Egyptians have overwhelmingly voted in favour of a new constitution drafted by the army-backed interim government, according to early results.

The tally, released on Thursday, also shows that turnout in this week’s referendum was at least modestly higher than for a 2012 constitutional ballot held during the rule of deposed president Mohamed Morsi.

An unofficial tally from 25 of Egypt’s 27 governorates showed that 97 percent of voters said yes to the constitution, with less than one percent voting no. The remaining ballots were spoiled or otherwise invalid.

There are no results yet from Cairo, the country’s most populous governorate, or from North Sinai.

But turnout was about 38 percent, with 17.4 million people voting, putting it ahead of 2012, when 17 million people – roughly 33 percent of registered voters – participated.

Galal Mustafa Saeed, the governor of Cairo, said he expected turnout in the city to top 40 percent, though that figure could not be verified.

Official media hailed the outcome as an “unprecedented majority”.

“Egyptians inaugurate a new history for the region,” proclaimed the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper.

Army spokesman Colonel Ahmed Ali said the result “confirms that Egyptians are the first free population in recorded history,” according to the official MENA news agency.

The two-day vote was the first ballot since the army overthrew Morsi on Jul. 3, with the new constitution replacing a 2012 one drafted during his short-lived presidency.

Although there were no reports of violence on Wednesday, at least 11 people were killed in clashes across the country on Tuesday, and a bomb damaged a courthouse in Cairo’s Imbaba neighbourhood two hours before polls opened.

The new constitution, like its predecessor, allows the military to prosecute civilians for attacks on army personnel or institutions.

By the numbers

Voter turnout increased the most in South Sinai, where 91 percent of registered voters turned out, up from just 27 percent in the last referendum. The region’s tourism-based economy has been battered by three years of instability.

Turnout was also up in the Nile Delta, a region that has historically not been friendly to Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood.

In Minoufia and Daqahliya governorates, turnout grew by 19 percent; in Sharqiya, Morsi’s birthplace, it was up 15 percent.

The largest drop was in Matrouh governorate in northwestern Egypt, along the border with Libya. Just 20 percent of residents came out to vote, down from 34 percent during the 2012 referendum.

The area has a large Salafi population, suggesting that many of their voters stayed home, even though the Nour Party, the largest Salafi grouping, has been a vocal supporter of the new constitution.

Turnout was also down in a few governorates with large Brotherhood populations, including Minya and Beni Suef.

Official results from the two-day referendum are expected by Saturday.

Government sources said interim President Adly Mansour will then issue a decree “within days” to schedule presidential and parliamentary elections, both planned for the first half of this year.

* Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has declared a state of emergency in two states, according to the government’s official Twitter account.

The decree issued on Wednesday covers Unity and Jonglei, where government troops and rebel forces loyal to former vice president Riek Machar have been engaged in fighting.

The declaration came as the rival factions were set to open talks in Ethiopia on Thursday, aimed at bringing an end to the nearly three-week-old conflict, despite reports of an imminent military showdown in Jonglei.

Sources said government and rebel negotiators arrived in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Wednesday.

Ethiopian government spokesman Getachew Reda said the talks would focus on “monitoring mechanisms for the ceasefire”.

Following the fall of Bor, Jonglei’s state capital, into the hands of the rebels on Tuesday, the government and rebels loyal to Machar agreed to meet for talks.

The South Sudan government, however, refused to call it a ceasefire, saying negotiators must first agree on “mechanisms” for talks to move forward.

Fierce battle imminent

For his part, Kiir named eight negotiators to represent his government in the proposed talks in Ethiopia, Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Adow reported from the South Sudanese capital Juba on Wednesday.

Despite the preparations for the talks, thousands of government troops were making their way to Bor in an effort to wrest back control of the Jonglei state capital, setting up another possible fierce battle with rebels.

Our correspondent quoted government sources as saying that “it is just a matter of time” before they retake Bor, which was captured by rebels on Tuesday.

Fighting is also going on in other fronts like Mayom and Malakal, he said.

Violence first erupted in South Sudan on Dec. 15, when Kiir accused Machar of attempting a coup.

Machar has denied this, in turn accusing Kiir of conducting a violent purge of his opponents.

The fighting has since spread across the country, with the rebels seizing several areas in the oil-rich north.

Thousands of people are feared dead, U.N. officials said, while close to 200,000 civilians have been forced to flee their homes – many seeking refuge with badly overstretched U.N. peacekeepers.

Jacob Kurtzer, a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross, told Al Jazeera that refugees need immediate help.

The U.N. has said it will do everything it can to prevent further “terrible acts of violence” in South Sudan.

“We have seen terrible acts of violence in the past two weeks, there has been killings and brutality, grave human rights violations and atrocities committed,” Hilde Johnson, U.N. special representative to South Sudan, told Al Jazeera.

The conflict has been marked by an apparent surge in ethnic violence pitting members of Kiir’s Dinka tribe against Machar’s Nuer community.

Continuing ‘atrocities’

The U.N. Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said “atrocities are continuing to occur” across the country despite efforts to negotiate a ceasefire.

“UNMISS is gravely concerned about mounting evidence of gross violations of international human rights law that have occurred in South Sudan during the past 15 days,” it said in a statement, reporting “extra-judicial killings of civilians and captured soldiers” and the “discovery of large numbers of bodies” in Juba, Bor and Malakal, the main town in oil-producing Upper Nile state.

UNMISS has said it is “actively collecting information” on the atrocities to be used for future official investigations.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has already given warning that senior South Sudanese figures “will be held personally accountable” for any crimes against humanity.

Johnson, the U.N. special representative, has said there is evidence that South Sudanese citizens are being targeted “on ethnic grounds”.

“This can lead to a perpetual cycle of violence that can destroy the fabric of the new nation,” she said.

“We need to do everything possible to prevent such a cycle of violence between communities of South Sudan.”

However South Sudan political analyst Matthew LeRiche told Al Jazeera the fighting is “very much a political struggle” rather than an ethnic conflict.

He noted that Kiir and Machar belonged to the same government and the same party, until they split due to political differences.

Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has declared a state of emergency in two states, according to the government’s official Twitter account.

The decree issued on Wednesday covers Unity and Jonglei, where government troops and rebel forces loyal to former vice president Riek Machar have been engaged in fighting. The declaration came as the rival factions were set to open talks in Ethiopia on Thursday, aimed at bringing an end to the nearly three-week-old conflict, despite reports of an imminent military showdown in Jonglei.

Sources said government and rebel negotiators arrived in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Wednesday.

Ethiopian government spokesman Getachew Reda said the talks would focus on “monitoring mechanisms for the ceasefire”. Following the fall of Bor, Jonglei’s state capital, into the hands of the rebels on Tuesday, the government and rebels loyal to Machar agreed to meet for talks.

The South Sudan government, however, refused to call it a ceasefire, saying negotiators must first agree on “mechanisms” for talks to move forward. For his part, Kiir named eight negotiators to represent his government in the proposed talks in Ethiopia, Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Adow reported from the South Sudanese capital Juba on Wednesday.

Despite the preparations for the talks, thousands of government troops were making their way to Bor in an effort to wrest back control of the Jonglei state capital, setting up another possible fierce battle with rebels. Our correspondent quoted government sources as saying that “it is just a matter of time” before they retake Bor, which was captured by rebels on Tuesday.

Fighting is also going on in other fronts like Mayom and Malakal, he said. Violence first erupted in South Sudan on Dec. 15, when Kiir accused Machar of attempting a coup. Machar has denied this, in turn accusing Kiir of conducting a violent purge of his opponents. The fighting has since spread across the country, with the rebels seizing several areas in the oil-rich north.

Thousands of people are feared dead, U.N. officials said, while close to 200,000 civilians have been forced to flee their homes – many seeking refuge with badly overstretched U.N. peacekeepers. Jacob Kurtzer, a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross, told Al Jazeera that refugees need immediate help.

The U.N. has said it will do everything it can to prevent further “terrible acts of violence” in South Sudan. “We have seen terrible acts of violence in the past two weeks, there has been killings and brutality, grave human rights violations and atrocities committed,” Hilde Johnson, U.N. special representative to South Sudan, told Al Jazeera.

The conflict has been marked by an apparent surge in ethnic violence pitting members of Kiir’s Dinka tribe against Machar’s Nuer community. The U.N. Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said “atrocities are continuing to occur” across the country despite efforts to negotiate a ceasefire.

“UNMISS is gravely concerned about mounting evidence of gross violations of international human rights law that have occurred in South Sudan during the past 15 days,” it said in a statement, reporting “extra-judicial killings of civilians and captured soldiers” and the “discovery of large numbers of bodies” in Juba, Bor and Malakal, the main town in oil-producing Upper Nile state.

UNMISS has said it is “actively collecting information” on the atrocities to be used for future official investigations. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has already given warning that senior South Sudanese figures “will be held personally accountable” for any crimes against humanity.

Johnson, the U.N. special representative, has said there is evidence that South Sudanese citizens are being targeted “on ethnic grounds”. “This can lead to a perpetual cycle of violence that can destroy the fabric of the new nation,” she said. “We need to do everything possible to prevent such a cycle of violence between communities of South Sudan.”

However South Sudan political analyst Matthew LeRiche told Al Jazeera the fighting is “very much a political struggle” rather than an ethnic conflict. He noted that Kiir and Machar belonged to the same government and the same party, until they split due to political differences.

Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

Women’s rights activists in Morocco have criticised the Islamist-led government for excluding them from drafting proposed legislation to combat violence against women and for seeking to dilute the bill through changes.

The long-awaited bill is currently under study in Morocco. It comes after the adoption of a new constitution in 2011 that enshrines gender equality and urges the state to promote it.

A preliminary version of the bill, which is still in the drafting stage, threatens prison sentences of up to 25 years for perpetrators of violence against women.

In addition, the bill would take unprecedented steps towards criminalising sexual harassment, risking possible three-year prison terms for suspects.

“We have waited for years for this law and we are now very disappointed by its content,” said Najat Errazi, who heads the Moroccan Association for Women’s Rights, speaking at a meeting held in Casablanca to discuss the bill, according to the AFP news agency.

Sara Soujar, another activist speaking at the meeting, argued that the bill fails to include provisions relating to single women.

“This category is totally absent… Reading the text, you get the impression that violence basically only affects married or divorced women, even though others may be more exposed,” she said.

“Young women who work in factories or as housemaids, many of whom are minors, are no less exposed.”

Government committee set up

In the face of these objections, the government has been forced to establish a committee, headed by Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane of the Islamist Party of Justice and Development, to review the draft law and demonstrate its willingness to cooperate.

Progress is being closely followed in Morocco, where many have had traumatic personal experiences of a kind that the proposed legislation is designed to deter.

Rights groups’ concerns resonate with the findings of a study recently published by the state planning commission (HCP).

The research says around one in every two unmarried women in Morocco was subjected to physical and/or verbal sexual violence during the year that it was carried out.

According to the study, nearly nine percent of women in Morocco have been physically subjected to sexual violence at least once.

Sexual violence of a physical or psychological nature has affected some 25 percent of women overall, and a startling 40 percent among 18- to 24-year-olds.

Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

Honduras’ electoral tribunal has declared Juan Orlando Hernández the clear winner of the country’s presidential elections, despite persisting allegations of fraud from the opposition candidate.

Figures from 81.5 percent of polling stations tallied by Wednesday gave Hernández, a conservative, 35.88 percent of the vote, compared to 29.14 percent for his rival, Xiomara Castro.

The electoral tribunal said Hernández’s lead was insurmountable.

“These numbers that we released today clearly indicate that the winner of the general election is Juan Orlando Hernández,” said David Matamoros, president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.

“In the coming days, we will issue the official declaration, once we have added the records that are needed.”

Castro has accused the Supreme Electoral Tribunal of manipulating 19 percent of the votes, in order to favour Hernández. Her campaign has called for massive protests over the alleged fraud.

“On Saturday, we are going to summon people to protest. The Libre [Party] and Xiomara [Castro] have been robbed of their victory, and we are going to show it,” Castro’s husband, ex-president Manuel Zelaya, told Radio and TV Globo.

