Myanmar rejects UN Human Rights Council resolution over Rakhine issue

Myanmar has expressed its opposition against a resolution of the UN  Human Rights Council (UNHRC) with regard to the Rakhine issue.

Official media on Thursday published a statement of Myanmar Permanent Representative to UN  Htin Lynn in response to a draft resolution submitted to a special session of the UNHRC on Myanmar.

The resolution tabled on Tuesday was entitled “Situation of human rights of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar.”

The special session of the UNHRC was held in Geneva at the request of the member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

According to the statement, Myanmar opposes any country’s specific resolution which gives rise to polarisation, division and confrontation.

“It does not reflect the principles of the UNHRC such as impartiality, objectivity and non-selectivity,’’ it added.

The draft resolution was focusing on a particular group of people belonging to a particular faith.

“The promotion and protection of human rights should be for all people of the globe irrespective of race, religion and gender,’’ Lynn said in the statement.

He pointed out that “some elements in the draft resolution are infringing on the state sovereignty of Myanmar.

Allegations without sufficient and concrete evidence are also incorporated in the text.

“International assistance should be part of the solution, not part of the problem,’’ he said, complaining that it fails to condemn the attacks of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.

The salvation army extremist terrorists launched fresh attacks on police outposts in Rakhine on Aug. 25, displacing residents from a number of areas in Rakhine state.

The UN representative said the Myanmar government has been exerting efforts to resolve the issue of Rakhine internally as well as through cooperation with Bangladesh.

Myanmar and Bangladesh signed an agreement on Nov. 23 on the return of displaced Rohingya people who have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar’s Rakhine state. (Xinhua/NAN)

Autopsies Of 26 Dead Nigerian Girls Revealed, 2 Pregnant

Autopsies on the bodies of 26 teenage Nigerian girls found dead in the Mediterranean in early November has been confirmed that they drowned at sea by Italian news agencies.

The victims’ bodies were found floating in the water by a Spanish military ship and brought to Italy on November 3 after two separate rescue operations.

According to the autopsy report carried out in Salerno, Italy, 25 of the girls died from asphyxiation in the water, while one girl suffered a wound to her liver.

Two out of the 26 women were found to be pregnant.

The autopsies found no trace of physical or sexual violence on the bodies.

The death of the Nigerian girls believed to be between the ages of 14-18 has been considered “a monumental loss and a sad moment for the country.”

Some victims have been identified by family members who survived the tragedy. Others were identified by contacting relatives whose phone numbers were discovered in the victim’s clothing.

According to reports from the UN, 80 percent of Nigerian women arriving in Italy are subjected to falling into prostitution rings.

A day of mourning has been declared for the funerals that will take place on Friday for the 26 girls in Salerno.

A white rose will be placed on each coffin. Smaller roses will be placed for the two unborn children.

Nigeria has called for an international investigation into the incident.

Source; Sahara Reporters.

Trump Warns North Korea: ‘Do Not Try Us’

“Do not try us,’’ U.S. President, Donald Trump, warned North Korea on Wednesday at Seoul’s Korean National Assembly, seeking to convince Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

“The North Korean regime has interpreted America’s past restraint as weakness … This is a very different administration than the U.S. has had in the past,” Trump added.

“America does not seek conflict or confrontation, but we will not run from it,” said Trump, as he described the U.S. military presence in the region, including the “three largest aircraft carriers in the world” and nuclear submarines “appropriately positioned.”

“I want peace through strength,” Trump said.

But in spite the president’s firm rhetoric, he also offered a path forward to North Korea.
Speaking directly to North Korean leader, Trump said: “The weapons you are acquiring are not making you safer. They are putting your regime in great danger.”

“North Korea is not the paradise your grandfather envisioned.

“It is a hell that no person deserves. Yet in spite every crime you have committed against god and man, we will offer a path to a much better future,” Trump added.

“It begins with an end to the aggression of your regime,” Trump said, calling on Pyongyang to give up its ballistic missile programme and agree to “complete, verifiable and total de-nuclearisation.”

