Seven men have been arrested for looting and burning Somali-owned shops in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape police said on Monday.
“We can confirm that seven suspects have since been arrested and charged with public violence. All the suspects are in their late 20s,” said Colonel Sibongile Soci.
They were expected to appear in the New Brighton Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.
Soci said no new incidents had been reported and the police were closely monitoring the situation.
At least 10 shops in KwaZakhele and New Brighton were attacked.
Brigadier Miranda Mills said two shops were looted and burnt in Ntintili street, and a car parked outside was also set alight at the weekend.
Several other shops were targeted on Sunday following the arrest of a Somali man accused of shooting dead a man outside a shop on Saturday evening.
“According to a witness there was an argument between the suspect and the victim. The [police] arrested the suspect and the firearm used… was recovered,” said Mills.
Police had since moved some foreigners out of the area. – Sapa
Parents are responsible for keeping their children away from criminal activities, the department of community safety said on Sunday.
“Women must also not allow poverty to keep them in abusive environments, which usually leads to their children being sexually abused,” Mpumalanga Community Safety MEC Vusi Shongwe said in a statement.
Shongwe was speaking at a public gathering between residents, the police and other government departments in Barberton on Saturday.
Residents called on Shongwe to strengthen law enforcement to fight crime in the area by bringing in the police’s Tactical Response Team, also called “Amabherethe”.
The residents listed the increasing use of drugs by youth in the area, school pupils loitering during school hours and the rising number of rape and common crimes in the area as some of the problems in the community.
Shongwe said communities should stop promoting crime by buying stolen goods.
“These perpetrators are known in our communities, therefore communities must play a role by informing police and not protect them,” Shongwe said.
The department and the police would embark on a clean-up programme in Barberton.
They would also target non-compliant liquor stores, Shongwe said. – Sapa
It is always so amusing to witness the blatant hypocrisy on display when (the) Slave becomes Master. The Enlightenment philosopher Friedrich Hegel`s masterful little piece, the Master-Slave dialectic, has been the fons et origo of all the various discourses by the Other to claim/gain power.
From Simone de Beauvoir`s First Wave Feminism, Frantz Fanon’s Black Consciousness Movement to the modern Gay and Lesbian Movement, all call on Hegel. It was even the inspiration behind Francis Fukuyama’s rather dull neo-liberal utopianism in his international best-seller The End of History and the Last Man. It is rather trite, but it needs elucidation… especially if one wants to understand the pseudo-intellectual madness underpinning Mandelatopia.
According to Hegel, the Slave first becomes just like the (hated) Master s/he has overthrown. I.e. the former institutes the exact same regime that supported the latter. In subsequent stages, the consciousness of these two antagonists are suppose to fuse – bringing about a “higher plane of Reality” through the synthesis of the thesis (i.e. The Master) and the antithesis (i.e. The Slave).
It suffices to say that this synthesis has never happened. Hegel was a typical German idealist… always dreaming of Utopia. Yet, his dialectic, in itself, exists – and is evident in many spheres of reality, e.g. Anthony Giddens’s Third Way (socialism), as a synthesis between capitalism and communism. As to Hegel’s overt utopianism; Sir Karl Popper dealt it the death-blow with his fantastic book The Poverty of Historicism.
Be that as it may; we can clearly see that the new Master of South Africa, the ANC/SACP/COSATU alliance, has instituted the exact same discriminatory regime as the old NP Apartheid government. Affirmative action, Black Economic Empowerment, race quotas in sport teams, race quotas at universities, et cetera, are the hallmarks of the new Master’s claim to the moral high ground. Like Master, like Slave.
In order to legitimise his/her overt discriminatory regime – the exact same overt discriminatory regime the (hitherto Slave) fought against – s/he must couch it in terms and concepts that deny his/her blatant inherent hypocrisy.
