Richardson quits Myanmar’s ‘whitewash’ Rohingya crisis panel

Former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson pauses during an interview with Reuters as a member of an international advisory board on the crisis of Rakhine state in Yangon, Myanmar Jan. 24, 2018. (Reuters/Ann Wang)
Updated 25 January 2018
Follow

Richardson quits Myanmar’s ‘whitewash’ Rohingya crisis panel

YANGON: Veteran US diplomat Bill Richardson has resigned from an international panel set up by Myanmar to advise on the Rohingya crisis, saying it was conducting a “whitewash” and accusing the country’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi of lacking “moral leadership.”
Richardson, a former Clinton administration cabinet member, quit as the 10-member advisory board was making its first visit to western Rakhine State, from where nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled in recent months.
“The main reason I am resigning is that this advisory board is a whitewash,” Richardson told Reuters in an interview, adding he did not want to be part of “a cheerleading squad for the government.”
Richardson said he got into an argument with Suu Kyi during a meeting on Monday with other members of the board, when he brought up the case of two Reuters reporters who are on trial accused of breaching the country’s Officials Secrets Act.
He said Suu Kyi’s response was “furious,” saying the case of the reporters “was not part of the work of the advisory board.” The argument continued at a dinner later that evening, the former New Mexico governor said.
Suu Kyi’s spokesman, Zaw Htay, told Reuters on Thursday that the Advisory Board was meeting about the “Rakhine issue.”
“(Richardson) talked on a topic outside the agenda of the meetings and went beyond the framework,” Zaw Htay said. “We feel sorry for his resignation due to the misunderstanding.”
Reporters Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, had worked on Reuters coverage of the crisis in Rakhine, from where 688,000 Rohingya have fled an army crackdown on insurgents since late August, according to estimates by the United Nations.
They were detained on Dec. 12 after they had been invited to meet police officers over dinner in Yangon. The government has cited police as saying they were arrested for possessing secret documents relating to the security situation in Rakhine.

’Good faith efforts’
US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert called Richardson’s decision to resign from the board and his reasons for doing so “cause for concern,” but noted he had been acting as a private citizen in joining the board and visiting Myanmar, which is also known as Burma.
“Ultimately, the Burmese government and military have the authority to determine whether the Advisory Board will succeed,” Nauert said. “The United States has made clear that we are willing to support good faith efforts to implement the Annan Commission recommendations.”
The Advisory Board for the Committee for Implementation of the Recommendations on Rakhine State was set up by Myanmar last year, to advise on enacting the findings of an earlier commission headed by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
The armed forces have been accused by Rohingya witnesses and human rights activists of carrying out killings, rapes and arson in a campaign senior officials in the United Nations and United States have described as ethnic cleansing. Myanmar rejects that label and has denied nearly all the allegations.
Richardson said he was also “taken aback by the vigour with which the media, the United Nations, human rights groups and in general the international community were disparaged” during the last three days of meetings the board held with Myanmar officials.
“She’s not getting good advice from her team,” Richardson said of Suu Kyi, whom he said he has known since the 1980s. “I like her enormously and respect her. But she has not shown moral leadership on the Rakhine issue and the allegations made, and I regret that.”
Suu Kyi’s national security adviser, Thaung Tun, told Reuters he had escorted the other board members on a trip to Rakhine on Wednesday, but that Richardson had not taken part.
“He said he was unhappy about the situation but I am not sure what he was unhappy about,” he said. “This is just the initial stage, this is the start of a whole year of business so I don’t know what happened to make him feel like that.”

