Month: January 2023

Police estimated the march at around 3,500 people, but others speculated it attracted more than double that.

Rows of police in riot gear faced off against rock-hurling protesters on some streets, and one historic building in the city’s historic centre caught fire late on Thursday.

The building, on San Martin Plaza, was empty when the massive blaze ignited from unknown causes, a firefighter commander told local radio.

Canada-based miner Hudbay said in a statement that protesters had entered the site of its Peru unit, damaging and burning key machinery and vehicles.

“This has not been a protest; this has been a sabotage of the rule of law,” Prime Minister Alberto Otarola said Thursday evening alongside President Dina Boluarte and other government ministers.

Interior Minister Vicente Romero disputed claims circulating on social media that the Lima blaze had been caused by a police officer’s tear gas grenade.

Over the past month, raucous and sometimes deadly protests have led to the worst violence Peru has seen in more than two decades, as many in poorer, rural regions vent anger at the Lima establishment over inequality and rising prices, testing the copper-rich Andean nation’s democratic institutions.

Protesters are demanding the resignation of Boluarte, snap elections and a new constitution to replace the market-friendly one dating back to the days of right-wing strongman Alberto Fujimori in the 1990s.

“We want the usurper Dina Boluarte to step down and call for new elections,” said protester Jose De la Rosa, predicting the street protests would only continue.

The protests have been sparked by the dramatic December 7 ouster of leftist former President Pedro Castillo after he tried to illegally shutter Congress and consolidate power.

In buses and on foot, thousands journeyed to Lima on Thursday, carrying flags and banners blasting the government and police for deadly clashes in the southern cities of Ayacucho and Juliaca.

The unrest spread far beyond the capital.

In southern Arequipa, police fired tear gas at hundreds of protesters who tried to take over the airport, local television showed, leading officials to announce the suspension of operations at the Arequipa and Cusco airports.

Boluarte said on Thursday evening that the airports, as well as one in the southern city of Juliaca, had been attacked “in a concerted manner.”

“All the rigour of the law will fall on those people who have acted with vandalism,” Boluarte said.

The mounting death toll stands at 45, according to the government ombudsman, with the latest victim on Thursday coming from the southern Puno region, a woman who succumbed to injuries from a day earlier. Another nine deaths are attributed to accidents related to protest blockades.

State of emergency

Across the nation, road blockades were seen in 18 of the country’s 25 regions, according to transport officials, underscoring the reach of the protests.

Police had increased surveillance of roads entering Lima and political leaders called for calm.

Last week, the embattled Boluarte government extended a state of emergency in Lima and the southern regions of Puno and Cusco, curtailing some civil rights.

Boluarte said the situation in the country was “under control.” She called for dialogue.

The president has asked for “forgiveness” for the protest deaths, even as protester banners label her a “murderer” and call the killings by security forces “massacres.” She has dismissed calls to resign.

Human rights groups have accused the police and army of using deadly firearms in the protests. The police say the protesters have used weapons and homemade explosives.

“We won’t forget the pain the police have caused in the town of Juliaca,” said one protester travelling to Lima, who did not give her name. She referred to the city where an especially deadly protest took place this month. “We women, men, children have to fight.”

Other protesters pointed to strategic reasons for targeting the coastal capital.

“We want to centralize our movement here in Lima, which is the heart of Peru, to see if they are moved,” said protester Domingo Cueva, who had travelled from Cusco.

“We have observed an increase in repressions everywhere,” he added.

Awad al-Qarni was among dozens of prominent clerics and dissidents arrested in September 2017, three months after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman became first in line to the throne.

Human rights activists accuse Prince Mohammed of overseeing a crackdown on critics seen as harsh even by the standards of Saudi Arabia, which does not allow political opposition. The prosecution’s filing was shared by Qarni’s son Nasser, who last year fled to the United Kingdom to seek asylum.

Prosecutors accuse Qarni of spreading anti-government messages on Facebook and on Twitter, where he has two million followers.

“He tweets from his Twitter account at every opportunity, using it as a means to express his misguided opinions and direction,” the court document states.

Objectionable posts cited in the document include statements of support for the Muslim Brotherhood, criticism of Saudi judicial decisions and commentary on a diplomatic rift that saw Saudi Arabia lead a years-long boycott of neighbouring Qatar.

The two Gulf countries later mended ties during a summit in January 2021.

The posts are seen as being part of “efforts to destabilise the nation’s foundation, turning society against its rulers, stirring up unrest and showing sympathy for a hostile state (Qatar),” the filing states.

They also convey “support for the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist organisation against the homeland and its rulers,” the filing added.

Qarni is also accused of “striving to destabilise the social fabric… and stir up public opinion by inciting sedition and division between Muslims and between the ruler and the ruled”.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude exporter, is pursuing an ambitious reform agenda intended to attract foreign investment and tourists while diversifying its oil-dependent economy.

Yet the kingdom still faces lingering reputational damage from the 2018 killing by Saudi agents of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

And it is routinely criticised for harsh court rulings, including decades-long prison sentences handed down last year to two women who tweeted and retweeted posts critical of the government.

Saudi officials have not commented on those cases, and they did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday about the case against Qarni.

The prosecution’s request for the death penalty for Qarni is another example of overreach by “kangaroo courts”, said Abdullah Alaoudh, Gulf research director for Democracy for the Arab World Now, a US-based rights group founded by Khashoggi. Alaoudh’s father, Salman al-Awdah, is another prominent cleric who was arrested around the same time as Qarni.

