‘The best Nobel prize in a long time’

Dr. Denis Mukwege (left) and Nadia Murad. (AFP photos)
Updated 06 October 2018
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‘The best Nobel prize in a long time’

  • Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwege are the latest Peace laureates — and for just once, nearly everyone is happy
  • At 25, Murad is the second-youngest Peace Prize recipient, after Pakistani Malala Yousafzai, who was 17 when she received hers

LONDON: The list of 331 nominees had included the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the White Helmets of Syria,  the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un and his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in.

But in the end, the Nobel Peace Prize for 2018 was awarded to a 25-year-old woman and a 63-year-old doctor who had witnessed sexual violence being used as a weapon of war.

Nadia Murad, an Iraqi Yazidi, was captured, raped, tortured and sold into sex slavery by Daesh in 2014. She escaped and became an outspoken and articulate campaigner for victims of sexual violence in war.

Gynaecologist Dr. Denis Mukwege founded a hospital in his native Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where he pioneered surgery to treat tens of thousands of women for injuries resulting from rape during the country’s two recent wars. 

Announcing the award in Oslo, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said the two were chosen “for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict. They have both put their own personal security at risk by courageously combatting war crimes and securing justice for victims.”

On learning the news, Murad said: “I share this award with all Yazidis, with all the Iraqis, Kurds and all the minorities and survivors of sexual violence around the world. As a survivor I am grateful for this opportunity to draw international attention to the plight of the Yazidi people who have suffered unimaginable crimes since the genocide by Daesh.” 

Praise poured in from all over the world for the two newest Nobel Peace Prize laureates.

The Iraqi government tweeted congratulations and “our deepest respect” to Murad, pledging a renewed commitment to supporting the victims of sexual violence perpetrated by Daesh and to “delivering meaningful justice to survivors.”

Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, a humanitarian organization that has worked extensively in the Middle East, tweeted: “The best Nobel Prize in a long time. Finally focus on horrific and widespread sexual violence in war.”

Kenneth Roth, executive director, of Human Rights Watch described the award as “well deserved and long-awaited.” 

At 25, Murad is the second-youngest Peace Prize recipient, after Pakistani Malala Yousafzai, who was 17 when she received hers, and was among the first to congratulate Murad.

Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, said that both Murad and Dr. Mukwege “have my deepest respect for the courage, compassion and humanity they demonstrate in their daily fight.”

Murad, the daughter of a Yazidi farmer, was 19 when Daesh descended on her village in Sinjar, northern Iraq, on August 3, 2014. They rounded up the Yazidis, killing 600, including six of her brothers. Murad was one of more than 6,700 Yazidi women enslaved by Daesh in Iraq. She was taken to Mosul where she was repeatedly beaten and raped.

After three months she managed to escape when her captor left the house unlocked one day. A neighboring family helped to smuggle her out of Daesh-controlled territory and she reached a refugee camp in Duhok, northern Iraq.

The day after her arrival, she spoke to a BBC journalist. She was offered anonymity but declined, saying: “No, let the world see what happened to us.”

She embarked on a mission to expose the horror of what Daesh call “sexual jihad” and to seek justice for all the victims who had become the spoils of war. 

In December 2015, she gave the United Nations Security Council its first briefing on human trafficking. When during the following year the Council of Europe awarded her the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize, she used her acceptance speech to call for an international court to judge crimes committed by Daesh. She has also launched a lawsuit against Daesh commanders. 

The UN named her goodwill ambassador for survivors of trafficking. Two years ago she launched Nadia’s Initiative to provide advocacy and assistance to victims of genocide, atrocities and trafficking.

She now lives in Germany but continues to receive threats.

Dr. Mukwege also lives under threat. He escaped an assassination attempt in 2012, in which his daughters were held hostage and his bodyguard was shot dead. 

As a young doctor he witnessed the damage suffered by women who received no proper care when giving birth. He founded the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, eastern DRC, where he noticed that most of his patients came from conflict zones and had been raped and sexually mutilated. 