In a Twitter post on Tuesday, Castro said: “We will defend the will of the people as it was expressed at the polls.”

A struggling state

The governments of Colombia, Guatemala, Panama and Costa Rica congratulated Hernández on his victory, while Nicaragua’s leftist President Daniel Ortega also recognised Hernández as the winner.

Tensions were running high as the political standoff spread to the streets with protests by about 400 students.

On Tuesday, police beat and used tear gas against about 800 pro-Castro protesters.

About 100 police in helmets and riot gear used gas and then truncheons to beat the chanting youths.

The clash between Hernández and Castro brought new uncertainty to a country reeling from gang violence, poverty and the wounds of a 2009 coup that removed Zelaya from his seat.

In Honduras, known as one of the world’s deadliest nations, gangs run whole neighbourhoods, extorting businesses large and small.

Drug cartels have used Honduras as a transfer point for shipping illegal drugs, especially cocaine, from South America to the U.S.

Honduras is the poorest country in the Americas after Haiti, with the majority of the population living in poverty.

Published in agreement with Al Jazeera.

(Al Jazeera) – Honduras’ electoral tribunal has declared Juan Orlando Hernández the clear winner of the country’s presidential elections, despite persisting allegations of fraud from the opposition candidate.

Figures from 81.5 percent of polling stations tallied by Wednesday gave Hernández, a conservative, 35.88 percent of the vote, compared to 29.14 percent for his rival, Xiomara Castro. The electoral tribunal said Hernández’s lead was insurmountable.

“These numbers that we released today clearly indicate that the winner of the general election is Juan Orlando Hernández,” said David Matamoros, president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. “In the coming days, we will issue the official declaration, once we have added the records that are needed.”

Castro has accused the Supreme Electoral Tribunal of manipulating 19 percent of the votes, in order to favour Hernández. Her campaign has called for massive protests over the alleged fraud. “On Saturday, we are going to summon people to protest. The Libre [Party] and Xiomara [Castro] have been robbed of their victory, and we are going to show it,” Castro’s husband, ex-president Manuel Zelaya, told Radio and TV Globo.

In a Twitter post on Tuesday, Castro said: “We will defend the will of the people as it was expressed at the polls.” The governments of Colombia, Guatemala, Panama and Costa Rica congratulated Hernández on his victory, while Nicaragua’s leftist President Daniel Ortega also recognised Hernández as the winner.

Tensions were running high as the political standoff spread to the streets with protests by about 400 students. On Tuesday, police beat and used tear gas against about 800 pro-Castro protesters. About 100 police in helmets and riot gear used gas and then truncheons to beat the chanting youths.

The clash between Hernández and Castro brought new uncertainty to a country reeling from gang violence, poverty and the wounds of a 2009 coup that removed Zelaya from his seat. In Honduras, known as one of the world’s deadliest nations, gangs run whole neighbourhoods, extorting businesses large and small.

Drug cartels have used Honduras as a transfer point for shipping illegal drugs, especially cocaine, from South America to the U.S. Honduras is the poorest country in the Americas after Haiti, with the majority of the population living in poverty.

Published in agreement with Al Jazeera.

A sailboat passing through the southern Bahamas islands with about 150 Haitian migrants on board capsized after running aground, killing up to 30 people and leaving the rest clinging to the vessel for hours, authorities said Tuesday.

The exact death toll remained uncertain. Authorities on the scene confirmed at least 20 dead and determined the number could reach 30 based on accounts from survivors, said Lt. Origin Deleveaux, a Royal Bahamas Defence Force spokesman.

The remains of five victims had been recovered and the Bahamas military and police were working with the U.S. Coast Guard to recover additional bodies as they pulled survivors from the stranded sailboat.

“Right now, we are just trying to recover as many bodies as we possibly can,” Deleveaux said.

Authorities believe the migrants had been at sea for eight to nine days with limited food and water and no life jackets, Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Gabe Somma said. Many were severely dehydrated when the first rescue crews reached them. The boat, in addition to being overloaded, likely encountered rough weather, Deleveaux said.

“It was obviously just grossly overloaded, unbalanced, unseaworthy,” Somma said. “An incredibly dangerous voyage.”

The capsizing of overloaded vessels occurs with disturbing frequency in the area, most recently in mid-October when four Haitian women died off Miami. There have also been fatal incidents near the Turks and Caicos Islands, between Haiti and the Bahamas, and in the rough Mona Passage that divides the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

“Unfortunately, we see these types of tragedies occur on a monthly basis,” Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Ryan Doss said. “Every year we see hundreds of migrants needlessly lose their lives at sea taking part in these dangerous and illegal voyages.”

It’s common enough that the Coast Guard recently developed a public service announcement that will run on TV and radio in Florida, Haiti, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic urging people not to risk the deadly ocean voyages.

This latest incident occurred late Monday near Harvey Cays, about 80 miles southeast of New Providence, the island that includes the capital of Nassau, and 260 miles southeast of Miami.

Fishermen spotted the dangerously overloaded sailboat and alerted the Bahamian military, which asked the Coast Guard for assistance in locating the vessel, Somma said. By the time it was spotted, the 40-foot boat had run aground in an area dotted with tiny outcroppings and reefs and then capsized.

Photos taken by the Coast Guard showed people clinging to every available space on the overturned vessel. Some were taken to a clinic on nearby Staniel Cay for treatment for dehydration.

By late Tuesday afternoon, the Coast Guard and Bahamian authorities had rescued about 110 people, including 19 women. Deleveaux said there were no children on board. Smugglers will often seek to blend in with the migrants when they are captured and authorities did not announce any arrests.

Migrants have long traversed the Bahamian archipelago to reach the United States. Thousands have also settled in the Bahamas in recent years. Deleveaux said those rescued from the boat near Harvey Cays would be taken to a military base on New Providence, processed and then repatriated to Haiti.

Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

(Al Jazeera) – A sailboat passing through the southern Bahamas islands with about 150 Haitian migrants on board capsized after running aground, killing up to 30 people and leaving the rest clinging to the vessel for hours, authorities said Tuesday.

The exact death toll remained uncertain. Authorities on the scene confirmed at least 20 dead and determined the number could reach 30 based on accounts from survivors, said Lt. Origin Deleveaux, a Royal Bahamas Defence Force spokesman.

The remains of five victims had been recovered and the Bahamas military and police were working with the U.S. Coast Guard to recover additional bodies as they pulled survivors from the stranded sailboat.

“Right now, we are just trying to recover as many bodies as we possibly can,” Deleveaux said.

Authorities believe the migrants had been at sea for eight to nine days with limited food and water and no life jackets, Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Gabe Somma said. Many were severely dehydrated when the first rescue crews reached them. The boat, in addition to being overloaded, likely encountered rough weather, Deleveaux said.

“It was obviously just grossly overloaded, unbalanced, unseaworthy,” Somma said. “An incredibly dangerous voyage.”

The capsizing of overloaded vessels occurs with disturbing frequency in the area, most recently in mid-October when four Haitian women died off Miami. There have also been fatal incidents near the Turks and Caicos Islands, between Haiti and the Bahamas, and in the rough Mona Passage that divides the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

“Unfortunately, we see these types of tragedies occur on a monthly basis,” Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Ryan Doss said. “Every year we see hundreds of migrants needlessly lose their lives at sea taking part in these dangerous and illegal voyages.”

It’s common enough that the Coast Guard recently developed a public service announcement that will run on TV and radio in Florida, Haiti, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic urging people not to risk the deadly ocean voyages. This latest incident occurred late Monday near Harvey Cays, about 80 miles southeast of New Providence, the island that includes the capital of Nassau, and 260 miles southeast of Miami.

Fishermen spotted the dangerously overloaded sailboat and alerted the Bahamian military, which asked the Coast Guard for assistance in locating the vessel, Somma said. By the time it was spotted, the 40-foot boat had run aground in an area dotted with tiny outcroppings and reefs and then capsized.

Photos taken by the Coast Guard showed people clinging to every available space on the overturned vessel. Some were taken to a clinic on nearby Staniel Cay for treatment for dehydration. By late Tuesday afternoon, the Coast Guard and Bahamian authorities had rescued about 110 people, including 19 women. Deleveaux said there were no children on board. Smugglers will often seek to blend in with the migrants when they are captured and authorities did not announce any arrests.

Migrants have long traversed the Bahamian archipelago to reach the United States. Thousands have also settled in the Bahamas in recent years. Deleveaux said those rescued from the boat near Harvey Cays would be taken to a military base on New Providence, processed and then repatriated to Haiti.

Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

Syrian government troops are targeting media centres and news providers, Reporters Without Borders has warned after the killing of a citizen journalist and the destruction of premises belonging to two media centres within a week.

The journalism advocacy group on Wednesday also said there has been an increase in abductions of news providers by armed groups in and around the city of Aleppo since the start of November.

At least five Syrian citizen journalists have been kidnapped in the past three weeks, Reporters Without Borders said.

On Tuesday, Mohamed Ahmed Taysir Bellou, the editor of the opposition Al-Shahba TV and a reporter for Shahba Press Agency, was shot dead by a sniper while covering clashes between President Bashar al-Assad’s troops and rebels in Aleppo’s Lairmoon district.

The army also bombarded the premises of the Aleppo News Network and the Aleppo Media Centre “within the space of 48 hours,” Reporters Without Borders said.
In addition, the organisation reported that more than 20 Syrian news providers were being held hostage by armed groups, while a total of 16 foreign journalists were detained, held hostage or missing.

“The increased pace of abductions is extremely disturbing,” Reporters Without Borders said.

In Damascus, independent journalist Omar Al-Shaar was kidnapped from his home in the southwestern suburb of Jaramana two weeks ago by government intelligence officials, the organisation said.

Al-Qaeda threat

Shaar is a professional journalist and the editor of the English-language section of the independent DP-Press News website since 2011.

Reporters Without Borders also noted that Syrian news providers were fleeing the country “in large numbers” due to the threat posed by the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a group operating in rebel-held areas.

The organisation said more than ten media workers had sought refuge in neighbouring Turkey since the beginning of November.

“The only media that the [Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] tolerates are those that publish or broadcast the information or communiques approved by their emirs [commanders]. In its view, all other media must be silenced and their employees must be killed,” the organisation said.

Syria has become the most dangerous place for journalists, photographers and video journalists to work, with at least 50 reporters killed since the start of the war, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

In 2011, Syria was ranked the eighth most dangerous country in the world for journalists, with two reporters killed.

In 2012, conditions deteriorated and Syria became easily the most hazardous country for the media, with 31 journalists killed in combat, or targeted by either government or opposition forces.

This year, 17 journalists have been killed so far.

Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

(Al Jazeera) – Syrian government troops are targeting media centres and news providers, Reporters Without Borders has warned after the killing of a citizen journalist and the destruction of premises belonging to two media centres within a week.

The journalism advocacy group on Wednesday also said there has been an increase in abductions of news providers by armed groups in and around the city of Aleppo since the start of November. At least five Syrian citizen journalists have been kidnapped in the past three weeks, Reporters Without Borders said.

On Tuesday, Mohamed Ahmed Taysir Bellou, the editor of the opposition Al-Shahba TV and a reporter for Shahba Press Agency, was shot dead by a sniper while covering clashes between President Bashar al-Assad’s troops and rebels in Aleppo’s Lairmoon district.

The army also bombarded the premises of the Aleppo News Network and the Aleppo Media Centre “within the space of 48 hours,” Reporters Without Borders said. In addition, the organisation reported that more than 20 Syrian news providers were being held hostage by armed groups, while a total of 16 foreign journalists were detained, held hostage or missing.

“The increased pace of abductions is extremely disturbing,” Reporters Without Borders said. In Damascus, independent journalist Omar Al-Shaar was kidnapped from his home in the southwestern suburb of Jaramana two weeks ago by government intelligence officials, the organisation said.

Shaar is a professional journalist and the editor of the English-language section of the independent DP-Press News website since 2011. Reporters Without Borders also noted that Syrian news providers were fleeing the country “in large numbers” due to the threat posed by the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a group operating in rebel-held areas.

