A Vigil was held at Ahmet Kaya Cultural Centre where hundreds continue to pay their respects to the three Kurdish activists killed in Paris last week. 

Three Kurdish activists were killed and three others injured in the armed attack on 23 December on the Ahmet Kaya Cultural Centre, a Kurdish restaurant and a Kurdish-run barbershop on Rue d'Enghien in the tenth arrondissement of Paris. The victims of the targeted attack are Evîn Goyî (Emine Kara), a member of the KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council, YPJ (Women’s Defense Units) veteran in the fight against ISIS and leading representative of the Kurdish women's movement, musician Mîr Perwer (M. Sirin Aydin) and long-time activist Abdurrahman Kizil.

Judicial authorities in France charged a suspected gunman on Monday with last week's murder. Hundreds of people marched in Paris to pay tribute to the victims. The Turkish foreign ministry on Monday summoned France's ambassador over "anti-Turkey propaganda".

The attacker, A retired train driver, was convicted for armed violence in 2016 by a court in Seine-Saint-Denis.

A year later he was convicted for illegally possessing a firearm.

Last year, he was charged with racist violence after allegedly stabbing migrants and slashing their tents with a sword in a park in eastern Paris.

Turkey on Thursday denounced French politicians for attending a Paris protest over the killing of three Kurds, where demonstrators waved flags of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

More than 150,000 Kurds live in France and they have complained about being victims of violence. 

The unresolved 2013 murder of three activists who belonged to the PKK In Paris, continues to be a contentious issue between France and Turkey. The victims' families accused Turkish state intelligence of orchestrating the killings.

The only suspect who was due to go on trial died in December 2016 from brain cancer, but a French judicial investigation into the killings continues.

The targeting of political activists in Paris has impacted both the Tamil and Kurdish communities. 

In 2012, Nadarajah Mathinthiran, also known as Paruthi, who headed the French Tamil Coordinating Committee (TCC-France) was shot at least three times and killed as he was leaving the TCC office at Pyranees in Paris 20. 

This year also marked 26 years since two Tamil activists were shot dead in a Parisian neighbourhood, a murder that shocked the Tamil diaspora worldwide and remains unsolved to this day.

Kandiah Gajendran, also known as Gajan, was the editor of Paris based Tamil weekly 'Eelamurasu' and Kandiah Perinpanathan, known as Nathan, was in-charge of LTTE's international finance. The two men aged 30 and 32-years old respectively, were strolling down Boulevard de La Chapelle on the 26th of October 1996 - a neighbourhood which had a long established and thriving Eelam Tamil community.

Read more here

Irmgard Furchner 97, a former secretary who worked for the commander of a Nazi concentration camp has been convicted of complicity in the murders of more than 10,500 people.

Irmgard Furchner, 97, was taken on as a teenaged shorthand typist at Stutthof and worked there from 1943 to 1945.

Furchner, the first woman to be tried for Nazi crimes in decades, was given a two-year suspended jail term.

Although she was a civilian worker, the judge agreed she was fully aware of what was going on at the camp.

Some 65,000 people are thought to have died in horrendous conditions at Stutthof, including Jewish prisoners, non-Jewish Poles and captured Soviet soldiers.

Furchner was found guilty of aiding and abetting the murder of 10,505 people and complicity in the attempted murder of five others. As she was only 18 or 19 at the time, she was tried in a special juvenile court.

The court at Itzehoe in northern Germany heard from survivors of the camp, some of whom have died during the trial.

When the trial began in September 2021, Irmgard Furchner went on the run from her retirement home and was eventually found by police on a street in Hamburg.

After the war, Furchner married an SS squad leader called Heinz Furchstam whom she probably met at the camp.

She went on to work as an administrative worker in a small town in northern Germany. Her husband died in 1972.

A series of prosecutions have taken place in Germany since 2011, after the conviction of former Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk set the precedent that being a guard was sufficient evidence to prove complicity.

Read more at the BBC

Friday, 16th December 2022, Japan's cabinet approved a new national security strategy for the first time in nine years, which includes doubling the country's military budget. 

The move has been commented on as the 'biggest military build-up since World War 2'. The new plan stands at odds with the country's pacifist constitution, which renounces the use of force to settle international discord. However, changes made in 2015 allow the use of force when Japan's security is threatened by attacks on other countries. 

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, in 2021, Japan was the world's 9th biggest military spender. For decades, military spending has been capped at 1% of GDP. However, the current military strategy outlines plans to double military spending to 2% of Japan's GDP. Over the next 5 years, defence expenditure is projected to increase by nearly $315 billion. By 2027, annual security spending is predicted to total about $80 billion. 