“These weren’t just violent acts of war but part of a strategy,” he said. “You had situations where multiple people were raped at the same time, publicly — a whole village might be raped during the night. In doing this, they hurt not just the vitiates but the whole community which they forced to watch. The result of this strategy is that people are forced to flee their villages abandon their fields, their resources, everything. It’s very effective.”

He developed reconstructive surgical procedures and with his team has helped more than 85,000 women. Skills training, so that women can support themselves, and legal advice are part of the hospital’s after care. 

In a speech to the UN in September 2012, he criticized the DRC government for failing to tackle impunity for mass rape. A month later, he was held at gunpoint outside his home but miraculously escaped.

In acknowledging the doctor’s award, Congolese government spokesman Lambert Mende paid somewhat grudging tribute: “We have not always been in agreement but we salute that a compatriot is recognized.”

The Nobel Peace Prize was established by Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel. Nominations are invited from governments, members of legal institutions, university professors and members of and advisers to the Norwegian Nobel Institute and must be submitted to the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee. 

Prize winners receive a diploma, a medal and nine million Swedish kronor (nearly $1 million). 

The Peace Prize has proved to be contentious over the years since it was first awarded in 1901 to Henry Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross. Some have accused the Nobel committee of political manipulation in awarding the prize in hope of encouraging future achievement rather than recognizing past accomplishments. 

When Barack Obama won in 2009, many felt he had done little to deserve it after only ten months in the White House. In his memoirs published six years later, Geir Lundestad, the former secretary of the Nobel committee, admitted: “Even many of Obama’s supporters believed the prize was a mistake. In that sense the committee didn’t achieve what it had hoped.” 

There was similar bemusement when the entire European Union was awarded the prize in 2012. 

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi won the prize in 1991 but has since become such a divisive figure that there are calls for it to be rescinded.

The Peace Prize is not awarded at all if the committee decides there is “no suitable living candidate,” as in 1948, the year Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated. He was a nominee that year and also in 1937, 1938, 1939 and 1947 but never won.

There is unlikely to be much dissent in Oslo on December 10 when a young woman from a village in northern Iraq and a doctor from rural Congo step up to the podium. 

 


Zelensky says Ukraine used 117 drones in attacks on Russian air bases

Updated 6 sec ago
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Zelensky says Ukraine used 117 drones in attacks on Russian air bases

KYIV: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday it deployed 117 drones in a massive attack against Russian air bases that he called “our most long-range operation” in more than three years of war.
“A total of 117 drones were used in the operation. And a corresponding number of drone operators worked,” Zelensky said in a statement, adding that “34 percent of the strategic cruise missile carriers at the airfields were hit.”


Bangladesh opens trial of deposed ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina

Updated 38 min 55 sec ago
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Bangladesh opens trial of deposed ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina

  • The investigators brought charges of crimes against humanity against Hasina over killing of hundreds of students in a mass uprising last year
  • Hasina has been in exile in India since Aug. 5, 2023, while former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan is missing and possibly also is in India

DHAKA: A special tribunal set up to try Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina began proceedings Sunday by accepting the charges of crimes against humanity filed against her in connection with a mass uprising in which hundreds of students were killed last year.

The Dhaka-based International Crimes Tribunal directed investigators to produce Hasina, a former home minister and a former police chief before the court on June 16.

Hasina has been in exile in India since Aug. 5, 2023, while former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan is missing and possibly also is in India. Former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun has been arrested. Bangladesh sent a formal request to India to extradite Hasina in December.

State-run Bangladesh Television broadcast the court proceedings live.

In an investigation report submitted on May 12, the tribunal’s investigators brought five allegations of crimes against humanity against Hasina and the two others during the mass uprising in July-August last year.

According to the charges, Hasina was directly responsible for ordering all state forces, her Awami League party and its associates to carry out actions that led to mass killings, injuries, targeted violence against women and children, the incineration of bodies and denial of medical treatment to the wounded.

