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Muslims being ‘erased’ from Central African Republic

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Amnesty International says Muslims living in rural areas especially targeted as militias undertake “ethnic cleansing”.

Central African Republic

by Azad Essa, Al Jazeera

Militias have taken advantage of the political vacuum in Central African Republic (CAR), engaging in ethnic cleansing of Muslims in a bid to erase the community from the country, human rights group Amnesty International has said.

Discussing Friday’s report, entitled “Erased identity: Muslims in ethnically cleansed areas of the Central African Republic,” Joanne Mariner, a senior crisis response adviser at the UK-based organisation, told Al Jazeera that Muslims in the western half of the country were being repressed and forced to abandon their religion.

More than 30,000 Muslims are living in seven enclaves, guarded by UN troops, across the country, but for those living outside, especially in rural areas, they are being targeted with impunity, the report found.

“They not allowed to express themselves as Muslims; if they are outside the enclaves, they cannot pray, dress in any way that identifies them as Muslim,” Mariner said.

“Their survival depends on a daily routine of negotiation with anti-Balaka fighters.”

Mariner said that many had been forced convert to Christianity or face persecution from the community

‘Failed state’

More than one million people have been displaced since Muslim-led Seleka rebels took control of Bangui, the capital, in March 2013.

Following a spate of abuses by the Seleka rebels, vigilante groups known as anti-Balaka (anti-machete) emerged to fight off the new leadership.

But the anti-Balaka, made up of animist and Christian fighters, also targeted the country’s Muslim minority, seen as sympathetic to the Seleka.

Amnesty’s report, based on a series of interviews with residents across CAR, says militias “unleashed a violent wave of ethnic cleansing aimed at forcing Muslims to leave the country”.

“The continued insecurity and threat from the anti-Balaka comes from there being an absence of a state,” Mariner said.

Though violence in CAR has tapered off since late 2014, the country remains largely insecure.

The collapse of the state apparatus and the fragility of the transitional government have left parts of the country to the mercy of militia groups in the hinterlands.

Concerns remain that despite the perceived calm, the root causes of the crisis have yet to be addressed.

Amnesty’s report comes just days after the International Rescue Committee said CAR “needs a new start, or it will become the case study of a failed state”.

Destruction of mosques

In April, a US envoy said that almost all of the 436 mosques in CAR have been destroyed in the violence. Samantha Power, US ambassador to the UN, called the devastation “kind of crazy, chilling”.

Amnesty said in Friday’s report that none of the mosques outside Bangui, and the town of Carnot, have been repaired or rebuilt.

One of the “clearest signs of the intensity of sectarian animus was the destruction of the country’s mosques”, the organisation said.

More than 6,000 people have been killed since the crisis began in March 2013.

“The key challenge is a lack of security. The government understands they have a long way to go [but] they need to be able to assert control over these far flung areas,” Mariner said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said this week that more than 1,000 people were still looking for their loved ones, a year after after being separated from them during the wave of violence.

“In this part of the country, very few families have been spared the pain and uncertainty of being separated from loved ones,” Scott Doucet, head of the ICRC sub-delegation for the west of the country, said.

The UN says that that 2.7 million people, more than half the population, are still in need of aid, while 1.5 million people were affected by food insecurity.

The global body’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says humanitarian needs continue to exceed resources available.

Meanwhile Doctors without Borders (MSF) has previously described the country to be in a state of a protracted chronic health emergency.

CAR has been led by a transitional government since January 2014. The country is scheduled to hold presidential and parliamentary elections on October 18.

French army scientists to analyse possible MH370 debris

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Possible wreckage from missing Malaysia Airlines jet to be sent to French military laboratory near Toulouse for checks.

Satellite and other data has allowed investigators to narrow search to an arc of the remote southern Indian Ocean west of Australia [EPA]

Satellite and other data has allowed investigators to narrow search to an arc of the remote southern Indian Ocean west of Australia [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Plane debris washed up on the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean is almost certainly part of a Boeing 777, a Malaysian official and aviation experts have said, potentially the biggest breakthrough in the search for missing Flight MH370.

