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26 Sept 2016 - NPWJ News Digest on Middle East and North Africa Democracy
Articles
Libya PM calls for national reconciliation in splintered country
by Reuters, 26 Sep 2016
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Libya's prime minister called for a national reconciliation initiative to repair the divisions in a fragmented country reeling from the turbulence that has followed the fall of dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Fayez Seraj also told Reuters in an interview that the battle against Islamic State militants in their former stronghold of Sirte was in its last stages, although bombings and booby traps still posed a challenge. Gaddafi's fall in 2011 brought chaos that splintered the North African country into rival armed fiefdoms. The U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) has been seeking endorsement for months as it tries to extend its authority beyond its base in Tripoli, in western Libya. "In the last five years, Libya has been through a very difficult and critical phase ... many political divisions," Seraj said in New York, where he was attending an annual U.N. gathering of world leaders. "There was disintegration of the social fabric as a result of bloody conflicts. "So we need a real reconciliation between Libyans inside and Libyans abroad ... there will be no exclusion of any political faction," he said. "Reconciliation will provide political stability, which will give way for economic stability."
How the White Helmets of Syria Are Being Hunted in a Devastated Aleppo
by The Time Magazine, 25 Sep 2016
It should have been a banner month for the White Helmets. The acclaimed Syrian volunteer rescue group is the subject of a documentary that was released on Netflix on Sept. 16. The organization is up for the Nobel Peace Prize next month, and a raft of celebrities including George Clooney, Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake petitioned the prize committee in support of the group’s nomination. On Sept. 22, the White Helmets, who are known inside Syria as the Civil Defense, won the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the “alternative Nobel,” honoring the volunteers for their bravery in rushing to the aid of Syrian civilians under relentless bombardment. The group claims to have rescued some 60,000 people since 2013. But now, the White Helmets have become the targets of that bombing. In the besieged rebel-held section of the city of Aleppo, at least three of the group’s four operations centers were damaged by airstrikes in one night. Many of their vehicles were destroyed. A fire station was heavily damaged. Even the rescue center featured in the Netflix documentary was destroyed.
Russia accused of war crimes in Syria at UN security council session
by The Guardian, 25 Sep 2016
Russia has been directly and repeatedly accused of war crimes at the UN security council in an unusually blunt session, as hopes of any form of ceasefire were flattened by the scale and ferocity of the Syrian regime’s assault on eastern Aleppo. The war crimes accusations centred on the widespread use of bunker-busting and incendiary bombs on the 275,000 civilians living in the rebel-held east of the city, weapons that Moscow’s accusers say were dropped by Russian aircraft. “Bunker-busting bombs, more suited to destroying military installations, are now destroying homes, decimating bomb shelters, crippling, maiming, killing dozens, if not hundreds,” Matthew Rycroft, the UK ambassador to the UN said during the emergency security council session on Syria on Sunday. “Incendiary munitions, indiscriminate in their reach, are being dropped on to civilian areas so that, yet again, Aleppo is burning. And to cap it all, water supplies, so vital to millions, are now being targeted, depriving water to those most in need. In short, it is difficult to deny that Russia is partnering with the Syrian regime to carry out war crimes.”
Iraq militants launch deadly attacks around Tikrit
by The Guardian, 24 Sep 2016
Militants have killed at least a dozen members of the Iraqi security forces in early morning attacks in the city of Tikrit, according to reports. Four police officers were shot dead at a checkpoint on the west side of the city. Security forces returned fire and killed one gunman. Other militants continued north to a second checkpoint where they detonated a vehicle rigged with explosives, killing eight more police officers. The Associated Press put the death toll in the second attack as high as 11. Dozens more were wounded. Colonel Mohammed al-Jabouri, a spokesman for the police force in Saladin province, said the the local police chief and head of the provincial security committee were visiting the second checkpoint at the time of the attack, but both escaped unharmed. An unverified photograph shared on social media showed two dark plumes of smoke rising into the sky near arches at the city’s northern gates, Reuters said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, the first of its kind since the city was retaken from Islamic State in April last year.
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Syrian worker programme faces hurdles in Jordan
by Al Jazeera, 23 Sep 2016
Mafraq, Jordan - Hussein al-Azziz makes his way through rows of slouching peach trees on a vast stretch of farmland in northern Jordan. Their homeland in sight, Azziz and his fellow Syrian labourers remain just outside, braving the late summer heat to tend to Jordanian fields at peak harvest. Black plastic crates are filled with fruit and stacked into neat towers before being carried off by pick-up trucks. "I've worked on farms since I arrived three years ago," Azziz told Al Jazeera. "I never went to the camps. I came straight here [to the governorate of Mafraq]." The 20-year-old Aleppo native had been doing this work illegally since 2013, before receiving a job permit through Jordan's Ministry of Labour in early July. Though the country's labour market has been open to Syrians for more than six months, many refugees have only recently started to come forward. "We feared the UNHCR [United Nations refugee agency] would cut the food coupons if we got permits," Azziz told Al Jazeera, referring to the World Food Programme's initiative to deliver food compensation to families in need. "It used to be hard for me to work because I was constantly threatened by the authorities, but everything has become more comfortable. We stopped being afraid."
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