Госсекретарь США Майкл Помпео посетит КНДР 5-7 июля

2018-07-03   10:34:41





Госсекретарь США Майкл Помпео отправится с визитом в Пхеньян 5 июля, сообщила в понедельник пресс-секретарь Белого дома Сара Сандерс. Она отметила, что Помпео встретится «с северокорейским лидером и его командой», сообщив также о продолжающейся важной работе по денуклеаризации Корейского полуостров. 

Контакты между Вашингтоном и Пхеньяном идут на разных уровнях, и в ходе переговоров наблюдается прогресс, добавила Сара Сандерс. 

В госдепартаменте США уточнили, что визит Майкла Помпео в Пхеньян продлится с 5 по 7 июля, отметив, что его цель - продолжить консультации по вопросу денуклеаризации. 

8 июля Майкл Помпео прибудет в Токио, где встретится с представителями РК и Японии.


http://world.kbs.co.kr/russian/news/news_In_detail.htm?No=53607&id=In
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode

Mali facing ‘alarming’ rise in rights violations, warns UN expert

MINUSMA/Marco Dormino

A MINUSMA convoy drives along a street Menaka, north-eastern Mali. The region has witnessed a sharp escalation in violence and insecurity.


4 July 2018

Human Rights


In Mali, a senior United Nations rights expert on Wednesday described an “alarming” deterioration of the security, human rights and humanitarian situation in northern and eastern areas of the country.


Alioune Tine’s comments follow two deadly attacks in recent days on international forces in Mali, including one suicide bombing in Gao, that left at least two civilians dead and more than 15 injured.

In Menaka, to the east, more than 120 people were also allegedly murdered in a three-week period in April and May, he said in a statement, noting that that violent extremists had taken advantage of the lack of basic services “to exploit communities and pit them against each other”.

Some attacks have been attributed to armed groups including the Azawad Salvation Movement (MSA) and the Touareg IMGHAD Self-Defense Group and Allies (GATIA), the UN expert noted.

Amid ongoing insecurity, which has been characterized by kidnappings and targeted killings, according to the Senegalese expert, communities have been displaced and more than 650 schools have been forced to close in central and northern regions, affecting nearly 200,000 children.

There have also been an increasing number of allegations of “serious human rights violations” against the Malian armed forces, Mr. Tine said, echoing concerns about anti-terrorist operations “that do not respect international human rights standards”.

In an appeal to the Government of Mali to bring the perpetrators of rights abuses to justice, Mr. Tine underlined the “very limited State presence”, adding that in some central areas there is “none at all”.

The Independent Expert – who visited the country at the end of June – also commended the country’s Prime Minister for reaffirming that the Government will not tolerate any wrongdoing against civilians.

Turning to the humanitarian emergency in the central region and warning that it “is getting worse”, the UN expert said that 4.1 million people need food aid.

The number of people suffering from severe acute malnutrition in 2018 is also set to increase from 163,000 to well over a quarter of a million – including more than 11,000 children under five – he added.

Moderate acute malnutrition is a massive and chronic problem too, with numbers expected to increase from 470,000 to 582,000, including more than 45,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women.

“This is an emergency to which we cannot close our eyes,” Mr. Tine said, before appealing to armed groups to respect humanitarian workers as they carry out their work.

Ahead of Presidential elections at the end of this month, he urged all those engaged in it “to ban hate speech and calls to violence” during campaigning which begins in three days.

The rights expert also stressed the need to respect freedom of assembly and association, and freedom of access to the media, and appealed for the forthcoming presidential election to be “truly free, transparent and peaceful”, and to meet international standards.

Mr. Tine – who took office as Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Mali on 1 May – will present his report to the Human Rights Council in March next year.

Among its findings, it’s expected to include an appraisal of a UN Security Council resolution agreed last year which established a targeted sanctions regime on the country.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/07/1013922
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode

Zeid calls for ICC probe into Myanmar Rohingya crisis

UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferre

High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein.

4 July 2018

Human Rights


Myanmar should “have some shame” after attempting to convince the world that it is willing to take back hundreds of thousands of refugees who fled an “ethnic cleansing campaign” last year, given that “not a single” one has returned officially, the United Nations human rights chief warned on Wednesday.