Sigmund Freud sees the above need as a form of guilt assuagement; in terms of the Oedipus recriminations experienced by the Brother Clan once they have killed the Great Patriarch (nudge nudge, Groot Krokodil PW Botha). I mean seriously, one ought to feel guilty, especially as an academic, when one (morally) justifies a regime that is exactly the same as the one that was overthrown… in the name of freeing the oppressed from the oppressor!
The above guilt assuagement in Mandelatopia comes in three forms. Firstly; “re-dressing the wrongs of the past”. The silliness of such an endeavour is obvious. How can one, for example, accurately weigh what needs to be “re-dressed” when the scales were not even to start off with. Blacks in South Africa do have a “default burden”, to borrow a term from artist and activist Steve Hofmeyer. It is a fact that they were pretty much pre-Neolithic in culture till recently. Add to this a (black) population that doubles in size every 30 years then it is physically impossible to “re-dress” anything, even in a remotely fair and just manner.
The second form of guilt assuagement is “healing the wounds of the past”. This nonsense even outshines Scientology… for one can only heal something that was healed in the first place. Never in the history of South Africa has there ever been a “healed” body (politic). The Boers fought the Brits, the Brits fought the Zulus, the Zulus the Shangaans, the Brits the Zulus, et cetera, et cetera. Meaning that endeavouring to “heal” something that was not “whole/healed” in the first place is physically impossible and intellectually dishonest, to say the least.
The third form of guilt assuagement is (the) propagation of, and adherence to, “Whiteness Studies” theory. This has become the intellectual instrument of choice of anti-Afrikaner Afrikaner academics like Piet Croucamp, Anton van Niekerk, Christi van der Westhuizen, Amanda Gouws, et cetera.
It suffices to say that this pseudo-intellectual guano is just a feel-good academic disguise for stripping the (heterosexual) Pale Male of his power… as called for by the father of this nonsense, Noel Ignatiev. His call to “abolish the white race” is nothing but a call for the Master (the heterosexual Pale Male) to be killed by the Slave (the Other), globally.
Okay, enough theory; let us examine how Hegel and Freud’s theories work in practice. Enter the half-wit, Dr Piet Croucamp. Peester Piet (henceforth, PP) first rose to prominence when he threw his lot in with the (hitherto) Slave during a speech by Mandela at the University of Stellenbosch in 1991. According to an article (see picture, click to enlarge) in the Vrye Weekblad of Max du Preez (a useful idiot of George Soros), PP had brawled with some “right-wing” students because they were being “intolerant”.
Find below a translation of the most important parts of this article, titled “I cannot tolerate intolerance”:
“But I get seriously pissed off when people are intolerant…when people don`t want to listen and just pay attention to their own boring rhetoric.”
“I do not have specific political views and beliefs. It is just that I cannot tolerate intolerance. Here it concerns the nice old classic Socratic idea of (an) open-ended debate.”
“I would have hit lefties as well if they had screamed down speakers and displayed such intolerance. It is, at the end of the day, (the) participation that counts – whether somebody is a fascist, a racist or a liberal, is irrelevant.”
Now, what tolerance, in terms of his much-professed “open-ended Socratic style of debate”, did PP display towards Dr Louise Mabille when she published her article, Die vreemde veraad van feministe teenoor die Weste, on Praag? What “participation” did he allow her… given the fact that he said even “racists” must be allowed to “say their say” without hindrance? Why did he not hit himself, seeing that he had said he would hit “lefties” as well if they displayed such intolerance?
The answer to all these questions can be summed up in one sentence. PP is the Master now… and the Master, by his/her very nature, is always intolerant! Like, for example, the previous regime’s use of state coercion to silence Steve Biko, so PP used the power of state instruments (in this case, the UP senate and SAHRC) to silence Dr Mabille… even before she had the opportunity to “say her say”!
That PP, is too dumb to understand that he has become that hated Master he so loathed as (champion of the) Slave way back then, must be due to the fact that he did his doctorate in minbus-taxi berths, or something equally academically frivolous.
