STOCKHOLM: Ecuador’s ambassador to Sweden yesterday defended his homeland against criticism over press freedom following its granting of asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is wanted by authorities in Stockholm.
In nearly a full-page article in the Swedish tabloid Expressen, Mario Guerrero Murgueytio also explained why some media in Ecuador have been banned.
The ambassador was reacting to the way Ecuador has been portrayed in the Swedish press since Aug. 16, when it granted asylum to Assange, who had sought refuge in its London embassy to avoid being extradited to Sweden for questioning on sexual assault allegations.
Over the past few months Expressen had “published articles concerning the Julian Assange affair but has also expressed certain points of view on freedom of the press in Ecuador,” he wrote.
Much of the Swedish press has called it paradoxical that Assange was given asylum, ostensibly in defence of press freedom, in a country that suppresses local media according to several human rights group.
The Ecuadoran ambassador in his article countered that between Oct. 2009 and Aug. 2012, 99 media outlets lost their licenses, most of them for failing to pay taxes. At the same time 240 media were given permission to publish.
Assange denies the sex crime allegations and fears Sweden would extradite him to the United States, where his supporters claim he could receive harsh treatment and possibly even the death penalty.
WikiLeaks embarrassed the US government in 2010 by publishing huge caches of confidential documents on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and more than 250,000 diplomatic cables from US embassies.
Britain, whose courts granted Sweden’s extradition request, has said Assange will be arrested if he leaves the embassy.
Ecuador defends giving asylum to Julian Assange
Ecuador defends giving asylum to Julian Assange
Top UN officials rally support for summit as uncertainty mounts
- Secretary-general calls for Security Council reform in speech ahead of Summit of the Future
- Event seeks to revive trust in multilateralism amid growing criticism of UN
NEW YORK CITY: Top UN officials have called on member states to take renewed action on global issues ahead of the Summit of the Future, which aims to revive trust in multilaterism and counter growing criticism of the international organization.
The summit takes place on Sept. 22-23 during the 79th UN General Assembly, which began earlier this month.
It also aims to galvanize support for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, which were launched in 2015.
A “Pact for the Future,” negotiated and agreed upon by member states, will be declared at the end of the summit.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivered a speech on Saturday ahead of the summit. “Four years ago, we began the process that brings us here today because we saw a world in trouble: torn apart by conflict and inequalities, threatened by climate chaos and unregulated technologies, the Sustainable Development Goals in peril — with many countries now mired in disastrous debt and a cost-of-living crisis,” he said.
“We saw our multilateral institutions ailing, unable to respond to contemporary challenges, let alone those of tomorrow.
“We saw faith in multilateral solutions eroding, and we saw trust in each other dissipating just when we needed it most. So we began a journey to reform.”
Through the summit, Guterres is seeking the support of world leaders in delivering the “Pact for the Future,” which covers emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, and longstanding issues such as climate change.
But critics have argued that the pact has been watered down amid a gridlock in negotiations, and that the summit may join a list of long-forgotten UN campaigns.
The UN itself has faced growing criticism over its inefficacy in confronting global challenges.
Its longstanding bureaucracy and Security Council format have also come under fire, particularly amid the Russia-Ukraine and Gaza wars.
In his speech, Guterres pointed to sectors of society outside of government that could hold the key to change.
“The world belongs to us all. People want a say in the decisions that affect them,” he said. “And while governments have primary responsibility, we will not solve today’s global problems without contributions from all of society: from civil society and young people delivering change, promoting accountability, demanding better, standing up for truth and justice, and using new technologies to organize for a better world; from business and finance — critical to combating the climate crisis and shaping our digital future for the benefit of all; and from scientists, innovators and academics pushing the boundaries of our knowledge and developing solutions to the great challenges we face — from hunger and disease to online hate.”
Guterres conceded to criticism of the UN, calling for reform of the “outdated” Security Council format.
International financial institutions, which have a controversial track record in the Global South, were another target of Guterres, who called for “supercharging resources for sustainable development and climate action.”
