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Fans of Megan Thee Stallion are trying to shift the public’s attention away from what they believe to be a misogynistic narrative around the current trial against Tory Lanez, who is accused of shooting the rapper in the foot. Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, was charged in 2020 with assault with a semi-automatic […]
The post Megan Thee Stallion’s fans push back against ‘misogynoir’ amid Tory Lanez trial appeared first on The Black Chronicle.
The president also stressed the importance of keeping the economy open after months of stifling movement restrictions.
He urged citizens not to drop their guard and continue adhering to the health rules, such as wearing face masks and respecting curfew times.
South Africa has recorded just over 800,000 coronavirus infections - more than a third of the cases reported across the African continent - and over 20,000 deaths.
AFP
Historic Trial For War Crimes in Liberia
Accused of having committed barbaric acts between 1993 and 1995 during the civil war in Liberia, the doubly historic trial of the former Liberian rebel commander Alieu Kosiah began on Thursday in Switzerland where he had been in exile for twenty years.
Incarcerated since 14 November 2014, the 45-year-old Alieu Kosiah appeared before the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona accompanied by his court-appointed lawyer Dimitri Gianola.
Although the proceedings are not behind closed doors, the number of seats in the courtroom is extremely limited in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Questioned by the president of the court Jean-Luc Bacher, Kosiah — who is the first individual to be tried for war crimes by a civil court, stressed that he had been in prison \"for six years and a month\" and denied all the charges brought against him,
Justice for Liberia Overdue
Both former warlord and president Charles Taylor — who also played a significant role the aforementioned conflict, was convicted of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Liberia's neighbour Sierra Leone in 2012.
However, no Liberian is yet to be convicted in Liberia or abroad for crimes committed during the West African country's civil war — which saw 250,000 people lose their lives between 1989 and 2003.
Most of the commanders of the various armed groups fled the country after the war.
Kosiah, who had been living in Switzerland since 1999 according to HRW, was arrested following criminal complaints by victims.
Child Soldiers in Civil War
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the victims, who reside in Africa, will not be heard before 2021. This is deplored by the organisation Civitas Maxima, which represents some of them.
\"This is a case where Kosiah claims that they are all lying and that he did not commit any crime. We want this contradictory debate to take place,\" Romain Wavre, a lawyer at Civitas Maxima, told AFP.
The Swiss federal prosecutor's office accuses Alieu Kosiah of having committed, between 1993 and 1995, as a member of the armed faction ULIMO (United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy), a faction of armed groups hostile to the movement of Charles Taylor (the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, NPFL), several offences constituting \"war crimes\". Namely: recruitment and use of child soldiers, forced transportation, looting, cruel treatment of civilians, attempted murder, murder (directly or by order), desecration of a corpse and rape.
War Crime \"Impunity\"
In France, the anti-terrorist prosecutor's office recently requested a trial by jury against another former Liberian rebel commander, Kunti K., accused of acts of torture.
\"Alieu Kosiah and Kunti K. were two of the commanders of the same armed group - ULIMO - and were fighting at the same time in Lofa County in northern Liberia,\" said Wavre of Civitas Maxima.
More than fifteen years after the end of the conflict, many of the personalities directly involved in the civil war still hold important positions in the spheres of
Opposition MPs in the UK are not happy with Boris Johnson over comments supporting Britain’s colonial activities in Africa.
While a Tory MP, Johnson wrote in a 2002 article that colonialism in Africa should never have ended, arguing that Africans would not have grown the right crops for export if Britain had not directed them.
However, his 2002 article shows that Johnson has held the belief that British colonialism wasn’t a disaster while dismissing Britain’s role in slavery.
In 2002, before the then UK Prime Minister Tony Blair visited the Democratic Republic of Congo, Johnson wrote in the Daily Telegraph: “No doubt the AK47s will fall silent, and the pangas will stop their hacking of human flesh, and the tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smiles to see the big white chief touch down in his big white British taxpayer-funded bird.”
Writing on former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s visits around the world, Johnson used the term “piccaninnies,” a racist term used to describe black children.
Paul Rusesabagina, portrayed as a hero in a Hollywood movie about Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, was charged with 12 counts against him on Monday including terrorism.
It's one of Rwanda's most high profile cases against a government critic. He appeared in the Kigali court and was also accused of complicity in murder and forming or joining an irregular armed group.
Rusesabagina is the leader of an opposition group, the Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change, which is said to have an armed wing called the National Liberation Front.
The 66-year-old has Belgium citizenship and was living abroad.
His lawyer, Vincent Lurquin, said he hoped he could get to Rwanda this month.
\"In order to go to Rwanda, there is a big procedure, especially with visas. So we hope that the Rwandan government will accept that we have visas in order for us to defend Mr. Rusesabagina over there.
\"But I have to tell you that the talks between the Belgian and the Rwanda authorities on that front are not progressing much. .\"
His lawyer has urged his provisional release.
\"The conditions of his detention are very tough for him and for his health. But other than that he cannot talk about anything else as he is never alone, even when he speaks with his family over the phone,\" said Lurquin.
It is still unclear how Rusesabagina came to be in Rwanda.
His family says the charges against him are politically motivated and allege he was kidnapped while in Dubai for meetings and brought to Rwanda against his will.
The Rwanda Investigation Bureau has said international cooperation was involved in detaining Rusesabagina -- who has lived abroad since 1996 and holds both Belgian citizenship and a US Green Card -- but refuses to disclose further details.
He's credited with saving more than 1,2000 Rwandans by sheltering them in a hotel.
Ethiopian forces blocked people from the country's embattled Tigray region from crossing into Sudan on Thursday at the busiest crossing point for refugees, Sudanese forces said.
Their account follows allegations by refugees in previous days of Ethiopian forces stopping people from fleeing the month-old deadly conflict in Tigray.
The Sudanese forces, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the events, said people tried to cross from Ethiopia around 6 a.m. to Hamdayet in Sudan but were stopped, and refugees waiting on the Sudan side became upset and began throwing rocks.
The Sudanese forces then cleared the area, and on Thursday evening they confirmed that the border crossing remained closed.
Tensions have been rising at the border in recent days as the flow of Ethiopians crossing has slowed to hundreds per day from several thousands.
A senior Ethiopian government official who has served as spokesman during the conflict did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
End fighting
The European Union's crisis management commissioner Thursday urged the Ethiopian government to restore communications in its northern Tigray region and called on both sides to cease hostilities.
\"I urge... the Ethiopian authorities to lift the communication blockade,\" Janez Lenarcic said at Um Raquba camp in neighboring Sudan, where he spoke with Ethiopian refugees who had fled their homeland over the last month.
Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed last month ordered military operations against the northern Ethiopian region's ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), in response to what he said were attacks on Ethiopian federal army camps.
Tens of thousands of refugees have since poured into eastern Sudan, with many complaining that they have not been able to re-establish contact with those left behind or lost on the scramble to leave due to a communications blackout.
\"I spoke with a number of refugees in this camp today and what is perhaps most painful to hear is that they have zero information... about their relatives and friends who stayed behind,\" Lenarcic said.
Abiy on Saturday claimed the conflict was over after federal troops took control of the Tigrayan capital, Mekele, but the TPLF threatened a full-scale counter-offensive on Wednesday.
Lenarcic also urged Ethiopia's government to provide access for humanitarian workers and goods, while calling on both sides to \"cease the hostilities\".
Ethiopia has formally granted the United Nations access to deliver aid to Tigray.
