UNITED NATIONS, Apr 18 2019 (IPS)* – President Donald Trump’s decision to veto a bi-partisan Congressional resolution to end US military involvement in a devastating Saudi-led four-year conflict in Yemen– is expected to escalate the ongoing war in the trouble-plagued region.
Yemen home for the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The weapons used by the Saudis in the reckless bombing of mostly civilian targets, including schools and hospitals, are largely from the United States: F-15 fighter planes, Bell helicopters, drones, air-to-surface missiles, M60 battle tanks, laser-guided bombs and heavy artillery.
Statement by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Policy Director, Ole Solvang, on the US President’s veto to a bill to end military support for the war in Yemen*
17 April 2019 (Norwegian Refugee Council)* – “President Trump said that withdrawing from the war in Yemen would ‘negatively affect ongoing efforts to prevent civilian casualties.’ Yet if he was truly concerned about civilian life, he would first and foremost ensure that the US-supported Saudi-led coalition stop breaking the laws of war and depriving millions of Yemenis of life-saving assistance.
Yasser al Hibshi, 38, lost his house and three of his children in one of the first air raids launched by the Saudi-led coalition on the night of 26 March, 2015. Photo: Nuha Mohammedi/NRC
18 March 2019 (Wall Street International)* – In my last essay for the Wall Street International Magazine, I argued that Democrats and Independents need to push now for a single term presidency in the effort to prevent Trump from winning a second, if not third, presidential term1.
Trump is running high with the apparent economic boom in hiring (that is financed by heavy federal debts and tax reductions for the very wealthy), and the (false) belief that he has been “totally exonerated” after accusations of electoral “collusion” with Russia.
Trump believes he can win a second term, and he could do almost anything to win. There is also a real possibility that he could attempt to stay in office longer than the legally mandated two terms in office.
Since the government suppressed street protests last April, thousands have sought safety in neighbouring Costa Rica, where meeting basic needs remains a challenge. | Español | Français
16 April 2019 (UNHCR)* — Despite having little interest in politics, Manuel* found himself caught up in the violence and persecution that erupted in Nicaragua a year ago, after the government cracked down on street protests.
“We lived with the anxiety of not knowing when they would break into the house to get us,” the farmer recalls. “We were besieged at night.”
Torture is likely still widespread in Afghanistan’s State-run prisons for detainees linked to ongoing conflict there, the UN said on Wednesday [17 April 2019], while also noting an “encouraging reduction” in the level of abuse since 2016.
UNAMA/Eric Kanalstein | An elderly woman being held at a female detention centre in northern Afghanistan (2010).
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Based on interviews with more than 600 detainees and published jointly by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR), their latest report on the treatment of prisoners in 77 facilities in 28 out of 34 provinces indicates that an average of nearly one in three, provided “credible and reliable” accounts of suffering.
Heavy shelling overnight on Tuesday [16 April 2019] which hit a densely-populated neighbourhood of Libya’s capital, Tripoli, was condemned “in the strongest terms” by the head of the UN Mission there, after “scores” of civilians were reportedly killed and injured.
UNOCHA/Giles Clarke | Former Parliament Speakers Chamber in Tripoli, Libya.
“Horrible night of random shelling of residential areas”, tweeted UN Special Representative Ghassan Salame on Wednesday, after the Abu Slim district was hit. “For the sake of 3 million civilians living in Greater Tripoli, these attacks should stop. NOW!”
17 April 2019 (Wall Street International)* — Today there is worldwide concern over ecological problems and climate change in particular. A systems-view of the world shows us that pollution and climate change mutually interact, thereby spawning further crises: the loss of biodiversity, the huge wealth gap between rich and poor that forces the dispossessed to migrate towards wealthier nations, and the destabilization of democracy. There is much to be concerned about, and the rage and anxiety felt by those most affected is exacerbated by the indifference of the majority of influential governments.
Donald Trump’s ascendancy to the presidency, as Max Blumenthal points out in his insightful book “The Management of Savagery: How America’s National Security State Fueled the Rise of Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Donald Trump,” was made possible not only by massive social inequality and concentration of wealth and political power in the hands of the oligarchic elites but by the national security state’s disastrous and prolonged military interventions overseas.
The book documents an increasing trend towards the harassment and criminalisation of indigenous peoples and communities.
It also highlights the rising tensions between states and indigenous peoples, shrinking civil society space, loss of land rights and lack of access to justice for indigenous peoples to enjoy their rights.
“Indigenous peoples make up 5% of the world’s population, yet they represent 15% of the world’s poorest, and in 2017, half of the approximately 400 environmental and human rights defenders were killed.
London, 16 April 2019 (IOM)* –Ten thousand people separated by conflict and persecution have been reunited with their families in the United Kingdom under a British Red Cross (BRC) and International Organization for Migration (IOM) family reunification programme.
Khaled is reunited with his son at the airport under the IOM-British Red Cross Family Reunification programme. Photo: British Red Cross
