Peru bids farewell to divisive former leader Fujimori

Peru bids farewell to divisive former leader Fujimori
Thousands of admirers queued at the National Museum in Lima on Thursday and Friday to pay their respects at former President Alberto Fujimori’s open casket. (Reuters)
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Updated 14 September 2024
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Peru bids farewell to divisive former leader Fujimori

Peru bids farewell to divisive former leader Fujimori
  • Fujimori was revered by many for crushing leftist guerrillas and for boosting the economy
  • But he was reviled by others as an autocrat who signed off on brutal human rights abuses

LIMA: Peru will on Saturday lay to rest polarizing former president Alberto Fujimori, who ruled with an iron fist in the 1990s and later spent 16 years in prison for crimes against humanity.
Fujimori, who had Japanese heritage, was revered by many for crushing leftist guerrillas and for boosting the economy, but reviled by others as an autocrat who signed off on brutal human rights abuses.
He died on Wednesday, aged 86, after a long battle with cancer.
After lying in state for three days he will be buried on Saturday following a state funeral.
The death of the ex-leader, who loomed large over Peruvian politics long after he faxed in his resignation from exile in Japan in 2000, triggered a vigorous debate on social media over his legacy.
Thousands of admirers queued at the National Museum in Lima on Thursday and Friday to pay their respects at his open casket.
“He defeated terrorism and in reality was the best president Peru could have had,” Jackeline Vilchez, from a family of self-described “fujimoristas,” said outside the former leader’s residence, where she came to pay her respects.
But relatives of the victims of army massacres carried out on his watch lamented that he went to the grave without showing remorse for their deaths.
“He left without asking forgiveness from their families, he made a mockery of us,” Gladys Rubina, the sister of one of the civilian victims, said, sobbing.
Fujimori, an engineer by training, worked as a university maths professor before entering politics.
In 1990, he caused a surprise by defeating acclaimed writer Mario Vargas Llosa to win the presidency.
His neoliberal economic policies won him the support of the ruling class and international financial institutions.
He also won praise for crushing a brutal insurgency by Shining Path and Tupac Amaru leftist rebels in a conflict that left more than 69,000 people dead and 21,000 missing between 1980 and 2000, according to a government truth commission.
But the brutal tactics employed by the military saw him spend his twilight years in jail.
In 2009, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for crimes against humanity over two massacres carried out in the name of Peru’s so-called war on terror — one at a house party, the other in a university dormitory — that left 25 people dead.
As recently as July, Fujimori had been considering a comeback attempt in 2026 elections, according to his daughter Keiko, also a politician.
But he was dogged by ill health and had only recently completed treatment for tongue cancer.
Fujimori claimed he paved the way for Peru to become one of the leading countries of Latin America.
As he turned 80 in 2018, he said: “Let history judge what I got right and what I got wrong.”
One of the most dramatic episodes of his presidency was a four-month hostage ordeal at the Japanese embassy in Lima in late 1996 and early 1997.
It ended with him sending in special forces, who saved nearly all 72 hostages and killed the 14 rebel hostage-takers.
Fujimori’s downfall began in 2000 after his spy chief was exposed for corruption.
He fled to Japan and sent a fax announcing his resignation. Congress voted to sack him instead.
He was eventually arrested when he set foot in Chile and was extradited to Peru, where he was put on trial.
In December 2017, then-president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski pardoned Fujimori on health grounds.
The Supreme Court later annulled the pardon and, in January 2019, he was returned to jail from hospital before finally being released about five years later.


Balkan summit to rally support for struggling Ukraine

Balkan summit to rally support for struggling Ukraine
Updated 5 sec ago
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Balkan summit to rally support for struggling Ukraine

Balkan summit to rally support for struggling Ukraine
Zelensky said the summit “will discuss international efforts to bring peace closer... as well as cooperation on the path to the European Union and NATO“
Zelensky has stepped up a bid to rally backing from allies amid doubts about future US support after the November presidential election