And not only is PP intellectually under-endowed, he is also a lying sack of guano. He lied in public when he said that Dr Mabille wrote that blacks had a genetic “inclination” to commit baby rape. She said no such thing! She said it was a cultural phenomenon among black ethnic groups. This is an empirical fact confirmed by leading medical professionals, top ANC leaders, black social workers, et cetera.
Now why didn’t PP lodge a complaint against the above-mentioned persons and institutions as well? And why hasn’t the SAHRC laid “hate speech” charges against all the above-mentioned international news agencies and their reporters? Well, they, like PP, are all (still) part and parcel of the same thuggish being, the Master.
But one day, soon, some Slave, like my recalcitrant self, will rise up and hit Master PP full in the face, for it is foreordained by Hegel’s Master-Slave dialectic. How exciting, how boring…
PS. Hey Peester Piet, jammer, Meester Piet… wat het van jou Simsonhare geword?!
Brodie Retallick is congratulated on his try by All Blacks teammate Liam Messam. Picture: Phil Walter
The All Blacks took the outright lead in the Rugby Championship here Saturday when they comprehensively beat South Africa 29-15 in a bitter contest between the heavyweights of world rugby.
In a match marred by a red card for Springboks hooker Bismarck du Plessis, the All Blacks also picked up a bonus point with their overwhelming victory over the previously unbeaten South Africans.
The All Blacks finished with only 13-men with two yellow cards in the final 10 minutes when captain Kieran Read was dismissed for a lineout foul and Ma’a Nonu was sent from the field for a shoulder charge.
The Springboks came to New Zealand confident they could shatter their Eden Park hoodoo, where they have not won since 1937.
Instead they were outplayed by pace on attack and the staunch defence by the All Blacks who scored four tries to the visitors’ two.
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen said du Plessis may have been “unlucky” with his first yellow card but overall he had no complaints about the refereeing.
“In an intense battle like that your going to get moments,” he said.
“You don’t like seeing it but it happens and you pay the price for being ill disciplined. We paid it twice.”
The Springboks coach Heyneke Meyer refused to blame the cards for the loss and said he had no excuses.
“The ref is always right,” he said.
“If you start making excuses for your team then they start to make excuses. There were a lot of things that weren’t good enough even when we had 15 men on the field.”
The intensely physical battle erupted into an all-in brawl in the 15th minute when All Blacks playmaker Dan Carter was bowled in a shoulder charge by du Plessis.
It took referee Romain Poite a full minute to restore order, and when the dust settled the injured Carter was out of the game and du Plessis received 10 minutes in the sin-bin.
Du Plessis received his second yellow, and subsequent red card, in the first minute of the second half when he elbowed Liam Messam in the throat.
In between the cards, the All Blacks lost fullback Israel Dagg with an ankle injury and Sam Cane spent 20 minutes receiving medical treatment for a head wound.
When Carter went down the All Blacks led 7-3 and by the time du Plessis returned to the field they were 14-3 ahead and on their way to extending their unbeaten run at Eden Park to 32 (31 wins, one draw) dating back to 1994.
The All Blacks also overtook France for the most Test wins, moving to 383, and also extended their records for the most test points (13,242) and most Test tries (1,726).
The All Blacks kicked off with the breeze behind them and punished South Africa early when Nonu latched on to a misdirected Bryan Habana clearing kick.
The All Blacks centre’s return kick forced a lineout in the corner from where Read drove over for his first try.
Morne Steyn landed a penalty for the Springboks before the punch up, then when the All Blacks had a one-man advantage they struck again with their second try.
Replacement fly-half Beauden Barrett carved through the Springboks backline on a 55-metre run and lock Brodie Retallick finished off the move when he crashed over by the posts.
Du Plessis returned to the field to briefly restore his place in the South African good books when he scored from a lineout drive.
Steyn kicked the conversion and Barrett landed a penalty for the All Blacks who took a 17-10 lead into the break.
The second half had barely started when du Plessis was sent from the field and when the All Blacks went a player up they immediately struck again.
