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'My children hid with goats to trick kidnappers'
A father who fled kidnappers in central Nigeria on his motorbike tells how his family survived.
Categories: Africa
Let the Dead Speak: Forgotten Workers
By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, May 28 2024 (IPS)
Immigration policies are among the most hotly debated topics in Europe. Xenophobia, combined with curbing immigration, have become the main reason to why ever-increasing large crowds of voters are supporting populist parties.
A visit to World War I French war cemeteries might provide a different perspective on import and exploitation of labourers from poor countries in the South, indicating what their suffering have meant to European wellbeing. For hundreds, even thousands of years, Europe has been dependent on a forced and often badly treated labour force – slaves, serfs, indentured labourers, prisoners of war – people who have been captured, or hired, and then transported from areas outside Europe, a practise especially evident during World War I.
In Noyelles-Sur-Mernot, we find a Chinese cemetery, not far from the blood-soaked battlefield of Somme, where in 1916 approximately one million soldiers, during less than four months, lost their lives, or went missing. Here rests some of the 100,000 coolies who in China and Vietnam had been contracted by British and French armies to work, fight and die in the mud of the trenches.
Coolies, in Chinese written as 苦力, meaning ”bitter labour” or “bitter strength”, went everywhere, from the Arctic to the southern ends of the world. They built railways in the USA, in Alaska, in the jungles of Amazonia, in the Middle East and Siberia. They worked in Peruvian silver mines and the diamond mines of Natal (South Africa), in guano fields in Peru and on sugar plantations in Trinidad, Cuba, and the German Samoa.
Chinese workers were hired for pitiful amounts by professional contractors, obtaining advances from their customers and assuming the responsibility for discipline, travel, control, and supervision. After being sprayed head to foot with disinfectants and having their characteristic ponytails cut of, Chinese coolies were shipped off towards harsh work and/or battlefields. A long sea voyage, that could last more than four months, with diseases and insufficient food, killed many of them. Since Westerners found it difficult to distinguish one worker from another and to learn Chinese and Vietnamese names, coolies were deprived of their names and assigned numbers instead. Outside working hours coolies were not allowed into military canteens, or to mix with civilians, most of them lived in guarded and wired camps.
Coolies were generally considered to be replaceable and often treated in an inhuman manner. In the 1890’s, a Swedish foreign legionnaire, Bertil Nelsson, described a crossing of a mountain range in Tonkin (Vietnam):
- “During these campaigns, a coolie’s life was valued only if he was able to carry his burden, otherwise he was finished off. If he fell down, a European soon came forward with stick in hand and whipped him until he rose up again. It was a repugnant spectacle to witness how poor blood-whipped wretches were trudging forward under heavy loads. Finally, the weaker of them stumbled and fell, again and again. It was harder and harder for them to get up on their feet again. Finally, their lifeless bodies lied there without a cry under the hard blows of a cane, without a tremor of the eyelids, not even when their noses had been crushed by brutal Europeans, or when a revolver was raised and fired into their skulls. Thus, it was demonstrated to the others that only death could free them.”
Not far from the cemetery of Noyelles-Sur-Mernot we find the cemetery of Chapellete, one of six Indian War cemeteries around Somme and Amiens. The British considered the Indian continent as an integrated part of their empire, recruiting 800,000 Indian soldiers and 500,000 coolies, bringing them to various war zones of World War I, at least 73,000 of them died.
This was not only a wartime procedure. Between 1896 and 1901, some 32,000 Indian, indentured labourers constructed a railway linking Uganda to the sea port of Mombasa, 2,500 labourers died during its construction. In the British colony of Natal approximately 200,000 Indians arrived as indentured labourers to work in mines and plantations. Between 1838 and 1920, 230,000 indentured Indian labourers arrived in British Guyana, mainly to toil in the plantations. During the same period more than 135,000 Indians arrived in Trinidad-Tobago. At the same time, the French contracted 30,000 Indians for work in Martinique, 20,000 to work in French Guyana, and no less than 500,000 were destined to Mauritius, whose descendants now constitute more than 65 % of the island’s population.
