‘No peace without accountability for aggression’: Russian invasion of Ukraine must lead to European security rethink

During a Lennart Meri Conference panel, academics and think-tank analysts joined Baltic prime ministers. (Screenshot/LMC)
During a Lennart Meri Conference panel, academics and think-tank analysts joined Baltic prime ministers. (Screenshot/LMC)
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Updated 14 May 2023
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‘No peace without accountability for aggression’: Russian invasion of Ukraine must lead to European security rethink

During a Lennart Meri Conference panel, academics and think-tank analysts joined Baltic prime ministers. (Screenshot/LMC)
  • According to the panel, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has posed the biggest test of European unity since the end of the Cold War

TALLINN/LONDON: Experts agreed on Friday that the Russian invasion of Ukraine must lead to a Europe-wide rethink about how it approaches security and its transatlantic relationship with the US.

During a Lennart Meri Conference panel, academics and think-tank analysts joined Baltic prime ministers to discuss how the continent can best adapt and overcome ongoing economic and political crises in a unified manner.

According to the panel, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has posed the biggest test of European unity since the end of the Cold War, but also exposed the hollowness of its defensive capabilities and highlighted the need to bolster its defense industrial capacity.

Europe’s relationship with the US as a result of the conflict was also a key topic on the agenda.

The Prime Minister of Latvia Krisjanis Karins said the conflict in Ukraine and the growing influence of China had brought Europe and the US closer together, with Washington more engaged in European affairs than it was before.

He said: “I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how we can make this relationship stronger, because I’m convinced from the European side it’s in our interest, but equally convinced it’s a big self-interest to the US side.

“We are all starting to come around to the realization that what we have is a full military dependence on the US through NATO; it’s there. The question is: What more can we do to make us a stronger partner for the US? Not to decouple, because we and the US face many challenges.”

Ingrida Simonyte, the prime minister of Lithuania, said the EU was, at its core, a peace project. She added that the conflict in Ukraine had forced the EU and its allies into considering the best ways to defend that hard-earned peace, even if through less-than-peaceful means.

She added: “I don’t want to say we have special (perspective) in the region; we just have a living memory of our past.

“Even for myself, I have (a memory) of 15 years of occupation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union and, for me, never again means never again. I just don’t want to see that happening again.”

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said it was vital that Europe and the wider West worked together toward holding those responsible for Russian “crimes of aggression” accountable for their actions.

She said: “Russia must be held accountable. There can be no impunity, no immunity.

“A year ago, it was thought unimaginable that (Vladimir) Putin would be issued an arrest warrant by the ICC (International Criminal Court). Just six months ago, most were not prepared to publicly support the idea of a special tribunal for crimes of aggression. Now we’re at the point of no return.”

Simonyte agreed, saying: “There will be no sustainable peace in Europe if Ukraine falls. Russia will regroup, rearm and come for someone next.

“To avoid this, Russia must be expelled from the territory of Ukraine, bear the costs of its recovery, and the perpetrators of war crimes must be brought to justice.”

 


200 Afghan ex-special forces who worked with British military denied relocation to UK: BBC

200 Afghan ex-special forces who worked with British military denied relocation to UK: BBC
Updated 11 December 2023
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200 Afghan ex-special forces who worked with British military denied relocation to UK: BBC

200 Afghan ex-special forces who worked with British military denied relocation to UK: BBC
  • Gen. Richard Barrons: ‘It reflects that either we’re duplicitous as a nation or incompetent’
  • Ex-commando: ‘We never thought that heroes would be abandoned. It is really disappointing’

LONDON: About 200 former Afghan special forces whose anti-Taliban operations with Britain’s military were “incredibly important” have been denied relocation to the UK, the BBC reported on Monday.

A further 32 former government officials, as well as a number of civilian leaders who aided Britain’s mission in the country, have also been denied by the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Programme.

The former soldiers’ “abandonment” by the UK government has been labeled a “betrayal” and “disgrace” by senior British military figures, including Gen. Richard Barrons, who served in Afghanistan for more than a decade.

He told the BBC that the UK’s failure to relocate the former soldiers “is a disgrace, because it reflects that either we’re duplicitous as a nation or incompetent.”

Barrons added: “It is a betrayal, and the cost of that betrayal will be people who served with us will die or spend their lives in prison.”

The UK’s then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2021 described the work of the former Afghan special forces as “incredibly important.”

