https://arab.news/63254
TOKYO: While Japan and G7 partners apply severe sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine and changing the status quo by military force, they have expressed no interest in equally applying sanctions on Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights.
“Generally speaking, according to the international law, to unilaterally annex land which has been taken by force, is not recognized under that law,” Japanese Foreign Minister HAYASHI Yoshimasa said in response to a question by Arab News Japan.
“From this perspective, Israel’s occupation is something that we do not recognize and we have been consistent on this point with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute under the two states solution. We feel that it should be resolved between the two parties concerned,” Hayashi added.
The foreign minister was reminded of the 56th anniversary of the 1967 war in the Middle East, resulting in Israel changing the status quo of the Syrian and Palestinian borders, by annexing the Golan Heights and occupying Palestinian Territories through military force.
Many in the Arab countries voiced hope that Japan would apply sanctions against Israel in the same way they did to Russia.
Hayashi’s reply, however, suggests that changing the status quo by military force can be dealt with on a case by case principle such as by diplomacy rather than the sanctions’ approach against Russia.
“We are strongly calling upon Israel’s government to refrain from unilateral activities which change the status quo,” he urged.
Hayashi went on to say, “With regard to Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine, this disturbs the international order which was developed by the efforts of the international society and we have been liaising with the international society to take a resolute action and response to this.”
Furthermore, the Japanese foreign minister noted, “With regard to relations between countries, we make a comprehensive review based on the individual situation,” thus intimating that the Israeli occupation of Palestine and annexation of the Golan Heights are not shaking the international order.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s national assembly has passed legislation limiting how long lawmakers can be disqualified from office, a state spokesman said Tuesday, paving the way for exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s return to politics.
Sharif served as Pakistan’s prime minister three times — the last before being ousted over graft allegations in 2017.
The Supreme Court barred him from politics for life and he was later sentenced to seven years in jail.
In 2019 he was granted medical bail and flew to Britain, where he has remained ever since, continuing to steer the family-run Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party from behind the scenes.
His brother Shehbaz Sharif became prime minister last year, and the country is due to hold fresh general elections no later than October.
On Tuesday, a government spokesman said the acting president had signed into law an amendment which says courts can only disqualify parliamentarians “for a period not exceeding five years.”
The spokesman said senate chairman Sadiq Sanjrani served as acting president signing the bill on Monday, in the absence of President Arif Alvi who is abroad on the Hajj pilgrimage.
“The ruling PML-N and its coalition partners want to bring Nawaz Sharif back,” political analyst Hasan Askari said. “The bill has been passed to achieve this objective.”
“Nawaz Sharif will be the main campaigner for PML-N in the next election,” he added. “His return will be very helpful for the party politically, but it’s not clear whether he himself will contest the election.”
Sharif still faces the graft case which saw him sentenced during the tenure of his successor, Imran Khan, who won power pledging to undo the corruption which has historically plagued the country.
But in Pakistan, legal cases which tangle politicians in opposition are regularly wound back once their party regains office.
Shehbaz ousted Khan last April via a no-confidence vote. However, he is at the head of a shaky coalition of parties, while Khan remains widely popular in the countdown to polling.
Khan has been calling for snap elections, but his campaign has become bogged down in dozens of legal cases.
Last month he was briefly arrested on graft charges in Islamabad, sparking deadly unrest during which supporters of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party poured onto the streets and clashed with police.
In the aftermath of his release following three days in custody, PTI has been targeted by a crackdown with thousands of arrests, reports of intimidation and muzzling of the press.
Khan says his party is being suppressed by the government, led by PML-N, and the powerful military establishment.
Lhokseumawe: Indonesia’s president vowed on Tuesday to “heal” the pain caused by serious human rights violations by compensating those who suffered during the country’s dictatorship years.
“This (resolution) is needed to heal the nation’s pain caused by past gross human rights violations which have left a heavy burden for the victims,” President Joko Widodo said Monday in northwestern Aceh province.
The region hosted a nearly three-decade-long insurgency that ended in 2005 and was the site of at least three recorded mass killings that resulted in dozens of deaths.
“This wound must be healed immediately so we can move forward,” Widodo added during a ceremony in Pidie, near a site once used by the military to torture civilians.
In January, Widodo said the government deeply regretted a dozen state-orchestrated mass human rights violations committed in the country’s past.
A bloody anti-communist purge in the 1960s saw half a million leftists massacred, and in 1998 dozens of student activists disappeared during mass street protests that brought down the three-decade-long Suharto dictatorship.
Widodo also mentioned 10 other violations that took place between the 1960s and the early 2000s.
“The government is now focusing on the nonjudicial resolution, which focuses on rehabilitating the victims’ rights without negating the judicial mechanism,” he said.
Under the program, the government will provide financial settlements, scholarships, and direct cash aid for the victims and their children.
Human rights activists welcomed the government’s gesture but said the task was still huge.
