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March
Pakistan suggests China, Islamic states mediate in Ukraine crisis
Written by Nur Yasmin
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday suggested that close ally China and Islamic countries mediate in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and try to bring about a ceasefire.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is holding the 48th Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers, which more than 600 delegates are attending, including Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi as a special guest, in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
"May I suggest that OIC during its discussion with foreign ministers, we should think about how ... how we can mediate, how we can bring about the ceasefire," Khan told the gathering.
"I want to discuss how, maybe OIC along with China, we can all step in and try to stop this conflict which is going to have, if it keeps going the way it is, it would have great consequences for the rest of the world."
Khan's comments came hours after China and Pakistan echoed concerns about "spill-over effects of unilateral sanctions" on Russia, according to a statement by the Chinese foreign ministry.
China has not condemned Russia's invasion, though it has expressed concern about the war. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng said on Saturday that Western sanctions against Russia were getting "more and more outrageous". read more
Khan was in Moscow to meet President Vladimir Putin the day Russian forces entered Ukraine. Pakistan has expressed concern about the repercussions of the invasion but also stopped short of condemning it.
Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 in what it called a special operation to degrade its neighbour's military capabilities and root out people it called dangerous nationalists. read more
Pakistan abstained from the U.N. General Assembly vote that condemned Russia's aggression against Ukraine. (Reuters)
March
Frustration in Myanmar over ASEAN envoy's peace mission
Written by Nur Yasmin
Small protests took place in military-ruled Myanmar on Tuesday against a visit by a Southeast Asian envoy, whose peace mission has been derided by critics as a failure and an endorsement of a junta condemned by the United Nations for its harsh rule.
Prak Sokhonn, special envoy for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), has been chided by activists and opposition groups, who say he has shown favour to the ruling generals and disregard for those they are persecuting. read more
ASEAN chair Cambodia declined to say who Prak Sokhonn met on Tuesday and Myanmar state television did not report on his activities.
On Monday, it had extensive coverage of his talks with the junta leadership, which ASEAN has barred from its summits for ignoring a five-point "consensus" agreed last year to end the crisis.
Small demonstrations took place on Tuesday, including in Mandalay and Kachin state, where some protesters carried signs telling Prak Sokhonn he was not welcome, images posted by activists on social media showed.
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said the envoy had shown "a clear tilt to the side of the junta".
"By rushing to Myanmar to embrace top level junta representatives without a clear agreement for steps forward on the five-point consensus, or even the possibility of meeting all meaningful stakeholders ... Prak Sokhonn is granting the junta a public relations windfall," he said in a statement.
Myanmar has been plagued by violence and instability since the military seized power and upended a decade of tentative democratic and economic reforms.
The military's bloody crackdown on civilians has been condemned by the international community. The United Nations last week said the army was committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The junta has yet to respond to that, but has previously accused "terrorists" opposed to its rule of causing violence and destruction.
Cambodia last week sought to temper expectations about the trip, which it said aimed to create "favourable conditions" for peace. read more
According to Radio Free Asia and an ASEAN diplomat who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity, Prak Sokhonn had been due on Tuesday to meet Su Su Lwin, the wife of an ex president and a member of Myanmar's ousted ruling party, but that was cancelled due to issues with her health.
On Monday, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet said ASEAN's peace plan had made little progress, with junta leader Min Aung Hlaing failing to stop the violence or allow proper humanitarian access.
"Myanmar's people have been clear in their rejection of this coup and the violence it has wrought on their lives. They demand that their voices be heard," she said. (Reuters)
March
Ukraine urges China to play more visible role to halt war
Written by Nur Yasmin
Ukraine wants China to play a more "noticeable role" in halting the war being waged by Russia on its territory and also to become a future guarantor of its security, a senior aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday.
Andriy Yermak, who heads Zelenskiy's office, also said he expected a dialogue "very soon" between Ukraine's leader and Chinese President Xi Jinping, without elaborating.
China, the world's no. 2 economy, has long been forging closer energy, trade and security ties with Russia but is also Ukraine's biggest trading partner. It has resisted pressure from Western countries to condemn Russia's invasion.
"So far we've seen China's neutral position. And, as I said before, we believe that China ... should play a more noticeable role in bringing this war to (an) end and in building up a new global security system," Yermak told a virtual news conference organised by the Chatham House think-tank in London.
