On Bhasan Char, Rohingya refugees observe Eid without family festivities

A Rohingya refugee woman carries her child as she walks through a market in Bhasan Char on June 16, 2024. (AN Photo)
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Updated 16 June 2024
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On Bhasan Char, Rohingya refugees observe Eid without family festivities

  • More than 35,000 Rohingya have been relocated to Bhasan Char since end of 2020
  • It is illegal for refugees to leave the remote Bangladeshi island

DHAKA: Sebon Bahar’s fondest memories of Eid Al-Adha are the hug she would share with her mother to celebrate the occasion, an experience that has grown distant now that she is living on a remote Bangladeshi island.

For the last three years, the Islamic holiday that is synonymous with family gatherings has not felt the same for Bahar following her move to Bhasan Char.

“My Eid celebrations remain incomplete without this precious hug with my mother … Here on this island, I miss this most during Eid as my mom is living at Cox’s Bazar,” she told Arab News on Sunday.

“Without my family members, especially my mother … I feel like it’s not a special day … I haven’t seen my relatives who live in Cox’s Bazar for over three years.” 

Bahar is among more than 35,000 Rohingya who since the end of 2020 have been moved to Bhasan Char as authorities seek to ease pressure on the congested camps at Cox’s Bazar, which is home to more than 1 million refugees who fled violence and persecution in Myanmar.

Located in the Bay of Bengal, the island settlement is several hours by boat away from the mainland.

The fourth Eid Al-Adha on Bhasan Char has not eased the feeling of isolation for its residents, many of whom are missing their extended family even more during the Feast of Sacrifice as leaving the facility is illegal for refugees on the island.

On Eid, Bahar said she makes calls to relatives in an attempt to “feel the special day,” trying to replicate the time she was still living in Cox’s Bazar, when the holiday meant friends and families visiting each other and gossiping over shared food.

While the 30-year-old is grateful for the improved parts of her life in Bhasan Char, where there is more safety, access to fresh seafood and good housing, refugees still struggle with a lack of access to quality education, high cost of goods and also inability to leave the island.

“There is no hope in this island life, and also Cox’s Bazar camp life. I am living life with only one hope nowadays, that one day I will be able to return to Myanmar with citizenship rights,” Bahar said.

Eid celebrations are not the same for Mohammed Abdul Jalil either, as he celebrates his third such holiday on the island.

“Eid celebrations without relatives and family members here at Bhasan Char are boring to me,” Jalil told Arab News.

“Yes, we are in touch with each other through mobile phones, but having chit-chat sitting face to face can’t be compared with two to three minutes of mobile phone conversation. Visiting each other is the most special thing we usually practice as part of Eid.”

He is hoping that the day comes soon when he can return to Myanmar.

“On this island, I just want to reside until our dignified repatriation to our motherland with full rights. As a refugee on this island, I have no other dream or expectations,” Jalil said.

In spite of the hardships and uncertainties, many refugees try their best to make a festive occasion such as Eid as special as possible.

“My Eid celebrations center around the joy of my children, and I always try to do my best to make the day special for my children,” Monira Begum said.

Like Bahar and Jalil, Eid for Begum was also about spending time and sharing food with her extended family — an experience she has not been able to have for the last four years in Bhasan Char.

As she prepares for Eid Al-Adha, which will be observed on Monday in Bangladesh, Begum plans to make traditional snacks for her family.

“I have powdered rice grain to make our traditional snacks, sweet sticky rice cake. I bought some clothes for my children, cosmetics for my daughters, though I am unable to offer a sacrificial animal … This is how I am going to celebrate Eid this year,” Begum said.


Sweden charges militant over Jordanian pilot burnt to death in Syria

Updated 2 sec ago
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Sweden charges militant over Jordanian pilot burnt to death in Syria