Malaysian investigators are expected in Reunion on Friday and the object, identified by aviation experts as part of a wing, would then be sent to a French military laboratory near Toulouse for checks, French police sources said.

National carrier Malaysia Airlines was operating a Boeing 777 when the flight disappeared in March last year en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, creating one of the most baffling mysteries in aviation history.

It was carrying 239 passengers and crew.

The plane piece was found on Wednesday washed up on Reunion, a volcanic island of 850,000 people that is a full part of France, located in the Indian Ocean near Madagascar.

Reunion is roughly 3,700km from the broad expanse of the southern Indian Ocean off Australia where search efforts have focused, but officials and experts said currents could have carried wreckage that way, thousands of kilometres from where the plane is thought to have crashed.

‘Fanciful theories’

An minister from Australia, which has been leading the hunt for the missing plane, said on Friday that he was confident the search for the missing  plane was being conducted in the right area.

“We remain confident that we’re searching in the right place, and if in fact the plane parts found on Reunion Island are linked to MH370, that would rather strengthen the case that we are in the right area,” Transport and Infrastructure Minister Warren Truss said.

“It’s not positive proof, but the fact that this wreckage was sighted on the northern part of the Reunion Island is consistent with the current movements, it’s consistent with what we might expect to happen in these
circumstance.”

Satellite and other data has allowed investigators to narrow their search to an arc of the remote southern Indian Ocean west of Australia, with ships scouring more than 50,000 square kilometres of deep ocean floor without success.

Authorities are planning to search a total of 120,000 square kilometres.

Truss said that if the two-metre long piece of wreckage found on the French territory was indeed from MH370 it would eliminate some of the “rather fanciful theories” about what happened to the plane.

“[If proven] It establishes really beyond any doubt that the aircraft is resting in the Indian Ocean and not secretly parked in some hidden place on the land in another part of the world,” he said.

“So it removes some of those theories but it doesn’t provide a great deal of help in specifically identifying where the aircraft is at the present time.

“We are confident, on the basis of continuing refinement, continuing assessment of the satellite data, that the search area is correct.”

 

Palestinian baby burned to death in Israeli settler attack

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Two homes set ablaze in Duma village in occupied West Bank, with graffiti left on the walls reading “revenge” in Hebrew.

A man shows a picture of 18-month-old Palestinian toddler Ali Saad Dawabsha who died when his family house was set on fire by Jewish settlers in the West Bank village of Duma on July 31, 2015. The Palestinian toddler was burned to death and four family members injured in the arson attack on two homes in the occupied West Bank. AFP PHOTO / JAAFAR ASHTIYEH

A man shows a picture of 18-month-old Palestinian toddler Ali Saad Dawabsha who died when his family house was set on fire by Jewish settlers in the West Bank village of Duma on July 31, 2015. The Palestinian toddler was burned to death and four family members injured in the arson attack on two homes in the occupied West Bank. AFP PHOTO / JAAFAR ASHTIYEH

by Al Jazeera

An 18-month-old Palestinian boy has burned to death after settlers set fire to his family house in Duma village, south of Nablus city, in the occupied West Bank.

The parents of Ali Saad Dawabsheh and his four-year-old brother were also injured in the attack, sources told Al Jazeera on Friday morning.

Up to 75 percent of their bodies suffered burns, according to medics in Nablus’ Rafidia hospital.

The Israel army issued a statement saying that they were trying to locate the suspects in the attack.

“This attack against civilians is nothing short of a barbaric act of terrorism. A comprehensive investigation is under way in order to find the terrorists and bring them to justice,” Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner said in the statement.

“The [Israeli army] strongly condemns this deplorable attack and has heightened its efforts in the field to locate those responsible.”

The army told Al Jazeera that additional forces were deployed to West Bank, refusing to specify the number of soldiers.

