УКРОПИ

Prince Charles Highlights Christian Plight in Mideast, Pleads for Peace

Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, Tuesday highlighted the resilience of embattled Christians in the Middle East during a special service in Westminster Abbey, focusing on their plight in a region that’s turned increasingly harsh for Christianity. 

In a message of hope, Prince Charles said he had been privileged to have met so many “with such inspiring faith and courage” who were battling oppression and persecution, or who have fled to escape it. And he made a plea for peace, saying “extremism and division” are not inevitable.

“Throughout history, in these lands which are the cradle of faith for Jews, Muslims and Christians, communities of different beliefs have shown that it is possible to live side by side as neighbors and friends,” he said. 

“Indeed, I know that in Lebanon, Muslims join Christians at the Shrine of our Lady of Lebanon to honor her together. And I know that there are Muslim faith leaders who have spoken out in defense of Christian communities and of their contribution to the region.”

His remarks from the abbey’s pulpit were made during a service attended by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, as well as Catholic, Jewish and Muslim religious leaders, including four patriarchs from the Middle East. 

“All three of the great Abrahamic faiths believe in a loving, just and merciful God who cares for creation, who cares for his creatures and who expects us to care for one another,” he said. 

Prince Charles has for many years encouraged interfaith dialogue and more recently has expressed  alarm about the challenges facing Christians in the region, especially their prospects in Syria and Iraq. 

Tuesday marked the first time he has spoken from the pulpit on the subject during a church service.

The service at the abbey had a dual aim — to celebrate the contribution Christians make to the region but also to publicize the dangers they face. 

Earlier this week, the Archbishop of Canterbury warned that Christians are on the brink of extinction in the Middle East, due to the threat of violence, murder, intimidation, prejudice and poverty. They are enduring “the worst situation since the Mongol invasions of the 13th century,” he said.

In the last few years, he said, Christians have been “butchered by Islamic State, and in many countries they find themselves squeezed between the upper and lower millstones of pressure from the society and the conflicts that bother the region.” He noted Iraq’s Christian population has decreased by half since 2003.

Archbishop Welby wrote in Britain’s The Sunday Telegraph newspaper: “Whether in large and flourishing communities, such as in Lebanon or Egypt, or smaller, struggling churches, they need the protection and encouragement of governments and people at home and abroad, and foreign popular expression. Without this, they cannot live out their vocation as citizens of their native lands in cooperation with other religious groups.”

A series of recent reports also have highlighted the predicament of Middle East Christians. Aid to the Church in Need, an international Catholic aid organization, documented significant violations of religious freedom in 38 countries, with many of the abuses caused by the spread of militant Islamism in parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia. 

The charity estimates that the Christian population in Syria has fallen dramatically since 2011, from 1.4 million to an estimated 450,000, with many fleeing as their churches have been destroyed. IS both in Syria and Iraq targeted Christians, subjecting them to atrocities, forcible conversion and enslavement.

At the height of the Syrian conflict, Christian refugees in southeast Turkey — many of whom were retreading the steps of their forebears who fled persecution in southern Turkey during the last century — said they often were seen as fair game by an assortment of jihadists and Islamist rebels.

Some refugees said Christians were targeted because they were seen as being pro-Assad, although some of the persecution was motivated by greed, they said, with the better off being targeted first and their property divided by powerful local Sunni Muslim families.

In neighboring Iraq, the Christian minority made up of Assyrians, Chaldeans and Syriacs began to leave the country even before the appearance of IS. In the 1990s, hostility from the government of Saddam Hussein — and after his fall, sectarian killings and bombings, along with an increasingly aggressive Islamist political culture — forced two-thirds of Iraq’s Christians to flee overseas, slashing the population from a pre-Saddam estimate of 1.5 million to 300,000 today.

With the advance by IS militants into the Nineveh plains, the original Assyrian heartland where Christians speak Assyrian as their first language and Arabic their second, the exodus accelerated, according to local Christians. The Nineveh plains are where Thaddeus, an early Jewish convert to Christianity, is thought to have preached the Gospel, sent there by one of the apostles, Thomas.

Prince Charles highlighted the Nineveh plains in his remarks, saying earlier this year he had met a Dominican Sister from Nineveh who, in 2014, as IS advanced on the town of Qaraqosh, “got behind the wheel of a minibus crammed full of her fellow Christians and drove the long and dangerous road to safety.”

