Another Big Win For Putin!!!
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Germany sours on Russia
Fool me once
Germany’s establishment once believed in conciliation with Russia. No longer
From the print edition
IN HER colourless suit, Angela Merkel looked like a grey mouse, too ashamed to face the German public after her cowardly decision to permit investigation into a comedian who had insulted the Turkish president. She is the epitome of hypocrisy and double standards. Her migration policy is an act of political suicide which has empowered Germany’s fascist right...and so on, and so forth. This was the sneering tone with which Russia’s state television channels portrayed Germany’s chancellor last week. No other post-communist German leader has come under such fire from the Russian propaganda machine.
Only a few years ago Russians saw Germany as one of their closest allies. Opinion polls show they increasingly see it as an enemy. In contrast to Gerhard Schröder, the former German chancellor who now lobbies for Mr Putin, Mrs Merkel has become a steadfast ideological opponent. She has taken a firm stand against Russian aggression in Ukraine, and the campaign of lies deployed to legitimise it. According to one of Mrs Merkel’s aides, Mr Putin’s mendacious denials that the “green men” who seized Crimea were Russian soldiers were a turning point for her. In turn, it is Mrs Merkel’s adherence to principle that makes her so alien to the Kremlin, which operates in a postmodernist world where truth and facts do not apply.
Mr Putin excels at exploiting other countries’ weaknesses. The Kremlin is now working hard to exacerbate the political damage done to Mrs Merkel by her policy of openness towards refugees. “Putin tries his best to topple Merkel, and he has a lot of instruments at his disposal,” says Stefan Meister, a Russia expert at DGAP, a think-tank in Berlin.
One of these instruments is television, aimed at both the domestic audience and native Russian speakers elsewhere, including 3m in Germany. In January Russia’s Channel One aired a story about a 13-year-old Russian-German girl allegedly gang-raped by a group of immigrants in Berlin. The report sparked large protests in Germany by ethnic Russian-Germans and anti-Muslim activists. German police soon learned that the story was false, but Russian television continued to report it. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, even accused Germany of a cover-up.
The flagrant deceit of the so-called “Lisa affair” shocked the German public. Russia had employed similar disinformation tactics in the war against Ukraine, but never in Germany. “The Russians went too far,” says Mr Meister. “They have largely lost the German establishment.”
“I used to see Russia as a strategic partner and competitor,” says Roderich Kiesewetter, an MP from Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democratic party (CDU). “Now it has become a potential enemy.” Even proponents of Ostpolitik, Germany’s traditionalpolicy of accommodation with Russia—mainly members of the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), the junior partners in government—felt let down. Remaining Russia sympathisers such as Alexander Rahr, director of the German-Russian Forum in Berlin, are left appealing to his country’s deep-rooted fear of war. “The most important issue at the moment is not Ukraine, but preventing a third world war,” says Mr Rahr.
Russia once counted on business ties with Germany to secure the relationship. It miscalculated. Among Germany’s trade partners, Russia ranks below the Czech Republic. Before the EU’s Ukraine-related sanctions, Russia accounted for 4% of German trade; that has fallen to 2.4%. “Our overriding goal is to show that we will not accept violations of the post-war order,” says Markus Kerber, director of BDI, a business association.
The Kremlin has also tried courting the SPD to split Germany’s governing coalition. Sigmar Gabriel, the SPD leader, was received in Moscow by Mr Putin last autumn to agree on the construction of Nord Stream 2, a gas pipeline that would circumvent Ukraine and the Baltic states. The EU may block the deal; privately, Mrs Merkel “would be happy to see the project fold”, says one of her advisers.
More important is the roll-over of sanctions in July. Getting them removed would be a victory for Mr Putin and a defeat for Mrs Merkel. But Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the foreign minister and member of the SPD, has advocated more diplomatic co-operation with the Russians, arguing that without them “none of the major international conflicts can be solved” (eliding the point that Russia causes many of those conflicts in the first place).