  • The pilot is then locked in a cage that is set on fire, leading to his death, Henrik Olin, the other prosecutor in charge of the case, told reporters
  • The defendant's lawyer, Petra Eklund, told AFP that her client admitted to being present at the scene but disputed the prosecution's version
STOCKHOLM: Prosecutors on Tuesday charged a Swedish militant over the 2014 capture and subsequent killing of a Jordanian pilot, who was burned to death in a cage in Syria by the Islamic State (IS) group.
Osama Krayem, 32, was charged with "participating in the brutal execution of a pilot" near the city of Raqqa, prosecutor Reena Devgun told a press conference.
Krayem, who is already serving a 30-year sentence for involvement in the November 2015 terror attacks in Paris, was charged with "serious war crimes and terrorist crimes".
According to prosecutors, who had announced they intended to charge Krayem last week, an aircraft belonging to the Royal Jordanian Air Force crashed in Syria on December 24, 2014.
The pilot was captured by IS fighters the same day near the central city of Raqqa, and killed sometime before February 3, 2015.
The execution was filmed and a 22-minute video accompanied by a specially composed religious chant was published.
In the video, the victim is seen walking past several masked IS fighters, including Krayem, according to prosecutors.
The pilot is then locked in a cage that is set on fire, leading to his death, Henrik Olin, the other prosecutor in charge of the case, told reporters.
"This bestial murder, in which a prisoner was burned alive in a cage, was staged in a carefully produced video that was broadcast around the world. Its publication marked an unprecedented escalation in the Islamic State group's violent propaganda," Olin said.
Prosecutors have been unable to determine the exact day of the murder, but the investigation has identified the location where it took place.
The defendant's lawyer, Petra Eklund, told AFP that her client admitted to being present at the scene but disputed the prosecution's version.
"He denies the acts for which he is prosecuted," she said.
"He acknowledges having been present at that place during the event but claims not to have acted in the manner described by the prosecutors in the account of the facts."
Krayem, who is from Malmo in southern Sweden, joined the IS group in Syria in 2014 before returning to Europe.
In June 2022, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison in France for helping plan the November 2015 Paris attacks in which 130 people were killed.
The following year, he was given a life sentence in Belgium for participating in the bombings on March 22, 2016, at Brussels' main airport and on the metro system, which killed 32 people.
"Even though this is a person that's already sentenced and is serving very long prison sentences in other countries, we will still charge him and we have an international obligation to do so," Devgun told AFP.
Krayem has been "temporarily handed over to Sweden to participate in the trial", which is scheduled to begin June 4, according to the Swedish Prosecution Authority.
"It is painful for my parents to be confronted with this event again, but we are grateful that the Swedish authorities want to give us justice," Jawdat al-Kasasbeh, the pilot's brother, told broadcaster Sveriges Radio.

Zelensky proposes three-way meeting with Trump, Putin

Updated 14 min 49 sec ago
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Zelensky proposes three-way meeting with Trump, Putin

  • Donald Trump has expressed frustration at both Putin and Zelensky for not yet striking a deal to end the war
  • The Ukrainian leader had previously appeared to express frustration at Washington for not having announced fresh sanctions on Moscow

KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for a three-way summit with Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin as he seeks to force Moscow to halt its three-year-long invasion.

Russian President Putin rejected calls to meet Zelensky in Turkiye earlier this month and the Kremlin has said a meeting between the two leaders would only happen after some kind of “agreement” is reached.

The US president has expressed frustration at both Putin and Zelensky for not yet striking a deal to end the war.

The two sides have traded waves of massive aerial attacks in recent weeks, with Ukraine firing almost 300 drones at Russia overnight, the defense ministry in Moscow said.

“If Putin is not comfortable with a bilateral meeting, or if everyone wants it to be a trilateral meeting, I don’t mind. I am ready for any format,” Zelensky said in comments to journalists on Tuesday that were published on Wednesday.

The Ukrainian leader said he was “ready” for a “Trump-Putin-me” meeting, and also urged Washington to hit Moscow with a package of hard-hitting sanctions on its banking and energy sectors.

“We are waiting for sanctions from the United States of America,” Zelensky said.

“Trump confirmed that if Russia does not stop, sanctions will be imposed. We discussed two main aspects with him — energy and the banking system. Will the US be able to impose sanctions on these two sectors? I would very much like that.”

The Ukrainian leader had previously appeared to express frustration at Washington for not having announced fresh sanctions on Moscow after Russia rejected a coordinated Western appeal for an immediate ceasefire.

Trump over the weekend called Putin “crazy” after a massive Russian barrage killed at least 13 people across Ukraine.

And on Tuesday, he went on blasting at the Russian leader.

“What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He’s playing with fire!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social network.

Despite months of US-led diplomacy, the two sides appear no closer to striking a deal to end the three-year-long war, triggered by Russia’s February 2022 invasion.

Tens of thousands have been killed, much of east and southern Ukraine has been destroyed, and Moscow’s army now controls around a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, including the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.

Hours after Zelensky spoke, Ukraine unleashed one of its largest ever drone barrages on Russia, where officials reported only minimal damage from the attacks.

Moscow’s three major international airports were forced to suspend flights for hours overnight amid the barrage, aviation authorities said.

Ukraine said that Russia launched more than 900 drones in the three days up to Monday. Thirteen civilians were killed in attacks on Sunday, including three children.

On the battlefield, Zelensky said Russia was “amassing” more than 50,000 troops on the front line around the northeastern Sumy border region, where Moscow’s army has captured a number of settlements as it seeks to establish what Putin has called a “buffer zone” inside Ukrainian territory.

