World – Page 39 – praag.org

Syria committed to chemical weapons deal: Assad

Syria is committed to the convention against chemical weapons it signed under a US-Russian deal and sees “no obstacles” to its implementation, President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview broadcast Thursday.

Speaking to Venezuela’s Telesur, the Syrian leader insisted that his regime was complying with a deal under which Damascus will turn over its chemical weapons for destruction.

“Syria is generally committed to all the agreements that it signs,” he said in an interview published in full by the Syrian state news agency SANA on Thursday.

He said Damascus had begun to send the required details of its chemical arsenal to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons which is overseeing the deal, and that OPCW inspectors were expected to visit Syria.

“Experts (from the OPCW) will come to Syria in the coming period to look into the status of these weapons,” he said.

“As the Syrian government, there are no serious obstacles,” he said.

“But there is always the possibility that the terrorists will obstruct the work of the experts by preventing them from accessing certain places,” Assad added.

The Syrian regime calls all those fighting against it “terrorists”.

Syria agreed to turn over its chemical arsenal under a deal thrashed out following an August 21 sarin attack in the suburbs of Damascus, which killed hundreds of people.

The attack, which occurred as UN chemical weapons experts were in Syria investigating previous alleged chemical attacks, was blamed on the Syrian regime by Washington and other international backers of the Syrian opposition.

Assad’s government denies involvement, but agreed to turn over its chemical arsenal in the face of threatened US military action in response to the August 21 attack.

The UN experts, who confirmed that sarin gas was used in the attack, arrived back in Damascus on Wednesday and are to resume investigations into other previous alleged attacks.

Assad said his government would ensure the UN experts were also able to move around freely, insisting that his regime had invited them to come.

“We are the ones who invited them to come to Syria in March when the terrorists used poison gas in a suburb of the city of Aleppo,” he said. – AFP

Charles Taylor to hear Sierra Leone appeal verdict

Charles Taylor during his trial at The Hague

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor will hear Thursday whether appeals judges uphold or overturn his landmark conviction and 50-year sentence for aiding murderous rebels in Sierra Leone’s civil war.

Taylor, 65, became the first former head of state convicted by an international war crimes court since World War II when the Special Court for Sierra Leone found him guilty on April 26, 2012, of 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity including terrorism, murder, rape and using child soldiers.

Judges said he provided crucial aid to rebels and helped plan attacks in return for “blood diamonds” mined by slave laborers in Sierra Leone and political influence in the volatile West African region. His conviction was hailed as ushering in a new era of accountability for heads of state.

“The trial and judgment of Charles Taylor sets out a clear marker that even those at the highest levels of power can be held to account,” Elise Keppler, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch said in a statement. “The Taylor trial, and the Sierra Leone Special Court’s work overall, have made a major contribution to justice for brutal crimes committed during Sierra Leone’s conflict.”

About 50,000 people died in the 11-year civil war that ended in 2002. Thousands more were left mutilated in a conflict that became known for the extreme cruelty of rival rebel groups who gained international notoriety for hacking off the limbs of their victims and carving their groups’ initials into opponents. The rebels developed gruesome terms for the mutilations that became their chilling trademark: They would offer their victims the choice of “long sleeves” or “short sleeves” – having their hands hacked off or their arms sliced off above the elbow.

Taylor was convicted not only of aiding and abetting Sierra Leone rebels from Liberia, but also for actually planning some of the attacks carried out by Sierra Leone rebel groups, the Revolutionary United Front and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council.

It isn’t clear if the Sierra Leone court’s appeal panel will take into account a February appeals judgment by the U.N. Yugoslav war crimes tribunal that acquitted the former chief of staff of the Yugoslav National Army, Gen. Momcilo Perisic, of aiding forces fighting in a neighboring country. Perisic was freed after appeals judges said it hadn’t been proven that he sent supplies to Bosnian Serb forces with the “specific intent” that they be used to commit atrocities.

The ruling was seen as raising the bar on the level of proof needed to uphold such aiding and abetting charges, though the Sierra Leone court isn’t bound to follow in the Yugoslav tribunal’s footsteps.