Addressing the Human Rights Council after giving an update on the refugee crisis that has seen more than 700,000 Rohingya people flee to Bangladesh to escape a security clampdown in Myanmar, Zeid urged the UN Security Council to refer the Member State to the International Criminal Court (ICC) immediately.

“We are not fools,” he said.

The High Commissioner for Human Rights also responded to the Myanmar Government representative’s comments that it was a “body committed to the defence of human rights”.

This, Mr. Zeid said, “almost creates a new category of absurdity” – a first during his mandate as the UN’s top human rights official.

“In the four years that I have been High Commissioner I have heard many preposterous claims,” he said. “This claim, that I have just stated now, almost creates a new category of absurdity. Have some shame sir. Have some shame. We are not fools.”

Earlier at the Human Rights Council, Mr. Zeid said that Myanmar had “expended considerable energy” challenging allegations that its security forces carried out ethnic cleansing against the mainly Muslim Rohingya.


Not a single Rohingya refugee has returned under the formal framework agreed with Bangladesh – High Commissioner Zeid

In January, he continued, the Government of Myanmar had signed a repatriation deal with Bangladesh, which continues to host the communities who fled their homes last August.

Despite this agreement, “not a single Rohingya refugee has returned under the formal framework agreed with Bangladesh”, he said, while “many – if not all – of those who have returned … have been detained”.

Citing one example, the High Commissioner said that between January and April this year, 58 Rohingya who returned were arrested and convicted on unspecified charges.

“They then received a Presidential pardon, but have simply been transferred from Buthidaung prison (in northern Rakhine province) to a so-called ‘reception centre’,” he explained.

All the while more Rohingya continue to seek shelter in Bangladesh, he continued, noting that as of mid-June, there have been 11,432 new arrivals there.

On the issue of ICC involvement in the issue, as he had urged, Mr. Zeid noted that the results of its fact-finding mission to Myanmar were due to be submitted “in a matter of weeks”.
UN rights chief calls for access to northern Rakhine

The UN official also repeated a call for access to northern Rakhine state on behalf of the Human Rights Council and his own office, OHCHR.

Myanmar should do this “instead of coming out with one bogus national commission after another”, the High Commissioner said – a reference to the country’s recent announcement that it intended to set up an “Independent Commission of Enquiry” to investigate alleged rights violations by Rohingya militants known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) last year.

While the Government claimed these attacks the cause of the current crisis, the UN rights chief explained that this was not possible since “cycles of violence” against the Rohingya “long pre-date ARSA, which was reportedly established in 2013”.

Barring any special meetings called by the Council after this 38th scheduled session, Mr. Zeid’s address was his last in his official capacity as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights before he steps down.

Noting this, he cautioned that “if a Member State of this organization can force out 700,000 people in almost three weeks, with practically minimal response by the International Community, then how many others in this Chamber are beginning to entertain something similar?”

Myanmar, speaking as a concerned country, said that many of the allegations in the address by the High Commissioner were flawed, incorrect and misleading. ARSA had committed heinous and shocking atrocities, its delegatation said, adding that the root cause of the tragedy was terrorism. On the subject of repatriation, Myanmar was doing its utmost to repatriate the displaced persons as soon as possible, the delegation insisted.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/07/1013932

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode

Yemen: ‘No justification for this carnage,’ says UNICEF chief, as children in need now outnumber population of Switzerland

UNICEF
In June 2018, UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta H. Fore interacts with children in Yemen at the child friendly space at the Alqatee'a Health Centre in Aden.


3 July 2018
Humanitarian Aid


The relentless conflict in Yemen has pushed a nation already on the brink “deep into the abyss,” said the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) chief on Tuesday, after returning from a four-day visit to the war-torn country.


“Social services are barely functional. The economy is in ruins. Prices have soared. Hospitals have been damaged. Schools have turned into shelters or have been taken over by armed groups,” UNICEF Executive Director Henriette Fore told journalists in Geneva on Tuesday, describing her trip to the key cities of Aden and Sana’a.

Having witnessed first-hand the effects of three years of intense war, after decades of underdevelopment and chronic global indifference can do to children, Ms. Fore spelled out some of what children there are going through.

She said that they were routinely “taken out of school, forced to fight, married off, hungry, dying from preventable diseases,” she began, adding that “today, 11 million children in Yemen – more than the entire population of Switzerland – need help getting food, treatment, education, water and sanitation.”

