JAKARTA: Indonesia has for months been quietly engaging key stakeholders in Myanmar’s conflict, as well as neighbors India, Thailand and China in an effort to kick-start a peace process as violence intensifies, its foreign minister said on Friday.
Retno Marsudi earlier said that Indonesia, as chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), had launched a quiet effort to make a breakthrough in the crisis, with its diplomats having held more than 60 “engagements” with all parties involved.
Those included the junta, ethnic minority armies, and a pro-democracy shadow government, she said.
Speaking later at a press conference, Retno said it was vital to secure the trust of all those involved.
“Indonesia is using non-megaphone diplomacy, this aims to build trust with all stakeholders, so they want to talk to us,” she said.
“Quiet diplomacy does not mean we did not do anything. In fact, for the past four months, Indonesia has done many things.”
The Indonesian move is the first major effort to bring to the table all the key players in Myanmar’s conflict and push for the implementation of a peace “consensus” that its top general agreed with the bloc two years ago.
“We tried to be as inclusive as possible,” Retno said. “Indonesia continues trying to play a bridging role to reduce a deep and sharp gap among the stakeholders.”
Representatives of the Myanmar junta and two armed ethnic groups did not respond to requests for comment.
A spokesperson for the NUG said it is cooperating with the ASEAN chair as it is “trying for a peace dialogue.”
An Indonesian foreign ministry official confirmed the move to engage all stakeholders had the support of ASEAN members.
Myanmar has been wracked by violence and economic turmoil since the military seized power in a coup in 2021 and launched a violent crackdown on opponents, some of whom fled overseas to form a government-in-exile, the National Unity Government (NUG).
Others joined armed resistance groups nationwide, which are allied with the NUG and some of the ethnic minority armies in fighting the junta.
ASEAN leaders have been losing patience with the junta over its failure to implement the peace consensus and its continued attacks on opponents. The bloc has since late 2021 banned the junta from attending its high-level meetings until progress is demonstrated.
Discussing next week’s ASEAN leaders summit, Retno confirmed Myanmar’s generals would again be barred.
She also said Indonesia had hosted 195 ASEAN meetings so far, which were dominated by concerns over the Myanmar conflict and regional tensions between rival powers the United States and China.
Alongside Indonesia’s quiet diplomacy, government and think-tank representatives from Myanmar and its neighbors, including India and China, held talks in New Delhi late last month as part of a secretive effort to resolve the Myanmar crisis.
Indonesia quietly engaging key stakeholders in Myanmar crisis – foreign minister
https://arab.news/8wtyx
Indonesia quietly engaging key stakeholders in Myanmar crisis – foreign minister
- ‘Indonesia is using non-megaphone diplomacy, this aims to build trust with all stakeholders, so they want to talk to us’
- The Indonesian move is the first major effort to bring to the table all the key players in Myanmar’s conflict
Senegalese lawmakers weigh corruption cases against former ministers
DAKAR: Senegalese lawmakers on Thursday began debating whether to allow several former ministers to face charges before a special court over accusations they embezzled funds meant for the country’s fight against COVID-19.
Senegal’s National Assembly is controlled mainly by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s party, elected in March last year on a promise to change how the West African country is run compared to his predecessors.
Faye has made the fight against corruption a policy priority and has launched investigations into the administration of Macky Sall, president from 2012 for 12 years.
But the opposition has slammed the moves as a “witch hunt.”
Last Friday, lawmakers lifted parliamentary immunity from prosecution for two opposition MPs caught up in the allegations while serving in Sall’s administration.
Proceedings of this type are rare in Senegal, and lawmakers must authorize cases against former ministers in the exercise of their duties.
Moustapha Diop was the industrial development minister while Salimata Diop was the women’s affairs minister under Sall when the fund to fight the spread of Covid-19 was established in 2020-21.
Both have rejected accusations that they misappropriated any of the money, totaling one trillion CFA francs ($1.7 billion).
The funds were intended to reinforce the health care system, support households and the private sector, and protect jobs during the pandemic.
However, a December 2022 Court of Auditors report revealed irregularities, such as 2.7 billion CFA francs in over-invoicing of rice purchased for disadvantaged households and some 42 million CFA francs for sanitiser.
