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Predictable and deplorable: US lawmakers vow to slam door on refugees

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As more than a dozen governors pledge to close state borders, advocates decry actions as cowardly and ‘un-American’

A Syrian woman holds her baby after their arrival on a small boat from the Turkish coast on the northeastern Greek island of Lesbos Monday, Nov. 16, 2015. (Photo: AP/Santi Palacios)

A Syrian woman holds her baby after their arrival on a small boat from the Turkish coast on the northeastern Greek island of Lesbos Monday, Nov. 16, 2015. (Photo: AP/Santi Palacios)

by Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams

In what appears to be a textbook case of xenophobia and political fearmongering in the wake of a tragedy, more than a dozen U.S. governors have declared their states off-limits to Syrian refugees in the days following Friday’s terror attacks in Paris.

The leaders of Wisconsin, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Arizona, Florida, Ohio, Maine, Mississippi, Louisiana, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Texas, and Arkansas on Monday all pledged to stop or oppose any additional Syrian refugees from resettling in their states, following announcements made by the governors of Alabama and Michigan on Sunday.

New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan was the first Democratic governor to join her Republican counterparts.

In a statement Monday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the country’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization, decried the rolling announcements as “un-American,” saying those who reject refugees are allowing fear to overrun national ideals.

“This un-American rejection of refugees, who will face significant security checks prior to entry, sends entirely the wrong message,” CAIR said. “Governors who reject those fleeing war and persecution abandon our ideals and instead project our fears to the world.”

Responding to news that Michigan Governor Dan Snyder would rescind his previous commitment to accept Syrian refugees into his state, Lonnie Scott, executive director of Progress Michigan declared: “This type of behavior is the exact cowardice and capitulation that the terrorists seek to force out of our elected leaders. Instead of stoking the fear that drives his party to a frenzy, Gov. Snyder should do the right thing and show Michiganders that we’re a state that will accept responsibility as global citizens to do our part to help people in crisis and that we can do that in a way that is both safe and responsible.”

Similarly, the ACLU of Florida issued a statement denouncing Governor Rick Scott for “blaming Syrian refugees for the very violence they are escaping.”

“We mourn those lost in the horrific attacks in Paris, Beirut and Baghdad, and wish to express our condolences, grief and condemnation,” the ACLU continued. “However, we must also warn against what we have often seen since 9/11: the impulse in the wake of a terrorist attack to overreact and curtail the freedoms that make our country great.”

In response to the prospects of a similar backlash in Europe, the UK-based refugee council said on Monday, “The world was moved by the response of Parisians who rallied round to help each other—opening their doors to people fleeing the murderous attacks. We should follow this example by offering safety to others who need it. We cannot leave refugees fleeing to Europe from these very same terrorists without safe haven.”

“We cannot use these deplorable events as an excuse to turn our backs on vulnerable refugees; compromising our most cherished values in the face of terror,” the statement continued. “We cannot let them divide us. We cannot let hatred and fear win.”

The windfall of anti-refugee sentiment came as U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday announced that the recent terror attacks would not change his plan to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees.

“The people who are fleeing Syria are the most harmed by terrorism; they are the most vulnerable as a consequence of civil war and strife,” Obama declared at the close of the G20 summit in Turkey. “We do not close our hearts to these victims of such violence and somehow start equating the issue of refugees with the issue of terrorism.”

“We don’t have religious tests to our compassion,” he added.

In a letter sent to Obama on Tuesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott specifically urged him to abandon this plan. “Neither you nor any federal official can guarantee that Syrian refugees will not be part of any terroristic activity,” Abbott stated. “As such, opening our door to them irresponsibly exposes our fellow Americans to unacceptable peril.”

Predictably, the move to close U.S. borders is being championed by Republican presidential candidates, including Ben Carson, Ohio Governor John Kasich, and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who on Sunday said U.S. resettlement efforts should focus on Christian refugees.