The organisation said more than ten media workers had sought refuge in neighbouring Turkey since the beginning of November. “The only media that the [Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] tolerates are those that publish or broadcast the information or communiques approved by their emirs [commanders]. In its view, all other media must be silenced and their employees must be killed,” the organisation said.

Syria has become the most dangerous place for journalists, photographers and video journalists to work, with at least 50 reporters killed since the start of the war, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. In 2011, Syria was ranked the eighth most dangerous country in the world for journalists, with two reporters killed.

In 2012, conditions deteriorated and Syria became easily the most hazardous country for the media, with 31 journalists killed in combat, or targeted by either government or opposition forces. This year, 17 journalists have been killed so far.

Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

Remains of some of the over 800,000 victims of Rwanda’s genocide. Credit: Edwin Musoni/IPS

By AJ Correspondents
DOHA, Nov 14 2013 (Al Jazeera)

A French appeals court has approved the extradition of two Rwandans wanted at home for their alleged role in the 1994 genocide that claimed about 800,000 lives.

The ruling on Claude Muhayimana, 52, a French citizen since 2010, and Innocent Musabyimana, 41, is not final and can still be challenged.

Although countries such as Canada and Norway have extradited genocide suspects, France has so far refused to do so, fearing they would be denied a fair trial.

But it has sent some to Tanzania to face trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

The two men’s case will now go up to a higher court for a final ruling after their lawyer, Philippe Meilhac, signalled his intention to appeal.

If the extradition is approved, France would still have to sign an extradition treaty with Rwanda for the pair to be sent back.

The head of the appeals court, Jean Bertholin, told the men their “lives will not be in danger if you return to your country and you will be guaranteed a fair trial”.

Ruling welcomed

Muhayimana is accused of taking part in the massacre of ethnic Tutsis in the western town of Kibuye and Musabyimana in the north-western province of Gisenyi, near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The genocide, which pitted the majority Hutu against the minority Tutsi, began after a plane carrying Rwandan former president Juvenal Habyarimana and his Burundian counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down as it approached the airport in Kigali, the capital. Both presidents were killed.

Muhayimana and Musabyimana have already appeared in front of appeals courts in Dijon and Rouen which ordered their extradition.

The rulings were quashed by the Court of Cassation – France’s highest appeals court, which rules only on points of law – which sent them on to the Paris appeals court.

French prosecutors said that while the two men could not be extradited on a number of the crimes attributed to them, they could be for those of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Alain Mukuralinda, a spokesman for Rwanda’s prosecutor general, said the office was “satisfied” with the ruling.

“If the appeals court judge decided to extradite, that means there is hope because it means [the judge] based his decision on concrete things,” he said.

“This means the investigation carried out in Rwanda was well done,” he said.

Genocide is punishable under a Jun. 19, 1994 law passed in Rwanda. The killings there began in April that year.

Before the genocide, France had been one of Rwanda’s main backers. But in the aftermath, relations between the two countries collapsed.

Paul Kagame, the Rwandan president who came to power as a Tutsi rebel leader after the genocide, accused France of training and arming Hutu militia that perpetrated the genocide – an accusation strenuously denied by Paris.

Diplomatic ties between France and Rwanda were severed in 2006 when a French judge said Kagame and others had orchestrated the assassination of Habyarimana to trigger the bloodshed – an accusation he denies and which the French courts have since dropped.

But both trade and diplomatic relations have recently strengthened.

Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

(Al Jazeera) – A French appeals court has approved the extradition of two Rwandans wanted at home for their alleged role in the 1994 genocide that claimed about 800,000 lives.

Remains of some of the over 800,000 victims of Rwanda’s genocide. Credit: Edwin Musoni/IPS

The ruling on Claude Muhayimana, 52, a French citizen since 2010, and Innocent Musabyimana, 41, is not final and can still be challenged. Although countries such as Canada and Norway have extradited genocide suspects, France has so far refused to do so, fearing they would be denied a fair trial.

But it has sent some to Tanzania to face trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The two men’s case will now go up to a higher court for a final ruling after their lawyer, Philippe Meilhac, signalled his intention to appeal.

If the extradition is approved, France would still have to sign an extradition treaty with Rwanda for the pair to be sent back. The head of the appeals court, Jean Bertholin, told the men their “lives will not be in danger if you return to your country and you will be guaranteed a fair trial”.

Muhayimana is accused of taking part in the massacre of ethnic Tutsis in the western town of Kibuye and Musabyimana in the north-western province of Gisenyi, near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The genocide, which pitted the majority Hutu against the minority Tutsi, began after a plane carrying Rwandan former president Juvenal Habyarimana and his Burundian counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down as it approached the airport in Kigali, the capital. Both presidents were killed.

Muhayimana and Musabyimana have already appeared in front of appeals courts in Dijon and Rouen which ordered their extradition. The rulings were quashed by the Court of Cassation – France’s highest appeals court, which rules only on points of law – which sent them on to the Paris appeals court.

French prosecutors said that while the two men could not be extradited on a number of the crimes attributed to them, they could be for those of genocide and crimes against humanity. Alain Mukuralinda, a spokesman for Rwanda’s prosecutor general, said the office was “satisfied” with the ruling.

“If the appeals court judge decided to extradite, that means there is hope because it means [the judge] based his decision on concrete things,” he said. “This means the investigation carried out in Rwanda was well done,” he said.

Genocide is punishable under a Jun. 19, 1994 law passed in Rwanda. The killings there began in April that year. Before the genocide, France had been one of Rwanda’s main backers. But in the aftermath, relations between the two countries collapsed.

Paul Kagame, the Rwandan president who came to power as a Tutsi rebel leader after the genocide, accused France of training and arming Hutu militia that perpetrated the genocide – an accusation strenuously denied by Paris.

Diplomatic ties between France and Rwanda were severed in 2006 when a French judge said Kagame and others had orchestrated the assassination of Habyarimana to trigger the bloodshed – an accusation he denies and which the French courts have since dropped. But both trade and diplomatic relations have recently strengthened.

Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

U.S. Marines are assisting the Philippine government with humanitarian aid and disaster relief in the wake of Super Typhoon Haiyan. Credit: U.S. Embassy, Jakarta/cc by 2.0

By AJ Correspondents
DOHA, Qatar, Nov 13 2013 (Al Jazeera)

Relief operations in typhoon-devastated parts of the Philippines picked up pace Wednesday, but still only minimal amounts of water, food and medical supplies were making it to increasingly desperate survivors in the hardest-hit places.

“We need help. Nothing is happening. We haven’t eaten since yesterday afternoon,” pleaded a weeping Aristone Balute, an 81-year-old woman who failed to get a flight out of the ravaged city of Tacloban for Manila, the capital. Her clothes were soaked from a pouring rain, and tears streamed down her face.

Five days after the deadly disaster, aid is coming, but too slowly for many. Pallets of supplies and teams of doctors are waiting to get into Tacloban — but the challenges of delivering the assistance mean few in the stricken city have received help, sparking looting in some areas.

Security forces exchanged fire on Wednesday with armed men amid widespread looting of shops and warehouses for food, water and other supplies, local television reported.

The confrontation broke out in the village of Abucay, part of Tacloban in Leyte province, said ANC Television. Military officials were unable to immediately confirm the fighting.

Meanwhile, the death toll continues to fluctuate. The Philippine government says the original estimate of 10,000 killed is too high. So far, 1,833 have been confirmed dead and 2,623 injured. The total death toll will likely be closer to 2,000 or 2,500, President Benigno Aquino III told CNN on Tuesday.

But the reduction in casualty figures provided little comfort for those still waiting for basic necessities.

“There is a huge amount that we need to do. We have not been able to get into the remote communities,” U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said in Manila, launching an appeal for 301 million dollars to help the more than 11 million people estimated to have been affected by the storm.

“Even in Tacloban, because of the debris and the difficulties with logistics and so on, we have not been able to get in the level of supply that we would want to,” she said. “We are going to do as much as we can to bring in more.”

Tacloban, a city of about 220,000 people on Leyte island, bore the full force of the winds and storm surges on Friday. Most of the city is in ruins, a tangled mess of destroyed houses, cars and trees. Malls and shops have been stripped of food and water by hungry residents.

The loss of life appears to be concentrated in Tacloban and surrounding areas, including a portion of Samar island that is separated from Leyte island by a strait. It is possible that other devastated areas are so isolated they have not yet been reached.

From Cebu, to the southwest, the Philippine air force has been sending three C-130 planes back and forth to Tacloban from dawn to dusk and has delivered 400,000 pounds of relief supplies, Lt. Col. Marciano Jesus Guevara said. A lack of electricity in Tacloban means planes cannot land there at night.

Guevara said that the C-130s have transported nearly 3,000 civilians out of the disaster zone, and that the biggest problem in Tacloban is a lack of clean drinking water.

“Water is life,” he said. “If you have water with no food, you’ll survive.”

A team from the relief organisation Doctors Without Borders, complete with medical supplies, arrived on Cebu island Saturday looking for a flight to Tacloban, but had not left by Tuesday. A spokesman for the group said it was “difficult to tell” when the team would be able to leave.

“We are in contact with the authorities, but the (Tacloban) airport is only for the Philippines’ military use,” Lee Pik Kwan said in a telephone interview.

Doctors in Tacloban said they were desperate for medicine. At a small makeshift clinic with shattered windows beside the city’s ruined airport tower, army and air force medics said they had treated about 1,000 people for cuts, bruises, lacerations and deep wounds.

Thousands of typhoon victims were trying to get out of Tacloban. They camped at the airport and ran onto the tarmac when planes came in, surging past a broken iron fence and a few soldiers and police trying to control them. Most did not make it aboard the military flights out of the city.

The bodies of those killed by the typhoon are causing humanitarian and logistical problems for relief crews as well.

“It really breaks your heart when you see them,” said Maj. Gen. Romeo Poquiz, commander of the Second Air Division. “We’re limited with manpower, the expertise, as well as the trucks that have to transport them to different areas for identification … Do we do a mass burial, because we can’t identify them anymore? If we do a mass burial, where do you place them?”

Most Tacloban residents spent a rainy night wherever they could — in the ruins of destroyed houses or in the open along roadsides and shredded trees. A lucky few slept under tents brought in by the government or relief groups.

Damaged roads and other infrastructure are complicating relief efforts. Government officials, as well as police and army personnel, are in many cases among the victims themselves, which hampers coordination. The typhoon destroyed military buildings that housed 1,000 soldiers in Leyte province.

The storm also prompted a jailbreak in Tacloban. Army Brig. Gen. Virgilio Espineli, the deputy regional military commander, said he was not sure how many of the 600 inmates fled.

The USS George Washington aircraft carrier is headed toward the region with massive amounts of water and food, but the Pentagon said the ship would not arrive until Thursday. Other ships will arrive in the coming days as well. The United States said it is providing 20 million dollars in immediate aid.

Aid totaling tens of millions of dollars has been pledged by many other countries, including Japan, Australia and the United Kingdom, which is sending a Royal Navy vessel.

The Philippines, an archipelago nation of more than 7,000 islands, is annually buffeted by tropical storms and typhoons, but Haiyan was an especially large catastrophe. Its winds were among the strongest ever recorded.

Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

Saudi authorities rounded up more than 4,000 illegal foreign workers at the start of a nationwide crackdown ultimately aimed at creating more jobs for locals, media reported on Tuesday.

Hundreds of thousands of workers have already left the kingdom following a grace period of seven months during which authorities told expatriates that if they did not fix their legal status they had to leave the country or face jail.

Many workers stayed off the streets to avoid checkpoints looking for invalid labour papers as a special task force of 1,200 Labour Ministry officials combed shops, construction sites, restaurants and businesses. Police manned roadblocks to enforce the kingdom’s strict labour rules that make it virtually impossible to remain in the country without an official employee-sponsor.

The campaign reflects a wider drive to trim reliance on foreign workers across the Gulf Arab states, whose rulers fear the changing demographics of the region. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other countries have aggressively supported proposals to open more jobs for their own citizens, worrying that chronic unemployment could feed dissent and challenges to their power.