UNGA President Philemon Yang supported Guterres in a letter on Friday. The former Cameroonian prime minister said his preliminary meetings with heads of state led to an “overwhelming message of support” for the summit’s goals.
“Over the past three years, we have all rallied around the promise of the Summit of the Future as an opportunity for the international community to forge a new global consensus that will actively seek to transform and scale-up existing commitments for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals,” he added. “The Pact of the Future meets this promise.”
Floods, landslides hit central Japan months after major quake
- More than 540 millimeters (21 inches) of rainfall was recorded in Wajima in the 72 hours to Sunday morning
WAJIMA: Floods and landslides killed one person and left at least six missing in central Japan, with recovery teams at work on Sunday in a remote peninsula already devastated by a major earthquake this year.
“Unprecedented” heavy rains that lashed the area from Saturday began to subside, leaving muddy scenes of destruction as the national weather agency urged people to stay vigilant for loose ground and other dangers.
In the city of Wajima, splintered branches and a huge uprooted tree piled up at a bridge over a river whose raging brown waters almost reached ground level.
People were seen wading into the mud to try to dig out half-buried cars, while elsewhere flood waters inundated emergency housing built for those who had lost their homes in the New Year’s Day earthquake that killed at least 318 people.
Akemi Yamashita, a 54-year-old resident, told AFP she had been driving on Saturday when “within only 30 minutes or so, water gushed into the street and quickly rose to half the height of my car.”
“I was talking to other residents of Wajima yesterday, and they said, ‘it’s so heart-breaking to live in this city’. I got teary when I heard that,” she said, describing the earthquake and floods as “like something from a movie.”
Eight temporary housing complexes were affected in Wajima and Suzu, two of the cities on the Noto Peninsula ravaged by the magnitude-7.5 quake, which toppled buildings, triggered tsunami waves and sparked a major fire.
More than 540 millimeters (21 inches) of rainfall was recorded in Wajima in the 72 hours to Sunday morning — the heaviest continuous rain since comparative data became available in 1976.
Landslides blocked roads, complicating rescue efforts, and tens of thousands of people in the wider region were urged to evacuate.
Muddy rivers ran high in Anamizu, south of Wajima, where more rain fell on Sunday morning onto quake-damaged houses and the shattered stone columns of a shrine still lying on the ground months after they were toppled.
A message blared from the city’s loudspeaker disaster prevention system warning residents that the rain could flood the sewer system and dirty water could rise up.
Hideaki Sato, 74, stood on a bridge holding a blue umbrella, anxiously looking at the swollen water in a small canal.
“My house was flattened completely in the quake,” he told AFP.
“I now live in a small apartment room right there,” he said, pointing at a wooden structure behind him. “If this floods, it would be a real problem.”
Military personnel have been sent to the Ishikawa region on the Sea of Japan coast to join rescue workers, top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Saturday.
Some 6,000 households were without power and an unknown number were without running water, the Ishikawa regional government said.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) downgraded its top warning to the second-highest alert on Sunday.
The areas under the emergency warning saw “heavy rain of unprecedented levels,” JMA forecaster Satoshi Sugimoto said Saturday, adding “it is a situation in which you have to secure your safety immediately.”
Scientists say human-driven climate change is intensifying the risk posed by heavy rains because a warmer atmosphere holds more water.
One person had been killed, three were missing and two were seriously injured in Ishikawa by Sunday morning, the fire and disaster management agency said.
At least a dozen rivers burst their banks and two of the missing were reportedly carried away by strong currents.
Another three people were missing who had been working for the land ministry to restore a road in Wajima, local ministry official Yoshiyuki Tokuhashi told AFP.
One worker who had been reported missing “walked to the tunnel” near a landslide where others were taking shelter, Tokuhashi said, adding that all 27 workers had now been evacuated to safety.
Municipalities in Ishikawa told 75,000 residents in the region — including in the cities of Wajima and Suzu, as well as Noto town — to evacuate, officials said.
Another 16,800 residents in Niigata and Yamagata prefectures north of Ishikawa were also told to evacuate, the fire and disaster management agency said.
