Thousands gather in Bosnia’s Srebrenica to mark genocide

Details

Written by northsouth

Category: Europe

Published: 16 July 2022

Hits: 728

SARAJEVO - Thousands of people have converged on the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica to mark the 27th anniversary of Europe’s only acknowledged genocide since the Holocaust to attend the funeral of 50 recently identified victims, reports Aljazeera.

As mourners from around Bosnia and Herzegovina and the world arrived in Srebrenica on Monday, families of victims reburied their loved ones and maybe find some closure after the decades-long search for their remains in mass graves scattered around the town.

Idriz Mustafic was in Srebrenica to bury the partial remains of his son, Salim, who was only 16 when he was murdered in the July 1995 massacre, along with thousands of other men and boys from the Bosniak ethnic group, which is primarily Muslim. “My older son, Enis, was also killed; we buried him in 2005. Now I am burying Salim,” Mustafic said. “[Forensic experts] have not found his skull, [but] my wife got cancer and had to undergo surgery. We just couldn’t wait any longer to bury the bones that we found, to at least know where their graves are,” he added.

The Srebrenica killings were the bloody crescendo of Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, which took place after the breakup of Yugoslavia unleashed nationalistic passions and territorial ambitions that set Bosnian Serbs against the country’s two other main ethnic factions – Croats and Bosniaks.

In July 1995, at least 8,000 Bosniak males from Srebrenica were separated by Serb troops from their wives, mothers and sisters, chased through woods around the eastern town and killed by those forces.

The perpetrators ploughed their victims’ bodies into hastily made mass graves which they later dug up with bulldozers and scattered among other burial sites to hide the evidence of the crime.

Boris Johnson resigns in wake of fresh exodus of ministers

Details

Written by northsouth

Category: Europe

Published: 07 July 2022

Hits: 748

LONDON - The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has resigned as Conservative leader in the face of a mass exodus of Government ministers.

In a statement outside Number 10, he said the process of choosing a new leader “should begin now”.

He added he will continue to serve as Prime Minister “until a new leader is in place”.

He will remain as Prime Minister until a successor is in place, expected to be by the time of the Conservative Party conference in October or even before.

A No 10 source said Mr Johnson spoke to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the Conservative 1922 Committee, to inform him of his decision.

“The Prime Minister has spoken to Graham Brady and agreed to stand down in time for a new leader to be in place by the conference in October,” a No 10 source said.

After days of battling for his job, Johnson had been abandoned by all but a handful of allies after the latest in a series of scandals broke their willingness to support him.

Below are some of the scandals that have hurt Johnson politically:

THE PINCHER AFFAIR

Mass resignations from the government this week followed accusations by a senior former civil servant that Johnson's office gave false information about past sexual harassment allegations against lawmaker Christopher Pincher.

In February, Johnson appointed Pincher deputy chief whip, giving him responsibility for the wellbeing of other Conservative lawmakers. Last week, Pincher was suspended from the party after acknowledging he had made other people uncomfortable during a drunken night out. It subsequently emerged that Pincher had been the subject of past sexual harassment allegations.

Johnson's office initially said the prime minister had been unaware of specific past allegations against Pincher. However, on Monday, senior former civil servant Simon McDonald wrote a letter saying he had investigated the allegations in 2019 and had upheld the complaints.

"PARTYGATE"

The term "Partygate" was coined to refer to a scandal over parties held in government, including in Johnson's own Downing Street office, which were found to have violated strict COVID-19 lockdown rules.

Johnson himself was fined by police for attending a birthday party, and was forced to apologise to Queen Elizabeth after it emerged staff had partied in Downing Street on the eve of her husband Prince Philip's funeral in April 2021. She had been seated alone at the funeral because mixing indoors was banned.

A report by a senior civil servant gave a damning account on a series of illegal lockdown parties, detailing instances of staff's excessive alcohol consumption and vomiting.