These were just a few examples to indicate how the colonial powers of France and Great Britain spread Indian and Chinese workers around the globe. The great majority of this generally harshly treated labour force remained where they had been brought, in spite of the fact that contracts and enforcement had stipulated they were supposed to be transported back to China and India.
Many Chinese, Indian and African coolies, as well as some Europeans, were “indentured labourers”. Since the sixteenth century an indentured servant was usually a labourer contracted to work, without pay, three to seven years in exchange for the cost of transportation, food, clothing, and a place to live. Indentures were quite common in Colonial America and different from slaves in the sense that their captivity was temporary and could be ended if they paid off the debts incurred for food and housing. An indenture could be sold. After arriving at their destination indentures were generally sold to the highest bidder. Like prices of slaves, their price went up or down depending on supply and demand. Indentured labour could also by authorities be used as a punishment, something that befell many European “vagrants” and minor criminals, who were sent off to the “colonies”.
Another French cemetery, this one from World War II, situated just outside Lyon, might also remind us of sacrifices endured by people subdued under colonialism. Two days after Marshal Pétain had announced France’s surrender to the Nazis, the 25th regiment of Tiralleurs Sénégalais tried in the small town of Chasselay to hinder the German army from entering Lyon. Tiralleurs Sénégalais was the all-encompassing denomination of sub-Saharan recruits, of whom most came from Senegal. During the days that followed, the Germans experienced heavy losses, before the French and Africans surrendered. Prisoners were divided into two: The French on one side, the Africans on the other. The latter were machine-gunned.
During World War I, 200,000 African troops were recruited by the French Army of whom 135,000 were deployed to Europe, where 30,000 were killed. During World War II, approximately the same number of Africans were recruited by France, of whom 40,000 were deployed to Europe.
During World Wars I and II, approximately, 4,500,000 African soldiers and military labourers were mobilized by the Brits and French, about 2,000,000 of them died. Inside Africa, during and before these wars several hundreds of thousands of porters were used to transport goods through an often roadless terrain. These porters were often recruited by force and compelled to carry their burdens far from home, harassed by diseases, the cruelty of their leaders and an unhospitable terrain. Furthermore, they were often infected by diseases, previously unknown to them, while spreading sickness themselves. During World War I, 95,000 African porters died while in British service, 15,650 under the Belgians, and 7,000 under the Germans. French and Portuguese porter deaths are unaccounted for, but assumed to be at least 20,000. Also unaccounted for are deaths among “civilians” caused by the spread of diseases and mass migration.
A work force similar to indentured labour made its appearance after World War II. During its aftermath several countries were in dire need of a numerous and effective labour force. As an example, in West Germany foreigners were allowed to work for a period of one or two years, before returning to their home country, making room for other migrants. For Turks, Tunisians and Moroccans, special rules applied – only unmarried persons could be recruited; family reunification was not allowed, a health check, and an aptitude test had to be passed. A Gastarbeiter, guest worker, could after two years not be allowed any extension. These harsh rules were mitigated over time and now more than 4 million persons with a recent Turkish migrant background live in Germany.
Communist East Germany also had a Gastarbeiter system, with workers arriving from Poland, Vietnam and Cuba. Contact between guest workers and East German citizens was extremely limited. After work, Gastarbeiter were usually restricted to their dormitories, or an area of the city which Germans were not allowed to enter. Furthermore, sexual relations with a German led to deportation. Women Gastarbeiter were not allowed to become pregnant during their stay. If they did, they were forced to have an abortion.
Similar systems have been used in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Workers from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan generally pay agents in their own countries, for travel and sponsorship during a limited time period. However, the receiving governments have currently begun to implement reforms to increase labour protection and remove elements of the Kafala (sponsorship) system, although these reforms have so far been insufficient to dismantle the system entirely. Currently, approximately 88% of the UAE population consist of expatriates, most of them migrant workers.
