Day: June 16, 2022

CAIRO – Egyptian President, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, and visiting Chief of Staff of the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces, Hamad Mohammed Thani Al Rumaithi, discussed here yesterday, ways to promote bilateral military and security cooperation.

“The two sides agreed to continue strengthening coordination and regular consultation, with regard to military and security cooperation, in a manner that also supports the bonds of Arab solidarity,” the spokesperson of the Egyptian presidency, Bassam Rady, said.

President al-Sisi stressed the important relations between Egypt and the UAE, and “what they represent as a pillar for the stability of the Middle East region and the entire Arab world.”

Al Rumaithi affirmed UAE’s keenness to strengthen the strategic cooperation between the two countries at various levels, especially in the exchange of military experiences.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

Namibian authorities say the southern African country is seeing a jump in rhinoceros poaching, with 11 killings this month. The dead rhinos were discovered in Namibia’s Etosha National Park without their horns, which are worth tens of thousands of dollars in illegal Asian markets.

The CEO of Namibia’s Save the Rhino Trust, Simson Uri-Khob, said the discovery of 11 poached rhino carcasses cannot be regarded as an isolated incident.

He said there is a rising demand for rhino horn, which has translated into higher incidents of poaching in Namibia. He suspects organized criminals are behind the killings.

“It is difficult to point fingers on who it was, but I am sure it is organized crime syndicates and part of the community because they are the ones who know the area, they are the ones who guide poachers, from my experience,” Uri-Khob said.

Romeo Muyunda, public relations officer at the Ministry of Environment, Tourism and Forestry, said action will be taken to protect the rhinos.

“The Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism, together with the Namibia Police Force, the NDF (Namibian Defense Force) and other partners will intensify our patrols, security and intelligence gathering, especially in the Etosha National Park,” Muyunda said.

He asked the public to help authorities with the investigation into the killings.

“To date, no arrests have been made in this incident where the carcasses were discovered. Investigations continue in this regard,” Muyunda said. “We call upon members of the public with information related to this incident and any other poaching activity or any other wildlife crime incident to come forth and report.”

A total of 22 rhinos have been killed by poachers in Namibia this year.

Namibia is home to 1,500 to 2,000 black rhinos — about one-third of the world’s black rhino population. The endangered species is targeted for its horn, which is used for ornaments and its alleged but unproven medicinal purposes in Asian countries.

Source: Voice of America

Your Excellencies, Dear Colleagues, Dear Friends,

It is such a great pleasure to participate at today’s Forum, engaging in the dialogue which provides an opportunity to discuss the challenges and prospects of Western Balkans. Prospects that are linked to the European future of the region. And challenges we can collectively overcome by focusing our efforts on the stability and prosperity of the region. And since there is pessimism sometimes around, may I say, that we do have success stories in the Balkans. And I am here representing one success story: our relation with North Macedonia. 10 years ago, who would have said that the Greek Foreign Minister would come to a foreign policy Forum, the Prespa Forum, and advocate for the European future of North Macedonia. So, we can be optimists.

Can I talk now a little bit about our big home, our big family, the European Union. The European Union was created as a visionary project of peace. A project that would promote economic and political integration. And today’s European Union is the outcome of that initial choice. A choice that we, Europeans, need to defend. We should continue to strive tirelessly for cementing peace, stability and sustainable development.

Within this equation, it is impossible to imagine Europe without its Southeastern region. Southeast Europe in general and the Western Balkans in particular have always belonged to Europe. Like other parts of the Continent, the Western Balkans have experienced armed conflicts, that is known. But, geographically, historically, culturally they belong to Europe. Their bitter legacy has left behind, even today, an amount of mistrust, nationalism and lack of reconciliation.

These potentially very risky elements coincide with a set of crises in the wider region linked to economy, energy and food. Crises caused or aggravated by the illegal and unprovoked war in Ukraine.

However, there are significant positive indications as well.

The war in Ukraine highlighted the strategic importance of the European Union-Western Balkans relationship. The EU remains the biggest trade and investment partner of the Western Balkans. Cooperation on foreign policy with Western Balkans partners has stepped up, also in relation to Ukraine.

