Wanderlust

Tag: War Conflict

  • Myanmar demonstrators condemn foreign intervention

    Several thousand pro-military and nationalist demonstrators marched through Yangon on Sunday, voicing their support for Myanmar’s armed forces and government while condemning foreign involvement in th

    YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Several thousand pro-military and nationalist demonstrators marched through Yangon on Sunday, voicing their support for Myanmar’s armed forces and government while condemning foreign involvement in the country’s affairs.

    The march led to a stage lined with portraits of Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, where speakers addressed a flag-waving crowd and condemned the international community’s involvement in Myanmar, claiming groups would “fight back” against international bodies who have called for the investigation and prosecution of the country’s top generals.

    “We, the people of Myanmar, strongly denounce and condemn any intervention or intrusion by the foreign countries, international communities and various organizations which unrightfully manipulate our nation and our Myanmar armed forces,” proclaimed one of the speakers of the event, reading from a prepared statement.

    Nationalist monk Wirathu also gave a speech calling for the international community to stay out of Myanmar’s national affairs.

    “The day the International Criminal Court comes to our country, that’s the day R2P (responsibility to protect) comes to our country. That’ll be the day that Wirathu picks up a gun,” Wirathu said.

    A United Nations fact-finding mission reported last month that Myanmar’s military systematically killed thousands of Rohingya Muslim civilians, burned hundreds of their villages and engaged in ethnic cleansing and mass rape. It called for top generals to be investigated and prosecuted for genocide.

    Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay was unable to be reached for comment Sunday.

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    This story has been corrected to show that “R2P” refers to “responsibility to protect.”

  • Polish police use tear gas to protect gay rights march

    Polish police used tear gas and a water cannon Saturday against right-wing extremists who were trying to block the first equality parade in the city of Lublin in eastern Poland.

    WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish police used tear gas and a water cannon Saturday against right-wing extremists who were trying to block the first equality parade in the city of Lublin in eastern Poland.

    More than 1,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights activists with rainbow-colored flags and banners gathered Saturday in Lublin for the parade, while around 300 right-wing opponents stood in the march’s way. Police used tear gas, concussion grenades and high-pressured water to disperse them.

    The right-wing protesters pelted police with stones and dispersed, but some small groups tried to get through the police cordon that was protecting the march.

    The colorful parade then proceeded undisturbed.

    The march took place after Lublin’s Court of Appeals on Friday overruled a ban by Mayor Krzysztof Zuk, who had cited security concerns as his reason for banning the parade.

    Gay rights parades have been taking place for years in Warsaw, the capital, and many other cities in predominantly Catholic Poland, but the ruling conservative party is not supportive of gay rights groups.

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    This story has been corrected to show that 300 right-wing extremists tried to block the parade, not 3,000.

  • David Davis, former Brexit secretary, urges Theresa May cabinet rebellion in Sunday Times

    Britain’s former Brexit secretary is urging members of Prime Minister Theresa May’s cabinet to rebel against her proposed deal with the European Union over the terms of Britain’s departure from the bl

    LONDON — Britain’s former Brexit secretary is urging members of Prime Minister Theresa May’s cabinet to rebel against her proposed deal with the European Union over the terms of Britain’s departure from the bloc.

    David Davis wrote in the Sunday Times that May’s plans for some continued ties with the EU under her Chequers plan is “completely unacceptable” and must be stopped. The fellow Conservative Party member said the time has come for ministers to shoot down May’s plan.

    “It is time for the cabinet to exert their collective authority,” he said. “This week the authority of our constitution is on the line.”

    May is struggling to build a consensus behind her Brexit plans ahead of a cabinet meeting Tuesday that will be followed by an EU summit Wednesday in Brussels.

    If Davis’ call for a rebellion is effective, the cabinet meeting Tuesday would be a likely place for opposition to surface.

    Davis and former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson resigned from the cabinet this summer to protest May’s Brexit blueprint. Both have become vocal opponents of her plan, calling it a betrayal of the Brexit vote that would leave Britain in a weakened position.

    May also faces obstacles from the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland, which has played a crucial role in propping up her minority government in Parliament.

    DUP leader Arlene Foster remains opposed to any Brexit plan that would require checks on goods traveling between Northern Ireland and Britain, as some EU leaders have suggested as part of a “backstop” plan.