“We want more Saudi men and women to work in the private and public sectors,” Saudi Deputy Labour Minister Mufrej Al-Haqbani told reporters Sunday just before the end of an “amnesty” period for the estimated 1.5 million foreigners — about 16 percent of the total nine million non-Saudi work force — who are believed to have violated residency and labour rules by leaving their sponsors, sneaking into the country or simply staying after making the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca. Workers had until Monday to comply with the law or face arrest and deportation.

A petition in support of a Saudi woman’s right to drive has attracted more than 16,500 names in advance of a weekend campaign in which female motorists are expected to defy the kingdom’s rulers and take to the roads

While some Gulf countries have plentiful oil and gas resources to lavish on relatively small local populations — foreigners outnumber natives about 5-to-1 in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — the pressures on Saudi Arabia stand out. Its 27 million people are more than the populations of all the other Gulf states combined, and its vast oil wealth has not trickled down enough to prevent impoverished areas and slums.

Unlike other places in the Gulf, low-income Saudis are willing to work the types of jobs that have long been held by Indian, Egyptian, Pakistani and Filipino migrant workers, though perhaps not for the same low wages that can be the equivalent of just several hundred dollars a month. Yet unemployment among Saudi nationals has remained stuck at 10 percent for several years, according to the International Monetary Fund. Unemployment among Saudis under 30 years old — about two-thirds of the population — is about three times the national average.

Saudi Arabia promised 120 billion dollars to fund job creation, debt forgiveness, higher public sector wages and social programmes that help young Saudis buy homes, a prerequisite for marriage. It also accelerated its so-called “Saudisation” programme, which seeks to require businesses to ensure that Saudi nationals make up at least 10 percent of the workforce.

But numbers tell another story. Only one-third of the seven million new jobs created over the past decade went to Gulf nationals, according to the International Monetary Fund.

A report in the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National said at least 51 million more jobs are needed by 2020 to avoid a rise in unemployment among Arab Gulf nationals.

Rights groups attack ‘irony’ of Saudi Arabia alleging Security Council double standards as kingdom cracks down on rights.

The Saudi crackdown may whittle down the number of foreign workers, but it may fail to address deeper issues that touch all Gulf nations such as allegations of abuses of domestic help and employment rules that have been harshly criticised by rights groups.

Nearly every worker in the Gulf — from construction sites to board rooms — is directly “sponsored” by an employer who has say over exit visas, residency and work permits. Groups such as Human Rights Watch and the International Labor Organisation have accused employers of violations such as withholding workers’ passports or ignoring their demands. In May, hundreds of construction workers in the United Arab Emirates were sent back to Bangladesh, Pakistan and other countries after waging a strike to protest meal costs deducted from their pay.

Any worker who leaves a sponsor without permission to find another job is considered in violation of labour rules.

“The problem on one level is that the migrants keep salary levels low,” Saudi expert and author Karen Elliott House said. “Another problem is that Saudis are either not qualified for the jobs they want or do not want to accept the low salaries of jobs they are qualified to do.”

*Posted under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

(Al Jazeera) – Saudi authorities rounded up more than 4,000 illegal foreign workers at the start of a nationwide crackdown ultimately aimed at creating more jobs for locals, media reported on Tuesday. Hundreds of thousands of workers have already left the kingdom following a grace period of seven months during which authorities told expatriates that if they did not fix their legal status they had to leave the country or face jail.

Many workers stayed off the streets to avoid checkpoints looking for invalid labour papers as a special task force of 1,200 Labour Ministry officials combed shops, construction sites, restaurants and businesses. Police manned roadblocks to enforce the kingdom’s strict labour rules that make it virtually impossible to remain in the country without an official employee-sponsor.

The campaign reflects a wider drive to trim reliance on foreign workers across the Gulf Arab states, whose rulers fear the changing demographics of the region. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other countries have aggressively supported proposals to open more jobs for their own citizens, worrying that chronic unemployment could feed dissent and challenges to their power.

“We want more Saudi men and women to work in the private and public sectors,” Saudi Deputy Labour Minister Mufrej Al-Haqbani told reporters Sunday just before the end of an “amnesty” period for the estimated 1.5 million foreigners — about 16 percent of the total nine million non-Saudi work force — who are believed to have violated residency and labour rules by leaving their sponsors, sneaking into the country or simply staying after making the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca. Workers had until Monday to comply with the law or face arrest and deportation.

A petition in support of a Saudi woman’s right to drive has attracted more than 16,500 names in advance of a weekend campaign in which female motorists are expected to defy the kingdom’s rulers and take to the roads While some Gulf countries have plentiful oil and gas resources to lavish on relatively small local populations — foreigners outnumber natives about 5-to-1 in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — the pressures on Saudi Arabia stand out. Its 27 million people are more than the populations of all the other Gulf states combined, and its vast oil wealth has not trickled down enough to prevent impoverished areas and slums.

Unlike other places in the Gulf, low-income Saudis are willing to work the types of jobs that have long been held by Indian, Egyptian, Pakistani and Filipino migrant workers, though perhaps not for the same low wages that can be the equivalent of just several hundred dollars a month. Yet unemployment among Saudi nationals has remained stuck at 10 percent for several years, according to the International Monetary Fund. Unemployment among Saudis under 30 years old — about two-thirds of the population — is about three times the national average.

Saudi Arabia promised 120 billion dollars to fund job creation, debt forgiveness, higher public sector wages and social programmes that help young Saudis buy homes, a prerequisite for marriage. It also accelerated its so-called “Saudisation” programme, which seeks to require businesses to ensure that Saudi nationals make up at least 10 percent of the workforce. But numbers tell another story.

Only one-third of the seven million new jobs created over the past decade went to Gulf nationals, according to the International Monetary Fund. A report in the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National said at least 51 million more jobs are needed by 2020 to avoid a rise in unemployment among Arab Gulf nationals.

Rights groups attack ‘irony’ of Saudi Arabia alleging Security Council double standards as kingdom cracks down on rights. The Saudi crackdown may whittle down the number of foreign workers, but it may fail to address deeper issues that touch all Gulf nations such as allegations of abuses of domestic help and employment rules that have been harshly criticised by rights groups.

Nearly every worker in the Gulf — from construction sites to board rooms — is directly “sponsored” by an employer who has say over exit visas, residency and work permits. Groups such as Human Rights Watch and the International Labor Organisation have accused employers of violations such as withholding workers’ passports or ignoring their demands. In May, hundreds of construction workers in the United Arab Emirates were sent back to Bangladesh, Pakistan and other countries after waging a strike to protest meal costs deducted from their pay.

Any worker who leaves a sponsor without permission to find another job is considered in violation of labour rules. “The problem on one level is that the migrants keep salary levels low,” Saudi expert and author Karen Elliott House said. “Another problem is that Saudis are either not qualified for the jobs they want or do not want to accept the low salaries of jobs they are qualified to do.”

*Posted under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

The bodies of 87 migrants were found in Niger’s northern desert after they died of thirst just a few kilometres from the border of Algeria, their planned destination, security officials said.

The corpses of the seven men, 32 women and 48 children were in addition to five bodies of women and girls found earlier, a security source said.

All died in early October after a failed attempt to reach Algeria that began in late September, the source added.

Almoustapha Alhacen, a spokesman for the local aid organisation Aghir In’man, confirmed the death toll and gave a graphic account of discovering the bodies.

“The corpses were decomposed; it was horrible,” he said. “We found them in different locations in a 20km radius and in small groups, often under trees, or under the sun. Sometimes a mother and children, but some lone children too,” Alhacen said.

The bodies were buried according to Muslim rites, “as and when they were found,” he added.

Desert tragedy

Nigerien officials said on Monday that dozens of migrants, most of them women and children, had died of thirst in the Sahara desert earlier this month. Two vehicles carrying the migrants broke down, one about 83km from the city of Arlit in northern Niger where they had set off from, and another at 158km, a security source said.

“The first vehicle broke down. The second returned to Arlit to get a spare part after getting all the migrants it was carrying to alight, but it too broke down,” said the source.

“We think that the migrants were in the desert for seven days and on the fifth day, they began to leave the broken-down vehicle in search of a well,” said the source.

However, 21 people had survived, the source said, including a man who walked to Arlit and a woman who was saved by a driver who came across her in the desert and took her to the same city.

Nineteen others reached the Algerian city of Tamanrasset but were sent back to Niger, the source added.

Niger is one of the world’s poorest countries and has been hit by successive food crises. Libya, rather than Algeria, is more frequently the favoured country of transit for West Africans making the journey across the continent, many of whom aim to travel on to Europe.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that at least 30,000 economic migrants passed through Agadez, northern Niger’s largest city, between March and August of this year.

* Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

The bodies of 87 migrants were found in Niger’s northern desert after they died of thirst just a few kilometres from the border of Algeria, their planned destination, security officials said.

The corpses of the seven men, 32 women and 48 children were in addition to five bodies of women and girls found earlier, a security source said. All died in early October after a failed attempt to reach Algeria that began in late September, the source added.

Almoustapha Alhacen, a spokesman for the local aid organisation Aghir In’man, confirmed the death toll and gave a graphic account of discovering the bodies. “The corpses were decomposed; it was horrible,” he said. “We found them in different locations in a 20km radius and in small groups, often under trees, or under the sun. Sometimes a mother and children, but some lone children too,” Alhacen said. The bodies were buried according to Muslim rites, “as and when they were found,” he added.

Nigerien officials said on Monday that dozens of migrants, most of them women and children, had died of thirst in the Sahara desert earlier this month. Two vehicles carrying the migrants broke down, one about 83km from the city of Arlit in northern Niger where they had set off from, and another at 158km, a security source said.

“The first vehicle broke down. The second returned to Arlit to get a spare part after getting all the migrants it was carrying to alight, but it too broke down,” said the source. “We think that the migrants were in the desert for seven days and on the fifth day, they began to leave the broken-down vehicle in search of a well,” said the source.

However, 21 people had survived, the source said, including a man who walked to Arlit and a woman who was saved by a driver who came across her in the desert and took her to the same city. Nineteen others reached the Algerian city of Tamanrasset but were sent back to Niger, the source added.

Niger is one of the world’s poorest countries and has been hit by successive food crises. Libya, rather than Algeria, is more frequently the favoured country of transit for West Africans making the journey across the continent, many of whom aim to travel on to Europe.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that at least 30,000 economic migrants passed through Agadez, northern Niger’s largest city, between March and August of this year.

* Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

Thousands of opposition activists have protested in central Tunis, demanding the resignation of Tunisia’s Islamist-led government, before a national dialogue aimed at ending months of political deadlock.

The protesters gathered on central Habib Bourguiba Avenue in the capital, waving Tunisian flags and shouting slogans such as: “The people want the fall of the regime”, “Get out” and “Government of traitors, resign!”

Wednesday’s demonstration took place amid a heavy security presence, with armoured vehicles and anti-riot police deployed along the Tunis boulevard, which was the epicentre of the January 2011 revolution that ousted former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

A rival rally planned by the League for the Protection of the Revolution, a controversial pro-government armed group, failed to materialise.

Wednesday’s demonstration came just hours before the start of a planned national dialogue between the ruling party Ennahda and the opposition, which has now been delayed until Friday.

Mediators hope the talks will bring an end to the political paralysis gripping the country since the July killing of opposition MP Mohamed Brahmi and will mark a crucial step in the country’s democratic transition.

“We hope that Larayedh will have enough courage to announce the resignation of his government within three weeks to save the country,” Hamma Hammami, a leader of the opposition Popular Front party, told the AFP news agency.

Tunisian Prime Minister Ali Larayedh on Wednesday confirmed Ennahda was ready to resign, but insisted on the completion of the country’s new constitution, the establishment of an electoral commission and a clear election date before handing over power.

Meanwhile, seven Tunisian police were killed and one injured in clashes with gunmen, as the country waited for the government’s expected resignation and the launch of talks on ending months of political deadlock.

Fighting erupted in the central Sidi Bouzid region, when members of the National Guard raided a house where the gunmen were holed up, a police source told AFP.

President Moncef Marzouki announced three days of national mourning.

“It is not a coincidence that they decided to attack the National Guard today. Every time we reach a consensus terrorism rises again,” he said.

