Month: April 2019

The death toll from a coal mine blast in a separatist eastern region of Ukraine rose to 17 on Saturday, rebel authorities said.

The gas blast on Thursday ripped through the mine in Yurievka village in the self-proclaimed republic of Luhansk, which broke away from Kyiv in 2014 and is run by Moscow-backed rebels.

“The tragedy took the life of 17 miners,” Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the unrecognized Luhansk republic, said on Twitter.

He added that the bodies of all the miners that died have been recovered.

Earlier the death toll accounted to 13, with another four people missing.

Pasechnik called the explosion at the Skhidkarbon mine a “terrible tragedy” and declared April 29 a day of mourning.

Russia’s emergency situations ministry sent mine rescuers to the separatist territory after it requested help, it said in a statement.

The Luhansk news agency said the mine was closed in 2014 due to the conflict between Kyiv’s forces and the Russia-backed separatists, but was reopened in 2018.  

Most of Ukraine’s coal is produced in its eastern region, where the ongoing fighting has cost some 13,000 lives.

Kyiv has tried to boost the operations of other pits under its control in the west of the country.

 
…

Russian President Vladimir Putin says his administration is considering a plan to ease the process of granting Russian citizenship to all Ukrainians, not only those in war-torn parts of eastern Ukraine.

Putin made the remark on April 27 at an infrastructure development summit in Beijing.

On April 24, Putin announced a presidential decree that eases the process of granting Russian citizenship to anyone living in parts of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions that are under the control of Russia-backed separatists.

That decree drew a swift and angry response from Kyiv, the United States, Britain, the European Union, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the international organization tasked with monitoring compliance with the 2015 Minsk agreements on eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Putin’s decree “is actually about the Kremlin’s preparations for the next step of aggression against our state – the annexation of the Ukrainian Donbas or the creation of a Russian enclave in Ukraine.”

The OSCE said in a statement on April 25 that its chairmanship “believes that this unilateral measure could undermine the efforts for a peaceful resolution of the crisis in and around Ukraine.”

It said it was reiterating its “call for a sustainable, full and permanent cease-fire and its firm support for the work of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, which plays an essential role in reducing tensions on the ground, and in fostering peace, stability and security.”

In a joint statement on April 25, France and Germany – the European guarantors of the Minsk agreements – said Putin’s decree “goes against the spirit and aims” of the Minsk process, which aims to establish a stable cease-fire in the conflict in parts of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region and then proceed to a political settlement.

“This is the opposite of the urgently necessary contribution toward deescalation,” the statement said.

European Commission spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said the decree was “another attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty by Russia.”

“We expect Russia to refrain from actions that are against the Minsk agreements and impede the full reintegration of the nongovernment-controlled areas into Ukraine,” she said.

Ukraine’s foreign minister called Putin’s decree a form of “aggression and interference” in Kyiv’s affairs, while a Western diplomat told RFE/RL it was a “highly provocative step” that would undermine the situation in the war-ravaged region known as the Donbas.

The U.S. State Department also criticized Russia’s move, saying Moscow “through this highly provocative action, is intensifying its assault on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Critics point to other frozen conflicts in former Soviet republics where Russia has granted citizenship to residents of separatist-held territory in order to choreograph demographic changes over time and justify future military operations.

In 2002, the Kremlin began granting Russian citizenship to residents of Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia – a policy that helped raise the number of Russian passport holders there from about 20 percent to more than 85 percent of the population.

Then, when Russia went to war against Georgia in August 2008, the Kremlin justified its deployment of Russian military forces in Abkhazia and South Ossetia by saying those forces were needed to protect Russia citizens in the separatist regions.

Russian media reports say Russia also has issued its passports to nearly half of the residents of Moldova’s Moscow-backed breakaway region of Transdniester.

That policy has raised concerns in Chisinau that the Kremlin may use a similar argument of defending its citizens in order to justify future Russian military operations in Transdniester.

With reporting by RFE/RL’s Ukrainian, Georgian, and Moldovan Services, Reuters, and AP

 
…

Hundreds of people turned up for a protest vigil outside Cyprus’ presidential palace Friday to mourn seven women and girls who police say a military officer confessed to killing and to question if authorities failed to adequately investigate when foreign workers were reported missing.

