IGIHE

Category: Politics

  • Gambia welcomes British FM for first time since independence

    {British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who in the past sparked fury over comments about Africans, arrives in The Gambia on a charm offensive Tuesday as its new government considers rejoining the Commonwealth.}

    Johnson is to meet President Adama Barrow and visit the British-funded Medical Research Council, his ministry said, resetting ties after years of tension with former president Yahya Jammeh.

    Jammeh frequently railed against Britain’s colonial rule of the tiny nation, and Johnson will be the first British foreign minister to visit since independence in 1965.

    Johnson has hailed the December elections that unseated Jammeh after 22 years in power in The Gambia, saying they “highlight the continuing strengthening of democracy in West Africa”.

    {{Formalize statements }}

    The visit will be his first to the continent as Britain’s top diplomat.

    The talks with the president are expected to formalise statements by Barrow during campaigning last year that The Gambia would resume its place in the Commonwealth group of former British colonies.

    Barrow worked as a security guard in Britain when he was younger and has made no secret of his wish to rekindle ties.

    The Gambia has also just notified the United Nations it will rejoin the International Criminal Court (ICC), reversing another controversial Jammeh move from last year.

    Johnson said ahead of the visit he was “very pleased that Gambia wants to rejoin the Commonwealth and we will ensure this happens in the coming months.”

    Jammeh withdrew his nation from the group in 2013, calling it “an extension of colonialism”, but Johnson has his own history of controversy with Britain’s former territories in Africa.

    {{Controversial comments }}

    In a news column published in 2002, Johnson characterised the Commonwealth as having “crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies,” to welcome Queen Elizabeth II, using a derogatory term for black people that caused outrage.

    He also parodied reaction to Tony Blair’s arrival in Congo saying that “the tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smiles to see the big white chief touch down”.

    The comments came back to haunt him when he ran for London mayor in 2008, and then again when he was named foreign secretary last year after Britain’s shock Brexit vote.

    Diplomatic sources have said Britain is likely to target justice reform as an area in which it can provide expertise to the new government.

    In a show of confidence in the Gambian tourist industry, which is dominated by British sunseekers, Johnson is taking a commercial flight to Banjul, and will also meet hoteliers.

    Tourists were flown out of the country en masse in January after Jammeh declared a state of emergency when he lost the election to Barrow but refused to stand down.

    On Wednesday morning, Johnson will head to Ghana to meet President Nana Akufo-Addo and visit the Blue Skies company, a juice-maker which has received financial support from Britain.

    British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

    Source:AFP

  • Burundi govt again refuses crisis talks with opposition

    {Violence erupted when President Pierre Nkurunziza decided to run for a third term in office in April 2015. At least 300,000 people have fled the country.}

    Mediator Benjamin Mkapa, a former Tanzanian president, has invited “a group of 33 key figures” comprising on one side the government and its allies, and on the other side, their opponents, an African diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.

    The talks are scheduled to take place Thursday through Saturday in the northern Tanzanian city of Arusha.

    Mkapa is hoping to finally tackle “substantive issues” at the core of the conflict, notably Nkurunziza’s third term, and the “creation of a national unity government”, the diplomat said.

    But the government refuses to sit down with members of the umbrella opposition group the National Council for the Restoration of Arusha Agreement and Rule of Law (CNARED) and a major civil society movement.

    “The CNARED is an organisation not recognised by Burundian law and which includes individuals sought by Burundian justice,” Willy Nyamitwe, presidential spokesman and also a member of the government delegation, told AFP.

    “It is therefore clear that inviting them to take part in any process of dialogue is an insult that cannot be accepted by the government,” he said.

    Nyamitwe added that the government peace delegation would refuse to engage with CNARED or UN mediator Jamal Benomar.

    It is not clear however whether the government intends to skip the talks altogether.

    The Burundi regime has previously described CNARED as a “terrorist organisation”.

    The CNARED said it would also not participate.

    However, it added that it would “send a delegation to Arusha to see Mkapa and go over one or two details before reaching a final decision on the matter,” one of its leaders told AFP on condition of anonymity.

    The so-called inter-Burundi dialogue has repeatedly run into snags and Tuesday’s statement by the government is only the latest glitch.

    In December, the opposition accused Mkapa of siding with the government by accepting it as “legitimate”.

