KIGALI: Rwandan President Paul Kagame is expected to cruise to a fourth term in office in an election on Monday against two opposition candidates who were cleared to run against him but have only modest expectations.
Kagame, 66, helped lead the rebel movement that ended the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and has served as president since 2000. He faces only two rivals because six other potential candidates were not cleared to run by the state-run electoral commission.
Kagame won nearly 99 percent of the vote in the last election in 2017, which followed a constitutional change removing term limits that would have barred him from standing again.
His reelection could signal further stability but also continued global scrutiny, given accusations of rights abuses and continued tensions with neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.
Kagame has won praise during his tenure for rebuilding the country of 14 million after the genocide, in which more than a million people were killed. Rwanda has emerged as a regional financial hub.
But his government has been accused by Western nations and rights activists of muzzling the media, assassinating opponents, and backing rebel groups in neighboring Congo.
International scrutiny was intensified by the migration deal Rwanda struck in 2022 to receive thousands of asylum seekers from Britain. Newly elected British Prime Minister Keir Starmer confirmed on Saturday he would scrap the agreement.
Rwanda’s government has denied all the accusations against it, and while campaigning, Kagame promised continued development and stability.
“With you, there is nothing our country will not achieve, because today you have leaders who are not foolish and you are not foolish,” he told young supporters at a rally last week in Eastern Province.
TWO CHALLENGERS
Eight candidates had applied to run against Kagame, but only two were retained in the final list validated by the electoral commission. The others, including Kagame’s most vocal critics, were invalidated for various reasons that included prior criminal convictions.
The two approved candidates, Frank Habineza and Philippe Mpayimana, ran against Kagame in 2017.
In an interview with Reuters, Habineza, the leader of the Democratic Green Party, said he expected to exceed his total of 0.48 percent of the vote from 2017.
“People are only considering 2017 and say that I got 0.4 percent, but they forget that our party stood for parliament and got more than 5 percent,” he said.
Mpayimana, who works for the Ministry of National Unity and Civic Engagement, urged voters at a campaign event to consider his candidacy.
“It’s true you cannot change the winning team, but we also have to give opportunities to the junior teams to see if they can deliver on their pledges. That is what democracy means,” he said.
Over 9 million voters are registered for the polls in which they will also elect members of the 80-seat lower house of parliament. Provisional results are expected by July 20.
Kagame expected to cruise to fourth term in Rwanda election
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Kagame expected to cruise to fourth term in Rwanda election
- Paul Kagame helped lead the rebel movement that ended the 1994 genocide in Rwanda
- He faces only two rivals because six other potential candidates were not cleared to run
Taliban cut ties with Afghan embassies loyal to former government
KABUL: The Taliban government has severed consular ties with swathes of Afghan embassies in Western countries, Kabul said Tuesday, cutting off diplomats loyal to the former foreign-backed administration.
The 2021 Taliban takeover left diplomats staffing Afghanistan’s foreign missions in limbo, having pledged to serve a government which collapsed in chaos after the withdrawal of US troops.
No country has yet formally recognized the Taliban government but in the past three years the Kabul authorities have installed Taliban ambassadors in some neighboring embassies.
But Afghanistan’s foreign ministry said Tuesday it now “bears no responsibility” for credentials including passports and visas issued by missions out of step with Kabul’s new rulers.
The embassies include those in the cities of London and Berlin as well as the countries of Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, France, Italy, Greece, Poland, Sweden, Norway, Canada and Australia.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has repeatedly urged the Afghan political and consular missions in European countries to engage with Kabul,” a statement said.
“Unfortunately, the actions of most of the missions are carried out arbitrarily, without coordination and in explicit violation of the existing accepted principles.”
The statement said Afghans living abroad should deal instead with missions affiliated with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan — the self-styled name the Taliban have given the country under their rule.
Pakistan, China and Russia are among Afghan embassies working on order from the Taliban government.
Embassies cut off from Kabul have found themselves in dire financial straits, relying heavily on consular fees to pay staff salaries, rent and bills.
Without that income they may struggle to remain open.
The foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment on its future plans for the ostracized embassies.
Since surging back to power by force after a two-decade insurgency, Taliban officials have campaigned to be Afghanistan’s sole representatives on the international stage.
Considered pariahs over their treatment of women, they have been denied an ambassador to the United Nations.
However at UN-hosted talks in Doha last month they represented Afghanistan — with civil society groups including women’s activists excluded from the main talks.
Analysts, rights campaigners and diplomats are split over whether to engage with the Taliban government in a bid to soften their stance or freeze them out until they backtrack.
Fresh protests loom in Venezuela in wake of disputed vote
CARACAS: Fresh demonstrations were expected in Venezuela Tuesday after one person died when security forces tried to break up protests triggered by a hotly disputed election result that gave Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro a third term in power.
Security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets Monday at angry protesters challenging the reelection victory claimed by Maduro but disputed by the opposition and questioned by many other countries.
Thousands of people flooded the streets of several neighborhoods in the capital, chanting “Freedom, freedom!” and “This government is going to fall!“
Some ripped Maduro campaign posters from street posts and burned them.
