Officials: UN chief ‘shocked’ by letter from Sudan’s military ruler demanding removal of UN envoy

Officials: UN chief ‘shocked’ by letter from Sudan’s military ruler demanding removal of UN envoy
Smoke billows in Sudan's capital Khartoum on May 27, 2023, five days into a one-week ceasefire. (AFP)
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Updated 27 May 2023
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Officials: UN chief ‘shocked’ by letter from Sudan’s military ruler demanding removal of UN envoy

Officials: UN chief ‘shocked’ by letter from Sudan’s military ruler demanding removal of UN envoy
  • “The Secretary-General is shocked by the letter he received this (Friday) morning,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said
  • According to the official, Burhan accused Perthes of “being partisan,” and that his approach in pre-war talks between the generals and the pro-democracy movement helped inflame the conflict

CAIRO: The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “shocked” by a letter from Sudan’s military ruler, demanding the removal of the UN envoy to the country, Sudanese and UN officials said Saturday.
The letter by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, Sudan’s top military official and head of the ruling Sovereign Council, comes as Sudan plunged into further chaos after worsening tensions between military rivals exploded into an open fighting last month.
“The Secretary-General is shocked by the letter he received this (Friday) morning,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. “The Secretary-General is proud of the work done by (UN envoy) Volker Perthes and reaffirms his full confidence in his Special Representative.”
Dujarric didn’t reveal the contents of the letter. However, a senior military official said Burhan’s letter asked Guterres to replace Perthes who was appointed to the post in 2021.
According to the official, Burhan accused Perthes of “being partisan,” and that his approach in pre-war talks between the generals and the pro-democracy movement helped inflame the conflict. The talks had aimed at restoring the country’s democratic transition which was derailed by a military coup in Oct. 2021.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief media.
Perthes declined to comment neither on the letter.
Burhan accused Perthes last year of “exceeding the UN mission’s mandate and of blatant interference in Sudanese affairs.” He threatened to expel him from the country.
The ongoing fighting broke out in mid-April between the military and the powerful Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. Both Burhan and Dagalo led the 2021 coup that removed the western-backed government of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.
The fighting centered in the capital of Khartoum, which was turned into a battleground along with its sister city of Omdurman. The clashes also spread elsewhere in the country, including the war-wracked Darfur region.
The conflict has killed hundreds of people, and wounded thousands of others, and pushed the country to near collapse. It forced more than 1.3 million out of their homes to safer areas inside Sudan, or to neighboring nations.
Sexual violence including rape of women and girls, a common practice in Sudan’s wars and political upheavals, were reported in Khartoum and Darfur since the fighting began.
The Combating Violence Against Women Unit, a government-run group, said on Friday it received reports of at least 24 cases of sexual attacks in Khartoum, and 25 other cases in Darfur.
The unit, which tracks violence against women across the country, said most of survivors reported that the attackers were in RSF uniform and in areas in Khartoum controlled by RSF checkpoints.
The RSF didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Both warring parties have agreed on a weeklong cease-fire, brokered by the US and Saudi Arabia. However, the truce, which is scheduled to expire Monday night, did not stop the fighting in parts of Khartoum and elsewhere in the county.
Residents reported sporadic clashes Saturday in parts of Omdurman, where the army’s aircrafts were seen flying over the city. There was also fighting reported in Al-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur.
Burhan’s letter came after the UN envoy accused the warring parties of disregarding the laws of war by attacking homes, shops, places of worship and water and electricity installations.
In his briefing to the UN Security Council earlier this week, Perthes blamed the leaders of the military and the RSF for the war, saying that they have chosen to “settle their unresolved conflict on the battlefield rather than at the table.”