    “I am in no position to determine the legitimacy of the government of Burundi. Elections were held, court cases were raised … and they all said this is a legitimate process which has come to a legitimate conclusion,” he said.

    Violence erupted in Burundi when President Pierre Nkurunziza (pictured) decided to run for a third term in office in April 2015, resulting in at least 300,000 people fleeing the country.

    Source:AFP

  • Sheikh Habimana presents credentials to Tunisian president

    {Sheikh Saleh Habimana has presented ambassadorial credentials to the president of Tunisia, Beji Caid Essebsi to represent Rwanda. }

    The ceremony took place yesterday where ambassador Habimana conveyed greetings from President Paul Kagame to his Tunisian counterpart highlighting the ambition of improving bilateral cooperation in the areas of education, agriculture and animal husbandry.

    Sheikh Habimana has told IGIHE that Tunisia has a lot to learn from Rwanda’s development 23 years after the latter experienced the 1994 genocide against Tutsi.

    Tunisia has a company, STEG International Services, distributing electricity in Rwanda where it has connected over 50,000 households in different districts.

    Sheikh Habimana also represents Rwanda in Egypt, Algeria and Libya.

    Sheikh Harerimana presenting credentials to Tunisian president.

  • The real and imagined crimes of Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh

    {The Gambia’s former president Yahya Jammeh wielded a potent mix of brute force and mysticism to keep citizens in a permanent state of fear, a legacy that lingers.}

    Whether a poor farmer or government minister, nobody could feel safe during Jammeh’s 22-year rule.

    Now, weeks after the paranoid autocrat was chased from power in the tiny nation almost entirely surrounded by Senegal, voices are being raised to demand justice, but the hurdles are many.

    They include pervasive superstition — including beliefs that Jammeh had supernatural powers — which for many citizens has blurred the lines between truth and fiction.

    Jammeh’s aura “made people scared of him, so people did exactly what he told them to do,” said Fabakary Ceesay, a journalist who went into exile after reporting on forced disappearances and rights abuses.

    Wild stories abounded during Jammeh’s tenure.

    Back in 2009, AFP spoke to victims of the poisoning of a thousand villagers with a herbal concoction so powerful that several died, after Jammeh alleged they had used witchcraft against his aunt. Some of them reported being raped.

    “People die in custody or during interrogations, it’s really common,” Jammeh told the magazine Jeune Afrique in May 2016 after the death of an opposition activist, Solo Sandeng, whom some allege was fed to his crocodiles.

    {{Violent supporters }}

    Jammeh faced down several coup attempts after he seized power in 1994. They fuelled his paranoia and by extension that of his people.

    As a result, in the later years of his rule he came to rely ever more on a close circle of fanatically violent supporters.

    His death squad, known as the Junglers, and the secret police of the National Intelligence Agency who reported directly to him, helped sow fear.

    The Junglers carried out “arbitrary arrests, detention, torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings,” the UN special rapporteur on torture wrote in a 2015 report.

    {{Unlawful detention }}

    Buba Sanyang, a prominent supporter of Jammeh’s Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction party, was among those arrested.

    “The last time I set my eyes on him was in April 2006 before I left the village,” his son Musa Sanyang said.

    Relatives at Serrekunda in Greater Banjul told Sanyang his father had been picked up by army officers and no reason was given for his detention.

    “We have searched for him everywhere, but the government continued insisting that he is not in their custody,” he said, calling on the new administration to deliver the answers his family has wanted for so long.

    {{Spiritualist practices }}

    But Jammeh also harnessed centuries-old beliefs, surrounding himself with “marabouts” — respected religious figures who combine Islam with spiritualist practices.

    After whipping up rallies into a frenzy, Jammeh would sometimes “heal” a young woman who had fainted nearby.

    In 2007, he declared he could cure HIV with herbal mixtures, later adding infertility and asthma to his list.

    Critics also blamed his alleged powers when terrible things happened.

    {{Guinean witchdoctors }}

    In January, the young son of newly elected president Adama Barrow died of dog bites, shortly after Barrow fled the country for his own safety while Jammeh reversed his acceptance of defeat at the polls.

    The dog was finally put down, but by then the suspicion of involvement by Jammeh or powerful Guinean witchdoctors he frequented had sent Banjul’s rumour mill into a frenzy.