Britain set up two major units composed of elite Afghan soldiers in an effort to combat opium production and the Taliban presence in Afghanistan.

Commando Force 333, and its sister unit, Afghan Territorial Force 444, were known as “the Triples,” and “quickly gained a reputation for effectiveness, honesty and courage,” the BBC reported.

One of the former CF333 members, known as Ali, described being “abandoned and betrayed” by the UK after spending “day and night” together with British soldiers.

He added: “During training we slept under one tent, eating from the same dish. During operations we fought shoulder-to-shoulder with the British, as members of one family.”

During the evacuation from Kabul in August 2021, Ali oversaw the protection of British passport holders as they left the country on emergency flights.

But he was denied entry on the same flights, and eventually fled to Pakistan by land out of fear of reprisal attacks from Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers.

“We never thought that heroes would be abandoned. We took all those risks. We were ready to help the international community, we respected freedom of speech and human life, then everything turned upside down. It is really disappointing,” he said.

Figures compiled by a network of Afghan veterans, seen by the BBC, show that there are up to 200 other former soldiers in the same position as Ali. Their applications to Britain’s ARAP scheme have faced delays or rejection.

Civilian leaders who helped Britain’s mission in Afghanistan have also been denied by the scheme.

Among them is Mohammad Fahim, a former governor of Helmand province’s Garmsir district, a key Taliban stronghold before 2001.

Despite working “shoulder-to-shoulder” with Britain, he says he was “betrayed” and “never thought that I would be left alone like this.”

He added: “We arrested a number of Taliban leaders when I was governor. They knew that we were fighting together with the international forces, so the threat to me is real.

“We ran programmes shoulder-to-shoulder, with the shared aim of bringing security for the people who lived in Helmand, giving them a good life and making peace.”

His work to counter the Taliban presence in his district resulted in the murder of his brother and two cousins, and in 2018 Fahim was almost beaten to death.

Barrons said: “I’m personally ashamed because I feel very deeply that we made an obligation to them and we have not fulfilled it.

“It’s beyond absurd to say they don’t qualify and that they should be left behind to a fate at the hands of the Taliban.”

Lt. Gen. Abdul Hadi Khalid, former first commanding officer of CF333, said Britain’s treatment of the Triples will diminish the country’s standing in the region.

He added: “I’m 100 percent sure that when other nations, other progressive forces, see Afghanistan, when they look at Afghan people, Afghan miseries, how can they trust the West?”

In response to the BBC’s reporting, a UK Ministry of Defense spokesman said: “So far, we have brought around 24,600 people to safety, including thousands of people eligible for our Afghan schemes.

“Each ARAP application is assessed individually and in accordance with published policy, and we do not automatically make a decision on eligibility based on a job role.”


UN mission in Mali officially ends after 10 years

UN mission in Mali officially ends after 10 years
Updated 11 December 2023
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UN mission in Mali officially ends after 10 years

UN mission in Mali officially ends after 10 years
  • The mission, known as MINUSMA, lowers United Nations flag on its headquarters in the capital Bamako
BAMAKO: The UN mission in Mali officially ended a 10-year deployment in the country on Monday, its spokesperson said, in a pull-out ordered by Mali’s military leaders.
The mission, known as MINUSMA, lowered the United Nations flag on its headquarters in the capital Bamako, its spokesperson Fatoumata Kaba said.
The symbolic ceremony marks the official end of the mission, she said.
A “liquidation phase” will take place after January 1, involving activities such as handing over remaining equipment to the authorities.
The withdrawal of the UN stabilization mission, known as MINUSMA, has ignited fears that fighting will intensify between troops and armed factions for territorial control.
MINUSMA had for the past decade maintained around 15,000 soldiers and police in Mali. About 180 members have been killed in hostile acts.
As of Friday, more than 10,500 uniformed and civilian MINUSMA personnel had left Mali, out of a total of around 13,800 staff at the start of the withdrawal, the UN mission said on X, formerly Twitter.

India’s top court upholds end of special status for Kashmir, orders polls

India’s top court upholds end of special status for Kashmir, orders polls
Updated 11 December 2023
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India’s top court upholds end of special status for Kashmir, orders polls

India’s top court upholds end of special status for Kashmir, orders polls
  • Modi-led government in 2019 revoked Indian-administered Kashmir’s special status
  • The region has been the heart of over 75 years of animosity with neighboring Pakistan

NEW DELHI: India’s Supreme Court upheld on Monday a 2019 decision by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to revoke special status for Indian-administered Kashmir and set a deadline of Sept 30 next year for state polls to be held.

