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NSA, CIA, FBI sued for refusing to disclose Mandela records
Published time: March 25, 2014 20:57
Nelson Mandela (AFP Photo / Alexander Joe)
Tags
Transparency activist Ryan Shapiro is suing three government agencies for
failing to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests he filed in an
attempt to uncover details about any role the United States played in the 1962
arrest of Nelson Mandela.
Shapiro — a doctoral candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and a noted FOIA researcher — filed a lawsuit Monday morning in Washington, DC
against the US National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation
and the Defense Intelligence Agency after his requests for details about the
anti-apartheid activist were rebuked by the US government. He is already suing
the Central Intelligence Agency for the same reason.
The US has long been rumored to have played an instrumental role in the 1962
arrest of Mandela, and his name remained on a government terror watch list
until 2008 — more than a decade after he completed his term as the first
president of South Africa after spending decades behind bars.
Following Mandela’s death last December, Shapiro filed FOIA requests with
the NSA, FBI, DIA and CIA days later in hopes of uncovering evidence about what
role the US played with regards to the ’62 arrest. He sued the CIA a month
later over alleged non-compliance, but only this week he filed suit against the
other alphabet soup agencies due to their failure to adhere to his request.
“Though the US intelligence community is long believed to have been
involved in Mandela’s arrest, little specific public information exists
regarding this involvement,” Shapiro’s lawyers wrote in this week’s suit.
According to his attorneys, Shapiro thinks he will be able to learn more
about the extent and purpose of the US intelligence community’s surveillance of
Mandela prior to his arrest, as well as what role the American government
played “in the broader effort to surveil and subvert the South African
anti-apartheid movement” and more.
Because the intelligence community has failed to disclose any evidence,
however, Shapiro is suing to hopefully have the courts compel those agencies to
honor his request.
On December 31, the NSA told Shapiro that “the fact of the existence or the
non-existence of the materials you request is a currently and properly
classified matter.”
“FOIA does not apply to matters that are specifically authorized under
criteria established by an Executive Order to be kept secret in the interest of
national defense or foreign relations,” the agency added.
Speaking to Democracy Now! Monday morning, Shapiro explained that “They
are in violation of federal law, and so I’m suing them to hold them accountable
to federal law.”
“The records of government are the property of the people. Yet, unknown
billions of pages are needlessly hidden from the American people behind closed
doors and ‘classified’ markings,” he added in a statement.
“Undefined ‘national security’ concerns ostensibly legitimize this
secrecy,” he continued. “It’s not surprising those in power wish to
keep their actions secret. What’s surprising is how readily we tolerate it.”
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UN marks Day of Remembrance with calls to tackle slavery’s
lingering consequences
25 March 2014 – With calls to
remember the abuses of the past and intensify efforts to end those of the
present, United Nations officials are marking the International Day of
Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade by
urging the international community to work towards a future in which no form of
human slavery exists.
“By recalling the causes,
consequences and lessons of the transatlantic slave trade, we recommit to
educating current and future generations of the dangers of racism and
prejudice,” said Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon in his message
on the Day, which this year is on the theme, “Victory over Slavery: Haiti and
Beyond.”
On March 25 every year since 2007,
the UN marks the International Day to honour the more than 15 million men,
women, and children who suffered and died during the more than 400-year
transatlantic slave trade, the largest forced migration in history.
While paying tribute to the fight
against slavery in nations around the world, this year’s commemoration also
marks 210 years since Haiti was founded on 1 January 1804; the first Republic
established as a result of the victorious struggle of enslaved people – led by
Toussaint L’Ouverture – for their freedom and independence.
In addition, 2014 also marks the
20th anniversary of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Slave Route Project,
launched in Benin in 1994, with the goal of breaking the silence surrounding
the slave trade and its consequences.
Delivering the keynote address at
the UN General Assembly’s annual commemorative meeting, Michaëlle Jean, UNESCO
Special Envoy for Haiti, said: “We are here because we believe in our duty to
remember; we know how important it is to draw lessons from the past to build a
better future.”
Remembering can be difficult,
particularly when the subject is so horrific, but it is vital nevertheless to
pay tribute to the innumerable victims of the Transatlantic slave trade, she
said, also hailing the memory of those who rose up against 400 years of history
and those enlightened thinkers who championed the inalienable rights of all
human beings.
Starting 2014, worldwide activities
are being organized throughout the year. At UN Headquarters in New York, work
is currently under way on a Permanent Memorial to the Victims of Slavery and
the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Designed by Rodney Leon, an American architect
of Haitian descent, The Ark of Return, was selected last August as the
winning design through an international competition.
“I hope the Memorial will also be a
source of inspiration in the continuing fight against the many forms of slavery
that still exist today,” Mr. Ban said in a statement delivered to the Assembly
by his Chef de Cabinet, Susana Malcorra, adding that the memorial will promote
greater recognition of the contributions that slaves and their descendants have
made in their societies.
In his remarks,
General Assembly President John Ashe said that while reflecting on the past, it
is important to acknowledge the cruelties that continue to exist today.
“Foremost, slavery still stalks our planet in many forms and manifestations,”
he said.
Indeed, too many innocent women and
young girls are held in bondage and are denied their freedom and right to live
in dignity due to human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Too many children
are held in servitude and are victims of child labour, he continued.
“Combating such abuses is a daunting
challenge. We must turn our commitments into concrete action so that women and
the young can live without fear and want,” Mr. Ashe said.
The UN International Labour
Organization (ILO), which
reports that about 21 million people are victims of modern-day slavery, marked
the occasion today by hosting a Google+ Hangout with the descendants of Solomon
Northup, whose life and memoir inspired the Oscar-winning film 12 Years A
Slave.
Two
of Northup's descendants – Irene Northup-Zahos, a 72-year-old retired nurse who
is Northup’s great-great-granddaughter, and Melissa Howell, Northup’s
42-year-old great-great-great-granddaughter – are teaming up to talk about
Northup’s legacy and the horrors of modern-day slavery: forced labor and human
trafficking across the world.
UN officials appeal for urgent funding for relief operations
in Sudan and South Sudan
25 March 2014 – With the
humanitarian situation in Sudan deteriorating and neighbouring South Sudan
“imploding,” United Nations relief officials today appealed to donors to
urgently fund life-saving activities in the two countries, both of which are in
desperate need of assistance.
John Ging, Operations Director of
the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), cited an urgent need to mobilize
funding for the crisis in Sudan, where some 6.1 million people currently need
assistance – a 40 per cent increase over this time last year.
Malnutrition and food insecurity are
escalating at an “alarming” rate, with some 500,000 children affected, he told
a news conference in New York.
The situation is particularly dire
in Darfur, where renewed violence is displacing larger and larger numbers of
civilians – almost 400,000 newly displaced in 2013, and almost 200,000 more so
far this year.
“This dire humanitarian situation is
compounded by the fact that, with so many crises around the world currently,
Darfur not getting the attention or global funding that it deserves,” said Mr.
Ging, who recently visited both Sudan and South Sudan on an inter-agency
mission with other humanitarian colleagues.
