In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, New Zealand’s government is implementing a range of measures, including a travel ban on Russian officials and limiting diplomatic engagements.
Earlier today, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta condemned Russia’s actions and said she would provide another update later.
An adviser to Ukraine’s president said about 40 people had been killed so far amid Russia’s invasion with multiple air, land and sea attacks, according to Al Jazeera.
A Russian missile hits an unnamed city in Ukraine today. Image: Al Jazeera screenshot APR
Oleksii Arestovich, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s aide, also said that several dozen people had been wounded. He did not specify whether the casualties included civilians.
In a statement after 10.30pm, Mahuta and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern released a joint statement once again condemning Russia and calling on the country to cease its military operations in Ukraine.
“This is an unprovoked and unnecessary attack by Russia,” Ardern said. “By choosing to pursue this entirely avoidable path, an unthinkable number of innocent lives could be lost because of Russia’s decision.
“We call on Russia to do what is right and immediately cease military operations in Ukraine, and permanently withdraw to avoid a catastrophic and pointless loss of innocent life.”
International efforts disregarded
Mahuta said Russia had disregarded consistent international efforts for a diplomatic de-escalation of the Ukraine crisis and “they must now face the consequences of their decision to invade”.
New Zealand will introduce targeted a travel ban against Russian government officials and other individuals associated with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, prohibit the export of goods to Russian military and security forces, and suspend bilateral foreign ministry engagement until further notice.
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta … Russia “must now face the consequences of their decision to invade.” Image: Samuel Rillstone/RNZ
The travel ban will stop intended individuals from obtaining visas to enter or transit New Zealand.
The government said while exports from New Zealand under the now-prohibited category were extremely limited, a blanket ban removed the ability for exporters to apply for a permit, and sent a clear signal of support to Ukraine.
“Officials have been engaging with affected businesses about the possible economic and trade impacts a military conflict could have on them. Russia is our 27th largest export market, with dairy accounting for about of half of those exports,” Mahuta said.
“In applying these measures, New Zealand joins other members of the international community, in responding to this breach of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.”
The new sanctions are in addition to existing bans put in place following Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
Mahuta said she had also asked officials to give advice on how New Zealand could contribute to possible humanitarian response options, given “serious concerns” about the military conflict.
She said her “thoughts today are with the people in Ukraine impacted by this conflict”.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
A column of Russian armoured vehicles enters Ukraine territory today. Image: Al Jazeera screenshot APR
Authorities in Myanmar’s Sagaing and Tanintharyi regions have arrested dozens of people for allegedly joining a nationwide strike to protest the junta, in what observers say is part of a widening campaign of retribution against opponents of military rule.
Protesters gathered in cities across Myanmar on Tuesday as part of the “Six Twos Revolution” strike in a show of resistance despite the junta’s brutal crackdown on critics. Civilians joined monks in the streets displaying banners with the numbers to signify the continuation of mass strikes and demonstrations a year after a protest on Feb. 22, 2021, in which millions of people participated, three weeks after the military overthrew the country’s elected government.
During the strike, authorities in Sagaing and Tanintharyi arrested more than 60 people they say took part in the action, residents of the two regions told RFA’s Myanmar Service.
A spokesman for the Dawei District Strike Committee said police from Tanintharyi’s Launglone township donned riot gear to raid a shop in Thabyah village, arresting 34 youths celebrating a birthday before releasing 29 of them later Tuesday evening.
“Yesterday, at about 1:30 p.m., a friend from our group went to a birthday party at a restaurant in Thabyah village. Police raided the party and arrested him and others. All of them were around 18 years old,” the spokesman said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“They were not protesters or gathering for a protest. This shows how much the junta is worried about the people’s resistance.”
The spokesman said the five youths who remain in custody had been wearing black makeup on their faces and black T-shirts, similar to what participants in the Six Twos strike had worn Tuesday.
The 29 released were summoned to the Launglone police station on Wednesday morning and told to sign a pledge that they would refrain from “engaging in politics,” he said.
‘Torture’ in detention
In Sagaing’s Monywa township, where the military has faced strong resistance from anti-junta armed groups, authorities arrested 27 people on Tuesday for allegedly aiding members of the local prodemocracy People’s Defense Force (PDF) militia.
A resident of Monywa, who declined to be named for security reasons, told RFA that at least some of the 27 were “severely tortured” while in detention.
“According to one person who was released, most of the men were beaten, although the women were spared,” the resident said. “Some of the tortured could even face death.”
Photographs posted on social media, purportedly of the arrests in Monywa, showed a young man with a leg injury and severe facial injuries, although RFA could not independently verify their authenticity.
People Media — a news outlet said to have ties to military proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) — reported on Tuesday that “eight PDF members, 10 who provided financial support to the PDF, and nine PDF informants” from Monywa had been arrested.
Attempts by RFA to contact junta Deputy Information Minister Zaw Min Tun about the arrests went unanswered Wednesday.
Zeyar Lwin, a member of the University Students’ Union Alumni Force, told RFA that the impact of protests such as the Six Twos strike is significant and urged members of the public to remain vigilant while they are underway.
“The military arrests anyone they want whether they take part in protests or not,” he said. “Even people who remain in their own homes are targeted for arrest. These kinds of things will continue to happen for as long as we remain under a military dictatorship.”
Former railway department employees being evicted from state housing in the Kachin state capital Myitkyina, in an undated photo. Citizen journalist
Railway employee evictions
News of the arrests on Tuesday came as dozens of former railway department employees face eviction from state housing in the Kachin state capital Myitkyina for taking part in the nationwide anti-junta Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). They told RFA they are struggling to make ends meet after more than year of no pay.
The 80 former employees joined the CDM on Feb. 8, 2021, and were quickly removed from their positions, but had been allowed to remain with their families in state housing for nearly a year before being ordered to vacate the premises in mid-January this year.
A member of the group told RFA on Wednesday that many of the families left the state housing within a week, but others have been unable to secure a place to stay because they no longer earn regular wages.
“All staff who took part in the CDM find life difficult except for a few … and most are now poor,” the former employee said.
“When there is no regular income, we must take any job we can to feed our families. … At least we didn’t have to worry about accommodation while we tried to earn some money. But now that we have been evicted, we must worry about our housing as well.”
The former employee said that some of the evicted families are now renting houses in the city, while others had to return to their hometowns because they could not afford the cost of living. Among the evicted employees were senior staffers with health problems and at least two mothers with young children, he said.
Financial pressure
Another former employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the workers had received some financial support from the shadow National Unity Government (NUG) when the CDM was first launched, but dare not take any more because of the growing number of arrests.
Some 20 of the 80 former employees are now preparing to withdraw from the CDM because of the financial pressure, the source said.
“It is difficult to move out all of a sudden because they have no money and no place to live,” they said.
“It was very disturbing to see these [eviction] notices and we were constantly on edge. Sometimes we dared not sleep at home and stayed outside when we heard there might be arrests. We’d come back only when things calmed down.”
Sources close to the NUG said that the relevant shadow ministry is compiling a list of the evicted former railways department staffers and is undertaking measures to assist them with donations.
They counted more than 13,000 CDM staff members in Kachin state, based on figures dating from October 2021, and said former health workers and railways employees make up the majority.
The junta has cracked down on its opponents through attacks on peaceful protesters, arrests, and beatings and killings. The military regime has also attacked opposition strongholds with helicopter gunships, fighter jets, and troops that burn villages they accuse of supporting anti-junta militias.
As of Wednesday, more than 1,570 people had been killed since the coup and almost 12,300 arrested, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a human rights organization based in Mae Sot, Thailand.
Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.
North Korea has punished more than 10 military officials after they were caught in possession of “impure” video files–South Korean TV shows, Japanese porn and Hollywood films–as a crackdown on illegal foreign media shifted to focus on high-ranking men in uniform, military sources told RFA.
Though citizens of North Korea are forbidden to watch or listen to media from outside the country, foreign TV shows, music, and movies are smuggled in on easily concealable SD cards and USB flash drives. They are then distributed widely among the populace through the black market.
Nervous about all this exposure to outside information, Pyongyang in December 2020 passed the draconian Elimination of Reactionary Thought and Culture Law, which carries a maximum penalty of death for watching, keeping, or distributing media from capitalist countries, particularly from South Korea and the U.S.
To enforce the law, it tasked a strike force called Surveillance Bureau Group 109 with seeking out and arresting violators.
Many civilians caught by Group 109 over the past year have been sentenced to hard labor, life in prison, or even death, but now the strike force is turning its eyes on high-ranking military officials.
“Since the beginning of January, the General Political Bureau of the People’s Army started an intensive inspection on the use and possession of ‘impure’ video media,” a military source in the capital Pyongyang told RFA’s Korean Service Feb. 14.
“Some of the military officers were found to be in possession of impure videos after an inspection conducted by the 109 Joint Inspection Team, made up of members of the General Staff Department, the Ministry of Defense and the State Security Department, under the direction of the General Political Bureau,” said the source, who requested anonymity for security reasons.
The inspection targeted senior officers who own computers or have access to them as part of their duties, and those who have mobile phones, the source said.
“A member of the 109 Joint Inspection Team, to who I am close, said that about 10 officers who stored impure recordings and watched them from time to time have been punished, so the military command is getting nervous,” the source said.
“An official of a trading company directly under the Ministry of Defense was caught with three South Korean movies, 10 Japanese pornographic movies, and seven South Korean dramas, including ‘Crash Landing on You,’ and ‘Descendants of the Sun,’ and five American movies… he was punished after the inspection,” he said.
The two South Korean TV shows named by the source are of particular concern to North Korean authorities due to their subject matter. “Crash Landing on You” is about a South Korean woman who mistakenly crosses the border into North Korea and falls in love with a North Korean soldier, while the main protagonist of “Descendants of the Sun” is a South Korean Special Forces soldier.
The trade official was in a high position in the Ministry of Defense, and this was not the first time he had been caught with foreign media.
“Three years ago, they caught him with South Korean dramas, Japanese porn, and other foreign movies, but they generously forgave him. He was given clemency due to his outstanding performance in foreign trade for the ministry, but this time he will be severely punished in a military trial, with the new Elimination of Reactionary Thought and Culture law in effect,” the source said.
“The inspection also caught a military officer who was the adjutant to the general of the Ministry of Defense. He had three South Korean adult magazines and 20 South Korean superstitious materials on his laptop,” the source said.
The officer was put under the investigation by the Military Security Command of the Korean People’s Army, according to the source.
“His superior, a general, was even demoted and dismissed from his position. He is now in a lower-level combat unit.”
The crackdown’s turned its attention to senior military personnel after a whistleblower told the General Political Bureau that that there were banned videos among the entirety of the military command structure, a military source in the northwestern province of North Pyongan told RFA.
“During the inspection, a military officer working in the communication unit directly under the Command Information Bureau of the General Staff Department was caught with an SD card containing one South Korean movie, 27 South Korean dramas and 40 South Korean songs,” said the second source, who requested anonymity to speak freely.
“After they caught him, they began a large-scale inspection of the cellphones on senior unit officers under the Ministry of Defense and General Staff Department,” said the second source.
The military authorities were embarrassed and nervous after the inspection revealed many officers with impure videos at the higher-level units in Pyongyang, the second source said.
“In an internal directive, the General Political Bureau told all the political departments of each unit to take responsibility and cooperate with the 109 Joint Command,” the second source said.
“All units are nervous as they announce that the 109 Joint Command will begin random inspections… of all the units where someone was caught in the crackdown this time.”
An August 2019 Washington Post report documented how certain South Korean media are considered dangerous by North Korean authorities because they encourage people to escape. K-pop and American pop music has had an instrumental role in undermining North Korean propaganda, it said.
It also cited a survey of 200 North Korean escapees living in South Korea, in which 90 percent said they consumed foreign media while living in the North, with 75 percent saying they knew of someone who was punished for it.
More than 70 percent said they believed that accessing foreign media became more dangerous since Kim Jong Un took power in 2011, said the survey by South Korea’s Unification Media Group.
Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Myung Chul Lee.
Poland must investigate all allegations of harassment of human rights defenders, including media workers and interpreters, at the border with Belarus, and grant access to journalists and humanitarian workers to the border area ensuring that they can work freely and safely, UN human rights experts* said on 16 February 2022.
“I am receiving several reports of harassments from human rights defenders who assist migrants and document human rights violations against them at the Polish-Belarusian border, and I am deeply concerned at this practice,” said Mary Lawlor, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders.
Jakub Sypiański, a volunteer interpreter assisting migrants and asylum-seekers, was reportedly stopped by armed soldiers when driving home in November 2021. The soldiers, who were in an unmarked vehicle, did not identify themselves nor explain their actions. They forced open the car door, took the keys out of the ignition and tried pulling him out by his legs.
“Most of the migrants at the border do not speak Polish,” said Mary Lawlor. “Interpreters play a vital role in ensuring their human rights are protected both at the border and in immigration detention centres.”
At around the same time, armed soldiers reportedly harassed journalists covering the arrival of migrants and asylum seekers. Soldiers who did not identify themselves stopped, searched and handcuffed photojournalists Maciej Moskwa and Maciej Nabrdalik outside a military camp. The soldiers searched their equipment, scrutinising their photos, and documented their phone messages and incoming calls.
Journalists Olivia Kortas and Christoph Kürbel, along with two local Polish residents, were allegedly harassed by soldiers while filming a documentary about the human rights situation of migrants at the border.
“Reports that these journalists are being persecuted for documenting such human rights violations are appalling,” said Irene Khan, the Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression. “Their work is crucial for everyone’s access to information about the situation unfolding at the border. If they are not allowed to do their job, there are very serious consequences for the human rights of migrants”.
“Interpreters and journalists, along with medics, lawyers and others who peacefully work for the protection of human rights or who provide humanitarian aid, are human rights defenders, according to the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. Poland should bear this in mind and ensure that they are able to carry out their legitimate work in a safe and enabling environment and with full access to the border area,” said Lawlor.
The experts are in contact with the Polish authorities on the matter.
The experts’ call was endorsed by: Mr. Felipe González Morales, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, and Ms. Elina Steinerte (Chair-Rapporteur), Ms. Miriam Estrada-Castillo (Vice-Chair), Ms. Leigh Toomey, Mr. Mumba Malila, and Ms. Priya Gopalan, Working Group on arbitrary detention.
Google images of a country or region can offer a wealth of information about the people and cultures that live there. Some images accurately portray reality while others present camouflage, attempting to deceive or twist our perception.
From a marketing standpoint, it’s all about selling the national identity, brands and products.
When you type “West Papua” or “West Papua genocide” into Google Image search, you are immediately confronted with some of the grossest human rights violations on Earth.
Images of other Melanesian island countries, conversely, display pristine, exotic beauty, presenting them as an ideal vocational playground for first-world self-exhausted tourists.
West Papua is a region where its public image is produced and controlled by those who want West Papua to mould to and represent their modern, capitalist ideals.
On the one hand, we have images of West Papua representing a hidden heaven on earth, with majestic glaciers, mountains, lush lowlands, mangrove swamps along the coastline, and coral reefs with a rich biodiversity.
On the other hand, we see images of Indonesian soldiers torturing, killing, bombing, and destroying ancestral homelands; we see images of West Papuan freedom fighters in their jungles with modern machine guns, performing their cultural rituals while declaring war on the Indonesian military.
Freeport’s gigantic hole – a graveyard for Papuans At the centre of this tragic display of contradiction is the image of a giant gaping hole right in the middle of West Papua’s magnificent ancient glacier — a sacred home of local indigenous people.
The Grasberg mine in West Papua is the largest goldmine in the world and Indonesia’s biggest taxpayer. Image: Free West Papua.org
Local elders say that this hole has become “a graveyard for Papuans”.
This hole was created by the discovery of a strange-looking, greenish-black rock on Gunung Jayawijaya (Mount Carstensz) by Dutch geologist Jean Jacques Dozy in 1936.
It took some 20 years before the discovery was brought to the attention of American geologist Forbes Wilson in 1959, who was the vice-president of Freeport Minerals Company at the time.
From 1960 to 1969, the Papuan people lived through a century of great historical significance. It began with a sense of hope and optimism as the Dutch prepared Papuans for independence in 1961.
This independence dream was taken to New York in 1962, only to be abandoned at the mercy of the United Nations, and then to Indonesia in 1963.
The controversial UN sponsored “Act of Free Choice” in 1969, which Papuans called “Act of No Choice”, ultimately sealed the fate of Papuans’ independence dream within Indonesia. It may seem that the world and UN have forgotten Papua’s dream, but Papuans have never lost sight of it and continue to die for or because of it.
The US-based Freeport-McMoRan was given the green light to begin digging this hole behind the scenes during that decade, during which Papua’s fate was controlled by world leaders in their cruel puppet show. For the newly created state of Indonesia, this was an economic blessing, but for Papuans it was a death sentence.
Over the past 60 years, this hole has taken the lives of many Papuan mothers, fathers, and children, creating an endless world of grief and mourning.
Papuans not happy, says Governor Enembe
It was these decade-old wounds and grievances that caused Governor Lukas Enembe, the current governor of Papua’s province, to erupt on February 7, 2022.
“Papuans are not happy. Papuans are not happy in all of Papua. Papuans are the most unhappy people on earth. You take note of that,” he said in a recent video posted by senior journalist Andreas Harsono on his Twitter account.
Gubernur Lukas Enembe: Kehidupan orang Papua tidak bahagia. Orang Papua tidak happy di seluruh Papua. Intan Jaya menangis, Puncak menangis, Nduga menangis, Pegunungan Bintang menangis dan Maybrat menangis. Orang tidak hidup aman di negeri kita sendiri https://t.co/VOsuJNOkpepic.twitter.com/HvTVYo5yXx
Papuan Governor Lukas Enembe in the middle: Twitter image
The governor also said that some areas such as Intan Jaya, Nduga, and Star Mountains “cry” with the harsh conditions experienced by the Papuan people.
“Papuans do not live in happiness. Intan Jaya is crying, Puncak is crying, Nduga is crying, The Stars Mountains are crying, and Maybrat is crying. People are crying. People [Papuans] do not live safely in our own country. We were not born for that,” he said.
“We want to live happily. We want to live and enjoy happiness. Papuans have to live happily, that’s the main thing,” Governor Enembe said in a statement he made in a speech circulated on a video on Tuesday, February 8, 2022.
These areas, where the governor is referring to, are among the most militarised in West Papua.
Victor Yeimo, a prominent Papuan, said that over the past three years, Jakarta had sent 21,369 troops to West Papua, some of them referred to as “Satan Troops”, as reported by Arnold Belau on Asia-Pacific Report.
Sadly, this overwhelming military presence in West Papua is not a new phenomenon. Indonesia has been sending military troops equipped with western-made and supplied war machines since 1963.
The West Papua National Liberation Army of Free Papua Movement (OPM-TPNPB) is actively engaged in an ongoing war with Indonesian forces, which is being ignored by the international media.
The grace of Papuan mothers
In spite of the tragedies, grievances and the haunting images that Google displays, one story is rarely shown — The story of Papuan mothers. They are known for their resilience, courage, and indomitable will to live and work, despite the odds being stacked against them.
They are hard-working, compassionate, and strong — the backbone of Papuan society. They sacrifice everything to send their children to school and welcome foreigners with open arms.
There was a recent Tiktok video clip circulating in West Papua and Indonesia which received thousands of views and comments. The video footage featured a young Indonesian migrant weeping while singing in Papuan, the language of the Lani people of the highlands. Her name is Julitha Mathelda Wacano. She works in Tolikara, one of the newly created regions in the highlands of West Papua.
The young Indonesian woman singing in the local Papuan language of the Lani people. Video: Tiktok
The following lines are translations of what she wrote on the video below:
I cannot hold this song anymore.
I am a migrant, my hair is straight,
my skin is white, but in Tolikara,
after I return home from office,
food is already prepared on the table.
Who cooks this?” she asks. Then she replied “Mama gunung dorang…” meaning the “mothers from the mountains”.
Julitha Mathelda Wacano
The emotional video depicts the experience of a young Indonesian migrant girl being cared for by people deemed “enemies” by the state in some of the most demonised and militarised areas in Indonesia, due to constant negative representation in media coverage.
She opened a window to the world of Papuan mothers, for others to see the kindness of Papuans in the face of a society segregated by racism and caste.
The video of Julitha singing in the local Lani language has received more than 1500 comments, many of which share their own experiences of the goodness of the Papuan people. Many praise the love and kindness of Papuans, while others praised God and Allah for her story.
Papuan mothers still face so many challenges
Despite their unwavering love for others, Papuan mothers struggle to compete with the might of migrant economic dominance and their modern entrepreneurial skills.
In the eyes of Indonesians, Papuans do not produce anything of value to be traded or sold on either the national, regional, or global market.
Most Papuans produce fresh food, which has its own value and merit for those seeking a healthy lifestyle.
Papuan mothers spend their days sitting in the rain, in the dirt, alongside busy dusty roads. Meanwhile, migrants sell their imported products and gadgets in high-rise buildings, malls, kiosks, and shops, with comfort and convenience.
At sunset and sometimes into the night, if the mothers don’t sell their produce, they have no place to store it — no cool room or freezer– so they either give it away or take it home to be eaten. They have to start it all over again the next morning.
Many of these mothers are torn between taking care of their children, attending constant funeral services for family members, and finding money to send their children to school to participate in the education system that fails them and demonises their identity at every turn.
All roads lead to Rome – West Papua economics
A total of Rp 126.99 trillion (more than US$20 billion) has been distributed to the provinces of Papua and West Papua since Jakarta passed the so-called Special Autonomy Law in 2021. The details of how this figure was distributed throughout the period 2002-2020 are summarized here by Muhammad Idris and Muhammad Idris on compass.com.
Fiscal figure of this type, or any reports provided by those who seek to promote the state’s interests, can be difficult to verify independently, owing to the nature of the mechanism in place by Jakarta to carry out its settler colonial activities on Papuan Indigenous lands. Nevertheless, this type of report gives us some rough insight into what goes on in the region.
Despite such an amount, the poverty rate in these two provinces is nearly three times higher than the national average. Infant, child, and maternal mortality rates are among the highest, and health services and literacy rates are among the lowest in Indonesia.
There is an “all roads lead to Rome” economic system operating in West Papua, to which no matter how much money Jakarta gives to Papuans, it will all end up back in Jakarta, with migrants, security forces, foreign companies, misfits and opportunists.
Unfortunately, Papuan mothers’ hard-earned money ends up in the same hands that control and maintain this brutal settler colonial system.
A mama-mama Papua (market for Papuan mothers) in Jayapura. Image: bumipapua.com
As part of the efforts to empower Papuan mothers, President Jokowi in 2018 toured the five-story building which he ordered to be constructed two years earlier in Jayapura, the capital city.
As it was dedicated to Papuan mothers, it was named “Pasar mama-mama Papua” (Market for Papuan mothers).
The building can accommodate up to 300 traders. Each floor has been allocated for “mama mama Papua” to sell their produce and to display cultural artifacts. The building also houses a school for Papuan children to learn.
Papuan mothers have unimaginable willpower and determination to compete with Indonesian settlers, who have almost total control of the economic system in West Papua.
Their lives and work are shaped by the realities of constant violence and inequality in one of the most heavily militarised regions in the world.
No matter what the odds are, Papuan mothers overcome them with grace and compassion.
This sacred power broke the heart of that young Indonesian woman living in the highlands of the Lani people.