Indian-administered Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority region, has been at the heart of more than 75 years of animosity with neighboring Pakistan since the birth of the two nations in 1947 at independence from colonial rule by Britain.

The unanimous order by a panel of five judges came in response to more than a dozen petitions challenging the revocation and a subsequent decision to split the region into two federally administered territories.

It sets the stage for elections in the region, which was more closely integrated with India after the government’s contentious move, taken in line with a key longstanding promise of Modi’s nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Indian paramilitary troopers patrol along a road in Srinagar on December 11, 2023, ahead of Supreme Court's verdict on Article 370. (AFP)

The decision is a shot in the arm for the government ahead of general elections due by May.

The challengers maintained that only the constituent assembly of Indian-administered Kashmir could decide on the special status of the scenic mountain region, and contested whether parliament had the power to revoke it.

The court said special status was a temporary constitutional provision that could be revoked by parliament. It also ordered that the federal territory should return to being a state at the earliest opportunity.

The territory is divided among India, which rules the populous Kashmir Valley and the Hindu-dominated region of Jammu, Pakistan, which controls a wedge of territory in the west, and China, which holds a thinly populated high-altitude area in the north.


India’s top court upholds abrogation of Kashmir’s special status

India’s top court upholds abrogation of Kashmir’s special status
Updated 4 min 15 sec ago
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India’s top court upholds abrogation of Kashmir’s special status

India’s top court upholds abrogation of Kashmir’s special status
  • Five-judge bench also ordered statehood to be restored, polls to be held by next September
  • For many people in Kashmir, the Supreme Court ruling came as a disappointment

NEW DELHI: India’s top court upheld on Monday a 2019 government decision that stripped Kashmir of its statehood and special autonomous status in a unanimous ruling that sets the stage for state polls to be held by September next year.  

The semi-autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir was granted by India’s constitution until Aug. 5, 2019, when the Indian government unilaterally revoked the relevant provisions under Article 370 and scrapped the region’s flag, legislature, protections on land ownership, and fundamental rights.  

The Indian Supreme Court began in August hearings of petitions that were filed over the past four years to challenge the government’s contentious move.  

“We don’t find that the president’s exercise to abrogate Article 370 was malafide,” Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said while reading out the judgment.  

“Article 370 is a temporary provision. J&K’s Constitution was subordinate to the Constitution of India. Article 370 was introduced to serve a transitional purpose, to serve as an interim process … and the president can abrogate Article 370.”  

Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir is part of the larger Kashmiri territory, which has been the subject of international dispute since the 1947 partition of the Indian subcontinent into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. 

Both countries claim Kashmir in full, and rule in part. 

Indian-controlled Kashmir has for decades witnessed outbreaks of separatist insurgency to resist control from the government in New Delhi. 

With the constitutional change, Jammu and Kashmir was split into two federally governed union territories in a move that was followed by a total communications blackout, severe restrictions on freedom of movement, and detention of local leaders — some of whom remain in jail. 

Administrative measures introduced after the abrogation of the special status and statehood have allowed non-locals to settle and vote in the region, raising fears of attempts to engineer demographic change. 

The five-judge bench of the Supreme Court also ordered the government to hold elections in the region by Sept. 30, 2024 and to restore its statehood “at the earliest.” 

The Supreme Court decision was welcomed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who described it as “historic.”  

“The verdict today is not just a legal judgment; it is a beacon of hope, a promise of a brighter future and a testament to our collective resolve to build a stronger, more united India,” Modi said.  

But for the people of Kashmir, Monday’s verdict came as a disappointment.  

“I am very much disappointed. Today’s verdict is totally against our emotions and gives pain to the majority of the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” Aijaz Ahmad, a business professional based in Srinagar, told Arab News.  

Yashwant Sinha group, comprising civil society members who have monitored the situation in Kashmir over the last six years, has reported anger, hatred, a sense of political betrayal and alienation among residents of the valley.  

“People of the valley with whom I have been talking for weeks are not at all surprised and as a petitioner, I am not surprised either,” said Air Vice Marshal Kapil Kak, a retired officer of the Indian Air Force and one of the petitioners who appealed to India’s apex court.  

Kak, who is also a member of Yashwant Sinha group, told Arab News the Supreme Court ruling will “take it further away” from resolving the problem of Jammu and Kashmir and exacerbate the concerns and deep alienation felt by youths of the valley.  