Not to be outdone, Senator Rand Paul on Monday said he would introduce a bill to put an immediate moratorium on U.S. visas for refugees “as well as others from obtaining visas to immigrate, visit, or study in the U.S. from about 30 countries that have significant jihadist movements.” Paul told reporters in a press call that the legislation would be paid for “with a special tax on arms sales to any of these countries.”

Despite the political bombast, legal experts are questioning whether such restrictions can even be made by state officials. According to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case of Hines v. Davidowitz, “the supremacy of the national power in the general field of foreign affairs, including power over immigration, naturalization and deportation, is made clear by the Constitution.”

Or as Jen Smyers, associate director for immigration and refugee policy at the Church World Service, told Mother Jones, “There are really clear discrimination protections against saying someone can’t be in your state depending on where you’re from.”

However, as journalist Glenn Greenwald noted in this tongue-in-cheek Biblical reference, elected officials claim to take their directions from a higher moral authority.

Jeb Bush: Only Christians should be allowed refugee status in response to Paris attack

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Jeb Bush

by David Edwards Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush said over the weekend that the U.S. should respond to the terrorist attacks in Paris by carefully screening out Syrian refugees who are not Christians.

“As it relates to the refugees, I think we need to do thorough screen,” Bush told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday. “And take a limited number. But ultimately, the best way to deal with the refugee crisis is to create safe zones inside of Syria so that people don’t risk their lives, and you don’t have what will be a national security challenge for both our country and for Europe of screening.”

But there was one group which should be allowed to take refuge in the U.S., the former Florida governor argued.

“There are a lot of Christians in Syria that have no place now,” he explained. “They’ll be either executed or imprisoned, either by Assad or by ISIS. And I think we should have — we should focus our efforts as it relates to the Christians that are being slaughtered.”

Tapper wondered how screeners would know which refugees were Christians.

“We do that all the time,” Bush insisted. “I think we need to be — obviously — very, very cautious. This also calls to mind the need to protect our borders, our southern border particularly.”

“This is a threat against Western civilization, and we need to lead. The United States has pulled back and when we pull back, voids are filled. And they’re filled now by Islamic terrorism that threatens our country.”

Watch the video below from CNN’s State of the Union, broadcast Nov. 15, 2015.

After Paris attacks, critics warn against ‘wars of vengeance’

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Meanwhile, human rights advocates predict backlash against refugees

A vigil in Prague for Paris on Saturday. (Photo: Bianca Dagheti/flickr/cc)

A vigil in Prague for Paris on Saturday. (Photo: Bianca Dagheti/flickr/cc)

by Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams

As details trickled out about Friday’s deadly attacks in and around Paris, observers urged world leaders to avoid knee-jerk responses both at home and abroad.

“The true test for France is how they respond to the terror attacks in the long-game—that’s the king in all this,” said analyst and former U.S. Foreign Service employee Peter Van Buren in an op-ed Sunday. “America failed this test post-9/11; yet it does not sound like France understands anything more than America. ‘We are going to lead a war which will be pitiless,’ French president [François] Hollande said outside the Bataclan concert hall, scene of the most bloodshed.”

Indeed, beating the drum for “all-out war” would not be strategically sound, critics cautioned in the wake of the attacks.

ISIS leadership “is hoping to precipitate a Western ground offensive in Syria that would be as disastrous as the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the very invasion that fed what would become the ‘Islamic State’,” wrote author and academic Jean-Pierre Filiu, a professor of Middle East studies the Paris School of International Affairs, at Politico on Sunday.

And there’s little reason to think France and its Western allies won’t take the bait. The Intercept‘s Murtaza Hussain similarly warned: “I’m pretty much certain whatever is done in response to this attack will end up further exacerbating terrorism. This is the post-9/11 model.”

“But,” Phyllis Bennis wrote for The Nation, “wars of vengeance won’t work for France anymore than they worked for the United States.”