Papuan mothers and their international students
Unfortunately, the majority of Papuan international students whose scholarship funds were threatened to be cut by President Jokowi’s administration are the sons or daughters of these mama-mama Papua.
The students who are now spread across different continents and countries, from North America, Russia, Asia, Europe and Oceania, have united under the name International Alliance of Papuan Student Associations Overseas (IAPSAO) and strongly condemn any slight alteration in the scholarship package that would have a crippling effect on their education.
Some of the West Papuan students in Aotearoa New Zealand pictured with Papua provincial Governor Lukas Enembe (front centre) during his visit in 2019. Image: APR
These students overcome so many obstacles, from connecting to the right people within the brutal system, to leaving home, learning new languages, and adjusting to a new cultural system.
The constant loss of their family members back home takes a heavy toll on their studies.
Ali Mirin is one such student who is pursuing a master’s degree in International Relations at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia.
Mirin came from the Kimyal tribe of Yahukimo region of West Papua. He came to Australia on a student visa in 2019 to study at Monash University in Melbourne but struggled to meet the English requirements.
The university placed him in an English language course before enrolling him in a master’s programme. In the end, he was trapped between international student agencies such as International Development Programme (IDP), university and immigration departments since his two-year required study visa had almost run out, though he had yet to complete his master’s degree.
It was not clear to them why he was not in a master’s programme, but he was struggling to make sense of all the information he was receiving from these various parties.
The combination of covid-19 lockdown, passing of family members in West Papua, frustration with adjusting into a new culture, along with inconsistency in scholarship funds nearly cost everything that his mother worked for to help him achieve this level of education.
Additionally, he had to find a part-time job in Melbourne just to survive and pay rent, which nearly led to his study visa being revoked.
Ali Mirin at Flinders University, Adelide … “tip of the iceberg in terms of the challenges faced by Papuan students.” Image: YK
Mirin’s case is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the challenges faced by Papuan students studying overseas. Almost all Papuan students have dramatic and traumatic stories to share about the obstacles they faced just to receive a scholarship, let alone the difficulties of studying abroad.
Studying in first world industrialised countries like USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and Germany requires tremendous amounts of money, which the parents of these students will likely never be able to afford in their lifetime.
The governor knows and understands what it is like to be Papuan (especially from the highlands) and study in Indonesia, let alone overseas.
With all these tragic circumstances Papuans have endured for decades, when the Jakarta government withdraws scholarship funds or changes its policies, Papuan students are shattered.
Papuan mothers, who Jokowi calls “mama-mama”, are the ones most affected by the news of deported or failed Papuan students who are studying abroad.
A new policy needs new minds and hearts in Jakarta
The central government in Jakarta should listen to what students have to say as they clearly stated in Asia Pacific Report on January 27.
Indigenous Papuan representatives should oversee Indonesian and foreign agents and agencies that deal with students’ affairs. Because as long as they are not Papuan, whether Indonesian, American, Australian, or British, it will be difficult for them to fully comprehend the mental trauma and cultural issues that each of the students suffer due to the conditions at home.
Papuan students fail their studies or struggle with them, not because they are unintelligent, but because they are deeply traumatised by the abuse and persecution that their families endure at home.
Most of these result from decades of violence, torture, and denigration of their human value under Indonesia’s settler colonial system in their own homeland.
Whatever the number of expert reports on success and failure stories of education in West Papua, if students’ deepest issues are not being listened to or understood, how can we help them or hope to change things for the better?
The politicisation of these students will continue to cloud Jakarta’s judgment about West Papua as it has for 60 years. Elites in Jakarta forget that these people have no agenda to colonise the island of Java, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Ukraine or build nuclear weapons.
They simply want to live peacefully in their own land and pursue their education.
Jakarta’s policies in West Papua are largely influenced by fear, and worst of all, wrong ideas and misguided judgments. They should be more concerned about a potential global nuclear war between the Western Empire and its allies, and the emerging Chinese-led eastern empire, which poses an existential threat to everyone and everything on this planet.
Indonesians target the wrong people and attack the wrong places — West Papua is not your enemy.
Images of ‘Wonderful Indonesia; and West Papua torture
I wonder if Jakarta searched images of West Papua on Google if they would like what they see. Would they see the truth — the horror, torture, abuse, murder, and exploitation of Papuans at their own hands?
Or would they see their ideals reflected back to them, the current state of terrorism that they manufactured in stolen lands.
These images do not represent the true nature of West Papua and its people, it is Indonesia that is reflected in these images.
Indonesia’s famous national promotional image of “wonderful Indonesia” that has been marketed throughout the world can be best authenticated when it uses the situation in West Papua as a mirror in which to see what Indonesia really is.
Wonderful Indonesia … The programme promoting Indonesia as a country “blessed with countless wonders”. Image: Wonderful WI screenshot PMC.
This hallmark of Jakarta’s nation-building image of Indonesia, which has been marketed around the world, can be best comprehended when it uses West Papua’s reality as a mirror to show the reality of Indonesia. In any case,
It may represent Bali or Java, but for West Papua it is just an elaborate ploy to deceive people about the terror image they have been projecting in the region.
Yamin Kogoya is a West Papuan academic who has a Master of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development from the Australian National University and who contributes to Asia Pacific Report. From the Lani tribe in the Papuan Highlands, he is currently living in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
On December 30, New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade published a tweet condemning the forced closure of two Russian human rights groups, International Memorial and the Memorial Human Rights Centre.
The groups were shut down by the Russian Supreme Court which was enforcing strict laws relating to dealings with “foreign agents”.
In releasing the tweet, the government urged Russia to “live up to its civil and political rights commitments”.
Our government has also been speaking out against human rights abuses in China against the Uighur people, to the extent of facilitating a parliamentary motion condemning the cruel policies of the Chinese government.
Compare the criticism of Russia and China with MFAT’s reaction to Israel’s outrageous attacks on Palestinian human rights groups last October when it declared six of them to be “terrorist” organisations.
The targeted groups (Bisan, Al-Haq, Addameer, Defence for Children International-Palestine, the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees) typically challenge human rights violations by the Palestinian Authority as well as Israel, both of which routinely detain Palestinian activists.
Israel’s “terrorist” claim against these groups was a blatant attempt to undermine some of the most effective Palestinian civil society organisations, stifle their collective voices, and cut their sources of funding.
Not a peep from MFAT
But not a peep from MFAT. No tweets, no public statements, nothing.
When our Foreign Minister is asked about these things her officials say the government is “very concerned” about developments in the Middle East and “keeping a close watch” on the situation. They say they regularly raise human rights concerns with the Israeli ambassador in meetings with officials.
Heaven only knows what goes on in those meetings but if all human rights abuses by Israel against the Palestinian people were discussed, the Israeli ambassador would be in permanent residence at MFAT.
MFAT gives similar responses when massive human rights abuses are perpetrated against the people of West Papua by the Indonesian Army, which has occupied the territory since 1962. These are discussed behind closed doors, if they are raised at all, with Indonesian officials.
So what’s the difference that results in the Russian and Chinese governments being castigated for human rights abuses but for countries like Indonesia and Israel, there is minimal, if any, public comment?
The awful truth is that our current government has moved New Zealand closer to the US than at any time since the 1980s and MFAT calls out human rights abuses to a US agenda.
If the abuses are perpetrated by enemies of the US, such as in Russia or China, they get a full public blast but if US allies are killing unarmed people protesting the occupation of their country then it’s all hushed up.
Kept ‘in the family’
It’s kept “in the family”, behind closed doors. Martin Luther King’s comment about “the injustice of silence” applies.
Human rights abuses against Palestinians and the people of West Papua continue because countries like New Zealand have self-important ministry officials who think it’s clever to operate a public/private hierarchy of human rights abuses according to US criteria.
Aotearoa New Zealand is complicit in many ongoing human rights abuses through our silence.
Cowardice is another word that comes to mind. It’s not acceptable.
The hypocrisy of the US, and Aotearoa New Zealand’s, position on human rights was laid bare last week when Amnesty International released a 280-page report which concluded that Israel was an apartheid state. US Government officials attacked the report outright without reading it and without challenging any of the report’s substance.
MFAT hasn’t uttered a word
At a Washington press conference, a State Department official was left to try to explain why US Human Rights Reports have quoted extensively from Amnesty International regarding Ethiopia, China, Iran, Burma, Syria and Cuba but reject outright Amnesty’s report on Israel.
Needless to say, MFAT hasn’t uttered a word on the Amnesty report but is busy helping support a webinar intending to “build strategic partnerships in agriculture” with Israel through AgriTech New Zealand. This is deeply embarrassing to this country and MFAT should cancel Aotearoa New Zealand’s involvement in this webinar.
It goes without saying this country should stand against all abuses of human rights in a principled and forthright manner. This won’t happen until the current leadership of MFAT is stood down.
I first met cartoonist Harn Lay, who has died peacefully at 59, 15 years ago in the northern Thai town of Chiang Mai. He was then working for The Irrawaddy Magazine.
I was impressed by his cartoons that never failed to skewer Burma’s military regime and wanted to write a feature about him and his work.
Today, the military regime still rules Burma with an iron fist. Poets, writers, lawyers, monks, artists, doctors, comedians, musicians, bloggers, politicians, activists and journalists have been hunted, arrested, tortured and jailed for for speaking out against the regime and its 1 February 2021 coup.
During our series of interviews in 2006, Harn Lay didn’t hold back in his contempt for Burma’s military hardmen.
Harn Lay said he detested former General Than Shwe and his regime and it showed in the cartoons he drew for The Irrawaddy Magazine, Democratic Voice of Burma, Voice of America and the Shan Herald Agency for News.
Harn Lay dismissed the generals with a cutting barb: “Than Shwe’s a pumped up bully. I try to show how ridiculous he is, a little fat man in a uniform. His only power, his gun.”
Despite the humour, Harn Lay took his role as an artist seriously and said it was his duty to point out the emperor was naked, even when it was the so-called “good guys”.
Cartoons also upset pro-democracy, aid groups
“It’s like a responsibility. I stand by the victims of the powerful and the ruthless. I try to make people not only laugh, but to be aware of how they can be manipulated. Sometimes my cartoons have upset the pro-democracy and aid groups.”
Harn Lay was proud of his Shan State heritage and explained he first tried for freedom by joining an ethnic armed group.
“When I was younger, I joined the Mong Tai Army (MTA) to fight for Shan freedom and independence. But it was an illusion. Khun Sa [the MTA leader] was power mad, the same as Than Shwe and other dictators.
“He was like a kid, no control, he wanted everything he saw.”
Harn Lay soon realised it was time to put down the gun and pick up his pen.
“The gun kills, the pen doesn’t. I tried to use cartoons to express my politics, the injustices people suffer and to make them laugh at the powerful –– they can’t be too powerful if people are laughing at them.”
Harn Lay told me his intention was always to get under the skin of the ruthless and powerful dictators of Burma.
“Translated, my name means a leaf that causes irritation and itching. I want to make these powerful generals uncomfortable, I want to show people what they are really like without the protection of their uniforms and I want to show they are mortal.”
Harn Lay said the cruelty of the Burma regime was never a laughing matter and he was still drawing cartoons lampooning the generals until recently.
“Every Burmese person has been hurt or touched by their brutality. I’ve given up the gun, but I’ll keep drawing and try to expose this regime for the criminals they are.”
Until late 2021, Harn Lay was still lampooning the military junta and its generals in his cartoons.
Harn Lay enjoyed the support of his wife Yuwadee and his daughter Wan Wan, but told me at the time they could be his harshest critics.
“I met Yuwadee 16-years-ago in Shan State. I test my work out on her for clarity. If she laughs, I know I’m on track.”
Harn Lay’s art has featured in a number of international exhibitions and he is the recipient of numerous awards for his work.
Phil Thornton is a journalist and senior adviser to the International Federation of Journalists in South East Asia. This article was first published by Karen News and is republished with the author’s permission. Thornton is a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.