Mr Putin cultivates links with parties on both the extreme right and the extreme left. One ally is the right-wing Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party. Another is the ex-communist party, Die Linke. Many supporters of the xenophobic Pegida movement are also pro-Putin. At anti-immigrant rallies last year in Dresden, where Mr Putin was stationed as a KGB officer in the 1980s, demonstrators waved Russian flags and chanted “Help us, Putin.” Russian propaganda activities in Germany have prompted the BND, Germany’s intelligence service, to launch an investigation.
Yet Mrs Merkel has come to see that Mr Putin’s antipathy to her stems from weakness rather than strength. In a storied encounter with the chancellor a decade ago, Mr Putin, aware of Mrs Merkel’s fear of dogs, brought his black Labrador into the room. Mrs Merkel froze; Mr Putin smirked. A fluent Russian-speaker brought up in East Germany, the chancellor understood Mr Putin’s language. “I understand why he has to do this—to prove he’s a man,” she told a group of reporters afterwards. “Russia has nothing, no successful politics or economy. All they have is this.”
http://www.economist.com/news/europ...ed-conciliation-russia-no-longer-fool-me-once
Fool me once
Germany’s establishment once believed in conciliation with Russia. No longer
From the print edition
IN HER colourless suit, Angela Merkel looked like a grey mouse, too ashamed to face the German public after her cowardly decision to permit investigation into a comedian who had insulted the Turkish president. She is the epitome of hypocrisy and double standards. Her migration policy is an act of political suicide which has empowered Germany’s fascist right...and so on, and so forth. This was the sneering tone with which Russia’s state television channels portrayed Germany’s chancellor last week. No other post-communist German leader has come under such fire from the Russian propaganda machine.
Only a few years ago Russians saw Germany as one of their closest allies. Opinion polls show they increasingly see it as an enemy. In contrast to Gerhard Schröder, the former German chancellor who now lobbies for Mr Putin, Mrs Merkel has become a steadfast ideological opponent. She has taken a firm stand against Russian aggression in Ukraine, and the campaign of lies deployed to legitimise it. According to one of Mrs Merkel’s aides, Mr Putin’s mendacious denials that the “green men” who seized Crimea were Russian soldiers were a turning point for her. In turn, it is Mrs Merkel’s adherence to principle that makes her so alien to the Kremlin, which operates in a postmodernist world where truth and facts do not apply.
Mr Putin excels at exploiting other countries’ weaknesses. The Kremlin is now working hard to exacerbate the political damage done to Mrs Merkel by her policy of openness towards refugees. “Putin tries his best to topple Merkel, and he has a lot of instruments at his disposal,” says Stefan Meister, a Russia expert at DGAP, a think-tank in Berlin.
One of these instruments is television, aimed at both the domestic audience and native Russian speakers elsewhere, including 3m in Germany. In January Russia’s Channel One aired a story about a 13-year-old Russian-German girl allegedly gang-raped by a group of immigrants in Berlin. The report sparked large protests in Germany by ethnic Russian-Germans and anti-Muslim activists. German police soon learned that the story was false, but Russian television continued to report it. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, even accused Germany of a cover-up.
The flagrant deceit of the so-called “Lisa affair” shocked the German public. Russia had employed similar disinformation tactics in the war against Ukraine, but never in Germany. “The Russians went too far,” says Mr Meister. “They have largely lost the German establishment.”
“I used to see Russia as a strategic partner and competitor,” says Roderich Kiesewetter, an MP from Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democratic party (CDU). “Now it has become a potential enemy.” Even proponents of Ostpolitik, Germany’s traditionalpolicy of accommodation with Russia—mainly members of the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), the junior partners in government—felt let down. Remaining Russia sympathisers such as Alexander Rahr, director of the German-Russian Forum in Berlin, are left appealing to his country’s deep-rooted fear of war. “The most important issue at the moment is not Ukraine, but preventing a third world war,” says Mr Rahr.