At least two statues of Hugo Chavez, the late socialist revolutionary who led Venezuela for more than a decade and handpicked Maduro as his successor, were knocked down by protesters.
One person died in northwest Yaracuy state and 46 were arrested in post-election demonstrations, Alfredo Romero, head of the Foro Penal rights group that specializes in political prisoner issues, said on social media platform X. He did not say what caused the death.
The National Electoral Council (CNE) certified the reelection of Maduro, 61, to another six-year term until 2031.
Maduro dismissed international criticism and doubts about the result of Sunday’s voting, claiming Venezuela was the target of an attempted “coup d’etat” of a “fascist and counter-revolutionary” nature.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado told reporters that a review of available voting records clearly showed that the next president “will be Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia,” who replaced her on the ballot after she was barred by Maduro-aligned courts.
The records showed a “mathematically irreversible” lead for Gonzalez Urrutia, she said, with 6.27 million votes to Maduro’s 2.75 million.
She called for families to turn out Tuesday for “popular assemblies” nationwide to show support for a peaceful transition of power.
“There are millions of citizens in Venezuela... who want to see that their vote counts,” she posted later on X.
Maduro’s campaign manager Jorge Rodriguez, also called on X for “large marches starting this Tuesday to celebrate the victory.”
In Caracas on Monday, AFP observed members of the national guard firing tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters, some wearing motorbike helmets and bandanas tied over their faces. Some responded by throwing rocks.
Protests were reported even in poor areas of Caracas that had been bastions of support for Maduro. Shots were heard in some areas.
“We want freedom. We want Maduro to go. Maduro, leave!,” Marina Sugey, a 42-year-old resident of Petare, a poor area of Caracas, told AFP.
The elections were held amid widespread fears of fraud by the government and a campaign tainted by accusations of political intimidation.
The CNE said on Monday Maduro had won 51.2 percent of votes cast compared to 44.2 percent for Gonzalez Urrutia.
When the opposition cried foul, Attorney General Tarek William Saab linked Machado to an alleged cyber “attack” seeking to “adulterate” the results.
International reactions
The United Nations, United States, European Union and several Latin American countries called for a “transparent” process, while allies including China, Russia and Cuba congratulated Maduro.
Gonzalez Urrutia, a 74-year-old former diplomat, acknowledged on Monday the deep discontent with the CNE results and vowed that “we will fight for our liberty.”
Nine Latin American countries called in a joint statement for a “complete review of the results with the presence of independent electoral observers.”
The US-based Carter Center, one of few organizations that had observers in Venezuela, urged the CNE to immediately publish detailed polling station-level results.
Brazil and Colombia also urged a review of the numbers, while Chile’s president said the outcome was “hard to believe.”
Peru recalled its ambassador and Panama said it was suspending relations with Venezuela.
The Washington-based Organization of American States called an emergency meeting for Wednesday at the request of Argentina and other countries that challenged the CNE tally.
Caracas hit back, saying it was withdrawing diplomatic staff from Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay.
It also suspended flights to and from Panama and the Dominican Republic.
Criticism
Independent polls had predicted Sunday’s vote would end 25 years of “Chavismo,” the populist movement founded by Chavez.
Maduro has been at the helm of the once-wealthy oil-rich country since 2013. The past decade has seen GDP drop by 80 percent, pushing more than seven million of Venezuela’s 30 million citizens to emigrate.
He is accused of locking up critics and harassing the opposition in a climate of rising authoritarianism.
In the run-up to the election, he warned of a “bloodbath” if he lost.
Sunday’s election was the product of a deal reached last year between the government and opposition.
That agreement led the United States to temporarily ease sanctions imposed after Maduro’s 2018 reelection, rejected as a sham by dozens of Latin American and other countries.
Sanctions were snapped back after Maduro reneged on agreed conditions.
Venezuela boasts the world’s largest oil reserves but production capacity has been severely diminished in recent years.
Most Venezuelans live on just a few dollars a month and endure biting shortages of electricity and fuel.
Economic misery in the South American nation has been a major source of migration pressure on the southern border of the United States, where immigration is a major presidential election issue.
Bangladesh calls day of mourning for victims of unrest
Student rallies against civil service job quotas sparked days of violence that killed at least 206 people, including several police officers, according to an AFP count of police and hospital data.
The clashes were some of the worst of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's 15-year tenure but her government has since largely restored order with mass arrests, troop deployments and a nationwide internet shutdown that was rescinded on Sunday.
Her administration said the violence, destruction of government buildings and "terrorist activities" at the height of the unrest would be solemnly marked on Tuesday with prayers in mosques around the nation.
However, Students Against Discrimination, the group that organised the initial protests, said the government's announcement was intended to deflect blame for the death toll from police.
"Instead of ensuring justice for the mass murders committed by the state forces, students have been cruelly mocked," Mahin Sarker, one of the group's coordinators, said in a statement.
More than 10,000 people have been arrested in the wake of the unrest, according to the Daily Star newspaper, prompting criticism from rights groups of the extent of the police dragnet.