Taylor’s lawyers say he should be acquitted on all counts. Prosecutors asked appeals judges to rule that he was even more closely involved in the crimes in Sierra Leone than was laid out in his original conviction and urged judges to increase Taylor’s sentence to 80 years, saying the 50-year sentence wasn’t “reflective of the inherent gravity of the totality of his criminal conduct and overall culpability.”

If Taylor’s sentence is upheld, he will be transferred to Britain, which has agreed to provide a cell for him.

Taylor’s trial was moved from the Special Court of Sierra Leone’s headquarters in the capital, Freetown, to the Netherlands because of fears it could destabilize the West African region if held in Sierra Leone.

The Taylor appeals ruling will be the final judgment at the court, which indicted 13 of the main architects of the atrocities in Sierra Leone. Two died before trial and one more remains unaccounted for and possibly dead. Another died before hearing a verdict and all the others were tried and convicted.

The court’s trial chamber in Freetown will be converted to house Sierra Leone’s Supreme Court in the future. Another part of the court is being turned into a peace museum and its detention facility has been put to use as a prison by local authorities. – AP

‘White widow’ rented property in South Africa

Samantha Lewthwaite and Germaine Lindsay pose with their son.

A British woman thought to be linked to the Nairobi mall attacks used an assumed South African identity to take out bank loans and rent property in Johannesburg, local media reported Wednesday.

Samantha Lewthwaite — wanted by Kenyan police for alleged involvement in a separate terror plot — used the known alias Natalie Faye Webb to rent at least three properties and run up debts of $8,600 (6,400 euros), according to the eNews Channel Africa (eNCA).

The 29-year-old Muslim convert — nicknamed the “White Widow” because her husband was among the 2005 London suicide bombers — signed rental leases around Johannesburg, but it was unclear whether she lived at any of the premises.

According to credit records released by eNCA, she was listed as living in the city’s predominantly South Asian neighbourhood of Mayfair for four years.

Kenya’s foreign minister has said a British woman was among the Islamist attackers who shot dead dozens of people at a Nairobi shopping mall from Saturday.

President Uhuru Kenyatta later said the reports could not be confirmed.

But Kenyan authorities issued a wanted notice for Lewthwaite after she entered the country from Tanzania’s northeastern Lunga and Namanga border posts in February and August 2011 using a South African passport in the name of Webb.

Two months later South African clothing stores signalled debt defaults worth almost $2,700.

In August 2012 a Johannesburg court issued an order against her for defaulting on $2,800 debt with South Africa’s First Rand Bank.

Lewthwaite was married to Germaine Lindsay, one of four suicide bombers who attacked the London transport network in July 2005, killing 52 people.

A local terror expert and academic said earlier this week that she regularly travels to South Africa and stayed in South Asian suburbs of Johannesburg earlier this year.

However residents either denied Lewthwaite had lived at the cited addresses or could not remember having seen her.

Close to a bustling street with shops where women dressed in headscarves walked with their children, the structure of a new building now stands in the yard where two houses were demolished over a year ago.

“I have not seen her here before,” said a neighbour who has lived across the road for seven years, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A man who identified himself only as Junaid, and said he was redeveloping the property — bought from a 65-year-old owner two years ago — denied an English woman had lived there.

On the other side of the city in the leafy suburb of Bromhof, neighbours who have lived since 2008 across the road from the house Lewthwaite was said to have rented, also could not recall her living there. – AFP

American security team inside Kenya mall during attack, says Harvard lawyer

An American woman who was trapped inside the Nairobi mall as terrorists ran amok claims she was eventually rescued by an ‘American security team’.

That is according to Bendita Malakia, the Harvard-trained lawyer who was caught up in the siege and hid along with 15 others in a store inside the mall for five hours before the armed men arrived to lead them to safety.

Thirty-year-old Malakia, who is from Elizabeth City, North Carolina, recounted the frantic scene tonight in an interview with NBC News as her rescuers bluntly told her, ‘If you guys want to get out, we understand it’s dangerous, but this is probably your best shot. If you don’t get out now you may not get out.’

Rushing to the exit, accompanied by the armed security men who she believed were from the United States, two grenades thrown from only 30-feet away detonated near to them, but thankfully for Malakia she escaped and returned home to her parents on Monday.

While there has been no official confirmation of any direct American involvement in the stand-off between the heavily-armed militants from the Somalia-based al Shabaab and Kenyan Defence Forces, the statement from World Bank employee, Malakia, seems to suggest there was.