Three other former ministers accused are Amadou Mansour Faye, the former president’s brother-in-law, Aissatou Sophie Gladima, and Ismaila Madior Fall.
Several prominent figures, including artists, broadcasters, fashion designers, and senior officials, have been questioned during an investigation.
Parliament lifted immunity for Moustapha Diop and Salimata Diop last Friday as they were elected lawmakers in November after Sall left office.
A three-fifths majority of the 165 lawmakers is required to adopt each draft resolution, with voting by secret ballot.
The High Court’s investigative committee could then question the accused, who will decide whether or not to commit them for trial.
The court’s final decision is not subject to appeal.
Albania votes in election test for EU accession
- Vote — a first of its kind, as Albanians abroad can take part — pits outgoing Prime Minister Edi Rama against his arch-rival Sali Berisha
- Doors to Brussels, he says, are the key to ‘being able to give Albanians a European passport’ and allowing them to ‘benefit from the same rights as citizens of all other European countries’
TIRANA: Albanians go to the polls on Sunday for legislative elections seen as crucial to gauge the country’s democratic development and determine its widely held goal of a European future.
The vote — a first of its kind, as Albanians abroad can take part — pits outgoing Prime Minister Edi Rama against his arch-rival Sali Berisha, a right-winger who heads an alliance of opposition parties.
Rama, 60, has been Socialist Party leader since 2005 and is seeking an unprecedented fourth consecutive term on a promise of European Union membership by 2030.
The doors to Brussels, he says, are the key to “being able to give Albanians a European passport” and allowing them to “benefit from the same rights as citizens of all other European countries.”
Trying to stop Rama is Berisha, 80, who is eager to return to power after 12 years in opposition.
The former president heads an opposition coalition that has adopted a Donald Trump-like slogan, “Great Albania,” based on economic revival.
“We are the only ones who can relaunch the country’s economy, the only ones able to take Albania forward. Edi Rama is counting the last days of his regime,” said Berisha.
The campaign also gives him a chance to reburnish his image as a strong leader, despite being under the spotlight of Albanian justice, where he is suspected of being implicated in a corruption case that allegedly benefited his family.
Shortly before the end of a campaign marked by verbal excesses, particularly on social media, the latest polls indicated a win for Rama’s party.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe meanwhile said there was “extreme political polarization” in the Balkan nation of 2.8 million.
Berisha accuses the socialists of “vote-buying, voter intimidation, pressure, use of public funds by ministers and majority candidates for their election campaign.”
Rama has dismissed the claims as “nothing but an excuse for defeat.”
For the first time in the history of elections in Albania, the diaspora is able to vote from abroad by post, in a test for the development of democratic processes and institutions, especially in the context of EU accession negotiations, which began in 2022.
According to official data from the central electoral commission, 245,935 Albanians not resident in Albania are registered to vote.
“Albania has made significant process on the path to EU accession, demonstrating its perseverance in implementing ambitious reforms for the benefit of its citizens,” Silvio Gonzato, the EU delegation’s ambassador in Albania, told AFP.
The losers have challenged the results of every election since the end of communism at the start of the 1990s on the grounds of fraud.
But this time round the vote is being closely watched and in another first, civil servants and justice officials will be deployed alongside the electoral commission and some 300 international observers.
The special prosecutor against corruption and organized crime has meanwhile just opened a verification procedure over a $6-million contract signed in April between an Albanian-American community foundation in the United States and the US lobbying firm Continental Strategy.
Continental Strategy was founded by Carlos Trujillo, a top adviser to Trump.
“The contract aims to strengthen relations between the United States and the Democratic Party, the main opposition force,” according to the party.
For Brussels, Sunday’s vote is a major new test for Albania, which has been a member of NATO since 2009.
“The organization of free and fair elections, in line with democratic norms and democratic values, will be an essential step to reinforce Albanian democracy, boost citizens’ trust in their elected representatives and advance the country’s European integration,” said Gonzato.
Just five days after the elections, Tirana will be the venue for the next European Political Community summit.
