The broadcast of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s speech on the German TV channel Deutsche Welle was interrupted by a picture with a speech of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Stoltenberg was speaking to reporters at a briefing when the broadcast was interrupted, and then the Russian leader was shown, speaking at a concert rally on […]
The long-awaited report on the Uighurs is out. It is sharp on China but contradicts the massive accusations that have been circulating in the West. The report was the subject of much wrangling and it threatens to become a weapon in the great geopolitical game between the West and China.
UN Report on the Uighurs, a Piece on the Geopolitical Chessboard?
The context
It has been a long time coming, but finally the UN Human Rights Committee (OHCHR) report on the Uighurs has been released. The Uighurs are a Muslim population group in Xinjiang, a province in western China.
There is a great deal of controversy about this population group. Western countries in particular accuse China of “cultural genocide” while countries of the South,[1] including several leading Muslim countries, view it completely differently. For example, at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit in Pakistan in March 2022, China was invited as the ‘guest of honour’.
In the past, a lot of fake news about the Uighurs has been produced. That should come as no surprise. From the West, China is increasingly under fire. The use of human rights à la carte is a tried and tested means of pushing countries into a corner and arousing public opinion.
The report itself has been the subject of much debate. It took three years to get permission to publish it. There was a great deal of pressure from both Western governments and Beijing regarding the content and the date of publication. In such a context of wrangling and struggle for influence, neutrality is a relative term.
The report starts from the fact that the contested Chinese approach towards the Uighurs takes place against the background of “riots” and “violent incidents which the [Chinese] Government has consistently characterised as terrorist in character. In 2009, racist riots led to 197 deaths, mostly Han Chinese.
An estimated 300 terrorist attacks followed, resulting in dozens of deaths. During the civil war in Syria, thousands of Uighur Muslim extremists were active there, and sooner or later they would return to their homeland. According to the renowned American trade magazine Foreign Policy, it became increasingly clear that China had become a new target of the Jihad.
In response to these serious terrorist attacks, Beijing has embarked on a vigorous anti-terrorism policy.
Uyghur residents on bikes in Hotan in western China’s Xinjiang region, 2020. Poverty has been nearly eliminated in Xinjiang and support for the ETIM terrorists is invisible.
The OHCHR released simultaneously with its report a 121-page report from China, which states that the state’s fight against terrorism in the region is “necessary and just,” takes place within “the rule of law,” and “fully respects and safeguards human rights”. However, OHCHR precisely considers China’s counterterrorism approach to be “highly problematic” in terms of respect for human rights.
The report
The UN report is based on the one hand on forty in-depth interviews of witnesses, and on the other hand on a number of official Chinese documents[2] which the report says are “highly likely to be authentic”. In both cases, however, it is not clear whether they are separate individual cases or a pattern of behaviour by the Chinese government. Either way, every individual is entitled to respect for his or her human rights.
Really wild stuff downtown. A Stop Asian Hate rally is clashing with a Pro-Uighur drive by. The pro-Uighur group is shouting “F— China!” The Asian rally is responding by calling them “racist.” pic.twitter.com/h8a2hB4Oqe
For the many allegations in its report, OHCHR generally does not provide hard evidence. In addition to individual testimonies, the UN body draws conclusions or estimates based on certain indicators. Therefore, the report often expresses itself in the conditional mood.
Mail: agracia@riseup.net Blog: https://ateneullibertarigracia.wordpress.com/ Twitter: @ALLibGracia Las personas que forman parte del Ateneu seguimos estando “bien”… bueno, ya algunos y algunas están pasando episodios de ansiedad, agobio, insomnio…. a parte de las situaciones económicas… Si teneís alguna necesidad no dudeís en contactar y ya veremos que podemos hacer. Saludos a…22 abril, 2020
Brazil remains tense in advance of October 2 vote, as polls show former left-wing leader ahead of incumbent Jair Bolsonaro.
Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies On 28 Sep 2022
Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has widened his lead over incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, less than a week before one of the most divisive presidential elections in Brazil’s history.
A Genial/Quaest poll released on Wednesday showed Lula, who served as president from 2003 to 2010, with a 13-percentage-point lead over his far-right rival.
Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva speaks during a rally in Sao Paulo, September 24 [Amanda Perobelli/Reuters]
Recent polls indicate that the former left-wing leader could beat Bolsonaro in the first round of voting on Sunday.
The survey put support for Lula at 46 percent in the first round, compared with 33 percent for Bolsonaro – up from 44 percent for Lula and 34 percent for Bolsonaro a week earlier.
In a potential October 30 runoff, Lula’s lead rose to a 14-point advantage, from 10 points a week ago, the poll found.
Brazil remains tense in advance of the upcoming vote, as experts have raised concerns over election-related violence should Bolsonaro refuse to accept defeat.
The former army captain in recent months has repeatedly taken aim at leading Supreme Court justices and alleged – without providing any evidence – that Brazil’s electronic voting system is vulnerable to widespread fraud.
‘Communicating with undersea drones (AUVs) is a complex, developing science. Employing low flying helicopters or aerial drones the USBL system works with modulated pulses like whales and translated back by computer….’
The Arabic news channel Al Mayadeen reported that weeks before the attack, US helicopters were circling over the sea area where the fatal explosions took place on September 26 with a striking frequency.
This can be reconstructed using the flight data from the online service “Flightradar24”. According to this, at the beginning of September, just under a month before the attack, a US Navy Sikorsky MH-60R “Seahawk” helicopter was circling for hours on several consecutive days – especially on September 1, 2 and 3 later over the area of the damaged natural gas pipelines not far from the island of Bornholm.
According to the aircraft tracking portal, the US helicopter flew from Gdansk to the area where the Nordstream pipelines were several times.
On September 10 and 19, US helicopters also flew over Nordstream 1, and on the nights between September…
Madrid (ESC). – The Executive that governs in Spain surprises us more and more. This summer, Spain led the purchase of Russian gas and became the country that entered the most capital in Moscow in the midst of the war in Ukraine.
According to a report compiled by the Economist, since the war broke out in Ukraine, purchases of Russian gas from Spain have doubled, from 2,174 gigawatt hours (GWh) to 5,317 GWh, according to the latest Enagas bulletin for the month of July .
The Free 