The cases against the two men stem from “bogus charges relating to their peaceful work, books and tweets”, Alaoudh said.

Modi was the chief minister of the western state of Gujarat when it was gripped by riots that left more than 1,000 people dead — most of them Muslims. The violence erupted after a train carrying Hindu pilgrims caught fire, killing 59.

 

 

Accused of failing to stop the rioting, Modi denied the accusations and was exonerated in 2012 following an inquiry by India’s top court. Another petition questioning his exoneration was dismissed last year.

Terming the BBC documentary a “propaganda piece” meant to push a “discredited narrative”, foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said a “bias”, “lack of objectivity”, and “continuing colonial mindset” is “blatantly visible” in it.

 

 

“It makes us wonder about the purpose of this exercise and the agenda behind it, and we do not wish to dignify such efforts,” he told a news conference.

The BBC, contacted for comment, said the documentary was “rigorously researched” and involved a “wide range” of voices and opinions, including responses from people in Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“We offered the Indian government a right to reply to the matters raised in the series it declined to respond,” a BBC spokesperson said.

In a move hailed by Yazidi community representatives, deputies in the Bundestag passed the motion by the three parliamentary groups in Germany’s ruling centre-left-led coalition and conservative MPs.

The chamber “recognises the crimes against the Yazidi community as genocide, following the legal evaluations of investigators from the United Nations,” the resolution said, after similar moves by countries including Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The text condemns “indescribable atrocities” and “tyrannical injustice” carried out by IS fighters “with the intention of completely wiping out the Yazidi community”.

The motion urges the German judicial system to pursue further criminal cases against suspects in Germany and the government to increase financial support to collect evidence of crimes in Iraq and boost funding to help rebuild shattered Yazidi communi-ties.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum, Mohammed Al-Jadaan also indicated the kingdom is changing the way it provides assistance to allies, shifting from previously giving direct grants and deposits unconditionally.

“We used to give direct grants and deposits without strings attached and we are changing that. We are working with multilateral institutions to actually say we need to see reforms,” the minister said.

“We are taxing our people, we are expecting also others to do the same, to do their efforts. We want to help but we want you also to do your part.”

Earlier this month, Saudi state media reported the kingdom could boost its investments in cash-strapped Pakistan to $10 billion, from the $1 billion announced in August, as well as increase the ceiling on deposits into the Pakistan central bank to $5 billion.

“We are providing even oil and derivatives to support their energy needs,” Al Jadaan said. “So there is a lot of efforts, but we wanted this to be conducted.”

Separately, the minister also indicated that Saudi Arabia is open to discussions about trade in currencies other than the US dollar.

“There are no issues with discussing how we settle our trade arrangements, whether it is in the US dollar, whether it is the euro, whether it is the Saudi riyal,” Al-Jadaan told Bloomberg TV on Tuesday.

“I don’t think we are waving away or ruling out any discussion that will help improve the trade around the world,” he said.

The world’s largest oil exporter, which has maintained a currency peg to the dollar for decades, is seeking to strengthen its relations with crucial trade partners including China. The kingdom is a pillar of the petrodollar system established in the 1970s that relies on pricing crude exports in the US currency.

 

Asked about Saudi ties with major trade partner China, Jadaan said Riyadh was taking a “wider approach” in which relations with both Beijing and Washington were important as well as building ties with other countries.

“We are looking to enhance our relationship with Europe. We are actually advancing our relationship with Latin America, with Asia,” he said.

During President Xi Jinping’s visit to Riyadh last year, the two countries agreed to boost coordination on energy policy and exploration. During that trip Xi said that China would make efforts to buy more oil from the Middle East and also wanted to settle that trade in the yuan.

“We enjoy a very strategic relationship with China and we enjoy that same strategic relationship with other nations including the US and we want to develop that with Europe and other countries who are willing and able to work with us,” Al-Jadaan said.

The decision was slammed by Prime Minister Netanyahu’s coalition, which vowed to push ahead with controversial measures that would weaken the Supreme Court and its power to strike down legislation.

Netanyahu returned to power last month at the head of a coalition with extreme-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties following Israel’s Nov 1 election.

His appointment of Aryeh Deri as health and interior minister “could not stand” since it was “extremely unreasonable”, according to a summary of the court’s decision.

In a 10-1 decision, the judges said Netanyahu “must remove Deri from his position”.

Deri, head of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, admitted last year to tax evasion, was fined 180,000 shekels ($50,000) and relinquished his parliamentary seat.

The judges said Deri made it appear as if he had intended to resign from politics to get a lighter sentence. He ran for office again in the November polls.

In Israel, which does not have a constitution, the Supreme Court currently has the authority to repeal laws or government decisions it considers discriminatory or unreasonable. Lawmakers last month passed legislation that allows anyone convicted of offences but not given a custodial sentence to serve as a minister.

Deri’s Shas party called the court’s decision “political”, “extremely unreasonable” and “unprecedented”, but refrained from announcing any concrete measures.

It said the ruling “threw away the voices and votes of 400,000 Shas supporters” and rendered the elections “meaningless”. Justice Minister Yariv Levin slammed the ruling as “absurd”.

Levin, a member of Netanyahu’s right-wing party Likud, announced earlier this month a controversial plan to revamp Israel’s legal system, including handing more powers to lawmakers in appointing judges and overriding Supreme Court decisions.