World
Uyghur group calls on ICC to arrest Chinese president Xi Jinping after Putin warrant
A gaggle representing the Uyghur folks is asking on the Worldwide Prison Court docket (ICC) to pursue fees towards Chinese language President Xi Jinping after the court docket issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We name on the Worldwide Prison Court docket to behave and maintain Chinese language chief Xi Jinping accountable for the continued genocide and crimes towards humanity towards Uyghurs and different Turkic peoples,” Prime Minister Salih Hudayar of the East Turkistan Authorities in Exile stated in a Saturday press launch.
“The Worldwide Prison Court docket should uphold justice and fulfill its dedication to ‘By no means Once more’ by investigating the continued genocide and arresting Xi Jinping for his direct function on this Holocaust-like genocide within the twenty first century.”
The press launch echoes what authorities officers throughout the globe and pro-Uyghur activists have claimed for years concerning China’s “ongoing marketing campaign of mass internment, compelled labor, compelled sterilization, and compelled household separation towards Turkic ethnic teams in East Turkistan, which has been formally designated as genocide by the U.S. authorities and the Parliaments of almost a dozen western nations since 2021.”
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The press launch comes the identical week the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin and Russian official Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova for his or her alleged involvement in struggle crimes throughout the invasion of Ukraine.
The ICC stated that Putin “is allegedly chargeable for the struggle crime of illegal deportation of inhabitants (kids) and that of illegal switch of inhabitants (kids) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”
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Russian Ministry of Overseas Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dismissed the arrest warrant shortly after it was issued.
“Russia is just not a celebration to the Rome Statute of the Worldwide Prison Court docket and doesn’t bear obligations beneath it,” Zakharova stated. “Russia doesn’t cooperate with this physique, and doable ‘recipes’ for arrest coming from the Worldwide Court docket of Justice can be legally null and void for us.”
The press launch from the exiled Uyghurs outlines related allegations of compelled deportations of ethnically Turkic folks.
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“In June 2021, legal professionals representing the ETGE and ETNM submitted extra proof to the ICC that the Chinese language Authorities is implementing a coverage of rounding up Uyghur and different ethnically Turkic folks from outdoors China, together with ICC member States similar to neighboring Tajikistan, and forcefully deporting them again to East Turkistan (“Xinjiang”), the place they’re subjected to genocidal acts and crimes towards humanity,” the press launch acknowledged.
“The brand new proof highlighted that upwards of three,000 Uyghurs had been forcibly deported from Tajikistan with a further 4,000 from Kyrgyzstan.”
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Moreover, the press launch states that over 3 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and different Turkic folks have been put in internment camps and that over 880,500 Uyghur and different Turkic kids have been forcibly separated from their households.
Fox Information Digital reached out to China’s U.S. Consulate and the ICC for remark however didn’t instantly obtain a response.
“The ICC is presently contemplating all the proof we’ve got submitted with a view to determine on opening an ICC investigation,” Hudayar informed Fox Information Digital in an announcement.
“We’re in touch with the Workplace of the Prosecutor in regards to the proof submitted and are requesting that the Prosecutor ought to act immediately to begin an ICC investigation and maintain these accountable to account.”
Xi is scheduled to fly to Russia subsequent week to fulfill with Putin for a gathering the place the Kremlin says the 2 leaders will focus on “problems with additional growth of complete partnership and strategic interplay between Russia and China.”
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World
Togo cracking down on media, opposition ahead of parliamentary elections: report
Authorities in Togo have repressed the media and prevented civilians from gathering to protest peacefully, Amnesty International said in a report published Wednesday, ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled to take place at the end of this month.
Amnesty International said in its annual report on human rights around the world that two newspapers in Togo were forced to close for several months last year, while a number of journalists were arrested or hit with hefty fines after reporting on corruption.
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Two journalists in Togo were sentenced to three years in prison after reporting about a minister’s involvement in corruption, but both fled the country to avoid detention. The human rights organization said it had recorded instances in which detainees in prison were tortured or mistreated.
The report comes at a time of heightened tension in Togo, a country of about 8 million people that has been ruled by the same family for almost 60 years. Parliamentary elections have been pushed back until April 29, and the government have arrested opposition figures and quashed efforts to organize protests ahead of the vote.
At issue is a proposed new constitution that would scrap presidential elections permanently, giving parliament the power to choose the president instead. It is awaiting sign off by President Faure Gnassingbe. The opposition and the clergy say the legislation is an effort by Gnassingbe to prolong his rule after his mandate expires in 2025.
World
US secretly sent long-range ATACMS weapons to Ukraine
The weapons, which can hit targets as far as 300km (186 miles) away, have been used twice already.
The United States quietly sent long-range ballistic missiles to Ukraine as part of a package of military support in March, and Ukraine has used the weapons twice, according to US officials.
The longer-range Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) can hit targets as far as 300km (186 miles) away, nearly double the range of the mid-range ATACMS that the US began sending towards the end of last year.
Washington had long been reluctant to provide Ukraine with the longer-range weapon amid concerns they could be used on targets deep inside Russian territory and escalate the conflict.
But in February, Biden approved the delivery of the missiles and a “significant” number was included in a $300m aid package announced the following month, officials said.
“We’ve already sent some, we will send more,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters.
State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said the delivery had not been announced “in order to maintain operational security for Ukraine at their request”. Neither official confirmed the number of ATACMS sent.
Ukraine has been forced to ration its weapons amid a protracted delay to a $61bn military assistance package that was finally passed in the US this week. ATACMS are expected to be included in the first $1bn tranche of that aid package.
The weapons sent this month were used on April 17 to strike an airfield in Dzhankoi in Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014. They were also used this week against Russian forces in southeastern Ukraine, near the occupied city of Berdyansk.
‘Time is right’
Admiral Christopher Grady, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the White House and military planners had looked carefully at the risks of providing long-range weaponry to Ukraine and determined that it was the right time.
The weapons were sent on the condition they be used only inside Ukrainian sovereign territory.
“I think the time is right, and the boss [President Biden] made the decision the time is right to provide these based on where the fight is right now,” Grady said.
A US official told the Reuters news agency it was Russia’s use of North Korean-supplied long-range ballistic missiles against Ukraine in December and January that led to the change of heart.
Russia’s continued targeting of Ukraine’s critical infrastructure was also a concern.
“We warned Russia about those things,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “They renewed their targeting.”
The protracted delay in US funding and weapons deliveries has given Russia the space to push its advantage in firepower and personnel to step up attacks across the front line in eastern Ukraine, where it claims to have taken control of a number of settlements this month. It has increasingly used satellite-guided gliding bombs – dropped from planes at a safe distance – to pummel Ukrainian forces.
Ukrainian officials have not publicly acknowledged the receipt or use of long-range ATACMS.
But in thanking Congress for passing the new aid bill, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed the significance of such weaponry to the war effort.
“Ukraine’s long-range capabilities, artillery and air defense are extremely important tools for the quick restoration of a just peace,” he wrote on social media platform X.
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