THE WORLD – Page 191 – IDN-InDepthNews

Africa2016-05-312023-07-10

Timber Smuggling Could Eliminate Senegal’s Forests in Two Years

DAKAR (IDN | GIN) – Illegal timber smuggling is devastating the lush Casamance region of Senegal and could strip it completely within two years, predicts Senegalese environmentalist and former minister Haidar El Ali.

Casamance in southern Senegal contains the country’s last remaining forests, an area of 74,000 acres that could be depleted by 2018 as smugglers feed the demand for rosewood furniture in China, said El Ali.

Exporting timber from Senegal is illegal, so traffickers smuggle it to neighbouring Gambia for shipping to China.

Africa2016-05-312023-07-10

Anti-Mugabe Movement Takes on New Life Not Seen in Decades

HARARE (IDN | GIN) – A “Million Men” march in support of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe that drew thousands in support of the aging leader failed to diminish the impact of an opposition rally last month that brought out thousands of citizens concerned with the country’s troubled economy.

Despite his advanced age, Mugabe has vowed to run for another term in office at the next election in 2018 when he will be 94.

At the “Million Men” march, Mrs Mugabe declared that her husband would rule Zimbabwe even from the grave.

The opposition, meanwhile, has been energized by a Twitter campaign called #ThisFlag, or what The Guardian newspaper called “an accidental movement for change”.

Africa2016-05-312023-07-10

Ghana Still Target of Lethal e-Waste Dumping

LONDON (IDN | GIN) – Digital dumping ground, world’s largest e-waste dump – whatever you call it, Agbogbloshie, a former wetland and suburb of Ghanaian capital Accra, is one the top ten “worst polluted” places on earth where tonnes of discarded electronics, refrigerators, microwaves and televisions, also known as e-waste, end up decomposing in a massive scrap heap.

“Mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic – these are the four most toxic substances [in the world], and they are found in e-waste residues in very large quantities,” Atiemo Sampson, an environmental researcher at the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, who has conducted several studies of the Agbogbloshie site, said in an interview with the BBC.

Exposure to these toxins is known to cause a whole range of illnesses from cancers to heart disease and respiratory illnesses.

Africa2016-05-312023-07-10

Chad’s Former Ruler Given Life Sentence for Brutal Crimes

DAKAR (IDN | GIN) – Former president of Chad, Hissène Habré, was sentenced May 30 to life behind bars, ending a long journey for justice by his victims and victims’ relatives who filled the court.

The specially convened African Union-backed court in Senegal convicted him of rape, sexual slavery and ordering killings during his rule from 1982 to 1990.

Victims and families of those killed cheered and embraced each other in the courtroom after the verdict was read.

Asia-Pacific2016-05-242023-07-10

Building Regional Connectivity Key to China’s ‘Silk Route’ Projects

Analysis by Kalinga Seneviratne

BANGKOK (IDN) – China is keen to demonstrate that its ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative, dubbed the “New Silk Route” by the media, is not geared to exclusively serve China’s economic interests, but to build connectivity in the region and beyond for the benefit of all.

This was the message from a high-powered Chinese team taking part in a ‘side-event’ organised by China at the 72nd UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) sessions here May 17-19. It is also an idea that ESCAP is strongly endorsing as it embarks on promoting a new development paradigm for the region.

In an opening address to the event, China’s Deputy Foreign Minister Qian Hongshan said that the ‘Belt’ is designed “to form synergy between the development strategies of various countries, draw on their respective strengths and unleash the huge development potential of this region to achieve common progress”.

Asia-Pacific2016-05-242023-07-10

Duterte’s Victory in Philippines Could Bring Hope to Disillusioned Democrats

Analysis by Kalinga Seneviratne

SINGAPORE (IDN) – Both in the Philippines and internationally, corporate media predicted doom for Philippines’ democracy after Rodrigo Duterte, the tough-talking mayor of Davoa in southern Philippines, won a landslide victory at the presidential polls (on May 9) in one of the world’s most vibrant democracies. Rather than heralding in a new era of dictatorship, it may well bring hope to those who are disillusioned with democracy around the world.

