Some Jordanian prisoners to be released in Hamas-Israel deal

[10/13/2011]

AMMONNEWS - Some Jordanian prisoners in Israeli jails are set to be freed under a deal struck this week between Hamas and Israel to swap hundreds of Palestinian prisoners for the Israeli captive soldier Gilad Shalit.

According to political activist Maysara Malas, former head of the National Committee for Prisoners in Israel, the number of Jordanian prisoners to be freed is not yet known.

Malas told The Jordan Times yesterday that he received confirmed information that some Jordanians in Israeli prisons will be included in the agreement announced Tuesday between Gaza’s Hamas Islamist movement and the Israeli government, adding that there are currently 24 Jordanians behind bars in Israel.

According to the activist, the prisoners, whom he said were imprisoned for political reasons, are serving various terms, with one inmate having been incarcerated since 2000.

An official at the foreign ministry told The Jordan Times that the ministry has not received official information about the release of Jordanian prisoners.

On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in Jerusalem that the deal to swap prisoners was “finally summarized and both sides signed”, Reuters reported.

In the Gaza Strip, Hamas confirmed that it only remained to conclude technical arrangements for the exchange in the coming days.

The breakthrough pact came after many failed negotiations to free Shalit since he was captured in 2006.

The agreement calls for the release of 1,000 Palestinians in two stages, the first involving 450 to be swapped for Shalit, with the remaining 550 to be freed later.

Source: Ammon News.
Link: http://en.ammonnews.net/article.aspx?articleNO=14127.

Libya oil corp, central bank rally around unity govt

3 April 2016

Libya's National Oil Corporation and Central Bank, backbones of its wealth, have thrown their support behind a UN-backed unity government in a blow to a rival administration refusing to cede power.

The two institutions, which have struggled to remain neutral since Libya's 2011 armed revolt and subsequent turbulence, said they welcomed the Government of National Accord, in separate statements.

Prime minister-designate Fayez al-Sarraj and members of the GNA arrived Wednesday in Tripoli where a rival government, unrecognized by the international community, has ruled since mid-2014.

The Tripoli administration, established after the powerful Libya Dawn militia alliance overrun the capital that year, has demanded that Sarraj leave or surrender, branding the GNA "illegal".

Founded in 1970, the National Oil Corporation (NOC) is based in Tripoli where Libya's Central Bank -- the depositor of the country's oil wealth -- also has its headquarters.

They have continued to operate independently despite the chaos that engulfed Libya after the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

"We have been working with Prime Minister Sarraj and the Presidency Council to put this period of divisions and rivalry behind us," NOC chairman Mustafa Sanalla.

"We have been looking to the future, and now we have a clear international legal framework in place," he added in a statement published Saturday on the NOC website.

The Central Bank of Libya also "welcomed" the GNA and wished them "all the success in carrying out the difficult tasks ahead of them".

It urged Libyans to "now more than ever to unite and collaborate by working together to ensure that security and safety prevail in Libya, to stop fighting and bloodshed, to empower the judicial system and to embrace the rule of law".

A Libyan financial expert said the NOC and Central Bank support amounted to "a resounding vote of confidence" in the GNA.

"The two institutions are the basis of Libyan livelihood and without them the GNA would not be able to function," he said, asking not to be named.

- Battered economy -

Oil is Libya's main natural resource, with reserves estimated at 48 billion barrels, the largest in Africa.

The North African nation had an output capacity of about 1.6 million barrels per day before the uprising, accounting for more than 95 percent of exports and 75 percent of the budget.

But production has slumped amid violence as rival forces battled for control of oil terminals.

Control of the oil industry is key for the GNA, which not only needs to unite the country but also shore up an economy weakened by the drop of oil prices on the international market.

Since the revolt, and the emergence of two rival administrations, the central bank struggled to keep the country afloat, urging tough spending cuts and hinting that it dipped into foreign reserves.

On Thursday, Sarraj met the head of the Central Bank to discuss measures to safeguard banks and tackle the country's "cash flow problem", his office said.

"Difficult times lie ahead. The immediate challenge is to end the cash crisis," Mattia Toaldo, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said earlier in the week.

Following Sarraj's arrival in Tripoli, pledges of loyalty began pouring in and supporters rallied in the city although his government still needs the formal approval of the house of representatives (HoR).