"The mass arrest and arbitrary detention of student protesters is a witch hunt by the authorities to silence anyone who dares to challenge the government," Amnesty International's Smriti Singh said in a statement.
Troops are still patrolling urban areas and a nationwide curfew remains in force, but the latter has been progressively eased since the start of last week in a sign of the government's confidence that it was in control.
Protests began this month over the reintroduction of a quota scheme reserving more than half of all government jobs for certain groups.
With around 18 million young Bangladeshis out of work, according to government figures, the move deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis.
Critics say the quota is used to stack public jobs with loyalists of the ruling Awami League.
The Supreme Court drastically cut the number of reserved jobs after the unrest but fell short of protesters' demands to scrap the most contentious aspects of the system.
Hasina, 76, has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.
Her government is accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.
Protests had remained largely peaceful until attacks on demonstrators by police and pro-government student groups.
"There must be full accountability for the numerous instances of use of excessive and lethal force by the law enforcement authorities against protesters and others," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement Tuesday.
Hasina's government has accused opposition parties of hijacking the protests to cause unrest.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters at the weekend that security forces had operated with restraint but were forced to open fire to defend government buildings.
Death toll from landslides in India’s Kerala jumps to 41
- India’s forest minister says “situation is serious,” government has pressed agencies into rescue
- Rescue operations in southern Kerala state obstructed after collapse of region’s main bridge
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India: At least 41 people were killed and scores injured after landslides in the hills of India’s southern Kerala state, local media reported, with rescue operations obstructed after a main bridge collapsed in the region. State Health Minister Veena George said that over 70 people were injured and the Indian Express reported that many people are likely to have been washed away in the Chaliyar river.
“The situation is serious. The government has pressed all agencies into rescue,” state Forest Minister A K Saseendran told Reuters after the landslides in the Wayanad district of the state. More rain was predicted through the day.
The army was roped in to build a temporary bridge after a bridge in the district that linked the affected area, mostly tea and cardamom estates, to the nearest town of Chooralmala was destroyed, Saseendran added. Local news channel Asianet TV said as many as 41 people died after the landslides caused havoc in the region.
Television visuals showed relief personnel making their way through rocks and uprooted trees as muddy water gushed through, with many houses destroyed.
One man was seen struggling to free himself after being stuck in chest-high mud for hours, as rescue workers were not able to reach him despite multiple efforts.
Rashid Padikkalparamban, a resident involved in the relief efforts, said there were at least three landslides in the area starting around midnight, which washed away the bridge connecting the affected area, the Mundakkai estates, to Chooralmala.
“Many people who were working in the estates and staying in makeshift tents inside are feared trapped or missing,” he said. Kerala is prone to heavy rain and flooding, with nearly 400 people killed in one of the worst floods in 2018.
Relief efforts were ongoing on Tuesday, and two helicopters of the Indian Air Force have been mobilized, the Kerala chief minister’s office said in a statement. Rescue operations were hampered as the area was not reachable by road because of the bridge collapse, Mohsen Shahedi, a senior National Disaster Response Force officer told Reuters. Rahul Gandhi, who won the recently-contested general election from Wayanad, but resigned as he was also elected from his family bastion in the north, said he had spoken to the state chief minister to ensure coordination with all agencies.
US anti-Muslim incidents rose about 70% in first half of 2024 amid Gaza war
- Human rights advocates have reported a global rise in Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian bias and antisemitism since the eruption in October
WASHINGTON: Discrimination and attacks against Muslims and Palestinians rose by about 70 percent in the US in the first half of 2024 amid heightened Islamophobia due to Israel’s war in Gaza, the Council on American-Islamic Relations advocacy group said on Tuesday.
Human rights advocates have reported a global rise in Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian bias and antisemitism since the eruption in October of the Israel-Gaza war which has killed tens of thousands and caused a humanitarian crisis.
In the first six months of 2024, CAIR said it received 4,951 complaints of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian incidents, a rise of nearly 70 percent compared with the same period in 2023.
Most of the complaints were in the categories of immigration and asylum, employment discrimination, education discrimination and hate crimes, CAIR said.
In 2023, CAIR documented 8,061 such complaints in the whole year, including about 3,600 in the last three months after the war broke out.
Alarming US incidents in the last nine months include the fatal October stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian-American child in Illinois, the February stabbing of a Palestinian-American man in Texas, the shooting of three students of Palestinian descent in Vermont in November and the attempted drowning of a 3-year-old Palestinian-American girl in May.
There have been numerous protests in the US, Israel’s key ally, against the war in Gaza since October. The CAIR report noted the crackdown by police and university authorities on pro-Palestinian protests and encampments on campuses.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7 when Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
The Gaza health ministry says that since then Israel’s military assault on the Hamas-governed enclave has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians while also displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, causing a hunger crisis and leading to genocide allegations that Israel denies.
CAIR says it compiles numbers by reviewing public statements and videos as well as reports from public calls, emails and an online complaint system. It also contacts people whose incidents are reported by media.