DUBROVNIK: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived Wednesday in Croatia for a summit with Balkan leaders as his country pushes for more military aid as it struggles to repel Russian advances.
But a key meeting with international allies planned for Saturday was postponed after US President Joe Biden called off a planned visit to Europe as millions were warned to leave their homes in Florida because of Hurricane Milton.
Zelensky announced his arrival in the Croatian resort of Dubrovnik on the X social media platform and said the summit “will discuss international efforts to bring peace closer... as well as cooperation on the path to the European Union and NATO.”
Zelensky has stepped up a bid to rally backing from allies amid doubts about future US support after the November presidential election.
The heads of state, premiers and foreign ministers from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkiye were to join Zelensky and Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic at the talks.
The summit will show that the “whole region supports Ukraine and the Ukrainian people in the fight for freedom,” Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said.
He pledged continuous “solidarity with Ukraine... including military support.”
The gathering in the Adriatic resort is the third “Ukraine-Southeast Europe” summit.
At the last one in Albania in February, Zelensky called for greater backing to help fend off Russian forces.
He has been pressing for more aid to counter Russia’s advantage in manpower and ammunition. Zelensky also wants clearance to use long-range weapons supplied by allies including the United States to strike military targets deep inside Russia.
A joint declaration at the end of the summit is likely to condemn Russian aggression, support Ukraine’s territorial integrity and Zelensky’s peace plan, push to prosecute war crimes in Ukraine and support Kiev’s European integration and NATO membership, according to the media.
Zelensky was also to attend an international meeting of more than 50 countries to discuss military support for Ukraine in Germany on Saturday.
But the meeting at the Ramstein air base “is postponed,” the US military said in a statement, without specifying a new date.
Zelensky had also pressed for greater military support at the last Ramstein meeting in September.
The US presidential election in November could compromise the billions of dollars of support that Ukraine receives from its biggest backer.
Republican candidate Donald Trump has repeatedly defended Russian President Vladimir Putin and voiced skepticism over US funding for Kyiv.
Plenkovic, who carried out his third visit to Ukraine since the invasion in February 2022, said that in the past two years EU member Croatia’s aid to Ukraine, mostly military, totalled 300 million euros ($329 million).
The Balkans summit is Zelensky’s first visit to Croatia.
The Ukrainian leader is expected to sign an agreement with Plenkovic on long-term support and cooperation between the two countries.
It will focus on Croatia’s experiences in prosecuting war crimes and removing mines after the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
But the meeting comes amid a domestic row between Croatia’s conservative government and President Zoran Milanovic over Ukraine.
Milanovic refused this month to back the government’s proposal to send Croatian officers on a NATO mission in Germany to train Ukrainian soldiers.
The president, who has limited powers but is the armed forces commander, said he would not allow Croatian soldiers to “participate in activities that push Croatia into war.”
The prime minister accused Milanovic of acting against national interests.
He called on lawmakers to reverse the president’s decision, which would require a two-thirds majority in a parliament vote.

Ex-UK soldier denies passing secrets to Iran intelligence

Ex-UK soldier denies passing secrets to Iran intelligence
Updated 4 min 16 sec ago
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Ex-UK soldier denies passing secrets to Iran intelligence

Ex-UK soldier denies passing secrets to Iran intelligence
  • Daniel Khalife is on trial accused of both the break-out and passing information to Iran for cash while posted in the UK and US
  • Details allegedly handed over by Khalife included the names of elite special forces personnel

LONDON: A former British Army soldier allegedly broke out of prison strapped to the underside of a food delivery truck while detained on suspicion of passing secret information to Iranian intelligence, a prosecutor said on Wednesday.
Daniel Khalife, 23, is on trial accused of both the break-out and passing information to Iran for cash while posted in the UK and United States.
Details allegedly handed over by Khalife included the names of elite special forces personnel, a court in southeast London heard.
Jurors were shown a photograph from Khalife’s iPhone of a handwritten list of 15 soldiers he had made, including their service number, rank, initials, surname and unit.
Khalife, who grew up in southwest London with his Iranian mother, joined the army in 2018 aged 16.
Six months after he was posted to the 16th Signal Regiment in Stafford in central England, messages showed he was willing to gather information “to order,” prosecutor Mark Heywood told Woolwich Crown Court.
Nearly two years after signing up, Khalife in August 2020 spent an hour messaging a contact saved as “David Smith,” describing an internal military system which would identify service personnel.
He told his contact that he “won’t leave the military until you tell me to” before adding: “25+ years.”
Khalife allegedly remained in contact with Iranian handlers while posted to Fort Hood in Texas between February and April 2021.
During the posting he took a series of screenshots of systems marked “Secret,” including a password record sheet.
While there he was given the second highest level of NATO security, one below “cosmic top secret,” the jury was told.
Khalife denies the alleged prison escape and a charge of gathering, publishing or communicating information that might be useful to an enemy, namely Iranian intelligence.
He has also pleaded not guilty to gathering information of use to “a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.”
The case comes a day after the chief of Britain’s domestic intelligence service, Ken McCallum, said MI5 had responded to 20 Iran-backed plots since January 2022 that presented potentially lethal threats.