Portugal police arrest crime ring over fraudulent permits for 10,000 foreigners
- The foreigners paid to obtain bogus labor contracts that allowed them to stay in the
- Portugal’s center-right government has toughened some immigration rules in the past year
LISBON: Portuguese police have arrested 13 people they believe provided an estimated more than 10,000 foreigners with residence permits and documents allowing them to stay in Portugal and the European Union in exchange for bribes, police said on Thursday.
A spokesperson for the Judicial Police force said the bribes paid to the group, which included a foreign ministry employee, a lawyer and several entrepreneurs, averaged 15,000 euros ($16,950) per person.
The foreigners paid to obtain bogus labor contracts that allowed them to stay in the country and then get residence permits, open bank accounts and access the social security system. Many of them have since left for other EU member states, police said.
Portugal’s center-right government has toughened some immigration rules in the past year, reflecting attempts elsewhere in Europe to fend off the rise of the far-right, and on Saturday vowed to deport 18,000 illegal migrants in the coming months.
It was not immediately clear if those who benefited from the illegal scheme counted among those.
Still, the country remains relatively open to migrants, particularly from Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa and from Brazil. Many experts argue that growing immigration has stoked economic growth.
While anti-immigration sentiment is expected to play a role in an early election on May 18, far-right party Chega has been steady or declining in opinion polls after a surge in the previous election last year. The center-right Democratic Alliance of Prime Minister Luis Montenegro looks set to win the most votes.
IMF says Nigeria repays $3.4 billion COVID-19 funding
- In April 2020, the IMF provided the financing to help Nigeria
- “Nigeria is expected to honor some additional payments,” Ebeke added
LAGOS: Nigeria has repaid $3.4 billion in emergency funding it received from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help the country cope with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic five years ago, the global lender said on Thursday.
In April 2020, the IMF provided the financing to help Africa’s largest oil exporter cope with a collapse in crude prices, which hit its finances and tipped the economy into recession.
IMF resident representative to Nigeria Christian Ebeke said in a statement that, as of April 30, the country had “fully repaid the financial support” it received under the Fund’s Rapid Financing Instrument, a facility that provides urgent balance of payments funding to member nations.
“Nigeria is expected to honor some additional payments in the form of Special Drawing Rights charges of about $30 million annually,” Ebeke added.
The most recent data from the Debt Management Office shows that Nigeria last year spent $4.66 billion to service its foreign debt, of which $1.63 billion was to the IMF.
Greenpeace Denmark launches fake tourism ad to highlight pollution
- “We are inviting Europeans to discover the wonders of Denmark’s agricultural landscape,” Fromberg told
- Greenpeace believes that Denmark has repeatedly violated the EU Water Framework Directive
COPENHAGEN: Discover a dying sea or cycle through protected natural areas covered in asphalt? A tourism campaign by Greenpeace’s Danish branch seeks to highlight environmental pollution in the Nordic country.
“Through the campaign, which is available on social networks as well as on billboards in Brussels and Warsaw, we are inviting Europeans to discover the wonders of Denmark’s agricultural landscape,” Christian Fromberg, head of agriculture and nature at Greenpeace Denmark, told AFP Thursday.
With a tone of sarcasm Fromberg went on to describe the sights: “Here we find asphyxiated seas littered with mysterious brown sludge, car parks and golf courses that are in officially protected natural areas.”
In the Scandinavian country, which prides itself on being a leader in the combating climate change, human activities, particularly waste from agriculture, have suffocated marine ecosystems.
The equivalent of 7,500 square kilometers (2,896 square miles) of the waters around the country, or 17 percent of the surface area of mainland Denmark, has been affected by deoxygenation, leading to the disappearance of marine flora and fauna, according to the Danish Environmental Protection Agency.
“The campaign is a cry for help to the European Union to enforce the environmental regulations systematically violated by the Danish government,” Fromberg said.
Greenpeace believes that Denmark, which takes over the presidency of the European Union in July, has repeatedly violated the EU Water Framework Directive, which requires member states to implement measures to ensure healthy aquatic ecosystems.
“The current government will not take the necessary measures to revitalize our seas and protect our environment,” Fromberg said.
At the same time, a broad majority of Danish politicians have agreed to introduce a carbon tax on livestock farming by 2030.
Denmark has also committed to make agriculture greener, aiming to reduce nitrogen emissions by 13,780 tons a year by 2027.