Political roadmap

According to a political roadmap drawn up by mediators, the national dialogue will lead within three weeks to the formation of a new caretaker cabinet of technocrats.

Negotiators will also have one month to adopt a new constitution, electoral laws and a timetable for fresh elections, key milestones in the democratic transition which has effectively been blocked by wrangling between the Islamists, their coalition allies and the opposition.

A coalition of secular opposition parties are demanding the immediate departure of the government, which it accuses of clinging to power.

A senior member of Ennahda charged on Tuesday that the opposition was preparing to “destroy” the negotiations between the two sides by staging anti-government protests.

About 60 opposition MPs who have been boycotting parliament since the political crisis erupted also said they had received assurances that the national dialogue would begin with the government announcing its resignation.

The Islamist party was heavily repressed under the Ben Ali regime.

Since triumphing in the parliamentary elections in October 2011, they have been weakened by accusations that they have failed to fix Tunisia’s lacklustre economy and prevent attacks by armed groups.

After three months of political uncertainty, unkept promises and a false start to the national dialogue on Oct. 5, the Tunisian press has grown increasingly critical of the ruling elite and sceptical of efforts to end the crisis.

Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

International peace talks on the Syria conflict could take place next month, Syria’s deputy prime minister has said.

Qadri Jamil, speaking in Moscow on Thursday, said the long-delayed international conference aimed at bringing the Syrian government and opposition together to seek an end to the country’s civil war would take place Nov. 23-24.

“Geneva is a way out for everyone: the Americans, Russia, the Syrian regime and the opposition,” Jamil was quoted as saying.

“Whoever realises this first will benefit. Whoever does not realise it will find himself overboard, outside the political process.”

Jamil named the dates when he was asked whether plans for the so-called Geneva 2 conference, which Russia and the U.S. have been trying to organise since May, had been pushed back from mid-November to late November or December.

When contacted by Al Jazeera, his office in Damascus said Jamil was speaking in his capacity as a member of an opposition delegation and not on behalf of the Syrian government.

Asked about Jamil’s comments, Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said it was not up to the Syrian government to name a date for the talks.

“I can neither confirm nor deny the dates mentioned by Mr Qadri Jamil,” Lukashevich said.

“This is a matter for the U.N. Secretary-General [Ban Ki-moon], under whose auspices this forum will be held. We will wait for his … official announcement of these dates.”

Russia and Western nations led by the U.S. have been pushing the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad to meet to try to hammer out a negotiated solution to the two-and-half year-old conflict, which has killed more than 115,000 people.

However, George Sabra, who heads the Syrian National Council, the largest member of the opposition National Coalition, has already said his group would not attend the talks in Geneva.

Against this backdrop, the world’s chemical-weapons watchdog said it had completed nearly half its inspections of the country’s arsenal with a view to its destruction by mid-2014.

Al Jazeera’s Omar Al Saleh, reporting from Antakya in neighbouring Turkey, said The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) had expressed confidence in completing the operation within the designated period.

The OPCW is due to finish the first stage of its mandate by the beginning of next month.

Fighting in the north

On the ground, meanwhile, fighting between the Syrian army and anti-government fighters at a prison in the northern city of Aleppo eased a day after they assaulted the facility, activists said on Thursday.

Rebel forces had launched an attack on the government-controlled prison on Wednesday night, in the heaviest fighting for the jail in months, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based activists’ network.

Elsewhere in northern Syria, al Qaeda-linked fighters came under fire from the Turkish army after a stray mortar landed across the border, Turkish officials said.

In a separate development on Thursday, Abu Dhabi-based channel Sky News Arabia said that its crew had gone missing in the contested city of Aleppo in northern Syria.

The TV station said it lost contact on Tuesday morning with reporter Ishak Moctar, a Mauritanian national; cameraman Samir Kassab, a Lebanese national; and their Syrian driver whose name was being withheld at his family’s request.

Nart Bouran, Sky News Arabia chief, said the crew was on assignment primarily to focus on the humanitarian aspects of the conflict in Aleppo.

The channel appealed for any information on the team’s whereabouts and for help to ensure the journalists’ safe return.

Since Syria’s uprising erupted in March 2011, the country has become the most dangerous in the world for journalists, according to press freedom advocate groups.

Dozens of journalists have been kidnapped and more than 25 have been killed while reporting in Syria since the conflict began.

Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

The United States has expelled Venezuela’s chargé d’affaires and two other diplomats in Washington in reprisal for the expulsion of three U.S. diplomats from Caracas, both countries said late Tuesday.

The tit-for-tat move comes a day after the expulsion of the Americans, accused of plotting acts of sabotage against the government, the Foreign Ministry in Caracas said.

The ministry called the U.S. move unjustified, saying the Venezuelan diplomats had not been meeting with people opposed to President Barack Obama.

In Washington, a State Department official confirmed the Venezuelan chargé d’affaires Calixto Ortega Rios and the other two had been advised Monday they had 48 hours to leave the United States.

“It is regrettable that the Venezuelan government has again decided to expel U.S. diplomatic officials based on groundless allegations, which require reciprocal action,” the official said.

“It is counterproductive to the interests of both our countries and not a serious way for a country to conduct its foreign policy,” the official.

Venezuela has accused Ambassador Kelly Keiderling and two others of meeting with the Venezuelan far right — the government’s term for the opposition — to finance President Nicolas Maduro’s opponents and “encourage actions to sabotage the power system and the economy”.

The two countries — at each other’s throats politically but eager supplier and buyer of Venezuelan oil — have not had ambassadors in each other’s capitals since 2010.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the allegations were related to the U.S. Embassy workers’ travel to Venezuelan state of Bolivar, home to troubled state-owned foundries and Venezuela’s main hydroelectric plant.

“They were there conducting normal diplomatic engagement, as we’ve said in the past and should come as no surprise,” Psaki said.

Venezuela’s economy is struggling ahead of the Dec. 8 elections. Annual inflation is at more than 45 percent and the government is running short of foreign currency.

The oil-rich OPEC member country has been plagued by worsening power outages since 2010. The opposition blames neglect and poor maintenance, while alleging mismanagement and corruption at struggling state-owned aluminum, iron and bauxite foundries in Bolivar.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Hugo Chavez’s hand-picked successor, blamed sabotage by the “extreme right” for both the blackouts and food shortages, but has provided no evidence. Like his predecessor, Maduro has a history of making unsubstantiated accusations against the U.S. and his political opponents.

In a news conference in Caracas, Keiderling said she and the other diplomats would leave Venezuela on Wednesday before the 48-hour deadline expired. “The work of the embassy will continue. It doesn’t matter very much if it is one person or another” doing it, she said.

She said that if the accusation against them was that they had met with Venezuelans then “it is true. We met with Venezuelans.”

“These meetings with civil society can be with [the independent election monitoring group] Sumate, they can be with a group of women, with mothers who have lost children or with an environmental group that wants to lobby for cleaning a park,” she said. “If we aren’t talking with these people, we aren’t doing our jobs.”

U.S. officials said they may take reciprocal action in accordance with the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations and on consular relations.

“While the government of the United States does not understand that it has to respect our country’s sovereignty there will be simply be no cordial relations nor cordial communication,” Maduro said, speaking from the governmental palace on Tuesday.

“The day that the government of President Obama rectifies the situation we will establish new points of contact to discuss common issues,” said Maduro.

Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

(Al Jazeera) – The United States has expelled Venezuela’s chargé d’affaires and two other diplomats in Washington in reprisal for the expulsion of three U.S. diplomats from Caracas, both countries said late Tuesday.

The tit-for-tat move comes a day after the expulsion of the Americans, accused of plotting acts of sabotage against the government, the Foreign Ministry in Caracas said. The ministry called the U.S. move unjustified, saying the Venezuelan diplomats had not been meeting with people opposed to President Barack Obama.

In Washington, a State Department official confirmed the Venezuelan chargé d’affaires Calixto Ortega Rios and the other two had been advised Monday they had 48 hours to leave the United States.  “It is regrettable that the Venezuelan government has again decided to expel U.S. diplomatic officials based on groundless allegations, which require reciprocal action,” the official said.

“It is counterproductive to the interests of both our countries and not a serious way for a country to conduct its foreign policy,” the official. Venezuela has accused Ambassador Kelly Keiderling and two others of meeting with the Venezuelan far right — the government’s term for the opposition — to finance President Nicolas Maduro’s opponents and “encourage actions to sabotage the power system and the economy”.

The two countries — at each other’s throats politically but eager supplier and buyer of Venezuelan oil — have not had ambassadors in each other’s capitals since 2010. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the allegations were related to the U.S. Embassy workers’ travel to Venezuelan state of Bolivar, home to troubled state-owned foundries and Venezuela’s main hydroelectric plant.

“They were there conducting normal diplomatic engagement, as we’ve said in the past and should come as no surprise,” Psaki said. Venezuela’s economy is struggling ahead of the Dec. 8 elections. Annual inflation is at more than 45 percent and the government is running short of foreign currency.

The oil-rich OPEC member country has been plagued by worsening power outages since 2010. The opposition blames neglect and poor maintenance, while alleging mismanagement and corruption at struggling state-owned aluminum, iron and bauxite foundries in Bolivar.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Hugo Chavez’s hand-picked successor, blamed sabotage by the “extreme right” for both the blackouts and food shortages, but has provided no evidence. Like his predecessor, Maduro has a history of making unsubstantiated accusations against the U.S. and his political opponents.

In a news conference in Caracas, Keiderling said she and the other diplomats would leave Venezuela on Wednesday before the 48-hour deadline expired. “The work of the embassy will continue. It doesn’t matter very much if it is one person or another” doing it, she said.

She said that if the accusation against them was that they had met with Venezuelans then “it is true. We met with Venezuelans.” “These meetings with civil society can be with [the independent election monitoring group] Sumate, they can be with a group of women, with mothers who have lost children or with an environmental group that wants to lobby for cleaning a park,” she said. “If we aren’t talking with these people, we aren’t doing our jobs.”

U.S. officials said they may take reciprocal action in accordance with the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations and on consular relations. “While the government of the United States does not understand that it has to respect our country’s sovereignty there will be simply be no cordial relations nor cordial communication,” Maduro said, speaking from the governmental palace on Tuesday.

“The day that the government of President Obama rectifies the situation we will establish new points of contact to discuss common issues,” said Maduro.

Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

A mother and her children protect themselves pretending to be dead in Westgate mall. Credit: Al Jazeera

By AJ Correspondents
QATAR, Sep 23 2013 (IPS)

Heavy and sustained gunfire has been heard from the Nairobi mall where the Al-Qaeda-linked Somali Islamist rebel group Al Shabab are holed up, holding an unknown number of civilians hostage.

Two Al Shabab fighters have been killed in the ongoing military raid to end the standoff and nearly all hostages have been freed, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for the Interior Ole Lenku said on Monday.

“We don’t want to give you a definitive position on when we think the process will come to an end, but we are doing anything reasonably possible, cautiously though, to bring this process to an end,” Lenku told a news conference.

Black smoke has been seen rising and several blasts have been heard in the area, two days after Al Shabab fighters stormed the mall.

Lenku said a fire inside the mall was the work of the fighters, but that it would soon be extinguished.

He said that Kenyan forces were in control of all floors of the mall, and that “the terrorists are running and hiding in some stores […] there is no room for escape”.

Television images on Monday showed troops in camouflage running to new positions, while an armoured personal carrier was also seen shifting position.

Journalists and their cameras have been moved and no longer have a clear sight of the mall, but can see its perimeter.

“It is us who caused the explosion, we are trying to get in through the roof,” one security official, who asked not to be named, told the Reuters news agency at the scene. There was no official comment.

Al Jazeera’s Catherine Soi, reporting from the vicinity of the mall, said that the concern was that the fighters would not allow themselves to be apprehended, and that they might harm any remaining hostages.

“They went in there with a suicide mission, they knew that it was very difficult for them to get out alive. […] The concern really is the hostages. The ministry says that they have been able to evacuate most of the people in that mall … more than 1,000 people have been evacuated [since the siege began], but the concern is with the hostages [still in the building],” she reported.

Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced that it was adjourning the trial of Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto on charges relating to violence following elections in 2007.

The court said Ruto would be excused from the trial, which began earlier this month, for a week to return to Nairobi to help deal with the crisis.

On Sunday, Kenyan security forces claimed to have rescued most of the hostages, but an unknown number remain trapped inside.

Armed men belonging to the Somali group Al Shabab had stormed the Westgate shopping centre on Saturday using grenades and assault rifles. The attack left at least 68 people dead and more than 150 wounded, according to the Red Cross.

Colonel Cyrus Oguna, a military spokesman of Al Shabab, told Al Jazeera that most of the hostages had been released, though he did not provide an exact number. “Most of them were dehydrated and suffering from shock,” Oguna said, adding that four Kenyan soldiers were injured in the rescue operation.

As security forces intesified efforts to end the standoff late on Sunday, Meanwhile, Al Shabab, which has claimed responsibility for the siege, said on its Twitter feed that the “Kenyan government shall be held responsible for any loss of life as a result of such an imprudent move. The call is yours!”

It said “Kenyan forces who’ve just attempted a roof landing must know that they are jeopardising the lives of hostages.”

Al Shabab told Al Jazeera it carried out the attack in which they specifically targeted non-Muslims. Kenyans and foreigners were among those confirmed dead, including French, Britons, Indians, Canadians, Chinese and a renowned Ghanaian poet. Speaking to Al Jazeera later, Abu Omar, a spokesman for the group, ruled out any negotiations over the hostages being held.

The group is demanding that Kenya pull troops back from neighbouring Somalia, where Al Shabab is fighting against the government.

The United Nations Security Council condemned the attack “in the strongest possible terms,” and reminded Kenya that any response must comply with international human rights law.

Published under agreement with Al Jazeera.

Thousands of civil servants have marched through the Greek capital, Athens, and the second largest city, Thessaloniki, amid a two-day nationwide strike against planned job cuts.

Schools and courts were closed and hospitals were functioning with reduced staff on Wednesday and Thursday while trains were halted for four hours, and journalists joined in with a three-hour work stoppage, pulling news broadcasts off the air.

Efforts to reduce the 600,000-strong civil service, long seen by critics as wasteful and corrupt, have been resisted by labour unions who say the scheme will only worsen the plight of Greeks enduring a sixth year of recession.

The latest strikes, called by public-sector umbrella union ADEDY, came days before representatives of the “troika” of European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) lenders visit Athens to check on progress made on promised reforms.

“A long, onerous and painful winter has begun,” said ADEDY, which together with private-sector union GSEE represents about 2.5 million workers in this country of 11 million people.

“The truth is that with every troika visit, our national dignity is destroyed. The economy and society are ruined,” it added.

Policy defended

Speaking for the government, health minister Adonis Georgiadis told Al Jazeera: “Greece was the last Soviet state in the European Union. This has to be ended and we will end it now. This is for the benefit of the Greek people.

“We will be liberals and we will let the market work as all ordinary and good and serious people are doing in the rest of the world. Why be afraid of that?”

Government plans call for the suspension on partial pay of 25,000 civil servants this year in a drive to reduce the size of the public sector and meet conditions to continue receiving rescue loans.

Many of those suspended are expected to eventually lose their jobs.

Officials have, however, pledged not to back down.

The government claims it will set up basic state insurance for the 1.4 million jobless and the poor by the end of the year.

It will also take some of the pressure off hospitals through a chain of primary healthcare centres.

But it admits that a lot of state health care may end up being outsourced to the private sector.

Al Jazeera’s John Psaropoulos, reporting from Athens, said: “Slimmer state services in health and education may bode well for the bottom line but they will likely deepen the divide between the haves and the have-nots.

“These state workers fearful of losing their jobs know which camp they’re likely to end up in.”

Austerity measures

Greece has been depending on bailout loans from the IMF and other European countries since May 2010.

In return, it has implemented a series of strict austerity measures to reform its economy.

James Meadway, a senior economist at the New Economics Foundation think-tank in London, believes the protesters are right in their demands.

“Austerities of increasing severities have been applied in some European countries and we are not seeing any serious or sustained recoveries in these economies,” he told Al Jazeera.

“Precisely because austerity is the thing that drives recession. You are setting up this vicious circle of decline in which Greece is very much trapped.

“There are different options like investment and spending by government and creating jobs or perhaps looking to institutions like the German state bank KFW, which has created some 200,000 jobs a year over the last few years and the government action could be used to actually promote recovery in places like Greece, Spain or Portugal.

“But Greece is doing the exact opposite.”

Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

(Al Jazeera) – Thousands of civil servants have marched through the Greek capital, Athens, and the second largest city, Thessaloniki, amid a two-day nationwide strike against planned job cuts.

Schools and courts were closed and hospitals were functioning with reduced staff on Wednesday and Thursday while trains were halted for four hours, and journalists joined in with a three-hour work stoppage, pulling news broadcasts off the air.

Efforts to reduce the 600,000-strong civil service, long seen by critics as wasteful and corrupt, have been resisted by labour unions who say the scheme will only worsen the plight of Greeks enduring a sixth year of recession.

The latest strikes, called by public-sector umbrella union ADEDY, came days before representatives of the “troika” of European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) lenders visit Athens to check on progress made on promised reforms.

“A long, onerous and painful winter has begun,” said ADEDY, which together with private-sector union GSEE represents about 2.5 million workers in this country of 11 million people.  “The truth is that with every troika visit, our national dignity is destroyed. The economy and society are ruined,” it added.

Speaking for the government, health minister Adonis Georgiadis told Al Jazeera: “Greece was the last Soviet state in the European Union. This has to be ended and we will end it now. This is for the benefit of the Greek people. “We will be liberals and we will let the market work as all ordinary and good and serious people are doing in the rest of the world. Why be afraid of that?”

Government plans call for the suspension on partial pay of 25,000 civil servants this year in a drive to reduce the size of the public sector and meet conditions to continue receiving rescue loans. Many of those suspended are expected to eventually lose their jobs. Officials have, however, pledged not to back down.

The government claims it will set up basic state insurance for the 1.4 million jobless and the poor by the end of the year. It will also take some of the pressure off hospitals through a chain of primary healthcare centres. But it admits that a lot of state health care may end up being outsourced to the private sector.

Al Jazeera’s John Psaropoulos, reporting from Athens, said: “Slimmer state services in health and education may bode well for the bottom line but they will likely deepen the divide between the haves and the have-nots. “These state workers fearful of losing their jobs know which camp they’re likely to end up in.”

Greece has been depending on bailout loans from the IMF and other European countries since May 2010. In return, it has implemented a series of strict austerity measures to reform its economy. James Meadway, a senior economist at the New Economics Foundation think-tank in London, believes the protesters are right in their demands.

“Austerities of increasing severities have been applied in some European countries and we are not seeing any serious or sustained recoveries in these economies,” he told Al Jazeera. “Precisely because austerity is the thing that drives recession. You are setting up this vicious circle of decline in which Greece is very much trapped.

“There are different options like investment and spending by government and creating jobs or perhaps looking to institutions like the German state bank KFW, which has created some 200,000 jobs a year over the last few years and the government action could be used to actually promote recovery in places like Greece, Spain or Portugal. “But Greece is doing the exact opposite. ”

Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

A top policewoman in southern Afghanistan has died after being shot by unknown attackers, months after her predecessor was also slain in similar circumstances.

Sub-Inspector Negara, who like many Afghans goes by one name, was buying grass for her lambs outside her home on Sunday 15 when two gunmen drove up on a motorbike and shot her in the neck, said Omar Zawak, a spokesman for the governor of Helmand province.

Doctors tried to save her, but police spokesman Fareed Ahmad Obaidi said she died at 1am on Monday 16. Zawak also confirmed her death.

Kandahar government spokesperson, Javid Faisal told Al Jazeera that Negara had believed what she was doing was important for all women in Helmand province.

“She was the top when it comes to the female police force in Helmand. She has also worked during Dr Najibullah regime in Afghanistan,” Faisal said.

“She was considered the most effective female police commander in the province and she believed her duty was the most crucial and most important for women in Helmand Province.

“She didn’t have any threats from her family, friends, relatives or siblings but insurgents and extremists are against the women rights and women’s independence in the country.”

Negara worked in Helmand province’s criminal investigation department in Lashkar Gah city.

She had taken over the duties of Islam Bibi, a well-known police officer who was shot dead in July by unknown gunmen.

Bibi had told reporters her own relatives had threatened her for holding the job.

Officials have given different ages for Negara, including 35 and 38, and varying accounts of her work history.

Her son-in-law, Faizullah Khan, said that she was 41 and had two children, a son and a daughter, and that she had worked for the police in the early 1990s before the Taliban took over the country and banned women from working.

“She was like a mother to me, and I learned so many things from her,” Khan said.

Women under attack

Negara’s family has had several police officers, including her son, a brother, and Khan himself, and her relatives had not objected to her work, the son-in-law said.

However, she had been getting phone threats from people claiming to be with the Taliban, who have been waging an insurgency since being topped by US-led forces in 2001.

The Taliban have not claimed responsibility for the attack on Negara, and a spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment, but they are believed to be behind many of the recent assaults on Afghan women.

Earlier this month, a female parliamentarian held captive for about four weeks was freed by the Taliban in exchange for several detained fighters.

The Taliban said the freed prisoners were “four innocent women and two children.”

In August, an armed group ambushed the convoy of a female Afghan senator, seriously wounding her in the attack and killing her eight-year-old daughter and a bodyguard.

Published under agreement with Al Jazeera.

The Dutch government has formally apologised for the mass killing of Indonesians during colonial occupation which ended in 1949.

The Dutch ambassador in Indonesia, Tjeerd de Zwaan, officially presented the state’s apology at a Jakarta ceremony on Thursday.

“On behalf of the Dutch government I apologise for these excesses,” De Zwaan said.

The Netherlands had already apologised and paid compensation in certain specific cases, but this was the first general apology for atrocities carried out during the colonial era.

“The Dutch government is aware that it bears a special responsibility in respect of Indonesian widows of victims of summary executions comparable to those carried out by Dutch troops in what was then Celebes (Sulawesi) and Rawa Gede (West Java),” De Zwaan added.

Representatives of the victims welcomed the apology.

“We feel grateful and very happy to be here. Before that we never imagined that it would be like this,” said one, Nurhaeni.

Westerling executions

Special forces from the Netherlands carried out a series of summary executions in its former colony between 1945 and 1949, killing thousands.

In total, about 40,000 people were executed during the colonial era, according to the Indonesian government. However, Dutch figures mention only a few thousand.

South Sulawesi was the site of one of the worst atrocities. On Jan. 28, 1947, Dutch special forces executed 208 men on a field in front of a local government office.

It was one of the many mass murders by notorious captain Raymond Westerling who was long considered a hero in the Netherlands.

Westerling and his troops held summary executions in tens of villages for a period of three months in a bid to wipe out resistance against Dutch colonisation. Neither he nor his men were ever prosecuted.

Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen, reporting from Jakarta, said the Dutch government suddenly seemed in a hurry to apologise for the atrocities that were committed over 60 years ago.

“In a couple of months from now, the Dutch prime minister is visiting Indonesia and many have said it would actually be much more appropriate to issue the apology then. But suddenly they decided it had to happen today at the Dutch embassy and not in the places where these war crimes have taken place,” Vaessen said.

“They chose the embassy because they want to apologies for a lot more than only what happened in South Sulawesi and other places. They are apologising for all the war crimes, which the Dutch merely call excesses,” Vaessen added.

The Hague had previously apologised and paid out to the widows in individual cases but it had never said sorry or offered compensation for the victims of general summary executions.

Legal action

Two high-profile legal actions have resulted in 20,000 euros being awarded to the widows of some victims and a public apology for summary executions that took place on the island of Sulawesi and in Rawagadeh, on the island of Java.

“When I received the money from the Netherlands I smelled it, I was so happy. But when I was smelling it I could not forget what happened to my husband. I was so sad,” Nani, a 93-year-old widow, told Al Jazeera.

