Day: January 24, 2023

Outgoing New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Tuesday on her last full day in office that she is “ready to be a sister and a mom.”

Ardern made her final public appearance in office at a Maori settlement in the town of Ratana outside the capital, Wellington, alongside her successor, Chris Hipkins, the new leader of the ruling Labour Party.

Ardern shocked New Zealand last week when she announced she was stepping down after more than five years in office because she had nothing left “in the tank.”

She dismissed speculation that she is stepping down because of a wave of vitriolic and misogynistic attacks on social media by right wing extremists, telling reporters she did not want anyone to view her decision as a “negative commentary on New Zealand.”

“I have experienced such love, compassion, empathy and kindness when I’ve been in this job,” Ardern said.

Ardern, who in 2018 to become the second female head of government to give birth in 2018, will remain in Parliament as a backbencher when Hipkins is sworn in Wednesday. The Labour-led government is trailing in voter opinion surveys heading into the October general election.

Source: Voice of America

Labour leader Chris Hipkins was sworn in as New Zealand’s prime minister in a formal ceremony on Wednesday, following the resignation of outgoing Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern last week.

The Labour Party elected former COVID-19 Response and Police minister Hipkins, 44, to lead the party and the country on Sunday. This comes after the surprise resignation of Ardern, 42, who said she had “no more in the tank” to lead the country.

Hundreds gathered on the grounds of Parliament as Ardern left for the final time, hugging each of her members of parliament in turn, with many looking visibly emotional.

She then traveled to Government House, where she tendered her resignation to King Charles’ representative in New Zealand, Governor General Cindy Kiro.

Hipkins and his deputy Carmel Sepuloni – the first person of Pacific Islander descent to hold the role -– were then sworn in, in a ceremony lasting a few minutes.

Hipkins, who has so far refused to comment on his policies since being elected leader, will hold his first Cabinet meeting later on Wednesday.

Known as “Chippy,” Hipkins is well known to New Zealanders for his competence in tackling COVID-19, though he acknowledged some mistakes in handling the pandemic and faces a tough battle to retain power in an October general election.

A 1News-Kantar poll released in December had Labour’s support falling to 33% from 40% at the start of 2022, meaning Labour would not be able to form a majority even with traditional coalition partner the Green Party at 9%. The opposition National Party has benefited from Labour’s decline.

Source: Voice of America

Campaign group Fortify Rights and 16 Myanmar nationals have filed a genocide and war crimes complaint against Myanmar’s military leaders in Germany in the latest bid to leverage the principle of universal jurisdiction against the country’s generals.

Fortify Rights announced the case Tuesday in Thailand, which shares a long and porous border with Myanmar, and says a 215-page complaint was filed with Germany’s federal public prosecutor on January 20. The prosecutor’s office must now decide whether to open an investigation.

The prosecutor’s office confirmed receipt of the complaint in an email to VOA but declined further comment.

Universal jurisdiction holds that some crimes, including genocide, are so heinous they transcend national borders and that they and their perpetrators can be tried anywhere.

Fortify Rights CEO Matthew Smith said Germany has some of the most comprehensive laws covering universal jurisdiction in the world and already is handling more than 100 such cases.

His said his group’s complaint, “provides new evidence that the Myanmar military systematically killed, raped, tortured, imprisoned, disappeared, persecuted and committed other acts that amount to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in violation of German law.”

“The complaint includes evidence showing that senior military junta officials exercised superior responsibility over subordinates who committed crimes, and that those officials knew about their subordinates’ crimes and failed to take any action to prevent the crimes or to punish the perpetrators,” Smith added.

He told VOA the complaint’s targets include junta leader Min Aung Hlaing but would not identify the rest. He said they included “members of the Myanmar military and others.”

The complaint covers their alleged abuses, both against the country’s ethnic minority Rohingya in 2016 and 2017 and against the broader population since the military toppled a democratically elected government in February 2021.

The United States and others have accused the military of genocide over its treatment of the Rohingya after a 2017 wave of murder, rape and arson that drove more than 700,000 of the mostly Muslim group to neighboring Bangladesh. Rights groups say the police and military also have killed thousands of civilians across the country since the coup in their bid to put down an ongoing armed resistance and civil disobedience movement to the junta’s rule.

Myanmar’s military rulers have denied wrongdoing. They say the military’s activities in 2016 and 2017 were legitimate counter-insurgency operations and that it has been using proportionate force since the coup against “terrorists” to restore peace and order.

Fortify Rights says the mixed makeup of the complainants reflect the breadth of abuse. About half are Rohingya; the rest come from some of the country’s many other ethnic groups, including the Arakan, Chin, Karen, Karenni, Mon and majority Burmans.