Harn Lay realised it was time to put down the gun and pick up his pen. Cartoon: Harn Lay/Karen News
China’s activities in the South Pacific are causing growing alarm in Washington, forcing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to make an urgent visit to Fiji.
But, sources say, he cannot do it due to the continued absence of Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, and like many people, Blinken is awaiting word on when he will return.
Last month Bainimarama flew to Melbourne for unannounced open heart surgery and has given no word on when he will return.
Washington has regional concerns but Blinken appears to believe he can speak to the whole South Pacific in a single meeting with Bainimarama.
Washington regards its concerns as too important to be dealt with via acting Prime Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.
US aid and involvement in the Pacific has been minimal and the last high level visit of any kind was the 2012 trip to Rarotonga of then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. A decade between visits shows a high level indifference.
But concern has mounted after recent riots in the Solomon Islands in the wake of its switch in diplomatic ties from Taiwan to China.
Beijing appears now to have strengthened its hand in Honiara.
Slow to give significant aid
While China has been slow to get significant aid to eruption damaged Tonga, they will still beat the United States to it. Washington got a frigate to Nuku’alofa with boxes of water; China’s PLAN Wuzhishan and Chaganhu are grunty vessels, carrying significant aid.
Nuku’alofa is already home to a large and modern Chinese Embassy.
The business of asserting Western power has not been helped by Australia’s naval failure of its flagship HMAS Adelaide.
However, while Blinken’s flying trip into Suva will wave flags and provide the Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF) with yet another dress up parade, how it will go down with other countries in the region is far from clear. They are not overly fond of Bainimarama’s preaching.
But all depends on one thing: Bainimarama showing up at all.
Michael Field is an independent New Zealand journalist and co-editor of The Pacific Newsroom. Republished with permission.
Two important bits of news were announced this week. One is that energy bills will be hiked by 54%. The second is that Tories have found £1.4bn to spend in a fantasy military space initiative that looks set to largely benefit defence contractors and spy agencies.
At least GCHQ will be able to watch your nan shiver in her house from five miles up.
Yes, the Ministry of Defence has finally revealed its ‘Defence Space Strategy’, complete with the kind of cryptic subtitle only the MOD can muster: “Operationalising the Space Domain”. But what does this mean? It means that a government which refuses to even consider a wealth tax to help out the worst off has found enough spare change down the back of the sofa to fund another new madcap military project. For the next ten years, in fact…
The UK’s first Defence Space Strategy has been published today, with £1.4 billion invested in cutting-edge space technology
Close international collaboration with our allies New investments in cutting-edge space technology
Here’s defence secretary Ben Wallace channelling a sort of evil captain Picard on in the report’s opening passages:
Space has brought unprecedented advantages and new threats. Daily life is reliant on space and, for the Armed Forces, space underpins vital, battle-winning technologies. From space we can deliver global command & control, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, precision navigation, and more. Adversaries understand this reliance and are increasingly able to exploit vulnerabilities, threatening our strategic stability and security
But what does this look in in practice? Well, we know the new strategy will increase surveillance capacity for the military and government partners. Naturally, most of the strategy is written in Whitehall gibberish, but we can discern that both “Earth-facing and spacefacing” capacities will be increased at a cost of only £970m over the next decade. One can only imagine this will allow us to spot strange alien creatures both in space and here on Earth. Because who wouldn’t want to keep an eye on Rory Stewart?
Capitalist space cadets
The document is very clear that major beneficiaries of the programme will be capitalists. In fact, capitalists of all sizes from “start-ups to multinational conglomerates” will make their money. The space strategy authors actually seem rather proud of the profit-making record of the burgeoning UK space market:
Space-related activity was once solely the preserve of governments; launching satellites into space relied on the same technologies as ballistic missiles. Today though, investment is driven by private investors and the UK space industry primary income is from commercial ventures
So someone, at least, is going to directly benefit from the space strategy. It just won’t be you. Sorry.
Threats
The new strategy claims the military must “seek out and seize the enduring strategic advantage opportunities offered by space”. Space, like cyber, is now a battlefield to be fought across. But who are the enemies? It’s probably a sign of the times that the terms ‘terrorism’ and ‘terrorist’ do not feature in the document. Two examples are given of ‘International Threats’, and these are, predictably, Russia and China.
And while busily chasing its own military goals in the stratosphere, the UK will continue to seek engagement with “nations who are committed to the peaceful use of space”.
Beyond these two much-touted enemies, the report warns we are all at the mercy of space weather, which:
in addition to energetic particle storms produced by solar flares and major changes to the solar wind, directly impacts the Earth’s magnetic field, which could reduce the effectiveness of satellites or induce undesirable effects on the ground.
Militarizing space
To understand the UK’s military space strategy we need to look beyond its rhetoric. Space is a new theatre of warfare and surveillance. It’s also a new market in which profit can be made by firms small and large. Much of that profit looks like it will come from British state investment. And this vanity project comes at a time when the kind of sums involved would be better used to support people whose utility bills are soaring.
As tensions grow between Russia and NATO over a potential invasion of Ukraine, up to 2 million people in eastern Ukraine are at risk of massive displacement and violence if the conflict escalates. We speak with the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Jan Egeland, who is on the ground in Ukraine and says a war could roll back nearly a decade of humanitarian progress made in the Ukrainian region. “We need reconciliation, we need peace,” says Egeland on the messages he is hearing from Ukrainians.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMYGOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.
We go now from Moscow, Russia, to Kyiv, Ukraine, to look at the situation in eastern Ukraine and the humanitarian crisis unfolding there as some 2 million people face the threat of violence and displacement if the conflict escalates.
For more, in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, we go to speak with Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council.
Jan, welcome back to Democracy Now! You were just in eastern Ukraine visiting the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and the contact line, where tensions are high. Can you describe what you saw?
JANEGELAND: Well, I was there now for the last 72 hours, met with lots of completely exhausted, freezing, poor, miserable communities along the contact line. And their message, of course, to the world is: You know, enough of this political military chess game that everybody is obsessed with. We are suffering now. We’ve suffered for eight years with conflict. Our communities have been divided in Donetsk and in Luhansk. There is a frontline that has gone through families and communities now for eight years. We need — we need reconciliation. We need peace. Stop this escalation towards another catastrophe.
NERMEENSHAIKH: And, Jan, as you’ve pointed out, it’s not just the risk of increasing numbers of refugees and IDPs as a result of the present situation. There are already 1.6 million internally displaced Ukrainians who have been forced to flee their homes in the midst of this ongoing war in Donbas.
JANEGELAND: Indeed, there are hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people displaced. Some of them are working as my colleagues here in Ukraine. I have colleagues here who haven’t seen their parents for years, because all of the border crossings — not border crossing. These are crossings of the contact line, the frontline, which is within Ukraine and through Luhansk and Donetsk. There are seven crossing points. Six of them are basically shut. There is one where there are still people being able to cross on foot. It’s 90% down from what it was before the COVID, which became the excuse of especially the authorities in the nongovernment-controlled areas to keep people out.
Now, this suffering has been ongoing for too long, really. We were able to make progress in recent years. The numbers came down in the people still being displaced. We operate with a figure of 850,000. We were planning to do further progress. Now all of this risks to be erased in an instant. If there is war, there will be hundreds and hundreds of thousands of more people displaced. Two million people live within 20 kilometers of the frontline on either side.
Via America’s Lawyer: Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly insisted against military escalation along their border, yet the U.S. is preparing to send troops to appease the usual congressional war hawks. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more. Transcript: *This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
It’s been 50 years since British troops murdered 14 unarmed civilians in the north of Ireland. Some former Labour leaders have properly acknowledged the massacre. But Keir Starmer managed to whitewash the British state’s responsibility for it. And his position sums up that of the establishment towards Bloody Sunday 1972 and Ireland more broadly.
Bloody Sunday 1972
British forces committed the Bloody Sunday massacre on 30 January 1972. It was when British paratroopers entered the Bogside in Derry and shot and ultimately killed 13 civil rights protesters. One victim died four months later. British paratroopers injured another 14 people. The massacre, in some respects, is fairly clear cut: British soldiers killed 14 unarmed civilians. But justice for the victims and their families has never happened. You can read more on Bloody Sunday here.
In 2010, the Saville inquiry into Bloody Sunday cleared the 14 dead of any wrongdoing. Since then, the UK government and judicial system has not given the victims and their families justice. As The Canary previously reported, in 2019 the British state said that just one of the 17 surviving soldiers who committed the killings would face prosecution. Soldier F was allegedly responsible for the murders of William McKinney and James Wray.
In July 2021, however, the north of Ireland’s Public Prosecution Service dropped the case. The brother of McKinney, who was killed by British troops, can appeal the ruling. Those in the army who gave the orders to the paratroopers, and their colleagues in the UK government who oversaw the operation, have still not faced any form of inquiry or prosecution.
The British government: the “catalyst in the war in Ireland”
In the days leading up to 30 January 2022, people were paying tribute to the victims. People took part in a remembrance walk on the day. They then gathered at the Bloody Sunday Monument in Rossville Street, where the annual memorial service and wreath-laying ceremony took place.
McKinney’s brother Michael said in a speech:
The British government intend to announce an end to all legacy investigations. They intend to announce it because they’re scared. Scared that their soldiers, spooks and civil servants will be exposed, and that their role as a combatant and catalyst in the war in Ireland will be highlighted around the world. They are trying to deny us justice because they are scared to face justice.
But we want to send a very clear warning to the British government. If they pursue their proposals, the Bloody Sunday families will be ready to meet them head on.
Starmer: omitting the state’s involvement
As The Canary‘s Peadar O’Cearnaigh tweeted, much of the commentary and coverage failed to mention who killed the 14:
Countless commemorations on #BloodySunday50 on mainstream media say 14 people 'were shot' & several others 'were wounded'. By who? We'll never know I guess…an unsolved mystery… #derrypic.twitter.com/YT724Wxa2I
It didn’t “unfold.” It was state-sanctioned massacre. You also sacked a Labour MP from the front bench for voting against the SpyCops Bill – which would prevent the prosecution of UK troops for war crimes.
Meanwhile, on Saturday 29 January, former Labour leader and MP Jeremy Corbyn was in Derry. He was giving the annual Bloody Sunday lecture. Corbyn said:
it’s an outrage that nobody has been prosecuted for the deaths of 14 innocent civilian protesters. And it’s a double outrage that the British government is now planning legislation to make it even harder for such an effort to succeed.
"But people need more than apologies.. It's an outrage that nobody has been prosecuted for the deaths of 14 innocent civilian protestors.."@jeremycorbyn speaking at the 50th anniversary memorial of Bloody Sunday, at Derry Guildhall. pic.twitter.com/lhUOwN7nHr
But Corbyn’s view is in isolation. The British establishment and state’s attitude to Irish people has been vile throughout history. As The Canary‘s Peadar O’Cearnaigh previously wrote:
A recorded telephone conversation between two British army officers on Bloody Sunday, where they make light of the numbers killed, gives an insight into their thinking.
The Black and Tans were the paratroopers’ predecessor. They were responsible for part of the previous Bloody Sunday in Dublin in 1920. That day they murdered 13 Irish civilians watching a football match. After the Irish rebels defeated them, some of the Black and Tans served in the British Palestine Gendarmerie.
And as The Canary also reported, the attitude by the British establishment towards Irish suffering during the famine in the 1840s has changed little.
So, why would former director of public prosecutions and knight of the realm Starmer behave any differently?
“Planned” and “calculated”
As LibComnoted, ex-British Army intelligence officer Fred Holroyd said that the establishment often paints Bloody Sunday 1972 as:
an act of undisciplined slaughter perpetrated by blood-crazed Paras. This assumption though is wrong and to a large extent lets the British establishment off the hook. By assuming that soldiers “ran amok” it puts the blame on individual soldiers who pulled triggers and killed people. Bloody Sunday was a planned, calculated response to a demand for civil rights, designed to terrify organised protestors away from protesting. It fits easily into the catalogue of British involvement in Ireland as a quite logical and even natural event.