“Terrorism survives wars; people don’t,” she said. “We saw the proof of that again last night in Paris, and we saw it the day before in Beirut. We were hearing sounds of victory from US war-makers. The Obama strategy was working, they said… Yet the war—a new version of that same ‘global war on terror’—is still being waged, and clearly it still isn’t working. Because you can’t bomb terrorism—you can only bomb people. You can bomb cities. Sometimes you might kill a terrorist—but that doesn’t end terrorism; it only encourages more of it.”

As of Sunday evening—just hours after it was launched—a petition rejecting “any attempt by political leaders to exploit tragic events to promote more war” had already garnered more than 10,000 signatures.

‘Paris Changes Everything’

Immediately in the wake of Friday’s attacks, as Hollande declared a state of emergency, re-established external border controls, and mobilized the French military, fears emerged of a backlash against refugees in Europe.

“The recent violence will help justify the policies of those who most fear the influx of refugees,” warned Cassie Werber at Quartz.

Indeed, Agence France-Presse reported Sunday that the French police’s discovery of a Syrian passport near the body of one attacker in particular “has sparked concerns that some of the assailants might have entered Europe as part of the huge influx of people fleeing Syria’s civil war.”

Poland’s new European Affairs Minister Konrad Szymanski said that the attacks ruled out the chances of taking in refugees under the scheme to help ease the burden on EU frontier states Italy and Greece. And Bavarian finance minister Markus Soeder told Welt am Sonntag newspaper: “The days of uncontrolled immigration and illegal entry can’t continue just like that. Paris changes everything.”

However, Werber continued: “This stirring-up of anti-immigrant, and anti-Muslim, feeling is no accident. It is, in fact, one of the expressed aims of the groups that organize attacks on Western targets.”

Guardian migration correspondent Patrick Kingsley agreed, questioning the narrative of the Syrian passport and noting it strange “that a bomber would remember to bring his passport on a mission, particularly one who does not intend to return alive.”

“One theory is that ISIS hopes to turn Europe against Syrian refugees,” Kingsley wrote. “This would reinforce the idea of unresolvable divisions between east and west, and Christians and Muslims, and so persuade Syrians that Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate is their best hope of protection. ‘You know what pissed off Islamist extremists the most about Europe?’ summarised Iyad El-Baghdadi, an activist and jihadi-watcher, on Twitter. ‘It was watching their very humane, moral response to the refugee crisis’.”

Because, as regional expert Aaron Y. Zelin wrote at his blog, Jihadology, on Saturday:

The reality is, The Islamic State (IS) loathes that individuals are fleeing Syria for Europe. It undermines IS’ message that its self-styled Caliphate is a refuge, because if it was, individuals would actually go there in droves since it’s so close instead of 100,000s of people risking their lives through arduous journeys that could lead to death en route to Europe.

In fact, Margaret Corvid pointed out at The Establishment: “Closing the borders as the terrifying war continues in Syria will not punish the terrorists; it will only cause more needless suffering and death, including to innocent children.”

‘Desperate to Shift Blame’

Meanwhile, at The Intercept, journalist Glenn Greenwald explores how U.S. “‘officials’ and their various media allies” are exploiting the Paris attacks in an attempt to vilify NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden—and in turn shift the focus from their own failures.

After acknowledging how absurd it would be to believe that “The Terrorists only learned to avoid telephones and use encryption once Snowden came along,” Greenwald argues that such claims have a larger goal in mind.

The perpetrators of these accusations, he concludes, “are desperate to shift blame away from themselves for ISIS and terror attacks and onto Edward Snowden, journalism about surveillance, or encryption-providing tech companies,” Greenwald said. “Wouldn’t you if you were them? Imagine simultaneously devoting all your efforts to depicting ISIS as the Greatest and Most Evil Threat Ever, while knowing the vital role you played in its genesis and growth.”

French jets pound Raqqa as G20 pledges new ISIL fight

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Two days after attacks in Paris claimed by ISIL, France targets the group’s Syrian stronghold.

Al-Raqqah

by Al Jazeera

French warplanes have hit the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group’s Syrian stronghold of Raqqa, as world leaders pledged to renew their fight against the armed group, which claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks that killed at least 129 people.

