Tigrayans ensnared in wave of arbitrary arrests: Amnesty

Three more Ethiopian regions are sending soldiers to reinforce the national army in its fight against forces from the northern region of Tigray, officials say. (AP)
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Updated 17 July 2021
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Tigrayans ensnared in wave of arbitrary arrests: Amnesty

  • Ethiopian Human Rights Commission says it is monitoring reports of harassment

ADDIS ABABA: Amnesty International on Friday accused Ethiopia of arbitrarily arresting dozens of ethnic Tigrayans in Addis Ababa and elsewhere since rebels retook control of the war-hit Tigray region’s capital last month.

Those detained have included activists and journalists, and some have been beaten and transported hundreds of kilometers from the capital, Amnesty said.
The total number is likely to be in the hundreds, with the whereabouts of many unknown, Amnesty said.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into Tigray last November to detain and disarm leaders of the region’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
He said the move came in response to TPLF attacks on federal army camps.
The 2019 Nobel Peace laureate declared victory in late November after federal troops took the regional capital Mekele, but fighting continued and TPLF leaders remained on the run.
In late June the conflict took a stunning turn when pro-TPLF fighters reclaimed Mekele and Abiy declared a ceasefire.
The recent arrests of Tigrayans outside Tigray began after that, Amnesty said.
“Former detainees told us that police stations are filled with people speaking Tigrinya, and that authorities had conducted sweeping mass arrests of Tigrayans,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty’s East and Southern Africa director.
The arrests should stop and all detainees should be “promptly charged with internationally recognized crimes and given fair trials, or immediately and unconditionally released,” Muchena said.
Abiy’s government has previously denied engaging in ethnically motivated arrests.
The federal police and attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A lawyer for one detainee, who has since been released on bail, told Amnesty his client had been accused of having links to the TPLF, which the government considers a terrorist group.

BACKGROUND

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into Tigray last November to detain and disarm leaders of the region’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.

One detainee told Amnesty that police raided his snooker hall on the night of July 2 and “began to harass and beat customers” before scrutinizing identity documents and detaining five Tigrayans.
“They kept us on the open air and it was raining the whole night. We also stayed there the next day on Saturday ... We were 26 Tigrayans arrested in the station that day,” the man said.
Of those, seven were transported 240 km east, to the Awash Arba area of Ethiopia’s Afar region, he said.
On Thursday, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC), a state-affiliated but independent body, said it was also monitoring reports of arbitrary arrests, business closures and “other types of harassment targeting ethnic Tigrayans.”
The EHRC and rights groups have similarly voiced concern about previous rounds of such arrests going back to the beginning of the war. Tigrayan rebels announced an offensive this week to reclaim disputed territory in western and southern Tigray that was occupied early in the war by security forces from Amhara region, which borders Tigray to the south.
Thousands of Amhara forces, including militia fighters, have deployed to the border between the two regions, and three other regions have confirmed they are also sending troops.
Spokesmen for both sides have offered competing claims concerning who holds key towns including Alamata in southern Tigray and Mai-Tsebri in western Tigray.
A statement Thursday from the rebel’s “military command” said government soldiers and Amhara militia fighters had launched a counter-offensive Thursday near Mai-Tsebri.
The statement said the rebels’ operations would meanwhile “continue in succession and in wider scope than the previous ones.”
Separately, Debretsion Gebremichael, president of Tigray’s pre-war government, said in a statement on Thursday that pro-TPLF forces were not waging war on the population of Amhara.
He insisted they were focused on restoring Tigray’s pre-war boundaries.
“You should refuse being part of (this attack),” he said, referring to the government’s counter-offensive.
“You should say ‘it is enough’ and engage in a struggle that would be beneficial to you and your history.”
Amhara officials have also stressed that they are looking to reclaim land they accuse the TPLF of illegally annexing in the early 1990s and don’t mean to harm Tigrayan civilians.
Fighting in Tigray has already left thousands dead and, according to the United Nations, pushed hundreds of thousands to the brink of famine.


