Category: Legal Judicial

Police shot a protester to death Wednesday in Eswatini, the latest casualty in months of demonstrations that have left more than a dozen people dead.

Agence France-Presse reported Wednesday that the man was killed during a clash between police and a group of commuter bus operators demonstrating for political reform in the small town of Malkerns.

“A man was shot at Malkerns after a group of protesters stopped a truck carrying sand and used it to block (a) road,” said William Tsintsibala Dlamini, the police commissioner general.

“Officers came with guns and tried to reason with them, but they retaliated by throwing stones at them, and that is when one of them was shot dead,” he told reporters.

Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, is Africa’s last absolute monarchy. The international community has criticized the country over the past few months for its use of excessive force against protesters. In June, at least 27 people were killed when civil society and opposition groups clashed with police during demonstrations in Manzini and Mbabane, the country’s largest cities.

For months, residents have been demanding political reforms in the small kingdom, specifically calling for the release of two pro-democracy lawmakers arrested during protests over the summer. Large protests in July demanded that the new prime minister be selected by the people instead of the king.

Earlier this week, soldiers and police were deployed to schools across the country, as many high school students have boycotted classes in conjunction with the protests.

Source: Voice of America

NAIROBI —

The International Court of Justice has drawn a maritime boundary between Kenya and Somalia after the countries failed for years to reach agreement on the issue.

The court’s ruling Tuesday, seen as favorable to Somalia, is almost certain to be rejected by Kenya. The ruling concerns about 100,000 square kilometers of Indian Ocean waters off the east coast of Kenya and Somalia.

The area, believed to hold oil and natural gas deposits, has been a source of dispute between the East African neighbors for years.

The court awarded Somalia the bulk of the territory, while adjusting the border slightly northward to address Kenya’s security and economic interests.

The ICJ rejected one of Kenya’s key arguments, that Somalia had previously agreed to a boundary, saying there was no proof to show that from the documents Kenyan lawyers supplied to the court.

The Hague-based court also rejected Somalia’s demand for compensation for Kenya’s past economic activity in the area.

Somalia filed a complaint against Kenya in the International Court of Justice in 2014, saying it had exhausted all other avenues of finding a solution to the dispute.

It remains to be seen if the ruling will have a real-world impact, as Kenya boycotted the hearing Tuesday and said it would not respect the ICJ verdict.

Source: Voice of America

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM), yesterday condemned the killing of illegal immigrants, in a detention centre in the Libyan capital Tripoli.

“IOM condemns Friday’s senseless killing and the use of live rounds, against migrants protesting the appalling conditions in detention,” IOM said in a statement.

Six were killed and at least 24 others injured at the Mabani detention centre, in Tripoli, when armed guards opened fire, following a riot and an attempted escape, IOM said.

However, the Libyan interior minister denied the six deaths, confirming that only one person was killed “accidentally, while leaving the centre.”

Libya has been suffering insecurity and chaos since the fall of the late leader, Muammar Gaddafi, in 2011, making the North African country a preferred point of departure for illegal immigrants, who want to cross the Mediterranean Sea to European shores.

The rescued and arrested ones live in overcrowded reception centres across Libya, despite repeated international calls to close the centres

Source: Nam News Netwok

TRIPOLI, LIBYA —

At least six migrants were shot dead at a Tripoli detention center on Friday, the head of the U.N. migration agency’s Libya mission said, as many reportedly escaped from the facility and others gathered in nearby streets.

Overcrowding triggered chaos at the Ghot Shaal center, with people sleeping in the open and different security forces present, said Federico Soda, the Libya mission head for the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

“Shooting started,” he said, adding that at least six people had been killed.

Libyan security forces have cracked down on migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers over the past week, detaining more than 5,000.

There are hundreds of thousands of migrants in Libya, some seeking to travel to Europe and others coming to work in the major oil exporter.

They routinely face violence in a country that has had little peace for a decade, with many held in detention centers that the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, said were crowded and unsanitary, and where Amnesty International on Friday said they face torture and sexual abuse.

Libya’s Government of National Unity was not immediately available for comment.

A decade of strife

The country has been in crisis since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising against Moammar Gadhafi, and much of it is controlled on the ground by local armed forces that operate independently of the government.

Numerous videos posted on social media on Friday, which Reuters could not immediately authenticate, showed dozens of people pouring through a gap in a fence, and larger numbers marching through Tripoli streets.

