Europe

Belarus opposition figure Kolesnikova detained at Ukraine border

Issued on: 08/09/2020 – 10:14

Leading Belarusian opposition activist Maria Kolesnikova was held on..

Issued on: 08/09/2020 – 10:14

Leading Belarusian opposition activist Maria Kolesnikova was held on the Belarus-Ukraine border Tuesday after she resisted attempts to force her to leave the country in a government bid to end a month of protests over President Alexander Lukashenkos controversial reelection.

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Kolesnikova, a member of the Coordination Council created by the opposition to facilitate talks with Lukashenko on a transition of power, was detained Monday in the capital, Minsk, along with two other council members. Witnesses said she was bundled into a van by masked men.

Early Tuesday, Kolesnikova and the two other council members were driven to the border, where authorities told them to cross into Ukraine. Kolesnikova refused, and remained on the Belarusian side of the border in the custody of Belarusian authorities.

The two other council members, Ivan Kravtsov and Anton Rodnenkov, crossed into Ukraine.

Some reports said that Kolesnikova ripped up her passport to avoid being forced to move to Ukraine.

Anton Bychkovsky, spokesman for Belaruss Border Guard Committee, confirmed that Kolesnikova was in the custody of Belarusian authorities, but refused to give any details of what happened on the border.

#Lukashenko claims that opposition leader Maria Kolesnikova wanted to flee to her sister in Ukraine.

Seems legit, considering she ripped up her passport to avoid crossing the border. https://t.co/ds5w0LdfTC

— Khodorkovsky Center (@mbk_center) September 8, 2020

Kolesnikova played a major role in the campaign of opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who claimed victory over Lukashenko in a disputed election last month, and has since addressed huge rallies calling for the presidents resignation.

Belarus has applied similar tactics of trying to force other opposition figures out of the country in a bid to end a month of demonstrations against the reelection of Lukashenko in a vote that protesters see as rigged.

A closer look at three key women opposition figures challenging Belarus's Lukashenko

Lukashenko has ruled the country for 26 years, relentlessly stifling dissent and keeping most of the economy in state hands.

The 66-year-old former state farm director has rejected criticism from the US and the EU, which said the August 9 election was neither free nor fair.

In an interview with Russian media Tuesday, Lukashenko repeated his position that he would not step down from power. But the authoritarian leader did not rule out early presidential elections, according to a journalist who interviewed him.

The interview came as Belarusian, Russian and Serbian military forces prepared to take part in joint military exercises in Belarus, the Russian RIA news agency quoted the Belarusian defence ministry as saying. Russian and Serbian forces would arrive in Belarus from September 10 to 15, RIA said without providing further details.

Meanwhile Tsikhanouskaya, the main opposition challenger to Lukashenko, addressed the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly on Tuesday via a video link from Lithuania, where she fled a day after the election, under pressure from authorities.

In her address, Tsikhanouskaya called for international sanctions against Lukashenko and other government officials.

“We need international pressure on this regime, on this one individual, desperately clinging onto power," she said.

Tsikhanouskaya said Lukashenko did not have any legitimacy after stealing the vote and warned other countries against making any deals with the Belarusian government.

“He does not represent Belarus anymore,” she said.

After a brutal crackdown on protesters in the first few days after the vote that stoked international outrage and swelled the ranks of protesters, authorities in Belarus have switched to threats and selective arrests of opposition activists and demonstrators.

Last week, Pavel Latushko, a former minister of culture and ambassador to France who joined the opposition council, traveled to Poland after facingRead More – Source

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Europe

Illegal Immigrants Building Paris 2024 Olympics Amidst Political and Social Tension

Gaye Sarambounou is used to toiling long days for a pittance. He’s a Malian living in France with no working papers, but it’s a situation that occurs around the world. The difference here is that Sarambounou is one of an army of construction workers preparing next year’s Olympic Games in Paris.

The fact that France’s upcoming sporting showcase is being put together with the help of illegal workers is becoming a source of political and social tension.

For three months Sarambounou, 41, worked between eight- and 11-hour shifts for 80 euros per day.

Obviously, “overtime was never paid,” he said ruefully.

“I accepted because I know my situation. If you don’t have papers, you do all the hard work, all the crappy jobs. You have no choice,” he said as he boiled water on a stove on the floor of the tiny room he shares with four compatriots.

“Everyone knows what’s going on, but nobody talks about it”, said a smiling Sarambounou, who was kicked off an Olympic building site last year after a raid by labour inspectors.

Trade unionist Bernard Thibault, who co-chairs the Paris 2024 Social Charter Monitoring Committee says there is “a great deal of hypocrisy on the part of the political authorities”.

As a sign of the concern, the Labour Inspectorate has created a specialised unit that has been checking nearly one site a day for the past two years.

In June, nine irregular workers were identified on a site run by Solideo, the public company responsible for building facilities and infrastructure for the Olympics.

At the same time, a local public prosecutor’s office opened a preliminary investigation into the “employment of foreigners without a permit in an organised gang”.

Solideo swiftly “took the necessary steps” by terminating the contract of the offending subcontractor but also of the construction giant that used it, said Antoine du Souich, the company’s strategy director.

Since then procedures have been tightened up, he assured, while admitting it’s impossible to set up a system “entirely impervious” to such fraud.

“All these beautiful stadiums are built by poor people… who are exploited,” said another Malian worker, who requested anonymity.

“It’s always 80 percent immigrants who do the work. You see Malians, Portuguese, Turks. And the French… in the offices!” he added.

The Malian workers want nothing more than to be regularised, so they don’t have to live in fear of an identity check.

The left-wing CGT union is preparing to submit an application for Sarambounou to receive his working papers.