The father of Andi Mondji was one of 208 executed in Sulawesi. He witnessed it when he was still a small child.

“Look what I have lost back then, my grandmother was shot when she was 80 years old and my father was shot and another relative too. All of them shot dead. They should be able to imagine how I as a child suffered because of this,” Mondji told Al Jazeera.

Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

World leaders from G20 are meeting in St Petersburg, Russia, amid sharp differences over possible U.S. military action against Syria in response to what the U.S. administration calls a deadly chemical weapons attack by the Syrian government.

Thursday’s summit comes hours after a U.S. Senate panel voted to give President Barack Obama authority to use military force against Syria – the first time lawmakers in that country have voted to allow military action since the October 2002 vote authorising the invasion of Iraq.

The U.S. and Russia, which is a key Syrian ally, remain at odds as Obama has tried to build his case for military action. The U.S. president has vowed to continue to try to persuade his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, of the need for punitive strikes against President Bashar al-Assad for allegedly using chemical weapons, when the two meet in St Petersburg.

As Putin opened the summit, he spoke exclusively about the global economic crisis, which forms the primary agenda of the summit, stressing the need for coordinated international policy-making in order to combat continuing volatility in economic markets.

He suggested that world leaders discuss the subject of Syria “during dinner” on Thursday night, so as not to take away from the summit’s primary economic agenda.

Kerry ‘a liar’

Earlier, Putin had again questioned Western evidence justifying a military strike against Syria, accusing U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry outright of lying when, in urging Congress to approve strikes, he played down the role of al-Qaeda in the rebel forces.

“Al-Qaeda units are the main military echelon, and they know this,” Putin said. “He is lying and knows he is lying. It’s sad.”

Putin said U.S. congressional approval without a U.N. Security Council resolution would be an act of aggression. He also told The Associated Press this week that he “does not exclude” supporting U.N. action – if it is proven that the Syrian government used poison gas on its own people.

Obama had previously stated that he was prepared to bypass the U.N. Security Council on the issue. But he put the matter to a Congressional vote. Members of the full U.S. Senate are due to debate the matter next week.

The conflict in Syria, which began with a popular uprising in March 2011, has been stalemated, and it is not clear if U.S. military strikes over the government’s alleged chemical weapons use would change that. Obama has said he seeks limited pinpoint action to deter future chemical attacks, not regime change.

Economic and nuclear risks

Meanwhile, China has warned other world powers of global economic risks following the potential U.S. strikes on Syria.

Speaking in St Petersburg ahead of the G20 summit on Thursday, Chinese Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said such “military action would definitely have a negative impact on the global economy, especially on the oil price”.

He cited estimates that a 10 dollar rise in oil prices could push down global growth by 0.25 percent.

He urged a negotiated U.N. solution to the standoff over allegations that Syria’s government used chemical weapons against its own people, expressing hope that “the world economic balance will become more stable rather than more complex and more challenging.”

Russia has also issued a warning that U.S. strikes on Syria’s atomic facilities might result in a nuclear catastrophe and is urging the U.N. to present a risk analysis of such a scenario. The issue will be brought up at a meeting of the 35-nation IAEA board next week, the Interfax news agency reported.

Little international support

Obama has been lobbying for international and domestic support for punishing Assad’s regime, which the U.S. says fired rockets loaded with the nerve agent sarin on rebel-held areas near Damascus before dawn on Aug. 21, killing hundreds of civilians.

So far, however, he has won little international backing for action. The U.S. has France’s support for military action in Syria. But several other G20 powers, including China and Germany, have firmly voiced their opposition.

Ben Rhodes, a senior Obama national security aide, said that the U.S. would use the summit in St Petersburg to “explain our current thinking” to allies and partners and explore what type of “political and diplomatic support they may express for our efforts to hold Syrian regime accountable”.

With pressure mounting on the G20 to make a decision regarding the conflict, the U.N. announced on Thursday that Lakhdar Brahimi, its special envoy to Syria, was travelling to St Petersburg to make a push for peace talks.

Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

The British government has published internal legal advice which it said showed it was legally entitled to take military action against Syria, even if the United Nations Security Council blocked such action.

It also published intelligence material on Thursday on last week’s alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria, saying there was no doubt that such an attack had taken place.

The document is the latest sign that a coalition of Western countries, including the United States, France and the UK, are moving towards military action against Syria after the alleged attack. It was “highly likely” that the Syrian government was behind the attack, the document said.

“If action in the Security Council is blocked, the UK would still be permitted under international law to take exceptional measures in order to alleviate the scale of the overwhelming humanitarian catastrophe in Syria,” a copy of the British government’s legal position read.

In such circumstances, it added that “military intervention to strike specific targets with the aim of deterring and disrupting further such attacks would be necessary and proportionate and therefore legally justifiable”.

In a debate on Thursday, however, Prime Minister David Cameron told the British parliament it was “unthinkable” that Britain would launch military action against Syria if there was strong opposition at the Security Council.

“It would be unthinkable to proceed if there was overwhelming opposition in the Security Council,” he said.

Syria defiant

Earlier on Thursday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that his country would defend itself against any foreign military intervention.

“Syria will defend itself in the face of any aggression, and threats will only increase its commitment to its principles and its independence,” the embattled Syrian leader told a visiting delegation of Yemeni politicians, according to state media.

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that the United States had “concluded” that the Syrian government had carried out a chemical attack. Obama advocated the use of a “tailored, limited” military strike in response.

He was referring to an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Damascus Eastern Ghouta suburbs last week that aid agencies say killed at least 355 people, and injured as many as 3,000 others.

“We have concluded that the Syrian government in fact carried these out,” Obama said in the televised interview. But he did not present any direct evidence to back up his assertion, and the government has strongly denied accusations that it was involved.

‘Destabilisation’

Arguing for measured intervention after long resisting deeper involvement in Syria, Obama insisted that while Assad’s government must be punished, he intended to avoid repeating the errors made in the 2003 Iraq war.

The most likely option, U.S. officials say, would be to launch cruise missiles from U.S. ships in the Mediterranean in a campaign that would last several days.

New hurdles have, however, emerged that appear to have slowed the formation of an international coalition that could use military force to hit Syria.

On Wednesday, the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council failed to reach an agreement on a draft resolution from the British seeking authorisation for the use of force.

Russia objected to international intervention, after Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier rejected the case for ascribing culpability to the Syrian government at this time, adding that foreign military intervention would lead to “destabilisation of […] the country and the region”.

Chinese state media on Thursday said that any military intervention “would have dire consequences for regional security and violate the norms governing international relations”.

Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

Israeli forces have killed 14 Palestinians in the West Bank this year. Credit: Matthew Cassel/Al Jazeera

By AJ Correspondents
QATAR, Aug 26 2013 (Al Jazeera)

Israeli forces have killed three Palestinians, including a UN worker, in an early morning raid on the Qalandiya refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

Medical sources told Al Jazeera that at least 15 others were wounded, six of them seriously, during clashes between the Israeli forces and Palestinians that erupted after the raid on Monday.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency later said one of those killed, a 34-year-old father of four, worked for them and was walking to work when he was shot in the chest. The agency condemned the killing.

An Israeli police spokeswoman told the AFP news agency that the officers were on a raid to catch a “terror suspect” when more than 1,500 Palestinians took to the streets and attacked them with firebombs and rocks.

She said Israeli forces used riot-control munitions – a term that usually refers to rubber bullets and tear gas.

It was not clear if the Israelis made any arrests.

A 13-year-old boy from the camp, whom Al Jazeera has not named because of his age, said he was on his way to school when he saw Israeli soldiers shooting live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas.

“I counted about 10 army vehicles in total and many soldiers marching alongside them shooting randomly”, he said, adding that at least two of the vehicles had caught fire from petrol bombs hurled by the youth.

“I’m not usually scared when the army invades, but that moment it was hard not to be because of all the shooting.”

Mohamed, a 19-year-old with a fresh bandage wrapped around his head, said he had just left home for work when he was shot with a rubber-coated steel bullet. “Everyone was lying on the ground when I got hit,” he said.

Hours after the killings, hundreds of mourners gathered at the Qalandiya Mosque for the three men’s funeral.

When midday prayers ended, a group of masked Palestinian fighters carrying M16 assault rifles fired bursts of ammunition into the air before the three bodies wrapped in white cloth and Palestinian flags were carried out of the mosque.

The crowd followed behind chanting, “With our blood, with our souls, we will redeem you, oh martyrs.”

Talks cancelled

Palestinian negotiators cancelled a planned round of peace talks with the Israelis in protest.

Rami Hamdallah, the Palestinian prime minister, said in a statement: “Such a crime proves the need for an urgent and effective international protection for our people.”

Israeli forces often enter Palestinian-administered territories to arrest people.

Israel and the Palestinian Authority recently resumed US-brokered peace talks after a long halt last month. However, both sides have not expressed much optimism about a major breakthrough.

Violence in the West Bank has escalated since the beginning of 2013. Israeli forces have killed 14 Palestinians in the occupied territory this year, most of them in clashes, compared with three killed in the same period in 2012.

With additional reporting by Matthew Cassel. Published under agreement with Al Jazeera.

(Al Jazeera) – Israeli forces have killed three Palestinians, including a UN worker, in an early morning raid on the Qalandiya refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. Medical sources told Al Jazeera that at least 15 others were wounded, six of them seriously, during clashes between the Israeli forces and Palestinians that erupted after the raid on Monday.

Israeli forces have killed 14 Palestinians in the West Bank this year. Credit: Matthew Cassel/Al Jazeera

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency later said one of those killed, a 34-year-old father of four, worked for them and was walking to work when he was shot in the chest. The agency condemned the killing.

An Israeli police spokeswoman told the AFP news agency that the officers were on a raid to catch a “terror suspect” when more than 1,500 Palestinians took to the streets and attacked them with firebombs and rocks.

She said Israeli forces used riot-control munitions – a term that usually refers to rubber bullets and tear gas. It was not clear if the Israelis made any arrests. A 13-year-old boy from the camp, whom Al Jazeera has not named because of his age, said he was on his way to school when he saw Israeli soldiers shooting live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas.

“I counted about 10 army vehicles in total and many soldiers marching alongside them shooting randomly”, he said, adding that at least two of the vehicles had caught fire from petrol bombs hurled by the youth.

“I’m not usually scared when the army invades, but that moment it was hard not to be because of all the shooting.”

Mohamed, a 19-year-old with a fresh bandage wrapped around his head, said he had just left home for work when he was shot with a rubber-coated steel bullet. “Everyone was lying on the ground when I got hit,” he said.

Hours after the killings, hundreds of mourners gathered at the Qalandiya Mosque for the three men’s funeral.

When midday prayers ended, a group of masked Palestinian fighters carrying M16 assault rifles fired bursts of ammunition into the air before the three bodies wrapped in white cloth and Palestinian flags were carried out of the mosque.

The crowd followed behind chanting, “With our blood, with our souls, we will redeem you, oh martyrs.” Palestinian negotiators cancelled a planned round of peace talks with the Israelis in protest.

Rami Hamdallah, the Palestinian prime minister, said in a statement: “Such a crime proves the need for an urgent and effective international protection for our people.” Israeli forces often enter Palestinian-administered territories to arrest people.

Israel and the Palestinian Authority recently resumed US-brokered peace talks after a long halt last month. However, both sides have not expressed much optimism about a major breakthrough. Violence in the West Bank has escalated since the beginning of 2013. Israeli forces have killed 14 Palestinians in the occupied territory this year, most of them in clashes, compared with three killed in the same period in 2012.

Syrian activists claim that government forces have carried out a “poisonous gas” attack in suburbs of the capital, Damascus, leaving hundreds of people dead.

Activists said regime forces fired “rockets with poisonous gas heads” in the alleged attack early on Wednesday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the shelling was intense and hit the eastern suburbs of Zamalka, Arbeen and Ein Tarma.

It said at least 100 were killed, while the Local Coordination Committees said hundreds of people were killed or injured in the shelling.

The attack coincided with the visit by a 20-member U.N. chemical weapons team to Syria to investigate three sites where chemical weapons attacks allegedly occurred over the past year.