"We also expect China to contribute meaningfully to this new system of security for Ukraine and we also expect China to be one of the guarantors within the framework of this security system," he said, speaking through an interpreter.
"We treat China with utmost respect and we expect it to play a pro-active role there."
SECURITY GUARANTEES
Before Russia's invasion, Kyiv had said it wanted security guarantees from major powers, calling the existing global security architecture "almost broken". read more
China and Russia are permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, along with the United States, Britain and France.
Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, aspires to join NATO and the European Union, but Moscow firmly opposes those plans. Beijing has also criticised NATO's eastern expansion.
The United States warned China last week against helping Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24. read more
Beijing has said it wants a diplomatic solution to the conflict, and that it supports the territorial integrity of both Russia and Ukraine, while also recognising Moscow's "legitimate" security concerns.
Moscow says what it calls its "special military operation" is aimed at disarming Ukraine and ridding it of dangerous nationalists who threaten its own security. Kyiv and Western countries say this is a pretext for waging an unprovoked war against a sovereign democratic state. (Reuters)
March
Ukrainian president urges Italy to seize mystery yacht
Written by Nur Yasmin
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged Italy on Tuesday to seize a mystery yacht worth some $700 million that has been linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In an address to the Italian parliament, Zelenskiy said Putin and his wealthy backers often went to Italy on holiday and should have all their assets frozen to put pressure on them to end the invasion of Ukraine.
"Don't be a resort for murderers. Block all their real estate, accounts and yachts - from the Scheherazade to the smallest ones," he said, referring to a superyacht that is moored in the Italian port of Marina di Carrara.
The sleek, six-deck vessel has two helicopter landing pads and can host up 18 guests and 40 crew. Its owner has never been publicly identified, but there have been insistent rumours in the media that it belongs to Putin or a member of his inner circle.
An organisation set up by the imprisoned Alexei Navalny, a fierce Putin critic, released a report on Monday saying it had evidence that the boat belonged to the Russian leader.
It said many of its crew were drawn from Russia's Federal Protective Service (FSO), which is tasked with protecting the Russian president, and regularly flew to Italy.
The Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request for a comment on whether Putin was the owner of the Scheherazade or on whether members of the FSO were crew members.
An Italy police source told Reuters on Tuesday that investigators did not believe the yacht was owned by anyone in Putin's entourage. However, the source added that the government was still trying to ascertain who the owner was.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi told parliament on Tuesday that his government had seized more than 800 million euros of assets owned in Italy by Russian businessmen as part of EU sanctions targeting Putin, his friends and associates.
However, officials have said very little is known about what Putin might own, or where he holds his assets.
In order to apply more pressure on Moscow, Zelenskiy told Italian lawmakers that the European Union needed to impose a full trade embargo on Russia, including a ban on oil purchases.
"Support a ban on entering your ports for Russian ships, so that they feel the cost of their aggression," he said. (Reuters)
March
Shanghai's local COVID cases hit daily record as Jilin outbreak persists
Written by Nur Yasmin
China's financial hub Shanghai on Tuesday reported a fifth consecutive daily record for locally transmitted COVID-19 asymptomatic cases as the highly infectious Omicron variant complicates efforts to stop the virus spreading.
Although small compared with the number of infections in many outbreaks overseas, the rise is significant as Shanghai redoubles its efforts to implement China's "dynamic clearance" policy designed to curb each flare-up.
The city is pressing ahead with a block by block testing scheme after already completing more than 30 million tests.
Shanghai reported 865 domestically transmitted asymptomatic infections for Monday, official data showed, up from 734 a day earlier.
The municipality also reported 31 new local cases with confirmed symptoms, which China counts separately, on Monday, including one person who was initially reported as an asymptomatic infection and showed symptoms later, according to data from the National Health Commission (NHC).
National authorities have warned local governments against slackening in their virus control efforts and reiterated that infections should be identified and isolated quickly, while acknowledging that officials should minimise the economic and social impact of COVID restrictions.
The NHC said on Tuesday that cities, including those with more than 10 million residents, must be able to complete a testing campaign within 24 hours, while its extent should be tailored to the need for COVID control and not necessarily blanket testing.
IN THE NORTH
Including the infections in Shanghai, mainland China reported on Monday 2,281 new locally transmitted cases with confirmed symptoms, the NHC said, compared with 1,947 a day earlier.
The majority of the new cases were found in the northeastern province of Jilin, which is battling China's worst regional outbreak since the 2020 one centred on Wuhan where the pandemic began.