Strange foam and dead fish wash ashore at 2 Australian beaches as surfers fall sick

Updated 4 sec ago
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Strange foam and dead fish wash ashore at 2 Australian beaches as surfers fall sick

  • The goverment closed Waitpinga Beach and neighboring Parsons Beach on Monday. Dozens of dead fish have reportedly been washed shore
  • Surfers have been complaining since the weekend of getting sore eyes, sore throats and coughing after contact with the water

MELBOURNE: An Australian state closed two beaches after dead fish and an unusual off-white foam washed ashore while surfers reported feeling unwell, officials said on Tuesday.
A microalgal bloom created by unusual weather conditions was suspected to have sickened humans and marine life as well as creating the foam that has covered hundreds of meters (yards) of coastline, South Australian Environment Protection Authority principal scientific officer Sam Gaylard said.
“It is very concerning,” Gaylard told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
“It is unusual at this scale. At this time of year, when the weather conditions allow, we do occasionally get isolated blooms, but something of this scale is definitely a little bit unusual,” Gaylard added.
Waitpinga Beach and neighboring Parsons Beach, both south of the South Australia state capital Adelaide, have been closed to the public since Monday in response to a “fish mortality event in the area,” the Department for Environment and Water said in a statement.
“The beaches will be re-opened as soon as possible,” the department said.
Dozens of dead fish have reportedly been washed shore.
Surfers have been complaining since the weekend of getting sore eyes, sore throats and coughing after contact with the water, said local Anthony Rowland, who surfed at Waitpinga on Saturday.
“While we were out there, we started coughing,” Rowland said, refering to his surfing comrads. He said he was overwhelmed by the response from other surfers after posting his experience online.
“Lots of people reached out – so many people have said they’re had exactly the same symptoms,” Rowland said.
Marine scientists took water samples from the foam, which is a byproduct of the toxic organisms’ decay, on Monday, but it could take until the end of the week to identify the organism, Gaylard said.
A bloom of microalgae – microscopic, single-celled organisms – could have been caused by a recent extended period of hot and dry weather with little wind and low tides, Gaylard said.
A swell has picked up in the area since Sunday, and the turbulence could break up the algae while generating more foam, he said.
“At the moment, we’re not sure how long this will last,” Gaylard said.


Turkiye’s Erdogan seeks meeting with Trump, Bloomberg News says

Updated 3 min 1 sec ago
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Turkiye’s Erdogan seeks meeting with Trump, Bloomberg News says

  • Erdogan’s office and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comments

ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan is working to secure a meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House, potentially by late April, Bloomberg News said on Tuesday, citing Turkish officials familiar with the matter.
Erdogan sees closer US-Turkiye ties as crucial for regional stability, particularly as Ankara seeks a bigger role in mediating conflicts from Ukraine to Syria, the report added.
Erdogan’s office and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comments.
In the battle against militant group Islamic State in Syria, the United States is allied with a Syrian Kurdish militia that Turkiye regards as a terrorist group. Turkiye has sharply criticized this US stance as a betrayal of a NATO ally.
Turkiye’s 2019 purchase of Russian S-400 missile defense systems also led to US sanctions and the country’s removal from the F-35 fighter jet program.
On Sunday, Erdogan spoke by telephone with Trump, discussing efforts to end the war between Russia and Ukraine and to restore stability in Syria.
He told Trump that Turkiye supported his “decisive and direct initiatives” to end the war between Russia and Ukraine and would continue to strive for a “just and lasting peace,” Erdogan’s office said in a statement.