He added: “The Sister told me, movingly, of her return to Nineveh with her fellow Sisters three years later and of their despair at the utter destruction they found there. But like so many others, they put their faith in God, and today the tide has turned — nearly half of those displaced having gone back, to rebuild their homes and their communities. … This is the most wonderful testament to the resilience of humanity, and to the extraordinary power of faith to resist even the most brutal efforts to extinguish it.”
…

Norway Worries Over Brazil Deforestation, Pays $70M to Amazon Fund

Norway will pay Brazil $70 million for reducing deforestation in the Amazon in 2017, but is concerned over a more recent surge in destruction of the world’s largest tropical rainforest, according to a Norwegian government statement.

Norway’s statement comes as right-wing President-elect Jair Bolsonaro threatens to pull out of the Paris Agreement on climate change and end environmental fines, spurring activist fears that deforestation could accelerate.

Bolsonaro also pushed the Brazilian government to withdraw its offer to host next year’s United Nations climate conference, saying foreign involvement in the Amazon threatened Brazil’s sovereignty.

Norway’s money will go to the Amazon Fund, a joint project also backed by Brazil and Germany, which helps pay for management of 1 million square km (247 million acres) of Amazon, a system for registering rural properties that aids in monitoring deforestation, and other services aimed at preserving the rainforest.

The annual funding is linked to Brazil’s success in reducing Amazon deforestation in the prior year. Deforestation fell 12 percent in August 2016 to July 2017, the period used to measure annual destruction.

Norway has cut its support for the fund in the past when deforestation spiked. Brazil last month reported a preliminary 13.7 percent rise in deforestation from August 2017 to July 2018. It was the highest level in a decade, signaling a potential impact on next year’s round of international funding.

“These figures will only be verified next year, but the preliminary estimate of increased deforestation gives reasons to concern both in Brazil and in Norway,” the Norwegian statement said.

Norway cut funding for the Amazon Fund to $35 million when deforestation last rose in 2016.

Brazil’s Amazon soaks up massive amounts of carbon dioxide and is seen as a bulwark against global climate change.

A representative for Bolsonaro’s transition team declined to immediately comment.

Norway said it looked forward to discussing cooperation on Amazon preservation with the new government.
…

Dispute Over UN Migration Pact Fractures Belgian Government 

Belgium’s center-right government is fighting for its survival this week after the largest coalition party broke away from its three partners and said it would not back a global U.N.-backed migration pact.

The right-wing N-VA party started a social media campaign against the migration pact Tuesday, more than two months after Prime Minister Charles Michel pledged he would sign the pact for Belgium at a meeting next week in Marrakech, Morocco.

Instead of a coalition breakup, Michel announced late Tuesday that he would take the issue to parliament for a vote in the days to come.  

“I want parliament to have its say,” Michel said, staving off an immediate collapse of the government that has been in power for three years. “I have the intention to go to Marrakech and let the position of the parliament be known.”

Amid the N-VA upheaval, a Cabinet meeting was canceled Tuesday afternoon and Michel resumed consultations with vice premiers, looking for a way out of the crisis.  

Michel’s statement came at the end of a hectic day dominated by an anti-pact social media campaign by the N-VA.

Covered faces

The in-your-face campaign featured pictures of Muslim women with their faces covered and stated the U.N. pact focused on enabling migrants to retain the cultural practices of their homelands.

The party quickly withdrew the materials after the campaign received widespread criticism.

“We made an error,” N-VA leader Bart De Wever told VRT network.

De Wever apologized for the pictures of women wearing face-covering niqab in Western Europe, but immediately added that “these pictures are not fake. You can take pictures like this every day in Brussels. It is the stark reality.”

Remarking on the party’s withdrawn campaign, Christian Democrat Vice Premier Kris Peeters said: “I only have one word for this: indecent.”

The United Nations says the U.N.’s Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration will reduce human smuggling and trafficking.

The N-VA said it would force Belgium into making immigration concessions. “In our democracy, we decide. The sovereignty is with the people,” the party said in a statement.

Many experts said the accord is non-binding, but the N-VA said it still went too far and would give even migrants who were in Belgium illegally many additional rights.

The U.N. compact was finalized in July with only the U.S. staying out. Several European nations have since pulled out of signing the accord during the Dec. 10-11 conference in Morocco.  
…

Women Parliamentarians Want Global Network to Tackle Discrimination

Female parliamentarians have called for a global network to combat issues including online abuse from the public, threats to their safety and discrimination by male colleagues.

A gathering of female members of parliament (MPs) from dozens of countries across the world highlighted shared challenges over gender equality in politics and urged a joint response, said a report on the conference published on Monday by British politician Harriet Harman.