Malaysia police arrests hundreds in child abuse probe, 186 victims rescued
- 186 victims rescued as police raided 82 premises, including charity homes, clinics, businesses, religious schools and private residences
- The raid targets were run by Global Ikhwan Service and Business (GISB), which police believe is linked to the banned Al-Arqam sect
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian police said they have arrested 355 suspects as part of an investigation into child abuse at care homes run by an Islamic conglomerate.
Police inspector-general Razarudin Husain said Saturday that the suspects were arrested in an operation to track down the remaining members of Global Ikhwan Service and Business (GISB), which police believe is linked to a banned Islamic sect.
Among those arrested were GISB leader Nasiruddin Ali and 30 other members of the group.
Police carried out raids on 82 premises, including charity homes, clinics, businesses, religious schools and private residences, Razarudin said.
At least 186 victims had been rescued in the operation, he added.
On Tuesday, Razarudin said authorities had frozen 96 accounts linked to the group containing approximately $124,000.
GISB has long been controversial for its links to the now-defunct Al-Arqam sect, and has faced scrutiny by religious authorities in the Muslim-majority country.
Malaysian authorities banned Al-Arqam in 1994 for deviant teachings. GISB members had in 2011 set up an “Obedient Wives Club” that called on women to be “whores in bed” to stop their husbands from cheating.
According to its website, GISB says it is an Islamic company that runs businesses from supermarkets to restaurants, and operates in several countries including Indonesia, France and the United Kingdom.
Police believe the 402 minors in the care homes were all children of GISB members, Razarudin had said.
India’s Manipur on alert after reported Myanmar infiltration
- Reports say 900 suspected militants from Myanmar have crossed into Manipur state
- Manipur has been rocked with clashes between Hindu Meitei and Christian Kuki communities
NEW DELHI: Security forces on India’s northeast border have been placed on alert following reports that 900 suspected militants from war-torn Myanmar have crossed into restive Manipur state, a security official said.
Manipur has been rocked by periodic clashes for more than a year between the predominantly Hindu Meitei majority and the mainly Christian Kuki community, dividing the state into ethnic enclaves.
The hill-dwelling Kukis have cultural, familial and religious ties with tribal populations in Myanmar, where dozens of armed groups have been battling the military since it seized power in 2021.
Manipur government security adviser Kuldiep Singh confirmed Friday that authorities had received reports from local intelligence agencies about a possible crossing by suspected militants.
“Nine hundred people are coming,” according to the assessment, he told reporters.
Singh said border posts had been “alerted” and security forces would conduct “combing operations” in the remote, rugged area.
Local media reports said the intruders were Kuki militants trained in jungle warfare and carrying weaponized drones.
However, a Kuki student group in Manipur dismissed the statement as “propaganda” designed to malign their community.
“We are not in need of any external help to fight this secessionist Meitei community,” the Kuki Students’ Organization statement said.
After months of relative calm, fresh fighting erupted in Manipur this month between insurgent groups firing rockets and dropping bombs with drones, killing at least 11 people.
Meitei protesters marched through the state capital Imphal last week to demand security forces act against Kuki insurgents they blame for the latest attacks.
Long-standing tensions between the Meitei and Kuki communities revolve around competition for land and public jobs.
Fighting has forced around 60,000 people from their homes and killed at least 200, according to government figures. Many have been unable to return home.
Frankly Speaking: Has Britain lost its tolerance?
- UK must tackle racists and people who take law into their hands head on, says former Tory chancellor and author of ‘The Boy from Baghdad’ Nadhim Zahawi
- In wide-ranging interview, Zahawi describes PM Starmer’s decision to remove Margaret Thatcher’s portrait from office as “vindictive” and “petty” behavior
DUBAI: Britain is still the most tolerant place on earth, but it must tackle head on both the scourge of racism in society and those who are intent upon taking the law into their own hands, former Conservative MP and minister Nadhim Zahawi said.
His remarks follow a summer of unrest in the UK, where a knife attack in the town of Southport that killed three children and injured 10 sparked nationwide riots, exploited by far-right fringe groups to whip up hatred against immigrants.