Read crossed for his second try when he stormed through an attempted tackle by Janie du Plessis, Bismarck’s brother, and Barrett’s conversion lifted the All Blacks to 24-10.
Cane scored the bonus point try in the 67th minute before South Africa came back with a late try to replacement back Pat Lambie. – AFP
Free State Cheetahs captain Boom Prinsloo praised his side for playing the full 80 minutes to beat the Golden Lions 26-23 in their Currie Cup game in the Free State stadium in Bloemfontein on Friday.
The hosts are now second on the logm pending the results of Saturday’s other Currie Cup games between Griquas and the Sharks and the Blue Bulls and Western Province, but for the time being eighth-man Prinsloo,is relieved that his team stood their ground for victory.
The Cheetahs nearly squandered a half time lead of 23-3 and gave the Lions ample chance to make a come back, with a penalty by Cheetahs winger Riaan Smit the only difference.
“We made it very difficult for ourselves in the second half, but I am glad that the guys kept their cool and did not lose their concentration. In the end we finished well,” said Prinsloo.
“This Lions team never gives up. Credit must go to my team mates for playing untill the final whistle. I am really proud of the effort they put in.”
The Cheetahs looked impressive in the line outs, but struggled in the scrums with Lions Springbok front rower CJ van der Linde an important factor.
“Our lineouts improved a lot since last week after we worked hard on it in our preparation, but our scrums weren’t up to scratch. We are still struggling a bit with the timing and the new calls, but we need to rectify that this coming week,” Prinsloo added.
“Next week we play the Sharks. It is always tough to travel to Durban. But if we can build on the momentum we now have after beating the Lions we can not only beat the Sharks in their own back yard, but really finish well this season,” Prinsloo added.
The Lions followed their lacklustre performance in the first half with a stellar 40 minutes in the second, but in the end good tries by winger Anthony Volmink and replacement full back Ruan Nel were not enough to see the visitors travel back to Johannesburg with a win.
“We struggled to get into our rhythm in the first half and made it very difficult for ourselves. The guys really pitched in the second half, but we can’t just play rugby in the second 40 minutes, we have to play the full game, something we did not do against the Cheetahs. It is really something we need to work on,” Lions flanker and captain Derick Minnie said. – Sapa
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that Islamophobia was a kind of racism such as the other forms of discrimination by describing the term as a crime against humanity.
Releasing a message on International Conference on Islamophobia: Law and Media which is being held in Istanbul, Erdogan stated that the Islamic concepts were used as a negative way bringing defamatory, dismissive and alienating connotations in the western world.
“It must be known that Islamophobia is dangerous as much as racism, discrimination or anti-semitism. Because Islamophobia is a kind of racism such as the other forms of discrimination. It is a crime against humanity” Erdogan said.
Stating that Islamophobia was embittered via movies, soap operas, music, media, photographs even with unofficial articles and essays, Erdogan said 9/11 caused an enemy perception against “Islam” in the western world.
He added “No monotheistic religion adopts, supports, permits or leads terror.”
‘Hate ideology’
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said, “Islamophobia as a hate ideology is also a tool of oppression.”
Speaking at the International Conference on Islamophobia: Law and Media in Istanbul on Thursday, Arinc said “The attitudes that cause cultures and civilizations confront each other build psychological barriers between people.”
The main aim of the pressure on Muslims was fed by “Islam and democracy are not compatible with each other” theory”, said Arinc and added, “I clearly express here in this meeting which Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) co-organizes, Muslims are democrats in essence.”
He showed ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party as the most important example.
Arinc also said, “If Christianity and Judaism cannot be mentioned with terrorism, then our noble religion Islam cannot be deflamed this way either.”
“Islamophobia is also a version of racism and a crime against humanity like other kinds of discrimination,” said Arinc, adding that anyone with intelligence and conscience had to oppose this crime as a humanly duty.
Arinc called on the Islamic world to put effort for clearing the prejudices about Muslims, as well as adivising the west, especially the US and the EU to take measures against the fast and insidious spread of Islamophobia in their lands.
