EU seeking to 'correct' controversial Bosnia genocide denial legislation

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Written by northsouth

Category: Europe

Published: 23 December 2021

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BRUSSELS - High-level European Union figures are making efforts to "correct" a recent measure implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina to ban people from denying the Srebrenica genocide.

The EU figures consider the law, which makes denial of the genocide punishable by up to five years in prison, could spark a new war in the Balkans, The Guardian reported on Wednesday.

The Srebrenica genocide saw over 8,000 Bosniak Muslims slaughtered by Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995. As many as 31,583 Bosniak Muslim civilians were killed in the war between 1992 and 1995.

The Serb sitting on Bosnia's collective presidency, Milorad Dodik, has faced criticism recently with some claiming he is attempting to secede through efforts to pull the largely ethnically Serb area of Bosnia out of federal institutions.

Bosnia's Bosniak, Serb and Croat communities are each represented with one seat on the presidency.

Dodik, who has long supported succession, alleges the division of authority is unequal in Bosnia and believes this was demonstrated by then-Office of the High Representative chief Valentin Inzko banning genocide denial in July. Dodik also considers the move to ban genocide denial to be against democracy.

The Office of the High Representative is an international body designed to help put in place the deal that stopped the Bosnian War of the 1990s.

The attempts by Dodik to boost the authority of the Serb-speaking Republic of Srpska within Bosnia have been slammed, with some suggesting this could provoke another conflict.

However, Hungarian Olivér Várhelyi, the EU's enlargement commissioner, reportedly has a different understanding, according to minutes of a 25 November meeting seen by The Guardian.

Várhelyi, who had been speaking with Europe's representatives to Sarajevo, explained his "frank assessment" was now that ex-High Representative Inzko "was to blame for the current political crisis".

Várhelyi also claimed the Austrian diplomat had caused his old position to be "delegitimis[ed]".

Várhelyi informed other EU figures that Bosniak officials expressed they were open to addressing the matter legislatively – a move that may be able to bring Dodik and Bosnia's Serb republic on board again.

German politician Christian Schmidt replaced former High Representative Inzko in August. He backs the implementation of a new, less contentious law on denying genocides.

"The High Representative takes the issue of glorification and war crimes very seriously," according to the Office for the High Representative.

Schmidt's "main focus, however, is on the clear need to create the basis for a parliamentary legislative process through a broad social discussion involving social and religious stakeholders," the body added.

According to the statement, Schmidt cautioned not to politicise the matter.

What Europe is doing to contain the spread of Omicron

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Written by northsouth

Category: Europe

Published: 16 December 2021

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BRUSSELS - Omicron will be the most dominant Covid-19 strain in Europe by mid-January, the European Commission president has predicted after Denmark and Norway reported infection surges driven by the new variant.

Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday that the arrival of the new strain means Christmas will “once again” be “overshadowed by the pandemic”. Spiralling cases in the Scandinavian countries and in the UK are “offering a warning to the rest of Europe”, said the Financial Times (FT).

Experts have said the nationwide outbreaks provide insights into “how infections and hospital admission rates could spike across Europe this winter”, the newspaper added, as well as showing “the need for effective booster programmes to be in place”.

Christmas surge

Since the Omicron variant was first detected in South Africa in November, cases have been reported in more than 25 countries in Europe. More than 10,000 Omicron cases have been recorded in the UK, according to latest government figures.

Amid pessimistic predictions about the UK outbreak, the strain is also spreading rapidly in Denmark and Norway, where health authorities have also “​​released grim projections for the coming wave”, The New York Times (NYT) reported.

While scientists “don’t yet know how often the variant causes severe disease”, the paper continued, they have warned that “its rapid rate of spread will lead to an explosion of cases and could potentially increase pressure on hospitals, even if it proves to be mild”.

Preliminary data indicates that “vaccines are providing little protection from infection”, although “scientists believe that the shots will still fend off severe disease and death”.

“European countries were among the first to report cases,” said euronews, “but the variant has yet to be detected everywhere on the continent.”

However, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said yesterday that “two new countries (Lithuania and Slovenia) have reported cases” and that “several countries have reported a number of probable cases”.

According to the EU agency, the total number of confirmed Omicron cases in Denmark had reached 310, while the tally is Norway had surged to almost 1,500.

Norway last week reported an outbreak linked to a Christmas party in Oslo that was believed to be Europe’s largest to date.

Authorities in the Norwegian capital said that without countermeasures, “Omicron could infect up to 300,000 people a day compared with the previous peak of about 1,000 cases”, the FT said. In neighbouring Denmark, health officials warned that “daily cases could soon exceed 10,000”.

“Denmark is a front runner here,” Soren Riis Paludan, professor of biomedicine at Aarhus University, told the paper. “We were one of the first countries to have initial spreading domestically, but other countries in Europe will see the same.”

Return to restrictions

On Monday, the Norwegian government announced what Reuters described as a “partial lockdown”. Frode Forland, Norway’s state epidemiologist, told the FT that “the strategy in Norway” was to try to prolong the time period until Omicron “takes over”. He added: The situation is very serious now so we have to take urgent measures.”

