Month: December 2018

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.
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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.” 
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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.
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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. 
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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.

 
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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.

 
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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.
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U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis accused Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday of being a “slow learner” who again tried to meddle in U.S. elections in November, adding that he had no trust in the Russian leader.

The remarks by Mattis at a security forum in California came a day after President Donald Trump held informal talks with Putin on the sidelines of the Group of 20 industrialized nations meeting in Argentina. Trump had scrapped a more formal meeting with Putin, citing Russia’s treatment of Ukraine.

Asked if U.S.-Russian ties had become more strained since he took over the Pentagon last year after Trump became president, Mattis said, “There’s no doubt the relationship has worsened.”

“(Putin) tried again to muck around in our elections this last month. And we are seeing a continued effort along those lines,” Mattis said, adding that the United States would take whatever steps were necessary to defend American democracy.

Election interference

American intelligence agencies concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election to sow discord and boost Trump’s chances through a campaign of propaganda and hacking aimed at disparaging his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. A special counsel investigation into Russia’s role in that election and whether Trump’s campaign conspired with Moscow has cast a cloud over his presidency.

The comments by Mattis were the latest sign of deteriorating relations between Washington and Moscow. Russia has denied meddling. Trump has said there was no collusion.

Ahead of the Nov. 6 midterm congressional elections, U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials accused Russia of trying to influence the vote. U.S. prosecutors in October charged a Russian national with playing a financial role in a Kremlin-backed plan to conduct “information warfare” against the United States, including attempts to influence the midterm election.

Russia-Ukraine tensions

Russian forces opened fire on Ukrainian naval vessels last weekend and seized them and their crew near Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Mattis said those actions underscored why the international community was increasingly distrustful of Moscow.

“Mr. Putin is clearly a slow learner. He is not recognizing that what he is doing is actually creating an animosity against his people,” Mattis said.

“What we are seeing Putin do with his ripping up of international agreements … we’re dealing with someone that we simply cannot trust,” the Pentagon chief added.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders on Saturday confirmed Trump’s encounter with Putin in Argentina in a statement, saying, “As is typical at multilateral events, President Trump and the first lady had a number of informal conversations with world leaders at the dinner last night, including President Putin.”

Speaking in Buenos Aires, Putin told reporters Saturday there were no preconditions for future bilateral talks with Trump.

“It is regrettable that we can’t succeed in holding a full-scale meeting, which is long due,” Putin said, adding that issues of strategic stability would be of paramount importance.

Pompeo dismisses ‘parlor game’

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday said the Ukraine events were the only reason Trump canceled his planned formal meeting with Putin in Argentina, not developments in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.

The decision to scrap the meeting with Putin came shortly after Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty Thursday to a charge of lying to Congress about a skyscraper project Trump was pursuing in Moscow during the 2016 U.S. presidential race.

“Ludicrous; Washington parlor game,” Pompeo said in a CNN interview at the G-20 meeting when asked whether Trump was motivated to cancel the meeting by Cohen’s guilty plea.
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Despite freezing temperatures, tens of thousands of Romanians turned out Saturday to celebrate 100 years since their nation became a modern-day state, with some noting concerns now about the rule of law and the state of democracy in the Balkan nation. 

Romanians waving the country’s flag attended huge military parades in Bucharest and Alba Iulia, the Transylvanian city that symbolizes Romania’s 1918 reunification. Crowds braved temperatures of -5 degrees C (23 degrees F) to watch tanks and military vehicles drive under the Triumphal Arch built after World War I. 

While most considered the event a national celebration, some booed anti-riot police who participated in Saturday’s parade. That anger comes after police clashed in August with anti-corruption protesters, leaving 450 people injured.  

Members of the ruling Social Democratic Party were booed at a ceremony in Alba Iulia, where President Klaus Iohannis, a political rival, called for Romanians to build a “dignified and powerful country, integrated through education, culture and creativity into a Europe of values, prosperity and freedom.” 

Cries of ‘Resign!’

More than 1,000 Romanians gathered Saturday evening outside government offices in Bucharest to protest high-level corruption, yelling, “Resign!”  

Electrician Gabriel Ene said he was glad that Romanians had “a free voice” but said the laws that the Social Democrat government wanted to pass “will support liars and thieves.” 

Other Romanians celebrated the day with the traditional dish of cabbage rolls stuffed with minced meat and rice and polenta.   

The U.S. and the European Union are among those criticizing a judicial overhaul in Romania by the Social Democrats that they claim will undermine the fight against government corruption. 

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo thanked Romania for contributing to global and Black Sea security as a NATO member and participating in missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. His statement said Washington stands with Romania “in its efforts to uphold democratic values and the rule of law … which are … the foundation of economic growth and prosperity.” 

Romania entered World War I aligned with Britain, France and other allies in 1916 but capitulated to the Central powers led by Germany. It re-entered World War I in 1918, and doubled its territory after the end of the war. 

That was partly thanks to Romanian Queen Marie, the granddaughter of Britain’s Queen Victoria and of Russia’s czar, who warned the Allied victors there could be an uprising if Romania didn’t reunite with Transylvania, which until the war had been part of the Austro-Hungarian empire.  

The end of World War I brought about the end of the sprawling Austro-Hungarian empire.  
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Thousands of people marched in Berlin and Cologne on Saturday calling for Germany to abandon coal-powered electricity generation, on the eve of a major climate conference in Poland.

Organizers in Berlin said 16,000 protesters marched in Berlin — 5,000 according to police — in a colorful march featuring placards, banners and costumes.

In the western city of Cologne, organizers said 20,000 people turned out to protest — 10,000 according to police.

Hubert Weiger, spokesman for one organization, “Bund,” called on Germany to commit to pulling out of coal by 2030.

