Families of Beirut port blast victims welcome call for international probe

Families of Beirut port blast victims welcome call for international probe
Family relatives holding up pictures of their beloved ones who were killed in the Aug. 4, 2020 Beirut port blast. Victims’ families have welcomed the condemnation of systematic interference in its investigation at a Geneva conference. (AFP/File)
Short Url
Updated 08 March 2023
Follow

Families of Beirut port blast victims welcome call for international probe

Families of Beirut port blast victims welcome call for international probe
  • The lawyer representing the victims’ families, Cecile Roukoz, told Arab News: “The statement is not bad, but it does not truly meet our expectations.”
  • Human Rights Council members — including European countries, Canada, and the UK — believe that the probe was stalled due to systematic obstruction, interference, intimidation and political deadlock

BEIRUT: The families of the victims of the Beirut port explosion have welcomed the condemnation of systematic interference in its investigation at a Geneva conference, where multiple countries called on Lebanon to abide by its international obligations.
In a joint statement issued on Tuesday by 38 countries at the 52nd session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the Australian envoy, on behalf of member countries, called for a “swift, independent, impartial, credible and transparent investigation” into the Aug. 4, 2020 blast.
The lawyer representing the victims’ families, Cecile Roukoz, told Arab News: “The statement is not bad, but it does not truly meet our expectations. We aspired for an international fact-finding committee. But the statement is indeed important because it shows that countries are aware that there is a systematic obstruction to the investigation, and it includes a reminder of the rights of the victims. We will continue to demand the formation of a fact-finding committee.”
Human Rights Council members — including European countries, Canada, and the UK — believe that the probe was stalled due to systematic obstruction, interference, intimidation and political deadlock.
Volker Türk, UN high commissioner for human rights, said: “There is an urgent need for a serious investigation without political interference or further delay.”
Michèle Taylor, the permanent US representative to the council, stressed the need to conduct a rapid and transparent investigation, as “the lack of progress so far proves the need for judicial reform.”
Roukoz said: “The families have full confidence in Judge Tarek Bitar, the judicial investigator in charge of the probe. We respect the Lebanese judiciary, but the obstruction caused us to demand an international fact-finding committee that accompanies the work of the Lebanese judiciary through its reports.
“Lebanon is a signatory to treaties related to human rights, and individuals whose rights are violated can submit complaints directly to the committees supervising human rights treaties. The Human Rights Council voted in its session to consider the port explosion a crime against human rights and voted in favor of our right to live, and the Lebanese state has a duty to respect its obligations.”
Explaining the most recent obstructions, Roukoz said the public prosecutor has accused Bitar of usurping power, pointing out that these accusations are being investigated and the families are awaiting the results to see how to move forward with the case.
A judicial source told Arab News: “The formation of an international committee to assist the judicial investigator does not negate Bitar’s role. We have to wait until June to find out how things will turn out.”
Speaking on behalf of the families of the Beirut fire brigade, whose members were killed in the explosion, Peter Bou Saab, the brother of victim Joe Bou Saab, told Arab News: “What the Human Rights Council concluded is very new, and it is a first step on the road to an international investigation, and there are steps we will follow to reach this investigation. We will not stop. What happened is the result of joint efforts by the families and the 48 MPs who signed a petition calling for an international investigation, which helped convince the countries of the obstruction put up by the Lebanese judiciary.”
The families and lawyers are betting on exerting more pressure to form an international fact-finding committee at the next Human Rights Council session in June.
The Aug. 4 Gathering, a civil society bloc formed to support the families of the victims, believe that the continuous efforts of the latter — in cooperation with local and international human rights organizations — are what led to the statement issued by the 38 countries.
The group said: “These efforts will continue, especially during the Human Rights Council session in June, with the aim of having the decision to form an international fact-finding committee. This comes in light of the continued suspension of the internal investigation into the crime and interference to obstruct justice.”
The Human Rights Council consists of 47 state representatives, and its mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world by addressing cases of violations and making recommendations thereon.
A French judicial delegation to investigate the Beirut port explosion visited the Lebanese capital in mid-January and met Bitar and the public prosecutor, Judge Ghassan Oweidat.
France is conducting an internal investigation into the crime, as two French nationals, Jean-Marc Bonfils and Therese Khoury, were killed in the explosion. The two are among the 52 non-Lebanese victims, or those who hold Lebanese citizenship and another nationality, who died in the explosion.
French authorities had already sent a letter of assistance to the Lebanese judiciary, which remains unanswered due to litigation claims.
Meanwhile, Bitar was forced to withdraw from the case a year ago due to complaints filed against him by politicians he had accused of being involved in the crime.
However, the Supreme Judicial Council in Lebanon was unable to appoint a substitute judge due to the lack of quorum and consensus.