It has been reported that three floors of the Israeli-owned mall has since collapsed, trapping several hostages. – Daily Mail

Kenya mall shooting investigation takes new turn

Detectives want to talk to all tenants of the Westgate Shopping Mall as part of efforts to trace terrorists who attacked it.

This comes amid speculation some of the attackers could have been tenants at the mall.

They had hired shops at the mall to help them map it and plan well in readiness for the assault.

“That is one of the theories we are pursuing because there are claims some were tenants of one of the shops,” said a senior officer aware of the probe.

Police say the attackers seem to know the shop well because of the manner in which they have engaged them. The probe may however, take long given the police must investigate all tenants.

Westgate Shopping Mall is one of several Israeli-owned businesses in Kenya.

The issue was was discussed at a special National Security Advisory Committee meeting (NSAC) held in Nairobi on Sunday.

The NSAC, which was chaired by Secretary to the Cabinet Francis Kimemia, advises various security agencies on the way forward on security matters. The committee met following the terror attack at the Westgate Shopping Mall, which has killed more than 60 people and left hundreds of others wounded.

After they received the threats, the officers are said to have shared them with major shopping malls, tall commercial buildings and other installations that are usually at risk of mass attacks.

Sources said securities manning these installations are usually asked to beef up their security as a way of containing or deterring planned attacks.

Westgate Shopping Mall was among the installations that were informed of the plans and urged to beef up their security.

But the gunmen seem to have decided to arrive and strike on foot. Instead of gaining access in vehicles, they struck while walking in.

Westgate is a premier complex usually frequented by wealthy locals and expatriates and is usually busiest during weekends.It is one of the many malls that have come up in Nairobi and the country. The six-year-old shopping centre is located on Mwanzi Road in Westlands, near Sarit Centre, and UKay Centre. – standardmedia.co.ke

Daughter of British soldier said to be involved in Kenyan terror attack

Kenyan officials have given contradictory statements about whether a British woman may have been involved in the attack on the Westgate mall which has left at least 62 people dead.

Samantha Lewthwaite, a 29-year-old Muslim convert, nicknamed the “White Widow” is in the spotlight after a Kenyan minister said a British woman was among the Islamist attackers who shot dead dozens of people at a Nairobi shopping mall.

Her alleged involvement and South African passport was reported on a pro-Israeli website.

The Briton was married to Germaine Lindsay, one of four suicide bombers who attacked the London transport network in July 2005, killing 52 people.

The mother-of-three has been on the run in East Africa for around two years and is wanted by Kenyan police for alleged involvement in a terror plot.

Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed told US public broadcaster PBS that a British woman was among those to blame, along with two or three American men.

“And she has, I think, done this many times before,” Mohamed said, without identifying her.

But Kenyan Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku earlier denied that any of the insurgents were women, saying some male attackers “had dressed like women.”

The British government refused to be drawn on suggestions one of its citizens was among the attackers.

The daughter of a British soldier, Lewthwaite professed herself appalled when her Jamaican-born husband detonated a rucksack full of explosives and blew himself up on a London Underground train on July 7, 2005, killing 26 people.

She was pregnant with their second child at the time.

“I totally condemn and am horrified by the atrocities which occurred in London,” she said, describing Lindsay as “a good and loving husband and a brilliant father, who showed absolutely no sign of doing this atrocious crime”.

Lewthwaite had met Lindsay in an Internet chat forum when she was 17, having converted to Islam two years earlier.

Described as a bubbly teenager, schoolfriends said she had an ordinary upbringing in the market town of Aylesbury, northwest of London.

Kenyan police released wanted notices saying she was travelling on a false South African passport under the name Natalie Faye Webb, accompanied by her three children, a girl and two boys.

The children would be now roughly aged between seven and 12.

South African authorities said they were carrying out a “thorough investigation” into the passport issue.

Raffaello Pantucci, a terror expert at Britain’s Royal United Services Institute, said Lewthwaite had acquired a “semi-mythical status”.

“I don’t think we’ve had any concrete evidence of her being involved in this incident,” he said.

“But the fact of her being mentioned in this context is not surprising because of her connections.”

