Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

{Instead of negotiating in separate rooms, opposition wants face-to-face meetings with officials at Geneva talks.}

Syria’s main opposition group has called for face-to-face discussions with government representatives, as a new round of talks in Geneva begins one year after meetings in the Swiss city fell apart.

“We ask for direct negotiations … It would save time and be proof of seriousness instead of negotiating in [separate] rooms,” Salem al-Meslet, spokesman for the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) umbrella group, told the AFP news agency.

The talks are set to begin on Thursday morning.

During three previous rounds of talks in Geneva last year, the two sides never sat down at the same table, instead leaving UN mediator Staffan de Mistura to shuttle between them.

De Mistura has played down expectations for major progress ahead of planned negotiations.

“Am I expecting a breakthrough? No, I am not expecting a breakthrough,” he told journalists at the UN headquarters on Wednesday, a day before the start of the fourth round of talks aimed at finding a political solution to Syria’s long-running conflict.

Though the Geneva talks are seen as the most serious diplomatic effort in months, disputes over the agenda and longstanding disagreements between the opposition and the government on the future of Syria have cast doubts on whether any progress will be achieved.

De Mistura said he was determined to maintain “a very pro-active momentum” to allow for political discussions on governance, a new constitution and elections under UN supervision, based on the UN Security Council Resolution 2254.

In recent days, however, the UN mediator has shied away from using the phrase “political transition” – a term the Syrian opposition equates with the removal of President Bashar al-Assad – to describe the goal of the talks.

During previous rounds of UN-led negotiations, the Syrian government categorically refused to discuss Assad’s fate – the main bone of contention between the two sides.

Opposition divisions

The intra-Syrian talks come on the heels of multilateral meetings – facilitated by Russia, Turkey and Iran – in the Kazakh capital of Astana to consolidate a fragile nationwide truce brokered by Russia and Turkey, in place since December 30.

The negotiations in Astana were meant to pave the way towards political negotiations in Geneva, but the ceasefire has steadily fallen apart over the past month, while promises to establish a monitoring mechanism were not fulfilled.

Officials from the opposition delegation, split between military and political representatives, similarly expressed little hope for the talks.

“When the adherence to the ceasefire is not there,” and when there are “games being played at the level of international terms of reference to political transition and a constitution […] then the negotiations are not encouraging,” Yehya al-Aridi, adviser to the High Negotiations Committee, the main opposition umbrella organisation, told Al Jazeera.

“Things are getting complicated further and further, with conflicting agendas. Not only from the main two banks of the conflict, but also within our bank,” he told Al Jazeera.

Infighting within rebel ranks has severely weakened and divided the Syrian opposition over the past month.

That, coupled with uncertainty surrounding US policy on Syria under President Donald Trump, a shift in the priorities of Turkey – traditionally a backer of Syrian rebel groups – and Russia’s 2015 military intervention in support of Assad, has left the opposition with little leverage both politically and militarily.

“There are no solutions in sight now. The reality on the ground is getting worse,” Fares Bayoush, a Free Syrian Army commander, told Al Jazeera.

Omar Kouch, a Syrian analyst, said that while the presence of a ceasefire makes this round of talks markedly different, “there are no indications that the fourth Geneva talks will be serious about finding a solution”.

Kouch said the chances for reaching a solution are slim, citing the continued government offensives on several areas across Syria, the absence of the dominant Syrian Kurdish faction – the Democratic Unity Party (PYD) – at the negotiating table and major divisions within the opposition.

“As in every round of talks, we start with a lot of hope to find a solution, but then the talks are over and nothing is accomplished. In fact, things get worse,” he told Al Jazeera.

With both sides seemingly unwilling to make political concessions, it is unclear how the negotiations could bridge the divide and find a solution.

Still, the Syrian opposition is expected to press for the consolidation of the ceasefire, the release of prisoners, the lifting the blockades over besieged areas and securing a political transition from Assad’s government.

“The main thing is that there is no submission. We are trying very hard, to decrease the losses,” said Aridi.

Source:Al Jazeera

{An estimated 140 structures in a Palestinian Bedouin village ordered demolished by the Israeli government.}

The United Nations has raised concerns over a newly announced demolition plan in a Palestinian Bedouin village in the occupied West Bank that threatens dozens of buildings including a primary school.

“This is unacceptable and it must stop,” Robert Piper, UN’s humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said on Wednesday.

Piper visited the village where the primary school is among 140 structures at risk of demolition.

“Khan al-Ahmar is one of the most vulnerable communities in the West Bank struggling to maintain a minimum standard of living in the face of intense pressure from the Israeli authorities to move,” he said in a statement.

Israeli officials have over the past week issued dozens of demolition orders threatening “nearly every structure” in a part of the village of Khan al-Ahmar, the UN said.

Israel said the buildings were built without permits.

The UN said such permits are all but impossible to obtain for Palestinians.

