World
Rwandan genocide suspect Kabuga declared ‘unfit’ to stand trial
![Rwandan genocide suspect Kabuga declared ‘unfit’ to stand trial](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/000_1RY7B9.jpg?resize=1920,1440)
The UN war crimes court deemed the 90-year-old genocide suspect ‘no longer capable of meaningful participation’.
Felicien Kabuga, the 90-year-old Rwandan genocide suspect, is unfit to stand trial, judges at a United Nations war crimes court at The Hague have ruled.
Kabuga, who had been living under a false identity and evaded capture for decades, was arrested at his Paris home in May 2020. He was then extradited to The Hague, where he entered a not-guilty plea.
He went on trial in September last year but refused to appear in court or remotely at the start of his trial. He has followed proceedings via video link from a wheelchair at the court’s detention centre.
The court put the trial on hold in March this year over health concerns.
“The trial chamber finds Mr Kabuga is no longer capable of meaningful participation in his trial,” a decision published on Wednesday by the court said.
Accused of financing genocide
The former businessman, who made his fortune in the tea trade, is one of the last suspects sought by the tribunal prosecuting crimes committed in the 1994 genocide when ruling Hutu majority fighters killed more than 800,000 minority Tutsis and Hutu moderates in 100 days.
He is accused of financing Hutu militias as well as encouraging hate speech to be broadcast on his radio station, Radio Television Libre des Milles Collines (RTLM).
In September 2022, UN prosecutor Rashid Rashid said in his opening statement that Kabuga did not need to pick up a microphone himself to call for the killing of Tutsis but founded a radio station that “broadcast genocidal propaganda across Rwanda”.
Prosecutors said the genocide charges covered rapes and sexual assaults, as well as killings. Hutus were encouraged in RTLM broadcasts to “taste” Tutsi women, they said.
He was also accused of supplying Hutu death squads with machetes. Kabuga has denied these charges.
Judges pursue ‘alternative’ procedure
Instead of halting the trial, the judges said on Wednesday they would set up an “alternative finding procedure that resembles a trial as closely as possible, but without the possibility of a conviction”.
Sixty-two Rwandan genocide suspects have been convicted by the tribunal so far.
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World
Middle East Crisis: Critically Ill Children Allowed to Leave Gaza for First Time Since May
Sixty-eight people, including sick and injured patients and their escorts, crossed the border to get treatment, the Israeli military said. The evacuation was carried out in coordination with the U.S., Egypt and the international community.
World
Taiwan issues travel advisory after China vows to execute independence supporters
![Taiwan issues travel advisory after China vows to execute independence supporters](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/05/xi_jinping.jpg)
The Taiwanese government warned its citizens not to travel to mainland China on Thursday after Beijing threatened to execute residents who support the island’s independence.
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council spokesman Liang Wen-chieh issued the warning during a routine press conference. The Chinese government announced a new policy targeting “separatists” last week, and said it would pursue the death penalty for “diehard” supporters of Taiwanese independence.
“I want to stress: Democracy is not a crime; it’s autocracy that is the real evil. China has absolutely no right to sanction Taiwan’s people just because of the positions they hold. What’s more, China has no right to go after Taiwan people’s rights across borders,” Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said Wednesday.
“I also want to call on China to face up to the existence of the Republic of China and have exchanges and dialogue with Taiwan’s democratically elected, legitimate government,” he said, using Taiwan’s formal name. “If this is not done, relations between Taiwan and China will only become more and more estranged.”
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The Taiwanese government warned its citizens not to travel to mainland China on Thursday after Beijing threatened to execute residents who support the island’s independence. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
China has long considered Taiwan to be its territory, and Chinese President Xi Jinping has threatened to take the island by force in recent years.
IRAN CAPABLE OF BUILDING NUCLEAR BOMB IN ONE WEEK, REPORT FINDS AS MIDDLE EAST TENSIONS FLARE
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office clarified on Wednesday that the threat of execution applies only to a small number of Taiwanese independence “diehards’ evil words and actions.”
![Xi Jinping](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/05/1200/675/xi_jinping.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
China has long considered Taiwan to be its territory, and Chinese President Xi Jinping has threatened to take the island by force in recent years. (Szilard Koszticsak/MTI via AP)
The move is the latest escalation of tensions between Taipei and Beijing. Recent months have also seen China conduct extensive military drills surrounding the island. China has used the drills as intimidation, typically following events connecting the U.S. and Taiwan.
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China first conducted live-fire drills in 2022 after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. D-Calif., traveled to Taiwan. It was the first time a U.S. speaker visited the island in over 25 years.
![Chinese soldier looking through binoculars with a military ship in the background](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2022/08/1200/675/Taiwan-China-Military-Exercises-2.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Recent months have also seen China conduct extensive military drills surrounding the island, typically following events connecting the U.S. and Taiwan. (Lin Jian/Xinhua via AP)
Beijing’s execution threat comes just days after the U.S. approved the sale of $360 million in drones, missiles and other equipment to Taiwan.
Reuters contributed to this report.
World
Serbian police shut down cultural exchange festival with Kosovo
![Serbian police shut down cultural exchange festival with Kosovo](https://static.euronews.com/articles/stories/08/53/59/96/1200x675_cmsv2_0bfb757c-8481-503b-8547-5b03b8feb345-8535996.jpg)
The festival ban comes a day after the EU Foreign Policy chief Josep Borrell said no progress had been made during talks in Brussels towards implementing an EU-backed agreement towards normalising ties between Belgrade and Pristina.
Serbian police have banned a festival that promotes cultural exchange with Kosovo following a rally by far-right protesters outside the venue.
In a statement, Belgrade police cited security concerns as the reasons for stopping the event from going ahead, saying they wanted to prevent ‘danger to the security of people and property and to public peace and order on a larger scale.’
The police statement also said that the anti-festival protest, which saw several dozen right-wing extremists gather outside the festival venue, waving Serbian flags and banners saying ‘No surrender’, had also been banned.
Several Serbian government officials have sharply criticised the festival in recent days, describing it as anti-Serb.
While the festival has been held alternatively in Serbia and Kosovo for the past decade, this year’s ban in Serbia illustrates a general toughening of the government’s stance toward its critics.
The Mirëdita, dobar dan festival, whose name means ‘hello’ in Albanian and Serbian, is organised by youth groups from Serbia and Kosovo and was due to open on Thursday with a theatre show from Kosovo.
According to the festival’s website the event, which was due to run for two days, aims to ‘enrich regional perspectives and foster cooperation and peacebuilding’.
No progress
The festival ban came a day after the EU Foreign Policy chief Josep Borrell said no progress had been made during talks in Brussels towards implementing an agreement between Belgrade and Pristina.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti had met to discuss an EU-backed plan to normalise ties. However, unresolved issues, including Pristina’s demands that Belgrade hands over the suspected organisers of the Banjska attack, blocked further progress.
Speaking after the meetings, Borrell said that the European Union will continue to exert all its efforts and capacity to normalise relations between Belgrade and Pristina.
“Kosovo was not ready for this, Kosovo was not willing to do this trilateral meeting. Serbia was ready to do it, but you need two to dance tango and we need two to sit around the table in order to continue the dialogue,” Borrell added.
Borrell said on Wednesday ahead of the meeting that a new round of dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina would “hopefully send a different message and end in a different note.”
Brussels has warned both Belgrade and Pristina that refusal to compromise jeopardises Serbia and Kosovo’s chances of joining the bloc.
Kosovo, a former Serbian province, declared independence in 2008, a move Belgrade does not recognise.
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