Syrians in Lebanon ‘economically displaced,’ not ‘refugees’: Justice minister

Syrians in Lebanon ‘economically displaced,’ not ‘refugees’: Justice minister
Updated 29 September 2023
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Syrians in Lebanon ‘economically displaced,’ not ‘refugees’: Justice minister

Syrians in Lebanon ‘economically displaced,’ not ‘refugees’: Justice minister
  • Henry Khoury’s comments were made during a meeting in Rome with his Italian counterpart
  • ‘The massive influx of Syrians to Lebanon is an issue that will have negative impacts on Europe’

ROME: Lebanese Justice Minister Henry Khoury told his Italian counterpart Carlo Nordio that Syrians fleeing to his country should no longer be considered as “refugees” but as “economically displaced.”
During a meeting in Rome to discuss enhancing judicial cooperation, Khoury said: “The massive influx of Syrians to Lebanon is an issue that will have negative impacts on Europe. For them, Lebanon is only a temporary destination, while their actual goal is to reach Europe.”
Since 2011, more than a million Syrians have taken refuge in Lebanon, whose population is just under 4 million people.
Lebanon never signed the Geneva Convention on refugees, and does not recognize the refugee status of Palestinians or Syrians who are in the country.
Khoury told Nordio that the bad conditions in Lebanese prisons are caused by the “transgressions” of displaced Syrians “that raise the crime rate and the number of prisoners in the country.”
He added: “The prison infrastructure in Lebanon cannot withstand the overcrowding resulting from the high number of prisoners.”
Nordio pledged “every possible cooperation though specific programs to help the judicial system in Lebanon in order to perform its regular activities.”


Turkish scholar goes on trial in absentia

Turkish scholar goes on trial in absentia
Updated 29 September 2023
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Turkish scholar goes on trial in absentia

Turkish scholar goes on trial in absentia
  • Selek, now 51, is long since exiled in France
  • The presiding judge told a packed Istanbul courtroom, that the arrest warrant for Selek remained active

ISRANBUL: A Turkish court held another hearing Friday in the trial of sociologist and writer Pinar Selek over a deadly 1998 explosion, as her supporters protested the case against her outside.
Selek, now 51, is long since exiled in France. But the presiding judge told a packed Istanbul courtroom, that the arrest warrant for Selek remained active. He set the next hearing for June 28.
Selek is best known for her research on the Kurdish conflict in Turkiye and her work with street children.
As her supporters demonstrated outside the court, international observers including diplomats and one French lawmaker attended the proceedings inside.
Her defenders argue that the case, which they say is based on little or no solid evidence, has dragged on for too long already.
“We have the feeling that (this case) will never end,” French lawmaker Pascale Martin, told AFP after the hearing. “This pressure has been going on for 25 years, it’s humanly impossible.”
Friday’s hearing was the second in a trial that opened back in March. Selek, who fled Turkiye in 2008, has been cleared of the same charges in four previous trials.
“This dossier is full of fake evidence. There’s not much to say, it’s a very unfair case,” Selek’s father, veteran lawyer Alp Selek told the court.
The case started when her father, who is also her defense lawyer, was 67 years old.
“I am now 90 years old and this case is still dragging,” he said.
French jurists present in the courtroom also came to her defense.
“Pinar Selek has become a symbol of fight for democratic freedom,” lawyer Francoise Cotta told the judge.
She demanded “justice” and asked for her release.
Selek was first arrested in 1998 while studying Turkiye’s Kurdish community, which has faced decades of persecution.
She was accused of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), listed as a terror group by Turkiye and its Western allies.
Selek had been interviewing PKK members to find out why they had chosen armed violence. She was jailed after refusing to divulge their names to the police.
She was eventually charged in connection with an explosion at Istanbul’s popular spice market that killed seven people and injured dozens.
Selek was released in 2000 following the publication of a report blaming the blast on a gas leak.
But that was only the start of her legal problems. More trials followed in the highly controversial case.
She settled in Germany after fleeing Turkiye, before relocating to France, where she gained citizenship in 2017.
Selek, who was acquitted four times, in 2006, 2008, 2011 and 2014, now lives and teaches in Nice.
“Life is short, I want to live it well. I don’t want this trial to shape my life,” Selek told AFP in a recent interview.
“They won’t be able to erase my smile or diminish the quality of my thinking,” she said.
Selek faces life in prison without the possibility of parole, a sentence that could keep her from ever returning to Turkiye.
On Tuesday, PEN America, which campaigns for the freedoms of writers, urged the Turkish government to dismiss all charges against Selek.
“The Turkish government’s relentless persecution of Pinar Selek comes from their fear of her ability to amplify marginalized voices through her research on minority rights and Kurdish communities,” said PEN America’s Justin Shildad.