Not all migrant workers, i.e. persons engaged in remunerated activities in a state of which they are not nationals, have been recruited through systems similar to the Kafala, some are undocumented workers, but many continue to suffer from uncertainty and an overhanging threat of being expelled from work and livelihood. The number of international migrant workers is currently totalling 170 million. They constitute 4.9 % of the labour force of destination countries with the highest rate at 42 % in the UAE. Among international migrant workers, women constitute 41.5 % and men 58.5 %.
Whatever European anti-immigration parties may claim, the immigration of non-European labour is far from a new phenomenon. European war cemeteries, might serve as just one example testifying to the fact that Europeans have a lot to thank such “foreigners” for. Furthermore, Europeans also have reason to be ashamed of the misery their ancestors have caused such “alien workers”, as well as the fact that some are still exploiting and devaluing their contribution to the host countries’ economy and wellbeing.
IPS UN Bureau
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Categories: Africa
‘There can be No Special Status for Public Officials’
By Nikolaos Gavalakis
BERLIN, Germany, May 28 2024 (IPS)
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, last week requested arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders as well as for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Yoav Galant. They are accused of various war crimes and crimes against humanity. But what does this mean and where do things go from here?
This is a very significant first step towards being able to bring political and military leaders to court for the most serious crimes against humanity. For some time now, the office of the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has also been conducting investigations in Israel and Gaza with the support of highly qualified external experts in international law.
Brenda J. Hollis, an exceptional US lawyer with extensive military experience, is leading the investigations at the chief prosecutor’s office. And, also in this case, she is just as qualified as in the investigation against Vladimir Putin, which led to an arrest warrant from the court.
The chief prosecutor has forwarded the results of his investigation to the competent judicial preliminary chamber of the International Criminal Court. This is staffed by judges who carefully examine all the evidence submitted and then assess it in full independence and in accordance with the applicable criminal law before deciding whether to issue an arrest warrant.
The procedure is therefore the same as the one used for the arrest warrant against the Russian president. But why is the International Criminal Court needed? Isn’t the Israeli judiciary responsible for a possible trial?
Of course, the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court must be clarified. In this case, this includes whether – if the terrible allegations of crime are confirmed – the Israeli prime minister and his defence minister would also be charged before Israeli courts and convicted by them. This is not entirely out of the question, despite Netanyahu’s attempts to strengthen his political power by weakening the judiciary.
We all remember the huge demonstrations by courageous Israeli citizens against these plans. To this day, the ‘battle for the rule of law and the separation of powers’ in Israel is not yet over. All of this will have to be recognised and evaluated by the judges of the competent preliminary chamber.
The chief prosecutor’s request concerns the leadership of Hamas as well as the leadership of Israel. Does this not lead to an inappropriate equation between those who are members of an EU terror-listed organisation and elected representatives of a democratic government?
The claim of equivalence is an inaccurate, political accusation — and the International Criminal Court is not concerned with politics. It is verifiably about international law. Everyone – including government statements – should take this into account, unless they want to weaken the International Criminal Court.
The chief prosecutor has, of course, submitted different applications with various justifications relating to different facts and allegations of crimes. In these, there is no recognisable legal equivalence between the leaders of Hamas, in other words a highly organised non-state terrorist group, and the elected officials of Israel.
Some commentators evidently take the view that only terrorists can commit the most serious crimes against humanity, but not democratically elected officials. Unfortunately, numerous examples from the recent past show that this is not the case.
As Germany recognises the International Criminal Court, Netanyahu and Galant would theoretically have to be arrested upon entering the country if they were charged. How realistic do you think this is?
Anyone wanted by the International Criminal Court on the basis of an arrest warrant must be arrested if they enter a member state, because the Rome Statute clearly stipulates that arrest warrants must be executed by the member states. Of course, not every government that is pursuing its own political agenda likes this.