Jilin has mostly banned trips both outside the province and from region to region within the province, and residents who have to travel must notify the police.
The number of local symptomatic cases in Jilin's provincial capital of Changchun has increased for five days in a row and hit a record on March 21.
The city has suspended in-store shopping for three days through to Wednesday and urged residents to go online to order daily necessities, further reducing residents' movement as the city scrambled to complete a new round of mass testing.
In the northern city of Sanhe, police have launched a formal investigation into 15 people who failed to provide legitimate reasons why they did not submit to citywide testing, citing the "health risk" they posed to other residents, a statement from Communist party authority in Sanhe late on Monday said.
The number of new local asymptomatic cases in mainland China stood at 2,313 compared with 2,384 a day earlier.
There were no new deaths, leaving the death toll at 4,638.
As of March 21, mainland China had reported 134,564 cases with confirmed symptoms, including both local infections and those arriving from outside the mainland. (Reuters)
March
Saudi Arabia welcomes 'positive points' in Lebanese PM statement
Written by Nur Yasmin
Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry said on Tuesday it welcomed the "positive points" in a statement by Lebanon's prime minister, in a sign that Beirut's tensions with Gulf Arab countries are easing.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati stressed in a statement on Monday the need to stop all Lebanon-originated activities that affect the security and stability of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab countries.
He added the Lebanese government is committed to strengthen cooperation with Saudi Arabia, following a phone call with Kuwait's foreign minister, Sheikh Ahmad Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah.
The Saudi ministry said it welcomed Mikati's statement, adding it hoped that it will "contribute to the restoration of Lebanon's role and status on the Arab and international levels".
Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries expelled Lebanese envoys last year in a diplomatic spat that has deepened Lebanon's economic crisis, following critical comments about the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen by Lebanon's former Information Minister George Kordahi.
Riyadh says the crisis with Lebanon had its origins in a Lebanese political setup that reinforces the dominance of the Iran-backed Hezbollah armed group and continues to allow endemic instability.
Saudi Arabia and its fellow wealthy neighbours once spent billions of dollars in aid in Lebanon, and still host a huge Lebanese diaspora. But the friendship has been strained for years by the growing influence of the powerful Hezbollah movement.
A financial meltdown has crashed the Lebanese currency over the past months and left most of the population facing poverty amid sky-rocketing commodity prices in the international markets. (Reuters)
March
Russia must adhere to U.N. Charter, say UK and India
Written by Nur Yasmin
Russia must adhere to the United Nations Charter, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said during a call on Tuesday, according to a readout provided by Johnson's office.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has created a rift between India, which imports arms from Russia, and its Western allies, who have called on India to condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin in stronger terms.
"The pair agreed that Ukraine’s integrity and territorial sovereignty must be respected," a statement issued by Johnson's office following the call said.
"Russia needed to adhere to the UN Charter, the leaders said, and both agreed that respect for international law was the only way to ensure global peace and prosperity."
Johnson also said both countries needed to intensify efforts to promote peace and de-escalation in the region.
The British readout of the call said Johnson told Modi Russia's actions were "deeply disturbing and disastrous for the world". It did not indicate Modi's response to this point.
U.S. President Joe Biden has said only India among the Quad group of countries was "somewhat shaky" in acting against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. read more
India and Britain are currently in talks over a trade deal, but UK trade minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan has said that India's refusal to condemn Russia's actions has left Britain "very disappointed." read more
"Prime minister recognises that India has an important role to play in its relationship with Putin and his regime, and certainly he urged him to continue to join... the condemnation of Putin," Johnson's spokesman told reporters.
India has also indicated it might take Russia up on an offer to buy crude oil at a discount. read more
Johnson's spokesman said Britain wanted all countries to move away from reliance on Russian oil and gas, but each country was coming from a different starting point.
"The prime minister believes the best way to broaden that coalition and to bring people with us is through is through diplomacy," he said. (Reuters)
March
Fighting rages in Ukraine's Mariupol, says regional governor
Written by Nur Yasmin
A regional governor in Ukraine said on Tuesday Russian and Ukrainian forces were fighting in the city of Mariupol, and accused Russian troops of firing indiscriminately at residential areas and Ukrainian military targets.
Russian denies targeting civilians.