The protest’s organizer used a bullhorn to read out the victims’ names as well as those of other missing women, and others at the memorial shouted “Where are they?” in response. Some participants held placards decrying “sexist, misogynist and racist” attitudes about women who work as housekeepers or in low-paying service jobs.

​‘What everybody wants is justice’

In a poignant moment, a group of tearful Filipino women held lighted candles and bowed their heads in prayer for the three women and one child of Filipino descent who are believed to be among the victims. A 35-year-old Cypriot National Guard captain is in custody facing multiple homicide charges.

“I felt obliged to do something for these women, all the missing women, all the killed women,” protest organizer Maria Mappouridou said. “I think deep down, all that we want, what everybody wants, is justice.”

Federation of Filipino Organizations in Cyprus chair Ester Beatty said she hoped the event, and the tragedy of the deaths, raise public awareness about migrant workers.

“Right now, it’s really difficult for us to accept what has happened, what is going on. Beatty said. “We still need a lot of answers.”

Cases go back years

Beatty’s group held a silent prayer vigil last Sunday, a week after the discovery of a Filipino woman’s body in an abandoned mineshaft triggered the investigation that led to the captain’s arrest. Police identified her as Mary Rose Tiburcio, 38.

Tiburcio and her 6-year-old daughter had been missing since May of last year. Investigators zeroed in on the captain as a suspect and arrested him after scouring Tiburcio’s online messages.

While investigating her death and searching for Tiburcio’s daughter, police found another body in the flooded mineshaft 32 kilometers (20 miles) west of the capital, Nicosia. Cypriot media have identified the victim as 28-year-old Arian Palanas Lozano, also from the Philippines.

Investigators now think the missing 6-year-old was killed, too. On Thursday, the suspect told them while under questioning about four more victims and gave directions to a military firing range.

The body of a woman, who according to the suspect was of Nepalese or Indian descent, was found buried there.

From the suspect’s statements and information from the investigation, Cypriot police think the other three victims they know about so far are a 31-year-old Filipino woman who has been missing since December 2017, Maricar Valtez Arquiola, and a Romanian mother and daughter.

Cypriot media identified the mother as Livia Florentina Bunea, 36, and her 8-year-old daughter as Elena Natalia Bunea. The two are believed to have been missing since September 2016.

Cyprus horrified

Police said the suspect will appear in court Saturday for another custody hearing. He can’t be named because he hasn’t been charged with any crimes yet.

The scale of the ones he allegedly committed has horrified people in Cyprus, a small nation with a population of just more than a million people where multiple slayings are rare.

President Nicos Anastasiades said Friday that he shared the public’s revulsion at “murders that appear to have selectively targeted foreign women who are in our country to work.”

“Such instincts are contrary to our culture’s traditions and values,” Anastasiades said in a statement from China, where he was on an official visit.

As the president spoke, investigators intensified the search for bodies of victims at the firing range, a reservoir and a man-made lake near the abandoned copper pyrite mine.

Five British law enforcement officials, including a coroner, a psychiatrist and investigators who specialize in multiple homicides, were coming to Cyprus to help with the investigation.
…

The leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, said on Friday he had turned down an invitation to a state dinner which will be part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to Britain in June.

“Theresa May should not be rolling out the red carpet for a state visit to honor a president who rips up vital international treaties, backs climate change denial and uses racist and misogynist rhetoric,” Corbyn said in a statement.

He said maintaining the relationship with the United States did not require “the pomp and ceremony of a state visit” and he said he would welcome a meeting with Trump “to discuss all matters of interest.”
…

A U.S. federal judge has sentenced a Russian gun rights proponent to 18 months in prison for conspiring with a senior Russian official to infiltrate the National Rifle Association (NRA) and influence U.S. conservative activists and Republican politicians to benefit the Kremlin.

Maria Butina, a former graduate student at American University in Washington, pleaded guilty in December. A U.S. district court judge in Washington said Friday Butina will get credit for the nine months she served, but will  be deported immediately after serving her sentence.