    The Chequers plan has also been questioned by some opposition Labour Party lawmakers, further complicating the prime minister’s hopes of winning parliamentary backing for any Brexit deal she reaches with EU officials.

     

  • Mike Pompeo seeks allied unity in dealing with North Korea

    America’s top diplomat left Tokyo for Pyongyang on Sunday after pledging that the U.S. will coordinate with allies Japan and South Korea on efforts to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapo

    TOKYO (AP) — America’s top diplomat left Tokyo for Pyongyang on Sunday after pledging that the U.S. will coordinate with allies Japan and South Korea on efforts to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.

    On the eve of his fourth visit to North Korea, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Saturday with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to try to unify the countries’ positions as he looks to arrange a second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and chart a path toward denuclearization.

    Japan has been wary of Trump’s initiative, fearing it could affect its long-standing security relationship with the U.S.

    Pompeo said it was important to hear from the Japanese leader “so we have a fully coordinated and unified view.” Pompeo also pledged that during his meeting with Kim on Sunday, he would raise the cases of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea.

    Pompeo later planned stops in South Korea and China to review the negotiations.

    “It is important for us to hear from you as I travel to Pyongyang to make sure that we are fully in sync with respect to missile programs, (chemical and biological weapons) programs,” Pompeo told Abe. “We will bring up the issue of the abductees as well and then we will share with you how we hope to proceed when we are in Pyongyang tomorrow.”

    Trump is pressing to meet with Kim for a second time after their June summit in Singapore produced a vague agreement on denuclearization with few, if any, specifics. Despite the historic meeting, the two sides are deadlocked over how to achieve that goal. Trump canceled Pompeo’s initial planned return to North Korea last month.

    In contrast with South Korea, where President Moon Jae-in has been at the forefront of encouraging Trump’s rapprochement with the North, Japan has been decidedly cautious, insisting its interests and concerns be addressed.

    Abe did not speak of differences but highlighted the importance of demonstrating to the world that the U.S.-Japan alliance is “more robust than ever” and stressing the importance of “thorough coordination” with Washington on all aspects of North Korea policy.

    Pompeo has repeatedly refused to discuss details of negotiations, including a U.S. position on North Korea’s demand for a declared end to the Korean War and a proposal from Seoul for such a declaration to be accompanied by a shutdown of the North’s main known nuclear facility.

    The U.S. and Japan have pushed for the North to compile and turn over a detailed list of its nuclear sites to be dismantled as a next step in the process; the North has rejected that.

    Japan’s foreign minister, Taro Kano, said the accounting continues to be a priority for his country.

    “Disclosing all nuclear inventories is the first step toward denuclearization,” he told reporters after Pompeo wrapped up his meeting in Tokyo.

    Kono also said he and Pompeo didn’t go into details of a possible war-end declaration because it’s premature while there is virtually no progress in denuclearization. “We are not even talking about whether to do it or not,” he said. “It’s not an issue that we are even considering.”

    Many believe such a declaration could reinforce North Korea’s demands for the U.S. to withdraw its forces from South Korea and Japan.

    While traveling to Asia, Pompeo said his mission was to “make sure that we understand what each side is truly trying to achieve … and how we can deliver against the commitments that were made” in Singapore. He said they would develop options, if not finalize, the location and timing of a second Trump-Kim summit.

    He has also distanced himself from an earlier stated goal of achieving North Korea’s nuclear weapons abandonment by the end of Trump’s term in January 2021.

    Since the effort got underway with a secret visit to the North by then-CIA chief Pompeo in April, there has been only limited progress.

    North Korea so far has suspended nuclear and missile tests, freed three American prisoners and dismantled parts of a missile engine facility and tunnel entrances at a nuclear test site. It has not taken any steps to halt nuclear weapons or missile development.

    The North also has accused Washington of making “unilateral and gangster-like” demands on denuclearization and insisted that sanctions should be lifted before any progress in nuclear talks. U.S. officials have thus far said sanctions will remain in place until the North’s denuclearization is fully verified.

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    AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.

  • U.S., NATO consider preemptive action against Russian cruise missile program

    The United States and its NATO allies are threatening preemptive action against Russia’s ongoing effort to build a new cruise missile, an effort Washington and its Western European partners say is in

    The United States and its NATO allies are threatening preemptive action against Russia’s ongoing effort to build a new cruise missile, an effort Washington and its Western European partners say is in violation of standing treaties between Moscow and the alliance.

