Thousands of Libyans have protested against moves by tribal and militant leaders to create a semi-autonomous region in the east of the country.

Tribal and militia leaders announced the move to create the semi-autonomous territory of Cyrenaica on Tuesday.

The move has significant support amongst the population of the east, however many Libyans denounced the move.

Large rallies calling for unity were held in both Tripoli and Benghazi after clerics warned the move could lead to the breakup of Libya.

The head of the regional council seeking autonomy, Ahmed Zubair al-Senussi, told the BBC he was ready to hold talks with the interim leadership of Libya about creating the semi-autonomous territory of Cyrenaica.

However, leader of the National Transitional Council Mustafa Abdel Jalil said national unity would be defended by force if necessary although he called for dialogue on the issue.

Urging the people of Scotland to seize the chance of independence, the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), Alex Salmond told delegates at the party's conference on Saturday that "being independent is the most natural thing in this world".

Salmond went on,

"In devolved Scotland we can demand - in an independent Scotland, we can deliver."

"On international representation, why would we wish to be isolated and ignored in Europe when we could be influential and respected."

"Independence means real security."

Five senior members of the Taliban have agreed to a transfer to Qatar as part of a peace deal.

Afghan government officials announced the agreement after meeting the prisoners earlier this week on a visit to Guantanamo Bay.

The US has not yet approved the transfer but is considering it as part of ongoing attempts to engage in negotiations with the Taliban.

White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said:

"The United States has not decided to transfer any Taliban officials from Guantanamo Bay.

"We are not in a position to discuss ongoing deliberations or individual detainees, but our goal of closing Guantanamo is well established and widely understood."

Qatar is playing an increasingly important role in negotiations, with the Taliban confirming the opening of an office in Doha last January.

US agrees to release Taliban detainees at Guantanamo - 04 Jan 2012

Taliban agree to 'embassy' plan - 03 Jan 2012
 

“for the suffering of tens of thousands of victims who were expelled from their homes, murdered, detained, tortured, raped and whose villages, towns and religious sites were wantonly destroyed as a result of his words and his acts.”

"His crime is grave by scale and heinous by nature."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has stated that he will eventually secure the adoption of a bill recognising the 1915 genocide of Armenians by Turkey, after it was deemed unconstitutional by France’s Constitutional Council.

Sarkozy, who is running for re-election in April, made the pledge whilst addressing a French Armenian community on Wednesday. Speaking at the p residential Elysee Palace in Paris, he said,

“I have asked the government to prepare a new text. I can assure you of my desire to push it through, and I renew this solemn pledge in front of you.”

“To all you whose families were decimated by an absolutely planned extermination, to all you who regard today as a threat the obstinate [Turkish] denialism turned into state policy, I want to tell that France is on your side to refuse, to fight and to suppress the unacceptable.”

Following the speech, Chairman of the Armenian National Committee of France Mourad Papazian stated that,

“Both Sarkozy and his frontrunner rival Francois Hollande are in agreement over the draft proposal to criminalize denial of the genocide.”

“Moreover, as Armenians we are going to continue waging our righteous struggle and pick it up where it was left once again.”

See our earlier post: France’s Genocide denial law put on hold (06 Feb 2012)

"Now we see it. The West, or shall we call it, “the international community”, is paralysed in the face of one of the most barbaric and systematic ethnic cleanings of the 21st Century. We are talking Syria, although it has uncanny similarities with Sri Lanka."

"So in the second decade of the 21st century we have devised the mechanisms for transmitting crude evidence of atrocity. Thanks to courage and the mobile phone, the world’s citizenry is better informed about the bloodletting in Syria than during any massacre at any time in history."

"This is Sri Lanka all over again, except that this time we don’t have to wait until the massacres are over, we can see them as they happen. We citizens know as much as those in power. That’s new. It is a very inconvenient truth, because what it describes is an international system so abused by its members that it can no longer function in a most desperate hour of need. So what’s to be done?"

Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt has expressed outrage at the recent attack on war graves in two British cemeteries in Benghazi.