“This is a step forward, better than nothing, but of course, it’s not enough,” Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Harsono told AFP.
One of the victims of a mass killing in North Aceh on May 3, 1999, recalled the moment that left him with lifelong trauma.
Murtala was 28 years old when military personnel opened fire on a crowd gathering near a paper mill in the town of Lhokseumawe.
The shooting followed reports that a soldier had gone missing at a time when rebels were fighting government forces for Aceh’s independence.
“I heard shots fired, and I hid under a truck to save myself, but somebody grabbed me and hit me in the head and chest with a gun repeatedly. They also stomped on my body,” Murtala told AFP.
He fell unconscious when a man was shot dead in front of him. He woke up three days later in a hospital only to be told his older brother was killed in the riot.
The National Human Rights Commission or Komnas HAM reported 21 people were killed in the clash, but activists claim 46 people died.
Murtala, also the head of the victims association, said many of them have not been identified or recognized and therefore might not receive any compensation.
“This is unacceptable, and this will hurt justice. We, as the victims, hope for justice to prevail,” he said.
MANILA: Philippine authorities have detained more than 2,700 people during a raid on several buildings in Manila where alleged trafficking victims were paid to recruit players for online games, police said Tuesday.
Chinese, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Singaporean, Malaysian, Pakistani, Cameroonian, Sudanese, Myanmar and Philippine nationals were among the people found inside a compound in the capital on Monday night.
Authorities were interviewing 2,724 detainees to identify who was a victim or suspect, said police Captain Michelle Sabino, a spokeswoman for the anti-cybercrime unit.
More than 1,500 were Filipinos.
International concern has been growing over Internet scams in the Asia-Pacific region, often staffed by trafficking victims tricked or coerced into promoting bogus crypto investments.
Sabino said the alleged trafficking victims had accepted jobs posted on Facebook to work in the Philippines “to find players” for online games.
Many of them were forced to work 12-hour shifts every day for as little as 24,000 pesos ($433) a month, and were prevented from leaving the compound, she said.
Sabino described it as the “biggest ever” anti-trafficking raid in the Philippines.
AFP journalists at the scene on Tuesday saw two police buses and two police trucks parked outside the compound. They were not allowed to enter the buildings.
Sabino said “everything will be investigated,” including whether the workers were involved in online rackets.
In May, authorities rescued more than a thousand people from several Asian nations who had been trafficked into the Philippines, held captive and forced to run online scams.
The International Organization for Migration said victims were often ensnared by traffickers with the prospect of “better jobs with high salaries and enticing perks.”
“One very noticeable aspect in these online scams, which is different to other forms of trafficking, is that education offers no immunity as we have seen even well-educated professionals become victims,” Itayi Viriri, IOM senior regional spokesman for Asia-Pacific, said.
Viriri said victims were typically “trapped in a world of exploitation where they endure abuse, confiscation of travel documents, and isolation from their peers.”
“We therefore commend the actions taken by the Philippines authorities to intervene as it is clear that victims are basically hostages to their traffickers and as such rely on external intervention to break free from their captors,” Viriri said.
Philippine senator Risa Hontiveros recently warned that “scam call centers” were operating in the Philippines and employing foreigners trafficked into the country.
In its 2023 human trafficking report, the US State Department said the Philippines “did not vigorously investigate or prosecute labor trafficking crimes that occurred within” the country.
“Corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes remained significant concerns,” it said.
Over a thousand Afghan civilians were killed in bombings and other violence since foreign forces left and the Taliban took over in 2021, according to a report by the UN’s mission to Afghanistan released on Tuesday.
Between Aug. 15, 2021 and May this year 1,095 civilians were killed and 2,679 wounded, according to the UN Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA), underscoring the security challenges even after the end of decades of war.
The majority of deaths – just over 700 – were caused by improvised explosive devices including suicide bombings in public places such as mosques, education centers and markets.
Though armed fighting has fallen dramatically since the Taliban took over in August 2021 as the NATO-backed military collapsed, security challenges remain, particularly from the Daesh. The militant group was responsible for the majority of attacks, according to the UNAMA, which also noted that the deadliness of attacks had escalated despite fewer violent incidents.
“UNAMA’s figures highlight not only the ongoing civilian harm resulting from such attacks, but an increase in the lethality of suicide attacks since 15 August 2021, with a smaller number of attacks causing a greater number of civilian casualties,” the report said.
The Taliban have said they are focused on securing the country and have carried out several raids against Daesh cells in recent months.
Just over 1,700 casualties, including injuries, were attributed to explosive attacks claimed by Daesh, according to UNAMA.
The Taliban-run foreign affairs ministry in a response to the UN said that Afghanistan had faced security challenges during war for decades before its government, known as the Islamic Emirate, took over and the situation had improved.
“Security forces of the Islamic Emirate oblige themselves to ensure security of the citizens and take timely action on uprooting the safe havens of the terrorists,” it said.