Palestinian reaction

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, said on Friday that he wants the International Criminal Court to probe the attack as one of the first Israeli war crimes against Palestinians. “Every day we wake up to a similar crime. This is a war crime and a tragedy at the same time. Therefore we will not stay still. Absolutely not. As long as the settlement and the occupation are there,” Abbas said. Nabil Abu Rdeineh, a spokesman for Abbas, said earlier on Friday that the Israeli government was fully responsible for the crime as it continued to support illegal Israeli settlement activities and the protection of settlers. He also blamed the international community for silence over crimes against Palestinians. Abu Rdeineh said that verbal condemnation of the crimes was no longer acceptable and that taking practical steps to hold Israeli attackers accountable, as well as the end to the occupation, was needed. The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) that is led by Abbas reacted to the attack on Twitter.

Two Palestinian houses were burned at the entrance of the village with graffiti left on the walls, reading in Hebrew “revenge” and “long live Messiah”.

Witnesses told Al Jazeera that they saw at least two settlers running away from the scene.

Lars Faaborg-Andersen, the European Union envoy to Israel also reacted on Twitter.

There are at least three illegal Israeli settlements near Duma village.

According to the UN, at least 120 attacks by Israeli settlers have been documented in the occupied West Bank since the start of 2015.

A recent report by Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights organisation, showed that more than 92.6 percent of complaints Palestinians lodge with the Israeli police go without charges being filed.

Beyond Outrage: How an American trophy hunter killed the ‘Wild Soul of Africa’

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Cecil the lion’s death stirs more than just anger, raising questions about the economics and ethics of big-game hunting and wildlife conservation

Cecil the lion was 13 years old and known for his dark mane. (Photo: AFP)

Cecil the lion was 13 years old and known for his dark mane. (Photo: AFP)

by Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams

Reports that a Minnesota dentist paid $50,000 to shoot, stalk, kill, and skin a beloved African lion have led to renewed calls for a ban on the import of lions killed in trophy hunting.

The Telegraph first identified the hunter as Walter James Palmer on Tuesday. Palmer is reported to have killed Cecil—one of the continent’s most famous lions —while on a Bushman Safaris-run trip with professional hunters in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park. The park is a “free roam” zone under Zimbabwean law, which means that hunting isn’t allowed in the park and killing Cecil inside of it would have been illegal.

But Palmer and his guides seem to have found a way around this law. They allegedly lured the lion out of the protected zone at night, shot him with a bow and arrow, and then followed him for 40 hours before shooting him in the head with a rifle. At that point, they attempted to remove Cecil’s tracking collar, which was being monitored by an Oxford University research project. Once he was dead, the hunters beheaded and skinned Cecil, the photogenic 13-year-old male who was known for his striking dark mane. His corpse was abandoned in the sun.

Questions remain as to whether Palmer’s killing of Cecil was legal. As Vox explains, the Zimbabwean government says Palmer didn’t have the proper permits in place to hunt Cecil. Police spokeswoman Charity Charamba has confirmed that the two guides have been arrested on poaching charges, and that Palmer is now wanted as well.

Several news outlets are reporting that this incident is not the first time Palmer—whom the Daily Beast referred to as an “animal serial killer”—has been in trouble for his hunting practices.

For his part, Palmer maintains his innocence. “I hired several professional guides and they secured all proper permits,” he said in a statement to the Minnesota Star-Tribune. “To my knowledge, everything about this trip was legal and properly handled and conducted. I had no idea that the lion I took was a known, local favorite, was collared and part of a study until the end of the hunt.”

That has done little to quell the international anger directed toward Palmer. The Star-Tribune reports that as the Telegraph’s report and subsequent news coverage spread on the Internet, commenters took to the Facebook page of Palmer’s River Bluff Dental practice “with a vengeance.”

Chelsea Hassler, outreach director with the Twin Cities-based Animal Rights Coalition, said her group and “many outraged citizens” intend to protest outside Palmer’s office on Wednesday afternoon.