“Women in parliament are pioneers,” said Harman, a member of the opposition Labour party who is the longest-serving female MP in the British lower house of parliament, in a statement. “We have been elected to sit alongside men in our legislatures. But we are, as yet, not on equal terms.”

Women make up less than a quarter of parliamentarians worldwide, according to data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), an independent organization promoting democracy.

The past year has seen women question why they remain under-represented in public life and senior business positions in a global debate over gender roles after the #MeToo movement spurred a wider debate over their position in society.

​”Virtually all” taking part reported they had faced opposition to their participation in politics, including abuse online and threats in person, said the report on the first “Women MPs of the World Conference” in London last month.

Many said they had been “overtly discriminated against” by colleagues, including not being called on to speak and being blocked from taking roles on committees. 

Some younger MPs also said they had been sexually harassed by older male parliamentarians, while women also said they had faced criticism over their appearance in a way that men did not.

Harman said there was support for the conference to be repeated annually in different parliaments around the world so female MPs can continue to support each other and share ideas.

The push for a global network and future conferences to combat discrimination in politics were backed by democracy organizations.

“Sexism and sexual harassment … should not exist in politics, nor anywhere else,” Silvana Koch-Mehrin, the founder of the Women Political Leaders Global Forum, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “We welcome every effort to combat such discriminatory practices.”
…

Two More Jailed Catalan Separatist Leaders Join Hunger Strike

Two more jailed Catalan separatist leaders awaiting trial for their role in the region’s failed bid to secede from Spain joined a hunger strike started two days ago by two of their companions to protest against their treatment by Spanish courts.

After Catalonia declared independence last year, Madrid took direct control of the region and brought charges including misuse of public funds and rebellion against Catalan leaders, nine of whom are in jail awaiting trial.

Two of the leaders in custody, Josep Rull and Joaquim Forn, released a statement saying they would join the hunger strike started on Saturday by Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Turull.

“We also voluntarily renounce food intake as of 8:00 p.m. on Monday,” the men said in a statement.

The men said they were fasting to support Sanchez and Turull’s protest against the failure of Spanish courts to process numerous appeals in relation to their cases.
…

Kosovo to Maintain Tariffs on Serbia Despite EU Pressure

Kosovo will keep its 100 percent tariffs on Serbian goods until Belgrade recognizes Pristina, Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj said Monday, defying calls by the European Union and United States for the tariffs to be abolished.

Last month Haradinaj’s government raised tariffs on locally-produced Serbian and Bosnian goods to 100 percent from 10 percent because Belgrade blocked Kosovo’s membership of Interpol.

The decision effectively halted trade between the two states and was criticized by EU and U.S. officials.

“The tariffs of 100 percent for the goods on Serbia and Bosnia are to protect national security and sovereignty,” Haradinaj wrote on his Facebook page after meeting EU’s Commissioner Johannes Hahn in Pristina.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in a statement Pristina’s measures would lead to the destabilization of the region. He added that there would be no counter measures.

Improved relations is key to the efforts of both Serbia and Kosovo to join the European Union. Both countries agreed to a Brussels-sponsored dialogue in 2013, but little progress has been made. On Monday, Hahn met Vucic in Belgrade.

Kosovo’s mostly ethnic Albanian population declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a decade after a NATO bombing campaign to end the killing of Albanian civilians by Serb forces during a two-year insurgency.

It is now recognized by more than 110 nations but not by Serbia, Russia or five EU states. Belgrade and Moscow have blocked Kosovo from joining the United Nations.

According to official figures, Serbia’s exports to Kosovo amounted to 450 million euros, while imports amounted to 48 million euros.
…

IFRC: Migrant Children Traveling Alone Are ‘Most Vulnerable People In the World’

A report by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) says thousands of unaccompanied children and children who have been separated from their families run the daily risk of sexual and gender-based violence as they travel along the world’s migratory trails. 

“A child who is migrating alone, without the love and protection of a parent, family member or guardian, is arguably one of the most vulnerable people in the world,” said Francesco Rocca, IFRC president.

The report entitled “Alone and Unsafe,” is being released ahead of next week’s meeting in Marrakech where governments are expected to adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. 

The compact, according to Rocca, “is a chance for governments to make life safer for tens of thousands – perhaps hundreds of thousands – of incredibly vulnerable children.” He said the agreement is “an opportunity that governments simply cannot afford to miss.”

The Alone and Unsafe report said when children travel alone, they are at high risk for being assaulted, sexually abused, raped, trafficked into sexual exploitation, or forced into “survival sex.” The children’s exposure to these threats is unrelenting and follows them from their countries of origin, through countries of transit and into countries of destination. 