As our region tries to endure the impact of war, it is crucial that the EU contributes to this effort. ?he Economic & Investment Plan is expected to bring tangible benefits to citizens and businesses. It is also expected to reinforce the region’s sustainable growth, including inter-connectivity.

In this context, the region’s European integration remains an unfinished business 19 years after the 2003 “Thessaloniki Agenda”.

The EU and the Western Balkans should do their own share in this respect. Our partners need to fulfill the relevant criteria according to the set conditionality. But, also, the EU needs to get the enlargement in the Western Balkans back on track and very quickly, if I may say so.

Greece is doing its utmost to contribute to this collective effort. I have recently visited all the capitals of the region to convey messages of support for our partners’ European perspective, as well as to highlight the need for reconciliation.

I wish to reiterate what the Prime Minister K. Mitsotakis mentioned on June 10. He said: “In accordance with set criteria, let us offer the potential of completing the integration of all of the Western Balkans into the EU by 2033 – an ambitious but absolutely achievable timeline”.

I would like to conclude with a word of caution regarding the presence of third actors in the region. Actors which promote adversarial political and economic agendas. Such agendas, different to the European agenda, run counter to our collective interests, and they attempt to undermine the EU-Western Balkans relationship.

We should all work very closely together, so we can turn the region into a truly European neighborhood. Put this region into the European family where it actually belongs.

Thank you so much.

Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic Republic

June 18 marks seven months in prison for Dessu Dulla. The Ethiopian journalist from the Oromia News Network, or ONN, is accused of anti-state activities. If convicted, he could face life in prison, or even the death penalty.

It’s a sharp turn of events for Dessu, who returned from exile in Europe in 2018, drawn by what seemed at the time like a period of reform.

He started work at ONN, where he hosted the weekly show “Under the Shadow of Democracy,” looking at threats in Ethiopia and its Oromia region.

“I thought it would be another era and that democracy and freedom of speech may be restored,” Dessu told Reuters before his arrest last November. But “actually things are deteriorating. So many journalists have fled the country, and some are in jail.”

Dessu is one of more than 20 journalists currently held in Ethiopian prisons. Most had reported on the conflicts in Ethiopia’s Tigray, Oromia and Amhara regions.

Alongside arrests, Ethiopia’s media regulator in April announced it was taking legal action against 25 media outlets that it said were spreading false news and hate speech.

Authorities say their actions are designed to stop the spread of disinformation or anti-state activities. But rights groups and journalists say Ethiopia is using legal avenues to silence critics or dissidents.

Tsedale Lemma, who founded the newspaper Addis Standard, said the arrests of journalists, many of whom were pro-government during the war in Tigray, send a broader message to media across the country.

“It’s the effect that is really reverberating across media rooms in Ethiopia,” Tsedale said, adding that it creates challenges “because you wouldn’t know what is it going to be that the government is turning against this time.”

In Dessu’s case, he and his ONN colleague Bikila Amenu are included in a case that includes 15 members and supporters of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) political party, who are accused of plotting to overthrow the government.

A court in April charged the journalists under a law barring “outrages against the constitution.”

Authorities say the journalists’ news coverage was sympathetic to the OLF.

Their lawyer, Milkiyas Bulcha, told VOA Amharic Service that Dessu and the others have not been given a fair chance to defend themselves.

“The prosecutor is narrowing the right of the accused to defend themselves, and they are not meeting the standards required by law,” he said.

Because of that, said Milkiyas, “They should be released from prison without any preconditions.”

Legal landscape

Advocacy groups say the use of anti-terror and other laws to silence the media and political dissidents must end if Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is going to live up to the promises he made when taking power in 2018.

“It’s simple, really,” Angela Quintal, Africa program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, told VOA. She said CPJ wants the release of “all journalists currently behind bars in Ethiopia and for the government to end its persecution of the independent press.”

But Ethiopian authorities say they are trying to tackle disinformation and prevent polarization or ethnic division.