Zelensky also said that Ukraine is yet to receive a promised “memorandum” from Russia on its demands for a peace deal.

Ukraine has accused Russia of dragging out the peace process following the first direct talks in more than three years between negotiators from the two sides earlier this month in Istanbul.

Zelensky is due to visit Germany on Wednesday for talks with Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has pledged muscular backing for Kyiv in its fight against Russia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that details on a second round of negotiations would be announced soon.


US suspends student visa processing in fresh swipe at foreign applicants

Updated 25 min 30 sec ago
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US suspends student visa processing in fresh swipe at foreign applicants

  • The government plans to ramp up vetting of the social media profiles of international applicants to US universities, the cable said.
  • Rubio earlier rescinded hundreds of visas and the Trump administration has moved to bar Harvard University from admitting non-Americans

CAMBRIDGE: The US State Department on Tuesday ordered the suspension of student visa processing, as President Donald Trump’s administration seeks unprecedented control of the nation’s universities by slashing funding and curbing international enrollment.
It is the latest escalation in the White House’s crackdown on foreign students, which has seen it revoke visas and deport some of those involved in protests against the war in Gaza.
A cable signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and seen by AFP orders embassies and consulates not to allow “any additional student or exchange visa... appointment capacity until further guidance is issued.”
The government plans to ramp up vetting of the social media profiles of international applicants to US universities, the cable said.
The New York Times reported that the suspension of interviews with visa applicants was temporary.
Rubio earlier rescinded hundreds of visas and the Trump administration has moved to bar Harvard University from admitting non-Americans.
Japan and Hong Kong have both urged local universities to accept foreign students from US universities in light of the crackdown.
China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning on Wednesday said Beijing urged Washington to “safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of international students, including those from China.”
Hundreds of thousands of Chinese students attend US universities, long viewed by many in China as beacons of academic freedom and rigour.
The suspension of visa processing came as Harvard students protested on Tuesday after the government said it intended to cancel all remaining financial contracts, Trump’s latest attempt to force the institution to submit to unprecedented oversight.
A judge issued a restraining order pending a hearing on the matter scheduled for Thursday, the same day as the university’s commencement graduation ceremony for which thousands of graduating students and their families had gathered in Cambridge, Massachusetts near Boston.
The White House, meanwhile, doubled down in its offensive, saying that public money should go to vocational schools that train electricians and plumbers.
“The president is more interested in giving that taxpayer money to trade schools and programs and state schools where they are promoting American values, but most importantly, educating the next generation based on skills that we need in our economy and our society,” Karoline Leavitt said on Fox News Tuesday evening. “We need more of those in our country, and less LGBTQ graduate majors from Harvard University.”
Tuesday’s protest unfolded as news helicopters hovered overhead and graduating students in academic attire and their guests ate finger food at a reception on the lawns of Harvard Square nearby.
“All my international friends and peers and professors and researchers are at risk and (are) threatened with being deported — or their option is to transfer” to another university, said Alice Goyer, who attended the protest wearing a black academic gown.
One history of medicine student from Britain graduating this week who gave his name only as Jack said that the policies pursued by Trump would make US universities less attractive to international students.
“I don’t know if I’d pursue a PhD here, six years is a long time,” he said.
Harvard itself has filed extensive legal challenges against Trump’s measures, which legal experts say are likely to be overturned by the courts.
Separately, alumni plan to file a lawsuit against Trump on June 9, filmmaker Anurima Bhargava told a virtual meeting staged by Crimson Courage, a grassroots alumni group that held a mass webinar to raise awareness and a fighting fund from former students.


The cutting of contracts announced Tuesday — estimated by US media to be worth $100 million — would mark the slashing of business ties between the government and the country’s oldest university.
Amid a broad campaign against seats of learning that Trump accuses of being hotbeds of liberal bias and anti-Semitism, the president has singled out Harvard.
In the last few weeks, the elite educational and research powerhouse has seen billions of dollars in federal grants frozen and millions of dollars of federal contracts torn up.
The university has sued both to block the revocation of its right to recruit and sponsor foreign students, 27 percent of its total roll, as well as to overturn the withdrawal of federal funding.
A legal expert suggested Harvard could file a lawsuit to overturn the latest contract cuts as part of existing legal action.
“The case is so strong that the court system is not going to step to the side and allow this... to go forward,” said Albany Law School professor Ray Brescia.
He said the Trump administration’s assault on Harvard was so flawed that a higher court would likely strike down the campaign if the Trump administration were to challenge it on appeal.
On Monday, Trump nonetheless vowed he would prevail in the increasingly public struggle, claiming that foreign students at Harvard include “radicalized lunatics, troublemakers.”
gw-bur/cms/sco


Asia boosts weapons buys, Gulf states make inroads as security outlook darkens

Updated 13 min 53 sec ago
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Asia boosts weapons buys, Gulf states make inroads as security outlook darkens

  • Southeast Asian nations spend $2.7 billion more on weapons, IISS research says
  • Spike comes even as nations spent an average of 1.5 percent of GDP on defense in 2024

HONG KONG: Spending on weapons and research is spiking among some Asian countries as they respond to a darkening security outlook by broadening their outside industrial partnerships while trying to boost their own defense industries, a new study has found.