Starmer is the British establishment. Therefore, his attitude to the victims and their families is also “quite logical” – even if it utterly betrays them in the process. Meanwhile, these families are still fighting for justice after half a century. Sadly, given the British state’s history, it seems that fight will continue for many years to come.
The West Papua National Committee (KNPB) has declared that it rejects the violent approach which Indonesia continues to push in the land of Papua.
“We have been consistent in the demand to resolve the political conflict in Papua peacefully. We reject a violent approach which has already claimed many victims since [Papua] was annexed [by Indonesia] in 1962,” said KNPB spokesperson Ones Suhuniap in a media release this week.
“We are aware that weapons will not resolve the Papua problem.”
The KNPB is asking the Free Papua Movement-West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB OPM) and the Indonesian government to halt the armed conflict.
“Immediately open up peaceful democratic space for dialogue and to find a find a peaceful solution,” the group said.
According to Suhuniap, the KNPB is asking Indonesia to stop sending troops to the land of Papua.
“We are asking Jakarta to withdraw the troops which have been dropped [in Papua] in huge numbers because this has impacted on humanitarian crimes since 1962.
‘Don’t sacrifice people’
“Immediately pursue a political solution. Don’t sacrifice people for the sake of the economic and political interests of the oligarchy in Jakarta.
“Members of the TNI [Indonesian military] and Polri [Indonesian police] are also human beings. Likewise, the TPNPB are also human beings,” the group said.
As an organisation, the KNPB rejects the use of arms as a solution.
“All KNPB members adhere to the KNPB’s principles of struggling peacefully without violence. We need to remind all rogue individuals (oknum) and other parties to stop treating the KNPB as criminals.
KNPB’s Ones Suhuniap … “All the Papuan people want is their political right to be respected as a nation.” Image: Suara Papua
“If there are such rogue individuals they must be held accountable for their actions. We will not tolerate it anymore,” said Suhuniap.
Suhuniap believes that the bloody conflict which is continuing in the land of Papua is a consequence of Jakarta’s reluctance to resolve the conflict peacefully.
“All the Papuan people want is their political right to be respected as a nation. So, right from the start the KNPB has demanded a referendum as a peaceful solution for the Papuan people.
intentionally cultivated crimes
“So far this has not happened, because Jakarta has intentionally cultivated and maintained crimes against humanity in the land of Papua,” he explained.
Suhuniap continued: “Papua’s problems are very clear. Indonesia and the world also understands this.
“Our political history and the current reality proves that the Papuan people have, are and will continue to be the victims. All of the scientific research proves this. So as human beings we need a peaceful solution.”
In heading towards the peaceful solution that is yearned for, said Suhuniap, both parties needed to speak at an respectable location.
“And speak honestly and openly, then agree on a solution for the Papuan people.”
Because of this, the KNPB as a media for the Papuan people was continuing to urge Jakarta and all other parties to pursue a peaceful solution.
Papuan lives without hope
Meanwhile, KNPB diplomatic secretary Omikson Balingga said that the lives of the Papuan people in Indonesia had been without hope because of the unfolding threat of violence over the past 60 years.
“The Papuan nation does not have any hope living with a colonial country. Aside from its people, the natural resources of the land of Papua also continue to be exhausted by Indonesia. The only solution is independence as a sovereign country”, he said.
Earlier, KNPB General Chairperson Warpo Sampari Wetipo declared that the KNPB as a media of the West Papuan people has been consistent in its civilian mission in the cities.
“The KNPB will never retreat a single step. The KNPB has been constant in the agenda of self-determination which along with the Papuan people it has continued to struggle for”, said Wetipo.
As long as the Papuan people are still not given the democratic space to determine their own future (self determination), he asserted that the KNPB will continue to exist throughout the land of Papua.
“To this day the struggle of the Papuan nation has been to demand political independence. This is no longer a secret. All of the Papuan people already know and understand our political history and what is best for the future”.
Wetipo stated that Indonesia must understand that it has to stop using colonialist policies and actions against the Papuan people.
“The best solution is to immediately give the democratic right to the Papuan nation to determine their own future”, he asserted.
Twenty-three people onboard an Australian Navy vessel enroute to help with the recovery effort in Tonga have tested positive for covid-19.
In a statement, the Australian Department of Defence said the positive covid cases, and their close contacts, are being isolated onboard the vessel which has a 40-bed hospital with operating theatres and a critical care ward.
The Department of Defence is adamant the cases will not stop the Adelaide’s mission with the vessel expected to arrive off the coast of Tonga in the early hours of tomorrow morning.
It said it was confident it could deliver the much needed supplies on board to local authorities in Tonga without transmitting the virus.
Tonga is one of the few remaining covid-19 free countries in the world and the government has made it very clear its priority is keeping things that way.
Air New Zealand to deliver relief supplies An Air New Zealand flight is scheduled to take supplies to Tonga tomorrow to help with the recovery from the recent volcanic eruption and tsunami.
Chief pilot Captain David Morgan said 18 tonnes of cargo — including fresh water, medical supplies, garments, bedding, and urgent machine and automotive parts — will be onboard.
The flight is scheduled to take off from Auckland at 8am.
The same plane will then turn around and depart from Tonga at 12.20pm tomorrow, bringing back passengers and cargo to Auckland.
Tongan diaspora in NZ working overtime to ship supplies home The Aotearoa Tonga Relief Committee plans on packing 13 shipping containers by midnight tonight so that they could be shipped to Tonga tomorrow.
Co-chair Jenny Salesa said more volunteers were needed at the Mount Smart Stadium donation centre as hundreds of drums still needed to be packed.
She said people had been so generous and more shipping containers were still needed.
Twenty-five containers are scheduled to be sent to Tonga tomorrow if they are all packed in time.
The Aotearoa Tonga Relief Committee is coordinating shipping containers at Auckland’s Mount Smart Stadium for relatives in Tonga. Image: Photo: Lydia Lewis/RNZ Pacific
On 21 January, air strikes from the Saudi Arabia-led military coalition were blamed for killing over 200 people in the “U.S.-backed conflict” in Yemen. One report said the bombings targeted a prison “holding mostly migrants”. The report says they also bombed and killed children as they played football. Following these attacks, the medical humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders said one hospital was:
so overwhelmed that they can’t take any more patients
As extensively reported by The Canary, the UK arms industry has a vested interest in this conflict. And this latest slaughter highlights Britain’s role in Yemen, as Labour MP Kate Osamor tweeted:
With reports that more than 60 people have been killed in the latest act of the Saudi-led war in Yemen we must remember that the UK Government continues to supply arms with the claim that reported war crimes are only 'isolated incidents'. #YemenCantWaithttps://t.co/zkC64vhcvE
— Kate Osamor Labour & Co-op MP for Edmonton (@KateOsamor) January 21, 2022
The travesty unfolds
The AFP News Agency reported on the attack and the extensive loss of human life:
#UPDATE More than 200 people were killed or wounded in an air strike on a prison in #Yemen and at least three children died in a separate bombardment as the country's long-running conflict suffered a dramatic escalation of violence on Friday https://t.co/llmif69zsE#Saada
Meanwhile this human rights activist posted this video claiming to be of a bombing on a civilian home:
Graphic footage of the Saudi-UAE airstrikes on civilian homes on #Yemen yesterday, that caused dozens of civilians casualties, mostly women and children.#YemenUnderAttackpic.twitter.com/FTAnQbUK8U
Moreover, this image analyst service posted shocking “before” and “after” images. It claims these are images of a football field hit during the strike. And it listed the countries, including the UK, it felt were responsible:
This protest in Huddersfield, which took place on Saturday 22 January, also pointed a finger at the UK and called on it to stop arming Saudi Arabia:
— Mani Isna La #NativeLivesMatter (@mikecoulson48) January 23, 2022
How is the UK getting away with this?
This war in Yemen has been raging for over seven years, with the death toll approaching 400,000 people. Yet it appears as if little pressure is being brought against the UK for its complicity. If the international community is actually serious about planning “a brighter future in Yemen”, then the UK’s role in supplying and benefiting from the war needs to be front and centre. And the UK needs to be held accountable.
Writing in the Telegraph on 21 January, Labour Party leader Keir Starmer beat the drums of war saying Britain must “stand firm against Russian aggression”. Starmer wrote this as tensions between Russia and Ukraine increase amid reports that Russia is amassing troops on the Ukrainian border. Even more worrying is the support he’s offering a government that voted against adopting the UN resolution to combat the glorification of Nazism.
Under Starmer’s leadership, Labour suspended Jeremy Corbyn when he refused to retract his comment saying the scale of antisemitism in Labour was “dramatically overstated”. Yet he still wants the UK to stand in solidarity with a Ukrainian government that supports actual antisemites.
Instead of using tokenistic diplomacy to call for solidarity with Ukraine, Starmer could use his position to deescalate the current crisis and call out western military expansionism. Unfortunately he doesn’t. So not only is this hypocrisy, but it’s rhetoric that risks all-out conflict between nuclear superpowers.
“Dangerous claptrap”
Starmer laid out his explicit support for Tory defence policy and called on the UK to stand in solidarity with Ukraine:
I must commend the work of the Secretary of State for Defence, Ben Wallace, on this matter. He has worked hard to bring people together, written with moral clarity on the nature of Russian aggression and ensured that the UK continues to support Ukraine’s ability to defend itself through military aid.
Former Labour MP Chris Williamson of the Resist Movement described Starmer’s position as “dangerous claptrap”.
Meanwhile this Twitter user was among others who pointed out Starmer’s hypocrisy. He made reference to the Ukrainian National Guard’s Azov Battalion which has neo-Nazi links:
Russia has very real reasons to fear that the Ukrainian army will attempt an attack on the Donbass -a region with many ethnic Russians A Ukrainian Army that literally includes Neo Nazi formations like the Azov battalion- pictured here pic.twitter.com/dZ3IP9pXF7
Leading Britain towards war in European and American far-right/neo-Nazis' "field of dreams", Ukraine. Starmer's idea of antisemitism is very malleable if he's on the same side as the nutters who want this war. https://t.co/IJk4cgFeSd
Parts of Starmer’s article read as if he was trying to pursue a diplomatic resolution to current tensions. But it wasn’t long before he mentioned the use of “allied troops”:
We must continue to explore diplomatic routes to avoid conflict. But Russian demands that Ukraine give up its desires to join Nato and the EU should not be entertained. Nobody envisages British and allied troops being dragged into war. But we need to work with allies to use our collective resources, including sanctions, to show Russia the actions it takes will have consequences.
Some called him out as a “warmonger” and made comparisons with Blair:
— Luqman Khan Power concedes nothing without Demand (@luqmankhan555) January 22, 2022
Nato has been building up pressure against Russia since the cold war ended. Ukraine government incldes far-right. Putin is an authoritarian, right winger. You represent the corporate gravytrain and warmonger faction of Labour.
Starmer’s article typifies the mood of Westernmainstream media. That is, one which labels this build up of Russian troops as an act of “aggression”. However, this infographic highlights the global presence of the US and UK military. And it includes a US military presence near Russia’s borders. Yet that doesn’t seem to get the same coverage in that same media:
(Left to right) US military bases (aljazeera.com) & UK Armed forces (forces.net)
It could be that Starmer’s Labour sees this as its route to No.10 – out Torying the Tories – as they compete with the Conservative Party to face down ‘Russian aggression’. A dangerous game that could add to the thousands who have already died in Ukraine, and possibly further afield. Not only is diplomacy the obvious answer, but so too is an end to the tension caused by Western military expansion.
It has been a week since the Hunga volcanic eruption and tsunami near Tonga destroyed large parts of the South Pacific kingdom.