Rumours abound that Lewthwaite is behind the Twitter handle @MYC_Press — Kenya’s radical Muslim Youth Centre — which regularly comments on Kenyan extremism, as well as entering into a war of words with rival Islamists.

American Islamist Omar Hammami — who fought in Somalia but was killed by former Shehab comrades this month — in April scoffed via Twitter that she was just “a girl in Kenya”.

MYC_Press in turn replied: “Sam Lewthwaite thinks ur (you are) a irritating obnoxious contemptible little Muj (mujahedeen) PRAT.”

MYC_Press — which has been notably silent since the attack began on Saturday — also told AFP in April that Lewthwaite had “returned to Luton”, a town outside London and close to where she grew up. – Sapa/AFP

Six Americans among Nairobi mall attackers

Al-Shabab has released the names of the attackers in the weekend mall siege in Nairobi, Kenya, and they include at least six Americans, two from Minnesota, one from Kansas City, as well as one each from Maine, Illinois, and Arizona.

The attackers sparked a two-day hostage crisis at the upscale Westgate Mall which has killed at least 68 and has fueled concerns about al-Shabab’s revitalization in the region, despite many, many times when they were predicted to be on the verge of defeat.

The attack is believed to be retaliation against Kenya for its military operations in southern Somalia.

Though the group’s rank-and-file are overwhelmingly Somalis, the attackers were predominantly ethnic Somalis from overseas, and mainly Western countries including not only the Americans, but Canadians, English, Swedish and Finnish citizens.

Journalists and their cameras have been moved and no longer have a clear sight of the mall, but can see its perimeter.

Gunfire and explosions have been heard throughout the day from the Nairobi mall where fighters are holed up, possibly holding a number of civilians hostage.

Three al-Shabab fighters have been killed and ten soldiers wounded in the military operation to end the standoff, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for the Interior Ole Lenku said on Monday.

“We don’t want to give you a definitive position on when we think the process will come to an end, but we are doing anything reasonably possible, cautiously though, to bring this process to an end,” Lenku told a news conference.

Black smoke was seen rising over the mall complex, two days after it was stormed by al-Shabab fighters. Lenku said the smoke came from a fire set by the fighters.

Television images on Monday showed troops in camouflage running to new positions, while an armoured personal carrier was also seen shifting position

“They’ve got a huge job to secure the premises,” a former officer in the British special forces regiment, the SAS, told Al Jazeera, adding that the operation would likely take another 24 hours. – Al Jazeera/antiwar.com

Ivory Coast won’t transfer ex-First Lady to International Criminal Court

Ivory Coast said Friday it would not transfer former first lady Simone Gbagbo to the International Criminal Court in the Hague, but would try her at home instead.

The decision came 18 months after the ICC issued a warrant for her arrest over suspected crimes against humanity, charges which her husband and former president Laurent Gbagbo is also facing.

Ivory Coast’s cabinet decided to file a “motion to dismiss” the warrant. Her husband also awaits trial in The Hague over months of deadly violence that followed 2010 polls.

“The decision of the cabinet aims to have Mrs Gbagbo brought to trial… by Ivorian courts whose good reputation has been restored and which can hold a fair trial that will guarantee the rights of the defence,” said a government statement.

The government will inform the ICC of its decision shortly, the statement added.

Ivory Coast turned over Laurent Gbagbo to the ICC in late 2011 but now seems inclined to try other suspects in the 2010-11 unrest under its own jurisdiction.

“If we had the slightest doubt about the fairness of the Ivorian legal system, we would have extradited her to the Netherlands,” government spokesman Bruno Kone told AFP.

The former president’s Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party welcomed the decision, expressing hope that it was “made with the sole aim of delivering… justice that is to the benefit of all.”

But the former first lady’s lawyer, Habiba Toure, expressed concerns about her client’s “arbitrary and unjustified detention.”

The lawyer said Simone Gbagbo was suffering from “serious health problems” and could not be treated properly under detention.

Simone Gbagbo was detained at Odienne in the country’s northwest after the post-election crisis caused by her husband’s refusal to acknowledge his defeat in the November 2010 presidential elections.

The post-poll violence left around 3,000 people dead in the west African country, which is the world’s number one cocoa producer.

The former first lady, who was born in 1949, is also under investigation for suspected genocide, harming state security and white-collar crimes.