As we all know, the Chinese government’s criticism of the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against Putin and its demand for his immunity on the grounds that he is a public official were met with astonishment. However, there can be no special status for public officials.
The Rome Statute rules this out and we in Germany – as well as around two thirds of UN member states – should recognise and support the independent International Criminal Court with good reason.
As a constitutional democracy, we should also be wary of double standards. On the contrary, we should help to dispel the suspicions fuelled by political interests about the qualifications, integrity and independence of the International Criminal Court, the chief prosecutor and the judges.
The International Criminal Court has frequently demonstrated its high level of qualification and its necessity. It is infuriating that the US, Russia, but also China and India, among others, acknowledge the Court as a ‘court for others, but not for themselves’.
This weakens international law, on which we Germans particularly rely. As is well known, the International Criminal Court has already recognised its jurisdiction to prosecute crimes against humanity in Palestine and Gaza in 2021 following multiple resolutions and recommendations by the UN General Assembly.
The International Criminal Court is based on the Rome Statute of 1998, which was adopted during your time as minister of justice and against immense pressure from the US. What impact would a disregard of the proceedings by Germany and other signatory states have on the international legal system?
It is indeed a great disappointment, even a nuisance, that states such as the US are evading membership and downright fighting the International Criminal Court. Especially as very good US lawyers work in the office of the chief prosecutor.
I would like to repeat: strengthening international law and supporting the International Criminal Court go hand in hand. In Germany, we have not only ratified the Rome Statute, but have also created the German International Criminal Code, which today, in accordance with the Rome Statute, relieves the International Criminal Court in appropriate proceedings. We rely on international law and should continue to do so. And this support has to prove itself time and again.
The fight against the most serious crimes against humanity is more important today than ever before. It is also high time to assign the prohibition of aggressive war to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in its entirety, even if ‘only’ the invaded state, but not the aggressor itself, is a member state of the International Criminal Court.
Source: International Politics and Society (IPS)-Journal published by the International Political Analysis Unit of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Hiroshimastrasse 28, D-10785 Berlin
IPS UN Bureau
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Excerpt:
In an interview with Herta Däubler-Gmelin who served as Federal Minister of Justice from 1998 to 2002, and as a Member of the German Bundestag from 1972 to 2009.
Categories: Africa
Luxury perfumes linked to child labour, BBC finds
The BBC witnessed children picking jasmine in Egypt, a major exporter of the flowers’ oil.
Categories: Africa
Small Island Nations Demand Urgent Global Action at SIDS4 Conference
King Charles III of Britain addresses the opening ceremony of the Fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States, May 27, 2024. Credit: Alison Kentish/IPS
By Alison Kentish
ANTIGUA, May 27 2024 (IPS)
“This year has been the hottest in history in practically every corner of the globe, foretelling severe impacts on our ecosystems and starkly underscoring the urgency of our predicament. We are gathered here not merely to reiterate our challenges, but to demand and enact solutions,” declared Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Brown at the opening of the Fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States on May 27.
The world’s 39 small island developing states are meeting on the Caribbean island this week. It is a pivotal, once-a-decade meeting for small states that contribute little to global warming, but are disproportionately impacted by climate change. The Caribbean leader reminded the world that SIDS are being forced to survive crises that they did not create.
“The scales of equity and justice are unevenly balanced against us. The large-scale polluters whose CO2 emissions have fuelled these catastrophic climate changes bear a responsibility—an obligation of compensation to aid in our quest to build resilience,” he said.
“The Global North must honor its commitments, including the pivotal pledge of one hundred billion dollars in climate financing to assist with adaptation and mitigation as well as the effective capitalization and operationalization of the loss and damage fund. These are imperative investments in humanity, in justice, and in the equitable future of humanity.”
Urgent Support Needed from the International Community
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the gathering that the previous ten years have presented significant challenges to SIDS and hindered development. These include extreme weather events and the COVID-19 pandemic. He says SIDS, islands that are “exceptionally beautiful, exceptionally resilient, but exceptionally vulnerable,” need urgent support from the international community, led by the nations that are both responsible for the challenges they face and have the capacity to deal with them.