Since 2015, health facilities have been cut by more than half; 1,500 schools have been damaged by airstrikes and shelling; and at least 2,200 children have been killed with around 3,400 injured, according to the UNICEF chief.

“These are only numbers we have been able to verify. The actual figures could be even higher,” she said. “There is no justification for this carnage.”


The protection of children...should remain paramount at all times – Henreiette Fore, UNICEF Executive Director

Ms. Fore described some of the individual children she met, such as a young girl receiving psychological support after fleeing violence in the port city of Hodeida - which is living under the threat of a major offensive - who presented her with a drawing of the world she wished to live in.

“It was the opposite of the world surrounding her, one of displacement, destruction and fear,” Ms. Fore said.

She described visiting health facilities, and a ward for malnourished children where an eight-month old child weighed that of a newborn. In a neonatal intensive care unit, she heard how a pair of conjoined twins simply could not get the surgery they needed to survive. She said she had met committed, overstretched health staff who had not been paid in two years: “And yet the conflict goes on,” said the UNICEF chief.

She explained that around 5,000 families had fled Hodeida over the past two weeks, where basic commodities including flour and cooking gas were dwindling, electricity was unavailable in most of the city and damage to the water supply had caused severe shortages

The Executive Director called it “critical” that families be allowed to voluntarily leave and that infrastructure be kept safe. “The protection of children – from landmines, recruitment, exploitation and attack – should remain paramount at all times,” Ms. Fore added

Since January, more than 250 UNICEF staff have remained in Aden, Sanaa, Idlib, Hodeida and Saada – serving children while dealing with life in a war zone.

“We are committed to doing all we can to help the children and young people of Yemen but there should be a political solution to the conflict,” she stressed. “We all need to give peace a chance. It is the only way forward,” concluded the UNICEF chief.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/07/1013802

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode

As many as 330,000 displaced by heavy fighting in south-west Syria – UN agency

UNHCR/Bassam Diab

In this file photo, a woman ties a tarpaulin to use as a makeshift wall in an abandoned building in Dara'a, Syria. Recent intensification in fighting has displaced an estimated 330,000 from the region.


3 July 2018
Humanitarian Aid


Intense air and ground-based strikes at multiple locations in Syria’s south-western Dara’a governorate has resulted in the “largest displacement” in the area since the conflict began more than seven years ago, the United Nations refugee agency has reported.


A number of civilians are also reported to have been killed in the hostilities and many more injured, said Andrej Mahecic on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

He said the agency was “deeply concerned by the escalation of fighting” and called on those involved “to take all necessary measures to safeguard civilian lives, protect civilian infrastructure and allow freedom of movement as required under international humanitarian and human rights laws.”

Among those displaced by the fighting – estimated to number between 270,000 to 330,000 – are some 60,000 at the Nasib/Jaber border crossing, between Syria and Jordan, forced to live with sweltering heat, pounded by dusty desert winds.

According to reports, at least twelve children, two women, and one elderly man, have died in the past few days close to the Jordanian border due to scorpion bites, dehydration and disease.

Elizabeth Throssell, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights(OHCHR), appealed for the safety of those trapped at the border.


We call on the international community, in particular countries of the region with the financial ability to host refugees, to take in fleeing civilians from Syria – OHCHR spokesperson

“We call on the international community, in particular countries of the region with the financial ability to host large numbers of refugees, to take in fleeing civilians from Syria ... We call on the Jordanian Government to keep its border open and for other countries in the region to step up and receive the fleeing civilians.”

She also called on all parties involved in the conflict to “ensure safe, sustained and unimpeded humanitarian access to those in need, in line with their obligations under international law.

UN agencies on the ground are preparing to scale up their response, prioritizing life-saving assistance and protection services for those with emergency needs.

The World Food Programme (WFP), the organization’s emergency food and nutrition relief agency, has delivered enough food for around 200,000 people and stands ready to deliver more as soon as security improves and conditions allow.

However, violence has also displaced hundreds of staff of WFP-partner organizations, “leaving few people on the ground to manage aid distribution and limiting possibilities to intervene,” said Bettina Luescher, a spokesperson for the UN agency. She added that “other distribution solutions” were currently being examined.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/07/1013852

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode

Afghanistan: Bring ‘architects’ of latest ‘appalling’ suicide bombing to justice, says deputy UN mission chief

UNAMA/Fardin Waezi

Headquarters of the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan.