"The HoR remains the legitimate body to endorse the GNA. I urge the HoR to hold a comprehensive session to vote on GNA in free will," UN envoy to Libya Martin Kobler said in a tweet Sunday.

On Thursday, the mayors of 10 coastal cities that were under the control of the Tripoli authorities called on Libyans to "support the national unity government".

The following day, guards in charge of securing installations in Libya's so-called eastern "oil crescent" also offered their support and said they would hand over to the unity government three oil terminal.

The UN Security Council has passed Resolution 2278 stating that oil exports from Libya must be placed under the authority of the GNA.

Source: Daily Mail Online.
Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-3521391/Libyas-National-Oil-Corporation-backs-unity-government.html.

Libya NTC says recognizes Syrian National Council

10/10/2011

Libya's ruling National Transitional Council said on Monday that it recognizes the Syrian National Council grouping of opponents of President Bashar al-Assad as the country's government.

"The National Transitional Council has decided after a meeting today to recognize the Syrian National Council as the sole legitimate government in Syria," NTC member Mussa al-Koni told a news conference in Tripoli.

Koni, who represents Libya's Tuareg minority in the NTC, said the council has "also decided to close the Syrian embassy in Libya."

The decision makes Libya the first country to recognize the SNC as Syria's legitimate government, although the former is still only run by an interim council and still battling pockets of loyalists to the ousted Moammar Qaddafi.

Dissidents officially declared the formation of the Syrian National Council in Turkey on October 2, saying they had established a "historic" united front against Assad that brings in groups from across the political spectrum.

"The Syrian National Council reunites the forces of the opposition and the peaceful revolution," Paris-based academic Burhan Ghalioun told reporters in Istanbul, announcing the new umbrella movement which he called "historic."

He said the SNC aims to "mobilize all categories of people in Syria and give the necessary support for the revolution to progress and realize the aspirations of our people for the overthrow of the regime, its symbols and its head."

Apparently modeled on Libya's NTC, the Syrian council is to elect a president and have a 29-strong general secretariat representing seven of the country's opposition factions.

It comprises six members of the Local Coordination Committees, five Muslim Brotherhood and tribal representatives, four from the so-called Damascus Declaration and four for a liberal grouping led by Ghalioun.

The remaining members of the secretariat are five independents, four Kurds and a Christian.

-AFP/NOW Lebanon

Source: NOW Lebanon.
Link: https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/archive/libya_ntc_says_recognizes_syrian_national_council1.

Algeria struggles to cope with refugee influx

Sunday, 03 April 2016

The "Arab Spring" revolutions and the current regional security situation have combined to turn Algeria into a temporary home for some 30,000 refugees from Syria, Libya and Mali.

Bin Olwi Mohy el-Din, a member of the African Association for Care of Refugees Affairs, an NGO, told Anadolu Agency that the association had counted more than 30,000 refugees in Algeria from the three countries, "most of whom fled their countries because of civil war".

Half of the refugees are from Mali.

Algerian authorities have laid out a plan to meet refugees’ needs without forcing them into camps and allowing their children to enter the local school system, according to Mohy el-Din.

For his part, Addas Khalifa, a Syrian national and a member of the Syrian Refugees League in Northern African Countries, told Anadolu Agency that the number of Syrian refugees in Algeria changes "from one month to the next".

He put the number of Syrian refugees in the country at 7,000, citing statistics issued by the Algerian authorities in April of last year.

Khalifa asserted that Syrians had been welcomed in Algeria without a visa until 2015, when Algeria began requiring visas due to developments in the war-torn country.

"The special circumstances in Syria forced the Algerian authorities to do security checks on incoming refugees to ensure that no extremists are among them," Khalifa said.

Syrian refugees currently reside in 22 Algerian cities. The majority of them live in big cities, such as Annaba, Oran and capital Algiers, according to Khalifa.

Ghawati Abdul Basit, a member of a relief committee established to take care of refugees from Mali, said the official number of refugees from Mali is "not accurate".

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Abdul Basit said: "I think the number of refugees who fled Mali, Syria and Libya may exceed 50,000 or 60,000. There are thousands who fled the war in northern Mali between 2012 and 2013 [after the French military intervention] who the authorities could not register officially because they snuck through the borders."