“Turkish government is ready to undertake its responsibility.”
The Conference is organized by the Directorate General of Press and Information (BYEGM) and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on September 12-13, 2013 with the participation of OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu and several international scholars. – worldbulletin.net
Two Swedish college students have apologized for showing up to a costume party in blackface in an attempt to impersonate reggae musicians.
The incident took place at a party thrown by the Lund University Technology Management student association, a group of about 80 masters students studying economics and technology, TheLocal.se reported Friday.
The incident raised eyebrows, particularly at Lund after students in 2011 staged a mock slave auction that drew international condemnation as being racist.
The students, whose names were not reported, said their intent was not to offend party-goers — one of whom snapped a picture and sent it to local media — but to pay tribute to reggae icon Bob Marley.
“We haven’t intentionally done something insulting or racist,” one of the students said. “But after the fact we’ve realized that painting our faces black offends some people.”
The group’s president said it was “unfortunate” that some people misinterpreted the students’ painted faces as racist.
“It was an innocent costume party,” Elin Wennerstroem, the group’s president said.
Other in attendance weren’t as forgiving.
Kalle Wigren, who lives near where the party took place, said he saw the incident and was offended.
“When a white person puts black makeup on their face to look like a black person and then proceeds to make fun of the situation, it can’t be anything other than racism,” he said. – UPI.COM
Taliban militants attacked a US consulate in western Afghanistan Friday, killing an Afghan guard and injuring 21 people including 16 civilians, police said.
“Two attackers detonated their explosives-laden truck at the first entrance of the US consulate at 5:30 am (0100 GMT) in Herat city, injuring four guards of a private security company and two policemen,” said Rahmatullah Safi, police chief of Herat province.
“Following the explosion, three others who were in another vehicle opened fire on the guards,” Safi told dpa.
“One of the injured guards died due to bleeding,” he said.
The three remaining assailants were killed when the police returned fire, he said.
At least 16 civilians were injured by flying glass, according to police.
“The people were sleeping in their houses around the consulate compound and were injured when the strong explosion broke their windows,” said Abdul Raouf Ahmadi, a spokesman for Herat province police.
US Ambassador to Kabul James B Cunningham condemned the attack.
“We are grateful for the quick response of the Afghan and ISAF security forces, who secured the facility and kept our personnel safe,” Cunningham was quoted by a statement, referring to the International Security Assistance Force or ISAF.
He also said that “many Afghan civilians were killed in the attack,” while police said that only one guard was killed.
“The ISAF helicopters were flying over the area to help security forces if needed,” Ahmadi said.
Another police officer said consulate staff were evacuated by helicopter, but Safi denied this, saying the diplomats were safe inside the compound.
Earlier news reports said three security personnel were killed.
The US State Department confirmed the attack, but not the casualties.
“There are no American casualties,” the department’s deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said. “At this point there may be one wounded contract security member, and there are likely wounded Afghan police, though numbers are unknown.”
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
“A group of martyrdom-seeking mujahideen attacked the US consulate this morning, in which a large number of US troops and local security personnel were killed and parts of the consulate buildings were damaged,” the group’s spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmad said. -dpa
Chained… These are mental patients in Somalia (file photo)
Chained-up patients were removed from a church-run mental health and drug rehabilitation centre in Moletjie Mabokelele, Limpopo, following a raid, The Star reported on Thursday.
The Church of Christ Assemblies was raided by the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), police and social development officials on Wednesday.
Supervisors at the facility said prayer, rather than medication, was used to rehabilitate the patients.
“We burn pills and tell them that ‘here we use the word of God, not medication’,” they said.
SAHRC Limpopo manager Victor Mavhidula said the conditions at the centre were alarming.
“Some of these patients were treated like animals.
“We found people that were chained, something which is against human rights… Our Constitution does not allow chaining of mental patients.”
Bruises on some of the patients’ backs indicated that they may have been beaten.
Social development spokesman Adel van der Linde said the patients were removed for observation and would be taken to a place of safety.