NASA astronauts head home on SpaceX capsule after drawn-out space station stay

Updated 33 min 57 sec ago
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NASA astronauts head home on SpaceX capsule after drawn-out space station stay

  • Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams’ homecoming caps an end to an unusual, drawn-out mission filled with uncertainty and technical troubles
  • The astronaut pair had launched into space as Starliner’s first crew in June for what was expected to be an eight-day test mission

WASHINGTON: NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams departed the International Space Station early on Tuesday morning in a SpaceX capsule for a long-awaited trip back to Earth, nine months after their faulty Boeing Starliner craft upended what was to be a roughly week-long test mission.
Wilmore and Williams, two veteran NASA astronauts and retired US Navy test pilots, strapped inside their Crew Dragon spacecraft along with two other astronauts and undocked from the orbiting laboratory at 1.05 a.m. ET (0505 GMT), embarking on a 17-hour trip to Earth.
The four-person crew, formally part of NASA’s Crew-9 astronaut rotation mission, is scheduled for a splashdown off Florida’s coast later on Tuesday at 5:57 p.m. ET.
Wilmore and Williams’ homecoming caps an end to an unusual, drawn-out mission filled with uncertainty and technical troubles that have turned a rare case of NASA’s contingency planning – as well as failures of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft – into a global and political spectacle.
The astronaut pair had launched into space as Starliner’s first crew in June for what was expected to be an eight-day test mission. But issues with Starliner’s propulsion system led to cascading delays in their return home, culminating in a NASA decision last year to have them take a SpaceX craft back this year as part of the agency’s crew rotation schedule.
The mission has captured the attention of US President Donald Trump, who upon taking office in January called for a quicker return of Wilmore and Williams and alleged without evidence that former President Joe Biden “abandoned” them on the ISS for political reasons.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, a close adviser to Trump, echoed his call for an earlier return. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon is the United States’ only orbital-class crew spacecraft, which Boeing had hoped its Starliner would compete with before the mission with Wilmore and Williams threw its development future into uncertainty.
The astronauts will be flown to their crew quarters at the space agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston for several days of health checks, per routine for astronaut returns, before NASA flight surgeons approve they can go home to their families.
Living in space for months can affect the human body in multiple ways, from muscle atrophy to possible vision impairment.
Upon splashing down, Wilmore and Williams will have logged 286 days in space – longer than the average six-month ISS mission length, but far short of US record holder Frank Rubio. His continuous 371 days in space ending in 2023 was the unexpected result of a coolant leak on a Russian spacecraft.
Williams, capping her third spaceflight, will have tallied 608 cumulative days in space, the second most for any US astronaut after Peggy Whitson’s 675 days. Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko set the world record last year at 878 cumulative days.
Replacement crew
Swept up in NASA’s routine astronaut rotation schedule, Wilmore and Williams could not begin their return to Earth until their replacement crew arrived, in order to maintain adequate US staffing levels, according to NASA.
Their replacements arrived on Friday night – four astronauts as part of NASA’s Crew-10 mission briefly put the station’s headcount at 11.
“We came prepared to stay long, even though we planned to stay short,” Wilmore told reporters from space earlier this month, adding that he did not believe NASA’s decision to keep them on the ISS until Crew-10’s arrival had been affected by politics.
“That’s what your nation’s human spaceflight program’s all about,” he said, “planning for unknown, unexpected contingencies. And we did that.”
Wilmore and Williams have been doing scientific research and conducting routine maintenance with the station’s other five astronauts. Williams had performed two six-hour spacewalks for maintenance outside the ISS, including one with Wilmore.
The ISS, about 409 kilometers in altitude, is a football field-sized research lab that has been housed continuously by international crews of astronauts for nearly 25 years, a key platform of science diplomacy managed primarily by the US and Russia.
Williams told reporters earlier this month that she was looking forward to returning home to see her two dogs and family. “It’s been a roller coaster for them, probably a little bit more so than for us,” she said.