Panel chairman slammed
Before Richardson quit the advisory board had 10 members, including five from overseas, chaired by former Thai Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai.
Richardson, a former US ambassador to the United Nations and energy secretary in the Clinton administration, also had harsh words for Surakiart.
The board chairman, he said, was not “genuinely committed” to implementing recommendations regarding the issues of Rohingya safety, citizenship, peace, stability and development.
“He parroted the dangerous and untrue notion that international NGOs employ radicals and that humanitarian agencies are providing material support to ARSA,” Richardson said, referring to Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army militants.
Surakiart was traveling with other members of the board in Rakhine and did not respond to requests for comment.
Another board member, former South African Defense Minister Roelof Meyer, told Reuters the visit to Rakhine had been “very constructive.”
“If anybody would say that we are just a rubber stamp or a voice on behalf of the government that would be completely untrue, unfair,” he said. “We haven’t done any recommendations so far.”
Other members of the board, which also includes British doctor and politician Lord Darzi of Denham and speaker of the Swedish parliament Urban Ahlin, were not immediately available for comment.
Richardson said he declined to join the advisory board’s tour of a new repatriation camp in Rakhine State on Wednesday, instead traveling to Yangon.

Mass grave
Myanmar’s military said earlier this month its soldiers had taken part in the killings of 10 captured Muslim “terrorists” during insurgent attacks at the beginning of September, after Buddhist villagers had forced the captured men into a grave the villagers had dug.
It was a rare acknowledgment of wrongdoing during its operations in Rakhine by the Myanmar military, which said legal action would be taken against members of the security forces who violated their rules of engagement and the villagers involved.
Richardson said he has asked the board to recommend that the Myanmar government set up an independent investigation into “the mass grave issue, especially as it pertained to ... the involvement of the military.” He did not say how the board had responded.
The Rohingya crisis erupted after ARSA attacks on security posts in Rakhine on Aug. 25 triggered a fierce military response. Myanmar says its troops were engaged in legitimate counterinsurgency operations.
The UN on Wednesday called on Myanmar to give aid agencies unhindered access to camps it has built for tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees after agreeing a deal with Bangladesh on their return.


Tiny Greek island appeals for help after migrant increase

Updated 4 sec ago
Follow

Tiny Greek island appeals for help after migrant increase

  • Migrants leaving Libya hope to reach the European Union and follow instructions from people-smugglers, who for the past few months have been directing them to Crete and tiny Gavdos
  • Gavdos lies off the southern coast of neighboring Crete and is about 300 kilometers (186 miles) from the Libyan city of Tobruk across the Mediterranean Sea

ATHENS: Greece’s southernmost island is facing a significant increase in migration from Libya, its mayor said on Tuesday, warning it does not have the means to cope.
Lilian Stefanakis said the rise was “a heavy burden” for Gavdos, which is just 30 square kilometers (11.5 square miles), has 70 residents off-season and only a handful of shops.
Gavdos lies off the southern coast of neighboring Crete and is about 300 kilometers (186 miles) from the Libyan city of Tobruk across the Mediterranean Sea.
“We don’t have the capacity to manage these flows,” Stefanakis told Greek public radio Ert. “Institutional solutions must be found.”
According to the port police, 7,300 migrants have arrived on Crete and Gavdos since the start of this year compared to 4,935 for the whole of 2024.
Since the start of this month, 2,550 arrivals have been recorded.
Migrants leaving Libya hope to reach the European Union and follow instructions from people-smugglers, who for the past few months have been directing them to Crete and tiny Gavdos.
Crete does not have any camps to register asylum seekers and offers only emergency shelters for migrants before they are transferred to mainland Greece.
“The smugglers will not set the rules,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Monday, promising to raise the issue about increased migration flows from Libya at the next European summit.
“Navy ships will be sent outside Libya’s territorial waters in order to control illegal migrant flows,” he added.
Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis later clarified that two military frigates would be sent.
Stefanakis said a vessel from the European Union’s border agency Frontex was deployed and called for further reinforcement on the island.
The northeastern islands in the Aegean Sea opposite Turkiye have traditionally been entry points to Greece and Europe for undocumented migrants and camps have been built.

 


Cargo ship carrying new vehicles to Mexico sinks in the North Pacific weeks after catching fire

Updated 24 min 30 sec ago
Follow

Cargo ship carrying new vehicles to Mexico sinks in the North Pacific weeks after catching fire

  • “There is no visible pollution,” said Petty Officer Cameron Snell, an Alaska-based US Coast Guard spokesperson
  • “Right now we also have vessels on scene to respond to any pollution”

ANCHORAGE, Alaska: A cargo ship that had been delivering new vehicles to Mexico sank in the North Pacific Ocean, weeks after crew members abandoned ship when they couldn’t extinguish an onboard fire that left the carrier dead in the water.

