'We'll help reconstruct Gaza'

Monday, 09 November 2015

The Luxembourg government and UNRWA will be working to assist in the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and to push the process forward, Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said.

In a press conference held in Gaza, Asselborn also stated: “I believe that this is clearly a humanitarian issue and is considered one of the top issues for the Palestinian people. We must not only be satisfied with reconstructing Gaza.”

“I heard that more than half of Gazans are under 18 years old. However, it's impossible to find a job here even if people complete their studies and this is very negative.”

Asselborn also expressed his discontent regarding the confrontations carried out by the Palestinian youth in Jerusalem and Hebron, and stressed that violence should not be encouraged; rather, there should be calls to end it.

The minister had entered the Gaza Strip for a short visit to meet with ministers from the national unity government in Gaza via the Beit Hanoun crossing.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/22174-luxembourg-well-help-reconstruct-gaza.

UNESCO rejects membership for Kosovo in victory for Serbia

November 09, 2015

PARIS (AP) — Members of the U.N. cultural agency narrowly rejected Kosovo's bid for membership on Monday in a victory for Serbia and Russia and a blow to Kosovo's mission for global recognition as a state.

Most nations that participated in the vote at UNESCO headquarters in Paris favored Kosovo's membership, with 92 "yes" votes and 50 "no" votes and 29 abstentions. But the bid needed the support of two-thirds of those voting, or more than 94 "yes" votes, said Stanley Mutumba Simataa, the Namibian diplomat presiding over the vote.

In Pristina, Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga told The Associated Press the decision was disappointing but vowed to push on with efforts to become "an equal member of the international community." "This is a missed opportunity to stay true to what the organization stands for, which is inclusion and promotion of cooperation," he said.

Serbian officials, on the other hand, were jubilant. "This decision reflects our intention never to give up Kosovo," Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said. The heated debate highlighted east-west battle lines and tapped into concerns in some countries that have their own separatist movements.

Kosovo has been recognized by 111 countries since it declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Russia, which backed Serbia in Kosovo's 1998-99 separatist war, has used its Security Council veto to block Kosovo from becoming a full U.N. member.

Kosovo has won membership in the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Kosovo's predominantly ethnic Albanian leadership had promised that if it became a UNESCO member, it would protect the cultural heritage of Serbs, despite tensions that have lingered since the war.

Serbia had warned that allowing Kosovo into UNESCO would fuel those tensions and hurt an EU-brokered dialogue aimed at normalizing ties between the former foes. The U.S. delegation supported Kosovo's bid, but no longer has voting rights in UNESCO because of a funding flap.

Kosovo applied for UNESCO membership in September, and last month the UNESCO Executive Board recommended that it be admitted during the body's General Conference from Nov. 3 to 18. The Serbian and Russian delegations to UNESCO, apparently expecting the bid to win approval, argued Monday for the vote to be delayed. The request was rejected.

Spain, which has concerns about separatists in its northeastern region of Catalonia, voted no. Ukraine, in a territorial conflict with Russia, abstained. "At the very least, I expected that all states that had recognized Kosovo would support Kosovo's membership. Instead, a number of these states abstained, including Japan, South Korea and Poland," said Richard Caplan, professor of international relations at Oxford University.

"One would have expected Kosovo's allies (such as the U.S., Britain, Germany) to have known whether there was sufficient support for Kosovo. They would not have supported Kosovo's bid if they had not thought there was enough support," he said.

Kosovo Foreign Minister Hashim Thaci wrote on Facebook that Kosovo would apply for UNESCO membership again, saying "Kosovo's path is unstoppable." Kosovo came under U.N. and NATO administration after a 1999 NATO-led air war halted a Serbian crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.

Gresa Kraja in Pristina, Kosovo, and Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade, Serbia, and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

Protesters clash with police in Bologna

November 08, 2015

MILAN (AP) — Hundreds of demonstrators clashed briefly Sunday with riot police ahead of a meeting between Silvio Berlusconi and a hotly contested right-wing political leader in the northern city of Bologna.

Violence broke out when demonstrators kicked riot police shields and police responded by forcing them back with batons, video footage showed. Italian news reports said at least one officer was injured by an exploding firecracker.

Hundreds gathered to protest the arrival of Northern League leader Matteo Salvini, whom they decry as a racist for his anti-migrant views. Saboteurs overnight set fire to railway cables that shut down the heavily traveled Bologna-Milan line for several hours. They left behind anti-racist graffiti.