    Alliance officials say the nuclear-powered cruise missile under development would allow Moscow to launch a ballistic weapon on targets inside Western Europe at a moment’s notice. Building and fielding such a weapon is in clear violation of several Cold War-era treaties agreed to by Russia and the West, officials contend

    Russian diplomats and top military brass have repeatedly refuted such claims. But U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchinson said Tuesday that if Moscow continues down the path toward the new cruise missile, alliance members will have no other option than to respond with military force.

    “At that point, we would be looking at the capability to take out a [Russian] missile that could hit any of our countries,” she said during a press conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

    “Counter measures (by the United States) would be to take out the missiles that are in development by Russia in violation of the treaty,” she said, adding Russian officials “are on notice”

    The new, nuclear-powered cruise missile was one of several advanced weapons Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled during a March press conference, designed to showcase the former Soviet Union’s military prowess

    “I want to tell all those who have fueled the arms race over the last 15 years, sought to win unilateral advantages over Russia, introduced unlawful sanctions aimed to contain our country’s development: All what you wanted to impede with your policies have already happened,” the Russian leader said at the time.

    “You have failed to contain Russia,” he added.

    In May, Moscow claimed to have developed the first combat-ready hypersonic missile. The weapon’s speed and versatility has positioned hypersonic weapons technology viable alternative to nuclear weapons — which is the only other weapon in the American arsenal that can travel as far as fast as a hypersonic weapon.

    Russian military officials announced the first deployment of the Kinzhal or “Dagger” hypersonic missile aboard 10 MiG-31 fighter jets on “test combat duty,” Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said that month.

    “It is a cutting-edge weapon, namely a hypersonic long-range missile capable of overcoming air and missile defenses. It is invincible, having serious combat might and potential,” Mr. Borisov said, confirming the weapon’s deployment.

  • WHO: Ebola metrics improving, but ‘perfect storm’ threatens DRC response

    The World Health Organization warned Tuesday that armed conflict, public distrust of global aid workers and political maneuvering may combine into a “perfect storm” that undermines the massive respons

    The World Health Organization (WHO) warned Tuesday that armed conflict, public distrust of global aid workers and political maneuvering may combine into a “perfect storm” that undermines the massive response to Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

    WHO’s emergencies director, Peter Salama, said the response is showing progress overall, with 10 cases per week in the affected region compared to 40 per week at the start of the outbreak in August.

    However, a rebel attack on the WHO’s base town of Beni suspended critical response operations through Friday.

    “That means this entire week we may have cases that become more symptomatic and become more infectious that we’re unable to respond to,” Dr. Salama said, noting they were unable to reach three suspected cases around Beni on Monday.

    Typically, they can reach a potentially infected patient within 24 hours.

    So far, the outbreak in North Kivu province has been linked to 150 cases and 100 deaths.

    The outbreak is unfolding in a region marked by armed conflict between insurgent groups and the government.

    Dr. Salama said politicians eyeing an upcoming DRC election are making things worse, as opposition parties accuse the army and central government of failing to repel the attacks.

    By extension, locals begin to look askance at the governmental Ebola response, and allies like WHO feel that skepticism, too.

    Any response to Ebola is marked by suspicion vaccines and outsiders, and those fears have been exacerbated at times by social media posts, Dr. Salama said.

    Meanwhile, the rebel attack on Beni killed 14 civilians over the weekend, forcing multiple groups to suspend operations during a week of mourning and protest.

    “As the days go on, if we do see unsafe burials that we can’t be responded to if we do see symptomatic people that can’t be accessed, we can see this situation deteriorating very quickly, which is why there is the real potentiation for a perfect storm in the coming days and weeks,” Dr. Salama said.

  • Suspension of U.S. military drills with South Korea hurt readiness, says top general

    The Trump White House’s decision to suspend several, large-scale military exercises with South Korea earlier this year harmed U.S. readiness to respond to potential conflicts on the peninsula.

    The Trump White House’s decision to suspend several, large-scale military exercises with South Korea earlier this year harmed U.S. readiness to respond to potential conflicts on the peninsula.

    Army Gen. Robert Abrams, the administration’s pick to become the new top U.S. commander in South Korea, told lawmakers Tuesday the decision had degraded the ability for American forces to coordinate with their counterparts in Seoul, should hostilities break out between North Korea and the South.

    Gen. Abrams, who is slated to replace current U.S. Forces-Korea Commander Gen. Vincent Brooks, made his comments on the effect of the suspended military drills during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Associated Press reports.

    U.S. military leaders on the peninsula are in the midst of setting up several, smaller bilateral drills with South Korean forces, in an attempt to rebuild the lost readiness capabilities due to the suspended exercises, he told panel members alongside Navy Vice Adm. Craig Faller. Adm. Faller has been nominated to take over U.S. Southern Command.

    Planning for next year’s iteration of the South Korean drills suspended this year is also ongoing, Gen. Abrams said, noting that no decision has been made by the White House or the Defense Department on whether those exercises would go forward.

    Commanders are planning a number of smaller staff exercises to rebuild the ability of U.S. and allied forces to work together. He says planning is ongoing for large exercises next year, but alliance leaders will decide if they are canceled or not.

    The move to indefinitely suspend large-scale war games between the U.S. and Seoul was ordered by the Trump White House shortly after the landmark deunclearization summit with the North in June. The decision was intended as an olive branch to Pyongyang, in an attempt to coerce the North Korean regime to embrace efforts to eliminate their nuclear capabilities.

    But the State Department and Pentagon had been seemingly caught unaware of Mr. Trump’s cancellation of U.S. military drills on the peninsula, until the White House’s announcement. It came just as U.S. defense officials were in the midst of planning for one of those major exercise, dubbed Ulchi Freedom Guardian, which had been slated to begin in July.

    Mr. Trump characterized the drills as “provocative” and a costly byproduct of the Cold War-era strategy being imparted by U.S. military leaders on the peninsula. Mr. Kim and others in the North Korean regime have repeatedly cited the provocative nature of the exercises, in its criticism of U.S. military operations in the region.

  • Moscow floods advanced anti-aircraft systems into Syria, days after shoot down of Russian aircraft

    Russian defense officials have ordered emergency deployments of its advanced S-300 anti-aircraft systems into Syria, days after Moscow claimed Israeli forces prompted the shoot down of one of its surv

    Russian defense officials have ordered emergency deployments of its advanced S-300 anti-aircraft systems into Syria, days after Moscow claimed Israeli forces prompted the shoot down of one of its surveillance aircraft, conducting intelligence operations in support of the Syrian regime.

    The S-300 air defense systems will be in the hands of Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar Assad within the next two weeks, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a statement released Monday. The new air defense systems will be directly linked to Russian outposts scattered throughout Syria, to “guarantee that Russian aircraft are identified by Syrian air defenses,” he said.

    In addition, “Russia will jam satellite navigation, on-board radars and communication systems of combat aircraft, which attack targets in the Syrian territory, in the regions over waters of the Mediterranean Sea bordering with Syria,” he added in Monday’s statement. The new S-300 deployments come in addition to the reported S-400 long-range anti-aircraft and missile defense systems already in the field in Syria.

    Defense Secretary James Mattis said Monday that there had been no communication between either the Pentagon or U.S. Central Command and their Russian counterparts on the decision to deploy the S-300 systems, prior to Monday’s announcement by Moscow.

    “Any additional weapons going in keeps [President Bashar Assad] in a position to threaten the region,” Mr. Mattis told reporters at the Defense Department. “Anything like this puts him in a position as an obstruction to peace” in the war-torn nation, the defense chief added.

    The shoot-down of the Russian I1-20 reconnaissance plane, which kicked off a chain of claims and counterclaims between Moscow, Damascus and Tel Aviv, took place late last week. The Assad regime’s bloody campaign to quash rebel forces in the country has been largely sustained by Russian air power and Iranian-backed paramilitary forces on the ground.

    Israeli commanders sent in four bombers into Syrian airspace to take out a nearby Syrian weapons facility, housing weapons that Israel argued argue would have ultimately been transferred to the terrorist group Hezbollah. During the bombing raid, Syrian forces launched anti-aircraft missiles to take out the Israeli fighters but apparently struck the Russian plane instead, downing it into the sea and killing everyone on board. Moscow immediately laid blame for the attack on Israel.