The Morning Midas sank Monday in international water off Alaska’s Aleutian Islands chain, the ship’s management company, London-based Zodiac Maritime, said in a statement.

“There is no visible pollution,” said Petty Officer Cameron Snell, an Alaska-based US Coast Guard spokesperson. “Right now we also have vessels on scene to respond to any pollution.”

Fire damage compounded by bad weather and water seepage caused the carrier to sink in waters about 16,404 feet (5,000 meters) deep and about 415 miles (770 kilometers) from land, the statement said.

The ship was loaded with about 3,000 new vehicles intended for a major Pacific port in Mexico. It was not immediately clear if any of the cars were removed before it sank, and Zodiac Maritime did not immediately respond to messages Tuesday.

A savage crew arrived days after the fire disabled the vehicle.

Two salvage tugs containing pollution control equipment will remain on scene to monitor for any signs of pollution or debris, the company said. The crew members of those two ships were not injured when the Morning Midas sank.

Zodiac Maritime said it is also sending another specialized pollution response vessel to the location as an added precaution.

The Coast Guard said it received a distress alert June 3 about a fire aboard the Morning Midas, which then was roughly 300 miles (490 kilometers) southwest of Adak Island.

There were 22 crew members onboard the Morning Midas. All evacuated to a lifeboat and were rescued by a nearby merchant marine vessel. There were no injuries.

Among the cars were about 70 fully electric and about 680 hybrid vehicles. A large plume of smoke was initially seen at the ship’s stern coming from the deck loaded with electric vehicles, the Coast Guard and Zodiac Maritime said at the time.

Adak is about 1,200 miles (1,930 kilometers) west of Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city.

The 600-foot (183-meter) Morning Midas was built in 2006 and sails under a Liberian flag. The car and truck carrier left Yantai, China, on May 26 en route to Mexico, according to the industry
site marinetraffic.com.

A Dutch safety board in a recent report called for improving emergency response on North Sea shipping routes after a deadly 2023 fire aboard a freighter that was carrying 3,000 automobiles, including nearly 500 electric vehicles, from Germany to Singapore.

One person was killed and others injured in the fire, which burned out of control for a week. That ship was eventually towed to a Netherlands port for salvage.


South Korea investigators seek to arrest former President Yoon

Updated 24 June 2025
Follow

South Korea investigators seek to arrest former President Yoon

  • Yoon was formally stripped of office in April, after being impeached and suspended by lawmakers over his Dec. 3 attempt to subvert civilian rule, which saw armed soldiers deployed to parliament

SEOUL: South Korean prosecutors asked a court Tuesday for a new arrest warrant to detain ex-President Yoon Suk Yeol, after he refused a summons by investigators probing his failed martial law bid.

Yoon was formally stripped of office in April, after being impeached and suspended by lawmakers over his Dec. 3 attempt to subvert civilian rule, which saw armed soldiers deployed to parliament.

He is already standing trial on insurrection charges, personally attending court to defend himself against the allegations.

However, he has refused several summons issued by a special counsel formed to investigate the martial law declaration that parliament voted to launch earlier in the month.

“Today, the special counsel requested an arrest warrant for former president Yoon Suk Yeol on charges including obstruction of official duties,” the special counsel said in a statement.

“The arrest warrant was requested in order to conduct the suspect’s interrogation,” it said, adding that “he has clearly indicated his intention not to respond to future summons.”

Prosecutor Park Ji-young, a member of the special counsel, said in a news conference that Yoon was just “one of several suspects” that they had summoned to be questioned.