Russia once counted on business ties with Germany to secure the relationship. It miscalculated. Among Germany’s trade partners, Russia ranks below the Czech Republic. Before the EU’s Ukraine-related sanctions, Russia accounted for 4% of German trade; that has fallen to 2.4%. “Our overriding goal is to show that we will not accept violations of the post-war order,” says Markus Kerber, director of BDI, a business association.
The Kremlin has also tried courting the SPD to split Germany’s governing coalition. Sigmar Gabriel, the SPD leader, was received in Moscow by Mr Putin last autumn to agree on the construction of Nord Stream 2, a gas pipeline that would circumvent Ukraine and the Baltic states. The EU may block the deal; privately, Mrs Merkel “would be happy to see the project fold”, says one of her advisers.
More important is the roll-over of sanctions in July. Getting them removed would be a victory for Mr Putin and a defeat for Mrs Merkel. But Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the foreign minister and member of the SPD, has advocated more diplomatic co-operation with the Russians, arguing that without them “none of the major international conflicts can be solved” (eliding the point that Russia causes many of those conflicts in the first place).
Mr Putin cultivates links with parties on both the extreme right and the extreme left. One ally is the right-wing Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party. Another is the ex-communist party, Die Linke. Many supporters of the xenophobic Pegida movement are also pro-Putin. At anti-immigrant rallies last year in Dresden, where Mr Putin was stationed as a KGB officer in the 1980s, demonstrators waved Russian flags and chanted “Help us, Putin.” Russian propaganda activities in Germany have prompted the BND, Germany’s intelligence service, to launch an investigation.
Yet Mrs Merkel has come to see that Mr Putin’s antipathy to her stems from weakness rather than strength. In a storied encounter with the chancellor a decade ago, Mr Putin, aware of Mrs Merkel’s fear of dogs, brought his black Labrador into the room. Mrs Merkel froze; Mr Putin smirked. A fluent Russian-speaker brought up in East Germany, the chancellor understood Mr Putin’s language. “I understand why he has to do this—to prove he’s a man,” she told a group of reporters afterwards. “Russia has nothing, no successful politics or economy. All they have is this.”
http://www.economist.com/news/europ...ed-conciliation-russia-no-longer-fool-me-once
ill
Superstar
Stanislav Byshok's lecture at Brown University
Long read but highly recommended.
Stop supporting Nazi's @88m3 @ThreeLetterAgency
Long read but highly recommended.
Stop supporting Nazi's @88m3 @ThreeLetterAgency
Heres the thing, at no point would I ever do that.Stanislav Byshok's lecture at Brown University
Long read but highly recommended.
Stop supporting Nazi's @88m3 @ThreeLetterAgency
But i'm just saying russia exploits fukkery.
after seeing how Russia made up that rape story, dudes gotta stay woke out hereGermany sours on Russia
Fool me once
Germany’s establishment once believed in conciliation with Russia. No longer
From the print edition
IN HER colourless suit, Angela Merkel looked like a grey mouse, too ashamed to face the German public after her cowardly decision to permit investigation into a comedian who had insulted the Turkish president. She is the epitome of hypocrisy and double standards. Her migration policy is an act of political suicide which has empowered Germany’s fascist right...and so on, and so forth. This was the sneering tone with which Russia’s state television channels portrayed Germany’s chancellor last week. No other post-communist German leader has come under such fire from the Russian propaganda machine.
Only a few years ago Russians saw Germany as one of their closest allies. Opinion polls show they increasingly see it as an enemy. In contrast to Gerhard Schröder, the former German chancellor who now lobbies for Mr Putin, Mrs Merkel has become a steadfast ideological opponent. She has taken a firm stand against Russian aggression in Ukraine, and the campaign of lies deployed to legitimise it. According to one of Mrs Merkel’s aides, Mr Putin’s mendacious denials that the “green men” who seized Crimea were Russian soldiers were a turning point for her. In turn, it is Mrs Merkel’s adherence to principle that makes her so alien to the Kremlin, which operates in a postmodernist world where truth and facts do not apply.