200 graves of British and Commonwealth nationals, most of who died in World War 2, were damaged in attacks by unknown individuals.

"It's horrific and wrong and we have expressed to the Libyan authorities our profound distress at what has happened on behalf of those who have loved ones there," Mr Burt told the BBC.

"The Libyan authorities have responded in kind. They are horrified by what has happened.

"These are not actions carried out by the government of Libya, this is an extremist mob that has done this and we all share the same revulsion for it."

The BBC reports that the attacks stopped after a group of elders intervened and prevented further damage.

The Libyan authorities have released a statement denouncing the ‘shameful act’:

"Some people attacked the graves of non-Muslims in Benghazi, including the graves of some of the nationals of friendly countries, including the states of Britain and Italy."

It adds that it "severely denounces such shameful acts and vows to find and prosecute the perpetrators according to Libyan law".

Related links:

Military HQ in LTTE graveyard - BBC Sandeshaya - 07 March 2011

North Korea announced Wednesday that it would freeze nuclear tests, long-range missile launches and uranium enrichment at its Yongbyon plant, even as the US promised food aid to the country.

The North Koreans also agreed to the return of nuclear inspectors, who were kicked out of the country in 2009, though they are limited to the Yongbyon site.

At the same time, the US has offered 240,000 metric tonnes of nutritional assistance, a great part of it in the form of biscuits, as part of the ‘Leap-day deal’.

While the North portrayed it as a deal, the US said it didn’t link humanitarian help with political matters but went along with Pyongyang because "they needed to have this linkage," a senior Obama administration official was quoted as telling reporters.

Kim Jong Un’s first move since taking command in December was ‘surprising and conciliatory’ according to The Economist.

“It’s significant and positive that Kim Jong-un, as his first major foreign policy action since becoming the North Korean leader, chose to strike a deal through dialogue, rather than staging a military provocation,” Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, was quoted as saying.

“The fact that his government was able to make a quick decision indicates that his grip on power is stable.”

Meanwhile, senior North Korean negotiator Ri Yong-Ho, the vice foreign minister and North Korea's representative to stalled six-nation disarmament talks, is heading to the US to participate in discussions at
Syracuse University's Maxwell School between March 7 to 9.

The six nations talks – consisting of North Korea, South Korea, the US, China, Russia and Japan – have been suspended since 2009.

The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for the Defence Minister of Sudan for crimes alleged to have been committed in Darfur.

The Defence Minister, Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein, is alleged to be responsible for 20 counts of war crimes and 21 counts of crimes against humanity. At the time, Mr Hussein was Interior Minister and the Sudanese government’s representative in Darfur.

The ICC said in a statement that Mr Hussein should be prosecuted for war crimes such as persecution and torture and war crimes including murder and rape.

"The plan of the counter-insurgency campaign was allegedly formulated at the highest levels of the government of the Republic of the Sudan and had allegedly as a core component an unlawful attack on that part of the civilian population perceived by the government as being close to the rebel groups," the statement said.

The warrant was requested by chief prosecutor Luis-Moreno Ocampo in December last year, but was dismissed at the time by a senior Sudanese official as ‘ridiculous’.

The ICC had already indicted Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

'International justice is here to stay' - ICC prosecutor - 15 Dec 2011

Chad next to be referred to UN over Bashir - 14 Dec 2011

ICC seeks arrest warrant for Sudan’s defence minister - 02 Dec 2011

The International Committee of the Red Cross has begun moving civilians including the wounded and children out of the Syrian city of Homs.

The announcement came as delegates from over seventy countries had gathered at the 'Friends of Syria' conference in Tunisia, aiming to increase pressure on the Assad regime. The conference ended with delegates adopting a declaration calling on the regime to end violence immediately and allow humanitarian aid.

The declaration read:

"Participants committed to take steps to apply and enforce restrictions and sanctions on the regime and its supporters as a clear message to the Syrian regime that it cannot attack civilians with impunity,"

Meanwhile, the Syrian National Council called on the conference to allow the supply of arms in order to defend themselve.