Beyond outrage, Cecil’s death stirs questions about the economics and ethics of big-game hunting and wildlife conservation in Zimbabwe and elsewhere.

Some argue that hunting brings conservation funding into a country through hunting permits—indeed, in defending Palmer to the Seattle Times on Tuesday, a longtime acquaintance (and fellow game hunter) said: “The trophy hunter really should become a saint amongst hunters” for this reason.

However, a 2013 study from Born Free USA and other animal welfare groups showed that the trophy hunting industry makes a minimal contribution to national incomes.

“The suggestion that trophy hunting plays a significant role in African economic development is misguided,” said economist Rod Campbell, lead author of the study, at the time. “Revenues constitute only a fraction of a percent of GDP and almost none of that ever reaches rural communities.”

Meanwhile, according to Jeffrey Flocken of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, “killing a pride’s dominant male like Cecil can have a ripple effect. Because he no longer can protect his pride from rogue lions, other males, young cubs and females in that now unstable pride are placed in danger—meaning, in all reality, these hunters’ actions may lead to the deaths of many African lions, which are a species threatened with extinction.”

Which is why Born Free USA and other groups are urging concerned citizens to call on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to issue a final rule listing the lion as “Threatened” and thereby stopping all trophy imports.

Born Free Foundation president Will Travers declared on Tuesday: “Cecil’s tragic and meaningless destruction may just be the catalyst we need to take action to end lion trophy hunting and, instead, devote all our energies to conserving a species which, perhaps more than any other, represents the wild soul of Africa.”

White House Rejects Petition to Pardon Snowden

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More than 167,000 people signed letter urging Obama administration to drop its prosecution of NSA whistleblower

A petition calling for clemency for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was denied on Tuesday. (Photo: August Kelm/flickr/cc)

A petition calling for clemency for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was denied on Tuesday. (Photo: August Kelm/flickr/cc)

by Nadia Prupis, Common Dreams

The White House on Tuesday formally rejected a ‘We the People’ petition to pardon Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower who has been living in exile since exposing the U.S. government’s invasive spying operation in 2013.

More than 167,000 people signed the petition urging the government to grant him clemency, stating in their petition that Snowden is “a national hero … [who] should be immediately issued a full, free, and absolute pardon for any crimes he has committed or may have committed related to blowing the whistle on secret NSA surveillance programs.”

Not only will Snowden not be pardoned, the Obama administration said, he should face criminal charges for his actions.

“Mr. Snowden’s dangerous decision to steal and disclose classified information had severe consequences for the security of our country and the people who work day in and day out to protect it,” Lisa Monaco, adviser to President Barack Obama on homeland security and counter-terrorism, said in a statement on Tuesday. The White House issued its rejection two years after the petition was delivered.

The U.S. filed espionage charges against Snowden after he leaked a cache of NSA documents to journalists, revealing the agency’s vast and invasive collection of Americans’ phone and internet activity and prompting an ongoing global debate over the role of government surveillance and the nature of individual privacy.

The revelations also opened the door for surveillance reform, particularly through the passage of the USA Freedom Act and the sunsetting of Section 215 and other controversial provisions in the USA Patriot Act.

Snowden currently lives in political asylum in Russia and has repeatedly expressed his desire to come home—and his doubts that he would get a fair trial if he did.

In many ways, the response by the White House is not unexpected. Despite pledging to protect whistleblowers during his campaign for office, Obama has cracked down more on those who expose government misdeeds than any previous president.

Monaco said on Tuesday that if Snowden “felt his actions were consistent with civil disobedience, then he should do what those who have taken issue with their own government do: Challenge it, speak out, engage in a constructive act of protest, and—importantly—accept the consequences of his actions. He should come home to the United States, and be judged by a jury of his peers—not hide behind the cover of an authoritarian regime. Right now, he’s running away from the consequences of his actions.”

