Jue 29,2022:Colombia’s Truth Commission has presented its final report into the country’s long-running civil conflict, announcing that at least 450,664 people were killed over the course of nearly six decades of fighting.
The long-awaited report from the Truth Commission on Tuesday said the impact of the conflict between the Colombian military and rebel groups has been “massive and intolerable”. It also called for substantial reforms in Colombia’s approach to drug policy, which it said helped prolong the civil war, and urged redress for the victims of the conflict.
The commission was set up as part of a 2016 peace deal between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and was tasked with documenting abuses and explaining what caused the conflict to persist for so long.
It said that the war, which started with a Marxist peasant insurgency in 1964, extended across the country over the course of nearly six decades and deteriorated in the 1990s due to drug trafficking and the rise of paramilitary factions that often worked in collusion with the military and politicians.
Based on interviews with more than 14,000 victims of the conflict, as well as military leaders and former fighters, the report gave an updated toll of the violence. In addition to the killings, it said at least 120,000 people were disappeared and that nearly 8 million people were displaced.
Launching the report in the Colombian capital, Bogota, Francisco de Roux, the head of the Truth Commission, called for the construction of a “great peace” and expressed confidence in President-elect Gustavo Petro’s commitment to implement the commission’s recommendations.
Petro, who attended the presentation, was a former fighter of the M-19 guerrilla group that demobilised under a peace process. On the campaign trail, he had pledged full support for the 2016 peace deal and promised to implement provisions that had languished under outgoing President Ivan Duque.
At Tuesday’s event, Petro said that the truth cannot be used to create a “space for vengeance”. Instead, the truth would be needed to end cycles of armed violence and open dialogues, he said.
Duque, who had traveled abroad and was absent from the ceremony, previously told a local newspaper that he hoped the report would not be biased. Critics have accused the outgoing president of obstructing the peace deal, which addresses key causes and drivers of the conflict, such as underdevelopment and the drug economy.
‘New possibility’
The commission is part of a comprehensive transitional justice system that is designed to help the country move toward a path of reconciliation and peace. A peace tribunal is judging atrocities committed during the conflict and holding perpetrators accountable.
In its report, the Truth Commission urged the Colombian government to end its militarised approach to drug policy that for decades has prioritised prohibition over regulation.
Analysts say the recommendations set forth by the commission could bring Colombia closer to peace, if implemented.
June 22,2022:At least 155 people have been killed and more than 200 other injured after a powerful earthquake hit remote parts of southeastern Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan, officials say.
The quake shook parts of eastern Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan during the early hours of Wednesday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.
The death toll is likely to rise, media reports said.
The quake struck about 44 km (27 miles) from the city of Khost in southeastern Afghanistan and was at a depth of 51km (31 miles), according to the USGS.
Al Jazeera’s Ali Latifi, reporting from Kabul, said authorities are reporting at least 100 houses have been destroyed.
“Authorities have brought in helicopters and calling for aid agencies to come in. But it’s a remote area and harder to reach,” he said.
Shaking was felt over a range of some 500km (310 miles) by about 119 million people in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India, the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said in a tweet.
It was felt in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul as well as Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, according to witness accounts posted on the EMSC website and by users on Twitter.
“Strong and long jolts,” one witness posted on EMSC from Kabul. “It was strong,” another witness posted from Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan.
The Pakistan Meteorological Department said the quake jolted parts of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, according to Dawn news website, which added that there were no immediate news of deaths or damage.
June 21,2022:Russia’s foreign ministry has demanded the immediate lifting of Lithuania’s “openly hostile” restrictions on the rail transit of EU-sanctioned goods to Moscow’s exclave of Kaliningrad.
Sandwiched between European Union and NATO members Poland and Lithuania, Kaliningrad receives supplies from Russia via rail and gas pipelines through Lithuania.
The Baltic nation of Lithuania announced last week that it was banning the rail transit of goods that are subject to EU sanctions from mainland Russia to Kaliningrad.
The list includes coal, metals, construction materials and advanced technology.