Last month, an Abidjan court released on bail 14 close aides to Gbagbo, including his son Michel.

Gbagbo’s supporters accuse President Alassane Ouattara, the winner of the 2010 election, of carrying out “victor’s justice” as no one from his own camp has had to face prosecution.

Ivory Coast has become the second African country to refuse to cooperate with the ICC in just two weeks.

Kenyan lawmakers backed a motion on September 6 to pull out of the ICC, just ahead of the trial of Vice President William Ruto at the world court.

Ruto is on trial on three counts of crimes against humanity. He is accused of having organised 2007-2008 post-election unrest that killed at least 1,100 people and forced more than 600,000 people to flee their homes. – AFP

Turkey hires 6 000 trolls

Say you’re a government that recently faced massive public opposition that organized through social media, bad enough you considered banning Twitter outright. What’s your next step?

If you’re Turkey, you start playing that game yourself.

The country’s ruling Justice and Development (AKP) party has announced plans to develop a 6,000-member team devoted to shaping public opinion through social media, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

The goal is to mostly hire young people, and will focus primarily on Twitter and Facebook, though Instagram and YouTube will get some attention too.

A senior party official quoted in the Journal described the project as “aim[ed] at developing a positive political language which we are teaching to our volunteers,” and that “when the opposing camp spreads disinformation about the party, we correct them with valid information, always using positive language.”

A handful of other countries officially employ similar propaganda tactics. Such countries are ranked far more harshly on Reporters Without Borders’ “Enemies of the Internet” index.

In May and June, the AKP received resounding international criticism for its violent crackdown of a popular uprising surrounding the government’s attempt to replace Istanbul’s Gezi Park. The party apparently was caught completely off guard with how protesters can organize through Twitter, especially as Turkey’s traditional media barely mentioned the protests.

At the time, Turkey arrested at least 29 people were for tweeting “misleading information” or “propaganda.” The head of AKP, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has yet to tweet the Turkish word for irony. – The Daily Dot

Al Qaeda-linked chemical weapons program in Somalia?

A document filed before the attack on a shopping mall in Nairobi Kenya, in a still-developing terrorism case in New York seems to confirm the long-held fear that al Qaeda is working to develop chemical weapons.

On Wednesday, CBS News obtained a document filed by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York indicating that three men charged with being members of the al-Shabab terrorist group in Somalia had “substantial knowledge regarding an al-Shabaab research and development department that was developing chemical weapons.”

CBS News senior correspondent John Miller told “CBS This Morning” the lead defendant in the case, Mahdi Hashi, and two others were arrested in August, 2012, by African authorities while allegedly on their way to Yemen. They are charged with participating in a weapons and training program with al-Shabab over a four-year period beginning in 2008.

Hashi, who left his home in the U.K. to join the Somali group, had been part of an elite suicide bomber unit with al-Shabab. – CBSNews

Kenya to host first yuan clearing house in Africa

Kenya wants to host a clearing house for China’s yuan currency – a bold African first that would deepen the continent’s ties with Beijing, already a big investor from The Cape to Cairo.

Such a venture would not eclipse the dollar in Africa anytime soon, however, because the yuan is tightly managed and traders are wedded to the greenback’s flexibility.

Africans can already get quotes for their currencies against the yuan . A clearing house would cut the need for dollar settlements, speed things up and reduce costs.

But the real prize for Kenya, or any other African host, would be the symbolism of being the continent’s business gateway with Asia’s economic emperor, even if business starts modestly.

Such an exchange would also be the first outside Asia.

Its prospect is a measure of China’s challenge to Africa’s traditional partners in Europe and the United States and reflects the increasing attractions of a continent with some of the world’s fastest growing economies.

“Even if the benefits to business have probably been slightly overblown by diplomats on both sides, I don’t think you can understate the symbolic aspect,” said Shilan Khan, Africa economist at London-based Capital Economics.

China’s ties with Africa have expanded fast.

In 2012, the total volume of China-Africa trade reached $198.49 billion, a rise of 19 percent over the previous year, Chinese government figures show. China accounted for 18.1 percent of Africa’s total trade volume in 2012, up from 3.8 percent in 2000.