2 July 2018

Peace and Security


In the wake of dozens of civilian deaths – the most recent, a suicide attack in Jalalabad on Sunday – a high-level United Nations representative on the ground called for “the architects of this appalling crime” to be brought to justice.


The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) condemned the suicide attack that left at least 19 civilians dead, and expressed concern over a recent spate of incidents targeting schools and medical centres. More than 20 others, including children, were injured in the blast.

“The architects of this appalling crime must be brought to justice,” said Ingrid Hayden on Monday, the deputy head of UNAMA, and Deputy Special Representative.

According to a statement from the mission, most of the suicide bomber’s victims were from Afghanistan’s small Sikh and Hindu community – part of a delegation on its way to meet President Ashraf Ghani, who was visiting the capital city of Nangarhar province, in the Khogyani district.

Media reports noted that among the dead in the overwhelmingly Muslim nation, was the only Sikh candidate who was standing in upcoming legislative elections.

UN chief, António Guterres also condemned the attack, in a statement, extending his deepest condolences to the families of the victims.

"Any attack deliberately targeting civilians is unjustifiable and in clear violation of international law," said the UN chief, calling on "all parties to uphold their obligation to protect civilians, including minority communities, and cease targeting civilians and civilian facilities."

Elsewhere in Nangarhar, two civilian night watchmen were beheaded, a third killed and a school torched on Saturday in an attack by a local affiliate of the ISIL terrorist group, known as the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), which has been carrying out a campaign against schools and educational workers in the region.

And on Monday, missiles were fired into Jalalabad – hitting the Najmuljihad high school, with other projectiles landing nearby. There were no reports of casualties.

UNAMA also expressed concern over recent incidents impacting health facilities. On 25 June, a mortar hit the Andar district hospital in Ghazni province killing a doctor and a vaccination worker, and on 1 July, in the northern province of Faryab, three civilians, including a woman and child, were killed. Several others, mainly women and children, were injured in an Afghan National Army helicopter attack in the Pashtun Kot district.

The attack allegedly targeted Taliban combatants at a health clinic where civilian patients were also receiving treatment, said UNAMA.

The UN stressed that all parties to the conflict must at all times uphold their obligations to protect civilians and reiterated its call to immediately cease targeting civilians and civilian objects, including schools and health facilities, in compliance with the international humanitarian law.

The UN in Afghanistan expressed its condolences to the loved-ones of all those killed and wished a full and speedy recovery to the injured.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/07/1013722

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode

Two shipwrecks add to ‘alarming increase’ in migrant deaths off Libya coast: IOM

Italian Coastguard/Massimo Sestini

The Italian Navy rescues migrants in the Mediterranean Sea.


2 July 2018

Migrants and Refugees


More than 200 migrants have drowned in the Mediterranean in the past three days, bringing the overall death toll so far this year to more than 1,000, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported on Monday.




The tragic weekend began on Friday with the deaths of an estimated 103 people, including three babies, when the rubber dinghy they were on sank off the coast of Libya.

The Libyan Coast Guard rescued 16 survivors: young men from the Gambia, Sudan, Yemen, Niger and Guinea.

The incident was followed on Sunday by the capsizing of a small rubber boat off the Libyan port city of Al Khums, east of the capital, Tripoli. The vessel was packed with migrants and while 41 people survived, 100 are reported missing.

During this same time period, the Libyan Coast Guard intercepted several small vessels heading towards the open sea, returning nearly 1,000 migrants to shore.

The people were provided with food, water and health care, as well as other emergency assistance, and were interviewed by IOM staff. They were later transferred to detention centres, where IOM continues to provide humanitarian assistance.

The Libyan Coast Guard has returned some 10,000 people to shore so far this year, according to IOM. Othman Belbeisi, its Libya Chief of Mission, reported an “alarming increase” in deaths at sea.

“Smugglers are exploiting the desperation of migrants to leave before there are further crackdowns on Mediterranean crossings by Europe,” he said.

IOM Director General William Lacy Swing will travel to Tripoli this week to see first-hand the conditions rescued migrants face and those returned to shore by the coast guard.

He said the UN agency “is determined to ensure that the human rights of all migrants are respected as together we all make efforts to stop the people-smuggling trade, which is so exploitative of migrants.”

https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/07/1013712

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode