EU spurns ‘guided tour’ of Indian-administered Kashmir

Security personnel stand guard on a street as residents walk by, after a grenade blast in Srinagar on January 4, 2020. (AFP)
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Updated 09 January 2020
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EU spurns ‘guided tour’ of Indian-administered Kashmir

  • Says its envoys want to meet people freely of their own choosing
  • About 30 far-right European lawmakers previously visited the region, though not with EU’s official blessing

NEW DELHI: The European Union refused to take part in a rare diplomatic visit to Indian-administered Kashmir starting Thursday because they will not be allowed to meet detained local politicians, reports said.
The two-day foreign diplomatic trip is the first since New Delhi stripped the restive Himalayan region of its autonomy and sent in tens of thousands of extra troops in August.
The security lockdown and communications blackout, still only partially lifted, has drawn international criticism including in Brussels and Washington.
“EU envoys don’t want a guided tour of Kashmir. We want to meet people freely of our own choosing,” the NDTV news channel quoted one European diplomatic source as saying.
In particular, they wanted to meet three former chief ministers, Farooq and Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, who are still locked up, daily newspaper The Hindu reported. The three have been under house arrest or kept at a government residence since August.
The foreign ministry said that envoys from 15 countries — including the United States, South Korea, Nigeria, and Argentina — would take part in the visit to the region, which is also claimed by Pakistan.
A diplomatic source told AFP that the EU, which has been pressing for months to access some of those detained, was still keen to go at a later date.
“The EU is interested in going and continues to be engaged with the MEA (ministry of external affairs) on timing and elements of the trip,” the source said.
Other Indian newspapers quoted government sources as saying that the EU balked because the visit was at short notice and since it was not possible for all the bloc’s ambassadors to take part.
Those going would be “free to interact with people subject to security considerations. No ambassador, however, had specifically asked to meet anyone who was detained,” the Times of India quoted a source as saying.
In October, around 30 European lawmakers — many from far-right parties — visited but without the official blessing of the EU and the Indian government insisted it was a “private” initiative.
Critics said that visit was a government’s attempt to give the impression that life has returned to normal.
Foreign journalists have also not been allowed into the area since August when Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir state were stripped of its partial autonomy and split into two regions ruled directly from New Delhi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the move was to boost the local economy and end decades of violence that has left tens of thousands dead, mostly civilians.
There is still barely any Internet access and only around half of the mobile phones work.
New Delhi says this is to stop militants communicating, who it says are backed by Islamabad.
India and Pakistan, who Kashmir was split between at the end of British colonial rule in 1947, have fought two of their three wars over the territory.


Trump says he’s ending Secret Service protection for Biden’s adult children

Updated 7 sec ago
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Trump says he’s ending Secret Service protection for Biden’s adult children

  • The Republican president on social media objected to what he said were 18 agents assigned to Hunter Biden’s protective detail while in South Africa this week

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said Monday he was ending “immediately” the Secret Service protection details assigned to Democrat Joe Biden’s adult children, which the former president had extended to July shortly before leaving office in January.
The Republican president on social media objected to what he said were 18 agents assigned to Hunter Biden’s protective detail while in South Africa this week. He said Ashley Biden has 13 agents assigned to her detail and that she too “will be taken off the list.”
There was no immediate reaction from the former president’s office.
Former presidents and their spouses receive life-long Secret Service protection under federal law, but the protection afforded to their immediate families over the age of 16 ends when they leave office, though both Trump and Biden extended the details for their children for six months before leaving office.
While touring the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Monday afternoon, a reporter asked Trump if he would revoke the protection for the former president’s son.
“Well, we have done that with many. I would say if there are 18 with Hunter Biden, that will be something I’ll look at this afternoon,” Trump said, who added this was the first time he heard about the matter.
“I’m going to take a look at that,” he said.


After Trump halted funding for Afghans who helped the US, this group stepped in to help

Updated 18 March 2025
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After Trump halted funding for Afghans who helped the US, this group stepped in to help

  • No One Left Behind helps Afghans and Iraqis who qualify for the special immigrant visa program, which was set up by Congress in 2009 to help people who are in danger because of their efforts to aid the US during the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars

WASHINGTON: When Andrew Sullivan thinks of the people his organization has helped resettle in America, one particular story comes to mind: an Afghan man in a wheelchair who was shot through the neck by a member of the Taliban for helping the US during its war in Afghanistan.
“I just think ... Could I live with myself if we send that guy back to Afghanistan?” said Sullivan, executive director of No One Left Behind. “And I thankfully don’t have to because he made it to northern Virginia.”
The charitable organization of US military veterans, Afghans who once fled their country and volunteers in the US is stepping in to help Afghans like that man in the wheelchair who are at risk of being stranded overseas. Their efforts come after the Trump administration took steps to hinder Afghans who helped America’s war effort in trying to resettle in the US
No One Left Behind helps Afghans and Iraqis who qualify for the special immigrant visa program, which was set up by Congress in 2009 to help people who are in danger because of their efforts to aid the US during the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars.
President Donald Trump in January suspended programs that buy flights for those refugees and cut off aid to the groups that help them resettle in the US Hundreds who were approved for travel to the US had visas but few ways to get here. If they managed to buy a flight, they had little help when they arrived.
The White House and State Department did not respond to requests for comment.
Meanwhile, the situation for Afghans has become more tenuous in some of the places where many have temporarily settled. Pakistan, having hosted millions of refugees, has in recent years removed Afghans from its country. increased deportations. An agreement that made Albania a waystation for Afghans expires in March, Sullivan said.
Hovering over all of this is the fear that the Trump administration may announce a travel ban that could cut off all access from Afghanistan. In an executive order signed on Inauguration Day, Trump told key Cabinet members to submit a report within 60 days that identifies countries with vetting so poor that it would “warrant a partial or full suspension” of travelers from those countries to the US.
US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said Monday that the review was ongoing and no list had been finalized.
But groups that work with Afghans are worried.
When funding was suspended, No One Left Behind stepped in. Their goal is to make sure Afghans with State Department visas don’t get stuck overseas. Other organizations — many who got their start helping Afghans during the US military’s chaotic withdrawal from Kabul in 2021 — are doing the same.
To qualify for this visa, Afghans must prove they worked for the US for at least one year. That means tracking down documentation from former supervisors, who were often affiliated with companies no longer in business. They also undergo extensive vetting and medical checks.
“Our view was, OK, we’ve got to act immediately to try and help these people,” said Sullivan. “We’ve been in kind of an all-out sprint.”
The organization has raised money to buy flights and help Afghans when they land. Between February 1 and March 17, the group said it successfully booked flights for 659 Afghans.
It also launched a website where visa holders can share information, giving Sullivan’s group a starting point to figure out where they might live in the US.
Sullivan and the organization’s “ambassadors” — Afghans and Iraqis who already have emigrated to the US, many through the special immigrant visa program — have gone to Albania and Qatar to help stranded Afghans.
Aqila is one of those ambassadors who went to Albania. The Associated Press is identifying Aqila by her first name because her family in Afghanistan is still at risk.
Aqila said many of the families didn’t know what would happen when they arrived in America. Would they be homeless? Abandoned? One man feared he’d end up alone in the airport parking lot because his contact in America — a long-haul trucker — couldn’t come pick him up. She assured him that someone would be there.
They gave them cards with contact information for attorneys. They printed papers with information about their rights in English, Dari, and Pashto.
No One Left Behind reached out to family members and friends in the US to help with the transition when they landed in America.
Mohammad Saboor, a father of seven children, worked as an electrician and A/C technician with international and US forces for 17 years. Two months ago, he and his family boarded a plane to Albania in anticipation of soon being able to go to America. They landed in California on March 12, exhausted but safe
The next day he and his family explored their new apartment in the Sacramento suburb of Rancho Cordova.
Saboor said he hasn’t felt safe in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over the country in August 2021. He worried that he’d be killed as retribution for the nearly two decades he’d worked with the US and its allies. He wondered what kind of future his children would have in a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
The family picked the suburb in the hope that the large Afghan population in the Sacramento area would help them get settled and find work. He envisions a bright future in America, where his kids can go to school and eventually give back to the country that took his family in. Arriving in the US, he said, gave them a “great feeling.”
“I believe that now we can live in a 100 percent peaceful environment,” he said.
Sullivan said he hopes there will be exceptions for Afghans in the special immigrant visa program if a travel ban is imposed. They’ve been thoroughly vetted, he said, and earned the right to be here.
“These are folks that actually served shoulder-to-shoulder with American troops and diplomats for 20 years,” he said.
Aqila, the Afghan ambassador, said it’s stressful to hear stories of what people went through in Afghanistan. But the reward comes when she sees photos of those who have arrived in America.
“You can see the hope in their eyes,” she said. “It’s nice to be human. It’s nice be kind to each other.”


EU sanctions Rwandan officials ahead of Congo peace talks

Updated 18 March 2025
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EU sanctions Rwandan officials ahead of Congo peace talks

KIGALI: The EU sanctioned nine people and a gold refinery on Monday in connection with a Rwanda-backed rebellion in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a day before peace talks scheduled in Angola between M23 rebels and the Congolese government.

The sanctions targeted M23 political leader Bertrand Bisimwa and Rwandan army commanders. 

They were also applied to the CEO of Rwanda Mines, Petroleum and Gas Board, and Gasabo Gold Refinery in Kigali, which the EU accused of illicitly exporting natural resources from Congo.

Amid a flurry of diplomatic activity, a rebel alliance that includes M23 confirmed it would send a five-member delegation to Tuesday’s talks in Luanda, which could mark M23’s first direct negotiations with the Congolese government.