    Before leaving for exile in Equatorial Guinea, Jammeh had a witchdoctor visit the presidential palace, Senegalese media reported.

    Rumours brewed that poisonous gas cylinders were left in vents. Though these have been quashed, Barrow is still running the country from a luxury hotel, his spokesman has confirmed.

    {{Rejoin ICC}}

    Bill Roberts, a US-based professor of anthropology, said that whatever people truly believed, fear led to a credulous public reaction.

    “I think there was a lot of scepticism among educated Gambians about Jammeh’s claims to heal people, but that scepticism could not be voiced publicly,” Roberts told AFP by email.

    “Other people believed him I think in part out of desperation for a ‘cure’ if they were afflicted, or fear of death from a disease they did not understand,” he added.

    Real or imagined, Jammeh’s abuses have fuelled desire for him to be held accountable.

    Barrow has promised to establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but also said The Gambia will rejoin the International Criminal Court after Jammeh pulled the country out last year.

    {{Keep possessions }}

    Some were angry when the UN and African political bodies stated that Jammeh would be treated with respect, allowed to return to The Gambia at any time and to keep “lawfully acquired” possessions.

    Since then, General Bora Colley, the head of a Gambian military commando unit, has been arrested in Senegal, and experts believe the government still has plenty of leeway to prosecute crimes such as torture, for which there is no amnesty in international law.

    “Jammeh could be prosecuted in Gambia, in another country or before an international court,” Reed Brody, a lawyer instrumental in the prosecution of Chadian dictator Hissene Habre, told AFP.

    The Gambia’s former president Yahya Jammeh.

    Source:AFP

  • Libya unity govt slams creation of rival ‘national guard’

    {Libya’s UN-backed unity government on Sunday slammed the creation by armed groups of a national guard rival to its own Presidential Guard in the capital Tripoli.}

    The Government of National Accord (GNA) said it considered the creation of the Libyan National Guard to be “an attempt to form a parallel body to the Presidential Guard” it has formed.

    “These groups and those supporting it are considered to be outlaws,” the GNA said in a statement.

    “And they will be treated as such by the security and judiciary bodies.”

    The GNA warned that the formation of a rival guard was an attempt “to lead the capital into bloody armed conflict.” On Thursday, armed groups mostly from the western city of Misrata, announced the creation of the Libyan National Guard” to continue the fight against Daesh, as well as to secure state institutions and diplomatic missions.

    But they did not say whether or not it would support the GNA, which has struggled to assert its authority across Libya since taking office in the capital last year.

    Local sources have said militias in the Libyan National Guard include backers of Khalifa Ghweil, leader of a self-proclaimed “Government of National Salvation” which has refused to recognize the GNA.

    A GNA source has said most of the groups involved in the Libyan National Guard had participated in a seven-month battle to retake the city of Sirte from Daesh last year.

    Misrata’s militias, which control much of western Libya, led the battle to retake the former Daesh bastion but say the GNA stopped backing them after Sirte fell in December.

    On Friday, the US said it had noted with “serious concern reports that numerous tactical vehicles from an organization claiming to be the Libyan National Guard have entered Tripoli.”

    Libya has been wracked by chaos since the 2011 toppling of dictator Muammar Qaddafi, with rival militias and administrations vying for control of the oil-rich country.
    A rival authority based in the country’s far east has also refused to recognize the GNA since it started working in Tripoli in March last year.

  • Mexico: Massive anti-Trump rallies staged across nation

    {Marches get under way in some 20 cities across country to protest US President Trump’s anti-Mexican rhetoric.}

    Mexicans have held massive protests against US President Donald Trump, hitting back at his anti-Mexican rhetoric and vows to make Mexico pay for a “big, beautiful” border wall between the two countries.

    Marches got under way on Sunday in some 20 cities across the country, including the capital, Mexico City, where thousands of people flooded a central avenue dressed in white and waving the red, white and green of the Mexican flag.

    Al Jazeera’s John Holman, reporting from Mexico City, said this was the first mass protest against Trump in the country.

    “It really marks the point in which the promises of his campaign – building a border wall that he expects Mexico to pay for, import tariffs of Mexican goods heading to the US and mass deportation of Mexican migrants – are starting to look like they could be a reality under President Donald Trump,” he said.

    “That’s really what the people here have gathered to denounce,” Holman said.