Mr Putin excels at exploiting other countries’ weaknesses. The Kremlin is now working hard to exacerbate the political damage done to Mrs Merkel by her policy of openness towards refugees. “Putin tries his best to topple Merkel, and he has a lot of instruments at his disposal,” says Stefan Meister, a Russia expert at DGAP, a think-tank in Berlin.
One of these instruments is television, aimed at both the domestic audience and native Russian speakers elsewhere, including 3m in Germany. In January Russia’s Channel One aired a story about a 13-year-old Russian-German girl allegedly gang-raped by a group of immigrants in Berlin. The report sparked large protests in Germany by ethnic Russian-Germans and anti-Muslim activists. German police soon learned that the story was false, but Russian television continued to report it. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, even accused Germany of a cover-up.
The flagrant deceit of the so-called “Lisa affair” shocked the German public. Russia had employed similar disinformation tactics in the war against Ukraine, but never in Germany. “The Russians went too far,” says Mr Meister. “They have largely lost the German establishment.”
“I used to see Russia as a strategic partner and competitor,” says Roderich Kiesewetter, an MP from Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democratic party (CDU). “Now it has become a potential enemy.” Even proponents of Ostpolitik, Germany’s traditionalpolicy of accommodation with Russia—mainly members of the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), the junior partners in government—felt let down. Remaining Russia sympathisers such as Alexander Rahr, director of the German-Russian Forum in Berlin, are left appealing to his country’s deep-rooted fear of war. “The most important issue at the moment is not Ukraine, but preventing a third world war,” says Mr Rahr.
Russia once counted on business ties with Germany to secure the relationship. It miscalculated. Among Germany’s trade partners, Russia ranks below the Czech Republic. Before the EU’s Ukraine-related sanctions, Russia accounted for 4% of German trade; that has fallen to 2.4%. “Our overriding goal is to show that we will not accept violations of the post-war order,” says Markus Kerber, director of BDI, a business association.
The Kremlin has also tried courting the SPD to split Germany’s governing coalition. Sigmar Gabriel, the SPD leader, was received in Moscow by Mr Putin last autumn to agree on the construction of Nord Stream 2, a gas pipeline that would circumvent Ukraine and the Baltic states. The EU may block the deal; privately, Mrs Merkel “would be happy to see the project fold”, says one of her advisers.
More important is the roll-over of sanctions in July. Getting them removed would be a victory for Mr Putin and a defeat for Mrs Merkel. But Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the foreign minister and member of the SPD, has advocated more diplomatic co-operation with the Russians, arguing that without them “none of the major international conflicts can be solved” (eliding the point that Russia causes many of those conflicts in the first place).
Mr Putin cultivates links with parties on both the extreme right and the extreme left. One ally is the right-wing Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party. Another is the ex-communist party, Die Linke. Many supporters of the xenophobic Pegida movement are also pro-Putin. At anti-immigrant rallies last year in Dresden, where Mr Putin was stationed as a KGB officer in the 1980s, demonstrators waved Russian flags and chanted “Help us, Putin.” Russian propaganda activities in Germany have prompted the BND, Germany’s intelligence service, to launch an investigation.
Yet Mrs Merkel has come to see that Mr Putin’s antipathy to her stems from weakness rather than strength. In a storied encounter with the chancellor a decade ago, Mr Putin, aware of Mrs Merkel’s fear of dogs, brought his black Labrador into the room. Mrs Merkel froze; Mr Putin smirked. A fluent Russian-speaker brought up in East Germany, the chancellor understood Mr Putin’s language. “I understand why he has to do this—to prove he’s a man,” she told a group of reporters afterwards. “Russia has nothing, no successful politics or economy. All they have is this.”
http://www.economist.com/news/europ...ed-conciliation-russia-no-longer-fool-me-once
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
Stanislav Byshok's lecture at Brown University
Long read but highly recommended.