“The idea that an entire island state could become collateral damage for profiteering by the fossil fuel industry, or competition between major economies, is simply obscene,” the Secretary General said, adding, “Small Island Developing States have every right and reason to insist that developed economies fulfill their pledge to double adaptation financing by 2025. And we must hold them to this commitment as a bare minimum. Many SIDS desperately need adaptation measures to protect agriculture, fisheries, water resources and infrastructure from extreme climate impacts you did virtually nothing to create.”
Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS (ABAS)
The theme for SIDS4 is Charting the Course Toward Resilient Prosperity and the small islands have been praised for collective action in the face of crippling crises. Their voices were crucial to the establishment of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement.
Out of this conference will come the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS (ABAS). President of the UN General Assembly, Dennis Francis, says that programme of action will guide SIDS on a path to resilience and prosperity for the next decade.
“ The next ten years will be critical in making sustained concrete progress on the SIDS agenda – and we must make full use of this opportunity to supercharge our efforts around sustainability,” he said.
The SIDS4 conference grounds in Antigua and Barbuda will be a flurry of activity over the next four days. Apart from plenaries, there are over 170 side events hosted by youth, civil society organizations, non-governmental organizations, and universities, covering a range of issues from renewable energy to climate financing.
They have been reminded by Prime Minister Gaston Browne that this is a crucial juncture in the history of small island developing states, where “actions, or failure to act, will dictate the fate of SIDS and the legacy left for future generations.”
IPS UN Bureau Report
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Excerpt:
The once-in-a-decade SIDS Conference opened in Antigua and Barbuda today, with a clear message: the world already knows the challenges that SIDS face—now it’s time for action.
Categories: Africa
Impressionism Festival Taps Into Global Concerns
A still shot of Robert Wilson's Star and Stone: a kind of love...some say, picture by AM/SWAN
By SWAN
NORMANDY, France, May 27 2024 (IPS)
On a clear, chilly evening, the words of African American poet Maya Angelou filled the air in the centre of Rouen, as a vivid light show played across the façade of the French town’s imposing cathedral, and as a bright full moon rose in the sky.
Images of explosions, falling debris, a cheetah fleeing in the darkness – all sent a message that the world is in a precarious situation on many fronts and that urgent restorative action is needed.
Yet, along with the tangible sense of angst, the show seemed to call for hope, with the intoning of Angelou’s famous line: “But still, like dust, I’ll rise.”
The 25-minute projection, by Texas-born experimental theatre artist Robert Wilson, forms part of the massive Normandie Impressionniste festival, now in its 5th incarnation and this year celebrating the 150th anniversary of impressionism, the art movement that scandalized critics when it emerged in the late 1800s.
Running until Sept. 22, and with a head-spinning 150 events taking place throughout Normandy – the region most closely associated with famous impressionist artists such as Claude Monet – the festival comprises exhibitions, installations, theatre pieces, concerts, and other shows.
Running until Sept. 22, and with a head-spinning 150 events taking place throughout Normandy - the region most closely associated with famous impressionist artists such as Claude Monet - the festival comprises exhibitions, installations, theatre pieces, concerts, and other shows
It features both renowned and emerging artists, from across France as well as from countries including India, Japan, China, South Africa, the United States and Britain … all “in dialogue” with impressionism, and history, according to festival director Philippe Platel.
“We wish to show what’s happening now, to update the view of art, even as Normandy remains central,” Platel said in an interview.
The 1874 Paris exhibition that sparked the term impressionism (from the Monet painting Impression, soleil levant) was met mostly with disdain as conventional painters and critics opposed the breaking of academic rules. But the movement, with its focus on a different way of seeing and capturing light, would go on to have global impact.
Still, while the impressionists were seen as radicals, their first shows featured just one woman artist, Berthe Morisot. Now, the festival has made it a point to include almost as many contemporary women artists (47 percent) as men, said Platel – although it’s clear that the “blockbuster” exhibitions centre on male painters.