In its first air strikes against ISIL since the Paris attacks, 12 warplanes, including 10 fighter bombers, dropped 20 bombs on the targets on Sunday night, the French defence ministry said.

“The first target destroyed was used by Daesh [ISIL] as a command post, jihadist recruitment centre and arms and munitions depot. The second held a terrorist training camp,” a ministry statement said.

The planes left from Jordan and the UAE and the strikes were conducted in coordination with US forces, the ministry said.

Writing on Twitter, the anti-ISIL activist group Raqqa is Being Silently Slaughtered said air strikes had also hit a stadium, a museum, clinics, a hospital, a chicken farm and a local governmental building.

Water and electricity were cut across the city as a result of the raids, the group said, adding that at least 30 air strikes had been carried out.

The group said no civilian casualties had been immediately reported.

Earlier on Sunday, leaders of the world’s 20 major economies (G20) pledged a renewed fight against ISIL, but offered few details on how the strategy would change.

Although the G20 usually focuses on economic issues, the President of host country Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, urged world leaders to prioritise the battle against ISIL, saying Friday’s assaults in Paris proved that the time for words was now over.

The attacks left at least 129 people dead and more than 350 others injured.

ISIL also claimed responsibility for a bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed at least 43 people on Thursday.

“We are confronted with a collective terrorism activity around the world. As you know, terrorism does not recognise any religion, any race, any nation, or any country,” Erdogan said.

US President Barack Obama, meanwhile, affirmed his country’s support for Paris in the wake of the attacks, saying: “We stand in solidarity with them [France] in hunting down the perpetrators of this crime and bringing them to justice.”

He pledged to “redouble” US efforts to eliminate ISIL, but offered no details about what the US or its coalition partners might do to step up its assault against the group.

French President Francois Hollande cancelled his attendance at the summit, and sent Laurent Fabius, the Foreign Minister, to represent him.

The attacks in Paris prompted a worldwide alert and called for a stepped-up offensive against ISIL.
The US already expects France to retaliate by taking on a larger role in the US-led coalition’s bombing campaign against the group.

The summit in Antalya brings Obama and fellow world leaders just 500km from Syria, where a four-and-a-half-year conflict has transformed ISIL into a global security threat and prompted Europe’s largest migration flow in decades.

Daesh releases official statement claiming responsibility for Paris attacks

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Police investigators pass near a sign smeared with what appears to be blood near the Stade de France stadium the morning after a series of deadly attacks in Paris , November 14, 2015. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier.

Police investigators pass near a sign smeared with what appears to be blood near the Stade de France stadium the morning after a series of deadly attacks in Paris , November 14, 2015. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier.

by Al Bawaba

Daesh (also known as the Islamic State) released a statement claiming responsibility for the coordinated attacks in Paris, reported Reuters. “Soldiers of Caliphate has targeted the capital of abomination and perversion,” said the statement in French.

According to the statement, Daesh members armed with suicide belts and machine guns attacked multiple “specifically chosen” locations in Paris. The attacks were retaliation for French airstrikes against Daesh and insults against the Prophet Mohammed.

The group also urged its members who cannot travel to Syria to conduct attacks in France, and called the country its “top target.”

French President Francois Hollande said the group was responsible for the attacks in a statement Saturday morning.

At least 120 killed as shootings and explosions stir chaotic scenes in Paris

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Gunmen and bombers attacked busy restaurants, bars and a concert hall at six locations around Paris on Friday evening

Medics move a wounded man near the Boulevard des Filles-du-Calvaire after an attack November 13, 2013 in Paris, France. Gunfire and explosions in multiple locations erupted in the French capital with early casualty reports indicating at least 60 dead. (Photo by Thierry Chesnot/Getty Images)

Medics move a wounded man near the Boulevard des Filles-du-Calvaire after an attack November 13, 2013 in Paris, France. Gunfire and explosions in multiple locations erupted in the French capital with early casualty reports indicating at least 60 dead. (Photo by Thierry Chesnot/Getty Images)

by Al Jazeera

A state of emergency has been declared across France after attacks in Paris killed at least 128 people, in what President Francois Holland said was an “act of war” organised by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

Four gunmen killed at least 80 young people attending a rock concert at the Bataclan music hall on Friday evening, city hall officials said. Heavily armed policemen eventually launched an assault on the building.