    When asked why she had decided to take part in the march, a protester told Al Jazeera: “Putting it in words, there’s this hate that he seems to have for us, when we’ve never done anything to the United States.”

    Dozens of universities, business associations and civic organisations backed the protest.

    “It is time we citizens combine forces and unite our voices to show our indignation and rejection of President Trump, while contributing to the search for concrete solutions,” said the coalition behind the marches.

    US-Mexican relations have plunged to their lowest point in decades since Trump took office on January 20.

    Trump, who launched his presidential campaign calling Mexican immigrants “criminals” and “rapists”, has infuriated the US’ southern neighbour.

    He also announced plans to stop illegal immigration by building a wall on the border and make Mexico pay for it.

    Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto cancelled a January 31 trip to Washington over Trump’s insistence that Mexico pay for the wall.

    Trump has also wrought havoc on the Mexican economy with his threats to terminate the country’s trade relationship with the US, blaming Mexico for the loss of jobs in the country.

    The Mexican peso has taken a beating nearly every time Trump insisted on renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), attacked carmakers and other companies that manufacture in Mexico, or vowed to slap steep tariffs on Mexican-made goods.

    ‘Mexico united will never be defeated’: Mexicans call for unity against Trump. No one’s been able to unite Mexico this way @NBCNews pic.twitter.com/cMp7iznDrD

    Mexico sends 80 percent of its exports to the US, nearly $300bn in goods in 2015.

    The confrontation has stoked patriotic pride in Mexico, where US companies like Starbucks, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s are the targets of boycott campaigns and many people have taken to putting the Mexican flag in their profile pictures on social media.

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Swiss voters accept new citizenship rules

    {Voters decide to make it easier for third-generation immigrants to become citizens, according to official results.}

    Swiss voters have approved a measure to make it easier for third-generation immigrants to become citizens, in a defeat for right-wing nationalists who carried out an anti-Islam campaign in the run-up to the vote.

    According to final official results, the “Yes” camp claimed 60 percent support and a victory in 19 of Switzerland’s 26 cantons, meeting the two criteria needed for a win.

    The government, as well as most politicians and political parties, supported the proposal that would allow the grandchildren of immigrants to skip several steps in the lengthy process.

    However, the far-right nationalist Swiss People’s Party (SVP), which controls the highest number of seats in the National Council, campaigned for “No” putting the issues of Islam and national identity at the centre of the debate.

    Reacting to the defeat, Jean-Luc Addor, SVP member of parliament, said his side was “alone against everyone in this campaign”.

    “The problem of Islam, I’m afraid, it will catch up with us in a few years,” he told RTS television.

    Nearly 60 percent of the eligible third-generation immigrants are Italians, followed by those with origins in the Balkans and Turkish nationals.

    {{Poster controversy}}

    As a part of the “No” campaign, a widely distributed poster showed a woman with shadowed eyes staring out from a black face veil with a tagline urging voters to reject “uncontrolled citizenship”.

    The SVP is not officially responsible for the poster.

    It was commissioned by the Committee Against Facilitated Citizenship, which has several SVP members, including some in leadership positions.

    The co-chairperson of that committee and an SVP politician, Jean-Luc Addor, urged people to vote “No” on grounds that in the coming years most third-generation immigrants will not be of European origin.

    “In one or two generations, who will these third-generation foreigners be?” he wrote in an opinion piece on the SVP website.

    “They will be born of the Arab Spring, they will be from sub-Saharan Africa, the Horn of Africa, Syria or Afghanistan,” said Addor, who has defended the niqab poster.

    Critics of the inflammatory campaign image have denounced it as a brazen appeal to those worried about more Muslims becoming Swiss.

    The SVP in 2009 successfully persuaded Swiss voters to approve a ban on new mosque minaret construction, while religiously charged messages have been a part of multiple referendums on immigration since.

    About 25,000 people in Switzerland qualify as third-generation immigrants

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Pro-Buhari rallies to hold in four cities

    {A coalition of pro-Buhari organisations on the platform of “Citizens Support for Good Governance in Nigeria” is mobilising for a week-long mass rallies in four cities in support of President Muhammadu Buhari.}

    The rallies, which are expected to hold between tomorrow and Friday in Abuja, Lagos, Kaduna and Kano, are tagged: “I Support President Buhari”.