But journalist Glenn Greenwald, who along with Laura Poitras and Ewan MacAskill helped publish the NSA files in 2013, has previously noted that Snowden would be barred under the Espionage Act from publicly arguing that his actions were justified. “[A]nyone who has even casually watched the post-9/11 American judicial system knows what an absurdity it is to claim that Snowden would receive a fair trial,” he wrote in June.

Erdogan in China amid tension over treatment of Uighurs

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Turkey president to meet Chinese counterpart in bid to improve souring ties over Beijing’s treatment of Uighur minority.

NATO countries are concerned over Turkey's move to secure an air defence system deal with China [Getty Images]

NATO countries are concerned over Turkey’s move to secure an air defence system deal with China [Getty Images]

by Al Jazeera

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has arrived in Beijing to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart and other senior officials amid increased tensions between the two countries over China’s treatment of its Muslim Uighur minority.

Erdogan, who is due to meet Xi Jinping later on Wednesday, has repeatedly accused China of systematic oppression against the Uighurs, who share close linguistic, cultural and religious ties with Turks.

The president has previously accused Beijing of “genocide” in the region, and the gap between Chinese and Turkish views of the Uighurs are likely to complicate the upcoming discussions on improving relations.

The two sides engaged in a row this year over Uighurs who fled China to seek refuge in Thailand, with Turkey offering them shelter against Beijing’s wishes.

Bangkok said this month that it had deported about 100 Uighurs back to China, after sending more than 170 Uighur women and children to Turkey in late June.

China’s state-run China Daily said in a Wednesday editorial that the “Uighur issue … if left unattended, may poison ties and derail cooperation”.

The newspaper suggested that Beijing would pressure Erdogan to stop Turkish officials issuing Uighurs who “illicitly left China” with travel documents.

As tensions over the refugees mounted this month, activists stormed the Thai consulate in Istanbul and burned the Chinese flag outside Beijing’s consulate in the city. China “strongly condemned” the acts.

Missile deal

Turkey entered discussions in 2013 with a Chinese state-run company over an anti-missile system contract worth $3.4bn, raising eyebrows among other NATO members.

A final deal has been elusive, with Erdogan noting “impediments” have emerged after an initial Chinese proposal, but he said the issue will be on the agenda in Beijing.

“Any offer that will enrich this appropriate proposal will be welcomed by us,” he told China’s official news agency Xinhua in an interview published on Tuesday.

“I believe this visit will give more momentum to bilateral relations.”

Boosting Turkish exports to China is also likely to be high on Erdogan’s agenda, with Ankara running a large trade deficit with the world’s second-largest economy, according to official Chinese statistics.

 

Powerful earthquake hits Indonesia’s Papua

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Magnitude 7.0 quake strikes west of provincial capital Jayapura.

earthquake Papua

by Al Jazeera

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake has hit Indonesia’s Papua region, the US Geological Survey says.

The quake struck at 6.41am on Monday, almost 250km west of the provincial capital Jayapura.

No tsunami warning was issued after the quake, which struck inland, and Indonesia’s national disaster agency said there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

“The quake was felt very strongly for four seconds,” disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told the AFP news agency.

“Residents panicked and rushed out of their homes.”

Nugroho said there were no initial reports of damage but added the region around the epicentre, in Indonesia’s remote east, was difficult to reach, and data was still being collected.

The Earthquake-Report monitoring website said the area has “steep mountain ranges and its vegetation is rainforest, which means that the chance of dangerous landslides is real”.

Weak shaking was reportedly felt in Jayapura for a few seconds.

Both Indonesian authorities and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no threat of any tsunami waves from the quake, which occurred beneath a jungle.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.