The annual Asia-Pacific Regional Security Assessment released on Wednesday by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said outside industrial help remains vital even as regional nations ultimately aim for self-reliance.

“Recent conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, coupled with worsening US-China strategic competition and deterioration of the Asia-Pacific security landscape, may lead to a rising tide of defense-industrial partnerships,” it read.

“Competitive security dynamics over simmering flashpoints ... feed into the need to develop military capabilities to address them.”

Spending on defense procurement and research and development rose $2.7 billion between 2022 and 2024, it showed, to reach $10.5 billion among Southeast Asia’s key nations of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The spike comes even as the nations spent an average of 1.5 percent of GDP on defense in 2024, a figure that has kept relatively constant over the last decade.

The study, released ahead of this weekend’s annual Shangri-La Dialogue defense meeting in Singapore, said Asia-Pacific nations still rely on imports for most key weapons and equipment.

Such items range from submarines and combat aircraft to drones, missiles and advanced electronics for surveillance and intelligence gathering.

The informal Singapore gathering of global defense and military officials is expected to be dominated by uncertainties stemming from the protracted Ukraine conflict, Trump administration security policies and regional tension over Taiwan and the disputed busy waterway of the South China Sea.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are increasingly active and making inroads, the study said, though European companies have a prominent and expanding regional presence, via technology transfer, joint ventures and licensed assembly deals.

The UAE now operates a diversified network of collaborators, such as China’s NORINCO weapons giant and rival India’s Hindustan Aeronautics.

Joint development operations are not always easy, the study said, offering lessons from India’s two-decade collaboration with Russia to produce the BrahMos supersonic anti-ship missile.

While the feared weapon is fielded by India, exports have been hampered by lack of a clear strategy, with deliveries to its first third-party customer, the Philippines, starting only in 2024, the study added.

Closer Russia-China ties could further complicate the weapon’s development, particularly if Moscow chooses to prioritize ties with Beijing to develop a hypersonic version of the missile.


EU almost on track to reach 2030 climate goal

Updated 28 May 2025
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EU almost on track to reach 2030 climate goal

  • The analysis shows governments have upped their efforts to curb emissions in the last two years
  • Brussels faces a political backlash from some countries demanding the EU weaken its green agenda

BRUSSELS: The European Union is nearly on track to reach its main climate target for this decade, with countries’ existing CO2-cutting plans set to bring the bloc within one percentage point of the goal, the European Commission said on Wednesday.

The EU is on course to reduce its net greenhouse gas emissions by 54 percent by 2030, compared with 1990 levels – just shy of its legally-binding goal of a 55 percent cut, the Commission said in an analysis of existing policies in the EU and its member countries.

The analysis showed governments have upped their efforts to curb emissions in the last two years, even as Brussels faces a political backlash from some countries demanding the EU weaken its green agenda.

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with crop-wrecking floods and deadly wildfires linked to climate change hitting EU nations with increasing frequency.

But with industries reeling from high energy prices after Russia slashed gas deliveries in 2022, and the prospect of US tariffs, the EU faces mounting calls from governments to soften green measures for struggling businesses.

EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said the EU would invest more in clean technologies to ensure industries can prosper from Europe’s green transition.

“Emissions are down 37 percent since 1990, while the economy has grown nearly 70 percent, proving climate action and growth go hand in hand. Now we must build on this momentum,” Hoekstra said.

By 2023, the EU had reduced its emissions by 37 percent from 1990 levels, the latest available data show.

The Commission cited strong progress in the energy sector, with renewable sources covering 24 percent of EU energy consumption in 2023.

Agriculture and transport are among the sectors lagging behind, it said.

Farmers staged months of protests across Europe last year, criticizing EU green policies. The agriculture sector has largely escaped EU climate measures, and Brussels weakened some environmental rules for farmers in response to the protests.

The environmental impact of land use – which includes farming and forestry – has also been exacerbated by record-breaking wildfires, which deplete the land’s ability to store carbon. The EU’s “sink” of carbon stored in natural ecosystems like grasslands and forests is now not expected to improve by 2030, the Commission said.

The EU’s 2030 climate goal is one of the most ambitious among major economies worldwide. The Commission is preparing to propose a 2040 climate target, but has delayed the proposal for months amid political pushback.