The Wilson / Angelou show, titled Star and Stone: a kind of love…some say” is presented as one of the highlights of the festival, and Platel emphasises that Angelou (who died in 2014) was an “immense feminist poet”.
Her words are transmitted in the original English and in French translation (read by French actress Isabelle Huppert), alongside music by composer Philip Glass. (Wilson and Glass have previously collaborated, most notably for the opera Einstein on the Beach.)
With its moving, intense images, Star and Stone evokes historical atrocities, including slavery and two world wars. It recalls the damage inflicted on Normandy during World War II, but it also reflects current brutal conflicts. (During the projection on May 22, a woman strode past, and, obviously angered by the visuals, or mistaking the show for a demonstration, shouted out the word “anti-Semitic” several times, to the apparent bafflement of spectators.)
Some of the projected scenes, especially against the full-moon backdrop on this particular night, conjured Monet’s iconic paintings of the Rouen Cathedral, works that themselves hang in an exhibition opening May 25 in Le Havre.
The harbour town, which saw entire neighbourhoods flattened in World War II bombardments, has over the past decades embarked on a cultural and architectural renaissance, and it hosts an impressive museum of modern art (MuMa) which is showcasing 19th-century photography in Normandy, as part of the festival.
Photographier en Normandie: 1840-1890 juxtaposes photographs and impressionist paintings, giving an idea of the medium’s development and the concerns of artists at the time: the rapidly changing landscapes caused by the industrial revolution, for instance.
It pulls together several iconic paintings of landmarks and the sea, while the photographs too capture marine scenes, daily life, and environmental transformations brought on by the building of railway lines during the 19th century. The show caters to both painting and photography buffs, or anyone interested in early picture-taking processes and their global impact, not least on artists.
Back in Rouen, another highlight of the festival is an exhibition by 86-year-old English artist David Hockney, who has been living and working in Normandy since the Covid-19 pandemic. His show Normandism at Rouen’s Musée des Beaux-Arts offers a different kind of impressionism, mixing pop art with the quality of light so important to his predecessors.
Here, vibrant greens, yellows and blues pull spectators into the landscapes for which rainy Normandy is famous, and the exhibition also features striking portraits as well as paintings that Hockney has created via iPads.
The latter record his individual technique and take viewers on a journey from the first line traced to the colourful completed work.
In the “dialogue” between contemporary artists and the impressionists, a main theme is water – the sea, ponds, rain – with echoes of climate change. In one standout show, Oliver Beer, a British painter and musician, reinterprets Monet’s famous Water Lilies series, transforming soundwaves into visual depiction on huge azure canvases.
In another, renowned French artist Marc Desgrandchamps incorporates human forms into his portrayal of water and landscapes, suggesting fragility as well as the need for environmental protection.
While these artists have consciously accepted the call to use impressionism in their shows, the impressionists themselves drew from others, especially from Japanese artists, whose work Monet collected. The festival highlights these international links with an exhibition set to begin June 22 in Deauville: Mondes flottants: du japonisme à l’art contemporain / Floating Worlds: from “Japonism” to Contemporary Art.
Meanwhile, Tokyo-born, France-based artist Reiji Hiramatsu will hold a solo show, Symphonie des Nymphéas / Water Lilies Symphony in Giverny, the town where Monet lived, painted and created his water gardens. The exhibition starting July 12 will comprise 14 screens, inspired by certain Monet works… which themselves were inspired by Japan.
Other international artists include Shanta Rao (Indian-French), with an exhibition titled Les yeux turbides / Turbid Eyes in the commune Grand Quevilly, where she invites viewers to see how objects change with light; and South African Bianca Bondi who uses mounds of salt to create luminous landscapes for a show in Le Havre.