Tunisia, Italy sign MoU on cybersecurity

Tunisia, Italy sign MoU on cybersecurity
Updated 29 September 2023
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Tunisia, Italy sign MoU on cybersecurity

Tunisia, Italy sign MoU on cybersecurity
  • General director of Italian National Cybersecurity Agency tells Arab News deal is ‘strategic’
  • ‘It represents an important step to strengthen the security of cyberspace in the Mediterranean area’

ROME: Tunisia and Italy will cooperate on cybersecurity under a memorandum of understanding signed in Tunis on Thursday.

The MoU between Tunisia’s National Cybersecurity Agency and the Italian National Cybersecurity Agency aims “to establish continuous and strong cooperation in the field of cybersecurity, as well as in digital trust services,” Bruno Frattasi, general director of the Italian agency, told Arab News.

He signed the document with his Tunisian counterpart Yacine Djemaiel during a ceremony at the Ministry of Communication Technologies. Tunisian Minister of Communication Technologies Nizar Ben Neji attended the ceremony.

The MoU’s objective is to strengthen the exchange of experience and expertise between the two national institutions, and the development of specialized skills in the field of cybersecurity.

“The common challenges we face, and the transnational nature of cyber threats, pushed Italy and Tunisia to strengthen their cooperation in this important field,” said Frattasi.

“I believe that this agreement with Tunisia is strategic for Italy as it represents an important step to strengthen the security of cyberspace in the Mediterranean area.”


Lebanese children ‘miss out’ on education as crisis takes toll

Lebanese children ‘miss out’ on education as crisis takes toll
Updated 29 September 2023
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Lebanese children ‘miss out’ on education as crisis takes toll

Lebanese children ‘miss out’ on education as crisis takes toll
  • Lack of funding for the school system has precipitated repeated teachers’ strikes and school closures, resulting in children being increasingly pulled out of the formal learning system
  • Lebanon’s public institutions have been crumbling since the economy collapsed in late 2019