Kashmiris were “dejected, humiliated, discredited and disenfranchised” by the Supreme Court ruling, said Nasir Khuehami, president of Kashmir Students Union.  

Subhash Chander Gupta, a senior advocate based in Jammu, believes the verdict was a “politically bad judgment” that will create a trust deficit in the region while also further deepening the “distrust between the Kashmiri people and the rest of India.”  

The apex court’s decision was “nothing less than a death sentence not only for Jammu and Kashmir but for the idea of India,” said Mehbooba Mufti, former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. 

“This is the defeat of the imagination of India, the Gandhian India with which Muslims of Jammu and Kashmir, rejecting Pakistan, joined hands with the Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Christians … Today marks the defeat of that idea of India," she said.   

Kashmir “continues to be a bleeding humanitarian and political issue” that is “begging redressal,” said Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a top cleric and pro-freedom leader.  

“Those people who at the time of the partition of the subcontinent, facilitated the accession of J&K and reposed their faith in the promises and assurances given to them by the Indian leadership must feel deeply betrayed.”


UN needs $46.4 billion for aid in ‘bleak’ 2024

UN needs $46.4 billion for aid in ‘bleak’ 2024
Updated 11 December 2023
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UN needs $46.4 billion for aid in ‘bleak’ 2024

UN needs $46.4 billion for aid in ‘bleak’ 2024
  • UN: Wider Middle East, Sudan and Afghanistan among the hotspots that also need major international aid operations

GENEV: The United Nations said Monday that it needed $46.4 billion next year to bring life-saving help to around 180 million people in desperate circumstances around the world.
The UN said the global humanitarian outlook for 2024 was “bleak,” with conflicts, climate emergencies and collapsing economies “wreaking havoc” on the most vulnerable.
While global attention focuses on the conflict raging in the Gaza Strip, the UN said the wider Middle East, Sudan and Afghanistan were among the hotspots that also needed major international aid operations.
But the size of the annual appeal and the number of people it aims to reach were scaled back compared to 2023, following a decrease in donations.
“Humanitarians are saving lives, fighting hunger, protecting children, pushing back epidemics, and providing shelter and sanitation in many of the world’s most inhumane contexts,” UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said in a statement.
“But the necessary support from the international community is not keeping pace with the needs,” he said.
The 2023 appeal was for $56.7 billion but received just 35 percent of that amount, one of the worst funding shortfall in years. It allowed UN agencies to deliver assistance and protection to 128 million people.
With a few weeks left to go, 2023 is likely to be the first year since 2010 when humanitarian donations declined compared to the previous year.
The UN therefore scaled down its appeal to $46.4 billion this time around, and will focus on those in the gravest need.
Launching the 2024 Global Humanitarian Overview, Griffiths said the sum was nonetheless a “massive ask” and would be tough to raise, with many donor countries facing their own cost of living crises.
“Without adequate funding, we cannot provide life-saving assistance. And if we cannot provide that assistance, people will pay with their lives,” he said.
The appeal covers aid for 72 countries: 26 states in crisis and 46 neighboring nations dealing with the knock-on effects, such as an influx of refugees.
The five largest single-country appeals are for Syria ($4.4 billion), Ukraine ($3.1 billion), Afghanistan ($3 billion), Ethiopia ($2.9 billion) and Yemen ($2.8 billion).
Griffiths said there would be 300 million people in need around the world next year — a figure down from 363 million last year.
But the UN aims to reach only 180.5 million of those, with NGOs and aid agencies targeting the remainder — not to mention front-line countries and communities themselves who provide the first help.
The Middle East and North Africa require $13.9 billion, the largest total for any region in 2024.
Beyond Syria, the Palestinian territories and Yemen, Griffiths also pointed to Sudan and its neighbors, and to Ukraine, Afghanistan, Venezuela and Myanmar as hotspots that needed sustained global attention.
Ukraine is going through a “desperate winter” with the prospect of more warfare on the other side, he said.
With the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas, plus Russia’s war in Ukraine, Griffiths said it was hard for the Sudan crisis to get the attention it deserved in foreign capitals.
More broadly, Griffiths said climate change would increasingly impact the work of humanitarian aid workers, who would have to learn how to better use climate data to focus aid resources.
“There is no doubt about the climate confronting and competing with conflict as the driver of need,” he said.
“Climate displaces more children now than conflict. It was never thus before,” he said.