Berlusconi, who has been largely sidelined from politics since his tax fraud conviction, was meeting with Salvini and the leader of another center-right party to discuss an alliance to unseat the Democratic Party in the next election.

The Northern League was a junior partner in Berlusconi governments, but the dynamics have since shifted. Berlusconi has been weakened by the tax fraud conviction and another for paying for sex with an under-age prostitute, while Salvini's popularity has surged since the last election.

"This isn't a return to the past," Salvini told reporters. "Something new is starting here, that is led by the Northern League, but is open to all Italians who today are far from politics."

Germany's Merkel grapples with strife at home over migrants

November 13, 2015

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been looking unusually vulnerable as she prepares to meet the world's top leaders this week, struggling to slow a huge influx of migrants amid mounting demands to do just that.

Merkel's optimistic signature phrase in the crisis — "We will manage it" — is wearing thin at home, bringing rare open criticism from her own conservative bloc. She has made little headway persuading Germany's European Union partners to share the burden. Polls have shown her popularity sliding.

Over recent days, her governing coalition squabbled over a plan to give many Syrians a restricted asylum status that wouldn't allow them to bring relatives to Germany for two years. The program was announced by the interior minister apparently behind the chancellery's back, and quickly shelved, but then backed by prominent conservatives. The bickering came just after the government buried another weekslong argument.

However, while these are difficult times for Merkel, they are far from desperate. The chancellor appears to be inching toward more restrictive policies without dropping her broadly positive approach. She also needs to reconcile the interests of a governing coalition of right and left.

Over the years, her pragmatism at home and persistence abroad have left her without serious rivals as Germany's and Europe's most powerful politician. That makes her a key figure among leaders of the Group of 20 nations, who meet Sunday and Monday in Turkey.

Fellow conservatives appear to be trying to push her to the right, with Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble — a heavyweight in her Christian Democratic Union — saying Sunday that "our capacity to take in (people) is not unlimited" and that it needs to be "clear in Syria that not everyone can now come to Germany." On Wednesday, he compared the influx to a potential avalanche.

Still, there's no sign of any direct attack on her position, and Merkel has a long record of patiently working through crises. "This is not a power struggle" because there is no opponent, said Oskar Niedermayer, a political science professor at Berlin's Free University. "There is no one who wants to damage her to the extent of running against her and really challenging her as party leader or chancellor."

Her strength over a decade in power has been in improvising responses to confusing crises, giving Germans the reassuring sense that she's in control. But that sense — something that has earned her the nickname "Mutti," or "mom" — has seemed in short supply lately as Germany struggles to stem the tide of refugees and other migrants. Merkel has said that she can't just flip a switch to stop the flow, and even that it is "not in our power how many come to Germany."

Germany registered some 758,000 migrants this year through October, and some 6,000 to 10,000 per day continue to arrive. While Merkel has repeatedly stressed that people who have no claim to asylum must leave Germany quickly, she so far has ignored pressure to state clearly that there is a limit to the number of refugees Germany can take in — apparently wary of making promises she can't keep.

Merkel, the daughter of a Protestant pastor who grew up behind communist East Germany's fortified border, has appeared driven by a mixture of her trademark pragmatism and moral purpose. She argues that it's not feasible to seal off Germany or Europe in the Internet age.

As the head of a party with "Christian" in its name, Merkel said last month, "I don't want to get into a competition to see who in Europe treats in the least friendly way people... who have come 2,000 kilometers to us."

All the same, Niedermayer noted that "the unlimited 'culture of welcome' of the early days already doesn't exist," pointing to moves by the government to make it easier to send home people from Balkan countries such as Albania and Kosovo, among others. Officials also have made clear that not all newcomers from Afghanistan will be allowed to stay.

This week, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said he had reversed a decision from August, which had effectively meant Syrians wouldn't be sent back to the first EU country where they were registered, as EU rules stipulate.

The practical impact appears negligible, given that most haven't been registered by other countries they crossed, but the move sends a signal — though government spokeswoman Christiane Wirtz denied any change in "political direction."

Satisfaction with Merkel has declined from a stellar 75 percent in April to a still-respectable 49 percent this month, according to polling by the Infratest dimap agency for ARD television, while support for Merkel's conservative bloc slipped from 41 percent to 37 percent.

While her third term was smooth until this summer, Merkel has been in worse poll positions before — notably during her 2009-2013 second term, which was marred by near-constant cacophony and feuding in the center-right coalition she ran then.