Sudan’s rival military leaders give competing addresses to UN

Sudan’s rival military leaders give competing addresses to UN
Updated 10 sec ago
Follow

Sudan’s rival military leaders give competing addresses to UN

Sudan’s rival military leaders give competing addresses to UN

CAIRO: The heads of Sudan’s rival military factions gave competing addresses to the United Nations on Thursday, one from the podium at UN headquarters in New York and the other in a rare video recording from an undisclosed location.
Army leader Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, speaking at the United Nations, called on the international community to designate the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) as a terrorist organization and to counter its sponsors outside Sudan’s borders.
RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, said in a video message that his forces were fully prepared for a cease-fire and comprehensive political talks to end the conflict.
Both sides blamed the other for starting the war that erupted in mid-April in Khartoum and has spread to other parts of the country including the western region of Darfur, displacing more than 5 million people and threatening to destabilize the region.
Most of Hemedti’s recent communications have been audio messages, and his whereabouts have been a source of speculation.
In the video released on Thursday shortly before Burhan spoke he appeared in military uniform, seated behind a desk with a Sudanese national flag behind him as he read out his speech. His location was not clear.

Previous assertions by the army and the RSF that they are seeking a solution to the conflict, as well as announcements of cease-fires by both sides, have failed to stop bloodshed and the deepening of a humanitarian crisis in Sudan.
The war broke out over plans to formally integrate the RSF into the army as part of a political transition, four years after the overthrow of former leader Omar Al-Bashir during a popular uprising.
Witnesses say the army has used heavy artillery and air strikes that have caused casualties in residential districts of Khartoum and other cities, and that the RSF has inflicted widespread looting and sexual violence on residents as well as participating in ethnically targeted attacks in Darfur.

 

 


Syria’s Assad steps out of diplomatic freeze with high-level China trip

Syria’s Assad steps out of diplomatic freeze with high-level China trip
Updated 22 September 2023
Follow

Syria’s Assad steps out of diplomatic freeze with high-level China trip

Syria’s Assad steps out of diplomatic freeze with high-level China trip
  • Talks with Xi Jinping to focus on Syrian reconstruction
  • He will also attend opening ceremony of Asian Games

JEDDAH: Syrian President Bashar Assad on Thursday began his first visit to China since 2004 and his latest attempt to end more than a decade of diplomatic isolation under Western sanctions.

Assad arrived in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou aboard an Air China plane in heavy fog, which Chinese state media said “added to the atmosphere of mystery.” Assad last visited China in 2004 to meet then-President Hu Jintao. It was the first visit by a Syrian head of state to China since the countries established diplomatic ties in 1956.

China — like Syria’s main allies Russia and Iran — maintained those ties even as other countries isolated Assad over his brutal crackdown of anti-government demonstrations that erupted in 2011, leading to a civil war that has killed more than half a million people, displaced millions more, and battered Syria’s infrastructure and industry.

Assad will attend Saturday’s Asian Games opening ceremony before leading a delegation in meetings in several Chinese cities. 

He meets President Xi Jinping on Friday.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing on June 23, 2004. He was the first Syrian head of state to visit China since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1956. (AFP Photo/File)

Being seen with China’s president at a regional gathering adds further legitimacy to Assad’s campaign to return to the world stage. 

Syria joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative in 2022 and was welcomed back into the Arab League in May.

Faced with a crippled economy and little to show so far from his efforts to rebuild ties with Arab states, Assad is keen for financial support. 

But any Chinese or other investment in Syria risks entangling an investor in US sanctions under the 2020 Caesar Act that can freeze assets of anyone dealing with Syria.

“In his third term, Xi Jinping is seeking to openly challenge the US, so I don’t think it’s a surprise that he is willing to … host a leader like Assad,” said Alfred Wu, an associate professor at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore. 

“It will further marginalize China in the world, but he doesn’t care about that.”

The visit comes as China expands its engagement in the Middle East. 

This year Beijing brokered a deal restoring ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran. 

That detente was followed by Syria’s return to the Arab fold at a summit in Saudi Arabia in May, ending more than a decade of regional isolation.

Analysts expect Assad’s visit to China will focus, in part, on funds for reconstruction. 

“Assad intends for his trip to China to convey a sense of international legitimacy for his regime and paint a picture of looming Chinese support for reconstruction in Syria,” said Lina Khatib, director of the Middle East Institute at SOAS university in London.

Syria signed up to China’s vast Belt and Road trade and infrastructure initiative in January 2022.

Assad’s meeting with Xi “is expected to revolve around convincing China to aid Syria’s economic recovery,” said Haid Haid, of the Chatham House think tank in London. 

China pledged $2 billion in investments in Syria in 2017, but Haid said the funds had “yet to materialize.”

