Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

{A new round of talks on the Syrian conflict led by Russia, Turkey and Iran were set to begin on February 15.}

Talks on the Syrian crisis involving Russia, Iran, and Turkey that were due to start in the Kazakh capital, Astana, on Wednesday have been delayed by one day, Kazakhstan’s foreign ministry said without explaining the reason for the delay.

“The negotiations have been moved to February 16 for technical reasons,” a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told AFP news agency by telephone without elaboration.

Syrian rebels cast doubt on Monday over whether they would attend the talks, accusing Russia of failing to get Damascus to comply fully with a ceasefire or take any confidence-building steps.

Kazakhstan, Moscow’s close political ally, said last week the two-day talks, to which the UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, had also been invited, would focus on consolidating the Syrian ceasefire.

A new round of UN-backed peace talks is due to begin in Geneva next.

The “closed format” negotiations come after representatives from Damascus and the armed opposition failed to make a breakthrough at indirect talks in the city in January.

The meeting, pushed by key regime-supporter Moscow, is viewed as a warm-up for UN-led negotiations on the protracted war that are due to begin in Geneva on February 23.

While Kazakh officials said they invited both the Syrian government and rebels for the new talks, several of the regime opponents who took part in the previous Astana talks told AFP that they have not received invitations.

Russia is sending Alexander Lavrentiev, presidential envoy, while Iran said it is dispatching Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Jaberi Ansari.

De Mistura said he would not participate personally in the latest Astana meeting but that his office would be represented by a “technical team”.

Jordan will also be represented by a “high-level delegation” government spokesman Mohamed Momani said.

The Astana initiative has left the West on the sidelines of the latest push to end the war in Syria that has claimed more than 300,000 lives since 2011.

Moscow has invited the United States to participate as an observer but the US Department of State has yet to confirm Washington will be involved.

Talks are likely to focus on bolstering a shaky ceasefire on the ground after Moscow, Tehran and Ankara agreed to establish a “mechanism” aimed at ensuring the truce.

The Geneva negotiations are expected to be wider-ranging, focussing on the key issues that divide the government and rebel sides, including the fate of President Bashar al-Assad.

Russia and Iran have helped turn the tables on the ground with their military backing for Assad, while Turkey has supported rebels fighting to oust the leader.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Residents allowed to return home but must remain vigilant and flee to high grounds if repairs do not hold, sheriff says.}

Nearly 200,000 Northern Californians who live downstream of the country’s tallest dam were allowed to return home on Tuesday after two nights of uncertainty, but they were warned they may have to again flee to higher ground on a moment’s notice if hastily made repairs to the battered structure do not hold.

The fixes could be put to their first test later this week with the first of a series of small storms forecast for the region.

But the real test is still to come in the weeks ahead when a record amount of snowfall melts in nearby mountains.

“There is the prospect that we could issue another evacuation order if the situation changes and the risk increases,” Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said Tuesday, telling residents they could return home but to remain vigilant.

Residents living below the Oroville Dam were suddenly ordered to evacuate Sunday afternoon after water authorities had assured them for nearly a week that the dam was sound despite a gaping and growing hole found in the structure’s main spillway.

The order came after authorities feared an earthen emergency spillway used when the lake behind the dam overflows its capacity appeared ready to fail Sunday because of erosion.

Over the weekend, the swollen lake spilled down the unpaved emergency spillway for nearly 40 hours, leaving it badly eroded.

{{Government failures}}

The problem occurred six days after engineers discovered a growing hole in the dam’s main concrete spillway.

State and federal officials ignored calls in 2005 from environmental groups to armor the earthen spillway in concrete to prevent erosion.

Federal regulators concluded the earthen spillway could handle a large amount of overflow after water agencies that would have had to pay for the upgrade argued it was unnecessary.

On Tuesday, John Garamendi, a Democrat who represents an area near Oroville, called the government’s failure to coat the spillway in concrete “a classic case of woulda, coulda, shoulda”.