Two residents said they had seen large numbers of migrants running through the streets in that area.

Soda said security forces in Tripoli had detained at least 900 migrants later Friday, a group that likely included many of those who had fled the detention center.

A Reuters journalist who had seen dozens of migrants sitting on the floor surrounded by guards said that there was a very heavy security presence around the area and there had been sporadic sounds of shooting.

UNHCR said earlier on Friday that it was increasingly alarmed about the situation for migrants and refugees in Libya after more than 5,000 had been arrested in the recent crackdown.

“The raids, which also involved the demolition of many unfinished buildings and makeshift houses, have created widespread panic and fear among asylum-seekers and refugees in the capital,” it said in a statement.

On Monday U.N. investigators said abuses against migrants and refugees in Libya were “on a widespread scale … with a high level of organization and with the encouragement of the state … suggestive of crimes against humanity.”

Source: Voice of America

KIGALI, RWANDA —

An alleged participant in the 1994 Rwandan genocide faces a possible 30 years in prison after U.S. officials deported him to Kigali, where he was taken into custody after his arrival Thursday.

Oswald Rurangwa, 59, escorted by U.S. security officials, was deported to Rwanda on a private jet. U.S. Embassy officials received him at Kigali International Airport and immediately handed him over to Rwandan security staff. Rurangwa was handcuffed and led into a waiting Rwanda Investigation Bureau van.

Speaking to reporters at the airport, Rwanda Prosecution Authority spokesman Faustin Nkusi said Rurangwa was the head of Interahamwe militia in the Gisozi sector, a suburb of Kigali, during the genocide.

“He participated in many acts of the genocide, including planning meetings, joining mobs of attackers, and killing. He committed genocide crimes, complicity to genocide, inciting people to commit genocide, murder and extermination as a crime against humanity,” Nkusi said.

“We issued an arrest warrant against him in 2008, but this coincided with the Gacaca [court] ruling that had already been handed down to him. So, the U.S. judicial authorities deported him to serve his sentence here,” he added.

In 2007, a Gacaca, or Rwandan community court, tried Rurangwa in absentia, finding him guilty of genocide and sentencing him to 30 years behind bars.

U.S. attorney Charles Kambanda, who is familiar with the case and knowledgeable about legal affairs in Central Africa, said the U.S. had a different rationale for deporting Rurangwa.

“Oswald Rurangwa was sent to Rwanda purely on account of immigration fraud,” the New York state-based attorney told the VOA Central Africa Service. “This means he was deported, not extradited. ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] handed him over.”

According to the prosecution, Rurangwa fled Rwanda in 1994 for the Kibumba refugee camp in what was then Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo. He later moved to another camp, Kayindu, before applying for asylum in the United States in 1996.

Nkusi said Rwandan law permits Rurangwa to have his case retried.

“You have seen that he has been assigned an attorney,” Nkusi said, adding that Rurangwa would be informed of the earlier ruling and given a copy of his sentence. “He will also be informed about his right [of appeal] because even though he was sentenced in absentia, he has the right to have the case retried.”

Rurangwa was being taken to Mageragere prison, Nkusi said.

This story originated in VOA’s Central Africa Service. Geoffrey Mutagoma contributed from Washington.

Source: Voice of America

STOCKHOLM —

The Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who had lived under police protection since his 2007 sketch of the Prophet Muhammad with a dog’s body brought death threats, died from a traffic accident Sunday, Swedish news media reported.

The accident reportedly involved a truck colliding with a civilian police car in which Lars Vilks and his police protection were traveling, news media said.

The Swedish news agency TT said police had confirmed that Vilks, 75, was traveling in the car with two police officers. The newspaper Dagens Nyheter said the artist’s partner confirmed his death.

The cause of the accident was under investigation.

Vilks was largely unknown outside Sweden before his Muhammad drawing. At home, he was best known for building a sculpture made of driftwood in a nature reserve in southern Sweden without permission, triggering a lengthy legal battle. He was fined, but the seaside sculpture — a jumble of wood nailed together in chaotic fashion — draws tens of thousands of visitors a year.

Vilks’ life changed radically 13 years ago after he drew the sketch of Muhammad. Dogs are considered unclean by conservative Muslims, and Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.

Al-Qaida put a bounty on Vilks’ head. In 2010, two men tried to burn down his house in southern Sweden. Last year, a woman from Pennsylvania pleaded guilty in a plot to try to kill him.