He added that the situation in Sudan
requires an end to conflict and a more generous response from the international
community. So far this year, the UN and partners have only received 3 per cent
of the $995 million requested for humanitarian activities in Sudan.
Mr. Ging described as “very tragic”
what has happened in neighbouring South Sudan, where fighting between
Government and opposition forces that began in mid-December has left nearly 5
million people in need of humanitarian assistance, including 3.7 million at
high risk of food insecurity.
“You have the newest country in the
world now imploding,” he stated, noting that the conflict is setting back the
very fragile development that was occurring since the country gained
independence from Sudan in July 2011.
Amid the “senseless” brutality, some
700,000 people have been displaced internally, including 67,000 who are
sheltering at UN bases around the country, while almost a quarter of a million
people have sought refuge in neighbouring countries.
One of the major challenges in South
Sudan, Mr. Ging said, is the lack of respect on the ground for humanitarian
staff, convoys, facilities and supplies, and this includes delays and
checkpoints for convoys. “You have an urgent situation on the ground in South Sudan,
and we need the freedom to do the job that we must do, and can do, if we’re
allowed to do it,” he stated.
Another major challenge is funding,
particularly as the onset of the rainy season draws near. “We are in a race
against time with the rainy season fast approaching that we have to
pre-position stocks. We really do appeal to our donor community to give us the
funding that we need to do the things that we most urgently need to do, in the
quickest way possible.”
Yasmin Haque, Deputy Director,
Office of Emergency Programmes at the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), who was also on the inter-agency
mission, said it was “tragic” to see what has happened in South Sudan, where
she served as Country Representative prior to taking up her current post.
She noted that the conflict has
“severely disrupted the hope” that the children of South Sudan had in their
country, and it is really urgent to have funding and services in place to meet
their needs. The conflict has also meant that children are facing grave
violations, whether their schools are being occupied, health centres are being
destroyed or children themselves are being recruited by the armed groups.
“We need to keep the attention on
the plight of the people there and to make sure that we’re supporting them to
the extent possible,” said Ms. Haque.
Amid the worsening crisis in South
Sudan, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World
Food Programme (WFP) this week appealed for
$371 million in urgently needed support for the thousands of South Sudanese
refugees arriving in neighbouring countries.
Since fighting erupted in
mid-December, 204,000 people have fled to Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya,
according to UNHCR. With continuing insecurity and growing food shortages
inside South Sudan, the agency expects the number of South Sudanese refugees
across the region to reach 340,000 by the end of the year.
UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told
reporters in Geneva that South Sudanese have recently been fleeing into
neighbouring countries at a rate of nearly 2,000 per day, with most heading to
Ethiopia and Uganda. Many of the refugees have been arriving exhausted,
nutritionally weak and in poor health, having coming from areas of South Sudan
experiencing severe food shortages.
The majority are women, children and
older people. With some 700,000 people displaced inside South Sudan and 3.7
million at high risk of food insecurity, the potential for further cross-border
movement is high.
“Given these trends, the regional
emergency response announced yesterday will focus on protection activities and
other life-saving needs. These include emergency food, water, sanitation and
health,” said Mr. Edwards, adding that UNHCR “will be developing and expanding
refugee camps and other sites where basic services will be available.”
On International Day, Ban honours victims of gross human
rights violations
Special Rapporteur on transitional
justice Pablo de Greiff. Photo: Jean-Marc Ferré
24 March 2014 – At a time when human
rights violations persist around the world, United Nations Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon stressed
the importance of the individual and collective right to the truth for the
promotion of humanitarian law and justice, and called on the international
community to recommit to helping victims and protecting those who fight to
uncover facts.
The International Day for the Right
to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of
Victims was created to pay tribute to human rights defender Monsignor Óscar
Arnulfo Romero, a prominent Roman Catholic priest in El Salvador who was
murdered on 24 March 1980 for speaking up against poverty, social injustice,
repression, assassinations and torture.
“Our commemorations defy the attempt
by his murderers to silence his cries for justice and reinforce the importance
of standing firm for fundamental freedoms,” stated Mr. Ban, adding that “this
day is also dedicated to honouring the memory of all victims of gross human
rights violations, and to supporting all those who promote and protect human
rights.”
Highlighting that informing
societies on the fundamental freedoms and their potential violations is a vital
safeguard against abuses recurring, the Secretary-General insisted that “every
victim has the right to know the truth and how violations affect them.”
The UN supports a range of efforts
to uncover the facts about gross violations of human rights and international
humanitarian law, and to promote justice, propose reparations and recommend
reforms of abusive institutions. Over the past year, the UN has supported
Commissions of Inquiry on, respectively, the Central African Republic, Syria
and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, as well as the establishment of
a Truth and Dignity Commission in Tunisia.
Mr. Ban noted that a Special
Rapporteur, Pablo de Greiff, was appointed by the Human Rights Council in 2012
to analyze challenges faced by truth commissions around the world and propose
responses to strengthen the effectiveness of those mechanisms.
“On this International Day, I call
for the vigorous implementation of all recommendations of commissions of
inquiry and truth commissions in addressing gross human rights violations and
serious violations of international humanitarian law,” said the
Secretary-General, urging renewed commitment from the international community
“to working to help victims, their relatives and society as a whole to realize
the right to truth – and to protecting those who fight to see the truth
prevail.”
News
Tracker: past stories on this issue
Diplomatic
solution only way to resolve Russia-Ukraine crisis, Ban stresses in Kyiv
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
(centre) pays his respects at a makeshift memorial for the victims of the
recent violence in Kyiv. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
22 March 2014 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Saturday
reiterated his message that only a diplomatic solution, based on the ideals of
the United Nations Charter, would solve the current crisis between Russia and
Ukraine.
In a meeting in Kyiv with Ukraine's
Prime Minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Mr. Ban added that a direct dialogue between
the two neighbours is critical to reducing the ongoing tensions.
The UN chief was in Russia on
Thursday and arrived in Ukraine on Friday as part of his efforts to help
de-escalate tensions between Moscow and Kyiv.
Months of political unrest in
Ukraine led to the removal by Parliament of President Viktor Yanukovych in
February, followed by increased tensions in the country's autonomous region of
Crimea, where additional Russian military were recently deployed and a
secession referendum was held last week.
Throughout the crisis, the
Secretary-General and senior UN officials have consistently called for a
solution that is guided by the principles of the UN Charter and that respects
Ukraine's unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
During his meeting today, Mr. Ban
briefed the Prime Minister on his recent meeting with Russian leaders,
including President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov,
according to a readout
provided by Mr. Ban's spokesperson.
He
also commended the Prime Minister for his recent speech in which he called for
an inclusive political process in Ukraine.
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All-Sides
Consultation on the Syrian Conflict
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By David Fraser Harris, Secretary
General, UPF-Middle East
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Sunday, March 09, 2014
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An All Sides Consultation for a Political
Solution to the Syrian Conflict took place March 8-9, 2014 at Burgschlaining,
Austria, an ancient castle that has because a center for peace studies and a
European Museum for Peace. Panel discussions addressed a variety of concerns
of Syrian people: for security, to bridge the rifts, people on the move,
political rights, and political transitions. The symposium was organized by
the Peace in Syria initiative with the support of a number of organizations,
including UPF. The following notes and reflections were provided by one of
the observers, David Fraser Harris, Secretary General of UPF-Middle East, who
until recently was living in Damascus with his family.