The introduction of those measures came days after Denmark “imposed new public health restrictions, including requiring restaurants and bars to close at midnight and switching some schools to virtual instruction before the winter holidays”, the NYT reported.

Like the UK, Denmark has also expanded its booster campaign. A statement from the Danish Health Authority on Monday said that any citizen aged 40 or older who was at least four-and-a-half months past their second shot was now eligible for a third dose.

Swathes of Europe that are yet to report major outbreaks are also introducing new restrictions.

Italy this week said that vaccinated visitors would have to show negative tests on arrival in the country, mirroring the approach introduced in Portugal on 1 December. And Dutch primary schools will “close early before the Christmas holiday”, France 24 said.

Greece, Italy, Spain and Hungary have “expanded their vaccination programmes to younger children”, with plans to give the jab to five- to 11-year-olds, the London Evening Standard reported.

Von der Leyen told the European Parliament earlier this week there are “enough vaccine doses for every European now”. And vaccination was more important than ever as Omicron spreads, the European Commission president said, because “if you look at the time it takes for new cases to double in number, it seems to be doubling every two or three days”.

Kremlin: Xi supports Putin’s pursuit of guarantees from West

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Written by northsouth

Category: Europe

Published: 15 December 2021

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By DASHA LITVINOVA

MOSCOW — Chinese President Xi Jinping supported Russian President Vladimir Putin in his push to get Western security guarantees precluding NATO’s eastward expansion, the Kremlin said Wednesday after the two leaders held a virtual summit.

Putin and Xi spoke as Moscow faces heightened tensions with the West over a Russian troop buildup near Ukraine’s border. In recent weeks, Western nations engaged in diplomatic efforts to prevent a possible invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin has denied harboring plans to storm its neighbor.

Putin, meanwhile, demanded guarantees that NATO will not expand to Ukraine or deploy troops and weapons there.

He told Xi on Wednesday about “mounting threats to Russia’s national interests from the U.S. and the NATO bloc, which consistently move their military infrastructure close to the Russian borders,” Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said.

The Russian leader stressed the need to hold talks with NATO and the U.S. on legally binding security guarantees, according to Ushakov. Xi responded by saying he “understands Russia’s concerns and fully supports our initiative to work out these security guarantees for Russia,” Ushakov said.

He said Moscow’s proposals have been passed on to U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried, who visited Moscow on Wednesday and met with Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov.

In recent years, China and Russia have increasingly aligned their foreign policies to counter U.S. domination of the international economic and political order.

Both have faced sanctions — China over its abuses against minorities, especially Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, and for its crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, and Russia for annexing Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and over the poisoning and imprisonment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Beijing and Washington also remain at odds over trade, technology and China’s military intimidation of Taiwan, which it claims as its own territory.

Russia’s relations with the U.S. sank to post-Cold War lows after it annexed Crimea and threw its weight behind a separatist insurgency in Ukraine’s east. Tensions reignited in recent weeks after Moscow massed tens of thousands of troops near Ukraine’s border, a move Ukraine and the West feared may indicate plans for a new invasion.

Moscow has denied that it plans to attack Ukraine and in turn blamed Ukraine for its own military buildup in the country’s war-torn east. Russian officials alleged that Kyiv might try to reclaim the areas controlled by the rebels.

It is within that context that Putin has pressed the West for guarantees that NATO will not expand to Ukraine or deploy its forces there.

During their call on Wednesday, Putin and Xi hailed relations between Russia and China, with the Russian leader saying they are based on “such principles as not interfering in internal affairs (of each other), respect for each other’s interests, determination to turn the shared border into a belt of eternal peace and good neighborliness.”

Xi said, through a translator, that he appreciated that Putin “strongly supported China’s efforts to protect key national interests and firmly opposed attempts to drive a wedge between our countries.”

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported that Xi said “both China and Russia need to carry out more joint actions to more effectively safeguard our security and interests.”

“At present, certain international forces are arbitrarily interfering in the internal affairs of China and Russia under the guise of democracy and human rights, and brutally trampling on international law and the norms of international relations,” Xi was quoted by CCTV as saying.

Putin also said he plans to meet with Xi in person in Beijing in February and to attend the 2022 Winter Olympics.

The U.S., Canada, Australia and Britain have said they will not be sending dignitaries to the Winter Olympics as part of a diplomatic boycott to protest China’s human rights record. Other countries have said they won’t be sending officials because of pandemic travel restrictions.

In welcoming Putin’s planned visit, Xi said sports could be a channel for their countries to boost ties.

“Both sides should strengthen coordination and cooperation on international affairs to maker louder voices on global governance, and come up with practical plans on global issues including the pandemic and climate change,” Xi was quoted by CCTV as saying.

China’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying Xi told Putin he “very much looks forward to this ‘get together at the Winter Olympics’ and stands ready to work with President Putin ‘for a shared future’ to jointly open a new chapter in post-COVID China-Russia relations.”