In a statement, the Syrian National Council, said,

"If the regime fails to accept the terms of the political initiative outlined by the Arab League and end violence against citizens, the Friends of Syria should not constrain individual countries from aiding the Syrian opposition by means of military advisers, training and provision of arms to defend themselves."

 

The UN's under secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, Valeria Amos, will be visiting Syria in order to negotiate access for aid workers to areas most affected by the conflict, announced the spokesperson to the UN Secretargy General Ban Ki Moon.

The spokesperson, Del Buey, said that Amos, a former member of the House of Lords, would be sent to "to assess the humanitarian situation and renew the call for humanitarian access".

Adding that a "comprehensive" approach was required, Ban Ki Moon said, 

"In addition to humanitarian (issues), one needs to discuss all political issues. But the immediate task would be humanitarian at this time."

The UN has accused Syria of committing ‘crimes against humanity’ against its people, in a report released today after an inquiry by a UN panel.

The panel was refused entry into Syria and had to gather information from outside sources including regime defectors and human rights activists.

The report alleges that "army snipers and Shabbiha gunmen [from pro-Assad militias] posted at strategic points terrorised the population, targeting and killing small children, women and other unarmed civilians. Fragmentation mortar bombs were also fired into densely populated neighbourhoods."

"Security agencies continued to systematically arrest wounded patients in state hospitals and to interrogate them, often using torture, about their supposed participation in opposition demonstrations or armed activities."

A list of top regime officials involved in the violence has also been drawn up and is thought to include President Bashar al-Assad, however the list will be kept secret until the allegations can be investigated by an international human rights court.

One commissioner who helped draw up the UN report, Yakin Ertürk said the list of the named top officials believed to be involved has to be kept secret for now.

"All the crimes we listed came from several consistent witness accounts and showed systematic abuses. We are not a court. We could not investigate and sentence like a court. So it has been deposited with the UN high commissioner for human rights. When and if these incidents are investigated by a court, it will be made available and provide an input into the investigation."

The inquiry further revealed it found "a reliable body of evidence" implicating "commanding officers and officials at the highest levels of government" in the commission of "crimes against humanity and other gross human rights violations", with Assad being reported to be on top of the list.

The report also details crimes by the Free Syrian Army, such as torture and extra-judicial executions, however adds that those violations are not "comparable in scale and organisation" to the abuses carried out by the Syrian state.

"I am appalled by the evidence that young children are being targeted by snipers, and that security forces continue to arrest and torture wounded patients in state hospitals," said Alistair Burt, the UK's Foreign Office minister.

"I am also very concerned at evidence of abuses by the Free Syrian Army, though the report makes clear these are on a far smaller scale than the widespread and systematic violations by the Syrian authorities.

"I call on all Syrians to respect human rights standards, end the violence immediately and ensure neutral and impartial access for humanitarian organisations to deliver desperately needed supplies and medical care. "

"I have been a war correspondent for most of my professional life. It has always been a hard calling. But the need for frontline, objective reporting has never been more compelling.

"Covering a war means going to places torn by chaos, destruction and death, and trying to bear witness. It means trying to find the truth in a sandstorm of propaganda when armies, tribes or terrorists clash. And yes, it means taking risks, not just for yourself but often for the people who work closely with you.

"Despite all the videos you see from the Ministry of Defence or the Pentagon, and all the sanitised language describing smart bombs and pinpoint strikes, the scene on the ground has remained remarkably the same for hundreds of years.

"Craters. Burned houses. Mutilated bodies. Women weeping for children and husbands. Men for their wives, mothers children.

"Our mission is to report these horrors of war with accuracy and without prejudice. We always have to ask ourselves whether the level of risk is worth the story.

"I lost my eye in an ambush in the Sri Lankan civil war. I had gone to the northern Tamil area from which journalists were banned and found an unreported humanitarian disaster.

"As I was smuggled back across the internal border, a soldier launched a grenade at me and the shrapnel sliced into my face and chest.

"He knew what he was doing."

See her full speech here.

See her final report for the Sunday Times here.