Butina pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to act as a foreign agent. Her attorneys have requested a sentence of time served and deportation to Russia after cooperating with prosecutors. Prosecutors have also asked the court to deport Butina, who has been in jail since her arrest last July, and to impose an 18-month jail sentence.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr has said Butina should be deported to Russia without serving her sentence.

Butina is the first Russian national convicted of trying to influence U.S. policy toward Russia before the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Butina said in her plea documents her work was performed under the direction of Alexander Torshin, a former Kremlin official who heads a small Russian gun rights group. In 2013, she began to establish contacts with the NRA, one of the most powerful U.S. lobbying groups with strong ties to the Republican politicians, including President Donald Trump.

The 30-year-old also said she worked with an American political operative to develop unauthorized lines of communications with U.S. political influencers.

Prosecutors said in a court filing Butina was “keenly aware that portions of her work” were reported to “the wider Russian government,” but that she was “not a trained intelligence officer” and “not a spy in the traditional sense.”

Her attorneys wrote in an April 19 sentencing request that Butina acted with hopes of improving U.S.-Russia relations and that she “has done everything she could to atone for her mistakes through cooperation and substantial assistance.”

 
…

German automaker Daimler, which makes armored limousines used by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, says it has no idea where he got them and has no business dealings with the North.   

Kim has raised eyebrows by using Daimler-branded stretch limousines at several very high-profile summits, including his meeting this week with Russian President Vladimir Putin and both of his earlier summits with President Donald Trump.

The sale of luxury goods, including limousines, is banned under U. N. sanctions intended to put pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons.  

Kim nevertheless had two limos waiting for him at Vladivostok station – a Mercedes Maybach S600 Pullman Guard and a Mercedes Maybach S62. He is believed to have also used the S600 Pullman Guard for his summits with Trump in Singapore in June last year and in Hanoi in February.

​

“We have absolutely no idea how those vehicles were delivered to North Korea,” Daimler spokeswoman Silke Mockert said in a written response to an Associated Press report Wednesday on the limousines . “For Daimler, the correct export of products in conformance with the law is a fundamental principle of responsible entrepreneurial activity.”

Daimler, based in Stuttgart, Germany, is one of the world’s biggest and more prestigious automobile companies. It is one of the biggest providers of high-end passenger cars and the world’s largest producer of trucks above 6 tons.

On its home page, the multinational giant boasts of selling vehicles and services in nearly all the countries of the world and of having production facilities in Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa.

North Korea, however, isn’t one of its official customers.

“Our company has had no business connections with North Korea for far more than 15 years now and strictly complies with E.U. and U.S. embargoes,” she said. “To prevent deliveries to North Korea and to any of its embassies worldwide, Daimler has implemented a comprehensive export control process. Sales of vehicles by third parties, especially of used vehicles, are beyond our control and responsibility.”

Kim’s ability to procure the limousines anyway is a good example of how porous the international sanctions tend to be.   

According to Daimler, the Mercedes-Benz Pullman limousines offer their passengers “a superbly appointed setting for discreet meetings.”

The version used by Kim is believed to be equipped with all the key communications and entertainment systems so that, according to a company description of the car, its occupants can remain “fully in touch with the rest of the world while enjoying the luxury and comfort of their own very special place in it.”

 
…

The chairman of Poland’s conservative ruling party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has called the LGBT rights movement a foreign import that threatens the Polish nation. 

Kaczynski, a member of parliament who wields tremendous influence as leader of the Law and Justice party, also said during a lecture on patriotism that “everyone must accept Christianity” in Poland and that questioning the Roman Catholic Church is unpatriotic. 

The positions Kaczynski expressed Wednesday in the central city of Wloclawek came as Poland’s powerful Catholic Church is under scrutiny for child sex abuse by clergy and superiors who might have covered up for pedophile priests.  

Poland also has two elections this year: the vote next month to elect the country’s representatives to the European Union parliament and a national election in the fall.  

With his remarks, Kaczynski seemed to be tapping into the belief held by some Poles that liberal values have been forced on them as a result of Poland joining the EU 15 years ago.  

Kaczynski’s Law and Justice party won the last general election in 2015, the height of Europe’s mass migration crisis. The party’s campaign included portraying Muslim refugees as a threat to Poland. 