When Billene Seyoum, a spokesperson for the prime minister’s office, referenced outcry over the recent spate of arrests during a June 6 press briefing, she said, “It’s really important to unpack who is a journalist and who is not.”

As far as the media authority is aware, she said, “many of these that are going under the banner of journalists are not accredited or not licensed.”

The spokesperson said strong laws curbing hate speech and disinformation are needed to regulate or control the growth of explosive rhetoric, particularly online.

It is “problematic,” Billene said, “if everybody with a YouTube channel is considered a journalist and there is no means of regulating what is said.”

Quintal, however, said legal action against the media is taking the country down a dark path.

“It is shocking that Ethiopia is once again among the worst jailers of journalists in Africa and where due process and the rule of law has been violated time and time again,” she told VOA.

“Prime Minister Ahmed Abiy’s government can still live up to his promise of reform when he first came into office by reversing the worrying decline in press freedom that we have witnessed, particularly since the war in Tigray started,” Quintal said.

Abiy was hailed in 2018 for his progressive moves, including the release of all jailed journalists and the restoration of access to blocked news websites.

In 2019, the United Nations held its press freedom conference in the capital, Addis Ababa, to commemorate World Press Freedom Day. Abiy was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize that same year.

But by 2021, with the war in Tigray underway, Abiy has signaled less tolerance for reporting that is critical or challenges government actions, and which authorities equate to false or biased news.

In a speech to lawmakers on Tuesday, Abiy said, “Let’s not designate individuals engaged in destroying national institutions as ‘activists’ and ‘journalists.’ “

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) notes that conflict has wiped out most of the press freedom gains made by Ethiopia in recent years.

“Since the start of the civil war, the government has made a determined effort to take control of the narrative,” according to RSF. The watchdog ranks Ethiopia 114th out of 180 countries, where 1 is freest, on its annual Press Freedom Index.

Source: Voice of America

Dozens of refugees camped outside the United Nations refugee agency office say they have been living in South Africa for two decades, but now they no longer feel safe.

Most are from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where they escaped war.

But increasingly, they say they’ve had their small businesses looted, homes robbed and been personally attacked amid growing waves of xenophobia.

Lillian Nyota has been a refugee in South Africa since 2001.

“We ran away from our country, running from tribulations,” she said. “We came here in South Africa, we found more trouble, more tribulations. Because xenophobic attack is real, xenophobia is real, no one can deny it. It’s real.”

South Africa is home to more than 250,000 asylum seekers. Nyota’s group said they’ve moved from community to community, but violence eventually follows.

She said they’re now asking that the United Nations refugee agency move them to a safe third country.

“Any place that they can take us that way we can be safe with our families,” Nyota said. “We can live and move on with our lives so that our children can go to school.”

Xenophobic violence has become increasingly pronounced in South Africa with bursts of riots and murders since 2008.

Earlier this year, amid a wave of anti-migrant marches, a Zimbabwean man was killed in a Johannesburg township, authorities say because of his nationality.

Experts blame the problem on the country’s history of violence, socioeconomic issues and growing anti-foreigner politics.

Silindile Mlilo, a researcher at the University of Witwatersrand, said with xenophobic violence, there is usually no differentiation between refugees or asylum-seekers.

“If government is not seen as doing anything, it also discourages migrants and refugees who are in the country, because it’s like, is it safe for me?” Mlilo said.

Resettlement is not an option for most refugees.

The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, said only 1 percent of refugees globally are moved from one host country to another for exceptional circumstances.

Laura Padoan, spokesperson for UNHCR South Africa, said it’s only the most vulnerable refugees who are typically eligible for resettlement.

“That can be survivors of sexual or gender-based violence. It can be women and children at risk, people at risk because of their religious persecution,” Padoan said. “We really urge these refugees to take up the offer of local integration or repatriation, because no one wants to see people living out on the street.”

But these refugees outside her office maintain re-integration is not an option and say they will stay camped there until there’s a plan for them to leave South Africa.

Source: Voice of America