Stop supporting Nazi's @88m3 @ThreeLetterAgency
I thought you went to Bentley?
I'll check it out.
There are nationalists/ neo-nazis on boths side.
Russia is the country with an expansionist war footing.
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
For Journalists In Russia, 'No One Really Knows What Is Allowed'
April 26, 201611:29 AM ET
Heard on All Things Considered
COREY FLINTOFF
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with members of the press after his annual call-in show in Moscow on April 14.
Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images
An independent Russian newspaper has come under fire after it published stories about the business interests of President Vladimir Putin's family and friends.
The Kremlin insists that it's not applying pressure on any media, but observers say there's a climate where journalists don't know how far they can go without risking reprisals from the government.
The Russian newspaper is part of a business media group called RBC, which also owns a TV channel and maintains online interests. It belongs to the billionaire businessmanMikhail Prokhorov, best known in the United States as the owner of the Brooklyn Nets basketball team.
The media group's TV station and its paper have a reputation for independent reporting, says Maria Lipman, an independent political analyst based in Moscow who is affiliated with George Washington University.
"It's an outlet that publishes analysis and most importantly, investigations," she says. "It has done investigative reporting in the past couple of years, some of it on very sensitive subjects."
i
An independent paper owned by billionaire Russian businessman and Brooklyn Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov — shown here Jan. 11 in New York — is under fire, but the Kremlin says it's not applying pressure on media.
Seth Wenig/AP
One of the most sensitive subjects was a report on thePanama Papers and what they revealed about the offshore business interests of friends of Putin.
That report drew a denunciation from a pro-Kremlin broadcaster who has one of the most-watched political shows on Russian TV.
The program host, Dmitry Kiselyov, maintains that the Panama Papers — thousands of documents leaked earlier this month from a Panamanian law firm — are part of an American plot to discredit legitimate Russian businessmen. Kiselyov held up a copy of the RBC newspaper and said it was helping the Americans in their plot to associate offshore tax evasion and money-laundering with Putin.
Lipman says accusations of disloyalty have become a common weapon against any media that question the Russian government — "the idea being that only unpatriotic forces, acting in the interests of the West, can criticize the Russian government," she says. "A patriot would not."
After the criticism of RBC's Panama Papers reporting, the company announced that the editor-in-chief, Elizaveta Osetinskaya, would be taking a four-month leave of absence.
It seemed like an odd time for the top news manager to be gone, during the run-up to Russia's parliamentary elections in September. Osetinskaya declined NPR's request for comments.
RBC isn't the only independent news outlet that's feeling recent pressure. One of the biggest problems facing independent journalists is uncertainty about what they can and cannot report, says Mikhail Zygar, the former editor of the independent channel TV Rain and author of All The Kremlin's Men.
"No one really knows what is allowed and what is not," he says. "No one really understands which topics could be covered and which topics are too delicate."
Despite that, Zygar says there are still independent media outlets doing principled journalism. And most important, he says, the independent outlets have resisted censoring themselves in an effort to avoid the Kremlin's ire.
But the desire to avoid certain topics can be a temptation for media owners, says Lipman. "This naturally leads to self-censorship," she says, "and then it is a degree of how far you go, and how do you balance the desires to act according to journalistic principles and standards, and common sense?"
Earlier this month, federal police raided the offices of several of Mikhail Prokhorov's companies as part of what may have been an investigation into tax evasion. Prokhorov's office is denying rumors that he has plans to sell RBC, but some commentators are predicting that it will end up in the hands of a new owner who's more friendly to the Kremlin.
April 26, 201611:29 AM ET
Heard on All Things Considered
COREY FLINTOFF
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with members of the press after his annual call-in show in Moscow on April 14.
Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images
An independent Russian newspaper has come under fire after it published stories about the business interests of President Vladimir Putin's family and friends.
The Kremlin insists that it's not applying pressure on any media, but observers say there's a climate where journalists don't know how far they can go without risking reprisals from the government.
The Russian newspaper is part of a business media group called RBC, which also owns a TV channel and maintains online interests. It belongs to the billionaire businessmanMikhail Prokhorov, best known in the United States as the owner of the Brooklyn Nets basketball team.
The media group's TV station and its paper have a reputation for independent reporting, says Maria Lipman, an independent political analyst based in Moscow who is affiliated with George Washington University.
"It's an outlet that publishes analysis and most importantly, investigations," she says. "It has done investigative reporting in the past couple of years, some of it on very sensitive subjects."
An independent paper owned by billionaire Russian businessman and Brooklyn Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov — shown here Jan. 11 in New York — is under fire, but the Kremlin says it's not applying pressure on media.
Seth Wenig/AP
One of the most sensitive subjects was a report on thePanama Papers and what they revealed about the offshore business interests of friends of Putin.
That report drew a denunciation from a pro-Kremlin broadcaster who has one of the most-watched political shows on Russian TV.
The program host, Dmitry Kiselyov, maintains that the Panama Papers — thousands of documents leaked earlier this month from a Panamanian law firm — are part of an American plot to discredit legitimate Russian businessmen. Kiselyov held up a copy of the RBC newspaper and said it was helping the Americans in their plot to associate offshore tax evasion and money-laundering with Putin.
Lipman says accusations of disloyalty have become a common weapon against any media that question the Russian government — "the idea being that only unpatriotic forces, acting in the interests of the West, can criticize the Russian government," she says. "A patriot would not."
After the criticism of RBC's Panama Papers reporting, the company announced that the editor-in-chief, Elizaveta Osetinskaya, would be taking a four-month leave of absence.
It seemed like an odd time for the top news manager to be gone, during the run-up to Russia's parliamentary elections in September. Osetinskaya declined NPR's request for comments.
RBC isn't the only independent news outlet that's feeling recent pressure. One of the biggest problems facing independent journalists is uncertainty about what they can and cannot report, says Mikhail Zygar, the former editor of the independent channel TV Rain and author of All The Kremlin's Men.
"No one really knows what is allowed and what is not," he says. "No one really understands which topics could be covered and which topics are too delicate."
Despite that, Zygar says there are still independent media outlets doing principled journalism. And most important, he says, the independent outlets have resisted censoring themselves in an effort to avoid the Kremlin's ire.
But the desire to avoid certain topics can be a temptation for media owners, says Lipman. "This naturally leads to self-censorship," she says, "and then it is a degree of how far you go, and how do you balance the desires to act according to journalistic principles and standards, and common sense?"
Earlier this month, federal police raided the offices of several of Mikhail Prokhorov's companies as part of what may have been an investigation into tax evasion. Prokhorov's office is denying rumors that he has plans to sell RBC, but some commentators are predicting that it will end up in the hands of a new owner who's more friendly to the Kremlin.
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
Russia blocks UN report on Darfur militia mining
© AFP file photo | A Sudanese child in a Darfuri village.
Text by NEWS WIRES
Latest update : 2016-04-06
Russia is blocking the release of a confidential UN report showing that pro-government militias in Sudan’s Darfur region rake in $54 million per year in gold mining, it emerged on Tuesday.
The annual report by the panel of experts was presented in December to a UN sanctions committee, but it has not been made public due to objections from Russia, which has friendly ties with the Khartoum regime.
“We don’t want it to be released because we have been saying since the beginning that the experts are not behaving like they are required to,” Russian Deputy Ambassador Petr Iliichev told reporters.
Iliichev argued that the panel’s mandate does not include monitoring “natural resources.”