    The convener, Comrade Moses Abdullahi, in a statement in Abuja yesterday, said the rallies are in response to the anti-Buhari rallies, which took place in Lagos and Abuja last week.

    The statement added: “As a people, we witnessed the systemic looting and raping of our collective resources and consciousness by a few, with far-reaching psychological damages, which has rendered us bitter, bruised, battered and hopeless.

    “Nigeria today is a nation undergoing rebirth, a people seeking a new path to higher attainment, a diverse community, where a new awakening of self-discovery can bring about a better economy for us all.”

    “We have a leader, who we know is different. We know he will not steal our resources. We know he will not sleep until things are made right for us and our children. We know he means well. What then must we do to help get it right faster?

    “We must support President Muhammadu Buhari because with him, it can only get better. Our economy today is in chaos not because of him, but because of the lies and deceit of 16 years he inherited. PMB is not out for quick fix measures, he is out to make sure the foundation of this change is well-laid such that even in the next 100 years, we will never suffer what we have gone through before today. The pains and agony of today are temporary.

    “If we rally round PMB and support him, we will ensure the enemies of our progress and agents of corruption (who only want thing to continue like before) will be shamed and exposed.”

    Source:The Nation

  • US moves to block Salam Fayyad as UN Libya envoy

    {United States says acting in the interests of Israel as it objects to appointment of former Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.}

    The United States has objected to the appointment of a former Palestinian prime minister to lead the United Nations political mission in Libya, saying it was doing so to support its ally Israel.

    US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said on Friday that her government “was disappointed” to learn UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres planned to appoint Salam Fayyad as the special representative.

    Fayyad served as the Palestinian Authority’s prime minister from 2007-2013.

    It was unclear whether the objection had ended Fayyad’s candidacy. The United States wields significant influence as one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

    “For too long, the UN has been unfairly biased in favour of the Palestinian Authority to the detriment of our allies in Israel,” Haley said. “Going forward, the United States will act, not just talk, in support of our allies.”

    Al Jazeera’s Rosiland Jordan, reporting from New York, said the “very strong statement” by the US ambassador had surprised many.

    “Fayyad is universally liked by many diplomats here at the UN, so there was a real sense that the letter coming from Guterres was nothing more than a formality and that his appointment would be announced as early as next week.”

    Palestine is a non-member observer state at the UN and its independence has been recognised by 137 of the 193 UN member nations.

    Haley, though, said the US does not recognise a Palestinian state “or support the signal” Fayyad’s appointment would send.

    In an interview with Al Jazeera, Ali Abunimah, cofounder of the Palestine-focused Electronic Intifada website, called the US move “bizarre”.

    “It is ironic because Fayyad was elevated by the Bush administration to the Palestinian Authority,” he said.

    Abunimah said Fayyad’s planned appointment to the post “had nothing to do with Palestine, the Palestinian Authority or Israel.”

    UN diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press news agency that Fayyad was well-respected for his work in reforming the Palestinian Authority and revitalising the Palestinian economy.

    Officials said Fayyad had the support of all 14 other Security Council members to succeed Martin Kobler, a German career diplomat who has served as the UN’s Libya envoy since late 2015.

    {{Difficult discussions}}

    The US protest came days before a planned meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump at the White House on February 15.

    “This is the beginning of a new era at the UN, an era where the US stands firmly behind Israel against any and all attempts to harm the Jewish State,” Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon said of the US decision.

    Trump, though, indicated in comments to an Israeli newspaper on Friday that there may still be difficult discussions with Netanyahu next week on Israel’s settlement expansion.

    The US president was quoted as saying that the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements did not help peace prospects.

    Israel’s settlements in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, have been declared illegal by the UN, and have been a stumbling block in talks.

    Fayyad was Palestinian Authority prime minister from 2007-2013

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • US court refuses to reinstate Trump’s Muslim ban

    {In setback to US president, appeals court declines to back ban on travellers from seven predominantly Muslim countries.}

    A federal appeals court has refused to reinstate US President Donald Trump’s ban on travellers from seven predominantly Muslim nations, dealing another blow to his young administration.

    In a unanimous decision, the panel of three judges from the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals declined on Thursday to block a lower-court ruling that suspended the ban and allowed previously barred travellers to enter the US.

    Shortly after the ruling, Trump responded furiously on Twitter, writing his response in capital letters.