“We have to address the racists head-on,” said Zahawi, appearing on the first episode of the new season of the Arab News current affairs program “Frankly Speaking.”
“And I think it’s important that we send a very clear message that taking things into your own hands and going out and antagonizing, bullying, beating people just because of their background or color is completely unacceptable.
“And we have to deliver that message very, very clearly. It’s incumbent on the leadership, from the prime minister down, to do that.”
Zahawi, who was a Conservative member of parliament for Stratford-upon-Avon from 2010 to 2024 and who served as chancellor of the exchequer in Boris Johnson’s cabinet, also spoke of his own struggles growing up in the UK as an Iraqi refugee.
In his new memoir, “The Boy from Baghdad,” Zahawi chronicles his family’s escape from the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein in the late 1970s, the struggles of building a new life in Britain, and the onset of serious financial difficulties.
“I talk about my sort of impostor feeling that just because I came from a privileged family background in Iraq, landing in the UK in 1978-79, but not having the same financial struggles as, say, a refugee today that would land in the UK,” he said.
“We had different financial struggles much later on, which I address in the book, and pretty dire ones, including the bank taking away our home. But because of success and maybe because I don’t conform to the stereotype of what brown people should do in politics in the UK, that they should be socialist or they should be leftwing Labour.”
Indeed, Zahawi also had to contend with racial discrimination. Does he believe Britain has always had a racism problem?
“In the 1980s, it was very different to today, including my own party,” he said. “I think the Conservative Party of the ’80s was a bit of a closed shop for people of my background, but I persevered.
“There are always going to be elements of racism. But I think, if you look at the evidence, the UK has dealt with it in a much better way than pretty much every other country around us in Europe.”
Because of his own experiences as a refugee who made his fortune and rose to the front bench of politics, it seems somewhat jarring that he would go on to support the Conservative government’s scheme to deport failed asylum-seekers to Rwanda.
“So, let me just unpack some of that,” said Zahawi.
“The net increase in migration into the UK was about 740,000 people last year. Clearly, our public services cannot cope with a city the size of Bath being built every year to be able to accommodate that level of migration.
“We’ve been promising, prime minister after prime minister, that we would bring down migration numbers. David Cameron said it would be tens of thousands. It has gone on one trajectory, and that’s up. And that has to be our priority, this government’s priority.”
Of particular concern to UK authorities — and especially to those who took part in the summer’s rioting — are the irregular migrants arriving in Britain on small boats, crossing the English Channel from northern France.
“Forty thousand are coming in illegally on these small boats,” said Zahawi. “Now, the problem with that is ... the unfairness of that, the perception that this is really bad, it’s unfair. Why should these people get to jump the queue to come into the UK? That poisons the well of goodwill with the British public. And so, Rwanda, in my view, was a good deterrent.”
Owing to repeated defeats in the UK’s highest courts over its human rights implications, the Rwanda scheme never got off the ground, and was immediately scrapped by the new Labour administration, which has pledged to tackle the smuggling gangs at the source.
If Europe wants to prevent hundreds of millions of migrants arriving on its doorstep, however, Zahawi says governments would do well to imitate the development agendas of the UAE, China, and others in helping countries in Africa and beyond to stabilize and prosper.
“In Libya and anything south of Libya, there are about half a billion people who will come under pressure and are capable of movement for political reasons, for environmental reasons, or economic reasons,” he said.
“Clearly, Europe cannot absorb half a billion people. So, we have to have some really serious work done upstream in those countries to stabilize them, to allow them to become prosperous.
“The UAE is doing a lot of that work. We should look at what they’re doing and see if we can partner with them, because the work they’re doing in Africa is second only to China and the investment China is making in Africa.”
In July, Zahawi’s party, under the leadership of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, suffered the worst election defeat in the party’s 190-year history, losing to Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour by a landslide.
Despite pledging to put “country first, party second,” Sir Keir has already ruffled feathers among his Tory rivals after deciding to remove a portrait of Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher from his office at 10 Downing Street.