Speaking on national television, Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said civilians were coming under Russian fire as well as troops of Ukraine's Azov military unit. (Reuters)
March
Western nations balk at Russian presence in G20
Written by Nur Yasmin
Western nations are assessing whether Russia can remain within the Group of Twenty (G20) grouping of major economies following its invasion of Ukraine, sources involved in the discussions told Reuters on Tuesday.
The likelihood that any bid to exclude Russia outright would be vetoed by others in the club - which includes China, India, Saudi Arabia and others - raised the prospect of some countries instead skipping G20 meetings this year, the sources said.
The G20 along with the smaller Group of Seven - comprising just the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan and Britain - is a key international platform for coordinating everything from climate change action to cross-border debt.
Russia is facing an onslaught of international sanctions led by Western nations aiming to isolate it from the global economy, including notably shutting it out of the SWIFT global bank messaging system and restricting dealings by its central bank.
"There have been discussions about whether it’s appropriate for Russia to be part of the G20," said a senior G7 source.
"If Russia remains a member, it will become a less useful organization."
A European Union source separately confirmed the discussions about Russia's status at forthcoming meetings of the G20, whose rotating chair is currently held by Indonesia.
"It has been made very clear to Indonesia that Russia’s presence at forthcoming ministerial meetings would be highly problematic for European countries," said the source, adding there was however no clear process for excluding a country.
The G7 was expanded to a new "G8" format including Russia during a period of warmer ties in the early 2000s. But Moscow was indefinitely suspended from that club after its annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Earlier on Tuesday, Poland said it had suggested to U.S. commerce officials that it replace Russia within the G20 group and that the suggestion had received a "positive response."
A U.S. Commerce Department spokesperson said that a "good meeting" had been held last week between Polish Economic Development and Technology Minister Piotr Nowak and U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo but added:
"She (Raimondo) welcomed hearing Poland’s views on a number of topics, including the operation of the G20, but did not express a position on behalf of the U.S. Government with respect to the Polish G20 proposal.”
The G7 source said it was seen as unlikely that Indonesia, currently heading the G20, or members like India, Brazil, South Africa and China would agree to remove Russia from the group.
If G7 countries instead were to skip this year’s G20 meetings, that could be a powerful signal to India, the source said. It has drawn the ire of some Western nations over its failure to condemn the Russian invasion and support Western measures against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russia's status at other multilateral agencies is also being questioned.
In Geneva, World Trade Organization officials said numerous delegations there were refusing to meet their Russian counterparts in various formats.
"Many governments have raised objections to what is happening there and these objections have manifested themselves in a lack of engagement with the member concerned," WTO spokesperson Keith Rockwell said.
One source from a Western country said those not engaging with Russia at the WTO included the European Union, the United States, Canada and Britain. No confirmation from those delegations was immediately available. (Reuters)
March
Biden administration rules Myanmar army committed genocide against Rohingya
Written by Nur Yasmin
The Biden administration has formally determined that violence committed against the Rohingya minority by Myanmar's military amounts to genocide and crimes against humanity, U.S. officials told Reuters, a move that advocates say should bolster efforts to hold the junta that now runs Myanmar accountable.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken will announce the decision on Monday at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, U.S. officials said, which currently features an exhibit on the plight of the Rohingya. It comes nearly 14 months after he took office and pledged to conduct a new review of the violence.
Myanmar's armed forces launched a military operation in 2017 that forced at least 730,000 of the mainly Muslim Rohingya from their homes and into neighboring Bangladesh, where they recounted killings, mass rape and arson. In 2021, Myanmar's military seized power in a coup.
U.S. officials and an outside law firm gathered evidence in an effort to acknowledge quickly the seriousness of the atrocities, but then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declined to make a determination. (Read the Reuters special report from March 2021: https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2BH1B5)
Blinken ordered his own "legal and factual analysis," the U.S. officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity. The analysis concluded the Myanmar army is committing genocide and Washington believes the formal determination will increase international pressure to hold the junta accountable.
"It's going to make it harder for them to commit further abuses," said one senior State Department official.
Officials in Myanmar's embassy in Washington and a junta spokesperson did not immediately respond to emails requesting comment on Sunday.
Myanmar's military has denied committing genocide against the Rohingya, who are denied citizenship in Myanmar, and said it was conducting an operation against terrorists in 2017. (Read Reuters' 2018 series on the expulsion of the Rohingya https://www.reuters.com/investigates/section/myanmar-rohingya/)
A U.N. fact-finding mission concluded in 2018 that the military's campaign included "genocidal acts," but Washington referred at the time to the atrocities as "ethnic cleansing," a term that has no legal definition under international criminal law.