The tough campaign rhetoric to kill criminals and override Congress if it got in his way, and his sometimes crude or vulgar language may have alarmed the Filipino elites, but it hypnotised the masses of marginalised Filipinos who voted for the “Mayor” in droves.

Asia-Pacific2016-05-192023-07-10

Asian UN Body Calls for Paradigm Shift in Development Thinking

Analysis by Kalinga Seneviratne

BANGKOK (IDN) – The major United Nations agency overseeing development in the Asia-Pacific region has called for a major rethink in the development paradigm for the region.

In an ‘Economic and Social Survey’ of the region presented to its 72nd sessions here from May 17 to 19, the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) says that while the centre of global economic gravity continues to move eastwards, the time has come for the Asia-Pacific region to adopt a development model that relies more on domestic and regional demand.

Arguing that it is futile to continue the exclusive reliance on export-led development, ESCAP is also calling for more rural agriculture and industrial development, with better rural-urban connectivity via transport and communication links.

Africa2016-05-162023-07-10

Behind Eritrean Diaspora’s Attacks on the Dutch Media

Analysis by Martin Plaut *

BRUSSELS (IDN) – “I have never experienced anything like it,” says Philippe Remarque, editor in chief of De Volkskrant. The paper – the Netherlands’ largest broadsheet – has been taken to court by a man Remarque describes as an “operative working for the benefit of the awful Eritrean dictatorship”. On May 13 the newspaper received a verdict in the second case in which the court ruled once more in favour of the newspaper.

There is a large, and growing, Eritrean community in the Netherlands. Eritreans flee their country at a rate of 5,000 a month – the largest number of refugees crossing from Libya to Italy. More than 38,000 made the dangerous voyage in 2015, according to the European border agency, Frontex.

Those who arrive in the Netherlands seek refugee status. They discuss their cases with the Dutch immigration agency, only to confront a problem. According to a Dutch based website, Oneworld, refugees found that they were speaking through official translators who had close links with the Eritrean government.

Asia-Pacific2016-04-302023-07-10

India Sends Mixed Messages to Beijing and Washington

Analysis by Shastri Ramachandaran*

BEIJING (IDN) – If New Delhi’s intention is to keep Beijing and Washington guessing as to who it favours, then the mixed signals during recent high-level exchanges with both are right on point. Neither Washington nor Beijing can, at a given stage or on a specific issue, say with any certainty which way New Delhi may swing.

The matter of mixed signals is best illustrated by developments surrounding the second visit of U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter to New Delhi; the three-high-level official exchanges between India and China – two in Beijing and one in Moscow; and, the wholly avoidable flip-flop in first granting and then revoking the visa to Dolkun Isa, whom Beijing says is a terrorist leader.

Earlier in April, India’s Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar was in China on a five-day visit. Parrikar’s visit was not only a high-level one, but the first by a defence minister in the National Democratic Alliance government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He was received at a high level and had meetings with his Chinese counterpart General Chang Wanquan of the People’s Liberation Army and top defence officials.

Asia-Pacific2016-04-272023-07-10

China Triggers Regional Divisions On South China Sea

Analysis by Kalinga Seneviratne

SINGAPORE (IDN) – Announcement by China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi in the Laotian capital Vientiane on April 23 that a four-point agreement has been reached with three ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) member states on the disputes over some islands, rocks and shoals in the South China Sea (SCS) ahead of a China-ASEAN summit in Singapore, has exposed divisions among the 10-member regional grouping on the issue.

The SCS dispute which first entered ASEAN forums during the 2010 ASEAN Summit in Vietnam, when the then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton raised the issue during a speech, has increased in intensity in recent years with the U.S. and Japan along with its ally the Philippines fanning the flames, while China has responded with some aggressive moves of its own.