“The proposal is basically to consider Kenya favourably given that the financial market is deep here,” Kenyan Finance Minister Henry Rotich told Reuters in August, citing rivals such as Nigeria, which already holds some reserves in yuan.

South Africa had a financial centre that dwarfs Kenya’s and has been mooted as a potential host, though officials there have not said they are pursuing such a plan.

“We are sort of competing and at the end of the day, the Chinese government is the one to decide where this clearing house will be,” Rotich said, making his pitch for east Africa’s biggest economy which aims to become a financial hub.

Early signals look good for Kenya.

“We are very positive about this clearing house and I think it is very important for Kenya to set up a financial hub here and to process the Chinese currency renminbi,” China’s ambassador to Kenya, Liu Guangyuan, told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Nairobi on Wednesday.

The value of potential business through such a clearing house was still a subject of discussion, he said.

Kenya’s daily turnover of foreign exchange is $330 million to $370 million, sometimes rising to $500 million.

Highlighting Nairobi’s enthusiasm for a clearing house based in Kenya’s central bank, President Uhuru Kenyatta made his bid for Beijing’s backing during a visit to China in August.

Business between Kenya and China is growing, even if Europe is still a bigger trade partner. Kenya’s Equity Bank, for example, has opened a branch in Nairobi for Chinese business executives, complete with Chinese tellers serving them.

“Everyone is trying to clinch a deal to directly clear and settle yuan transaction with the People’s Bank of China,” said an official at a Chinese state think-tank that often advises Beijing on policy, speaking about Africa’s clearing house plans.

In the meantime government officials in Niger have reportedly found evidence of bloated costs in oil deals with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), leading the government to seek renegotiations on sections of

its contracts with CNPC. In Chad, CNPC operations have been suspended due to alleged “gross environmental negligence”, reports The New York Times.

Gabon, in another controversial move, will also be reclaiming Sinopec assets in 2015, because of breaches of contract, according to Macau- Daily Times

In August Chad’s oil minister Djerassem Le Bemadjiel told state radio that the Chadian government had “found flagrant violations of environmental standards by […] CNPC.

Not only do they not have facilities to clean spilled crude, there were also intentional spillages in order

reduce costs”, reported Reuters.

Russia believes chemical attack was provocation

Russia has every reason to believe that the use of chemical weapons in a Damascus suburb in August was an adroit and smart provocation, President Vladimir Putin has said.

“We have every grounds to believe that it was a provocation. Of course, it was adroit and smart, but, at the same time, primitive in terms of technical performance. They took an old Soviet-made missile, which was taken out of service in the Syrian army long ago. It was most important to have ‘made in the USSR’ written [on the missile],” Putin said at the Valday discussion forum on Thursday.

The Russian president pointed out that the August 21st attack in Damascus was not the first time chemical weapons had been used in Syria.

“But why haven’t other cases been investigated?” he asked.

The chemical weapon attack must be thoroughly investigated and those behind it must be identified, Putin told the Valday Club meeting in Russia’s Novgorod Region.

“No matter how difficult it might be, but if in the end we manage to answer the question… as to who committed that crime – and that was certainly a crime – the next step will follow. Then, together with our colleagues from the United Nations Security Council we will have to define the level of responsibility of those who committed the crime,” Putin said.

He stressed that measures like military strikes cannot solve every international issue, while they should also be brought to the UNSC rather than discussed in the US Congress.

“This would be a strike on the world order, not Syria,” the Russian leader said.

Earlier this month, Russia and the United States reached a deal on a framework that will see the destruction or removal of Syria’s chemical weapons by mid- 2014. That came after Moscow suggested that Damascus should put its chemical weapons arsenal under international control and the Syrian government accepted the proposal. The republic also agreed to join the Chemical Weapons Convention which bans the production and the use of such arms.

Speaking at the Valday gathering, Putin noted that Syria not only agreed to sign the international convention, but announced it already considers itself a party to the treaty.

“These are practical steps that the Syrian government has already made,” Putin said.

The United Nations confirmed last Saturday that it had received all the necessary documents from Syria for joining the chemical weapons convention and that Syria would become a member from October 14.

Russia’s proposal for Syria was voiced as the Congress was readying itself to vote on President Barack Obama’s plan to launch a limited military strike against Syria in response to the chemical weapons attack in August. The US blamed the country’s government for the incident. The decision was put on hold after a suggestion from Moscow, which was discussed in detail by Secretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva.