The U.N. estimated in 2017 that there were at least 300,000 children traveling alone, but exact figures are not available. The IFRC said it believes the figure is much higher. 

“The number of children migrating alone or without their families has grown substantially and alarmingly in the past decade,” Rocca said. “Tragically, unacceptably, these children are easy prey for abusers, exploiters and traffickers.” 
…

EU Migration Chief Urges Opponents of UN Pact to Reconsider

The European Union’s migration commissioner is calling on member countries that have turned against a U.N.-backed migration pact to reconsider their opposition.

A conference in Marrakech, Morocco on Dec. 10-11 is due to approve the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, which was finalized in July with only the U.S. staying out. But the non-binding accord is drawing strong opposition from nationalists in Europe and elsewhere, and EU countries including Hungary, Austria and Poland have since pulled out or expressed reservations.

EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos was quoted Monday as telling German daily Die Welt that he doesn’t understand opposition to the pact, which he said forces nothing on anyone. He urged countries rejecting the accord to rethink their opposition in the coming days and join up.
…

NATO Set to Meet as Ukraine Demands Support Against Russian Attacks

Russia’s recent attack on Ukrainian naval vessels will likely top the agenda at a NATO meeting this week as the alliance searches for a robust response in the wake of the Kremlin’s latest act of aggression on Europe’s borders. 

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is scheduled to join other foreign ministers for the two-day meeting in Brussels starting Tuesday, where American demands for more military spending from NATO allies will also be discussed. 

Kyiv has warned the likelihood of an all-out war with its neighbor is dangerously high after Russia fired on its vessels last week in the Azov Sea and detained several Ukrainian naval personnel. Moscow has blamed Ukraine for what it called a ‘provocation.’ 

Attending a ceremony to mark the acquisition of new military hardware Saturday, Ukraine’s president urged allies to step forward.

WATCH: Ukraine asks for NATO response

​“This is an enormous threat and together, with our allies, we are searching for an appropriate response to it,” President Petro Poroshenko said. 

The Ukrainian leader wants NATO to send warships to the Azov Sea, which is supposed to be shared between Moscow and Kyiv under a 2003 agreement. Ukraine says Russian warships have blockaded the Kerch Strait off Crimea – the territory it forcibly annexed in 2014 – effectively cutting off Ukrainian Black Sea ports. 

NATO is under pressure to offer a robust response at Tuesday’s foreign ministers’ summit. But speaking last week, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg gave no indication that the alliance is prepared to risk a naval confrontation with Russia.

“We call on Russia to ensure unhindered access to Ukrainian ports and allow freedom of navigation for Ukraine in the sea of Azov and Kerch Strait,” Stoltenberg told reporters. 

Following the incident in the Azov Sea, U.S. President Donald Trump cancelled a planned meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit.

Writing on Twitter last week, Trump wrote, “The European Union, for many years, has taken advantage of us on trade, and then they don’t live up to their military commitment through NATO. Things must change fast!” 

Along with military spending, NATO foreign ministers will also discuss Ukraine and Georgia’s ambitions to join the alliance. Georgia’s new President-elect Salome Zurabishvili has already staked out a tough line on Russia, describing it as an “unpredictable occupying power” – and vowing to push forward her country’s bid to join NATO. 

“We can ask and we’ve been doing that – membership and that is our direction without any alternative – but on that road we can get much more concrete steps and I intend to be more demanding partner for Europeans as well as with our NATO partners,” Zurabishvili told the Reuters news agency. 

The West faces a balancing act in dealing with an increasingly unpredictable Kremlin, says Russia analyst Nicholas Redman of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. 

“It’s partly about exploiting some of the capacities that Western states have in order to defend themselves. That will require new approaches. It’s also I think about deciding where the points of potential dialogue should come.”

Foreign ministers are also due to discuss Operation Resolute Support in Afghanistan, in which about 16,000 personnel from 39 NATO member states and partner countries are involved in training and assisting Afghan forces. 
…

Georgian Opposition Protests Alleged Election Irregularities

Tens of thousands of people protested in Georgia Sunday against last week’s run-off presidential election, which they believe were rigged.

Backed by the ruling party, Salome Zurabishvili was elected Georgia’s first female president by 59 percent of the vote. But opposition leaders and protesters allege vote-buying, voter intimidation, and other irregularities as they packed the streets of Tbilisi, the Georgian capital.

Zurabishvili’s opponent Grigol Vashadze addressed the crowd in Tbilisi, calling the election a “criminal farce” and saying that the opposition “demands an early parliamentary election to be held in Georgia.”

Vashadze is backed by allies of former president Mikhail Saakashvili, who is currently in self-imposed exile in Amsterdam.