For several days, it was cut off from the world, but aid is now flowing in, mainly from New Zealand and Australia while China claimed to be the first to donate money.
Al Jazeera’s Wayne Hay reports from Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand.
A lawsuit filed last year accuses the Saudi Arabian government of completely failing to prevent an extremist from their military from coming to the United States and committing a terrorist attack in Pensacola, Florida. The attack happened on a military base where the extremist was part of a joint program between the US and Saudi […]
King Tupou VI has offered sympathy and prayers to all those who lost relatives in last weekend’s Tongan volcano eruption and tsunami disaster or are still waiting for news about their families.
He said the whole of Tonga was devastated by the tsunami and it wiped out some of the islands, homes, plantations and possessions.
His Majesty’s first speech to address the nation following last week’s volcanic eruption has been delivered in Tongan in a video clip which was shared on Facebook last night as New Zealand and international aid programmes have stepped up.
The tsunami on Saturday killed three people and injured many. Waves of up to 15 metres flattened houses and caused extensive damage to Tongatapu’s western district.
It wiped out the islands of Mango, Fonoifua and ‘Atatā.
The king mentioned some biblical texts in his attempt to encourage his people to stand together to rebuild the nation.
“Let’s start with Jehovah as Jehovah is our refuge”, the king said referring to Psalm 91 of the Bible.
Facing new challenges He said he could not say whether the natural disaster’s damage itself was less than the damage it caused to the environment and the evacuation of the people “as there was supreme over all in nature”.
“But it is astonishing, and I am grateful that the death toll was at a minimum,” the king said.
King Tupou VI … “I am grateful that the death toll was at a minimum.” Image: Kaniva News/File
“While we feel and sympathise with immediate families and relatives of the deceased, we have been facing new challenges,” the king said.
He said the Armed Forces’ boats which transported people from the islands were affected by the pumice stones from the volcanic eruptions.
He said the people of ‘Eua valued their wharf more than their airport. And that was because that was what they mostly used for transportation and trade.
Standing together
“In times of trouble, people stand together so they could withstand the consequences,” the king said.
“It is not who have much money or assistance from overseas but the will of the people
“It is the determination to live on top of believing in God and show love, helping each other, have patience and be self-possessed”.
“In the aftermath of the disaster, we have to all stand up and work,” he said.
“It is our nation and the place where we grew up and it is only you and me who would treasure that”.
The king congratulated people from other countries and various partnerships, churches and businesses for helping Tonga.
Aid is coming from Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the United States. New Zealand’s Defence Force continues to coordinate with its partners.
New Zealand aid stepped up HMNZS Aotearoaberthed today at Nuku’alofa port following successful wharf and harbour inspections conducted by Navy divers and hydrographers on board HMNZS Wellington.
Hydrographers were deployed to survey approaches to Nuku’alofa after the Wellington’s arrival, with Navy divers also conducting checks on the integrity of wharf infrastructure.
Once Aotearoa arrived, Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief (HADR) stores, including bulk water supplies, were being offloaded as a priority and will undergo appropriate covid-19 sanitation by Tongan authorities.
Aotearoa is also able to provide continuous water supply while it is berthed.
HMNZS Canterbury was due to depart Devonport Naval Base tonight and is expected to arrive in Tonga early next week.
Supplies on board Canterbury include water, tarpaulins and milk powder. Vehicles and several containers of construction equipment are also on board.
Another C130 Hercules flight is also set to depart Auckland on Saturday with more stores on board.
Asia Pacific Report collaborates with Kaniva News.
NZ Defence Force staff stack and secure pallets of disaster relief supplies to be sent on an RNZAF C-130 Hercules flight to Tonga tonight. Image: NZDF
Specialist New Zealand Defence Force staff will be checking Tonga’s shipping lanes are passable and the wharf is safe so desperately needed humanitarian supplies can get through.
Three deaths have been confirmed after Saturday’s massive volcanic eruption. There are reports of significant injuries, but no details yet.
UN officials said 84,000 people – more than 80 percent of Tonga’s population — had been impacted by tsunami and the ashfall that followed the eruption.
New Zealand Defence Force Rear Admiral Jim Gilmour said there were fears for food security, with reports ash was killing crops.
Ash and sea water have also contaminated water supplies.
Offshore patrol vessel HMNZS Wellington, which is carrying a helicopter, technical gear, and teams, has arrived in Tongan waters.
“They commenced clearing the outer part of the Nuku’alofa harbour and they’ll be working in towards the wharf area and terminal area,” Admiral Gilmour told RNZ Morning Report.
Scoping shipping channels
It will scope the shipping channels and wharves at the main port to see if they safe enough to use to drop off supplies, in time for HMNZS Aotearoa due today, which is carrying a range of stores including water, long life non-perishable foods, hygiene kits and shelter.
“Water is among the highest priorities for Tonga, and the Aotearoa can carry 250,000 litres, and produce 70,000 litres per day through a desalination plant,” Admiral Gilmour said.
“I feel that the most value that she’s going to provide today is bring able to discharge fresh water into water tanks for distribution around Tongatapu.”
Admiral Gilmour said staff did not need to set foot on Tonga at all, in an effort to avoid spreading covid-19 to the currently coronavirus-free country.
Sanitised containers will be moved by crane from the ship onto the dock or hauled by personnel in full PPE.
They will then withdraw and Tongans will pick up the goods.
Water containers, shelters
It carried the most urgently needed supplies including water containers, temporary shelters, generators, and communications equipment.
It was expected to be on the ground for about 90 minutes before returning to New Zealand.
The Hercules will be decontaminated today with a plan to head out again tomorrow, Gilmour said.
Admiral Gilmour said ash that was moved off the runway was sitting nearby and in a fine powder form. Some of this was picked up in the wind.
HMNZS Aotearoa is due to arrive in Tonga today with water supplies. Image: RNZ/NZDF
A Royal Australian Air Force C-17 also landed yesterday.
A third New Zealand Defence Force vessel, HMNZS Canterbury, is being prepared to be deployed this evening or on Saturday to arrive on Tuesday.
It is carrying two helicopters which can be used to distribute supplies and survey Tonga’s outer islands.
Self-sufficient force
The Defence Force intends to be self-sufficient to not put pressure on Tonga’s food, water and fuel supply.
It has enough stores to stay at sea for at least 30 days without any external assistance. If it stays that long plans will be made to resupply.
“We’re very mindful of the sensitivities about covid and its transmission. I’m 100 percent confident that none of our deployed forces have covid, they’ve all been PCR tested, at least double jabbed, some, if not many triple jabbed,” Admiral Gilmour said.
He said the NZDF respected Tonga’s decision whether or not to allow troops on the ground.
“If Tonga decides that they would like boots on the ground and our operators will be operating ashore, then will will do that and obviously still maintain a contactless approach delivering any assistance that is required.”
Australia’s high commissioner to Tonga Rachael Moore has described the loss of property as “catastrophic”.
Tonga’s Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni (right) joined by Australian High Commissioner to Tonga Rachael Moore to witness the arrival of the first Royal Australian Air Force C-17A Globemaster III aircraft from Australia delivering humanitarian assistance yesterday. Image: RNZ/Australian Defence Force/AFP
“Along the western beaches there is a moonscape where once beautiful resorts and many, many homes stood,” Moore said.
Tonga has only just begun to re-establish global contact after five days cut off from the rest of the world.
Video scenes from Dr Viliami Uasike Latu, #Tonga Minister of Trade and Economic Development posted on FB. Just a snippet below. This is Hihifo side (Western side) of Tongatapu including Kanokupolu one of the badly hit villages. #Tonga#TongaVolcano#tongatsunamipic.twitter.com/d1zyXBwPo4
Mobile phone company Digicel has confirmed re-establishing communications between Tonga and the rest of the world, but lines have been clogged with heavy traffic, leaving many still unable to get through to loved ones.
Work to improve the satellite capacity and improve communications at the New Zealand High Commission in Nuku’alofa was being done Thursday evening.
Food and water woes MP for Panmure-Ōtāhuhu and the co-chairperson of the Aotearoa-Tonga Relief Committee Jenny Salesa said Tongans in New Zealand were hearing from their families back home for food and bottled water.
“We’re also told by some of our relatives that the ash from the volcano is everywhere. A lot of the ash has now hardened like cement on some of the surfaces and cleaning up is a challenging task,” she said.
“Some of the worry is that it would also affect the crops and the traditional food sources that a lot of our Tongan people back home rely on.”
The relief committee is asking families from the most effected islands to head to the appeal at Mt Smart Stadium today. People from the rest of Tonga are asked to come from Sunday.
Each family being allocated a 44-gallon drum to send supplies to Tonga and eight containers have been given to the relief committee.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Joe Biden and the Democrats were highly critical of Donald Trump’s foreign policy, so it was reasonable to expect that Biden would quickly remedy its worst impacts. As a senior member of the Obama administration, Biden surely needed no schooling on Obama’s diplomatic agreements with Cuba and Iran, both of which began to resolve longstanding foreign policy problems and provided models for the renewed emphasis on diplomacy that Biden was promising.
Tragically for America and the world, Biden has failed to restore Obama’s progressive initiatives, and has instead doubled down on many of Trump’s most dangerous and destabilizing policies. It is especially ironic and sad that a president who ran so stridently on being different from Trump has been so reluctant to reverse his regressive policies. Now the Democrats’ failure to deliver on their promises with respect to both domestic and foreign policy is undermining their prospects in November’s midterm election.
Here is our assessment of Biden’s handling of 10 critical foreign policy issues:
1. Prolonging the agony of the people of Afghanistan.It is perhaps symptomatic of Biden’s foreign policy problems that the signal achievement of his first year in office was an initiative launched by Trump, to withdraw the U.S. from its 20-year war in Afghanistan. But Biden’s implementation of this policy was tainted by the same failure to understand Afghanistan that doomed and dogged at least three prior administrations and the hostile military occupation for 20 years, leading to the speedy restoration of the Taliban government and the televised chaos of the U.S. withdrawal.
Now, instead of helping the Afghan people recover from two decades of U.S.-inflicted destruction, Biden has seized $9.4 billion in Afghan foreign currency reserves, while the people of Afghanistan suffer through a desperate humanitarian crisis. It is hard to imagine how even Donald Trump could be more cruel or vindictive.
2. Provoking a crisis with Russia over Ukraine.Biden’s first year in office is ending with a dangerous escalation of tensions at the Russia/Ukraine border, a situation that threatens to devolve into a military conflict between the world’s two most heavily armed nuclear states. The U.S. bears much responsibility for this crisis by supporting the violent overthrow of the elected government of Ukraine in 2014, backing NATO expansion right up to Russia’s border, and arming and training Ukrainian forces.
Biden’s failure to acknowledge Russia’s legitimate security concerns has led to the present impasse, and Cold Warriors within his administration are threatening Russia instead of proposing concrete measures to de-escalate the situation.
3. Escalating Cold War tensions and a dangerous arms race with China.President Trump launched a tariff war with China that economically damaged both countries, and reignited a dangerous Cold War and arms race with China and Russia to justify an ever-increasing U.S. military budget.
After a decade of unprecedented U.S. military spending and aggressive military expansion under George W. Bush and Obama, the U.S. “pivot to Asia” militarily encircled China, forcing it to invest in more robust defense forces and advanced weapons. Trump, in turn, used China’s strengthened defenses as a pretext for further increases in U.S. military spending, launching a new arms race that has raised the existential risk of nuclear war to a new level.
Biden has only exacerbated these dangerous international tensions. Alongside the risk of war, his aggressive policies toward China have led to an ominous rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans, and created obstacles to much-needed cooperation with China to address climate change, the pandemic and other global problems.