BEIRUT: Rana Hariri doesn’t know when she’ll be able to send her children back to school, as Lebanon’s grinding economic crisis thrusts the fate of public education into uncertainty.
Lack of funding for the school system has precipitated repeated teachers’ strikes and school closures, resulting in children being increasingly pulled out of the formal learning system, and in some cases being forced to work.
Hariri, 51, says her nine-year-old daughter Aya “repeatedly asks me: ‘When will I go back to school?’ But I do not know what to tell her.”
Lebanon’s public institutions have been crumbling since the economy collapsed in late 2019, pushing most of the population into poverty and dealing a heavy blow to state schools.
Public sector workers, including teachers, have repeatedly gone on strike as the value of their salaries crashed after the Lebanese pound lost more than 98 percent of its worth against the dollar.
“My children stayed at home for three months last year due to the strikes,” said Hariri.
She had hopes that her 14-year-old daughter Menna would someday become a doctor.
But now, “I just hope she’ll be able to go to school in the first place,” she said, sitting at her friend’s house surrounded by her four children.
“For the past four years, teachers have failed to secure their rights, while our children miss out on basic education.”
Public sector teachers earn the equivalent of $150 to $300 per month, while the education ministry has sounded the alarm over lack of funding.
Hariri took her anger to the streets, protesting alongside teachers who demanded better wages at a sit-in in September.
The school year is due to begin in early October, but amid uncertainty over the start date, her two sons, aged 13 and 17, have taken up work with their father, a plumber.
Her daughters have meanwhile been forced to wait at home.
“I want them to have a degree... but this country is killing their future,” she said with a sigh.
Since 2019, children have “experienced devastating disruption to their education,” according to the United Nations’ children’s agency.
The disruptions were attributed to the economic crisis, the coronavirus epidemic, a deadly 2020 blast that rocked Beirut’s port and strikes that forced school closures.
“A growing number of families” can no longer afford “the cost of education including transport to school, food, textbooks, stationery, and clothes,” UNICEF Lebanon said.
At least 15 percent of households have pulled their children out of schools, UNICEF found in a June report, up from 10 percent a year ago.
And one in 10 families have been forced to send children, sometimes as young as six years old, to work to make ends meet, the report said.
“Being out of school exposes children... to violence,... poverty,” and increases risks of child marriage in girls, said Atif Rafique, chief of education at UNICEF Lebanon.
Education Minister Abbas Halabi has repeatedly complained of funding problems, warning in September that “public education is in danger.”
“The most urgent problem today is financial,” he said, adding that his ministry was still working on securing funding for the upcoming school year.
The education ministry mostly relies on government credit lines and donor funding, mainly from the World Bank and the UN, to educate the more than 260,000 Lebanese pupils and over 152,000 Syrians enrolled in public schools.
But Halabi said donors had informed him they could not afford to give more money to public school employees.
According to a recent Human Rights Watch report, the education ministry has slashed the number of teaching days from 180 in 2016 to about 60 in the past two years, “citing financial constraints.”
Year after year, the ministry has had “no plan” to secure the funds needed for schools to remain open without interruption, said Ramzi Kaiss, HRW’s Lebanon researcher.
“If we’re going to have a fifth year that is lost or interrupted, it’s going to be catastrophic,” he told AFP.
But despite the setbacks, more pupils have poured into Lebanon’s public schools as families can no longer afford private education.
Homemaker Farah Koubar, 35, said she fears she one day won’t even be able to afford sending her three young children to public school.
“I’m afraid they will miss out on their education,” she told AFP from her small home in Beirut.
“Every year life becomes more difficult,” she said, holding back tears as she recalled how she has had to ask acquaintances for financial help to secure her family’s survival.
“Everything is expensive, food, water, gasoline — even bread.”


Tunisian opposition leader Ghannouchi to begin hunger strike

Tunisian opposition leader Ghannouchi to begin hunger strike
Updated 29 September 2023
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Tunisian opposition leader Ghannouchi to begin hunger strike

Tunisian opposition leader Ghannouchi to begin hunger strike
  • Leader of the Islamist Ennahda party accused of plotting against state security along with other detained opposition figures

TUNIS: Tunisian opposition leader Rached Ghannouchi, a fierce critic of President Kais Saied, will begin a hunger strike in prison, according to a statement from his Islamist Ennahda party released on Friday.
Ghannouchi, 82, has been in prison since April. His lawyer said the charges stem from a funeral eulogy he gave last year for a member of his Ennahda party when he said the deceased “did not fear a ruler or tyrant, he only feared God.”
A Tunisian judge sentenced Ghannouchi in absentia last May to a year in prison on charges of incitement, his lawyer Monia Bouali said.
The leader of the Islamist Ennahda party is also accused of plotting against state security along with other detained opposition figures who accuse Saied of a coup for shutting down the elected parliament and moving to rule by decree.
Saied, who enshrined his new powers in a constitution that he passed through a referendum with low turnout last year, has denied his actions were a coup and said they were needed to save Tunisia from years of chaos.
He has called his critics criminals, traitors and terrorists and warned that any judge who freed them would be considered abetting them.
Ghannouchi, a political prisoner and exile before the 2011 revolution that brought democracy, was parliament speaker from the 2019 election until Saied sent tanks to shut down the chamber in 2021.
Police have detained more than 20 political figures this year, including Ghannouchi, accusing some of plotting against state security.