Some speculate that, one of the key reasons for the coming changes appears to be Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Brad Glosserman, an expert on Japanese policy, states that "The chief lesson from Ukraine is that if Japan hopes to enjoy external support, it needs to do more in its own defence,". 

By investing in its military, Japan hopes to become less reliant on the support of American forces. Washington has encouraged Japan to strengthen it's military for several years. The U.S. is Japan's most important ally, and for the past 7 decades, the U.S. has made commitments to support Japan should enemies attack. 

The changes in security strategy reflect nine years of geopolitical shifts in the region. The 2013 security strategy named Russia and China strategic partners. At the time, North Korea's nuclear program was seen as Japan's most significant security concern. 

The most recent publication deems Beijing's actions as the 'greatest strategic challenge'. This is reflected in the words of Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida "Unfortunately in the vicinity of our country, there are countries carrying out activities such as enhancement of nuclear capability, a rapid military build-up and unilateral attempt to change the status quo by force".

In recent years, China has been building its naval and air force presence in the South China sea, where it terraformed several islands, eventually arming them. China has also made further claims over a small group of tiny, uninhabited islands in the East China Sea currently under Japan's administrative control. 

The sovereignty of the Senkaku islands has been embroiled in the long-standing contention over the delimitation of the Sino-Japanese maritime boundary. According to the Japanese Defence Ministry, The Chinese Coast Guard and Naval ships have been increasingly spending time in the waters around the Senkaku islands this year. 

Japan's officials are apprehensive of China's escalating threats against Taiwan. Should Taiwan be taken by China, this would disastrously leave the southwestern islands of the Japanese archipelago vulnerable. Further, from this position, China could interfere with Japan's vital trade routes as the waterways between Taiwan and Japan have strategic choke points. 

Japan has on several occasions clarified its position on defending Taiwan should China attempt to invade. According to Yasuhiro Matsuda, an international politics professor at University of Tokyo, "Japan's position is clear and steadfast – Taiwan is fundamental to its own security; it is not merely a stress point in its bilateral relations with China". 

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic met with his national security council amidst rising tensions between authorities in Kosovo and ethnic Serbs.

Unknown attackers in Northern Kosovo exchanged gunfire with local police and threw a stun grenade at European Union officers.

Ethnic Serbs set up roadblocks in response to Kosovan police being deployed in a dispute over car license plates.

On Sunday, hundreds of ethnic Serbs gathered at the roadblocks in an outrage over the arrest of a Serbian former police officer.

Kosovo, which broke away from Serbia after a war in 1998-99, consists of a primarily ethnic Albanian majority.

Serbia has refused to recognize Kosovo as an independent state.

Both the EU and Nato have called on all parties to avoid provocations.

On Monday, EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, stated that Kosovo and Serbia “have to find a way to end the tendency to fighting in the streets, to creating roadblocks.”

Vucic told Reuters news agency that he is hoping to defuse the situation.

Vucic also stated that the deployment of Kosovan police is a violation of peace previous peace agreements. The Serbian President said he planned to ask Nato peacekeepers for permission to deploy Serbian police to the area.

Read more here.

Guinea’s former dictator Moussa Dadis Camara denied responsibility when he took the stand Monday at a trial of officials implicated in a 2009 massacre.

Camara and 10 other former military and government officials are accused of the killing of 156 people and the rape of at least 109 women by forces supporting the military government at a political rally in a Conakry stadium in September 2009.

They face charges ranging from murder to sexual violence, kidnappings, arson and looting. Camara himself is charged with “personal criminal responsibility and command responsibility”.

The United Nations has labeled the violence in 2009 as a crime against humanity, and Human Rights Watch said the violence was premeditated.

Witness testimony revealed that hundreds of members of the red beret presidential guard, gendarmes and anti-riot police stormed the stadium and opened fire as civil society activists and opposition supporters were chanting in a largely peaceful atmosphere.

Camara’s deposition was a key moment that survivors and relatives of the victims had been waiting for since the trial that opened on September 28, 13 years to the day after the massacre.

Proceedings in the trial were postponed until today from a week ago after Camara said he was too ill to give testimony.

Camara, at the time an unknown army captain, seized power in December 2008 shortly after the death of Guinea’s second post-independence president, General Lansana Conte, who had ruled for 24 years.

A court in Argentina has sentenced Vice-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to six years in jail and have disqualified her from holding public office after being found guilty in a $1bn fraud case related to public works.

Fernández de Kirchner, 69, was found guilty of "fraudulent administration" after arranging for 51 public work contracts to be awarded to a company belonging to Lázaro Báez. Báez is a friend and colleague of both Fernández and her husband Nestor Kirchner.