The recovering drug addicts said they did not object to being chained up.
“Here they don’t cut the tree from the top; they dig the roots out and eliminate nyaope cravings through prayer,” a 25-year-old patient said. – Sapa
Senior police management blocked a planned raid on charities associated with former president Nelson Mandela, the Mail & Guardian reported on Friday.
High level police officials were reportedly worried that a raid on the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, and the Nelson Mandela trust would cause embarrassment.
After this, a letter from police unit the Hawks was sent, including to some Mandela relatives, demanding financial statements.
Chief executive of the children’s fund Sibongile Mkhabela’s spokesman Oupa Ngwenya confirmed a letter was received.
“The account the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund has with Nedbank is public knowledge and has been accounted in the financial statement for the year ended March 31, 2013 and is included as… [a note in] the annual report.”
Ngwenya and Danielle Melville, spokeswoman for the foundation’s chief executive, said the letters had been passed to Mandela’s lawyer Bally Chuene.
The letters reportedly related to charges of fraud, forgery and uttering laid against Mandela’s former attorney Ismail Ayob.
In July, a court application for the removal of George Bizos, Tokyo Sexwale, and Chuene as directors of Harmonieux Investment Holdings and Magnifique Investment Holdings was struck off the court roll.
The application was brought by Mandela’s daughters Makaziwe Mandela and Zenani Mandela-Dlamini.
Mandela is at home recovering after a lengthy stay in hospital.
A man allegedly linked to the shooting of a taxi driver at the Diepsloot taxi rank in Johannesburg earlier this week has turned himself in, police said on Friday.
Warrant Officer Daniel Mavimbela said the man arrived at the police station with his attorney on Thursday night.
“His arrest takes to four the number of suspects charged with the attempted murder of the taxi driver,” said Mavimbela.
The three other men were arrested in Hillbrow on Wednesday.
All four of them would appear in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Friday.
Police said the victim was standing with other taxi drivers on Monday morning when a car drove up to them.
An argument ensued between the taxi drivers and the occupants of the car.
One of the people in the car then opened fire, and shot the taxi driver in the lower body.
Police said they believed the shooting was related to a taxi drivers’ strike, which left hundreds of Diepsloot commuters stranded.
The taxi drivers were demanding to be promoted to taxi owners.
Striking a tough tone, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry opened swiftly convened talks with Russia on Syria’s chemical weapons Thursday by bluntly rejecting a Syrian pledge to begin a “standard process” by turning over information rather than weapons – and nothing immediately.
That won’t do, Kerry declared at an opening news conference, a stone-faced Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at his side. “The words of the Syrian regime in our judgment are simply not enough.”
“This is not a game,” Kerry said of the latest developments in a series that has rapidly gone from deadly chemical attacks to threats of retaliatory U.S. air strikes to Syrian agreement with a Russian plan to turn over the weapons and, finally, to the crucial matter of working out the difficult details.
“We believe there is nothing standard about this process at this moment because of the way the regime has behaved,” Kerry declared. And he kept alive the threat of U.S. military action, saying the turnover of weapons must be complete, verifiable and timely – “and finally, there ought to consequences if it doesn’t take place.”
Adding to the drama, Russian President Vladimir Putin weighed in from afar, raising eyebrows with an opinion piece in The New York Times that chided Americans for seeing themselves as “exceptional.” That was an apparent reference to a comment President Barack Obama made in his Syria speech Tuesday night, explaining why he felt the U.S. needed to take action. Congress has shown little inclination to authorize military action, and a vote on that has been put off.
Putin also warned that a U.S. strike against Syria because of chemical weapons use could unleash new terrorist attacks. And he still maintained there is “every reason to believe” the weapons were used by rebels and not by Assad’s military. In Washington, Obama’s spokesman said Russia was “isolated and alone” in that view.
Obama, for his part, said simply that he was hoping for “a concrete result” from the talks.