Congo President Felix Tshisekedi’s office said on Sunday that Kinshasa would send representatives to Luanda, reversing the government’s long-standing vow not to negotiate with the group, which it has dismissed as a mere front for the Rwandan government.

Pressure has been growing on Tshisekedi to negotiate with M23 after a series of battlefield setbacks since January. 

The rebels have seized eastern Congo’s two biggest cities and several smaller localities.

The fighting has killed at least 7,000 people this year, according to the Congolese government, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced.

The conflict is rooted in the spillover into Congo of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and the struggle for control of Congo’s vast mineral resources, many of which are used in batteries used for electric vehicles and other electronic products.

The UN and international powers accuse Rwanda of providing arms and sending soldiers to fight with the ethnic Tutsi-led M23. 

Rwanda says its forces are acting in self-defense against Congo’s army and militias that are hostile to Kigali.

A Rwandan government spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the EU sanctions.

Western countries have taken measures against Rwanda over the conflict, including the withholding of development aid by Britain and Germany, but Kigali has been defiant.

On Monday, it announced it was severing diplomatic relations with Belgium, the former colonial power in Rwanda and Congo, and giving Belgian diplomats 48 hours to leave.

Rwanda’s Foreign Ministry accused Belgium, which has called for strong EU action against Kigali, of “using lies and manipulation to secure an unjustified hostile opinion of Rwanda.”

Belgium’s Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Prevot said Brussels would reciprocate by declaring Rwandan diplomats persona non grata, calling Kigali’s move “disproportionate.”

Previous rounds of EU sanctions have targeted M23 commanders and Rwandan army officers.

Zobel Behalal, a senior expert at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, said the latest sanctions were notable in going after Rwanda Mines, Petroleum and Gas Board, and the Gasabo Gold Refinery.

“The EU sanctions ... are a recognition that profits from natural resources are one of the main motivations for Rwanda’s involvement in this conflict,” said Behalal.

The mines board and the gold refinery did not immediately respond to requests for comment.


UN experts slam US arrests of pro-Palestinian students

Updated 18 March 2025
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UN experts slam US arrests of pro-Palestinian students

  • “These actions are disproportionate, unnecessary, and discriminatory and will only lead to more trauma and polarization negatively impacting the learning environment within university campuses,” the UN experts said in a statement
  • The Trump administration cut $400 million in federal funding for Columbia University, accusing it of not sufficiently addressing anti-Semitism

GENEVA: UN-appointed experts on Monday branded US authorities’ arrests of foreign students for pro-Palestinian protests on campus “disproportionate” and called for their rights to be respected.
US campuses including Columbia University in New York were rocked by student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza following the October 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas, drawing accusations of anti-Semitism.
Immigration officers arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of protests at Columbia, on the weekend of March 9-10 after US President Donald Trump vowed to deport foreign pro-Palestinian student demonstrators.
The White House later said authorities had supplied a list of other Columbia students that officers were seeking to deport over their alleged participation in protests.
“These actions are disproportionate, unnecessary, and discriminatory and will only lead to more trauma and polarization negatively impacting the learning environment within university campuses,” the UN experts said in a statement.
“These actions create a chilling effect on the rights to freedom of expression, assembly and of association,” they added.
The Trump administration has moved to revoke Khalil’s residency permit, accusing him of leading “activities aligned with Hamas.”
Khalil’s lawyer later told a court that he had been taken to Louisiana and denied legal advice.
The independent experts, appointed by the UN to report on rights issues, urged US authorities “to cease repression and retaliation, including in the form of arbitrary detention of US lawful permanent residents, and removal of international students who have participated in university protests.”
The Trump administration cut $400 million in federal funding for Columbia University, accusing it of not sufficiently addressing anti-Semitism.
Columbia administrators later said they had suspended and expelled a number of students who had occupied a campus building last year.
 

 


Kenya urged to investigate mutilated bodies dumped in quarry

Updated 18 March 2025
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Kenya urged to investigate mutilated bodies dumped in quarry

NAIROBI: Human Rights Watch has urged Kenya to conclude an investigation into mutilated bodies found in a quarry last year and address claims that police blocked recovery efforts.

There was shock and disgust last July in the East African country when 10 butchered female corpses and other unidentified body parts were recovered, mostly by volunteers, from an abandoned quarry in the Mukuru slum in the capital, Nairobi.

The discovery came as Kenya was gripped by deadly government protests, with rights groups alleging police brutality and the abduction of prominent protesters.

Authorities promised swift action and quickly arrested a man who they said had confessed to murdering and dismembering 42 women.

But around a month later, the suspect escaped police custody and disappeared without a trace.

“No prosecution has been initiated either for the bodies or this escape,” HRW and the Mukuru Community Center for Social Justice said in a joint statement.

HRW said volunteers at the quarry alleged that police officers had forced them to stop retrieving body parts.