From the outset, I was impressed
by Dr. Leo Gabriel's basic approach to the conference: it was to be a
discussion among Syrians. From my time in Syria I can say this was
fundamental to the success of the event. Everyone, it is true, likes to feel
ownership of discussions about their country, but there is more to it than
that. The Syrians have had British and French and Americans, often with
questionable motives, telling them for decades - or centuries, if you add in
the Turks - how to run their society. One leader, in a message to the
conference, wrote, "Steer clear of foreign agendas."
This was named a "Civil
Society Consultation for a Political Solution in Syria." It did indeed
bring together Syrians, and those that came did indeed represent the
diversity of Syria: Deir Es Zur in the east, Qamishli (where the population
is mainly Kurdish), Aleppo, Homs, Hama, Lattakia and Tartous (on the coast),
Salamieh (where the Ismailis are), and in the south Dara'a and Suweida (home
for many Druze) were all represented, not to mention Damascus itself. Some of
the Syrians came from outside Syria - from Austria, Poland, Germany, the UK,
Egypt and Kuwait.
In his introduction, Leo Gabriel
[who participated in UPF's Geneva Track 2 consultation in January 2014]
emphasized that civil society speaks for itself, and that the objective was
to find a consensus - there was to be no "majority voting."
Fateh Jammous of the Coalition for
Peaceful change spent 19 years in a Syrian jail, not least because of his
affiliation with the communist party. He claims that support for peaceful
opposition is growing by the day. Tareq, a young Jesuit activist from
Damascus, warns of the rise of Salafism, which he traces to well before the
present conflict. He sees the danger of what should be a civil movement being
hijacked by those with religious interests.
Unfortunately, the predicted group
of people closer to the regime did not come in the end. There was, however,
one participant, a journalist, who acted as a kind of lightning rod, since he
was closer to the regime's position. This enabled lively discussion, which
was intense but never unpleasant. Ayman cited examples of successful
reconciliation, and emphasized that as a Muslim he wanted to live under a
civil state.
Several people spoke of the
suppression of democracy and free speech or free thought over decades. A
former dean of the faculty of educational science said that in colleges all
principles of democracy had been destroyed - they were just ideological
propaganda places. (My children will confirm that!)
One older speaker obviously
commanded a fair amount of respect: Aref Dalila, long-time opposition
activist and former dean of the Damascus faculty of economics, said this long
repression had resulted in the path of extreme conflict. "This meeting
wants to end the violence. Military intervention would just make it worse….
Regional powers have no interest in stablizing Syria. Who can stabilize? Not
the regime, not the violent opposition, but civil society; yet it has no real
power on the ground. All the activists have been detained for the last 40
years, or silenced by militant killings. The question is how to revive civil
society."
We had (at least) two Kurdish
speakers, one of whom emphasized strongly the need for secular and democratic
government. Other participants were Druze and Ismaili. Two participants were
from the Muslim brothers.
Many people spoke of "raising
the white flag" but two or three said that this would just lead to
obliteration by the regime. "There needs to be a white flag on both
sides."A Christian woman from Damascus (now based in Vienna) helps in
refugee camps in Turkey and says that those who have suffered most are the
Sunnis: "It's a crisis for the nation, not just for minorities."
People spoke of the need to have
safe places where the refugees can return. Several mentioned that they would
like this kind of conference to take place in Damascus; but of course
security guarantees would be needed first.
Perhaps the overriding sense I had
from the proceedings was that the Syrian people themselves are bigger that
the two sides and two alternatives they are currently offered. There really
is a silent majority who want peace; they do not feel represented by either
side.
See Dr.
Leo Gabriel's address and the conference's "Call
for Peace in Syria."
NOTE: UPF has convened or
contributed to a number of civil-society forums on the crisis in Syria:
Vienna, Austria: All-Sides
Consultation for a Political Solution to the Syrian Conflict, Mar. 8-9,
2014
Buenos Aires, Argentina: To Establish Peace in Syria, the Middle East and the World, Feb. 6, 2014 Geneva, Switzerland: Track 2 Consultation: Toward Peace and Reconciliation in Syria, Executive report of the consultation Jan. 25, 2014 Washington DC, USA: Women's Role in Syria's Transition and Reconciliation, Jan. 15, 2014 Vatican City: Pontifical Academy of Sciences Convenes Consultation on Syria, Jan. 13, 2014 Jerusalem, Israel: The Crisis in Syria and Its Regional Impact, Oct. 16, 2013 Washington DC, USA: Peace Zones as Avenues for Stability in South Sudan, Syria, Colombia and Korea, Oct. 15, 2013 Amman, Jordan: Prospects for Dialogue and Reconciliation in Syria, Oct. 13, 2013 Vienna, Austria: Syrian Christians in Austria Torn Between Hope and Despair, Apr. 16, 2013 Jerusalem, Israel: The Impact of Syria and Egypt on Israel's Security Measures, Feb. 14, 2013 Washington DC, USA: The Tragedy and Hope for Syria, Sept. 26, 2012 |
NATO bombing of Yugoslavia: Symbolic stage of current World War
Claudio Gallo is a journalist, currently working as a Culture editor at La
Stampa, where he also was foreign desk editor and London correspondent. His
main interest is Middle East politics.
Published time: March 24, 2014 08:05
A Bosnian Serb man surveys damage near the town of
Brod September 8, following a NATO air raid here two days ago. (Reuters)
If we jump for a minute out of the ever-flowing river of the news, we might
realize our being deep inside the Fourth World War.
It started in 1989 with the fall of Berlin Wall that marked the end of the
Third one, aka the Cold War. The last chapter of WW4 is obviously the failed
attempt to expel Russia from Crimea, but up to now its more symbolic stage
remains the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia that started on March 24, 1999, exactly
15 years ago. It was a war against Slobodan Milosevic, but also a war to shift
eastward NATO influence and boundaries.
Operation Allied Force, as NATO called it, consisted of 78 days of bombing
Milosevic’s Yugoslavia with a progressive intensity, passing from military to civilian
infrastructures targets. About 200 Serb civilians died as collateral damage
(against about 300 who died in Kosovo, mainly ethnic-Albanian), while NATO had
virtually no casualties during operations, only a few soldiers dying in alleged
incidents.
‘Perfect’ war
It was the Perfect War. British Military historian John Keegan repented
almost theatrically on the Daily Telegraph for his initial old faith in foot
soldiers: “There are certain dates in the history of warfare that mark real
turning points (…) Now there is a new turning point to fix on the calendar:
June 3, 1999, when the capitulation of President Milosevic proved that a war
can be won by airpower alone.”
A very clean war with a lot of smart bombs capable to split hair over Serbia
and strike only the bad boys, as suggested by the drumming propaganda. To
present to Western public opinion such a war of aggression inside Eastern
Europe as a Just War was not an easy task in the beginning. But the Hidden
Persuaders had on their side the experience of George H. W. Bush’s Gulf War. If
the Gulf War was the first televised war, seen through the kind choice of CNN
cameras, Yugoslavia was the first internet war.
They had to find a symbolic triggering. This was the Racak massacre, a
Kosovo village in which 45 ethnic Albanians were killed by Serbian Army in
response to the shooting of four Serb policemen. The NATO narrative was that
the bombing was a consequence of Serbian ethnic cleansing, but the truth was,
on the contrary, that was NATO intervention to trigger some operations against
Kosovo population, in the contest of the war against the separatists of KLA,
supported by the US and Germany.
An aerial view taken 15 June 1999 of the Pristina
central post office which was destoyed by NATO bombing. (AFP Photo/Reuters)
Labour MP Tony Benn (who died a few days ago) said in the British
Parliament: “Whatever the legality or morality of the war that has been
launched against Yugoslavia, the bombing has gravely worsened the refugee
crisis.”
Richard Gott of The (above all suspicion) Guardian believed that “the
sudden Kosovo population displacements were triggered by NATO bombing and by
the decision of Western governments to impose impossible conditions on the
Serbian sovereign state.” As noted in those days always by the Guardian: “The
KLA has been resupplied with weapons smuggled across the border from Albania
and has reoccupied villages vacated by Serb security forces.”
About Racak also The (above all suspicion) Times had some doubts: “The
reality of what happened at Racak is still shrouded by claim and counter-claim.
What is known is that four Serb policemen were killed outside the village in a
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) ambush. Subsequently at least 40 ethnic Albanian
men from the village were shot in a dawn attack by the Serbs. The Serbs say
that all the dead were KLA guerrillas killed in action. The Albanians say they
were all civilians killed after capture.”
But a trigger is not enough, to convince people you need an ideology,
because in spite of the death of ideology proclaimed by triumphant
neoliberalism, ideology is more alive than ever. Human Rights was this
ideology. Let’s be clear: who is against human rights? But one thing are the
human rights for which Guatemala Bishop Juan Gerardi was killed by death squads
in 1998 for example, another thing is the ideology of Human Rights defended by
George W. Bush and Tony Blair.
‘Humanity’ pretext
In the UK, to pave the way for this operation, was the 1997 New Labour
Manifesto. It was the creation of ‘ethical foreign policy’: “Labour wants
Britain to be respected in the world for the integrity with which it conducts
its foreign relations. We will make the protection and the promotion of human
rights a central part of our foreign policy. We will work for the creation of a
permanent international criminal court to investigate genocide, war crimes and
crimes against humanity.”
"Whoever says 'humanity' wants to cheat," wrote
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, then quoted by Carl Schmitt. ‘Whoever Says
Humanity’ is also the title of the book that Danilo Zolo, professor of
philosophy of law and of philosophy of international law at the University of
Florence, wrote on those days. “In the early 1990s,” says Zolo, "humanitarian
intervention" was a key element in the international strategy of the US.
It claimed that "global security" required that the great powers
responsible for world order felt the Westphalian principle of non-interference
in the domestic jurisdiction of national states to be out of date. The war
sparked off by the United States against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia -
the war in Kosovo in 1999 - finally established the practice of humanitarian interventionism.
The humanitarian motivation was thus taken explicitly as just cause for a war
of aggression. And the United States has stated that the use of force for
humanitarian reasons was legitimate, even though in contrast with the United
Nations Charter, the principles of the statute and the judgment of the
Nuremberg Tribunal, as well as with international law in general.”
A U.S. Air force B-52 bomber drops a load of M117
750lb bombs in this undated file photo. (Reuters/U.S. Air Force Photo)
The Italian philosopher Costanzo Preve titled his book on NATO bombing ‘The
Ethical Bombing’. Preve said: “The US has created a tragic situation
in which the philosophy of universal human rights conflicts directly with its
distorted caricature, the ideology of exporting human rights by armed might. In
its original Greek meaning, tragedy refers to a hopeless situation where any
decision is a bad one. The question of human rights today is perhaps the most
tragic of our times. On the one hand, people throughout the world definitely
need to be educated to respect human rights. Moreover, this education ought to
be philosophically anchored in a real universal dialogue without the obscene
prejudice of Western superiority, particularly its most despicable version
which comes to us as a divine mandate issued from Ronald Reagan’s City on a
Hill. On the other hand, the total subservience of the United Nations to the US
and its ignominious puppet regimes has led to a condition of rampant
international illegality.”
Ironically, in Italy the Bomb-Bomb-Bomb Milosevic coincided with the first
prime minister to come from the old Communist Party, Massimo D’Alema. Wrote the
former President of the Republic Francesco Cossiga: "The landing of
the ‘Communist’ D'Alema at Palazzo Chigi (the seat of government) took place
with the full Washington support, in return to the guarantee that Italy would
not pull back in the Kosovo War."
Even more ironically, the bombing started the same year in which the euro
was born. With the attack on Yugoslavia the Clinton Administration took the
occasion to demonstrate worldwide the political inconsistency of the New
Europe, always dependent on the US. Fighting for the ideology of Human Rights
in Kosovo, Europe was indeed fighting for the Imperial agenda.
To quote the Italian philosopher Diego Fusaro: “With the collapse of the
bipolar structure of the universe, it has started a new phase of conflicts, all
different, and at the same time all inside the new Fourth World War. This one
is a geopolitical and cultural war declared by the Universal Monarchy to the
rest of the world. A war against all the peoples and nations that are not ready
to submit themselves to its power, i.e. to its politics of world’s dominion
trough the commodity-form.”
The statements, views and
opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not
necessarily represent those of RT.
25 March, 2014
5 militants killed in special forces raid in Dagestan, Russia
Extremist ringleader of the "Khasavyurt" gang was killed in a
special forces operation in Dagestan along with four other militants, Russia's
National Anti-Terrorism Committee announced. Among the five dead was as
26-year-old Tural Atayev, native of Azerbaijan, “who was one of the
organizers of the terrorist attack in the city of Pyatigorsk in December last
year," the statement read. During the raid one police officer was
killed and one wounded. The gang was believed to be behind numerous
assassination attempts, extortion, and arson.
Venezuela arrests three general for alleged coup plot
President Nicholas Maduro said Tuesday that three air force generals had
been arrested for plotting an uprising against his left-wing government. He
told a meeting of South American foreign ministers that the three generals had
been in contact with the opposition and “were trying to rise up against the
legitimately constituted government.” He added that the plot had been
discovered because other officers had come forward. The latest disclosure comes
amid a broadening government crackdown against Maduro’s opponents after weeks
of street protests have left 34 people dead.
Spanish top court says Catalonia referendum unconstitutional
Spain’s Constitutional Court ruled Tuesday that a referendum in Catalonia on
independence from the rest of the country would violate the supreme law. Judges
said that a region within Spain “cannot unilaterally call a referendum on
self-determination.” A poll published last week by the Centre for Opinion
Studies found that up the 60 percent of Catalonians support independence. The
Spanish authorities have said they will discuss whether to allow Catalonia to
hold a referendum or not in a parliamentary debate scheduled for April 8.
‘Ukrainian’ drone downed above Moldova’s breakaway region
A drone has been shot down over Transdniestr, Moldova’s breakaway region,
the region’s security service has reported on its website. On March 23, the
pilotless aircraft was photographing and videoing the republic. Transdniestr
special services recovered the video record from the drone, the statement says.
According to preliminary information, the unmanned aircraft was launched from
Ukraine’s soil by a group of people allegedly linked to Ukraine’s security
service, the Interior Ministry’s General Staff or supporters of
ultra-nationalist movement Right Sector for an intelligence-gathering
operation. Currently, Transdniestr’s security service is working on the
identification of those linked to trespassing the republic’s airspace, its
press service said.
2 Western UN officials kidnapped in Yemen freed – reports
Yemeni security forces have freed a married Western couple who were working
at the United Nations’ office and had been kidnapped by Gunmen in the Yemeni
capital, Sanaa, a local police source said Tuesday, Reuters reports.They said
the security forces tracked the two kidnappers to a house where they were
holding the pair, one of whom was Italian, and managed to free them safely
after surrounding the premises. Kidnapping is common in Yemen where the
government is fighting an insurgency from separatist movements in the north,
Al-Qaeda-linked Islamists and armed tribes. Three foreigners, including a Czech
doctor, a British oil worker and a German were seized in February.
Irish government sets up inquiry into police bugging
The Irish government has set up an investigation into allegations of widespread
phone wiretapping by its police force. The government said that they had
received new information Tuesday that was so serious that a commission had to
be set up. “A system was in place in a large number of Garda (police) stations
whereby incoming and outgoing telephone calls were taped,” it said.The
statement said that the practice had been in place for many years and was
discontinued in November 2013.
Oil from BP’s Indiana refinery spills into Lake Michigan
Oil leaked from BP’s Whiting oil refinery in Indiana into Lake Michigan
after a mechanical glitch on Monday afternoon, Reuters reported. The spill has
been contained, according to Indiana environmental officials. Sources say a
relatively small amount of oil was released, but the exact amount was unknown.
BP said Tuesday that the largest crude distillation unit at the
405,000-barrel-per-day refinery was back to normal operations following an
overnight malfunction that led to the leak.
China detains 1,530 people in crackdown over spam text messages
Chinese authorities have detained 1,530 people in a crackdown on the use of
fake telecommunication base stations to send spam text messages to mobile
telephones, Reuters reported. The campaign began in February and has resulted
in the seizure of more than 2,600 fake base stations and identification of
3,540 suspected criminal acts, according to the Ministry of Public Security.
Such stations are used by criminals to send spam messages to nearby mobile
users using fake telephone numbers or disguised as messages from official
sources.
Israel to compensate victims over flotilla raid – Turkey
A compensation deal for Turkish victims of a deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza
aid flotilla four years ago will soon be signed, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister
Bulent Arinc said Tuesday. “We have received a final agreement document
from Israel,” Arinc was quoted as saying by Hurriyet newspaper. After next
Sunday's local elections, “our first job will be making sure the
compensation is bound by a legal document,” the official added. Talks on
compensation over the nine Turks killed in the raid began in March 2013 after
Israel extended a formal apology to Ankara.
Twin blasts in Nigerian city kill 11
Two blasts in Nigeria’s troubled northeastern city of Maiduguri on Tuesday
killed 11 people, including five policemen, AFP reported. One vehicle exploded
at 7:50am (0650 GMT), killing three civilians, and a bomb hurled at a police
vehicle 10 minutes later killed five officers, Borno state police spokesman Gideon
Jibrin said. The three others killed in the second attack were suspected to be
Boko Haram insurgents.
Egyptian police disperse protests against Brotherhood mass trials
Police reportedly fired tear gas to disperse demonstrations on Tuesday over
mass trials of Muslim Brotherhood members in Egypt. About 700 people held
protests at a university in the southern Egyptian town of Minya after the
leader of the Brotherhood and 682 others went on trial on charges including
murder, Reuters reported. Hundreds of demonstrators also gathered at Alexandria
University. The previous day, more than 500 supporters of deposed Islamist
president Mohamed Morsi were sentenced to death.
Japan military launching squad to fight cyber attacks
The Self-Defense Forces of Japan will launch on Wednesday the first squad to
fight cyber-attacks on the country’s most important information resources,
ITAR-TASS reported. Ninety experts are expected to join the new department at
the first stage. In 2015, a special cyber security center will be established.
A week ago, Tokyo faced a full-on cyber-attack across government departments in
a drill aimed at bolstering national security as the country gears up to host
the 2020 Olympics, Reuters said.
Militants attack Afghan election HQ in Kabul – reports
Afghan insurgents have attacked the headquarters of the electoral commission
in Kabul, the BBC reported, citing police. Initial reports said the home of
candidate Ashraf Ghani was attacked. However, police now say the militants targeted
the election HQ. Insurgents gained access to the main compound, police said. No
casualties were reported. Deputy Interior Minister Gen. Mohammad Ayub Salangi
told TOLOnews that the IEC Kabul office attack was over and all 30 people
trapped rescued.
UK reviewing Russia nuclear power deal over Ukraine
Britain is reviewing an agreement it made with Russian state nuclear firm
Rosatom on nuclear cooperation, in reaction to the crisis in Ukraine, according
to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Britain last November
signed an agreement with Rosatom to help the company prepare potentially to
enter the UK market. The DECC said it had put the agreement under consideration
over the Crimea situation. “No decisions have been made on how this work
will be taken forward,” Reuters quoted a DECC spokesperson as saying.
Rosatom has not commented on the statement.
UN human rights office says Egypt death sentences contravene international law
The UN human rights office said Tuesday that an Egyptian court’s decision to
sentence 529 members of the Muslim Brotherhood to death contravened
international law, Reuters reported. Monday's ruling is seen as the biggest
mass death penalty handed out in modern Egyptian history. “The mass
imposition of the death penalty after a trial rife with procedural
irregularities is in breach of international human rights law,” UN human
rights spokesman Rupert Colville said in Geneva. The Muslim Brotherhood’s
leader and 682 others went on trial Tuesday in the same court.
Syria National Coalition urges Arab League to grant it seat, embassies
Syrian opposition leader Ahmad Jarba urged Arab leaders at a summit Tuesday
to grant Syria’s vacant Arab League seat to his National Coalition. Jarba, who
was speaking at the opening session of the Arab League summit in Kuwait, also
said the opposition should be given the opportunity to take over Syria’s
embassies abroad. “Reality requires that the Syrian embassies are also
handed over to the National Coalition,” Reuters quoted him as saying.
Russia willing to continue contacts with G8 states – spokesman
Moscow is interested in continuing contacts with G8 nations at all levels,
President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said Tuesday. “The Russian side
continues to be ready to have such contacts at all levels, including the top
level,” Interfax quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying. Leaders
of the Group of Seven nations on Monday suspended their participation in the
Group of Eight industrialized nations until Russia changes course on Ukraine,
Reuters said.
Explosion, gunfire reported at house of Afghan presidential candidate
An explosion and gunfire rattled the house of Afghan presidential candidate
Ashraf Ghani on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Four people entered Ghani's house
and there was an explosion followed by gunfire, a senior police officer said.
Ghani, a former World Bank official who has picked powerful former Uzbek
warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum as his running mate, was not there at the time. No
casualties were immediately reported.
Bus crash in western Thailand kills 30
A double-decker bus carrying municipal workers on a field trip in western
Thailand plunged off a steep road and into a ravine, killing at least 30
people, officials said Tuesday. The accident Monday night also left 22 others
injured, AP reported. It was the latest fatal crash on a mountain road in Tak
province known for its treacherous dips and turns where 300 accidents occurred
last year.
Death toll in Venezuela unrest rises to 36
The death toll in Venezuela’s anti-government unrest has climbed to 36. A
pregnant woman was lethally shot near Caracas and a oldier was killed in the
western state of Merida, officials announced. The 28-year-old pregnant woman
was shot dead on Sunday during a protest as she was getting off a bus stopped
by a barricade set up by protesters. In a separate accident, a National Guard
sergeant was shot shot in the neck during clashes in the western state of
Merida. Venezuela has been hit by a wave of violent protests that have
continued for almost a month, with people in the streets accusing the
government of inflation and holding it responsible for the lack of basic
products in the country. President Nicolas Maduro has repeatedly accused the
White House of sponsoring members of the opposition with a view to destabilize
Venezuela.
© Autonomous Nonprofit
Organization “TV-Novosti”, 2005–2014. All rights reserved.
Moscow to honor Russia-Crimea Union by renaming square
Published time: March 19, 2014 09:09
RIA Novosti / Valery Shustov
Tags
Communist deputies in the Moscow city legislature are proposing to rename of
one of Moscow's squares after the reunion of Russia and Crimea, as federal
legislators were preparing to ratify the union agreement.
One site deemed fit for renaming is the Square of Europe in the city center
near the Kiev Train Station, the head of the Communist faction in the city
Duma, Andrey Klychkov, told the Izvestia daily. He said there are other
possible locations for the Russia-Crimea Reunion Square in the city, like the
major crossroads near the Kiev Station or around the Simferopol Highway in the
South of the city.
Klychkov emphasized that the idea to give a Moscow square a new name came up
before the Crimea referendum and the subsequent union treaty with Russia. He
said it was in response to the suggestion to rename Institute Street in Kiev
after the “heavenly hundred” – the people killed in the Ukrainian capital in
the later stages of the Maidan protests in January and February.
The politician promised that on Wednesday he will file an official renaming
request to the mayor’s office. He added that at the same time the Communist
Party would start gathering signatures in support of this initiative which
might prove useful in case the authorities object to the idea.
Such objections, however, do not seem likely at the moment as the head of
the Moscow City Commission for Culture and Mass Communications fully supported
the idea. “Crimea’s reunion with Russia is an event worthy to be perpetuated
in a square name. I myself have received similar suggestions from my voters –
like restoring a ship berth on the Moscow River and naming it after Sevastopol,”
Yevgeny Gerasimov told reporters.
The head of the Dorogomilovo District where the Square of Europe and the
Kiev Station are located also said that he thought the renaming was
appropriate.
The Square of Europe was created in 2002 as a joint Russian-Belgian project
dedicated to European unity. It is decorated with an installation of 48 poles
bearing flags of the European nations and the Rape of Europa monument by
Belgian sculptor Olivier Strebelle.
Moscow already has several
streets and avenues bearing Crimea-related names, such as Simferopol Boulevard,
Kerch Street or Sevastopol metro station. They are located in the South of the
city, along the major avenue called Balaklava Prospect.
Visa, Mastercard resume services with 2 Russian banks blocked after US sanctions
Published time: March 23, 2014 15:35
Reuters / Alexander Demianchuk
Tags
International payment systems Visa and MasterCard have resumed services for
transactions for clients at Russia's SMP Bank and Investcapitalbank, blocked
after the US imposed sanctions against top Russian officials following Crimea’s
move to join Russia.
On Thursday, Washington imposed sanctions
singling out 20 top Russian political figures and businessman, as well Rossiya
bank. Boris and Arkady Rotenberg who control the SMP Bank and Investcapitalbank
were included in the sanctions list.
Following Obama’s executive order to impose sanctions, on Friday Visa Inc
and MasterCard Inc stopped serving clients of seven Russian lenders, according
to Timur Batyrev, the head of the national payment system department at the
Central Bank of Russia. The lenders included SMP Bank and Investcapitalbank.
Visa blocked four Russian banks including Rossiya bank and Sobinbank,
belonging to Yury Kovalchuk, SMP and Investcapitalbank in control of the
Rotenbergs, while MasterCard blocked the first three of them.
There was no official warning, according to Rossiya bank’s statement.
SMP Bank said the decision to stop providing services by the two
international payment systems was unlawful because the sanctions were imposed
on shareholders, not the bank, which said it has no assets in the United States.
"We are glad that the two biggest international payment systems
have heard our arguments and reversed their decision to block (SMP bank
transactions on Sunday)," SMP bank CEO Dmitry Kalantyrsky said in a
statement.
"The decision was taken by MasterCard last night and Visa - in the
morning. Currently MasterCard’s service is completely restored, Visa
transactions will be restored in a few hours as communication channels are
being debugged and equipment settings updated,” SMP Bank said in a
statement. Investcapitalbank has also said in a statement that the payment
systems have resumed their services.
According to Itar-tass, Visa has confirmed the system has lifted the embargo
on the transactions with SMP Bank and Investcapitalbank.
"The US government has informed the company Visa Inc to lift
economic sanctions on SMP Bank, and Investcapitalbank due to the fact that
these organizations do not meet the criteria on which sanctions are imposed,”
said a spokesman for Visa.
Visa officials could not clarify
the future of the transactions with Rossiya bank and Sorbinbank. The officials
of both banks told Itar-Tass that they do not know when Visa and Mastercard
will return to a standard mode of operation with them.
American astronomer discovers Earth-like Red Dwarf planet
Published time: March 25, 2014 14:19
A new, Earth-like, inhabitable planet has been discovered outside our solar
system by American astronomer Thomas Barclay. The planet is almost the same
size as Earth – just one-tenth bigger – and is orbiting a Red Dwarf star.
The planet orbits around an M1 Red Dwarf, or small and relatively cool,
star, where liquid (including water) can exist. Such planets are in the “Goldilocks”
zone, scientists say – like Goldilocks’ porridge, they are not too hot and not
too cold, and therefore could potentially support life.
At least five other planets, apart from the freshly-discovered one, are
orbiting the Red Dwarf.
By contrast, the Earth’s sun is a G-dwarf, a much bigger star.
The radius of the newly-discovered planet is just 1.1 times the size of our
planet. Until now, the smallest Earth-like planet discovered, Kepler-62f, was
1.4 times the size of the Earth and 1,200 light years away.
Nasa’s Kepler mission was
launched in 2009, with its aim being to look for Earth-like planets. Since
then, the mission has found about 3,000 possible candidate planets. More information
about the mission’s findings is due to be released later this year.