One factor that didn't help in the short term was her abrupt decision in 2011 to speed up the closure of Germany's nuclear power stations, viewed by many as undermining her credibility. On refugees, "I don't think she can change her basic position — that would be seen as opportunistic again," said Manfred Guellner, the head of the Forsa polling agency. "What she can do, and what she apparently is doing, is take small steps to ratchet up (policy) without her basic position being affected."

Guellner noted that "many people haven't seen any refugees" so far, meaning that "at the moment, it's something abstract for most people." "It is not the case that Germans are turning away from Merkel now," Niedermayer said. But he conceded that, if her image as a reliable crisis manager takes long-term damage, "that will be dangerous."

Lufthansa cancels 136 flights due to cabin crew strike

November 10, 2015

BERLIN (AP) — Lufthansa says it is canceling 126 long-haul and 10 shorter flights Tuesday as a cabin crew strike goes into its fourth day.

The UFO union has called on its members to walk out at three of Germany's biggest airports: Frankfurt, Munich and Duesseldorf. Lufthansa says the cancellations will affect 27,300 passengers. It says nearly all German and European flights will operate as scheduled, and flights by subsidiaries such as Germanwings, Swiss and Austrian Airlines won't be affected.

UFO wants to secure transition payments for its 19,000 members if they retire early as part of its contract dispute with Lufthansa, which is trying to cut costs. The union rejected the airline's latest offer Monday, saying it constituted only a "minimal" improvement.

Syria's swimming sisters find new home in German waters

November 10, 2015

BERLIN (AP) — Sarah and Ysra Mardini pull bathing caps over their long, black hair and slide into the water, disappearing among the throng of swimmers with powerful, practiced strokes.

Two months ago the sisters were swimming for their lives, after jumping off an inflatable boat that began taking on water carrying refugees to Greece. Now they are ploughing down the length of a pool built for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin that has become a home away from home for two young women, who were once among Syria's brightest swimming stars.

"Everything was good," said 20-year-old Sarah. "That was before the war." After the conflict began, the Mardini family moved around to avoid the fighting and tried to ensure their daughters could keep on swimming. Ysra, now 17, even represented Syria at the short-course world championships in Turkey in 2012. But as the war intensified fellow swimmers drifted away.

"We were 40 or 50 swimmers, and now we are maybe 10 or 7 swimmers in Syria," said Sarah. "We want to have a future. I want to be in college, I want to be an international swimmer and my sister too. But if we stay there we will not reach that because the situation is not OK in Syria."

The Mardini sisters eventually left Damascus in early August, joining a fresh wave of Syrians who had given up hope of seeing the conflict end soon. The sisters traveled to Lebanon, then Turkey, where they paid smugglers to take them to Greece.

Turkish coastguards drove their boat back on the first attempt. The second time they boarded a small inflatable dinghy at dusk. Within a half hour it was taking on water, hopelessly overloaded with people, most of whom couldn't swim.

As evening winds churned up the Aegean Sea, all bags were thrown overboard to give the small boat a chance to stay afloat. When that wasn't enough, Ysra, Sarah and three others who were also strong swimmers jumped into the water in order to give the boat more buoyancy.

"I was not afraid of dying, because if anything happened I could swim to arrive at the island. But the problem was that I had 20 persons with me," said Sarah. "In Syria I worked in a swimming pool to watch people not drowning, so if I let anyone drown or die I would not forgive myself."

For three hours they clung onto ropes hanging from the side until it reached shore on the Greek island of Lesbos. In the weeks-long overland trek that followed, strangers gave them clothes, while others stole from them. Friends were arrested at borders and expensive tickets proved worthless, as authorities refused to let trains full of refugees cross borders.

Eventually, the sisters made it to Austria and then Germany. Shortly after arriving in Berlin a local charity put them in touch with the Wasserfreunde Spandau 04, a swimming club based near their refugee shelter.

The club has embraced its newest recruits, putting them straight into a daily training routine. Sven Spannekrebs, their coach, says the sisters are making amazing progress, though he is realistic about their prospects as athletes. "They can swim at the highest level for the Arab world, but there's a difference to Europe because of the training conditions," he said.

Ysra, who specializes in butterfly stroke, is aiming high. "Maybe when I learn German I will start school. I want to be a pilot," she said. "And with my swimming I want to reach the Olympics." Her older sister, meanwhile, is battling bureaucracy to bring the rest of the family to Germany. In the pool, she prefers long-distance swimming.

"It seems to me that I have balanced my life," said Sarah. "We can't do anything good in our life if we don't have swimming."