Parliament is still investigating whether Johnson misled lawmakers on repeated occasions when he denied being aware of illegal parties. Johnson says he sincerely believed at the time that gatherings did not break the law, but accepts now that he was mistaken.

OTHER SEX SCANDALS

Johnson's Conservatives have been hit by other scandals of lawmakers accused of sexual improprieties, including two that led to lawmakers resigning. In both cases, the Conservatives lost special elections held last month to replace them.

Conservative lawmaker Imran Ahmad Khan resigned after being found guilty of having sexually abused a 15-year-old boy. Neil Parish, another Conservative lawmaker, resigned after admitting he watched pornography on his phone in the House of Commons twice, in "a moment of madness".

Another Conservative lawmaker has been arrested on suspicion of rape, sexual assault and other offences. The lawmaker was bailed in May and has not been identified in the media to protect the identity of the alleged victim.

OWEN PATERSON AFFAIR

Last year, parliament's standards committee recommended suspending Conservative lawmaker and former minister Owen Paterson for 30 days after finding he had committed an "egregious case of paid advocacy" by lobbying on behalf of companies that paid him.

The Conservatives initially voted in parliament to halt Paterson's suspension and overhaul the process of investigating lawmakers. After damaging headlines, Paterson resigned and the government abandoned the proposed changes. The Conservatives lost the election to fill Paterson's seat.

PROBE ON REFURBISHMENT

After a refurbishment of Johnson's Downing Street flat - led by a celebrity designer and including gold wallpaper - Britain's electoral commission fined the Conservatives 17,800 pounds for failing to accurately report a donation to pay for it.

Johnson's ethics adviser later criticised the prime minister for failing to disclose some messages exchanged with the donor. However, he concluded that Johnson had not intentionally lied about the messages.

Sunak and Javid resign as Johnson’s leadership faces fresh crisis

Details

Written by northsouth

Category: Europe

Published: 05 July 2022

Hits: 836

David Hughes, PA Political Editor

LONDON - Rishi Sunak has quit as chancellor and Sajid Javid has resigned as health secretary as Boris Johnson’s leadership faced a fresh crisis.

Mr Sunak said “the public rightly expect government to be conducted properly, competently and seriously”, adding “I believe these standards are worth fighting for and that is why I am resigning.”

In an incendiary letter, Mr Javid said the British people “expect integrity from their government” but voters now believed Mr Johnson’s administration was neither competent nor “acting in the national interest”.

The resignations came as Mr Johnson was forced into a humiliating apology over his handling of the Chris Pincher row after it emerged he had forgotten about being told of previous allegations of “inappropriate” conduct.

Mr Pincher quit as deputy chief whip last week following claims that he groped two men at a private members’ club, but Mr Johnson was told about allegations against him as far back as 2019.

The Prime Minister acknowledged he should have sacked Mr Pincher when he was told about the claims against him when he was a Foreign Office minister in 2019, but instead Mr Johnson went on to appoint him to other government roles.

Asked if that was an error, Mr Johnson said: “I think it was a mistake and I apologise for it. In hindsight it was the wrong thing to do.

“I apologise to everybody who has been badly affected by it. I want to make absolutely clear that there’s no place in this Government for anybody who is predatory or who abuses their position of power.”

The Prime Minister’s authority had already been damaged by a confidence vote which saw 41% of his MPs vote against him.

The loss of crunch by-elections in Tiverton and Honiton and Wakefield in June triggered the resignation of party chairman Oliver Dowden.

But the resignations of Mr Javid – a former leadership contender – and Mr Sunak, viewed as a potential successor to the Prime Minister, mean Mr Johnson’s position is now perilous.

Mr Sunak, who had been due to make a joint economic speech with Mr Johnson next week, said “it has become clear to me that our approaches are fundamentally too different”.

“I firmly believe the public are ready to hear that truth,” he said.

“Our people know that if something is too good to be true then it’s not true. They need to know that whilst there is a path to a better future, it is not an easy one.”