Saudi Arabian airstrike kills 120 civilians as US-backed war in Yemen rages

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Humanitarian crisis continues with no end in sight as forces armed and supported by the United States continue to terrorize the people of Yemen

Houthi followers demonstrate against Saudi-led air strikes in Yemen's capital Sanaa July 24, 2015. A Saudi-led coalition of Arab states has been bombing the Iranian-allied Houthi rebel movement and army forces loyal to former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh since late March in a bid to restore exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power. (Photo: Reuters/Khaled Abdullah)

Houthi followers demonstrate against Saudi-led air strikes in Yemen’s capital Sanaa July 24, 2015. A Saudi-led coalition of Arab states has been bombing the Iranian-allied Houthi rebel movement and army forces loyal to former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh since late March in a bid to restore exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power. (Photo: Reuters/Khaled Abdullah)

by Jon Queally, Common Dreams

Intense fighting between Houthi factions and Yemeni forces allied with a Saudi-backed military campaign continued on Sunday, just a day after the killing of approximately 120 civilians by a Saudi airstrike spurred an impromptu call for a five-day ceasefire in the war-torn and poverty-stricken country.

According to the Associated Press:

The airstrikes late Friday hit workers’ housing for a power plant in Mokha, flattening some of the buildings to the ground […] A fire erupted in the area, charring many of the corpses, including children, women and elderly people.

Wahib Mohammed, an eyewitness and area resident, said some of the bodies were torn apart by the force of the blast and buried in a mass grave on Saturday. Some of the strikes also hit nearby livestock pens, he said. Human and animal blood pooled on the ground of the surrounding area.

The deadly strike highlights growing concerns that the Saudi-led coalition’s airstrikes are increasingly killing civilians as they continue to target Shiite rebels known as Houthis.

Responding to the carnage, Hassan Boucenine of the Geneva-based Doctors Without Borders told AP, “It just shows what is the trend now of the air strikes from the coalition. Now, it’s a house, it’s a market, it’s anything.”

In the wake of the deadly airstrike on Saturday, the Saudi-led coalition, which includes the United States and allied Gulf states, called for a five-day ceasefire that would begin at midnight local time on Sunday.

However, even as mixed reporting by Reuters indicated that Houthi military leaders may have rejected the call, a fierce battle raged near the port city Aden over a strategically valuable air base:

The al-Anad base, 50 km (30 miles) from the major southern port city, has been held by the Iranian-allied Houthi movement for much of a fourth-month-old civil war, and is regarded as a strategic asset commanding the approaches to Aden.

The Arab coalition on Saturday announced a ceasefire to take effect at 11.59 p.m. (2059 GMT) on Sunday evening for five days to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Reuters indicated that a Houthi leader may have taken to Twitter to reject the call for the midnight ceasefire, but other journalists expressed doubt that the message was valid:

Since the Saudi-led bombing began in March of this year, the United Nations last week estimated that in addition to the many more thousands injured and maimed, at least 1,693 civilians have been killed in Yemen, of which 365 were children. Already one of the poorest nations on the planet before the fighting and subsequent bombing campaign began, both the UN and independent aid agencies have warned that so long as the war continues and humanitarian blockade enforced, Yemen’s further spiral towards total political chaos and a full-fledged famine will continue.

Obama in Kenya: Africa is on the move

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US president says Africa is “one of fastest growing regions in world” as he co-hosts entrepreneurship summit in Nairobi.

Obama attends a private dinner in Nairobi with his Kenyan family members including his step-grandmother Sarah and half-sister Auma [Reuters]

Obama attends a private dinner in Nairobi with his Kenyan family members including his step-grandmother Sarah and half-sister Auma [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

US President Barack Obama has praised Africa for its economic advancements, calling it “one of the fastest growing regions in the world”, while co-hosting a summit on global entrepreneurship with his Kenyan counterpart, Uhuru Kenyatta, in Nairobi.

Obama declared on Saturday that “Africa is on the move”, in his first official engagement since arriving in the Kenyan capital a day earlier.

“People are being lifted out of poverty, incomes are up, the middle class is growing and young people like you are harnessing technology to change the way Africa is doing business,” he told the summit.