The gunmen detonated explosive belts and dozens of shocked survivors were rescued. The attackers were killed at the site and a manhunt is under way as a number of armed men are believed to be at large.

About 40 more people were killed in five other attacks in the Paris region, officials said, including an apparent triple suicide bombing outside the national stadium, Stade de France.

Hollande and the German foreign minister were watching a friendly football match between France and Germany there when the attacks occurred.

The coordinated assault came as France, a member of the US-led coalition waging air strikes against ISIL fighters in Syria and Iraq, was on high alert for attacks.

ISIL video

The ISIL group released an undated video on Saturday threatening to attack France if bombings of its fighters in the Middle East continued.

The group’s foreign media arm, Al-Hayat Media Centre, made the threat through a man who called on French Muslims to carry out attacks.

“As long as you keep bombing you will not live in peace. You will even fear travelling to the market,” said the bearded Arabic-speaking man, flanked by others.

Paris Public Prosecutor Francois Molins said the death toll was at least 128 and that about 200 people were injured, 90 of them seriously.

His spokeswoman said eight assailants had also died, seven of whom had blown themselves up with explosive belts at various locations, while one had been shot dead by police.

As France awakened on Saturday, security was tight across the capital, where about 1,500 soldiers were deployed, leave was cancelled for police personnel and hospitals recalled staff to cope with the casualties.

Three restaurants and a shopping centre were also targeted in shooting attacks.

Reports also said that Paris has cancelled all public transportation services including the Metro on Saturday, as French newspapers decried a “War in the heart of Paris” with black mastheads.

The deadliest attack was on the Bataclan, a popular concert venue where the California rock group Eagles of Death Metal was performing.

The concert hall is just a few hundred metres from the former offices of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, target of a deadly attack by gunmen in January.

Some witnesses in the hall said they heard the gunmen shout Islamic chants and slogans condemning France’s role in Syria.

“It was carnage in that concert hall,” freelance journalist John Laurenson told Al Jazeera from Paris, adding that the death toll was higher than initially announced.

Julien Pearce, a journalist from Europe 1 radio, was inside the concert hall when the shooting began.

In an eye witness report posted on the station’s website, Pearce said several very young individuals, who were not wearing masks, entered the hall during the concert, armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles and started “blindly shooting at the crowd”.

“There were bodies everywhere,” he said.

The gunmen shot their victims in the back, finishing some off at point-blank range before reloading their guns and firing again, Pearce said, after escaping into the street by a stage door, carrying a wounded girl on his shoulder.

In a separate incident, police said a gunman opened fire with a Kalashnikov at a Cambodian restaurant called Le Petit Cambodge late on Friday, killing at least 14 people who were sitting at the outdoor terrace in the popular Charonne area in the capital’s 10th district.

The prosecutor mentioned five locations in close proximity where shootings took place around the same time.

Residents in Paris were asked to stay indoors as attackers could still be on the loose, French media reported.

Al Jazeera’s Jacky Rowland, reporting from Paris, said: “Certainly from the very first moment the police were searching from various other bars and restaurants they were asking people to clear out bars and restaurants in the area. Clearly, police are very concerned about other potential targets.”

Police evacuated people from all bars and restaurants in the area of the 10th and 11th arrondissement, a part of Paris popular with young people and tourists.

Madeline Berry, who was dining at a restaurant in the area, told Al Jazeera: “I was just having dinner with some friends. All the sudden we noticed people moving to the back of the restaurant.

“They basically shut the shutters of the restaurant and turned the music off. People are calling their families, everyone is on the mobile phones calling their families.”