4. Abandoning Obama’s nuclear agreement with Iran.After Obama’s sanctions against Iran utterly failed to force it to halt its civilian nuclear program, he finally took a progressive, diplomatic approach, which led to the JCPOA nuclear agreement in 2015. Iran scrupulously met all its obligations under the treaty, but Trump withdrew the U.S. from the agreement in 2018. Trump’s withdrawal was vigorously condemned by Democrats, including candidate Biden, and Sen. Bernie Sanders promised to rejoin the JCPOA on his first day in office if he became president.
Instead of immediately rejoining an agreement that worked for all parties, the Biden administration thought it could pressure Iran to negotiate a “better deal.” Exasperated Iranians instead elected a more conservative government and Iran moved forward on enhancing its nuclear program.
A year later, and after eight rounds of shuttle diplomacy in Vienna, Biden has still not rejoined the agreement. Ending his first year in the White House with the threat of another Middle East war is enough to give Biden an “F” in diplomacy.
5. Backing Big Pharma over a People’s Vaccine.Biden took office as the first COVID vaccines were being approved and rolled out across the U.S. and the world. Severe inequities in global vaccine distribution between rich and poor countries were immediately apparent and became known as “vaccine apartheid.”
Instead of manufacturing and distributing vaccines on a nonprofit basis to tackle the pandemic as the global public health crisis that it is, the U.S. and other Western countries have chosen to maintain the neoliberal regime of patents and corporate monopolies on vaccine manufacture and distribution. The failure to open up the manufacture and distribution of vaccines to poorer countries gave the COVID virus free rein to spread and mutate, leading to new global waves of infection and death from the delta and omicron variants.
Biden belatedly agreed to support a patent waiver for COVID vaccines under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, but with no real plan for a “People’s Vaccine,” Biden’s concession has made no impact on millions of preventable deaths.
6. Ensuring catastrophic global warming at COP26 in Glasgow.After Trump stubbornly ignored the climate crisis for four years, environmentalists were encouraged when Biden used his first days in office to rejoin the Paris climate accord and cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline.
But by the time Biden got to Glasgow, he had let the centerpiece of his own climate plan, the Clean Energy Performance Program (CEPP), be stripped out of the Build Back Better bill in Congress at the behest of fossil-fuel industry sock puppet Joe Manchin, turning the U.S. pledge of a 50% cut from 2005 emissions by 2030 into an empty promise.
Biden’s speech in Glasgow highlighted China and Russia’s failures, neglecting to mention that the U.S. has higher emissions per capita than either of them. Even as COP26 was taking place, the Biden administration infuriated activists by putting oil and gas leases up for auction for 730,000 acres of the American West and 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico. At the one-year mark, Biden has talked the talk, but when it comes to confronting Big Oil, he is not walking the walk, and the whole world is paying the price.
7. Political prosecutions of Julian Assange, Daniel Hale and Guantánamo torture victims. Under Biden, the United States remains a country where the systematic killing of civilians and other war crimes go unpunished, while whistleblowers who muster the courage to expose these horrific crimes to the public are prosecuted and jailed as political prisoners.
In July 2021, former drone pilot Daniel Hale was sentenced to 45 months in prison for exposing the killing of civilians in America’s drone wars. WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange still languishes in Belmarsh Prison in England, after 11 years fighting extradition to the United States for exposing U.S. war crimes.
Twenty years after the U.S. set up an illegal concentration camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to imprison 779 mostly innocent people kidnapped around the world, 39 prisoners remain there in illegal, extrajudicial detention. Despite promises to close this sordid chapter of U.S. history, the prison is still functioning and Biden is allowing the Pentagon to actually build a new closed courtroom at Guantanamo to more easily keep the workings of this gulag hidden from public scrutiny.
8. Economic siege warfare against the people of Cuba, Venezuela and other countries.Trump unilaterally rolled back Obama’s reforms on Cuba and recognized unelected Juan Guaidó as the “president” of Venezuela, as the U.S. tightened the screws on its economy with “maximum pressure” sanctions.
Biden has continued Trump’s failed economic siege warfare against countries that resist U.S. imperial dictates, inflicting endless pain on their people without seriously imperiling, let alone bringing down, their governments. Brutal U.S. sanctions and efforts at regime change have universally failed for decades, serving mainly to undermine the U.S. claim to democratic and human rights credentials.
Guaidó is now the least popular opposition figure in Venezuela, and genuine grassroots movements opposed to U.S. intervention are bringing popular democratic and socialist governments to power across Latin America, in Bolivia, Peru, Chile and Honduras — and maybe Brazil in 2022.
9. Still supporting Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, and its repressive ruler.Under Trump, Democrats and a minority of Republicans in Congress gradually built a bipartisan majority that voted to withdraw from the Saudi-led coalition attacking Yemen and to stop sending arms to Saudi Arabia. Trump vetoed their efforts, but the Democratic election victory in 2020 should have led to an end to the war and humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
Instead, Biden only issued an order to stop selling “offensive” weapons to Saudi Arabia, without clearly defining that term, and went on to OK a $650 million weapons sale. The U.S. still supports the Saudi war, even as the resulting humanitarian crisis kills thousands of Yemeni children. And despite Biden’s pledge to treat the Saudis’ cruel leader, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, as a pariah, Biden refused to even sanction MBS for his barbaric murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
10. Still complicit in illegal Israeli occupation, settlements and war crimes.The U.S. is Israel’s largest arms supplier, and Israel is the world’s largest recipient of U.S. military aid (approximately $4 billion annually), despite its illegal occupation of Palestine, widely condemned war crimes in Gaza and illegal settlement building. U.S. military aid and arms sales to Israel clearly violate the U.S. Leahy Laws and Arms Export Control Act.
Donald Trump was flagrant in his disdain for Palestinian rights, including transferring the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to a property in Jerusalem that is only partly within Israel’s internationally recognized borders, a move that infuriated Palestinians and drew international condemnation.
But nothing has changed under Biden. The U.S. position on Israel and Palestine is as illegitimate and contradictory as ever, and the U.S. embassy remains on illegally occupied land. In May, Biden supported the latest Israeli assault on Gaza, which killed 256 Palestinians, half of them civilians, including 66 children.
Conclusion
Each part of this foreign policy fiasco costs human lives and creates regional, even global, instability. In every case, progressive alternative policies are readily available. The only thing lacking is political will and independence from corrupt vested interests.
The U.S. has squandered unprecedented wealth, global goodwill and a historic position of international leadership to pursue unattainable imperial ambitions, using military force and other forms of violence and coercion in flagrant violation of the UN Charter and international law.
As a presidential candidate, Biden promised to restore America’s position of global leadership, but as president he has instead doubled down on the policies through which the U.S. lost that position in the first place, under a succession of Republican and Democratic administrations. Trump was only the latest iteration in America’s race to the bottom.
Biden has wasted a vital year doubling down on Trump’s failed policies. In the coming year, we hope that the public will remind Biden of its deep-seated aversion to war and that he will respond, however reluctantly, by adopting more rational ways.
Via America’s Lawyer: Nancy Pelosi is among more than 50 members of Congress who violated the STOCK Act, which was meant to stop lawmakers from fattening their pockets via insider trading. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more. Plus, thousands of military families in Hawaii were endangered by toxic drinking water that was tainted by jet fuel leaking from Pearl […]
An RNZAF P-3K2 Orion aircraft flies over the small Tongan island of Nomuka showing the heavy ash fall from last Saturday’s volcanic eruption on Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai.
Five Squadron crew worked on board while flying overhead to gather vital information to send back to New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) and other government agencies.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says New Zealand will move to the red traffic light setting if omicron is spreading in the community following reports that a border worker who was yesterday reported as covid-19 positive has been confirmed to have the omicron variant.
On Tonga, Defence Minister Peeni Henare says he understands power has been restored in large parts of Nuku’alofa following Saturday’s eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano.
The government leaders were speaking at today’s media briefing.
More than 120,000 doses of the children’s Pfizer vaccine for covid-19 are ready to go at clinics around the country.
Tamariki aged five to 11 are eligible for the first of two recommended doses, eight weeks apart.
Ardern said it was pleasing to see people had been lining up today to be the first through the door at vaccination centres, and lines have been clearing quickly.
Henare, who is also Whānau Ora and Associate Health Minister, said the government had been working closely with iwi leaders to ensure tamariki could receive the vaccine, and was looking towards the schools for when they reopened.
Another milestone day
Today was another milestone day in the vaccination campaign in New Zealand, Ardern said.
New Zealanders have been able to get boosters since early January and online bookings open from today.
“For children of course they are able to be booked in now via Book My Vaccine … we’ve heard that whānau are coming in to get both their booster and to bring their children in to be vaccinated as well.”
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says it is a matter of if, not when, Omicron is in the community. Image: Marika Khabazi/RNZ
Today Ardern received her booster dose of the covid-19 vaccination.
She says it was possible 80 percent of the country’s population could be boosted by the end of February.
She thanked all those putting in mahi so far, to get the booster roll-out well underway.
Over half of eligible New Zealanders have had their booster, she says.
66,000 make bookings
“The traffic on the website today has been good, she says, with over 66,000 people having made a booking by midday compared to about 12,000 on other recent days.
Aotearoa’s first community case of the omicron variant of covid-19 was announced yesterday. The person is a border worker in Auckland and has 50 close contacts.
The worker, who was infectious from January 10, took two bus services in Auckland and visited a supermarket and four other stores in the city.
Ardern said when it comes to omicron in the community it is a matter of when, not if.
“New Zealanders have had the break that we hoped they would get but we know that with omicron it is a case of when, not if, and that is why the booster campaign is just so critical.”
The government would look to move into the red traffic light setting if Omicron was spreading in the community, Ardern says.
“What I expect is over the coming weeks to be able to share with you some of the additional preparation that has been done over and above the work that we did on delta, for the specific issue of omicron and what it represents.
“We have the ability to learn from other nations and see the impact or the way that omicron is behaving and prepare ourselves.”
Changes in testing, isiolation
“This will mean changes including to the way testing, isolation and contact tracing is done, and the details will be shared in the coming weeks.
“We’ve managed to get delta down to extraordinarily low levels, that means the risk posed by opening that border, now is very low. We are in the right place now to remove those requirements.”
Ardern said the traffic light system was designed to deal with surges, outbreaks and had the possibility of new variants in mind. She said the measures under the red setting were designed to slow the spread of a variant like omicron.
Another update on traffic light settings would be given on Thursday, she said.
Vaccination passes do not currently have the booster set within them. Ardern said the option to include that in future is being retained, but getting a booster remained the best way to protect against omicron.
“We’re doing what we can but I think it would be wrong to assume those border measures will be sufficient. At some point we will see omicron in the community … we should always assume at any time.”
Eruption crisis in Tonga Defence Minister Peeni Henare said he understood power had been restored in large parts of the Tongan capital Nuku’alofa.
Ardern said the RNZAF Orion had been undertaking an assessment from the air of the outer islands in particular to provide that information to the Tongan authorities.
The C-130 would perform naval drops, with planning being done to enable that regardless of the status of the airport.
“I understand that on the ground of course that Tonga has also now by sea dispatched to the outer islands.”
She says the C-130 was expected to fly today regardless, and would be able to meet immediate supply needs.
Henare said it is being ensured that the C-130 had the necessities on board. He said the aerial assessment being done would help with that.
The response must be directed to where it was needed the most, he said.
Navy able to deploy quickly
Ardern said the navy was able to deploy very quickly.
She said communication had been difficult but the flight today along with communication with officials on the ground would help establish the needs of those in Tonga, but they knew water was needed.
She cautioned that while there had been reports that some islands had seen no casualties, it was still early days.
It is thought the connectivity problems with the underwater cable stemmed from power outages, she said.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
50 years ago on 30 January, in the Bogside of Derry city, civil rights protesters marched against the British government’s policy of internment without trial. Started in August 1971, this policy resulted in the arrest and imprisonment of almost 2,000 Irish republicans, Catholics, and nationalists over a four-year period. The peaceful protest began at 3pm, and about one hour later 13 people were dead. A 14th man later died from his wounds. The British parachute regiment murdered them all.