Karwi Khaled, a Libyan businessman and a representative of the Libyan community in Algeria, said that "during the civil war in Libya following the revolution in 2011, at least 5,000 Libyans sought refuge in Algeria, most of whom have relatives in Algeria".

For her part, Saeeda Bin Heblis, head of the Algerian Red Crescent, told reporters on Thursday that her country will not deport refugees until stability is restored in their home countries.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/africa/24811-algeria-struggles-to-cope-with-refugee-influx.

Japan's PM defends new security laws as protesters denounce them

Tokyo (AFP)
March 29, 2016

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that new security laws that took effect Tuesday will strengthen Tokyo's ability to defend itself amid increasing threats as opponents took to the streets to say they risk hurling the country into war.

Legislators in September passed the bills into law, a shift that could see Japanese troops fight abroad for the first time since the end of World War II.

The approval was a milestone in Japan, where a constitution imposed by the United States after Japan's defeat renounces its sovereign right to wage war.

That clause, known as Article 9, is unchanged, but staunch nationalist Abe wants to revise the constitution to throw off what he and many conservatives see as outdated foreign-imposed constraints that hinder Japan from playing a more robust role in regional and global affairs.

"The security environment surrounding our country is becoming more severe," Abe told a nationally televised news conference, citing threats including from nearby North Korea, which this year has carried out fresh nuclear and ballistic rocket launches.

"No country in the world can protect itself alone," he added.

As Abe spoke at his official office, an AFP journalist estimated that about 2,000 people rallied outside parliament nearby in a show of opposition to the laws that opponents fear could fundamentally reshape the proudly pacifist nation.

Fumiko Yamaguchi, who attended the demonstration, said she survived devastating US air raids on Tokyo as a child even as an aunt was killed.

"I don't want Japan to be engaged in any war," she told AFP. "I don't want my children and our grandchildren to go to war."

Abe says that the new laws are part of a normalization of Japan's military policy, which had been restricted to self-defense and aid missions by the constitution.

The changes, which would allow Japanese troops to fight in defense of allies, drew tens of thousands of protesters onto the streets outside parliament or the prime minister's office in the runup to their passage in September.

Abe and his backers say the laws are necessary because of threats from an increasingly belligerent China and unstable North Korea.

Opponents argue they go against both the constitution and the national psyche, and could see Japan dragged into far-flung US wars.

Washington has backed the changes, but regional rivals China and South Korea have expressed concern at any expansion of Japanese military scope.

Abe also said that the alliance with the US remains strong and will not change after the Us presidential election in November.

"No matter who will be the next president, the Japan-US alliance is the cornerstone of Japan's diplomacy," he said.

"For the sake of the peace and prosperity of Asia, the Pacific and the world, close cooperation with the US won't change."

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Japans_PM_defends_new_security_laws_as_protesters_denounce_them_999.html.

UN court acquits Serb nationalist Seselj; Croatia shocked

March 31, 2016

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — In a rare courtroom victory for a Serb defendant, a U.N. war crimes tribunal on Thursday acquitted ultranationalist politician Vojislav Seselj of atrocities and pronounced him a free man. The decision inflamed simmering tensions in the Balkans, sparking joy in Serbia and horror and deep anger in Bosnia and Croatia.

Prosecutors had charged Seselj, 61, with crimes including persecution, murder and torture and had demanded a 28-year sentence for his support of Serb paramilitaries during the region's bitter, bloody wars in the early 1990s.

But in a majority decision, the three-judge panel said there was insufficient evidence linking the politician himself to the crimes. A dissenting opinion shredded that logic, providing grist for possible future appeals.

"After so many proceedings in which innocent Serbs were given draconian punishments, this time two honest judges showed they valued honor more than political pressure," Seselj declared at a press conference at his Serbian Radical Party headquarters in Belgrade.

Others heatedly disagreed. "This is a defeat of The Hague tribunal," Croatian Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic said in Vukovar, an eastern Croatian town destroyed by Serbian troops, including Seselj's paramilitaries, during the war for independence in the 1990s. "I am in Vukovar today, and we all know that this man has done evil to this town. He showed no remorse whatsoever."

Most of the people indicted and convicted by the court have been Serbs as the international community blamed them for most of the war's worst atrocities, including the deadly siege of Sarajevo and 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslim men in Srebrenica.

Seselj, who repeatedly branded the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia an anti-Serb court, was not in The Hague for the ruling. He was allowed to return home in late 2014 on compassionate grounds due to ill health.