"It's really signaling to the world and especially to victims and survivors within the Rohingya community and more broadly that the United States recognizes the gravity of what's happening," a second senior State Department official said of Blinken's announcement on Monday.
A genocide determination does not automatically unleash punitive U.S. action.
Since the Cold War, the State Department has formally used the term six times to describe massacres in Bosnia, Rwanda, Iraq and Darfur, the Islamic State's attacks on Yazidis and other minorities, and most recently last year, over China's treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslims. China denies the genocide claims.
Blinken will also announce $1 million of additional funding for the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM), a United Nations body based in Geneva that is gathering evidence for potential future prosecutions.
"It's going to enhance our position as we try to build international support to try to prevent further atrocities and hold those accountable," the first U.S. official said.
U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who led a congressional delegation to Myanmar and Bangladesh in 2017, welcomed the move.
"While this determination is long overdue, it is nevertheless a powerful and critically important step in holding this brutal regime to account," Merkley said in a statement.
FOCUS ON MILITARY
Days after U.S. President Joe Biden took office, Myanmar generals led by Commander in Chief Min Aung Hlaing seized power on Feb. 1, 2021, after complaining of fraud in a November 2020 general election won by democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi's party. Election monitoring groups found no evidence of mass fraud.
The armed forces crushed an uprising against their coup, killing more than 1,600 people and detaining nearly 10,000, including civilian leaders such as Suu Kyi, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a campaign group, and setting off an insurgency.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the figures from the AAPP. The junta has said the group's figures are exaggerated and that members of the security forces have also been killed in clashes with those opposing the coup. The junta has not provided its own figures. read more
In response to the coup, the United States and Western allies sanctioned the junta and its business interests, but have been unable to convince the generals to restore civilian rule after they received military and diplomatic support from Russia and China.
Blinken's recognition of genocide and crimes against humanity refers mainly to events in 2017, before last year's coup. The step comes after two State Department examinations - one initiated in 2018 and the other in 2020 - failed to produce a determination.
Some former U.S. officials told Reuters those were missed opportunities to send a firm message to the Myanmar generals who later seized power.
Activists believe a clear statement by the United States that genocide was committed could bolster efforts to hold the generals accountable, such as a case in the International Court of Justice where The Gambia has accused Myanmar of genocide, citing Myanmar's atrocities against the Rohingya in Rakhine state.
Myanmar has rejected the charge of genocide and urged the court's judges to drop the case. The junta says The Gambia is acting as a proxy for others and had no legal standing to file a case. read more
The International Criminal Court (ICC), a separate court at The Hague, is also investigating the deportation of Rohingya from Myanmar, and the IIMM in Geneva is gathering evidence that could be used in future trials.
Myanmar opposes the investigations and has refused to cooperate, asserting the ICC does not have jurisdiction and that its decision to launch a probe was swayed by "charged narratives of harrowing personal tragedies which have nothing to do with the legal arguments in question."
John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, said Myanmar's military has faced "few real consequences for its atrocities, whether against Rohingya or other ethnic minority groups in Myanmar."
As well as imposing more economic sanctions on the junta, the United States should press for a U.N. Security Council resolution that would refer all the military's alleged crimes to the International Criminal Court, Sifton said. If Russia and China veto a resolution, as is likely, Washington should lead action in the U.N. General Assembly, he said.
"Condemnations of Myanmar should be coupled with concrete actions," he said.
Before Blinken made the decision this month, officials debated whether blaming Myanmar's government - rather than specifically its military - for the atrocities could complicate U.S. support for the country's deposed democratic forces, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The State Department opted to pin the blame on the military, said the second senior department official.
"It's not clear to what degree the civilian leadership had control over actions that were happening in Rakhine State and so that's where the determination ends at this point," said that official, who did not comment on the internal deliberation.
Suu Kyi, forced to share power with the generals, traveled to the International Court of Justice in 2019 to reject the genocide charges brought by The Gambia.
She said the country would itself prosecute any soldiers found to have committed abuses, but maintained the alleged violations did not rise to the level of genocide, for which the specific intent to destroy a group has to be proven.
When they seized power, the generals put Suu Kyi on trial in nearly a dozen cases that could see her sentenced to more than 100 years in prison. She remains in detention. (Reuters)