France’s Macron calls talks on New Caledonia future

Updated 24 June 2025
Follow

France’s Macron calls talks on New Caledonia future

  • New Caledonian elected officials, as well as political, economic and civil society leaders would be invited to the discussions to start on July 2

PARIS: President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday invited New Caledonia leaders to talks next week on the future of the French overseas territory, a year after deadly separatist violence in the Pacific archipelago.
New Caledonian elected officials, as well as political, economic and civil society leaders would be invited to the discussions to start on July 2, a source familiar with the matter said. It was not immediately clear where the meeting would be held.
The French president in an invitation letter obtained by AFP said discussions would last “as long as necessary” to address key issues “with all the seriousness they deserve.”
“Beyond major institutional topics, I would like for our discussions to touch on economic and societal matters,” Macron added.
Home to around 270,000 people and located nearly 17,000 kilometers (10,600 miles) from Paris, New Caledonia is one of several overseas territories that remain an integral part of France.
New Caledonia has been ruled from Paris since the 1800s, but many indigenous Kanaks still resent France’s power over their islands and want fuller autonomy or independence.
Unrest broke out in May 2024 after Paris planned to give voting rights to thousands of non-indigenous long-term residents, something Kanaks fear would leave them in a permanent minority, crushing their chances of winning independence.
The riots — the most violent since the 1980s — led to the death of 14 people and billions of dollars in damage.
The president’s decision to host talks alongside the Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls also comes after a French court freed independence leader Christian Tein in June.
Tein, who hails from the Kanak group, had been held in custody in eastern France since June 2024 over the rioting in the nickel-rich archipelago.
Investigating magistrates concluded there was no proof that Tein was preparing an armed uprising against the government, according to a source close to the case.
The last independence referendum in New Caledonia was held in 2021, and was boycotted by pro-independence groups over the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Kanak population.
The referendum was the last of three since 2018, all of which rejected New Caledonian independence.
Since the 2021 referendum — which pro-independence campaigners had requested be rescheduled — the political situation in the archipelago has been in deadlock.
Valls led negotiations in May between pro-independence and anti-independence groups, but they did not “reach an agreement about the institutional future of the territory,” Macron said in the invitation letter.
The president in early June declared he wanted a “new project” for New Caledonia.


Major UK supermarket chain to stop sourcing Israeli products

Updated 24 June 2025
Follow

Major UK supermarket chain to stop sourcing Israeli products

  • Co-op board committed to ‘upholding human rights and the rule of law to promote fair trading and peace’
  • Palestine Solidarity Campaign: ‘This is a seismic victory for the solidarity movement in this country’

LONDON: One of Britain’s largest supermarket chains will stop sourcing Israeli products following a sustained Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign.

The Co-operative supermarket said the decision was made due to Israeli human rights abuses and violations of international law. It comes into effect this month.

In May, a motion at the Co-op annual general meeting calling for an end to trade with Israel received overwhelming support. The supermarket board’s decision covers 17 “countries of concern,” including Israel.

Co-op will now launch a phased approach to begin removing products sourced from the 17 countries.

The BDS campaign, led by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, saw the Co-op board commit to a “sourcing policy aligned with established co-operative values, upholding human rights and the rule of law to promote fair trading and peace.”

The supermarket will now avoid sourcing products from countries where “there is consistent behavior which would constitute community-wide human rights abuses or violations of international law.”

Through the new policy, Co-op believes it “can make a difference directly or indirectly to those affected and would alleviate suffering.”

Israel is a major exporter of fruit and vegetables to the UK, and its products are widely stocked at British supermarkets, including as ingredients in larger items.

A number of Israeli farms operate facilities in the occupied West Bank, in settlements that are illegal under international law.

PSC hailed Co-op’s decision as a “major victory.” It follows the “Don’t Buy Apartheid” campaign that the organization conducted this year, urging a widespread boycott of Israeli products in British shops, restaurants and venues.

Ben Jamal, PSC director, said: “This is a seismic victory for the Palestinian solidarity movement in this country, which demands that the government, institutions and corporations end all economic, political and military support for the state of Israel, which is conducting a live streamed genocide in Gaza after decades of military occupation and imposing a system of apartheid on Palestinians.

“The Co-op, as befits its history, has shown great moral courage and ethical principle in deciding that it cannot ignore voices from the British public calling out Israel’s gross human rights abuses and violations of international law — and even more importantly, it cannot economically support that regime through doing business in Israel.

“This beacon of leadership must now be taken up by all other supermarket chains which continue to sell Israeli goods, despite knowing they are supporting its war crimes.”