Despite the 2010 Bloody Sunday Saville inquiry exonerating those 14 people from any wrong-doing – which their families already knew – not one British soldier went on trial. In fact, in July 2021, the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) announced that soldier F – the one soldier from that day who was supposed to stand trial – would no longer do so. The PPS said there wasn’t a reasonable chance of getting a conviction. Then in December 2021, in political magazine Village, author David Burke reported something even more sinister about the day of the massacre:
The behaviour of Support Company of 1 Para, also known as ‘Kitson’s Private Army’, [general Frank Kitson] on Bloody Sunday, indicates that a secret mission was assigned to them, or some designated number of them.
Burke claims the two paratrooper companies (C Company and Support Company) in Derry that day were on two separate missions. C Company, who “wielded batons”, were prepared to engage potential rioting and make arrests. Support Company, meanwhile, donned war paint and had their rifles ready.
Inquiries, inquiries
The day after the massacre, British prime minister Ted Heath announced that lord Widgery would chair a judicial inquiry. But the Widgery inquiry was a total cover up. It ignored key witnesses and evidence and attempted to blame the march organisers for the 14 deaths. Additionally, it threatened the media with contempt of court should it report on the inquiry’s anticipated findings.
As the British government announced Widgery’s inquiry, the British Information Service told lies about those its soldiers had murdered. It claimed four of the dead were on their wanted list, and another victim had nail bombs in his pocket. All completely false.
While the much lauded 2010 Saville report exonerated the victims, it didn’t fully call out Widgery’s outright lies. It simply told families what they had already known – their loved ones had done nothing wrong. No prosecutions followed. So in effect, it was another whitewash.
Separate missions and MI5
Burke claims four of the soldiers in Support Company, including soldier F who he names, may have been acting on:
secret orders from [colonel Derek Wilford] to provoke a reaction from the IRA
This would have given Support Company the “excuse it needed to invade ‘Free Derry’” so it could engage in “a street battle with the IRA”. At that time, Free Derry was a no-go area for British police and the army. But the IRA wasn’t active in the area that day.
According to Burke, the parachute regiment wasn’t necessarily interested in whether the IRA was active or not. He claims British military intelligence and MI5 had a “deceitful” spy working in Free Derry. This spy then lied about the presence of 40 IRA gunmen that day. This, according to Burke, would have been “like a red rag to a bull” for Kitson and Wilford. But Burke also believes that the parachute regiment’s plan of attack would have gone ahead without the peddled lies.
So it would appear as if Soldier F, as well as others in Support Company, were acting on orders and a clear plan for that day. The rest is now tragic history.
Fighting back against the Tory amnesty and “collusive behaviours”
The Tories appear set on proceeding with an amnesty that would protect people like soldier F, and his commanders, from prosecution. Before that amnesty even becomes law, the PPS has decided, for now at least, that soldier F won’t stand trial. Families of soldier F’s victims haven’t given up, though. Instead, they’re seeking a judicial review of that decision.
In what appeared to be an act of solidarity with soldier F’s victims, Colum Eastwood, leader of the Irish nationalist party SDLP, named this soldier under parliamentary privilege. Eastwood did this just days after the PPS announced the decision not to prosecute. He said:
The people of Derry know his name. There is no reason for him to be granted anonymity. No other perpetrator involved would be given anonymity, for some reason Soldier F is a protected species.
In the lead up to Bloody Sunday commemorations, the Northern Ireland police ombudsman released its findings from an investigation into alleged collusion between police and loyalist terror gangs. On 14 January, the ombudsman’s report said there had been “collusive behaviours” between the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), and British police.
This report looked at the years 1989 to 1993. These “collusive behaviours” involved the murders of 19 people and the attempted murder of two others. But the ombudsman:
found no evidence that the RUC [previous name for the PSNI – Police Service of Northern Ireland] had any prior knowledge of the attacks.
The announcement came as little surprise to victims’ families. And, along with Bloody Sunday, it marks yet another dark chapter of Britain’s role in Ireland.
Support from Corbyn
It’s been 50 years without any real justice. But Kate Nash, one of the founding members of the Bloody Sunday March for Justice, told The Canary that the absence of justice “doesn’t take its toll” on the justice campaign team at all. In fact, they’ll continue to “put pressure of the British government” she says. Nash is part of a cross-community campaign for the British government to drop their plans for an amnesty.
Bloody Sunday March for Justice has a full programme of events from 24 to 30 January. This includes a conversation on 28 January between Jeremy Corbyn and Bloody Sunday justice campaigner and journalist Eamonn McCann.
Given it’s the 50th anniversary and that poet Thomas Kinsella died a few weeks ago, it seems fitting to end with an extract from his poemButcher’s Dozen. He wrote this in the aftermath of the massacre:
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says there are no official reports of injuries or deaths in Tonga in the wake of the undersea volcano eruption and tsunami, but communication with the kingdom is very limited.
Communication with the island nation has been cut off since yesterday evening and members of the Tongan community in New Zealand are desperately awaiting news of their loved ones.
In a post on her Facebook page, Ardern said images of the underwater volcanic eruption on Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai were “hugely concerning”.
She told the media briefing today communication as a result of the eruption had been difficult but the New Zealand Defence Force and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were working to establish what was needed and how to help.
Ardern said the undersea cable had been impacted, probably because of power cuts, and authorities were trying urgently to restore communications.
Local mobile phones were not working, she said.
A significant clean up would be needed. Authorities were still trying to make communication with some of the smaller islands, she said.
NZ offers $500,000 donation
Ash had stopped falling in the capital Nuku’alofa, she said.
The Tongan government has accepted a New Zealand government offer for a reconnaissance flight, and an Orion will take off tomorrow morning provided conditions allow.
At present ash has been spotted at 63,000 feet.
The government is also announcing a $500,000 donation which is very much a “starting point”, Ardern said.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s media conference about Tonga today. Video: RNZ News
A naval vessel has also been put on standby to assist if necessary.
Ardern has also been in touch with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison so that both governments can work in tandem in their response.
Ardern said she had not been able to speak to the Tongan Prime Minister, because communications were so difficult.
Little information on outer islands
“At the moment we are mainly receiving information from our High Commission …unfortunately from the outer islands we don’t have a lot of information,” she said.
Pacific Peoples Minister Aupito William Sio said the Tongan Consul General Lenisiloti Sitafooti Aho had confirmed Tonga’s Royal family were safe.
The New Zealand High Commission advised that the tsunami had had a significant impact on the foreshore on the northern side of Nuku’alofa, with boats and large boulders washed ashore.
Shops along the coast had been damaged and there would need to be a major cleanup, Ardern said.
The undersea volcano eruption in Tonga on 15 January 2022. The eruption of the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano came just a few hours after Friday’s tsunami warning was lifted. Image: RNZ/Tonga Meteorological Services/EyePress/AFP
While ash had stopped falling in Nuku’alofa, it was having a big impact on the island, initial reports indicated.
Authorities were still trying to make communication with some of the smaller islands, Ardern said.
“There are parts of Tonga where we just don’t know yet – we just haven’t established communication.”
Satellite images revealed the ‘scale’
Ardern said satellite images “really brought home the scale of that volcanic eruption,” adding that people know how close Tonga was to the volcano, so it was very concerning for those trying to contact their relatives.
Sio said there had been overwhelming concern in New Zealand for whānau in Tonga. Pacific people were resilient people who had experienced hurricanes and storms before and knew how to respond, he said.
He appealed for people to allow officials the time to ascertain how best to respond effectively.
Ardern said anyone in the Pacific region, such as holidaymakers, should heed local advice.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
If I was to say prince Andrew Windsor is something of an oddity, you’d probably look at his family and say “so… like the rest of them then?”. And you wouldn’t exactly be wrong. But what I mean specifically is that unlike most of his military-cosplaying family, he actually did serve in a conflict. In his case, it was the Falklands/Malvinas War as a helicopter pilot.
It was there, he told the BBC (during a now infamous interview meant to offset the impact of abuse allegations), that he suffered an overload of adrenalin which left him allegedly unable to sweat. That unusual claim has since been challenged by his accuser, Virginia Giuffre. Giuffre claims to have been sex trafficked by the now-convicted Ghislaine Maxwell at the direction of the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. She claims she was subsequently sexually abused by the prince – charges he denies.
The latest turn in Windsor’s ongoing scandal of alleged sexual abuse shows something important. That is, like the monarchy, we place the military on a pedestal it does not deserve. As if it’s an institution which represents the very highest moral standards.
Stripped
It must have stung the duke to lose his titles by order of the queen this week. The duke’s ‘His Royal Highness’ (HRH) title was also rescinded. As a result, he was told he would have to face the coming civil action as a private citizen.
The move followed an open letter to the queen from a group of 150 ex-military members. It asked that the prince be removed from the various honorary military roles he had occupied. So, no more LARPing as a colonel in the Grenadier Guards for Windsor.
Other roles removed include, according to the Guardian:
honorary air commodore of RAF Lossiemouth; colonel-in-chief of the Royal Irish Regiment; colonel-in-chief of the Small Arms School Corps; commodore-in-chief of the Fleet Air Arm; royal colonel of the Royal Highland Fusiliers; deputy colonel-in-chief of the Royal Lancers (Queen Elizabeths’ Own); and royal colonel of the Royal Regiment of Scotland.
Veterans
150 former military personnel published their open letter on 13 January. The letter was formulated with the anti-monarchist campaign group Republic. In it, the veterans say Windsor’s position was “untenable”:
We are therefore asking that you take immediate steps to strip Prince Andrew of all his military ranks and titles and, if necessary, that he be dishonourably discharged.
It is clear for all to see that Prince Andrew has been proven unfit to wear the uniform of any of Britain’s armed forces. That he is able to continue in numerous roles within the military is a disgrace, and an insult to those who continue to serve with distinction.
Martial fantasy
But there’s a problem with these claims. And it isn’t just that it shows how limited and centrist republicanism is in this country. More importantly, there’s no basis whatsoever for the suggestion that the military is adverse to a culture of misogyny, rape, or sexual abuse. If current reports are anything to go by, these issues are endemic.
In 2021, a landmark parliamentary report showed that two-thirds of women service personnel had faced sexual harassment or abuse. As the Guardian had reported, it:
…features evidence of gang rape, sex for career advancement and trophies to ‘bag the woman’
This was the real face of military culture around women.
Under the rug
MP, veteran, and subcommittee chair for women in the armed forces Sarah Atherton said at the time:
The stories we heard paint a difficult picture for women. A woman raped in the military often has to live and work with the accused perpetrator, with fears that speaking out would damage her career.
She added that:
We heard accusations of senior officers sweeping complaints under the rug to protect their own reputations and careers. While many commanding officers want to do the right thing, it is clear that, too often, female service personnel are being let down by the chain of command.
Spike
In October 2021, the Child Rights International Network published figures on sexual violence against young women and girls in the military. These showed a spike in such offences in recent years.
Then in December 2021, measures were proposed as amendments to the Armed Forces Bill 2021. The aim was to make the military a safer place for women. But in the end, key proposals were voted down. And Atherton, who rebelled in the final Commons vote, resigned from her government role.
No moral institution
There’s a problem in the way we look at our major institutions in this country. The truth? Well, neither the monarchy nor the military set a moral example for us. And the notion that the military is too upstanding to have an accused abuser associated with it is wrong. Ultimately, this kind of poorly thought out claim does a disservice to us all.
Via America’s Lawyer: Thousands of military families in Hawaii were endangered by toxic drinking water that was tainted by jet fuel leaking from Pearl Harbor. Mike Papantonio is joined by attorney Joshua Harris to explain how the US Navy is now being forced to play cleanup. Transcript: *This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse […]
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