Russia may counter sanctions threat with foreign real estate ban for officials
Published time: March 24, 2014 08:58
A general view of the Promenade des Anglais in Nice
on the French Riviera, southeastern France (Reuters/Eric Gaillard)
Trends
Tags
A ruling party MP is suggesting to fast track a bill banning leading Russian
politicians owning foreign real estate, claiming such a move would make the
country less vulnerable to outside pressure and threats of sanctions.
Yevgeniy Fyodorov of the United Russia parliamentary caucus has asked the
Lower House Committee for Security and Countering Corruption to speed up work
on an amendment to an earlier bill forbidding top level Russian officials, both
elected and appointed, to hold foreign bank accounts and possess shares in
foreign companies.
“The new amendment has been drafted in order to rule out the
possibilities of them being directly
mentioned in foreign laws. The well-known Magnitsky Act puts it
straight –Russian civil servants who do not satisfy the United States face
sanctions in the form of property arrest. After this the US started talks and
if these talks are successful the arrest is lifted. They are using real
blackmail to promote their own interests inside our country,” Fyodorov
said in an interview with Izvestia daily.
The newspaper also quoted an unnamed source in the Russian presidential
administration as saying that the authorities are now planning to expand the
concept of “nationalization of elites” first introduced last year. “Any
catch – and foreign real estate is a very strong catch – is a real threat to
national security and can put pressure on the decision makers inside the
country,“ the source said.
The official added that the new restrictions would also rule out risks to
their reputation and the possibility of scandalous disclosures that put Russian
civil servants in jeopardy.
However, one of the members of the anti-corruption committee, Communist
Party MP Yevgeniy Dorovin holds that Russia has more urgent internal worries
than a new property ban.
“What they take they will return. It is not wise to make decisions that
could harm particular people on the basis of a momentary situation,”
Dorovin said.
In August last year Russian authorities introduced the law “On
Civil Servants’ Foreign Assets” that banned members of parliament, senior
officials, top managers of state corporations and the Russian Central Bank to
hold accounts in foreign banks and own securities of foreign companies. The
restriction also extends to these people’s spouses and underage children.
The initial draft of the asset ban included real estate, but the MPs got rid
of it during the debate procedure saying that many Russian officials have
possessed country homes, apartments, and land in neighboring countries since
Soviet times and making them sever these ties would be unjust.
In October last year the head of
the Russian presidential administration Sergey Ivanov disclosed that about 1000
civil servants at state and municipal level possessed foreign realty. 600
pieces of this real estate were located in former Soviet republics and many of
the remaining 400 were in resort areas such as Turkey, Bulgaria, Spain and
Egypt.
Chinese banking liberalization: Time to invest in the walking dead
Patrick L Young is expert in global financial markets working in multiple
disciplines, ranging from trading independently to running exchanges.
Published time: March 17, 2014 12:38
Reuters / Toru Hanai
Tags
China proposes opening banking to allow foreigners to share in - well,
probably not the profits, and therein lies the problem...
Nature abhors a vacuum. Financial vacuums are invariably filled by suckers,
ideally greedy ones. When it comes to emerging markets, the greediest suckers are
invariably western bankers. With all the poise and self-restraint of Homer
Simpson faced with an ‘all you can eat buffet’ western banks have a rich
history of leveraging their way into a smorgasbord of emerging markets and
deleveraging their way towards bankruptcy on the way out. Just ask Barings. It
wasn’t Nick Leeson who broke it originally. Rather a Bank of England consortium
rescued Barings in 1890 after it bought too much South American debt...
Nearly a century later, western bankers masterminded their near downfall in
the 1970’s, lending with leveraged gusto to emerging markets in South America
(again!). Conventional banker ‘wisdom’ suggested sovereign nations couldn’t go
bankrupt. When these countries simply didn’t bother repaying their loans: default
felt eerily similar to “normal” bankruptcy...
Therefore emerging markets resemble banker catnip. Now western lenders are
wildly excited about a brave new frontier: the Chinese is eager to open the
banking market, welcoming foreign participation. In terms of poisoned chalices,
this one comes with a gold plated ivory handled revolver attached.
The Chinese financial system is not looking pretty with domestic lending on
the verge of crisis. Overall the broad brush of financial reform is long-term
good but we can’t rely on the western banks to finesse their timing for the
next cycle. Yes, the pure Communist delusion failed in China as spectacularly
as elsewhere, as several millions starved by Mao would readily attest, if they
weren’t already dead. Thus the long march to capitalism was undertaken with
significant quasi-oxymoronic central planning and cautious incremental
liberalization. 35 years later the Chinese economy dangles on a debt precipice.
Reuters / Jason Lee
China has enjoyed a marvelous economic growth phase giving it a serious
opportunity to challenge western domination just as the old world has gone
backwards, indulging divisive reactionary socialism once more. Thus we reach a
situation where the Chinese are considering further bank deregulation. For
instance, prescriptive interest rate caps on loans (which have created a bubble
in alternative financing sources - peer to peer lending and other quasi-banking
initiatives) are earmarked for removal. China also proposes encouraging new
sources of capital from overseas. Naturally, the usual suspects, idiot western
bankers, can only see upside. Besides they don’t have to worry about bankruptcy
risks as they remain convinced moronic western governments will always bail the
bankers out when it all goes pear shaped.
As brilliant Societe Generale analyst Albert Edwards has noted, the copper
price is a key indicator in just how far removed from ‘pure’ banking
Chinese borrowing has become. Remarkably high interest rates aimed at slowing
growth have created opportunities for all manner of “carry trades”
(based around borrowing against copper) which deliver cash to invest in high
yielding Chinese private debt. It’s complex but the key point here is that the
copper price has recently fallen off a cliff. In other words, there may be a
credit contraction in China right now which isn’t apparent in the banks
themselves (yet) but it is obvious if you consider copper prices alongside
growing problems in peer to peer lending.
Moreover, the first Chinese corporate bond default of recent times took
place the other week. Bonds rarely default in total isolation, preferring to do
so in waves. China has been trying to rein in lending for some time so expect
more. With market confidence fragile…what better time to open Chinese banking
to intrepid westerners? Their track record is impeccable: vacuuming up any old
rubbish late in the economic cycle and then retrenching back west, tails
between their legs when the boom implodes across their balance sheet.
That said, will the Chinese economy now proceed to collapse with gusto and
go through a long difficult deflationary cycle driven by the sort of policies
which have left the EU/Japan stagnating? I doubt it. CLSA economist Russell
Napier sapiently notes China will go the short sharp shock route: let the Yuan
devalue then restart the whole credit cycle again…
However that leaves a massive caveat emptor above the Chinese market right
now. Those who rush to exploit deregulation will be in the wrong place at the
wrong time. Welcome to China, bankers! You too can buy the zombie loan
portfolio of your dreams!
The statements, views and
opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not
necessarily represent those of RT.
North Korea Urged U.S. Changes Citing Talks With South
By Sangwon Yoon
Mar 24, 2014 5:41 PM ET
Save
North
Korea called on the U.S. to stop isolating it politically, militarily and
economically, citing the totalitarian regime’s recent engagement with South Korea as
proof of a commitment to relieving tensions.