If he gets those within 18 months, the recent hardships will seem like nothing more than a bad dream, he says.

“I’ll be legal for the Games!”

(AFP)

Europe

Aliku Ogorchukwu: Wife of Nigerian killed in Italy demands justice

The wife of a Nigerian street trader who was killed in Italy has told the BBC she is seeking justice following his “painful death”.

Aliku Ogorchukwu, 39, was reportedly selling handkerchiefs in the seaside town of Civitanova Marche on Friday when he was chased and beaten to death.

A 32-year-old Italian has been arrested on suspicion of murder and robbery.

A video circulating online shows a man on top of Ogorchukwu, punching him with his bare hands.

None of those who witnessed the broad daylight attack appeared to intervene.

“This is a form of wickedness I don’t know,” Ogorchukwu’s wife, Charity Oriachi, told the BBC’s Focus on Africa.

Ms Oriachi said she had received help in coming to terms with her husband’s death but was tired of “talk”. Now, she was only interested in justice, she insisted.

Her family had lived in Italy for a long time, she said, stressing that her husband had never sought any trouble.

The killing has sparked outrage in the local community, including Nigerians, who took to the streets over the weekend and are planning another demonstration soon.

The Nigerian government has asked Italian authorities to quickly “bring the perpetrator of the heinous act” to justice.

Suspect not released

The suspect – a white man named as Filippo Claudio Giuseppe Ferlazzo – has been ordered to remain in jail as the investigation continues.

His defence lawyer told the media the suspect had said he was sorry and that there was “no racial element” involved.

A police investigator said Ogorchukwu was attacked after the trader’s “insistent” requests to the suspect and his partner for spare change.

The partner, identified as Elena D, told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that Ogorchukwu had touched her arm, but that did not bother her.

Ms Oriachi now wants to see the suspect “face to face”, to understand why he killed her husband, the family’s lawyer told the Associated Press.

Read from: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62384560

Europe

Ukrainian widow confronts Russian soldier accused of killing her husband

In the very first days of this invasion a 62-year-old unarmed civilian was shot dead on a village street outside his Ukrainian home. His name was Oleksandr Shelipov.

Three months later and the captured Russian soldier accused of killing him is in Kyiv being tried for a war crime.

Standing up in court to confront the 21-year-old defendant on Thursday was Kateryna Shelipova, the widow of the man killed.

Did he repent his crime, she asked?

The Russian tank commander, Vadim Shishimarin, replied that he admitted his guilt and asked for her forgiveness. “But I understand you won’t be able to forgive me,” he added.

Kateryna Shelipova hadn’t finished. “Tell me please, why did you [Russians] come here? To protect us?” she asked, citing Vladimir Putin’s justification for the invasion of Ukraine.

“Protect us from whom? Did you protect me from my husband, whom you killed?”

The soldier had no answer to that.

This landmark trial marks the first time a Russian serviceman has been put on the stand for war crimes since the invasion of Ukraine was launched in February.

And perhaps such raw encounters are what such trials are about, at least in part. Forcing a soldier – who ignored all the rules of war – to face up to exactly what he has done and the suffering he has caused.

Sgt Shishimarin has pleaded guilty and Ukrainian prosecutors are asking for him to be sentenced to life imprisonment.

On Wednesday, Ms Shelipova told me she actually felt sorry for the soldier, but she could not forgive him for this crime.

She heard the shots that killed her husband, then saw Sgt Shishimarin through her gate – holding his weapon.

Five minutes later she says she saw her husband’s body: “He was dead with a shot in his head. I started screaming very loudly.”

“The loss of my husband is everything for me,” Ms Shelipova said, adding: “He was my protector.”

‘It killed him’

Recalling the events of 28 February, Vadim Shishimarin said he and a small group of other Russian soldiers had become separated from their unit and hijacked a car in order to return to it.

“As we were driving, we saw a man. He was talking on the phone,” the defendant said.

He claimed that he hadn’t wanted to fire the fatal shots, that he was following orders – threatened by another soldier if he refused to do as he was told.

“He said I would be putting us in danger if I didn’t. I shot him at short range. It killed him,” the 21-year-old tank commander told the court.

Interestingly, his defence lawyer – appointed by the state – told me that no Russian official has been in touch with him, including from its defence ministry.

There is no Russian embassy in Kyiv these days, so no contact from there either.

President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman yesterday told the BBC that the Kremlin has “no information” about this case.

All in all, it feels rather like the young soldier has been abandoned to his fate by the commanders who sent him to war and continue to deny that their forces commit crimes here.

We also heard from a second Russian soldier who witnessed the killing in February and later surrendered to Ukrainian forces.

Ivan Maltysev, another slight and young-looking 21-year-old, told the court how the Russian soldiers spotted Oleksandr Shelipov while they were driving the stolen car.

Mr Maltysev claimed that Vadim Shishimarin was then ordered to shoot the victim because he was on the phone.

“Vadim didn’t do it. So the soldier, whose name I don’t know, turned round in the car and shouted that Vadim had to carry out the order, or we would be informed on.

“At this point, we were almost alongside the civilian and, under pressure, Vadim fired. He fired three or four rounds.”

Ukraine has so far identified more than 11,000 possible war crimes committed by Russia.

Moscow has denied its troops have targeted civilians, but investigators have been collecting evidence of possible war crimes to bring before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

This trial is Ukraine’s chance to prove, beyond doubt, that a Russian soldier killed a civilian with no regard for the rules of war.

Its prosecutors know they are in the spotlight, proceeding so quickly, and in the middle of a war.

That is why they are keen to be as transparent and thorough as possible – so that this is not seen as a show trial, but part of a vital quest for justice.

Read from: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-6151164