According to prosecutors the Báez company was established to embezzle revenues via a false bidding process for projects that suffered from cost overruns. 

Fernández de Kirchner was the president of Argentina for two terms between 2007 and 2015. 

The decision on Tuesday is expected to be appealed by Fernández de Kirchner, who has rejected the allegations against her as a “staged fable” and is unlikely to soon serve any prison time due to governmental immunity.
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The civilian death toll from what it calls a massacre by the March 23 movement, known as M23 rebel group, has risen to 272, said the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The increased death toll was announced at a press briefing Monday in Kinshasa by Minister of Industry and former governor of North Kivu province, Julien Paluku.

The Congolese army last week accused the March 23 movement rebels of killing at least 50 civilians in North Kivu’s Kishishe village. The rebel group rejected these accusations, and claimed that eight civilians were killed in the village by "stray bullets" on 29 November.

The government later increased the estimate to more than 100.

It is believed that all of the fatalities were civilians, 17 of which are believed to be children.

The March 23 movement, or M23, is a predominantly Congolese Tutsi rebel group that was dormant for years. It took up arms again in November last year and seized the town of Bunagana on the border with Uganda in June. After a brief period of calm, it went on the offensive again in October.

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Al Jazeera Media Network has submitted a formal request to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate and prosecute those responsible for killing veteran Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

Abu Akleh, a television correspondent with Al Jazeera for 25 years, was killed by Israeli forces on May 11 as she was covering an Israeli military raid on a refugee camp in Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank.

The request includes a dossier on a comprehensive six-month investigation by Al Jazeera that gathers all available eyewitness evidence and video footage, as well as new material on the killing of Abu Akleh.

The request submitted to the ICC is presented “in the context of a wider attack on Al Jazeera, and journalists in Palestine”, said Rodney Dixon KC, a lawyer for Al Jazeera, referring to incidents such as the bombing of the network’s Gaza office on May 15, 2021.

Read more at The Guardian 

More than half of Tigrayan forces have been withdrawn from the frontlines, a month after a ceasefire agreement was signed. 

Following last month's ceasefire agreement which sought to bring an end to the two-year conflict, Tadesse Wereda commander-in-chief of the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) has said, 

"We have accomplished 65% disengagement of our army" 

Reuters, report that he made the comments in a video posted late on Saturday on the groups official Facebook page. 

The fighting has killed thousands, displaced millions and left hundreds of thousands facing famine.

In a surprise diplomatic breakthrough, however, the two sides signed a permanent cessation of hostilities in an African Union (AU)-mediated peace deal on Nov. 2 in South Africa.

A follow-up agreement on disarmament of TPLF fighters, humanitarian access guarantees and entry of the Ethiopian military into the Tigrayan capital of Mekele was signed on November 12 in Kenya.

On Thursday the federal government said a joint committee mandated to draw a detailed plan for the disarmament of the TPLF had begun its work and would finalise the plan in a few days.

Even with the humanitarian access guarantees reached in the truce, the World Health Organization said on Friday it still does not have unfettered access to Tigray.

Read more at Reuters 

^{Mahamut Tat escorted by Swedish Police} 

Sweden deported a Kurdish man with alleged ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to Turkey. 

Mahamut Tat had sought asylum in Sweden in 2015 after being sentenced in Turkey for six years and 10 months for alleged links to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). His final application was denied last year by the Swedish migration agency. 

Turkish state television TRT said Tat was sent to an Istanbul prison on Saturday.

Earlier this year Sweden signed a joint memorandum with Turkey and Finland which addressed Turkey's concern about the Nordic nation's support for Kurdish organisations and thus paved the way for the country's formal invitation to the military alliance. 

Turkey had previously stated that they would veto any invitation to both countries to join NATO, if they did not address "security concerns" and proscribe and clamp down on Kurdish organisations within their respective country. 

Finland and Sweden agreed to the demands put forward by Turkey, which include that,

Sweden and Finland would lift their arms embargo against Turkey; Confirm that the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) is a proscribed organisation and "would not provide support" to the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and People's Protection Units (YPG), the latter of which has been instrumental in the fight against ISIS in Syria. The Nordic countries have also agreed to share intel with Turkey and agreed to an extradition policy to extradite "terror suspects" to Turkey, of which there is a list of at least 70 linked with Kurdish organisations. 

Ankara, said on Wednesday that both countries had made progress with their NATO application but would need to do more to satisfy their demands on tackling Kurdish groups.

NATO makes its decisions by consensus, meaning that both countries require the approval of all 30 countries. Only Turkey still stands opposed to the two countries' membership.

Read more at Reuters 

On Wednesday, the District Court of The Hague concluded that the 2007 airstrike mounted by the Dutch armed forces on an Afghan residential compound violated international humanitarian law. 