​Greater visibility

In recent weeks, Law and Justice has described the LGBT rights movement as another danger to Polish families and children. LGBT rights have become increasingly visible as more Polish cities and towns hold gay pride parades, even places known as bastions of the church and conservative values.  

Miroslawa Makuchowska, from the group Campaign Against Homophobia, said she thinks the party chairman’s anti-LGBT message was meant to distract attention from corruption scandals in the Catholic Church and in the Polish government.  

These are the same methods and same messages'' used to demonize Muslim immigrants, Makuchowska said.It’s appalling and frightening because it’s scapegoating.” 

The Catholic Church has long been revered as the institution that kept the language and spirit of Poland’s people alive during a long period of foreign rule, while also supporting the democracy movement under communism 

But the church’s standing has taken a hit as sex abuse victims increasingly speak publicly about past crimes of accused priests. Public opinion surveys show falling support for having nuns and priests, or even lay educators, teach religion in public schools, as is now the case. 

A movie about the clergy abuse problem, Kler (Clergy), became a blockbuster hit last year. On Wednesday, Kaczynski called the film an “attack on the church” and alleged it’s the LGBT rights movement that puts Polish children at risk.  

We are dealing with a direct attack on the family and children — the sexualization of children, that entire LBGT movement, gender,'' he said.This is imported, but they, today, actually threaten our identity, our nation, its continuation and therefore the Polish state.”
…

At the first major news conference of his presidency, Emmanuel Macron pledged to cut taxes on Thursday and said the French would have to work longer as he outlined his response to months of anti-government protests that have shaken his authority.

Speaking in a gilded hall at the Elysee Palace, seated behind a white desk with the French tricolor and European Union flags flanking him, Macron took reporters’ questions for nearly two-and-a-half hours, part of an effort to redress the rocky relationship he has developed with the media.

He apologized — not for the first time — for his sometimes sharp tongue and cutting comments, which have earned him a reputation for arrogance and contributed to a deep slump in his popularity ratings, which are showing some signs of recovery.

“I regret them deeply,” Macron said of the barbs, which included him telling an unemployed gardener to cross the road and find a job. “I think they did not show me as I am.”

Almost two years into his five-year term, and following a national listening tour, the prime-time event was also Macron’s attempt to quell nearly six months of ‘yellow vest’ protests that have brought weekly unrest to the country.

A first slate of economic measures put forward last December, and worth some 10 billion euros ($11.13 billion), failed to calm anger among lower-income workers and prompted Macron’s decision to hold a “great debate” with citizens.

The 41-year-old president, a former investment banker and economy minister, said he wanted a significant cut in income taxes, saying it would be worth around 5 billion euros, financed by closing loopholes for some companies.

The tax cuts come as France is trying to keep its budget deficit in check, while at the same time hoping to rid itself of a reputation as the world’s most highly taxed country. Figures from the OECD show France’s ‘tax-take’ is equivalent to 54 percent of gross domestic product.

Along with the tax relief, Macron said government spending would be squeezed and the French would have to work longer to build up social contributions, an announcement that is unlikely to be popular in a nation known for its 35-hour week.

“We must work more, I’ve said it before,” said Macron, who is renowned for tiring out his staff. “France works much less than its neighbors. We need to have a real debate on this.”

While providing few details on his proposals, he ruled out making people work longer per week or cutting the number of bank holidays, and he said he was not in favor of extending the current minimum retirement age of 62.

‘Children of the enlightenment’

With ‘yellow vest’ protesters decrying what they see as the political establishment’s elitism, Macron said he wanted to get the French more involved in the democratic process by making it easier to hold referendums on limited number of issues.

He also said he wanted to abolish the Ecole Nationale d’Administration, the elite school that trains France’s corporate and political leaders, saying new ways needed to be found of recruiting top-class civil servants.

“It’s not about scrapping one thing or another to create a symbol,” said Macron, himself a graduate of ENA. “But our high-level public service cannot be exempt from modernization.”

He also talked of a new push to decentralize government, breaking away from the “dirigisme” of the past, with policy decided and directed from Paris. He said changes would come within a year, including no more schools or hospitals being closed without the backing of the local mayor.

Although the number of demonstrators has declined since a peak in November, protesters clashed with police for a 23rd straight week last Saturday and the sustained unrest has had a draining effect on business, tourism and the economy.