In dealings with neighboring countries starting last month, North Korea participated in
the first high-level talks with South Korea since 2007, allowed family reunions
between the two Koreas and made plans to hold talks next week with Japan for the first
time since November 2012.
“The DPRK did not hesitate to accept the request from South Korean
authorities on holding the separated families’ reunion,” even though “in view
of the harsh conditions of the political environment,” the situation “was not
mature yet,” Ri Tong Il, a top North Korean diplomat at the United
Nations, told reporters yesterday in New York. He
referred to his country by the acronym of its official name, the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea.
The U.S. must “roll back” its “hostile policies” and stop raising tensions
through continued military drills with South Korea and orchestrating
“conspiracies” on the North’s human rights situation, Ri said.
His country’s relations with the U.S. have remained tense since 2012, when
North Korea announced plans for long-range missile testing that led the U.S. to
scuttle a food-aid deal.
The Obama administration has since enlisted China, North Korea’s
biggest trading partner, as its interlocutor, refusing to engage in direct
talks until the North takes credible steps toward denuclearization.
Six-Party Talks
Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday called for six-nation talks on
denuclearization of the Korean peninsula to resume as soon as possible, China’s
state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
In a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama
on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague, Xi cited the need
to implement goals set out in a 2005 agreement -- a condition the U.S. has set
for resumption of any direct engagement.
China is the host and convenor of the six-party talks, which include the
U.S., Russia,
Japan and the two Koreas. The negotiations began in 2003 and were last held in
2008. North Korea officially quit the process a year later, and revealed a new
uranium enrichment facility in 2010.
Ri’s comments yesterday were part of a campaign waged by North Korean
diplomats in Beijing, London, Moscow and Geneva, aimed at shifting the focus of
discussion away from denuclearization, said Scott Snyder,
senior fellow for Korea studies at the Council
on Foreign Relations in Washington.
Public Relations
“We can presume that DPRK is not satisfied with the way Washington handles
its approach to Korean peninsula issues,” Snyder said in an e-mail. “However,
DPRK is not responding to U.S. calls for a return to denuclearization, nor has
DPRK provided a viable solution to the Kenneth Bae case, which needs to be
settled before one can imagine serious talks moving forward.”
The North has held Bae, a Korean-American missionary, since 2012, and in
February rescinded an invitation for a U.S. human-rights envoy to travel to
Pyongyang to discuss his release.
Investors are starting to bet that South and North Korea are heading toward
reunification.
Shinyoung Asset Management this month opened the first South Korean fund
focusing on equities that would benefit from a unified peninsular. The
benchmark Kospi index rose to a two-week high yesterday, even after
North Korea fired 46 short-range rockets over the weekend, and the Kospi 200 Volatility
Index, a gauge of demand for protection against plunging shares, is trading
near its record low in December, about half the level when the North detonated
its first nuclear device in 2006.
Ri said the missile firings are justified as part of North Korea’s routine
military exercises within its territorial land and waters.
To contact the reporter on this story: Sangwon Yoon in United Nations at syo...@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: John Walcott at jwal...@bloomberg.net
Larry Liebert, Mark McQuillan
============================
North Korea Urged U.S. Changes Citing Talks With South
North Korea called on the U.S. to
stop isolating it politically, militarily and economically,
citing the totalitarian regime’s recent engagement with South
Korea as proof of a commitment to relieving tensions.
In dealings with neighboring countries starting last month,
North Korea participated in the first high-level talks with
South Korea since 2007, allowed family reunions between the two
Koreas and made plans to hold talks next week with Japan for the
first time since November 2012.
“The DPRK did not hesitate to accept the request from
South Korean authorities on holding the separated families’
reunion,” even though “in view of the harsh conditions of the
political environment,” the situation “was not mature yet,”
Ri Tong Il, a top North Korean diplomat at the United Nations,
told reporters yesterday in New York. He referred to his country
by the acronym of its official name, the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea.
The U.S. must “roll back” its “hostile policies” and
stop raising tensions through continued military drills with
South Korea and orchestrating “conspiracies” on the North’s
human rights situation, Ri said.
His country’s relations with the U.S. have remained tense
since 2012, when North Korea announced plans for long-range
missile testing that led the U.S. to scuttle a food-aid deal.
The Obama administration has since enlisted China, North
Korea’s biggest trading partner, as its interlocutor, refusing
to engage in direct talks until the North takes credible steps
toward denuclearization.
Six-Party Talks
Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday called for six-nation talks on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula to
resume as soon as possible, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency
reported.
In a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama on the
sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague, Xi cited
the need to implement goals set out in a 2005 agreement -- a
condition the U.S. has set for resumption of any direct
engagement.
China is the host and convenor of the six-party talks,
which include the U.S., Russia, Japan and the two Koreas. The
negotiations began in 2003 and were last held in 2008. North
Korea officially quit the process a year later, and revealed a
new uranium enrichment facility in 2010.
Ri’s comments yesterday were part of a campaign waged by
North Korean diplomats in Beijing, London, Moscow and Geneva,
aimed at shifting the focus of discussion away from
denuclearization, said Scott Snyder, senior fellow for Korea
studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.
Public Relations
“We can presume that DPRK is not satisfied with the way
Washington handles its approach to Korean peninsula issues,”
Snyder said in an e-mail. “However, DPRK is not responding to
U.S. calls for a return to denuclearization, nor has DPRK
provided a viable solution to the Kenneth Bae case, which needs
to be settled before one can imagine serious talks moving
forward.”
The North has held Bae, a Korean-American missionary, since
2012, and in February rescinded an invitation for a U.S. human-rights envoy to travel to Pyongyang to discuss his release.
Investors are starting to bet that South and North Korea
are heading toward reunification.
Shinyoung Asset Management this month opened the first
South Korean fund focusing on equities that would benefit from a
unified peninsular. The benchmark Kospi index rose to a two-week
high yesterday, even after North Korea fired 46 short-range
rockets over the weekend, and the Kospi 200 Volatility Index, a
gauge of demand for protection against plunging shares, is
trading near its record low in December, about half the level
when the North detonated its first nuclear device in 2006.
Ri said the missile firings are justified as part of North
Korea’s routine military exercises within its territorial land
and waters.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Sangwon Yoon in United Nations at
syo...@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
John Walcott at
jwal...@bloomberg.net
Larry Liebert, Mark McQuillan
KUM Nelson Bame Bame IV,
(CEO - Bame International Foundation for Restoration & Economic Development -BIFORD Inc.)
Social Scientist, Computer & Information Scientist, Theologian
Adj. Prof. of Business & Information Technology
Professor of Heaven On Earth (God/ Self-Declared since 2003)
Global Ambassador For Peace - UPF-UN.(2005-present)
CEO/FOUNDER Multiple Organizations - Worldwide -- since 1997.
www.bamekum.com, www.bamebame.org, www.un.org; www.bamebame.com, www.upf.org
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A man does what he must in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressure -- and that is the basis of all human morality. (JFK)
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