Three days after Hasina’s ouster, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus took over as the nation’s interim leader.

In February, the UN human rights office estimated that up to 1,400 people may have been killed in Bangladesh over three weeks in the crackdown on the student-led protests against Hasina, who ruled the country for 15 years.

The tribunal was established by Hasina in 2009 to investigate and try crimes involving Bangladesh’s independence war in 1971. The tribunal under Hasina tried politicians, mostly from the Jamaat-e-Islami party, for their actions during the nine-month war against Pakistan. Aided by India, Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina’s father and the country’s first leader.


Macron condemns ‘unacceptable’ violence during football celebrations

Updated 36 min 55 sec ago
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Macron condemns ‘unacceptable’ violence during football celebrations

  • Two people died and police made nearly 600 arrests across France overnight as football fans celebrated PSG’s 5-0 triumph over Inter Milan in Munich
  • Macron hosted Coach Luis Enrique and his team after their victory parade on the famed Champs Elysee

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday condemned the “unacceptable” violence during celebrations following Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League final victory, as he welcomed the triumphant team to the Elysee palace.
“Nothing can justify what has happened in the last few hours, the violent clashes are unacceptable,” the French leader said.
“We will pursue, we will punish, we will be relentless,” he added before congratulating the players on their win.
Two people died and police made nearly 600 arrests across France overnight as football fans celebrated PSG’s 5-0 triumph over Inter Milan in Munich.
“The violent clashes that took place are unacceptable and have come at a heavy cost: two people are dead, around 30 police officers and several firefighters have been injured,” Macron said.
“My thoughts are also with the police officer in Coutances who is currently in a coma,” he added.
Macron hosted Coach Luis Enrique and his team after their victory parade on the famed Champs Elysee, thanking the players for their quick condemnation of the previous night’s chaos.
“These isolated acts are contrary to the club’s values and in no way represent the vast majority of our supporters, whose exemplary behavior throughout the season deserves to be commended,” the club said on Sunday.


British FM says Morocco’s autonomy plan for W. Sahara ‘most credible’ solution

Updated 48 min 58 sec ago
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British FM says Morocco’s autonomy plan for W. Sahara ‘most credible’ solution

  • Britain previously backed self-determination for the disputed Western Sahara, which Morocco claims as an integral part of its kingdom
  • Spain and Germany now officially back the Moroccan autonomy plan, while France last summer recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over the territory

RABAT: British Foreign Minister David Lammy said on Sunday that Morocco’s autonomy plan for the territory of Western Sahara was the “most credible” solution to the decades-long dispute, reversing London’s long-standing position.
Western Sahara, a mineral-rich former Spanish colony, is largely controlled by Morocco but has been claimed in its entirety for decades by the pro-independence Polisario Front, which is backed by Algeria.
Morocco has been campaigning for broad support for its autonomy plan after obtaining US recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over the disputed territory in 2020, in exchange for the normalization of diplomatic relations with Israel.
“The United Kingdom considers Morocco’s autonomy proposal submitted in 2007 as the most credible, viable and pragmatic basis for a lasting resolution of the dispute,” Lammy told reporters in Rabat.
Britain previously backed self-determination for the disputed territory, which Morocco claims as an integral part of its kingdom.