Syrian authorities dismissed reports of a chemical attack on Wednesday as “baseless”, and said the reports were intended to hinder the mission of U.N. inspectors.

The main opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, accused the regime of killing more than 650 people on Wednesday.

“Over 650 confirmed dead result of deadly chemical weapon attack in Syria,” the National Coalition said on Twitter.

The reports could not be independently confirmed.

Al Jazeera’s Nisreen El-Shamayleh, reporting from neighbouring Jordan, said there were videos allegedly showing both children and adults in field hospitals, some of them suffocating, coughing and sweating.

“We have been receiving reports that the doctors in the field hospitals do not have the right medication to treat these cases and that they were treating people with vinegar and water,” she said.

Call for U.N. probe

The head of the U.N. chemical weapons inspectors in Syria said that reports of the gas attack should be investigated.

Swedish scientist Ake Sellstrom told news agency TT that while he had only seen TV footage, from which nothing could be determined, the high number of casualties reported sounded “suspicious”.

The Syrian National Coalition has called for an urgent U.N. Security Council meeting after the deadly attack.

“I call on the Security Council to convene urgently,” National Coalition leader Ahmed al-Jarba told Al-Arabiya news channel, condemning the Syrian army’s bombardment of the suburbs of Damascus as a “massacre.”

He urged the U.N. team now in Syria to visit the site.

In Cairo, the Arab League also urged the U.N. inspectors to visit the site of the alleged attack immediately. And Saudi Arabia as well urged the U.N. and EU ministers to immediately address the “massacre”.

UK said it would raise the reported chemical weapons attack at the U.N. Security Council and called on Damascus to give U.N. inspectors access to the site.

“I am deeply concerned by reports that hundreds of people, including children, have been killed in airstrikes and a chemical weapons attack on rebel-held areas near Damascus,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement.

France will also ask U.N. experts to visit the site of the alleged chemical attack in Syria, a French government spokesman said.

Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

Border guards in Bangladesh refuse entry to Rohingya refugees from Myanmar in November 2012. Credit: Anurup Titu/IPS

By AJ Correspondents
DOHA, Aug 15 2013 (Al Jazeera)

An activist has been arrested in Myanmar after posting photos on Facebook from violent clashes between displaced Muslims and security forces in the country’s restive state of Rakhine, police and an activist have said.

It was not immediately clear what charges Than Shwe, a 29-year-old Rohingya Muslim, would face.

A police officer who refused to give his name because he was not authorised to speak to the media said on Wednesday that the man was trying to cause trouble during a visit by U.N. special rapporteur on human rights Tomas Ojea Quintana.

Quintana, who was touring the region after the deadly clashes, has urged the state government to release the activist, Thailand-based The Irrawaddy newsmagazine reported.

Aung Win, a well-known Rohingya activist, said that Than Shwe’s wife called Quintana on Tuesday and told him that her husband had been detained.

“He [Quintana] told our community leaders that he had already told the government to release all people who have been detained, included Than Shwe,” said Aung Win, according to the newsmagazine.

At least one person was killed and around 10 were injured after the clash in a camp for dispossessed Rohingya Muslims Friday Aug. 9, in the latest violence in Rakhine state, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said.

Police torture

The most recent unrest occurred after the body of a fisherman was found in a creek near Ohn Taw Gyi camp, said Rakhine state spokesman Win Myaing, who called it a drowning.

But rumours quickly spread that the man had been beaten to death by police.

“He was bleeding from both ears. It looked like he had been smashed in the face by a rifle butt, all his teeth were gone,” said Aung Win, who saw the body before burial.

“This wasn’t a drowning. He was pretty clearly beaten and tortured.”

A dispute over the death and custody of the body sparked several riots, which were broken up by police who fired first into the air and then into the crowd, Win Myaing said.

Than Shwe, who works for an organisation that delivers food and supplies to camps for Rohingya Muslims, was accused of posting images of the dead and injured online, Aung Win said.

Twenty officers went to his home on Monday Aug. 12 and brought him to the police station, Aung Win said.

The United Nations has called for dialogue following the latest unrest.

“UNHCR is reiterating its call for peaceful dialogue and confidence-building between the [internally displaced persons] and government,” spokesman Adrian Edwards said in Geneva.

Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist nation that only recently emerged from decades of isolation and military rule, has been wracked by sectarian violence in the last year, with more than 250 people killed and 140,000 others displaced.

Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

Mali’s presidential election has been won by Ibrahim Boubacar Keita after his rival conceded defeat in the second-round runoff.

Ex-Finance Minister Soumaila Cisse said he had congratulated his rival Keita on winning the vote and wished him good luck,  news agencies had reported on Monday.

Cisse’s concession, hours after he complained the election had been marred by fraud, will deepen optimism for Mali’s recovery.

Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris, reporting from outside Keita’s headquarters in Bamako as the news of his win came in, said there seemed to be celebrations already taking place as some international observers were seen congratulating Keita.

“The general feeling here is that people are actually happy that this has come to a peaceful end, and that Mali finally has a president,” he said.

Keita, a former prime minister, inherits a broken nation and must still negotiate peace with northern rebels.

No official results have yet been released following Sunday’s runoff, but reports put Keita well ahead.

Keita had been widely expected to win Sunday’s vote, having swept the July 28 first round with nearly 40 percent of votes on a ticket to restore order after a March 2012 military coup allowed separatist rebels to seize control of the northern two-thirds of Mali.

Cisse said earlier on Monday that the vote had been tainted by intimidation. However, international and local observers said that, despite small irregularities, the process had been credible.

‘Important stage’

“This election, from a democratic standards point of view, is a success,” said the head of a EU observer mission, Louis Michel.

“It is an election that allows Mali now to start finishing the process that it has begun: the return to a normal democracy,” he added.

France sent thousands of troops in January to break rebels’ grip on northern Mali.

Paris now aims to pull out its contingent to a rapid response team of 1,000 troops to face the scattered threat, while handing broader security duties to a 12,600-strong UN peacekeeping mission being deployed.

Keita received the backing of 22 of the 25 losing first round candidates.

Diplomats now hope a clean election will give him a strong mandate to negotiate a lasting peace with northern Tuareg separatists, reform the army and tackle deep-rooted corruption.

“This was an important stage in the transition in Mali towards peace and reconciliation,” UN Special Representative for Mali Bert Koenders said.

“There were small imperfections … but the lack of violence was impressive in a country which has just emerged from conflict.”

Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

An inmate at the Manus asylum seekers detention centre in Papua New Guinea. Credit: Australian Department of Immigration

By AJ Correspondents
DOHA, Aug 1 2013 (Al Jazeera)

The first asylum-seekers sent to Papua New Guinea (PNG) under Australia’s tough new refugee policy have arrived in the Pacific nation, to be detained at the Australian-run processing centre.

Their arrival on Thursday formally brought into effect July’s bilateral agreement, known as the PNG Solution, where asylum-seekers trying to arrive in Australia by boat are sent to PNG for processing and resettlement, even if they are judged to be genuine refugees.

Australia’s immigration department said that the 40 asylum-seekers, mainly Iranian and Afghan men, were flown from Australia’s Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island on Wednesday night, accompanied by Australian police and medical staff.

Tony Burke, Australia’s immigration minister, said it showed that Canberra was serious about not resettling “boat people” in Australia.

“As of now there are the first 40 people in Papua New Guinea who are realising that the people-smugglers no longer have a product to sell,” Burke said.

“The promise of living and working in Australia, which is sold by people-smugglers before they push people onto the high seas, is no longer a product available.”

Military-led detention

The issue of asylum-seekers has featured prominently in the lead-up to the Australian election, due this year, which will pit the Kevin Rudd-led Australian Labour Party government against the conservative opposition, headed by Tony Abbott.

Both parties have promised a harsh stance, with Abbott unveiling rival plans for a military-led operation and detention for arrivals in a tent city on the South Pacific island of Nauru in Micronesia.

More than 1,400 asylum-seekers have arrived on 18 boats since the government announced its new stance.

Australia’s processing facility on Manus Island’s Lombrum Naval base can only house 500 people, but it plans to expand the centre to accommodate at least 3,000.

Burke visited the camp in July, in the wake of rape and torture claims, which he pledged to investigate.

The immigration minister said more people would be flown to PNG in the coming days, with an advertising campaign spelling out the policy in key transit countries like Indonesia and Sri Lanka to be stepped up.

Australia deal ‘cost 700 million dollars’

Human rights groups have criticised the state of existing facilities at Manus Island and the U.N. said last week that it was “troubled” by the decision to send asylum-seekers there.

The U.N. refugee agency highlighted “significant shortcomings” in the legal framework for receiving and processing asylum-seekers.

“These include a lack of national capacity and expertise in processing, and poor physical conditions within open-ended, mandatory and arbitrary detention settings,” the UNHCR said.

Australia resumed sending asylum-seekers offshore to Manus Island and the Pacific state of Nauru in 2012 in an attempt to deter record numbers of asylum-seekers arriving by boat.

Hundreds of refugees have drowned as they tried to make the perilous journey in recent years.

The first transfer comes as Peter O’Neill, PNG’s prime minister, outlined the costs of major projects Australia has agreed to fund as part of the deal.

O’Neill told The Australian newspaper that the total cost would be about 705 million dollars, with Australia contributing about 439 million.

Legal action

The project includes the rebuilding of a hospital and renovation of PNG’s universities, which will be jointly funded, the construction of a key highway between Lae and Madang, and a new court building in the capital Port Moresby which Canberra will solely fund.

O’Neill said his country had agreed to help because Australia was “our best friend” and “we are a Christian nation”.

“Our Christianity surely requires we exercise compassion, and exercising compassion surely means discouraging the evil practice of people-smuggling,” O’Neill said.

The agreement has angered the PNG opposition, which has launched legal action in an attempt to thwart the deal.

Opposition leader Belden Namah told Al Jazeera that the legal case would argue that the agreement was in breach of Papua New Guinea’s constitution on human rights and of the U.N. Refugee Convention.

Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

Hundreds of families hope the remains of loved ones forcibly “disappeared” in the war will be found in cemeteries full of unidentified bodies, like this one in La Macarena in central Colombia. Credit: Constanza Vieira/IPS

By AJ Correspondents
DOHA, Jul 25 2013 (Al Jazeera)

Almost a quarter of a million Colombians have been killed in the country’s internal conflict since 1958, most of them civilians, a government-funded report has said.

The much-anticipated report was produced by the National Centre of Historical Memory, which was created under a 2011 law designed to indemnify victims of the conflict and return stolen land.

The law prefaced peace talks now being held in Cuba with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the country’s main leftist rebel group.

The 434-page report, titled “Enough Already: Memories of War and Dignity”, says most of the killings occurred after far-right militias backed by ranchers and cocaine traffickers emerged in the 1980s to counter the FARC and other leftwing insurgent groups.

The report said that more than four out of every five victims were civilian non-combatants.

“We all deserve to know the truth, we all deserve to understand what happened in our rural areas and cities, and only then will we be able to say forcefully: ‘Stop!’ Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said at the presidential palace on Wednesday, when the study was released. “Only in a Colombia without fear and with truth can we begin to turn the page.”

Living in fear

The government has been in peace talks with the FARC since November. While human rights violations have receded, the report painted a grim picture of bloodshed from the height of the conflict until 2012.

Colombia’s armed forces, backed by billions of dollars in U.S. aid, have used better intelligence and logistics over the last decade to combat the illegal armed groups, pushing their fighters deep into the country’s jungles.

“It’s a war that has left most of the country in mourning, but very unevenly. It’s a war whose victims are, in the vast majority, non-combatant civilians. It’s a depraved war that has broken all humanitarian rules,” said Gonzalo Sanchez, director of the centre, who presented the report to Santos.

In over half a century, the war killed 220,000 Colombians, more than 177,300, or 80 percent, of whom were civilians, according to the report. Another 40,787 members of the armed forces, paramilitary and rebels groups were killed in combat.

The 400-page study, packed with shocking photos of victims, was conducted in some of Colombia’s most volatile areas, where communities have lived in fear for decades.

Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.