Wounded people were evacuated from the scene of a hostage situation at the Bataclan theatre in Paris [Yoan Valat/EPA]

Two explosions were heard near the Stade de France in the northern suburb of Saint-Denis, where the France-Germany friendly soccer match was being played. The blasts were audible on television during the live broadcast.

A witness said one of the detonations blew people into the air outside a McDonald’s restaurant opposite the stadium.

The match continued until the end, but panic broke out in the crowd as rumours of the attack spread, and spectators were held in the stadium and assembled spontaneously on the pitch.

Police helicopters circled the stadium as Hollande was rushed back to the interior ministry to deal with the situation.

“We have, on my decision, mobilised all forces possible to neutralise the terrorists and make all concerned areas safe. I have also asked for military reinforcements. They are currently in the Paris area, to ensure that no new attack can take place,” Hollande said in a television statement after an emergency cabinet meeting.

International condemnation 

US President Barack Obama called the attacks in Paris “outrageous” and said the US was united with France.

“Once again we’ve seen an outrageous attempt to terrorise innocent civilians,” Obama told reporters at the White House.

“We stand prepared and ready to provide whatever assistance that the government and the people of France need,” he said, and pledged to “bring these terrorists to justice and go after any terrorist networks” involved.

“Those who think that they can terrorise the people of France or the values that they stand for are wrong,” Obama said.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said he was “shocked” by the events in Paris.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the French people. We will do whatever we can to help,” he wrote on Twitter.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was “profoundly shocked” by the attacks.

“At this time, my thoughts are with the victims of these apparently terrorist attacks, and with their families and all residents of Paris,” Merkel said in a statement.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Pennsylvania, Malcolm Nance, a security and intelligence consultant, said it was likely that either IISIL or al-Qaeda was behind the attacks.

“We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that this is actually an occurrence almost every day throughout the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. We just had an attack in Beirut which killed almost 40 people; we had a bombing of a Russian airliner over Egypt,” he said.

“These mass-casualty attacks are hallmarks of al-Qaeda and the ISIL organisation. It appears now that the battlefront has moved from the Middle East and is now at the forefront of the Atlantic Ocean.”

Football fans at the Stade de France after the international friendly match between France and Germany [The Associated Press]

Suu Kyi’s party wins majority in historic Myanmar vote

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Nobel laureate’s party captures two-thirds majority – enough seats to choose the country’s next president.

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has led her NLD party to a majority in parliament [Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters]

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has led her NLD party to a majority in parliament [Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Yangon: Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition party won a majority in parliament on Friday in the Southeast Asian nation’s historic election.

With votes still being counted, the Union Election Commission said the National League for Democracy (NLD) party had crossed the 329 threshold of seats needed for an outright majority in both houses of the 664-member parliament.

The country’s first free election in 25 years took place on Sunday.

“The people of Myanmar have been dutiful and it is time for the NLD to try to fulfill the wishes of the people,” senior party official U Tin Oo told Al Jazera outside of its headquarters. “The NLD has to try hard to change.”

Phil Robertson from New York-based Human Rights Watch said it was time to move on from the country’s bloody past.

“Obviously the people of Burma have had their voices heard,” Robertson told Al Jazeera. “I think it’s important we know who has won this election, and now the very hard work of moving beyond the human rights abuses of the government comes into play.”

NLD captured 21 lower house seats on Friday, the election commission said, taking its total to 348 seats with 82.9 percent of the vote now confirmed.

The ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party has won 140 seats so far.

The party holding a majority is able to select the next president, who can then name a cabinet and form a new government.

Suu Kyi won the last free vote in 1990, but the military ignored the result. She spent most of the next 20 years under house arrest before her release in 2010.

Friday’s majority announcement came exactly five years to the day when Suu Kyi was freed from house arrest. Al Jazeera’s correspondent Wayne Hay was there.

“I had to sneak into the country to cover the 2010 election,” recalled Hay. “On this exact day five years ago, we were here outside the home of the NLD’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi as she was released from her last period of house arrest.”

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate is barred from taking the presidency because she’s married to a foreigner under a constitution written by the then-ruling generals to preserve their power.