Although he denied moving the portrait for ideological or party political reasons, opponents have used the new PM’s choice of decor to accuse him of pettiness. “I just think this sort of, dare I say, vindictive type behavior,” said Zahawi. “I thought it’s petty, honestly.”
In early September, Zahawi faced a backlash of his own after posting a photograph on social media of a homeless person sleeping on the pavement in Mayfair, one of the British capital’s wealthiest neighborhoods.
Although Zahawi insists he was merely drawing attention to the high rates of rough sleeping, critics pointed out that homelessness had risen significantly under Conservative rule, and attacked Zahawi’s personal wealth.
“I just happened to be walking through Hertford Street, and I saw this poor, tragic human being lying on the pavement in the morning, and I wanted to highlight that this really is an issue. And it’s heartbreaking,” said Zahawi.
“But then you’ve got the Twitter pile-on from the lefties, who then attack your success, as if I’m somehow affronted by this just because it happens to be Mayfair. No.”
Zahawi says he is concerned the scale of rough sleeping on London’s streets, combined with rates of crime and antisocial behavior, leaves foreign visitors with a bad impression.
“The perception around the world, in the UAE, of their citizens going to England and getting mugged or hurt by some of these criminal gangs, at the moment is reaching a level that I think is deeply damaging to the image of the UK and to London,” he said.
Another recent controversy involved Zahawi’s stance on Iraq. Although he did not have a hand in the UK’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003 — indeed, this was the work of a Labour government, and long predated Zahawi’s election to parliament — the Guardian newspaper criticized him for refusing to condemn the war in his new memoir.
Zahawi has since clarified that he supported the toppling of Saddam, but not the way the post-war situation was handled. Indeed, analysts are united in the view that these failures led directly to the emergence of Daesh.
“What Saddam did to the Kurds and the Shiite community in the south was abominable,” he said, referring to the regime’s successive bouts of repression.
“It was murderous. It was criminal. The Anfal program alone is responsible for 182,000 innocent souls being murdered, 4,000 Kurdish villages burnt to the ground. And so I think it’s only right that the world helped these unfortunate souls, these communities, depose such an evil tyrant.
“Post war, I think actually we really made a terrible error of judgment. And I would very easily explain to those interested that I think Tony Blair should have been much more robust to our most important ally, the US, by saying, look, show me the plan.”
He highlighted the de-Baathification campaign and the disbanding of the Iraqi army as particularly grave errors that sparked the extremist insurgency that followed.
“You send home 700,000 men with no hope of a job, no way to put food on the table, and a gun in their pocket. What do you think is going to happen? The end is Daesh. That was a terrible, terrible decision,” he said.
“It’s right to be able to almost disaggregate those two things and say, actually, the removal of an evil dictator was right. But we never really planned for the day after properly. And we have to take part of that responsibility in the UK.”
Returning to domestic affairs, Zahawi says he is concerned about the prospect of growth in the UK economy unless the tax burden can be reduced, inflation brought under control, and the flight of wealthy individuals abroad can be stemmed.
“If you really care about the British economy, why are you exporting talent? Second only to China in losing millionaires,” he said.
“Now, I know wealth is not the only proxy, as I said, to talent. But it’s a pretty good proxy. And we’re only second to China in losing people to Abu Dhabi and Dubai and elsewhere around the world. And we’re importing low-skilled labor.”
Having stood down ahead of the last general election, Zahawi is now free to return to his business ventures. One new acquisition he is said to be keen on is The Daily Telegraph — one of the Western world’s oldest conservative-leaning publications.
“It would be an honor and a privilege to lead a great newspaper like The Daily Telegraph and it is one of our great products,” he said.
The sale has met with controversy, however, after a UAE-backed bid to buy the paper was effectively blocked when the UK government published proposed laws banning foreign states or government officials from holding any direct stakes in newspaper assets.
Although he remains in the running to buy the paper, Zahawi feels the country was sending out the wrong signal. “The UK should always be open for business,” he said.
“The way you protect particular sectors of the economy, if they require protection, whether it’s nuclear or media, is through regulation, good regulation, not legislation.”