Canada reviews F-35 fighter jet deal, says it relies on US too much for security

Updated 47 min 32 sec ago
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Canada reviews F-35 fighter jet deal, says it relies on US too much for security

  • Canadian PM: ‘It is clear that our security relationship ... is too focused on the United States. We must diversify’
  • US President Donald Trump has slapped tariffs on Canada and mused about turning it into the 51st state

OTTAWA: Canada is looking for possible alternatives to its deal to buy US fighter jets in part because it relies too much on the United States for security, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Monday.
Carney made the comments just days after ordering a review of a C$19-billion ($13.29 billion) contract for 88 F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin. Canada is locked in a trade war with the United States.
Canada’s defense ministry says the contract remains in place and Ottawa has made a legal commitment of funds for the first 16 F-35 aircraft. Carney made clear Canada would seriously look elsewhere.
“It is clear that our security relationship ... is too focused on the United States. We must diversify,” he told reporters during a visit to London, noting that Canada spent about 80 percent of its defense budget on American weapons.
“Given the need for value for money, given the possibility of having substantial production of alternative aircraft in Canada... it’s prudent and in the interest of Canada to review those options,” he said.
Carney did not mention specific firms. Sweden’s Saab, which lost out on the fighter jet contract to Lockheed Martin, had promised to assemble its planes in Canada.
Canadian firms also benefit from the relationship. Bombardier CEO Eric Martel said he was concerned Washington could target the planemaker’s US contracts if Canada canceled the Lockheed Martin deal.
US President Donald Trump has slapped tariffs on Canada and mused about turning it into the 51st state.
Philippe Lagasse, a professor at Carleton University who specializes in procurement, said buying 16 F-35s and then adding another jet would be expensive.
Canada, pressured by successive US administrations to increase defense spending, last year pledged billions more for the armed forces and said military expenditures would be closer to the NATO target by 2030.
In a statement, Lockheed Martin said it valued its ties with Canada and referred procurement questions to the government.
The US Defense Department did not respond to a request for comment.


Indonesia begins repatriating more than 500 freed Myanmar scam center workers

Updated 18 March 2025
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Indonesia begins repatriating more than 500 freed Myanmar scam center workers

  • Cyberscam operations lure foreign workers with promises of high-paying jobs but hold them hostage and force them to commit online fraud
  • Around 7,000 workers from at least two dozen countries have been freed in recent weeks, the majority of them Chinese

JAKARTA: Indonesia on Tuesday began repatriating more than 500 of its nationals freed from online scam centers in Myanmar, officials said, bringing them home from an ordeal where they suffered violence and threats.
Cyberscam operations, which have thrived in Myanmar’s lawless border areas for several years, lure foreign workers with promises of high-paying jobs but hold them hostage and force them to commit online fraud.
Around 7,000 workers from at least two dozen countries have been freed in recent weeks, the majority of them Chinese, but many have been languishing in squalid temporary holding camps on the border between Myanmar and Thailand.
Four-hundred Indonesians were returning from Thailand on Tuesday and at least 154 would follow on Wednesday, according to Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Budi Gunawan.
“The Indonesian government cooperated with the Thailand government and the Chinese government for rescuing and repatriating 554 Indonesians,” he told a press conference at the international airport in capital Jakarta.
The group included 449 men and 105 women who became “victims of large-scale online scamming” in the town of Myawaddy near the Thai border, said Budi.
“The victims... experienced various pressures, physical violence, such as beatings and electrocution, and lastly were threatened with their organs being removed,” he said.
Judha Nugraha, the director of citizen protection at Indonesia’s foreign ministry, earlier said that “around 161” nationals would return Wednesday.
The Indonesians were coming back on three flights from Bangkok after crossing into Thailand from Myanmar, officials said.
The first flight carrying 200 freed Indonesians landed on Tuesday morning.
Judha said the discrepancy in numbers was due to authorities “still processing” the second group, adding final numbers would be released on Wednesday after their transfer was complete.
Indonesian authorities already repatriated 140 nationals from Myanmar via Thailand last month.
Authorities in Myanmar, under pressure from ally China, have cracked down on the scam compounds.
Between 2020 and September last year, Jakarta repatriated more than 4,700 Indonesians entangled in online scam operations from countries including Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, according to foreign ministry data.
The United Nations estimates that as many as 120,000 people – many of them Chinese men – may be working in Myanmar scam centers against their will.