    He told reporters his administration ultimately would win the case and dismissed the ruling as “political.”

    Trump’s January 27 order barred travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering for 90 days and all refugees for 120 days, except those from Syria, whom he would ban indefinitely. He said his directive was “done for the security of our nation, the security of our citizens.”

    District Judge James Robart in Seattle issued a temporary restraining order on the ban on February 4 after Washington and Minnesota states sued, prompting Trump to label him a “so-called judge”.

    The 9th Circuit judges noted that the states had raised serious allegations about religious discrimination.

    Asked about Trump’s tweet, Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson said: “We have seen him in court twice, and we’re two for two.”

    An appeal to the Supreme Court is possible.

    A point-by-point rebuttal

    In its ruling on Thursday, the 9th US Circuit rejected the administration’s claim that the court did not have the authority to review the president’s executive order.

    “There is no precedent to support this claimed unreviewability, which runs contrary to the fundamental structure of our constitutional democracy,” it said.

    Al Jazeera’s Rob Reynolds, reporting from San Francisco, said the court presented “a point-by-point rebuttal of the government’s case in the ruling”.

    Speaking to Al Jazeera, Melanie Sloan, a consultant and a longtime ethics monitor in Washington DC, said: “This tells the world that there is a significant portion of our country that is not behind this kind of thing at all.

    “We will work very, very hard to defeat this kind of discriminatory ban that really doesn’t help anybody.”

    Justice Robart’s ban order temporarily suspended the nation’s refugee programme and immigration from countries that the Trump administration says raise security concerns.

    Justice department lawyers appealed to the 9th US Circuit, arguing that the president has the constitutional power to restrict entry to the US and that the courts cannot second-guess his determination that such a step was needed to prevent terrorism.

    The states, however, said Trump’s travel ban harmed individuals, businesses and universities.

    Citing Trump’s campaign promise to stop Muslims from entering the US, they said the ban unconstitutionally blocked entry to people based on religion.

    Both sides faced tough questioning during an hour of arguments on Tuesday conducted by phone – an unusual step – and broadcast live on cable networks, newspaper websites and social media. It attracted a huge audience.

    The judges chipped away at the administration’s claim that the ban was motivated by “terrorism fears”, but they also challenged the states’ argument that it targeted Muslims.

    Sloan, the Washington DC-based ethics monitor, said: “It’s really wonderful. As an American I can be so proud of these folks and the image we want to project to the world.

    “I think you will see, going forward in the Trump administration, that often it will be lawyers and judges who will be on the forefront, stopping these abuses of power. Remember we are only in Week Three of the administration.”

    Judge Robert temporarily halted the ban after determining that the states were likely to win the case and had shown that the ban would restrict travel by their residents, damage their public universities and reduce their tax base.

    {{‘Thoughtful opinion’}}

    Robart put Trump’s executive order on hold while the lawsuit worked its way through the courts.

    After that ruling, the state department quickly said people from the seven countries – Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen – with valid visas could travel to the US.

    Commenting on the 9th Circuit decision, Noah Purcell, Washington state’s solicitor-general, described it as an “excellent, well-reasoned, careful, thoughtful opinion that seriously considered all the government’s arguments – and rejected them”.

    He said it is “important to recognise the real impact that this is already having on people’s lives. We have just been hearing from people all over the state and all of the country about what a difference this has made, and we’re so thrilled for that”.

    The Supreme Court has a vacancy, but there is no chance Trump’s nominee, Neil Gorsuch, will be confirmed in time to take part in any consideration of the ban.

    The ban was set to expire in 90 days, meaning it could run its course before the court would take up the issue.

    The US administration also could change the order, including changing its scope or duration.

    “We could go on for several more rounds … but presumably everything would be done very quickly, just as this has happened,” David Levine, a law professor at the University of California’s Hastings College in San Francisco, told Al Jazeera.

    “The US government has several choices. One is that they could go to the Supreme Court in Washington … to see if they can get a stay. The other thing they can do is try to and get a majority of judges in the 9th Circuit here to agree to review the ruling.

    The government has 14 days to ask the 9th Circuit to have a larger panel of judges review the decision “en banc,” or appeal directly to the Supreme Court, which will likely determine the case’s final outcome.

    During his campaign, Trump had promised to stop Muslims from entering the US

    Source:Al Jazeera