The United Kingdom considers Morocco’s autonomy proposal submitted in 2007 as the most credible, viable and pragmatic basis for a lasting resolution of the dispute

UK Foreign Minister David Lammy

Moroccan foreign minister Nasser Bourita welcomed the shift, saying the new British position contributed “greatly to advancing this momentum and promoting the UN path toward a definitive and mutually acceptable solution based on the autonomy initiative.”
Rabat’s push for support for its autonomy plan has seen success.
Spain and Germany now officially back the Moroccan autonomy plan, while France last summer recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over the territory.
“This year is a vital window of opportunity to secure a resolution before we reach 50 years of the dispute in November,” said Lammy.
The foreign minister also said it encouraged “relevant parties to engage urgently and positively with the United Nations-led political process.”
The United Nations considers Western Sahara a “non-self-governing territory” and has had a peacekeeping mission there since 1991, whose stated aim is to organize a referendum on the territory’s future.
But Rabat has repeatedly ruled out any vote where independence is an option, instead proposing an autonomy plan.
The ceasefire collapsed in mid-November 2020 after Moroccan troops were deployed to the far south of the territory to remove separatists blocking the only route to Mauritania — a route they claimed was illegal, as it did not exist in 1991.
The UN Security Council is calling for negotiations without preconditions, while Morocco insists they focus solely on its autonomy plan.
“The only viable and durable solution will be one that is mutually acceptable to the relevant parties and is arrived at through compromise,” added Lammy.
In a joint statement, the United Kingdom noted that its export credit agency, UK Export Finance, may consider supporting projects in the Sahara as part of its commitment to mobilize 5 billion British pounds (approximately 5.9 billion euros) for new economic initiatives in Morocco.


Bangladesh opens trial of ex-PM Hasina for crimes against humanity

Updated 01 June 2025
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Bangladesh opens trial of ex-PM Hasina for crimes against humanity

  • Hearing broadcast live for first in special tribunal’s history
  • Former home minister, ex-police chief ordered to be in court for second hearing on June 16

DHAKA: Bangladeshi prosecutors on Sunday opened the trial of fugitive former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is charged with orchestrating last year’s deadly crackdown on student-led protests.

Peaceful demonstrations, triggered by the reinstatement of a quota system for the allocation of civil service positions, began in early July 2024 but two weeks later they were met with a communications blackout and a violent crackdown by security forces.

In early August, as protesters defied a nationwide curfew, Hasina resigned and fled the country, ending 15 years in power of her Awami League party-led government.

“She unleashed various law enforcement and intelligence agencies against them (the protesting students) … They slaughtered the agitating students, injured them and committed crimes against humanity,” Mohammad Tajul Islam, chief prosecutor at Bangladesh’s domestic International Crimes Tribunal, told the court in his opening speech.

He charged the 77-year-old with “incitement, aiding and abetting, involvement in the commission of the crimes of murder, attempted murder, torture and other inhumane acts as part of the widespread and systematic attacks on innocent unarmed students and the public.”

The UN’s human rights office concluded in February that between July 15 and Aug. 5, 2024, the former government and its security and intelligence apparatus, together with “violent elements” linked to the Awami League, “engaged systematically in serious human rights violations and abuses in a coordinated effort to suppress the protest movement.”

It estimated that at least 1,400 people were killed during the protests, the majority by bullets from military rifles.

ICT investigators have collected video footage, audio clips, records of helicopter and drone movements, as well as statements from victims of the crackdown as part of the probe.

They also “seized records of telephonic conversations of Sheikh Hasina, in which she repeatedly confirmed that she ordered all the state agencies to eliminate innocent civilians peacefully protesting for a fair demand, using helicopters, drones and APCs (armored personnel carriers),” Islam said.

Sunday’s hearing was broadcast live for the first in the ICT’s history.

“The court accepted the charges against Sheikh Hasina, former Home Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun. There are five charges against them and the court accepted all five charges. We presented the charges through live broadcast before the nation,” Islam told reporters after the hearing.

Al-Mamun is the only accused who has been detained while the ex-home minister is in hiding and Hasina remains in self-imposed exile in neighboring India.

The next hearing is scheduled to take place on June 16. The tribunal ordered all three accused to be presented before the court.

The International Crimes Tribunal was established by Hasina in 2010 to investigate crimes committed by the Pakistani army and its loyalists during Bangladesh’s independence war in 1971.

Over the years, it grew to be widely seen as the Hasina government’s tool for eliminating political rivals.