In the speech, Trump avoided some of the more antagonistic language he has used in previous North Korea speeches.

He did not mention “fire and fury” or “little rocket man,” for instance.

The president also called on China and Russia to “sever all ties” with North Korea, including diplomatic relations, over Pyongyang’s ongoing nuclear and missile pursuits.

“To those nations, who choose to ignore this threat … the weight of this crisis is on your conscience,” Trump said.
The speech capped Trump’s whirlwind 24-hour stop in South Korea.

He was set to leave for Beijing, where he was expected to seek international support to help isolate North Korea.

Earlier on Wednesday, a surprise visit by Trump to the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea was scrapped due to bad weather.

The early morning helicopter trip was called off due to heavy fog.

South Korea’s President Moon Jae In had been planned to join Trump in the DMZ, White House spokeswoman, Sarah Sanders, said, which would have marked the first time presidents from the two countries visited the area together. (dpa/NAN)

Hundreds Of Thousands March In Barcelona To Say ‘No’ To Independence

Hundreds of thousands of people marched in Barcelona on Sunday to protest Catalonia’s secession from Spain, in the largest show of strength to date by unionists, who usually describe themselves as the “silent majority.”

According to the Catalan Civil Society (SCC), which organised the “Enough! Let’s go back to reason” march, more than one million people took part. Barcelona’s local police, the Guardia Urbana, gave a 350,000 estimate.

“We are peaceful citizens who believe in coexistence and freedom.

“We will show these minoritarian secessionists that Spain is a modern country,” Nobel Literature Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa said in a speech at the end of the rally.

The 81-year-old writer and journalist said it would “take more than a coup plot to destroy what has been built in 500 years of history.”

The Nobel Laurette was born in Peru but a nationalized Spaniard who lived in Barcelona in the 1970s,

From the morning, people draped with Spanish and anti-independence Catalan flags – which lack the white star that is present on the secessionist Catalan flag – could be heard singing

The songs include “We are all Catalans,” “Only one nation” and “Puigdemont in prison.”

Carles Puigdemont is Catalonia’s regional premier, and head of a secessionist coalition which organised an Oct.1 independence referendum that was banned by the Constitutional Court but went ahead, despite violent Spanish police attempts to stop it.

Before the march, hundreds gathered outside the local headquarters of the Guardia Civil, Spain’s military police, expressing support for its actions.

On social media, people could be seen booing Catalan police, whose chief is suspected of collusion with separatists.

Protesters, some of whom arrived via bus or train from other parts of Spain, marched peacefully.

They were backed by the ruling People’s Party (PP), the pro-government Catalan Ciudadanos party, and, at the last minute, by the opposition Socialist Party.

Turnout figures were impressive, but were still lower than what was achieved by the pro-independence camp in an Oct. 3 general strike, when 700,000 people took to Barcelona’s streets, according to Guardia Urbana estimates.

Despite some secessionists’ attempts to label Sunday’s march as a right-wing, authoritarian event, several people insisted that the pro-independence camp did not have a monopoly on progressive opinion.

“I’m a leftist but I do not want independence. I want Spain to become a federal state,” Angel, a 50-year-old teacher and supporter of the leftist Podemos party, told dpa.

Secession is deeply divisive: In the disputed referendum, 90 per cent of Catalans voted to break off from Spain, but the ballot was boycotted by most pro-union Catalans, and turnout was only 43 per cent.

On Sunday, a poll published by the conservative La Razon daily said 79.4 per cent of Spaniards, and 58.9 per cent of Catalans, were against the unilateral declaration of independence Catalan authorities are said to be considering.

Puigdemont is scheduled to address the Catalan parliament on Tuesday’

However, he is under pressure to hold off from secession plans, which would escalate what is already the biggest political crisis Spain has experienced since a 1981 failed military coup.

Several businesses, including major banks, have started moving their legal headquarters out of Catalonia, casting doubt on whether one of Spain’s wealthiest regions would risk a major capital flight if it broke off from Madrid. (dpa/NAN)