Source: Voice of America

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed that Ethiopia has no legal right to expel seven U.N. humanitarian officials.

Guterres told the Ethiopian leader in a phone conversation Friday that the world body does not accept Ethiopia’s decision to expel the senior U.N. officials, according to U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq.

Haq said the U.N. Office of Legal Affairs sent a note to Ethiopia’s U.N. mission in New York on Friday stating the U.N.’s “longstanding legal position” that the action of declaring someone “persona non grata” does not apply to U.N. personnel.

Ethiopia announced the expulsion on Thursday, giving the U.N. officials 72 hours to leave.

In a tweet, Ethiopia’s ministry of foreign affairs said the seven were “meddling in the internal affairs of the country.”

.@mfaethiopia declared ”persona non grata” for seven individuals who have been working for some #UN humanitarian agencies in #Ethiopia for meddling in the internal affairs of the country. They must leave the country within the next 72 hrs. 30 September 2021 pic.twitter.com/IDHv6AD145

— MFA Ethiopia???? (@mfaethiopia) September 30, 2021

The tweet came amid growing pressure on the government over its deadly blockade of the Tigray region where children are reportedly starving to death. Ethiopia’s government has accused humanitarian workers of supporting the Tigray forces who have been fighting its soldiers and allied forces since November, a charge that aid workers deny.

Spokesperson Haq said the U.N. officials remained in the country. When asked by a reporter if the U.N. officials would leave Ethiopia by the end of 72 hours, Haq did not directly answer.

The U.N. officials include the deputy chief of the U.N. Office for Humanitarian Affairs and a representative of the U.N. Children’s Fund, UNICEF.

UNICEF said Friday the Ethiopian government’s decision to expel the U.N. officials from the country is “regrettable and alarming.”

Declaring its work “is more urgent than ever,” UNICEF said in a statement that children are bearing the brunt of the country’s worsening humanitarian crisis.

“We have full confidence in the teams working on the ground to save children’s lives, guided — as always — by the principles of impartiality, humanity, neutrality and independence. Our programs will continue,” UNICEF added, noting it has been present in the African nation for more than 60 years.

Conflict-induced hunger

The Ethiopian federal government has been engaged in an armed conflict with forces in the northern Tigray region for nearly one year. The government declared a unilateral cease-fire and withdrew its forces in June, but the conflict has continued to spill into the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar.

Of the 6 million people who live in Tigray, the U.N. says 5.2 million need some level of food assistance. More than 400,000 people are living in famine-like conditions, and another 1.8 million people are on the brink of famine.

“It is critically important that the humanitarian operation continues, and it does,” OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said Friday at a Geneva briefing, according to Reuters. “Until now there is no indication that [Ethiopia’s decision] stops the operation.”

U.N. human rights spokesperson Rupert Colville said at the briefing that the expulsion of the head of its reporting team was a “really grave step.”

On Wednesday, U.N. Humanitarian Chief Martin Griffiths said that after 11 months of conflict and three months of a de-facto government blockade, the humanitarian crisis in Tigray is spiraling out of control.

One hundred aid trucks are needed daily in the region, but in the past week, only 79 in total were allowed in, a U.N. spokesman said.

“Trucks carrying fuel and medical supplies still cannot enter into Tigray,” U.N. Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Wednesday. “Trucks are waiting in Semera, in Afar, to travel to Mekelle.”

The federal government headed by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, blames the rebels for blocking aid deliveries.

U.S. condemnation

“The U.S. government condemns in the strongest possible terms the government of Ethiopia’s unprecedented action to expel the leadership of all of the United Nations organizations involved in ongoing humanitarian operations,” White House spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters Thursday.

Earlier this month, U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order allowing the government to impose financial sanctions on those who prolong the Tigray conflict.

“We will not hesitate to use this or any other tool at our disposal to respond quickly and decisively to those who obstruct humanitarian assistance to people of Ethiopia,” Psaki said.

The U.N. Security Council held private talks Friday about Ethiopia’s decision as well as North Korea’s recent missile launches.

Kenya’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Martin Kimani, who took over as the Security Council president for October, told reporters Friday, “A number of members expressed very strong concerns” about both situations during Friday’s talks, but said no resolutions were passed on either matter.

Diplomatic sources told Reuters news agency that any aggressive action by the council on Ethiopia’s actions was unlikely because China and Russia long have maintained the Tigrayan conflict is an internal matter.