The back-and-forth was a stark indication of the challenging work ahead as Kerry, Lavrov and their teams of chemical weapons experts plunge into talks aimed at finding agreement on how to dismantle the chemical weapons amid the confusion and danger of Syria’s civil war.
Lavrov seemed to contradict Kerry’s negative view of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s offer to provide details on his country’s chemical arsenal beginning 30 days after it signs an international convention banning such weapons. Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations said that as of Thursday his country had become a full member of the treaty, which requires destruction of all chemical weapons. However, the United Nations said it will take at least another 30 days.
The Russian said the initiative must proceed “in strict compliance with the rules that are established by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.” That suggests Russia does not agree with the U.S. that this is an exceptional case and that Syria should face tougher standards than other countries.
“We proceed from the fact that the solution to this problem will make unnecessary any strike on the Syrian Arab Republic, and I am convinced that our American colleagues, as President Obama stated, are firmly convinced that we should follow a peaceful way of resolution to the conflict in Syria.” Lavrov said.
The distrust in U.S.-Russia relations was on display even in an off-hand parting exchange at the news conference.
Just before it ended, Kerry asked the Russian translator to repeat part of Lavrov’s concluding remarks.
When it was clear that Kerry wasn’t going to get an immediate re-translation, Lavrov apparently tried to assure him that he hadn’t said anything controversial. “It was OK, John, don’t worry,” he said.
“You want me to take your word for it?” Kerry asked Lavrov. “It’s a little early for that.”
They were smiling at that point.
Shortly after making their opening statements, the two went into a private dinner. Talks were to resume Friday.
The meetings in Geneva got underway as Assad, in an interview with Russia’s Rossiya-24 TV, said his government would start submitting data on its chemical weapons stockpile a month after signing the convention. He also said the Russian proposal for securing the weapons could work only if the U.S. halted threats of military action.
But Kerry, who met earlier Thursday with Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N.-Arab League envoy for Syria, made clear the threat remains.
“President Obama has been clear that should diplomacy fail, force might be necessary to deter and degrade Assad’s capacity to deliver these weapons,” he said. “It won’t get rid of them, but it could change his willingness to use them.”
Even as diplomacy took center stage, word surfaced that the CIA has been delivering light machine guns and other small arms to Syrian rebels for several weeks, following Obama’s statement in June that he would provide lethal aid to the rebels.
The U.S. is hoping that an acceptable agreement with the Russians can be part of a binding new U.N. Security Council resolution being negotiated that demands that Syria’s chemical weapons be put under international control and dismantled and condemns the Aug. 21 attack that led to the current crisis. Russia has long opposed U.N. action on Syria, has vetoed three earlier resolutions and has not indicated it is willing to go along with one now.
As for arming the Syrian rebels, White House National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said the administration could not “detail every single type of support that we are providing to the opposition or discuss timelines for delivery, but it’s important to note that both the political and the military opposition are and will be receiving this assistance.”
Current and former U.S. intelligence officials said the CIA has arranged for the Syrian opposition to receive anti-tank weaponry such as rocket-propelled grenades through a third party, presumably one of the Gulf countries that have been arming the rebels. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the classified program publicly.
Loay al-Mikdad, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army, told The Associated Press that his group expected to receive weapons in the near future.
“We are cooperating with the American administration and have been receiving some logistical and technical assistance and there are commitments by the administration to arm us but until now we have not received any weapons,” al-Mikdad said by telephone.
The U.S. officials said the aid has been arriving for more than a month.
The U.S. team with Kerry in Geneva includes officials who worked on inspection and removal of unconventional weapons from Libya after 2003 and in Iraq after the first Gulf War. Officials with Kerry said the teams that eventually go into Syria would have to be an international mix.
The meetings are taking place in the same hotel where former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2009 gave Lavrov a symbolic “reset button” as a goodwill gesture and a reminder of the Obama administration’s efforts to improve U.S.-Russian relations. – AP
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Seven men have been arrested for looting and burning Somali-owned shops in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape police said on Monday.