    “The Israeli pilots were using the Russian aircraft as a shield and pushed it into the line of fire of the Syrian defense,” said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov in a statement at the time.

    Israel Defense Forces blamed Mr. Assad and expressed “sorrow” for the Russians killed in the incident, while Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed his regret for the incident, saying the deaths of the 15 crewmen underscored the need to bring the Syrian conflict to a peaceful resolution.

    On Monday, Mr. Mattis placed the blame for the ongoing violence in Syria’s civil war squarely on the shoulders of Moscow, adding the S-300 deployments only add fuel to that fire.

    “This tragedy … would have ended long ago” if not for Russian and Iranian interference in the conflict, he said.

  • Rebel attack disrupts Ebola response in Africa

    Aid groups on Monday said a rebel attack near a city in the Democratic Republic of Congo has disrupted efforts to respond to an Ebola outbreak that’s now killed 100 people.

    Aid groups on Monday said a rebel attack near a city in the Democratic Republic of Congo has disrupted efforts to respond to an Ebola outbreak that’s now killed 100 people.

    The violence near Beni, in North Kivu province, forced World Health Organization responders into “lockdown, unable to move because of security concerns following violence by armed rebel groups over the weekend when many civilians were killed,” WHO’s emergencies director, Peter Salama, said on Twitter.

    The attack began Saturday afternoon, lasted several hours and resulted in the death of 18 people, including 14 civilians, according to the BBC.

    The Norwegian Refugee Council and other aid groups suspended their field activities, including vaccination, due to the violence.

    “It’s a worst-case scenario for any aid group to have to suspend relief work that helps communities in need,” NRC area manager Stephen Lamin said. “But this weekend’s attack on Beni town has left us in an impossible position.”

    The NRC said the suspension reflects an “increasingly worrisome security situation” in the country, since food aid will also be disrupted.

    “The recent attack has made the situation even worse as families have had to flee from their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs,” Mr. Lamin said. “Donor countries must open their purse strings as rapidly as possible to help stem a humanitarian situation that is quickly getting out of control.”

    The Ebola outbreak in the region has resulted in nearly 150 cases and had been linked to 100 deaths as of Saturday, Dr. Salama said in a series of Twitter posts Monday.

    The outbreak is the country’s 10th since Ebola was discovered in the 1970s and second this year. A previous outbreak in a remote part of northwestern part of the country near the Congo River was stamped out after a massive response, yet the ongoing outbreak was discovered about a week later, in early August.

    For weeks, the WHO and other responders have openly worried about insecurity in North Kivu — a mineral-rich part of DRC riven by decades of conflict between government forces and militant groups that have multiplied or splintered over the past two decades.

    As a result of the unrest, the population in Ebola-affected towns are highly migratory, sparking fears that deadly virus could spread further or spill into neighboring Uganda.

    Dr. Salama said an infected person, who evaded response teams and refused care, introduced the disease into a previously unaffected area near the Ugandan border. WHO sent a response team to the area on Sunday.

  • More mass graves discovered from Rwanda’s genocide

    Authorities in Rwanda have found new mass graves they say contain 5,400 bodies of genocide victims nearly a quarter-century after the 1994 bloodshed.

    KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — Authorities in Rwanda have found new mass graves they say contain 5,400 bodies of genocide victims nearly a quarter-century after the 1994 bloodshed.

    Naphtal Ahishakiye, executive secretary of genocide survivors’ organization Ibuka, told The Associated Press the bodies were exhumed from 26 mass graves in the capital’s Kicukiro district.

    He said the discovery followed a tip from a man who heard about the graves as a child.

    Other mass graves were found in April. The discoveries have been called the most significant in years in this East African nation still recovering from the killings of more than 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

    Many Rwandans are shocked and saddened that community residents have kept quiet about the graves for so long. Houses had been built on top of the graves.

    The government is “sensitizing people who have such information to voluntarily come forward and there have been cooperation and positive results,” Ahishakiye said, adding that a search for more graves in the same district continues.

    Ibuka officials say the bodies will be given a decent burial.

    During the genocide, roadblocks manned by Hutu militias were established in districts near the sites where the mass graves have been discovered.

    “I keep asking myself why we should forgive these killers because they are ungrateful and cannot have remorse,” Dan Gasasira, who lost a family member in the genocide, told the AP.

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