With the emphasis on light and dialogue across the festival, the words of Maya Angelou almost seem to form a refrain, calling out from Rouen, to rebut oppression and exclusion: “Leaving behind nights of terror and fear / I rise / into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear“. –
Categories: Africa
'I just want what the white people have' - what happened to Cynthia's dream in South Africa
The BBC's Fergal Keane returns to South Africa to follow up on a woman's story that stuck with him for over 30 years.
Categories: Africa
'I just want what the white people have' - what happened to Cynthia's dream in South Africa
The BBC's Fergal Keane returns to South Africa to follow up on a woman's story that stuck with him for over 30 years.
Categories: Africa
CCTV reveals lion taking dog from family home
Jaci the rottweiler had been with the family for nearly two years and leaves her twin Laser behind.
Categories: Africa
CCTV reveals lion taking dog from family home
Jaci the rottweiler had been with the family for nearly two years and leaves her twin Laser behind.
Categories: Africa
Pomp and drama as deposed Nigerian emir returns to throne
Muhammadu Sanusi II is reinstated after being dethroned four years ago for "insubordination".
Categories: Africa
Basketball Africa League looks to boost women's game
The Basketball Africa League (BAL) is working with world governing body Fiba to nurture female talent and grow the sport on the continent.
Categories: Africa
International Court of Justice Orders Israel to Halt its Military Offensive in Rafah
Children in Rafah city queue to receive a bowl of food for their families from charity organizations, in Rafah, Gaza on May 3 2024. Credit: UNICEF
By IPS Correspondent
THE HAGUE, May 24 2024 (IPS)
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to immediately halt its military offense in Rafah.
“In conformity with obligations under the Genocide Convention, Israel must immediately halt its military offensive and any other action in the Rafah Governorate which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,” the court said in it’s revised order, which was passed by 13 votes to 2.
South Africa approached the court on May 10, 2024 for a modification of provisional measures as prescribed by the court.
The court also ordered that Israel must take effective measures to ensure the unimpeded access to the Gaza Strip of any commission of inquiry, fact-finding mission, or other investigative body mandated by competent organs of the United Nations to investigate allegations of genocide.
Israel was also ordered to ensure that humanitarian aid should be “unhindered provision at scale by all concerned of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance,” and that Israel should maintain open land crossing points, in particular the Rafah crossing.
The full order can be read here.
IPS UN Bureau Report
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Categories: Africa
World ignoring risk of Sudan genocide - UN expert
Sudan is facing a genocide as the world's attention is focused on Ukraine and Gaza, a UN expert warns.
Categories: Africa
US woos Kenya's Ruto with starry State Dinner
It is the first State Dinner at the White House for an African president in 16 years.
Categories: Africa
Kenya’s non-Nato ally status is crucial for regional security
Kenya is the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to enter the special military alliance with the US.
Categories: Africa
Slovakia PM Assassination Attempt Sparks Journalists’ Safety Fears
Media in Slovakia are under attack following the assassination attempt on Prime Minister Robert Fico.
By Ed Holt
BRATISLAVA, May 24 2024 (IPS)
Fears for the safety of journalists in Slovakia are growing in the wake of an assassination attempt on the country’s prime minister, which some politicians are blaming in part on local independent media.
Relations between some media and members of the governing coalition, led by Prime Minister Robert Fico’s Smer party, have become increasingly tense since the government came to power in October last year.
And immediately after Fico was shot and seriously injured on May 15, as he greeted members of the public after a government meeting, senior members of coalition parties linked the attack to critical coverage of Fico and accused outlets of spreading hate against him.
The 71-year-old man who shot the prime minister is thought to have had a political motive for his attack.
Since then, there have been calls from some other politicians and heads of media organizations to stop trying to apportion blame for the attack on any group so as to defuse tensions in society.
But senior figures from governing coalition parties have continued to attack the media for what they see as their role in fomenting anger towards the government and provoking the tragedy.
Journalists in Slovakia, and press freedom watchdogs, worry this is increasing the risk reporters could also become targets of a violent attack.