It has also left Macron facing an uphill battle ahead of elections to the European Parliament next month, with polls showing the far-right party of Marine Le Pen is likely to perform well, potentially beating Macron’s En Marche.

Thursday’s policy proposals are the direct result of the three-month national debate, during which Macron toured the country, literally rolling up his sleeves to discuss everything from high taxes to local democracy with groups of citizens.

“We are above all children of the Enlightenment,” he said as the Elysee news conference approached the two-hour mark. “And it is from these debates, these deliberations, this capacity to contradict one another … that good solutions can emerge for the country.”

Despite the criticism leveled at him, and opinion poll ratings that show his support at around 30 percent, Macron did not pull back from any policies on Thursday, saying his government would push on with his reform drive.

“I asked myself: Should we stop everything that was done over the past two years? Did we take a wrong turn? I believe quite the opposite,” he said.

The ‘yellow vest’ street rebellion erupted over planned diesel tax hikes last November, but quickly developed into a broader backlash against inequality and a political elite perceived as having lost touch with ordinary voters.

Macron, who swept to power promising to “transform France” and “make work pay,” has seen his ambitious reform agenda derailed — or at least knocked off target — by the unrest.

Pension and unemployment insurance reforms planned for 2019 have made little progress so far.

Macron said the pension reform would be presented to cabinet this summer and that future increases in the lowest pensions would be indexed to inflation, another effort to provide lower-income workers with some succuor.
…

The following are key quotes from a rare press conference by French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday, responding to months of “yellow vest” protests with new measures.

On Macron’s government reforms

“I asked myself: Should we stop everything that was done over the past two years? Did we take a wrong turn? I believe quite the opposite.”

“We live in a country where disagreements are expressed vehemently. I’m fully convinced it was right not to give in over these first two years on the issues that are still at the heart of our project for this country.”

On France’s town hall debates after the protests

“We are above all children of the Enlightenment. And it is from these debates, these deliberations, this capacity to contradict one another … that good solutions can emerge for the country.”

On schools and hospitals

“We must maintain public service (in the countryside) … guarantee the access for all to health services and guarantee that no school or hospital will be closed without the mayor’s approval.”

On reforming France’s civil service  and elite schools

“I want to reform our senior public service. This is not a meritocratic system any more … We don’t need job-for-life protection.”

Macron also confirmed he would scrap France’s Ecole Nationale d’Administration, a postgraduate school that was founded in 1945 by Charles de Gaulle to train a postwar administrative elite drawn from across all social classes.

“To carry this reform we need to put an end to the ENA… It’s not at all about stigmatizing the ENA, I went to this school, I owe it a lot.”

On scrapping France’s wealth tax

Macron ruled out re-introducing the wealth tax — known in France as the “ISF” — that his government replaced by a tax on lucrative property deals and real estate assets.

 “Since it’s a pragmatic reform, it will be re-evaluated in 2020. If it’s not efficient, we’ll amend it.”

On tax cuts 

Macron said he wanted to “significantly” reduce income tax to alleviate the burden on the middle classes.

“Workers who pay income tax have widely contributed in past decades. So I’ll be simple, I don’t want tax increases. I want cuts for those who work by significantly reducing the income tax.”

Macron outlined some of the ways the tax cuts would be financed:

“I’ve asked the government to implement this tax reduction by closing some corporate tax loopholes, making people work more and cutting public spending.”

On immigration

Macron called for better control of borders at the national and European level. He said changes should be brought to the Schengen Area, even if it led to a reduction of its scope or to fewer member states.

“To be open, you need limits; to welcome someone, you need a house, so you need borders.”

On working more and retirement

“We have to work more, I’ve said it. France works a lot less than its neighbors. We have to have a real debate about this.”

Macron said he did not wish to push back the legalretirement age beyond the current threshold of 62. But he also outlined the need for measures that would require French citizens to contribute for a longer period to the pension system before retiring.

On France’s 2022 presidential election

Asked whether he would stand as a candidate in France’s next presidential election, Macron said:

“I don’t care about the next election. What I really want is for this mandate to be a success. And I take full responsibility for having to probably take other decisions that will be unpopular.”

 
…