“If in the near future cargo transit between the Kaliningrad region and the rest of the territory of the Russian Federation through Lithuania is not restored in full, then Russia reserves the right to take actions to protect its national interests,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday.
The ministry said it had summoned Lithuania’s charge d’affaires in Moscow to protest against the “provocative” and “openly hostile” measures.
Earlier on Monday, the Kremlin said Lithuania’s decision was “unprecedented” and “in violation of everything there is”.
“The situation is more than serious and it requires a very deep analysis before formulating any measures and decisions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis defended the move and said his country was simply implementing sanctions imposed by the EU, of which it is a member.
He said the measures were taken after “consultation with the European Commission and under its guidelines”.
Jue 19,2022:NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warns that the war in Ukraine could drag on for years and calls for the supply of more state-of-the-art weaponry to Ukrainian troops.
TASS news agency says two top Ukrainian commanders who defended Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant have been transferred to Russia for investigations.
Luhansk’s Governor Serhiy Haidai says he is preparing “for the worst” as Russian forces intensify their assault on eastern cities.
Ukraine’s military says it has suffered a setback in Metolkine, a village southeast of the key city of Severodonetsk.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits the front lines in Mykolaiv and Odesa, declares Ukrainian troops “will definitely” win against Russia.
New Delhi June 15,2022:The National Commission of Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) on Tuesday sent a letter to the Secretary of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Ajay Prakash Sawhney, asking the Ministry to explain in 10 days how the banned online game PUBG was still available to children in the country days after a 16-year-old allegedly killed his mother in Lucknow after she stopped him from playing it.
The NCPCR has also written to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), asking them to explain the status of PUBG and other such games in the country.
The 16-year-old had allegedly shot his mother using a licenced pistol belonging to his father, who is in the Army, and then hid her body inside their house in Lucknow for three days using room freshener to mask the smell, the UP police had said.
The NCPCR has noted that PUBG has been blocked in India by the IT Ministry “in interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State and public order’’.
We have also asked the authorities what is the regulating mechanism for such games. If these games are blocked in the country, how do children continue to have access to them? This is a matter of great concern to us, and needs to be addressed,” said NCPCR chairperson Priyank Kanoongo
London/Boscombe Down, June 15,2022: Britain’s first flight to take asylum seekers to Rwanda did not take off as scheduled on Tuesday after the European human rights court issued last-minute injunctions to stop the deportation of the handful of migrants on board.
The British government’s plan to send some migrants to the East African country has been criticized by opponents, charities, and religious leaders who say it is inhumane. It has been forced to fight a series of legal challenges in London courts aiming to stop it going ahead.
In the last few days, at least 30 individuals earmarked to be on the first flight successfully argued that they should not be deported to Rwanda on health or human rights grounds.
Just a handful of migrants were set to fly from an air force base in southwest England on Tuesday. Shortly before the plane was due to leave, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) granted injunctions to prevent their deportations.
“I have always said this policy will not be easy to deliver and am disappointed that legal challenge and last-minute claims have meant today’s flight was unable to depart,” Home Secretary Priti Patel said.
“It is very surprising that the European Court of Human Rights has intervened despite repeated earlier success in our domestic courts.”
She said the government would not be deterred and would prepare for the next flight.
The flight was cancelled after the plane’s engines had been started and cabin crew was seen boarding.
The ECHR’s ruling relating to one of the men, an Iraqi, stated he “should not be removed until the expiry of a period of three weeks following the delivery of the final domestic decision in the ongoing judicial review proceedings.” The High Court in London is due to hold this judicial review in July to decide on the legality of the scheme.
Britain says the 120-million-pound ($148 million) deal struck with Rwanda will stem the flow of dangerous cross-Channel trips and smash the business model of people-smuggling networks.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who said his government would not be put off by criticism, “some of it from slightly unexpected quarters,” had earlier commented that legal bids were undermining attempts to support safe routes for asylum seekers.
Asked if Britain might withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights, he said: “It is certainly the case that… the legal world is very good at picking up ways of trying to stop the government from upholding what we think is a sensible law.