Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

{More than 1,100 soldiers to be stationed in Orzysz, about 57km south of Russia’s Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad.}

Poland on Thursday welcomed the first US troops in a multinational force being posted across the Baltic region to counter potential threats from Russia.

More than 1,100 soldiers – 900 US troops as well as 150 British and 120 Romanians – are to be deployed in Orzysz, about 57km south of Russia’s Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad, where Moscow has stationed nuclear-capable missiles and an S-400 air missile defense system.

Three other formations are due to become operational by June across the region.

“Deploying of these troops to Poland is a clear demonstration of NATO’s unity and resolve and sends a clear message to any potential aggressor,” NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Curtis Scaparrotti, said at a welcoming ceremony for the first arrivals at Orzysz, 220km northeast of the capital Warsaw.

Poland, alarmed by Russia’s assertiveness on NATO’s eastern flank, has lobbied hard for the stationing of NATO troops on its soil, especially since Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Polish President Andrzej Duda called the deployment a historic moment “awaited for by generations”.

Russia vowed to take retaliatory measures in May 2016 if NATO deployed more battalions in Poland and the Baltic states, adding it would reinforce its western and southern flanks with new divisions.

Moscow has reacted angrily to the alliance’s military presence in countries that were once part of the Soviet Union and to exercises close to its borders.

Russia said it would install S-400 surface-to-air missiles and nuclear-capable Iskander systems in the exclave of Kaliningrad, in retaliation for the NATO deployment of its so-called “defence shield” in Eastern Europe.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Open letter from artists, poets and academics to PM accuses new law of seeking ‘to close democratic institutions’.}

A group comprising leading writers, poets and academics from across the world is calling for an investigation into a law that could shut the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest.

The bill is seen as part of a wider crackdown on dissent in Hungary.

Award-winning poet and translator George Szirtes, a Briton who was born in Hungary, published the open letter to Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, on April 10 – the day the law was signed.

By time of publishing early on Friday, more than 600 people – including the Irish novelist Colm Toibin, Indian poet K Sachidananda and Kurdish poet, translator and painter Choman Hardi – had signed the petition.

The law “reduces Europe”, the letter reads. “It weakens it. It takes it one step further to the edge of disintegration. It is vital to act quickly.

“We ask for a period of intensive fact-finding into the legality of the Hungarian government’s law … and its consequences for freedom of education, and for a process of mediation, bringing the parties together around the principle of European rule of law.”

The new rule bars institutions based outside the European Union from awarding Hungarian diplomas without a binding agreement between national governments.

{{Liberal graduate school}}

Universities will also be required to have a campus and faculties in their home country – although registered in the US, the CEU – a liberal graduate school of social sciences – does not have a campus there.

“We are deeply concerned about the passing of the disgraceful law intended to shut the CEU in Budapest.,” the signatories said. “The law, intended for this one specific purpose, is the latest step taken by [Orban] to close out democratic institutions in the country, including press, media and NGOs.”

CEU was founded by the Hungarian-born American magnate George Soros.

Tens of thousands took to the streets on April 10 in Budapest to protest the bill, signed by President Janos Ader, filling Kossuth Square outside parliament.

They called on Ader, from Orban’s rightwing, populist Fidesz party, to veto the legislation.

Organisers said up to 80,000 people took part in the rally, making it the largest anti-government protest in years.

The English-language CEU has 1,800 students from 100 countries and is ranked in the top 50 universities for political and international studies in the World University Rankings list.

{{‘Foreign agents’}}

Critics see the move as another attack by Orban on Soros, whom he accuses of seeking to meddle in politics and undermine Europe by promoting immigration into Europe.

Orban has alleged that nongovernmental organisations supported by Soros, including Transparency International, the corruption watchdog, and Hungarian Helsinki Committee, the rights-advocate, are “foreign agents” working against Hungarian interests.

A law expected to be passed in May would force NGOs getting more than 7.2 million forints ($24,500) a year from abroad to register with authorities.

On April 12, the EU threatened legal action in response to “recent developments” in Hungary.

Frans Timmermans, the first vice-president of the European Commission, said that the EC would also prepare a response to the Hungarian government’s “Let’s stop Brussels!” survey, which calls on citizens to answer questions relating to EU policies Orban decries.

As he invited Hungarians to participate in the survey, Orban wrote: “The borders must be protected, and the regulation of taxes, wages and public utility charges must also remain in our hands.”

Source:Al Jazeera

{Tributes flow in for first black woman to serve as a judge on New York’s highest court after unexplained death.}

Tributes were paid on Thursday to Sheila Abdus-Salaam, the first African-American woman to serve on New York’s highest court.

Police pulled Abdus-Salaam’s fully clothed body from the Hudson River on Wednesday, a day after she was reported missing. The 65-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene. No cause of death has been announced.

There were no signs a crime had been committed in her death, a police spokesman said on Thursday.

Law enforcement officials speaking on condition of anonymity told US media that investigators were treating the death as a suicide.

One of the officials said both the judge’s mother and brother had died in recent years around Easter, the brother by suicide.

Results of an autopsy conducted on Thursday were inconclusive.

“The cause and manner of death are pending further studies following today’s examination,” Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman for the city’s medical examiner, said in a statement.

Abdus-Salaam was widely reported to have been the country’s first female Muslim judge.

Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo hailed Abdus-Salaam as “a trailblazing jurist whose life in public service was in pursuit of a more fair and more just New York for all”.

“As the first African-American woman to be appointed to the state’s Court of Appeals, she was a pioneer,” Cuomo said. “Through her writings, her wisdom and her unshakable moral compass, she was a force for good whose legacy will be felt for years to come.”

‘Bright legal mind’

Chief Judge Janet DiFiore said her colleague will be “missed deeply”.

“Her personal warmth, uncompromising sense of fairness and bright legal mind were an inspiration to all of us who had the good fortune to know her,” DiFiore said.

Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said her example and work on civil rights issues were inspiring to women, Muslims, and African Americans.

“Her story was a story of success, empowerment and inspiration,” he said.

The president of the New York State Bar Association, Claire P Gutekunst, noted Abdus-Salaam grew up poor in a family of seven children in Washington, DC, and “rose to become one of the seven judges in New York’s highest court, where her intellect, judicial temperament and wisdom earned her wide respect”.

Abdus-Salaam graduated from Barnard College and received her law degree from Columbia Law School. She became a public defender in Brooklyn after law school, the New York Times said, representing people who could not afford lawyers.

She went on to serve as a lawyer for New York state government and city’s office of labour services.

In one of her first cases, she won an anti-discrimination suit for more than 30 female New York City bus drivers who had been denied promotions.

She held a series of judicial posts after being elected to a New York City judgeship in 1991.

On Twitter and Facebook, some social media users criticised what they called a muted reaction to Abdus-Salaam’s death, while others alleged foul play.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Security Council unanimously votes to replace 2004 mission with a smaller police-only force as stability emerges.}

The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Thursday to end its 13-year-long peacekeeping mission in Haiti and replace it with a smaller police.

The move signals the international community believes the impoverished Caribbean nation is stabilising after successful elections.

The peacekeeping mission – one of the longest-running in the world and known as MINUSTAH – has been dogged by controversy, including the introduction of cholera to the island by UN troops that killed thousands of Haitians, as well as sexual abuse claims against them.

The 15-member Security Council acknowledged the completion of Haiti’s presidential election, along with the inauguration of its new president, as a “major milestone towards stabilisation” in the Caribbean country.

“What we now need is a newly configured mission which is focused on the rule of law and human rights in Haiti,” British UN Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said.

“Peacekeepers do fantastic work but they are very expensive and they should be used only when needed,” Rycroft said.

The shutdown of the $346m mission, recommended by UN chief Antonio Guterres, comes as the United States looks to cut its funding of UN peacekeeping.

The US is the largest contributor paying 28.5 percent of the total budget.

Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York, said the decision to downsise may be because of American pressure to save money.

“The US has been demanding that the UN become leaner and meaner in its operation, and has at times threatened to withhold some of the massive funding that it gives the organisation,” Hanna said.

There are 2,342 UN troops in Haiti, who will withdraw over the coming six months.

The new mission will be established for an initial six months, from October 16, 2017 to April 15, 2018, and is projected to exit two years after its establishment. It will be a police force of about 1,000 personnel.

The 15-member Security Council acknowledged the completion of Haiti’s presidential election, along with the inauguration of its new president, as a “major milestone towards stabilisation” in the Caribbean country.

“What we now need is a newly configured mission which is focused on the rule of law and human rights in Haiti,” British UN Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said.

“Peacekeepers do fantastic work but they are very expensive and they should be used only when needed,” Rycroft said.