But Suu Kyi has said that may change once her party is in power.

On Thursday, the country’s powerful military rulers – who have dominated Myanmar’s politics for decades – congratulated Suu Kyi on her electoral win and pledged a peaceful transfer of power.

While election observers have said the vote was for the most part free and fair, some people from minority communities – in particular the Muslim Rohingya  – were denied the right to vote and others were disqualified as candidates.

Myanmar’s government has denied the Rohingya citizenship. Hundreds died in clashes between Rohingya and Buddhists, the religious majority in the country, in 2012.

About 140,000 Rohingya live in squalid camps while thousands more have fled by boat, leading to a regional migration crisis.

While campaigning, Suu Kyi addressed allegations of “genocide” targeting the Muslim Rohingya saying “it is very important” not to “exaggerate the problems” in Myanmar.

“I promise everybody who is living in this country proper protection in accordance with the law, and in accordance with the norms of human rights,” she said.

 

 

Myanmar’s Suu Kyi wins seat, demands military meeting

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Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi re-elected on Wednesday as her NLD party continues to dominate the ballot box.

Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi delivers a speech during a campaign rally [Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP]

Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi delivers a speech during a campaign rally [Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP]

by Al Jazeera

Yangon: Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was officially re-elected to her seat in the lower house of parliament on Wednesday as her National League for Democracy party continued to steam towards victory in the country’s historic elections.

Suu Kyi called on leading members of military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) to meet and discuss what she said would be a decisive win for her opposition party.

The Union Election Commission (UEC) said on Wednesday the Nobel peace laureate had won her seat, and that the NLD had now captured 135 lower house seats in the national parliament out of the 151 officially declared. The opposition has also taken 29 out of 33 seats announced in the upper house.

With the NLD saying it expects to win about 80 percent of the seats up for grabs, Suu Kyi called on President Thein Sein, Shwe Mann, the speaker of the house, and General Min Aung Hlaing to meet with her to discuss the outcome of the elections.

“It is important to implement the people’s will in a peaceful manner for the sake of the country,” she wrote in letters addressed to the three men.

A spokesman for the USDP said on Wednesday that Myanmar’s president and the military would respect the results of Sunday’s vote, but added he would meet Suu Kyi only after those are announced by the election commission.

The military government handed power to a semi-civilian government in 2011, but the army still dominates politics after decades in power. Twenty-five percent of seats in the parliament are reserved for the army.

Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, expressed concern that the election commission was taking so long to announce final results.

“It’s worrisome that the results are taking so long to dribble in, and of course, we’re looking closely at what this means,” Robertson told Al Jazeera. “But far more concerning is the fact that the UEC has the power of investigator, judge and jury in assessing and deciding any election complaints.

“Given the size of the apparent NLD victory, I’m assuming that the military and its allies in the USDP are going to be scraping to hold on to every seat… So it’s entirely plausible to expect more games as this counting process drags on,” he added.

The Associated Press, citing an NLD statement, reported that President Thein Sein congratulated Suu Kyi and promised a peaceful transfer of power. It said a message was received Wednesday from Information Minister Ye Htut on behalf of the president.

The president is quoted as saying: “In accordance with the Union Election Commission’s election results announcement, I would like to congratulate you, the NLD, for leading the race for parliamentary seats.”

Even with a win for her party, Suu Kyi cannot become president under the country’s constitution as she is married to a British citizen and her children have UK passports. Suu Kyi has said that may change.

Imperial Hubris: Obama threatens South Africa with trade sanctions

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S Africa risks suspension of right to ship farm products to US duty-free unless it drops barriers to American products.

The United States says South Africa has been blocking US chicken imports for 15 years [AP]

The United States says South Africa has been blocking US chicken imports for 15 years [AP]

by Al Jazeera

US President Barack Obama has threatened to impose trade sanctions on South Africa for blocking imports of meat from the US.

Obama said on Thursday that he will suspend South Africa’s right to ship farm products to the US duty-free unless it begins to dismantle barriers to American pork, poultry, and beef within 60 days.