The UN Security Council will on Wednesday discuss the crisis in Darfur, where a joint UN-African Union mission is struggling to help civilians caught up in fighting between rebels on one side and the Sudanese army and its affiliated militias on the other.
The conflict remains a divisive issue at the council, with the United States, Britain and France accusing the Sudanese regime of rights abuses while Russia and China defend Khartoum in the face of an insurgency.
In the report, the UN panel said it was certain the Jebel Amir artisanal gold mines were controlled by the pro-government militia, Abbala Armed Group (AAG), led by Sheikh Musa Hilal, who has been on a UN sanctions blacklist since 2006 over allegations of widespread atrocities.
A “substantial portion of the gold mined at Jebel Amir Mines” is first sent to El Geneina, Darfur and then taken to Khartoum by air, before being illegally exported to the United Arab Emirates, said the report obtained by AFP on Tuesday.
“The panel is thus almost certain that the AAG has an income of $54 million per annum, based on lower case estimates,” the report said.
The experts quoted a letter from the Sudanese government dated from November 2015 saying that there were no armed groups in the Jebel Amir area, but the panel said it was unable to verify that claim.
The panel recommended that the Security Council ask Khartoum to take steps to ensure that gold and other minerals from Darfur are “conflict-free”, but no action will be taken until the report is accepted by the committee.
Darfur descended into conflict in 2003 when ethnic minority insurgents rebelled, complaining the region was being economically and politically marginalised by the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum.
Some 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict and there are 2.5 million people in the region who have been forced to flee their homes, according to the United Nations.
(REUTERS)
Russia blocks UN report on Darfur militia mining - France 24
Gee I wonder why...
© AFP file photo | A Sudanese child in a Darfuri village.
Text by NEWS WIRES
Latest update : 2016-04-06
Russia is blocking the release of a confidential UN report showing that pro-government militias in Sudan’s Darfur region rake in $54 million per year in gold mining, it emerged on Tuesday.
The annual report by the panel of experts was presented in December to a UN sanctions committee, but it has not been made public due to objections from Russia, which has friendly ties with the Khartoum regime.
“We don’t want it to be released because we have been saying since the beginning that the experts are not behaving like they are required to,” Russian Deputy Ambassador Petr Iliichev told reporters.
Iliichev argued that the panel’s mandate does not include monitoring “natural resources.”
The UN Security Council will on Wednesday discuss the crisis in Darfur, where a joint UN-African Union mission is struggling to help civilians caught up in fighting between rebels on one side and the Sudanese army and its affiliated militias on the other.
The conflict remains a divisive issue at the council, with the United States, Britain and France accusing the Sudanese regime of rights abuses while Russia and China defend Khartoum in the face of an insurgency.
In the report, the UN panel said it was certain the Jebel Amir artisanal gold mines were controlled by the pro-government militia, Abbala Armed Group (AAG), led by Sheikh Musa Hilal, who has been on a UN sanctions blacklist since 2006 over allegations of widespread atrocities.
A “substantial portion of the gold mined at Jebel Amir Mines” is first sent to El Geneina, Darfur and then taken to Khartoum by air, before being illegally exported to the United Arab Emirates, said the report obtained by AFP on Tuesday.
“The panel is thus almost certain that the AAG has an income of $54 million per annum, based on lower case estimates,” the report said.
The experts quoted a letter from the Sudanese government dated from November 2015 saying that there were no armed groups in the Jebel Amir area, but the panel said it was unable to verify that claim.
The panel recommended that the Security Council ask Khartoum to take steps to ensure that gold and other minerals from Darfur are “conflict-free”, but no action will be taken until the report is accepted by the committee.
Darfur descended into conflict in 2003 when ethnic minority insurgents rebelled, complaining the region was being economically and politically marginalised by the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum.
Some 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict and there are 2.5 million people in the region who have been forced to flee their homes, according to the United Nations.
(REUTERS)
Russia blocks UN report on Darfur militia mining - France 24
Gee I wonder why...
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