The government is expected to settle on a calendar to phase out polluting power sources such as coal at the beginning of next year.

Already in 2011, Chancellor Angela Merkel decided to phase out nuclear power generation by 2022, in the wake of the disaster at Fukushima reactor meltdown in Japan.

Partly because of that decision, coal remains a cornerstone of energy generation in Germany’s energy policy, accounting for nearly 40 percent of the country’s energy production.

The marches came ahead of the COP24 climate summit, which opens in Poland on Sunday. Delegates from nearly 200 countries are due in Katowice for the gathering, which is intended to renew and build on the Paris deal limiting global warming.

Coal — the largest single source of carbon dioxide emissions — accounted for 40 percent of the pollutant worldwide in 2017 according to the Global Carbon Project.
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The United Nations has added reggae music to its list of International Cultural Treasures worthy of protection and promotion. Perfume-making in a southern French city and a religious tradition in Mexico are among traditions that have joined the list of UNESCO’S Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has more.
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A U.S. judge in California has granted preliminary approval of a $48 million settlement for investors who said Volkswagen AG made false and misleading statements about its excess diesel emissions. 

Lawyers for the investors, who include police and other municipal pension funds, had estimated that the maximum they could have recovered was $147 million. But Judge Charles Breyer said the settlement agreed to in August appeared “fair, adequate and reasonable.” 

VW, in a statement, said Friday that the “proposed settlement agreement eliminates the uncertainty and considerable costs of protracted litigation in the United States and is in the best interests of the company.” The ruling was issued late Wednesday. 

Buybacks

In total, Volkswagen has agreed to pay more than $25 billion in the United States for claims from owners, environmental regulators, states and dealers, and has offered to buy back about 500,000 polluting U.S. vehicles. The buybacks will continue through 2019. 

The German automaker admitted in September 2015 to secretly installing software in nearly 500,000 U.S. cars to cheat government exhaust emissions tests. The vehicles had emitted up to 40 times the legally allowable pollutants. 

In 2017, VW also pleaded guilty of fraud, obstruction of justice and falsifying statements in a U.S. court. Under the plea deal, the automaker agreed to sweeping reforms, new audits and oversight by an independent monitor for three years. 

Federal prosecutors in Detroit unsealed criminal charges in May against former VW Chief Executive Officer Martin Winterkorn, who remains in Germany. Two other former VW executives have pleaded guilty in the investigation and are in prison. 

In total, nine people have been charged in the United States. 

Breyer set a date for a fairness hearing to allow further comment on the August settlement for May 10, after which a final ruling will be issued. 
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British Prime Minister Theresa May accused the opposition Labor Party of betraying the British people by trying to stop Brexit as she went on the offensive Friday in her battle to win approval of the widely criticized divorce agreement she negotiated with the European Union. 

With less than two weeks to go before a vote in the House of Commons, May is trying to win support from lawmakers of all parties who have balked at the deal. She declined to entertain questions about what alternative she might offer if the current agreement is rejected Dec. 11. 

“I’ve got a plan, I’ve got a proposal, I’ve got the deal that I’ve negotiated,” she said ahead of the G-20 summit in Argentina. “We don’t see any alternative coming forward from the Labor Party. … Instead, what I see from Labor is an attempt to frustrate what the government is doing to deliver Brexit for the British people. That is actually a betrayal of the British people.” 

The agreement ratified by EU leaders last weekend came more than two years after a U.K. referendum in which 52 percent of those who cast ballots voted to leave the bloc. Some opponents are calling for a second referendum now that the costs of leaving the EU have become clear, but May says that would violate the trust of the 17.4 million people who voted for Brexit in 2016. 

The prime minister has been highlighting the risks of leaving the EU without a deal in a bid to persuade skeptical lawmakers — including many of her fellow Conservatives — to back the agreement.    

Her efforts suffered a blow Friday when Universities Minister Sam Gyimah quit the government, saying accepting the deal would mean surrendering “our voice, our vote and our veto” in the EU. 

“Britain will end up worse off, transformed from rule makers into rule takers,” Gyimah wrote in the Daily Telegraph. 

Several other ministers have quit the government in the past two weeks, saying they cannot support the agreement. Some, like Gyimah, supported remaining in the bloc in Britain’s 2016 EU referendum, while others back a definitive break with the EU. 

Many members of Parliament on both sides of the Brexit debate oppose the deal — Brexiters because it keeps Britain bound closely to the EU, pro-EU politicians because it erects barriers between the U.K. and the EU, its biggest trading partner. 

Leaving the EU without a deal would end more than 40 years of free trade and disrupt the flow of goods and services between Britain and the EU. The Bank of England warned this week that a no-deal Brexit would plunge Britain into a severe recession. 

May’s comments came after lawmakers proposed an amendment that could stop Brexit if Parliament rejected her agreement. The amendment says Parliament must be able to express its view on how the government should proceed if the prime minister’s plan is defeated.  

Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, a staunch Brexiter who is one of the most vocal critics of the deal, said Friday that the government was trying to frighten people into accepting it with dire forecasts about the impact of leaving the EU without an agreement.  

Some lawmakers urged May to return to the EU for better terms. But European Council President Donald Tusk, who is also at the G-20 meeting in Buenos Aires, warned that the agreement ratified by the EU last weekend is “the only possible one.” 

“If this deal is rejected in the House of Commons, we are left with an alternative: no deal, or no Brexit it all,” Tusk said. “The European Union is prepared for every scenario.” 

May urged British lawmakers to remember that the country voted for Brexit, and she insisted that the public wanted government to get on with it.  

“This is about what is in the national interest,” she said. “It’s about delivering the vote to leave the EU and doing it in a way that protects people’s jobs and livelihoods and protects our security and our United Kingdom.” 
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