Once home, the firebrand ultranationalist, who once said he would like to gouge out the eyes of rival Croats with a rusty spoon, rekindled a political career that was put on hold when he surrendered to the tribunal in 2003.

Now he could become a key political powerbroker after Serbia's April 24 general election. With a surge in pro-Russian and right-wing sentiments ahead of the vote, Seselj's Serbian Radical Party has a good chance to return to parliament after missing out two years ago.

Seselj has campaigned on the platform that Serbia must never enter the 28-nation European Union or NATO and should forge closer ties with Moscow. He has burned EU, NATO and Croatian flags during pre-election rallies, and said he would join a coalition government with the incumbent populists, his former allies, only if they give up their goal of EU accession.

The ruling could also further deteriorate relations between the two main Balkan rivals, Serbia and Croatia. Oreskovic, the prime minister described the acquittal as "shameful" and demanded a Serbian government "reaction" as a proof that Belgrade adheres to EU values as it seeks membership in the bloc.

In Bosnia, which also saw mass killings by Serb forces, the acquittal sparked disbelief and anger. "An absolutely shocking decision," said lawyer and publicist Senad Pecanin. "This is the lowest point of The Hague tribunal."

Ismar Jamakovic, 23, a student of political science from Sarajevo, said judges ruled that "advocating the creation of Greater Serbia was a political and not a criminal act. Does this mean I can now advocate the creation of an Islamic State without facing any consequences? You've got to be kidding me."

Jamakovic was referring to one of the most controversial aspects of Thursday's ruling. Prosecutors have long cast wartime plans by Serb leaders including Slobodan Milosevic and Radovan Karadzic as a criminal plot to create a "Greater Serbia" by forcefully expelling non-Serbs from their homes and thus redrawing the Balkan borders. Reading out a summary of the judgment, Presiding Judge Jean-Claude Antonetti characterized the plan as a political goal, not a criminal act.

The ruling called operations in which non-Serbs were bussed out of territory as a "humanitarian mission." Prosecutors had branded it a forcible displacement of the civilian population. "The reading of the conflict by the trial chamber is very, very different to what we are used to," Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz told reporters, adding that Seselj's trial was beset by allegations of interference with witnesses and evidence.

Brammertz almost certainly will appeal, but said Thursday he first has to study the ruling, which runs to some 100 pages, and its dissenting opinion. Antonetti also distanced Seselj from the crimes of the Serb paramilitaries he helped to establish, saying that although Seselj "may have had a certain amount of moral authority over his party's volunteers, they were not his subordinates" when they went into combat.

In a dissenting opinion, Judge Flavia Lattanzi sounded appalled at the findings of the other two judges, saying they had set aside "all the rules of international humanitarian law that existed before the creation of the Tribunal and all the applicable law established since the inception of the Tribunal in order to acquit Vojislav Seselj."

Serbian political analyst Djordje Subotic said the ruling legitimizes the "Greater Serbia" project, which could have grave consequences for future stability in the Balkans. "This means that the idea of redrawing the borders in the Balkans is revived," he said.

Seselj said he now expects to win 20-25 percent of the vote for his far-right radicals in April. "The most important is that we get more than the progressives," he said, referring to the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, his former allies-turned-foes.

Associated Press writers Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Aida Cerkez in Sarajevo and Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow contributed to this report.

Protesters clash with police at Italian-Austrian border

April 03, 2016

MILAN (AP) — Italian demonstrators clashed with Austrian police on Sunday when they crossed the Brenner Pass border to protest against Austria's plans to enforce controls to limit the passage of migrants.

Some 500 human rights activists marched on the border Sunday, lighting flares and spraying "Welcome" on a sign announcing the passage to Austria. Austrian police said they detained around 50 protests for throwing stones at officers, injuring five, and vandalizing property.

Police used batons and pepper spray to drive back the protesters, according to reports in the Austrian media. An Austrian official was also quoted in the German media as saying that Austria will deploy soldiers to the borders to ensure that an expected influx through Italy won't make it north.

Several European Union countries have responded to the influx of migrants from across the Mediterranean by reintroducing border controls along their previously open frontiers. Many expect that an EU-Turkey deal tightening the Balkans route will send migrants across the sea to Italy and then northwards, once weather permits.