Source: Voice of America

OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO —

Burkina Faso on Friday suspended the Norwegian Refugee Council from conducting humanitarian aid work in the country, citing critical interviews given to the media, including VOA.

In a letter from Helene Marie Laurence Ilboudo-Marchal, minister for humanitarian affairs, the government cited interviews that NRC representatives had carried out with Voice of America and the French newspaper Le Monde as its reason for suspending the group’s activities.

The NRC said in a statement Friday that it was “working in dialogue with the government to address any concerns they may have in order to resume respectful and collaborative relations, and our humanitarian work.”

The NRC’s earlier interviews included claims that the government has been slow to register internally displaced people, citing a group of about 500 IDPs in the city of Ouahigouya who they said had been waiting weeks for registration and had not received aid.

The NRC also made a plea to the government to allow it to step in and assist with registration.

Government’s defense

In an exclusive interview with VOA this week, Bakouan Yipene Florent, a spokesperson for the ministry of humanitarian affairs, rejected the claims that the IDPs in Ouahigouya had not received aid.

He said that going back to the point of IDP registration, as soon as they arrived at the site in Ouahigouya on June 12, a team was deployed immediately and handled the enumeration process.

Florent noted that IDPs are registered only after they have been officially counted and some initial aid is provided, including food and $100 for each family.

He said the government had put in place a two-month plan for assistance for the group of IDPs.

When there’s an influx of IDPs, Florent said, they can’t be registered because traumatized people can’t immediately answer necessary questions. When the first assistance ends and there has been psychological support, registration can proceed, he said.

Conflict with extremists, bandits

There are 1.3 million IDPs in Burkina Faso, which has been embroiled in a six-year conflict with armed groups linked to Islamic State, al-Qaida and local bandits. The U.N. has called it the world’s fastest-growing humanitarian crisis.

Refugee advocacy groups have criticized the government recently because of a ban it placed on journalists visiting official IDP sites. The government said the ban was aimed at protecting the dignity of IDPs and the safety of journalists.

Daouda Diallo, of the Collective Against Impunity and the Stigmatization of Communities, a Burkinabe human rights group, criticized the suspension of the NRC in an interview with VOA. He said the decision showed a disregard for the fate of civilian populations that benefit from the NGO’s work.

The letter from the humanitarian minister said the country was doing its best to assist IDPs under difficult circumstances.

Source: Voice of America

ABUJA, NIGERIA —

Nigerian police have denied killing any members of a banned Shiite Muslim group during a gathering this week in the capital, Abuja.

The Islamic Movement of Nigeria said police on Tuesday shot and killed eight of its members as they marked the religious ritual of Arbaeen.

The Abuja police command denied the allegation in a statement Wednesday, saying operatives intervened during the Islamic Movement of Nigeria procession to prevent a breakdown of law and order.

The command said members of the IMN attacked security officers before officers shot tear gas into the air, arrested 57 of them, and seized petrol bombs and bags of stones.

An Abuja command spokesperson couldn’t be reached for a comment, but national police spokesperson Frank Mba backed the command’s statement on the matter.

Statement approved

“That statement is comprehensive enough, and it answers all questions. I am okay with that statement,” Mba said.

The IMN rejected claims by the police that its members attacked officers, however, and said it would file a lawsuit against authorities.

Spokesperson Abdullahi Muhammed Musa said it was IMN members who were attacked at the group’s procession to mark the religious ritual.

‘We have videos’

He said at least eight people were shot, while dozens of people scampering to safety were injured.

“Armed police and soldiers come out and attack unarmed, innocent citizens that are carrying out their religious activities, which is their constitutional right, but they’re denying that they didn’t kill anybody,” Musa said. “We have videos, we have people around that you can come and investigate.”

Muhammad Rufai was at the procession Tuesday. He said he heard gun\shots and saw bodies soon after.

“We saw these joint taskforce vehicles. I think they’re up to 20-something,” Rufai said. “They started shooting tear gas and bullets immediately, as at that time, I saw three persons that they shot down.”

The Shiite minority Muslim group in Nigeria has long complained of discrimination and repression.

IMN banned in 2019

Authorities banned the IMN in 2019 following violent clashes with security during protests to demand the release of their leader, Ibrahim Zakzaky.

Zakzaky and his wife had been detained since 2015 after a clash in which the army killed an estimated 350 Shiites.

In July, a Nigerian court acquitted the IMN leader of all criminal charges, and Zakzaky and his wife were released from prison.

Source: Voice Of America