The attack in question took place on the 17th of June, 2007, when twenty-eight guided bombs were dropped by Dutch fighter jets over the central Afghan province of Uruzgan.  

Twenty civilians were killed during this night-time attack. Four unnamed survivors of the attack brought a civil suit to the Dutch courts seeking compensation. 

Almost two years ago, a war veteran submitted a report calling into question the legitimacy of the airstrike. At the time, the Dutch Ministry of Defence approached prosecutors to investigate the matter. 

The Defence Ministry’s lawyers argued that even though civilians were known to reside in this compound, the presence of the Taliban justified the attack. “It was known these houses were inhabited by civilians. The State invoked the fact the Taliban used the houses for military purposes … and thus that the bombing was not unlawful.”

However, the courts did not accept this line of reasoning, stating “… the court rules that the State hasn’t sufficiently made clear on what basis it came to the conclusion that these houses were being used by the Taliban; … therefore, the bombing is illegal,”. 

On Wednesday, the courts ruled in favour of the four civilians who brought forward the civil suit, concluding that the victims should be compensated. 

Read more at Al Jazeera

Many of the world’s largest asset managers and state pension funds are passively investing in companies that have allegedly engaged in the repression of Uighur Muslims in China, according to a new report.

The report, by UK-based group Hong Kong Watch and the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice at Sheffield Hallam University, found that three major stock indexes provided by MSCI include at least 13 companies that have allegedly used forced labour or been involved in the construction of the surveillance state in China’s Xinjiang region.

The report includes a list of major asset managers, including BlackRock, HSBC and Deutsche Bank among others, exposed to index funds that include companies accused of engaging in labour transfers and the construction of repressive infrastructure in the region.

It found public pension funds across the UK, Canada and the US and funds in New Zealand and Japan exposed by the investments.

Speaking to the Guardian Laura Murphy, one of the report's authors said

“So many people’s pensions, retirement funds and savings are invested passively because, as average consumers, we don’t have time to investigate each and every investment,”

Read more at the Guardian. 

The supreme court has ruled that the Scottish government cannot hold an independence referendum without the UK government's consent. 

Nicola Sturgeon had planned to hold a referendum on 19 October 2023 but the supreme court ruled unanimously that she does not have the power to do so, stating that the issue is reserved to Westminister. 

Court president Lord Reed said the laws that created the devolved Scottish Parliament in 1999 meant it did not have power over areas of the constitution including the union between Scotland and England.

These issues are the responsibility of the UK Parliament, he said, and in absence of an agreement between the two governments, the Scottish Parliament is therefore unable to legislate for a referendum.

He also rejected the Scottish government's argument that any referendum would simply be "advisory" and would have no legal effect on the union, with people only being asked to give their opinion on whether or not Scotland should become an independent country.

Responding to the outcome, Ms Sturgeon said she was disappointed but respected the ruling of the court, and stressed that the judges do not make the law and only interpret it.

She added: "That is a hard pill for any supporter of independence, and surely indeed for any supporter of democracy, to swallow."

The first minister told a media conference that a referendum remained her preferred option, but in the absence of an agreement the SNP would use the next UK general election as a "de facto referendum" in an attempt to demonstrate that a majority of people in Scotland support independence.

Scottish opposition leaders will refuse to engage with Nicola Sturgeon’s plan to run the next general election as a de facto independence referendum after the first minster said it was the only lawful way for Scots to express their will.

Read more at the BBC

A man who arrived in the UK on a small boat a week ago and was being processed at Manston has died, the Home Office said on Saturday. He became ill while at the Kent detention site and was taken to hospital, but later died.

t is understood that he arrived on 12 November and was taken ill on Friday evening.

“We can confirm a person staying at Manston has died this morning [Saturday] in hospital after becoming unwell,” a Home Office spokesperson said.

The facility provides basic temporary accommodation to small boat arrivals while they undergo processing and can hold 1,000 people, with a maximum of 1,600, but was described in October as being “catastrophically overcrowded”.

Manston has been hit by a series of scandals including reports of infectious diseases like diphtheria, guards selling drugs to asylum seekers, and some new arrivals being left stranded in central London. Legal challenges are under way about conditions on the site.

Clare Moseley, founder of the charity Care4Calais, which works with asylum seekers in the UK and in northern France, said: “Our condolences are with the family and friends of this man.”

She added that the charity “continue to have concerns about the health facilities at the centre”.

Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “Every person in Manston must be looked after with the care and attention they need so when a tragic death likes this takes place it is a matter of serious concern. It is vital a thorough and speedy investigation takes place to understand what happened and whether all the necessary procedures were followed.”

Read more at the Guardian