“I am taking this step because South Africa continues to impose several long-standing barriers to US trade, including barriers affecting certain US agricultural exports,” he said in a letter to Congress.

At stake are trade benefits South Africa receives under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) which is meant to encourage African countries to open their economies to trade.

The US says South Africa has been blocking US chicken imports for 15 years and has used “unwarranted sanitary restrictions” to keep out US pork and beef.

Mike Brown, president of the US National Chicken Council, backed the move and said it made no sense for the US to give special preferences to countries that treated it unfairly.

“This should send a clear message to South Africa and their poultry industry that they will not be given a ‘Get out of jail free’ card every time AGOA rounds the turn,” he said.

South Africa exported $176m in agricultural products to the US under AGOA in 2014 and potential lost benefits are estimated to total $4m to $7m.

South Africa missed an October 15 deadline to agree to new rules for imports of US poultry and meat products.

The country has banned US poultry imports since last December after an outbreak of bird flu.

More than 200 feared dead in Russian jet crash in Egypt

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Rescue teams locate wreckage of Airbus A-321 belonging to Metrojet which came down in central Sinai Peninsula.

Metrojet's Airbus A-321 is seen in this picture taken in Antalya, Turkey on September 17, 2015 [Kim Philipp Piskol/Reuters]

Metrojet’s Airbus A-321 is seen in this picture taken in Antalya, Turkey on September 17, 2015 [Kim Philipp Piskol/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

A Russian plane carrying more than 200 people has crashed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, Egypt’s civil aviation ministry said.

The statement said search-and-rescue teams found on Saturday the wreckage of the Russian passenger jet in the Hassana area, south of the city of el-Arish, where Egyptian security forces are fighting a local affiliate of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

It said the plane took off from Sinai Peninsula’s Sharm el-Sheikh, a popular destination for Russian tourists, and disappeared from radar screens 23 minutes after take-off.

Egyptian search and rescue team members said they heard voices in a section of the plane, an officer on the scene told Reuters news agency.

The black box which contains the flight data was also found at the scene.

“There is another section of the plane with passengers inside that the rescue team is still trying to enter and we hope to find survivors especially after hearing pained voices of people inside,” the officer said.

Separately, Egypt’s top prosecutor ordered an investigation into the cause of the crash, a source at his office said.

Nabil Sadek, the prosecutor general, ordered the formation of a team of prosecutors tasked with going to the site of the crash and investigating the debris.

A centre to help relatives of the passengers has been set up at Pulkovo airport, Tass news agency quoted St Peterburg city officials as saying.

The office of the Eyptian prime minister, Sharif Ismail, earlier confirmed that a Russian airliner with more than 200 people on board had crashed in central Sinai.

The Airbus 321 was at an altitude of 9,450m when it vanished from radar screens, the ministry said in a statement.

Most of the passengers are said to be Russian tourists, according to reports. The plane was operated by the small Russian airline Kogalymavia, based in western Siberia.

The pilot reportedly requested clearance for an emergency landing at Cairo airport due to a technical malfunction.

Plane tracking website Flight Radar said Metrojet flight #7K9268 disappeared over Egypt 23 minutes after departure from Sharm el-Sheikh.

Conflicting reports

The Russian aviation authority Rosaviatsiya said in a statement that flight 7K 9268 left Sharm el-Sheikh at 06:51 Moscow time (03:51 GMT) and had been due into St Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport at 12:10.

The authority said the aircraft failed to make scheduled contact with Cyprus air traffic control 23 minutes after take-off and disappeared from the radar.

A Cyprus Civil Aviation official said Cairo air traffic control notified Cypriot authorities that they had lost contact with a Russian aircraft early on Saturday.

The official said the aircraft’s last contact was with Egyptian Authorities before disappearing.

He said the aircraft did not make contact with Cypriot authorities.

Turkish government spokespersons said they had no information about the missing Russian plane ever entering Turkish airspace.

Security sources in the Sinai Peninsula later confirmed reports that an aircraft was missing.

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