He said that if the state had listened to the 2005 warnings and installed the concrete a decade ago, “this problem would not have occurred. But they didn’t, and there are probably multiple reasons why”, with cost a crucial one.

The California Department of Water Resources said the lake was ready to take on rain and melting snow. State water officials said they have drained enough of the lake behind Oroville Dam that the emergency spillway will not be needed to handle runoff from an approaching storm.

Forecasts call for 2 inches to 4 inches of rain and snow in the foothills and mountains starting Wednesday night. But the storm was looking colder than initially projected, meaning less rain and less runoff than last week’s storms.

Acting department chief Bill Croyle said 40 trucks have dumped 30 tonnes of bags loaded with sand, concrete blocks and boulders every hour into the damaged areas, while helicopters have dropped bags of rocks and cement blocks onto the problem sites.

The damaged main spillway has been stable for four days and handling a heavy flow of water, reducing the reservoir’s water level by 15 feet in preparation for coming rain and melting snow throughout the spring. Officials hope to drain the lake another 37 feet.

“We still have a large snowpack; we will see quite a spring runoff,” Croyle said.

Croyle said the goal is to keep the reservoir below capacity so the use of the auxiliary spillway wouldn’t be used. Still, Croyle said that spillway has been repaired and that he’s confident it could be used again if needed.

Preliminary estimates say permanently fixing the hole in the main spillway could cost $100 million to $200 million, Croyle said.

Experts are drawing up plans for repairs that will begin after the spring runoff season ends.

But after two days away from home, tens of thousands of evacuees were growing weary. They welcomed the news they could return home.

“You don’t appreciate home until it’s taken away from you,” said Margaret Johnston, 69, of Oroville, who spent two nights at a church with her two sons. She had packed a few blankets, pillows and clothes into a black garbage bag.

Returning residents vowed to heed the sheriff’s warning to remain vigilant.

Rod Remocal said he and his wife would now be ready to leave their Biggs home near the dam at a moment’s notice after fleeing in a rush Sunday.

“We’re all coming back and pack and be ready this time,” Remocal said. “This time we’re going to be on call like they said.”

Source:Al Jazeera

{State media says more than 800 people have been detained in operations carried out in 37 provinces.}

Turkish police have detained more than 800 people over alleged links to Kurdish fighters in nationwide operations, according to state media.

Police conducted simultaneous raids in 37 different provinces and taken 834 people into custody, state-run Anadolu Agency quoted police forces as saying on Tuesday.

Anadolu said authorities received intelligence that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) would escalate attacks after February 15, the day marking the 1999 capture of imprisoned PKK leader, Abdullah Ocalan.

Along with the suspects, two Kalashnikovs, 11 guns, 15 rifles and ammunition were seized, police said.

The operations come as Turks prepare to vote on April 16 on replacing the parliamentary system with the stronger presidency sought by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The referendum will be held under a state of emergency imposed after an attempted coup last July.

Tens of thousands of people have been arrested since the abortive coup over suspected ties to Fethullah Gulen, the US-based Muslim leader and businessman accused by Ankara of organising the coup.

{{HDP reaction}}

The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) said the raids aimed to weaken it.

“The basic goal of these operations … is to hold the referendum without the HDP,” a statement from its executive committee said.

Its statement, released before Tuesday’s arrests, said more than 300 of its members and executives had been detained on Monday, bringing those held this year to around 1,200.

A dozen of its MPs and tens of Kurdish mayors from a sister party have been jailed pending trial.

The government accuses the HDP, parliament’s second biggest opposition party, of being a political extension of the PKK.

The HDP denies direct links with the PKK and says it wants a peaceful settlement in Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast.

The PKK, designated a “terrorist” group by Turkey, the EU and the US, launched an armed struggle against the Turkish state in 1984 and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

A ceasefire between the PKK and the state broke down in July 2015 and thousands have been killed in the conflict since then.

Source:Al Jazeera