The shutdown of the $346m mission, recommended by UN chief Antonio Guterres, comes as the United States looks to cut its funding of UN peacekeeping.

The US is the largest contributor paying 28.5 percent of the total budget.

Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York, said the decision to downsise may be because of American pressure to save money.

“The US has been demanding that the UN become leaner and meaner in its operation, and has at times threatened to withhold some of the massive funding that it gives the organisation,” Hanna said.

There are 2,342 UN troops in Haiti, who will withdraw over the coming six months.

The new mission will be established for an initial six months, from October 16, 2017 to April 15, 2018, and is projected to exit two years after its establishment. It will be a police force of about 1,000 personnel.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Central Command says largest US non-nuclear bomb used in combat dropped on ISIL caves and bunkers in country’s east.}

The US has dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb it has ever used in combat in eastern Afghanistan on a series of caves used by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, according to the Pentagon.

The GBU-43 bomb was dropped on Thursday from a MC-130 aircraft in the Achin district of Nangarhar province, close to the border with Pakistan, said Adam Stump, a Pentagon spokesperson.

Also known as the “mother of all bombs”, the GBU-43 is a 9,797kg GPS-guided munition and was first tested in March 2003, just days before the start of the Iraq war.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the strike was designed to minimise the risk to Afghan and US forces conducting clearing operations in the area.

But the ultra-heavy explosive – equal to 11 tonnes of TNT with a blast radius of 1.6km on each side – could potentially cause many civilian casualties.

{{‘Towering flames’}}

The non-nuclear bomb killed at least 36 fighters and destroyed a deep tunnel complex of ISIL, Afghan officials said on Friday, ruling out any civilian casualties.

“As a result of the bombing, key Daesh [ISIL] hideouts and deep tunnel complex were destroyed and 36 IS fighters were killed,” the defence ministry said of the strike.

The bomb landed in the Momand Dara area of Achin district, according to Esmail Shinwari, the local governor.

“The explosion was the biggest I have ever seen. Towering flames engulfed the area,” Shinwari told AFP news agency.

General John Nicholson, the head of US and international forces in Afghanistan, said the bomb was used against caves and bunkers used by ISIL in Afghanistan, also known as ISIS-K.

“As ISIS-K losses have mounted, they are using IEDs, bunkers and tunnels to thicken their defence, he said.

“This is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of our offensive against ISIS-K”.

ISIL’s offshoot in Afghanistan, created in 2015, is also known as the Khorasan Province.

Mark Kimmitt, a retired brigadier-general in the US army and former deputy assistant secretary of defence, played down the use of the GBU-43, saying it is “just another tool the military has”.

“It allows us to go after deeply buried and hardened structures. It’s good use against tunnels and it’s also good use because it’s going to set off IEDs in the area,” he told Al Jazeera.

Kimmitt said it was not at all certain that “political authorities” were informed of the raid before it was carried out.

“Although the size of the bomb was a bit larger than normal, it was a routine military mission against a routine military target,” he said.

The White House would not confirm whether or not President Donald Trump had authorised the use of the bomb.

“Everybody knows exactly what happened and what I do is I authorise my military,” Trump told reporters.

“We have the greatest military in the world and they’ve done their job as usual. So, we have given them total authorisation.”

US officials say intelligence suggests ISIL is based overwhelmingly in Nangarhar and neighbouring Kunar province, among tens of thousands of civilians.

ISIL strength

Estimates of ISIL’s strength in Afghanistan vary.

US officials have said they believe the group has only 700 fighters, but Afghan officials estimate there are closer to 1,500 in the country.

Western and Afghan security officials believe fighters frequently switch allegiances between armed groups, making it difficult to know who is to blame for violence.

Peter Galbraith, a former US diplomat and former UN deputy special representative for Afghanistan, said ISIL would have to be targeted in different locations for the US military strategy to succeed.

“ISIL doesn’t concentrate its forces … so you have to target it in many different places,” he told Al Jazeera.

He said conditions for military operations in ISIL’s Syrian and Iraqi strongholds, Raqqa and Mosul, are different, as they are urban areas with civilian populations.

“A bomb of this magnitude could cause a lot of collateral damage,” Galbraith said.

“But when you’re using it in a remote, rural part of Nangarhar province in Afghanistan, you presumably can have some confidence that you’ll not have civilian casualties, or at least not many of them.”

Source:Al Jazeera