Putin said that any attempt to interfere in the conflict by supporting one of the sides would bring imbalance. When the crisis began over two years ago, it immediately started getting support from abroad, he said.

“How did terrorist groups like Al-Nusra appear there? Even the State Department admits that Al-Qaeda’s branches are fighting [in Syria],” Putin observed.

The Russian leader is frustrated that Western states have no idea what they would do if, after their interference in the ongoing war, extremists came to power in Syria.

“Would they drive them away with a newspaper?” Putin said. – RT

France charges Rwandan doctor over genocide

French judges have charged a Rwandan doctor for planning to “commit the crime of genocide” in 1994, a judicial source said, after Kigali issued an international warrant against him.

Eugene Rwamucyo is wanted by Kigali for having allegedly planned and carried out atrocities in the Butare region of southern Rwanda, but in 2010, a French court rejected a request to extradite him.

After probing the accusations, judges in Paris whose job it is to investigate crimes against humanity decided to charge Rwamucyo with “involvement in an agreement with a view of committing the crime of genocide”, said the source, who wished to remain anonymous.

But they placed him under the status of “supervised witness” on the more serious charges of committing genocide and of complicity, the source added.

The status of “supervised witness” means that Rwamucyo can be interviewed under caution and could face further questions — and possibly charges — at a later stage.

“The fact that my client was placed under the status of supervised witness, and not under formal investigation, for ‘genocide’ shows the judges have doubts on this case and on the complaint that was made against him,” his lawyer Philippe Meilhac said.

The doctor is the subject of a complaint filed by the families of genocide victims for crimes against humanity.

Rwamucyo, who is in his 50s, lives in Belgium and used to work as a doctor in a hospital in the northern French city of Maubeuge.

He was suspended in 2009 when his employer found out the Rwandan government had issued an international warrant against him, and subsequently fired.

Rwamucyo denies the allegations of genocide and has accused the Tutsi-led government in Kigali of waging a campaign against him.

There are currently about 20 genocide-related cases pending in French courts.

France has repeatedly refused to extradite genocide suspects to Rwanda, fearing they would be denied a fair trial, but has sent some to Tanzania to face trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

An estimated 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis, were massacred over the course of about 100 days from April to July 1994. – AFP

Swazi king to wed 14th wife

Swaziland’s King Mswati III has chosen an 18-year-old beauty pageant contestant as his 14th wife, a palace spokesman said Tuesday, days before a much-criticised parliamentary vote.

“I can confirm that the king has introduced to the nation a new liphovela (royal fiancee),” said Ludzidzini palace governor Timothy Mtetwa.

Mswati, a 45-year-old who is sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, introduced Sindiswa Dlamini at a Reed Dance celebration over the weekend, Mtetwa told AFP.

She wore red feathers on her head — a sign of royalty.

The young woman graduated from Mbabane’s St. Francis High School last year and is a finalist in the Miss Cultural Heritage beauty pageant. The winner will be announced on September 28.

The king has come under fire for his household’s lavish lifestyle while the tiny mountain kingdom’s 1.2 million people struggle to make a living.

Mswati reportedly has a personal fortune of around $200 million (152 euros) and the UN estimates that 70 percent of his 1.2 million subjects live below the poverty line.

He has steadfastly resisted reforms.

The new engagement was announced at a festival which also counted regional delegates who will observe parliamentary elections on Friday.

Critics have slammed the polls as a sham, partly because political parties are banned and candidates are hand-picked by traditional leaders.

The weekend’s celebrations were a smaller repeat of last month’s official annual Reed Dance, where young virgins from across the kingdom gather and dance for the king.

“It just happened that the international community was there to witness the event,” said Mtetwa.

The wedding only takes place once the fiancee falls pregnant. Dlamini will then become Mswati’s 14th wife.

The monarch’s colourful private life is off-limits in local media, but has drawn a lot of international interest.

Three wives left the household in recent years. The latest, Queen LaGija, fled the palace in 2012 claiming years of physical and emotional abuse.

Another queen, LaDube, was reportedly abused after she was caught in bed with the justice minister, a close friend of the king.

Mswati had kidnapped and married the queen when she was 16 in 2005. – AFP