Saakashvili addressed the crowd via video link Sunday, met by cheers and chanting of his name.

“Georgia’s future is being born on this square today,” he said.

The president’s role in Georgia is largely ceremonial, but the results of the election may be a good indicator of which parties will maintain or seize power in the 2020 parliamentary elections.

Zurabishvili, 66, ran as an independent even though she has the backing of Georgian Dream, headed by former prime minister and billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili.

She has been criticized over her background and been branded a traitor by some detractors over comments they interpreted as suggesting that Georgia started the 2008 war with Russia.

Zurabishvili was born in France and served as a French diplomat before beginning her political career in Georgia.

 
…

Macron Tours Damaged Arc de Triomphe after Paris Hit by Riot

French President Emmanuel Macron visited the graffiti-damaged Arc de Triomphe monument and held an emergency meeting on security Sunday, a day after central Paris was hit by France’s worst riot in a generation.

Macron, who was meeting with his prime minister and interior and environment ministers, has vowed that those responsible for the violence and the damages will pay for their actions. His tour of France’s beloved monument came just hours after he flew back from the G-20 summit in Argentina.

Macron paid tribute to the Unknown Soldier from World War I whose tomb is under the monument. He then headed to a nearby avenue where activists wearing yellow jackets had torched cars, smashed windows, looted stores and battled police on Saturday. There he met with firefighters, police officers and restaurant owners.

Paris police said Sunday that 133 people had been injured and 412 had been arrested as protesters trashed the streets of the capital during a demonstration Saturday against rising taxes and the high cost of living.

Charred cars, broken windows and downed fences from the riot littered many of the city’s most popular tourist areas on Sunday, including major avenues near the Arc de Triomphe, streets around the famed Champs-Elysees Avenue, and the Tuileries garden. Graffiti was also sprayed on many stores and buildings.

Activists wearing yellow jackets had torched cars, smashed windows, looted stores, threw rocks at police and tagged the Arc de Triomphe with multi-colored graffiti. French police responded with tear gas and water cannon, closing down dozens of streets and Metro stations as they tried to contain the riot.

Police said 23 police officers were among the injured and 378 of the arrested have been put in police custody.

By Sunday morning, Paris city employees were cleaning up the graffiti on the Arc de Triomphe. One slogan read: “Yellow jackets will triumph” — a reference to the fluorescent yellow vests that protesters wore to demand relief for France’s beleaguered workers.

Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said Saturday’s violence was due to extremists who hijacked the protest, people who came “to loot, break and hit police forces.” He was asked why thousands of French police couldn’t prevent the damage, especially to the Arc de Triomphe.

“Yesterday we made a choice … to protect people before material goods,” Griveaux told French broadcaster BFM TV on Sunday.

It was the third straight weekend of clashes in Paris involving activists dressed in the yellow vests of a new protest movement and France’s worst urban violence since at least 2005. The scene in Paris contrasted sharply with protests elsewhere in France on Saturday that were mostly peaceful.

“It’s difficult to reach the end of the month. People work and pay a lot of taxes and we are fed up,” said Rabah Mendez, a protester marched peacefully Saturday in Paris.

The demonstrators say Macron’s government does not care about the problems of ordinary people. The grassroots protests began Nov. 17 with motorists upset over a fuel tax hike but now involve a broad range of demands related to France’s high cost of living.

Macron, speaking in Buenos Aires before he flew home, welcomed the views of the protesters but said there was no place for violence in public discourse.

“[Violence] has nothing to do with the peaceful expression of a legitimate anger” and “no cause justifies” attacks on police or pillaging stores and burning buildings, Macron said.

 
…

Maltese Coast Guard Takes 11 Migrants Saved by Trawler

Eleven migrants rescued by a trawler last week have been handed over to the Maltese coast guard and will soon reach port in Malta, a Spanish aid group said Sunday.

Proactiva Open Arms says on Twitter that the Spanish trawler Nuestra Senora de Loreto radioed them to say the migrants had been transferred.

Earlier Sunday the Spanish government told the trawler that it had permission to dock in Malta, putting an end to its weeklong wait in the open sea.

Malta, along with Italy, had initially refused to accept the boat because it had rescued the migrants in Libyan waters. The trawler rescued 12 migrants last week. One migrant was evacuated for health reasons on Friday.

European Union countries have been sharply at odds over who should take in migrants from North Africa. So far this year the International Organization for Migration says 107,216 migrants have arrived in Europe and 2,123 others have died or gone missing in their dangerous journeys across the Mediterranean Sea.
…