“Journalists are in no way responsible for this, and blaming them is only fueling the fires and increasing the likelihood of another violent incident,” Oliver Money-Kyrle, Head of European Advocacy and Programmes at the International Press Institute (IPI), told IPS.
For many years, Fico and his Smer party, who have been in power for much of the last 18 years in Slovakia, have publicly attacked individual media, and specific journalists in some cases, for their critical reporting of the various governments he has led.
When Jan Kuciak, a reporter investigating alleged corruption by people close to Fico’s government, and his fiancée, Martina Kusnirova, were murdered in 2018, critics said Fico’s rhetoric towards journalists had contributed to creating an atmosphere in society in which those behind the killings believed they could act with impunity.
Fico was forced to step down as PM not long after the murders, following massive public protests against his government.
But since returning to power, he and other members of the ruling coalition have repeatedly attacked journalists they see as critical of the government and his party has refused to communicate with certain newspapers and broadcasters.
The government has also pushed through legislation which media freedom organizations and members of the European Commission have warned could severely restrict independent media and press freedom.
Some journalists at major news outlets have been regularly receiving death threats and facing horrific online harassment for years, but others have said they have become increasingly worried for their safety in recent months, and that those concerns have been exacerbated now in the wake of Fico’s shooting.
Many believe that years of aggressive, derogatory rhetoric against them has made them a target for hate among some parts of a society with widespread distrust of media—a recent survey showed only 37 percent of Slovaks trust the media.
Since the assassination attempt, some newsrooms have taken extra security measures and the government has said it will also be providing extra protection for groups which could be facing an elevated safety risk, including media.
While this has been welcomed by media rights organizations, they have said politicians must take the lead in reducing tensions in society and lessening immediate safety risks for journalists.
“The way to de-escalate the situation is that political hate speech against media must stop,” Pavol Szalai, head of the EU/Balkans desk at RSF at Reporters Without Borders (RSF), told IPS.
In the immediate hours after the shooting, some ministers appeared to be pushing to calm the situation. At a press conference, Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok, appealed “to the public, to journalists and to all politicians to stop spreading hatred”.
Meanwhile, dozens of editors from print and broadcast media issued a joint statement publicly condemning the attack on the prime minister and calling for politicians and media to come together to calm tensions.
However, even days after the shooting, senior government figures continued to attack specific media or play down the seriousness of comments made by colleagues just after the shooting, including labelling media as “disgusting pigs”.
The Slovak government did not respond to questions on journalists’ safety from IPS.
But beyond putting journalists at increased risk, it is feared that the assassination attempt may also worsen what research has shown is significantly worsening media freedom in the country.
The government recently approved legislation – which is expected to be passed in parliament within weeks that will see the country’s public broadcaster, RTVS, completely overhauled and, critics say, effectively under control of the government.
Ominously, the leader of the governing coalition Slovak National Party (SNS), Andrej Danko, warned after Fico was shot that there would “be changes to the media” now.
And on May 19, speaking on the TA3 private news channel, he said he was planning to propose legislation that would set new regulations governing journalistic ethics, relations between journalists and politicians, and what politicians would be obliged to “put up with” from journalists.
Beata Balogova, Editor in Chief of the Sme daily newspaper, one of the news outlets in the country regularly criticized by government politicians, told international media that the government could now introduce “brutal measures against the media.”
Local journalists say any repressive measures would make an already difficult job even harder.
“I haven’t thought about how things could get more difficult for us to do our work in the future because it’s already very hard. It’s so difficult to gather news with political parties refusing to speak to us. [More restrictions] certainly wouldn’t make things easier,” Michaela Terenzani, an editor at Sme, told IPS.
She added, though, that it was difficult to predict what would happen in the coming days and weeks.
“At the moment, we are all just getting over the shock and trying to get on with our work as best we can. This is a major moment in Slovakia’s history and we will have to see what happens with relations between the media and politicians. Everyone is calling for calm, and I hope that is what we get,” she said.
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