Sharing the stage with Obama, Kenyatta also voiced optimism towards a brighter future for the continent.

“The narrative of African despair is false, and indeed was never true,” Kenyatta said. “Let them know that Africa is open and ready for business.”

The summit is aimed at promoting businesses that promise to lift many more Africans out of poverty and help insulate societies against radicalisation.

As Obama arrived in Kenya, the birthplace of his father, throngs of Kenyans lined the route of his convoy, cheering, whistling and waving as the motorcade passed by and a helicopter circled overhead.

Al Jazeera’s Andrew Simmons, reporting from Nairobi, said there was “overwhelming euphoria” when Obama arrived, adding that the US president is the “most popular” politician in Kenya.

The visit is Obama’s first as president, and is also the first time a sitting US president will visit Ethiopia and the African Union’s headquarters in Addis Ababa.

The first African-American president of the US is expected to address regional security issues and trade, and also touch on matters relating to democracy, poverty, and human rights in the region.

A previous planned trip to Kenya was delayed by Kenyatta’s indictment for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.

Those charges were suspended last year – in part, prosecutors say, because the Kenyan government thwarted the investigation.

Obama’s trip has also come under fire by rights groups, and more than 50 African and global human rights organisations have called on him to publicly meet democracy activists on the ground.

They voiced concerns about “grave and worsening” rights challenges in both Kenya and Ethiopia.

The charges against Kenyatta, and the fact that Ethiopia’s government won 100 percent of parliamentary seats in a recent disputed election, has raised questions about whether Obama should have made the trip at all.

In Addis Ababa, Obama is expected to address leaders of the African Union.

He spent Friday evening reuniting with about three dozens of Kenyan family members.

Obama has said he had “never truly known” his father, who was born in Kenya’s far west, in Kogelo village near the shores of Lake Victoria.

An economist, he walked out when Obama was just two and died in a car crash in Nairobi in 1982, aged 46.

Obama has previously made personal visits to Kogelo, the home of many of his Kenyan relatives, most recently in 2006.

Noam Chomsky: ‘The Real Question is…What Exactly Is The Threat of Iran?’

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Scholar and activist questions the need for a nuclear agreement when Iran has not violated the nonproliferation treaty

Noam Chomsky tells Al Jazeera that Iran did not deserve to be sanctioned to begin with. (Photo: Andrew Rusk/flickr/cc)

Noam Chomsky tells Al Jazeera that Iran did not deserve to be sanctioned to begin with. (Photo: Andrew Rusk/flickr/cc)

by Nadia Prupis, Common Dreams

As U.S. Congress considers signing the unprecedented nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers announced earlier this month, renowned scholar and activist Noam Chomsky on Wednesday asked a less-considered question: “Why is the deal being pursued?”

The deal constrains what is referred to as “the Iranian threat,” Chomsky said, “but what exactly is the threat?”

In an interview with Al Jazeera reporter Antonio Mora, Chomsky stated that Iran—which is a party to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), an agreement that seeks to achieve global disarmament—has “lived up to” the mandates of that accord, despite allegations it has violated some of them by failing to declare its enriched uranium program.

“I don’t think anyone ought to have nuclear weapons, including the United States, but that’s not the issue,” Chomsky said. “If Iran’s alleged noncompliance with the NPT is an issue—and I add alleged—that certainly doesn’t require sanctions or a treaty or any other actions.”

Chomsky, who has previously described the U.S. treatment of Iran as “torture,” said on Wednesday that the U.S. and Israel “freely use force and violence” throughout the Middle East—unlike Iran, which would only use nuclear power as a deterrent.

“Furthermore, the U.S. is quite open about [their use of force],” Chomsky continued.

Asked what the U.S. should do if a terrorist plot was developing in a remote area of the region, Chomsky noted that the question illustrates the egregious double-standards of American foreign policy. “We feel free to attack people anywhere and kill them who we claim might be planning to harm us in the future. If anyone else did that, we’d nuke them,” he said.

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