(With Agencies)


Mideast peace only possible when Palestinians get full rights: Abbas

Mideast peace only possible when Palestinians get full rights: Abbas
Updated 21 September 2023
Follow

Mideast peace only possible when Palestinians get full rights: Abbas

Mideast peace only possible when Palestinians get full rights: Abbas
  • President urges states that have not yet recognized state of Palestine to do so immediately
  • Calls for peace conference that ‘may be last opportunity to salvage two-state solution’

LONDON: Those who think peace can prevail in the Middle East without the Palestinian people enjoying their full rights are mistaken, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday.
Addressing the UN General Assembly, he said Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory “violates the principles of international law and legitimacy while it races against time to change the historical, geographical and demographic reality on the ground, aimed at perpetuating the occupation and entrenching apartheid.”
Abbas said his country remains hopeful that the UN will be “able to implement its resolution demanding an end to the Israeli occupation of our territory and realizing the independence of the fully sovereign state of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, on the borders of June 4, 1967.”
He added that Israel continues to attack his people, and its “army and its racist, terrorist settlers continue to intimidate and kill our people, to destroy homes and property to just steal our money and resources.”
Abbas said Israel “continues to assault our Islamic and Christian sacred sites … especially the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, which international legitimacy has recognized as an exclusive place of worship for Muslims alone.”
He added that Israel is digging tunnels under and around the mosque, threatening its full or partial collapse, “which would lead to an explosion with untold consequences.”
He urged the international community to assume its responsibilities in preserving the historic and legal status of Jerusalem and its holy sites.
He also requested an international peace conference in which all countries concerned with achieving peace in the Middle East would participate.
“I ask your esteemed organization and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to call for and undertake the necessary arrangements to convene this peace conference, which may be the last opportunity to salvage the two-state solution and to prevent the situation from deteriorating more seriously, and threatening the security and stability of our region and the entire world,” Abbas said.
He also urged states that have not yet recognized the state of Palestine to do so immediately. “I call for the state of Palestine to be admitted to full membership in the United Nations,” he said.
“There are two states that the entire world is talking about: Israel and Palestine. But only Israel is recognized. Why not Palestine?
“I can neither understand nor accept that some states …are reluctant to recognize the state of Palestine, which the UN has accepted as an observer state.
“These same states confirm every day that they support the two-state solution. But they recognize only one of these states, namely Israel. Why?”
 


Morocco sets aside nearly $12 bn for quake recovery

Morocco sets aside nearly $12 bn for quake recovery
Updated 21 September 2023
Follow

Morocco sets aside nearly $12 bn for quake recovery

Morocco sets aside nearly $12 bn for quake recovery
  • Fund to be used for reconstruction in places affected by the September 8 earthquake

RABAT: Quake-hit Morocco’s government announced on Wednesday a budget of more than $11 billion for reconstruction, rehousing and socio-economic development of areas hit by the deadly disaster.
The 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit Al-Haouz province south of Marrakech on September 8, killing nearly 3,000 people and injuring thousands more.
The government said in a statement it was setting aside 120 billion dirhams ($11.7 billion) to help 4.2 million inhabitants affected by the quake over a period of five years.
The funds would be used to “rehouse affected people, reconstruct homes and restore infrastructure,” said the statement published at the end of a meeting chaired by King Mohammed VI.
The earthquake razed thousands of homes in central Morocco, including the High Atlas mountain range, forcing families to sleep out in the open with winter around the corner.

 


 


Kuwait affirms countries’ right to maintain independence, territorial sanctity

Kuwait affirms countries’ right to maintain independence, territorial sanctity
Updated 21 September 2023
Follow

Kuwait affirms countries’ right to maintain independence, territorial sanctity

Kuwait affirms countries’ right to maintain independence, territorial sanctity
  • Kuwait’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sheikh Jarrah Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah emphasizes nonintervention in states’ internal affairs and the need for conflicts to be resolved peacefully
  • Al-Sabah delivers address on safeguarding global peace at UN Security Council session on margins of 78th UN General Assembly

NEW YORK: Kuwait’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sheikh Jarrah Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah affirmed countries’ right to maintain sovereignty, independence and territorial sanctity in a speech during a UN Security Council session.
Addressing a session on safeguarding global peace on the margins of the 78th UN General Assembly, Al-Sabah emphasized nonintervention in states’ internal affairs, resolving conflicts peacefully and abstaining from the use of force, as well as people’s right to self-determination, and encouraging respect for human rights.
Kuwait News Agency reported on Thursday that the deputy foreign minister underlined the significance of the UN charter’s goals and principles, especially the “role in defending small countries.”
Al-Sabah said that due to a range of issues, the global order is facing its toughest test since the UN’s establishment in 1945.
“The international community has no choice other than uniting to face regional and international challenges.
“Kuwait renews its rejection of using force or resorting to threats in the relations among states,” KUNA reported Al-Sabah as saying.
Al-Sabah called for Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty to be respected.
“We call on the parties (of the Ukrainian conflict) to abide by the rule of the international law and the humanitarian law in respect of protecting civilians, facilitating safe and rapid delivery of humanitarian aid to those in need,” he told the UN session.
Al-Sabah also called for the Black Sea grain deal to be renewed.