“In the past days construction termination warrants were served to illegal buildings in Khan al-Ahmar,” Israel’s defence ministry body responsible for the Palestinian territories said.

“The enforcement will take place in coordination with state directives and required legal certifications.”

Israel has occupied the West Bank for 50 years in violation of international law.

A number of traditionally nomadic Bedouin communities are based east of Jerusalem, where rights groups fear demolitions could eventually clear the way for more construction of illegal Israeli settlements.

This could partly divide the West Bank between north and south while further isolating the territory from Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians see as their future capital.

The UN said there are 46 communities in the central West Bank at risk of forcible transfer, ousting approximately 7,000 residents.

Israel frequently uses home demolitions to control and punish Palestinians living under its occupation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Since 1967, when Israel occupied the Palestinian territories, at least 48,000 Palestinian homes and housing structures have been demolished.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Police arrest 52-year-old French accused of molesting unaccompanied refugee minors after offering them food and shelter.}

Greek police say they have arrested a French cleric suspected of sexually abusing unaccompanied refugee children he had sheltered in his house in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-biggest city.

The 52-year-old man, who belongs to the Franciscan Church of France, allegedly molested four homeless Pakistani boys, aged 14 to 18.

The children, who had been sleeping rough around Thessaloniki’s main railway station, told police officials that they accepted to stay at the man’s home in January after he had offered to provide them with food and housing.

“When questioned, the children said they suffered repeated and persistent sexual abuse by the man,” a police spokeswoman told Al Jazeera on Wednesday.

“They say that he took advantage of the fact that they were homeless and without food to sexually abuse them.”

The alleged abuse came to light after the boys fled the man’s house and one of them found refuge in a Thessaloniki centre for vulnerable migrants.

There, he revealed the abuse to the centre’s staff, who then contacted police.

Following a search on Tuesday at the man’s house in the Toumba area of the northern city, police seized six hard drives and one USB stick, as well as dozens of drug tablets that fall under the Greek law on addictive substances.

Police on Wednesday said the French cleric, who has been living in Greece for 12 years, has been charged with sexual abuse and possession and use of drugs.

Three of the boys are currently staying in centres run by NGOs, while one is living at the Diabata refugee camp, according to police.

{{‘Entirely unprotected’}}

More than 62,000 refugees and migrants are currently stranded across Greece owing to a wave of European border closures and a controversial deal between the EU and Turkey in March 2016.

When the borders shut down last year, more than 2,500 children, many of whom had not been registered as unaccompanied, were trapped in Greece, according to Lora Pappa, the head of METAdrasi, a charity working with unaccompanied minors in the country.

“Currently, despite the big efforts that have taken place, more than 1,200 children remain trapped outside facilities in very difficult conditions – on the Greeks islands or in camps,” Pappa told Al Jazeera.

“Sad cases, like the one in Thessaloniki, happen when there is no system of checks in place,” she said.

For hundreds of vulnerable unaccompanied minors in Greece, life is full of risk and uncertainty.

Those who officially register with Greek authorities are taken by police. Despite being entitled to protection, they often find themselves facing prolonged arbitrary detention in custody and abusive treatment.

“This is very problematic … and often forces many of them to lie to authorities about their age to avoid staying in poor and degrading conditions,” Eva Cosse, Greece specialist at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera.

For these children, alone in a foreign country without a parent or an adult responsible for their care, sexual abuse is just one of the many dangers they face.

“These are children who are entirely unprotected. They sleep rough, lack access to education and are exposed to sexual abuse, human trafficking and black labour,” Cosse said.

“Greece needs to revise its entire system and services to protect unaccompanied migrant and asylum seeking children.”

Source:Al Jazeera

{Sinaloa state native Guadalupe Olivas Valencia threw himself to his death by jumping off a bridge, authorities say.}

A Mexican man has jumped off a bridge and killed himself just minutes after being deported from the United States.

Guadalupe Olivas Valencia, 44, on Wednesday threw himself to his death, authorities said.

With just a plastic bag of belongings in his hand, the Sinaloa state native jumped 30 metres off a bridge in view of the US border.

Witnesses said the man was in great distress after being sent back to Mexico for a third time, according to the AFP news agency.

Soon after being inaugurated president on January 20, President Donald Trump ordered action to begin construction of a wall along the nearly 2,000-mile-long (3,145km) US-Mexico border, a tightening of border security and tougher enforcement against undocumented immigrants inside the country.

His administration issued tough new orders on Tuesday to begin a sweeping crackdown on undocumented immigrants, putting nearly all of the country’s 11 million undocumented foreigners in target for deportation.

Two memos signed by the Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly make it easier for officials to automatically expel undocumented immigrants.

They order border patrol and immigration officers to deport as quickly as possible any undocumented immigrants they find, with only a few exceptions, principally children.

Kelly and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson are set to meet this week Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and other high level officials in Mexico.

Source:Al Jazeera