One of the Rohingya, a woman identified only as F.K. for her safety, claims to have survived an attack on her village in 2017 by soldiers and others under their control. According to the complaint, she says she saw them beating, stabbing and killing her neighbors and burning their homes, and heard them raping her daughter-in-law in an adjacent room.

“We [are counting] on the judiciary in Germany to open an investigation. This is the time to end the perpetrators’ impunity to ensure that they no longer get away with their crimes,” said Nickey Diamond, a Burmese complainant who fled the post-coup violence and now lives in Germany.

“If we do not act, serious crimes go unpunished, the perpetrators even repeat their crimes,” he said at the announcement of the complaint via video link.

In addition to interviews with hundreds of alleged abuse survivors and witnesses, Fortify Rights says the complaint, which comes with more than 1,000 pages of supporting material, includes information and leaked documents from military and police deserters and other sources.

The rights group says it also fills “gaps” in other cases against the military already underway at the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court and in another universal jurisdiction case in Argentina. All three focus on the military’s alleged crimes against the Rohingya before the coup. The ICJ holds only states, not individuals, criminally responsible. Argentina’s courts, unlike Germany’s, said Smith, do not prescribe punishment specifically for genocide.

In yet another universal jurisdiction case, Turkey’s public prosecutor’s office is investigating Myanmar’s military for crimes against humanity over the alleged torture of prisoners, in the first case filed against the junta for alleged crimes committed since the 2021 coup.

None of the accused in any of those cases or in the complaint just filed in Germany are in custody. But Smith is hopeful that could change if and when Germany’s public prosecutor decides to launch an investigation.

“Ultimately the objective is for the German authorities to issue arrest warrants, and in the event that that happens, things such as extradition to Germany become very real,” he said. “This will send a message to members of the Myanmar military junta and others that are responsible for crimes in Myanmar that they’re not safe, they’re not safe to travel in our world.”

Source: Voice of America

A Myanmar junta spokesperson has told VOA’s Burmese service that there is uncertainty over whether general elections will be held this year, due to what he calls issues regarding voter registration and opposition attacks surging across the country.

When pressed on the subject, Major General Zaw Min Tun, said, “I can’t say for sure right now. All I can only say is that we are working hard to hold the elections this year; however, there are various ‘subversive activities,’” he said in a telephone interview.

Zaw Min Tun appeared to be referring to Myanmar’s parallel government-in-exile, known as the National Unity Government, or NUG, and other resistance groups that have emerged since the junta’s seizure of power on Feb. 1, 2021. The takeover led to the ouster of the democratically elected government of Aun San Suu Kyi and triggered widespread street demonstrations.

The junta also declared illegal an exiled parliament known as the Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, or CRPH, and imposed states of emergency lasting several months at a time.

Zaw Min Tun added, “Groups like the NUG, its parliamentary body the CRPH, and some other groups in foreign countries are saying that they are not recognizing the elections.”

The NUG was formed by ousted Myanmar officials and some ethnic leaders who oppose the junta and back the armed resistance movement fighting it. The junta has labeled the NUG a terrorist group.

A spokesperson for the CRPH told VOA the junta, formally known as the State Administrative Council, or SAC, is looking for any reason to stay in power.

Si Thu Maung, the CRPH’s spokesperson, said, “We can see that what they are attempting to demonstrate is that even though they tried to hold the election in accordance with the constitution due to these disruptions and difficulties, it will no longer be possible, and they will have to continue to rule under martial law.”

He added, “There have been reports from the SAC that they are experiencing disruptions in the collection of the population census for the election.”

It is not clear who the candidates will be or when the election will take place.

The United States imposed sanctions against Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, in response to the coup.

U.S. State Department Counselor Derek Chollet said in an interview with VOA last week that there is “no chance” that the proposed elections in Myanmar will be free and fair.

“You can’t have a free and fair election when you’re jailing every significant opposition when you’re committing atrocities when you’re shutting down a free press.”

Myanmar’s ruling military leader, Min Aung Hlaing, announced detailed plans for an election during a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of independence from Britain on January 4.

In his speech in the capital, Naypyitaw, Min Aung Hlaing said, “Upon accomplishing the provisions of the state of emergency, free and fair elections will be held in line with the 2008 constitution, and further work will be undertaken to hand over state duties to the winning party in accordance with the democratic standards.”

Si Thu Maung, however, said, “We understand that an election is normally announced six months in advance. If the SAC holds elections in August, as many have predicted, they will now have to announce at the end of January. And they will find some options or way to extend their rule in the interim before the election.”

Source: Voice of America