Russia says peace in Ukraine is impossible if Kyiv gets NATO membership

Russia says peace in Ukraine is impossible if Kyiv gets NATO membership
Updated 11 min 33 sec ago
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Russia says peace in Ukraine is impossible if Kyiv gets NATO membership

Russia says peace in Ukraine is impossible if Kyiv gets NATO membership
  • Putin has said peace talks can only begin if Kyiv agrees to abandon large swaths of territory claimed by Moscow and drops its bid to join NATO

MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that achieving a just peace in Ukraine would be impossible if Kyiv lost its neutrality by joining a bloc such as the US-led NATO military alliance.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said peace talks can only begin if Kyiv agrees to abandon large swaths of territory claimed by Moscow and drops its bid to join NATO.
Zakharova, speaking about reports that the West was discussing an option in which Ukraine could join NATO in return for accepting Russian control over a swathe of Ukrainian territory, said that achieving a just peace in Ukraine would be impossible without ensuring that Ukraine’s status was neutral and non-aligned.
Zakharova said that what Moscow calls the “special military operation” in Ukraine was a reaction to NATO’s eastward expansion.


Pope Francis to meet Ukraine’s Zelensky at Vatican Friday

Pope Francis to meet Ukraine’s Zelensky at Vatican Friday
Updated 14 min 7 sec ago
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Pope Francis to meet Ukraine’s Zelensky at Vatican Friday

Pope Francis to meet Ukraine’s Zelensky at Vatican Friday
  • A calendar event sent by the Vatican to the media indicated a half-hour meeting between the pontiff and Ukrainian leader

ROME: Pope Francis will meet Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday at the Vatican, officials said, while media reported the Ukrainian leader would also meet Italy’s prime minister in Rome.
A calendar event sent by the Vatican to the media indicated a half-hour meeting between the pope and Zelensky beginning at 9:30 a.m. (0730 GMT) on Friday at the Vatican.
Italian media reported that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni would be meeting with the Ukranian president Thursday evening, although nothing has been officially confirmed.
Zelensky was in Croatia on Wednesday at a summit with Balkan leaders to seek international military support.
He had been due to attend an international meeting on UKraine at a US air base in Germany on Saturday.
But that meeting of more than 50 countries was pushed back Wednesday after President Joe Biden called off a planned state visit to Germany and Angola due to Hurrican Milton.


Marcos orders evacuation of Filipinos as Israel escalates deadly strikes on Lebanon

Marcos orders evacuation of Filipinos as Israel escalates deadly strikes on Lebanon
Updated 16 min 22 sec ago
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Marcos orders evacuation of Filipinos as Israel escalates deadly strikes on Lebanon

Marcos orders evacuation of Filipinos as Israel escalates deadly strikes on Lebanon
  • Around 1,000 Filipinos in Lebanon are waiting for the Philippine government to bring them home
  • Philippine officials say they are awaiting diplomatic clearances from Lebanese officials to evacuate Filipinos

MANILA: President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered on Wednesday the evacuation of Filipinos in Lebanon as the Philippine government braced for an escalation of tensions in the region amid Israel’s invasion and increasing bombardment of civilian sites.

More than 11,000 Filipinos are living and working in Lebanon, which has faced a string of Israeli attacks that began in mid-September, with pagers exploding at shops and hospitals across the country, followed by relentless bombing targeting densely populated areas.

Israeli forces have killed more than 2,000 people across Lebanon and wounded over 9,800, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

The UN estimates that over 1.2 million people across Lebanon have been displaced by escalating Israeli attacks, which include airstrikes and an expanding ground invasion that began on Oct. 1.

On Wednesday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Lebanon could face destruction “like Gaza.”

Manila has so far evacuated at least 511 Filipinos, while around 1,000 who have applied for repatriation with the Philippine Embassy in Beirut are still waiting for the government to bring them to safety.

“We are now going to evacuate our people by whatever means — by air, or by sea,” Marcos said during a virtual meeting on Wednesday.

The meeting was attended by heads of key government agencies, including Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo, National Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro and Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac.

“Just make all the preparations so assets will be nearby. If we charter a ship, then it will be near Beirut so once the embassy gives us the clearance and they say that our people can go, we can bring them out as soon as possible,” Marcos said.

The government has yet to determine the method of evacuation due to the “evolving situation,” he added.

Manila has placed Lebanon under its “Alert Level 3” since last October, which calls for Filipinos there to voluntarily return home.

In the last few weeks, Filipino workers in Lebanon have been urging the Philippine government to speed up their repatriation amid deadly Israeli attacks escalating in the region.

But many are facing legal difficulties to do so, including permission from employers and official clearance to leave.

Teodoro told Marcos that the government is prepared to evacuate Filipinos but are waiting for the Lebanese government to give them clearance.

“We’re ready, willing and able (to repatriate Filipinos) at any time. We’re just waiting for the diplomatic clearances of the expatriates to be processed out of Beirut,” he said.