Cincunri Sakia

Selasa, 02 Februari 2021

Navalny: Prosecutors seek lengthy jail sentence for Kremlin foe - Al Jazeera English

A Russian court convened on Tuesday to consider jailing Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny for up to three and a half years in a case that has sparked nationwide protests and talk of new Western sanctions.

The Moscow court hearing came after tens of thousands filled the streets across the country on Sunday, chanting slogans against President Vladimir Putin and demanding freedom for Navalny, who was detained last month on his return from Germany, where he was treated for an alleged nerve agent attack.

Navalny watched Tuesday’s hearing from inside a glass cage in the courtroom. Before proceedings began, he praised Yulia, his wife, who was present after being fined the previous day for taking part in a protest to demand his release.

“They said that you had seriously violated public order and were a bad girl. I’m proud of you,” Navalny said.

Russian police detained 112 people as they gathered near the court, the OVD-Info protest monitoring group said.

During Sunday’s protests, more than 5,400 protesters were detained by authorities during Sunday’s demonstrations, according to OVD-Info.

While state-run media dismissed the second weekend of mass protests as small and claimed that they showed the failure of the opposition, Navalny’s team said the turnout demonstrated “overwhelming nationwide support” for the Kremlin’s fiercest critic.

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Navalny was arrested on January 17 on returning from Berlin, where he spent five months recovering from an alleged nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Russian authorities reject the accusation. He now faces a prison term for alleged probation violations from a 2014 money-laundering conviction that is widely seen as politically motivated.

Last month, Russia’s prison service filed a motion to replace his three-and-a-half-year suspended sentence from the conviction with one he must serve. The Prosecutor General’s office backed the motion on Monday, alleging Navalny engaged in “unlawful conduct” during the probation period.

In recent years, Navalny has served a number of brief jail stints but never a long prison term.

‘Path towards great trouble’

Kremlin critics say a concerted effort is under way to silence Navalny’s team, dismantle his Anti-Corruption Foundation and pressure his family.

On Monday, a court fined Navalny’s wife Yulia 20,000 rubles ($265) for participating in an “unauthorised” rally in her husband’s support. His spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, was also placed under house arrest until March on suspicion of breaching COVID-19 regulations at unsanctioned rallies on January 23.

Several others, including Navalny’s brother Oleg and prominent activist Lyubov Sobol, are already under house arrest.

OVD Info said the wave of arrests on Sunday included 82 journalists and was the highest number in the nine years it has been keeping records during the Putin era. At least 51 protesters were beaten by police officers while being detained, it said.

Meanwhile, Pavel Chikov, a lawyer and rights advocate, said police have opened 40 criminal cases in 18 different regions related to the two weekends of protests.

In Saint Petersburg, the ombudsman said authorities unleashed “essentially a military operation” against protesters and paralysed the city.

“Batons and tasers will not solve existing problems. Violence only breeds intransigence and engenders bitterness,” ombudsman Alexander Shishlov said in a statement.

“This is a path towards great trouble. It’s time to stop.”

The jailing of Navalny and the crackdown on protests have prompted international outrage and set off renewed talk of Western sanctions on Russia.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted that Washington “condemns the persistent use of harsh tactics against peaceful protesters and journalists by Russian authorities for a second week straight”. He also urged the release of Navalny and those detained “for exercising their human rights.”

Moscow rejected Blinken’s call as “crude interference in Russia’s internal affairs” and accused Washington of trying to destabilise the situation by backing what it called illegal protests.

“We are talking about unlawful rallies,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday. “Naturally, police take measures against participants of these unlawful rallies – hence the number of detained.”

The German government has also called for the immediate release of the arrested protesters, as well as Navalny. It “condemns the use of force by Russian security forces and the once again disproportionate action against peacefully demonstrating citizens,” government spokeswoman Martina Fietz said.

France meanwhile has urged Germany to scrap the Nordstream II gas pipeline project with Russia in protest against Navalny’s detention.

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2021-02-02 11:21:36Z
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Myanmar coup: Fears grow for 600,000 Rohingya Muslims still in the country - Sky News

The United Nations (UN) fears the coup in Myanmar will worsen the plight of some 600,000 Rohingya Muslims still in the country.

Myanmar's military seized power on Monday in a coup against the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, who was detained along with other political leaders in early morning raids.

Hundreds of members of parliament remained confined inside their government housing in the country's capital on Tuesday, in spite of a plea for the military to honour the results of last November's election and release them.

One legislator said they had all spent a sleepless night worried they might be taken away, but were otherwise OK.

He said they were able to speak with one another inside the compound and communicate with their constituencies by phone, but were not allowed to leave the complex in Naypyitaw, as police were inside and soldiers outside.

Meanwhile, ahead of a UN Security Council meeting to discuss the crisis today, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric has called for the worsening situation of the Rohingya to be brought to the fore.

He said: "There are about 600,000 Rohingya that remain in Rakhine State, including 120,000 people who are effectively confined to camps, they cannot move freely and have extremely limited access to basic health and education services.

"Our fear is that these events may make the situation worse for them."

A 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine State sent more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing into Bangladesh, where they are still stranded in refugee camps.

At the time, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Western countries accused the Myanmar military of ethnic cleansing, which it denied.

The 15-member UN Security Council - of which the UK currently holds the presidency - plans to discuss Myanmar in a closed meeting on Tuesday.

UK ambassador to the UN Dame Barbara Woodward said the council wanted to address "long-term threats to peace and security" by working closely with Myanmar's Asian and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) neighbours.

China, backed by Russia, shielded Myanmar from any significant council action after the 2017 military crackdown.

China and Russia are council veto powers along with France, Britain and the US, which means they can block any "substantive" resolution.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the government in Beijing was in touch with "all sides" about
the security council meeting and the international community's actions should contribute to "a peaceful resolution".

The Myanmar army said it had detained Ms Suu Kyi and others in response to "election fraud". They handed power to military chief Min Aung Hlaing and say they will impose a state of emergency for one year.

The coup is a dramatic reversion for Myanmar, which was emerging from decades of strict military rule and international isolation that began in 1962.

It presents a test for the international community, which had ostracised Myanmar while it was under military rule, then enthusiastically embraced Ms Suu Kyi's government as a sign the country was finally on the path to democracy.

US President Joe Biden called the military's actions "a direct assault on the country's transition to democracy and the rule of law" and said Washington would not hesitate to restore sanctions.

"The United States will stand up for democracy wherever it is under attack," he said in a statement.

The UN has long had a presence in Myanmar - its security council envoys travelled there in April 2018 and met separately with Ms Suu Kyi and Min Aung Hlaing in light of the Rohingya crisis.

The takeover marks a shocking fall from power for Ms Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate who had lived under house arrest for years as she tried to push her country toward democracy, and then became its de facto leader after her party won elections in 2015.

Ms Suu Kyi had been a fierce critic of the army during her years in detention, but after her shift from democracy icon to politician, she needed to work with the generals, who despite allowing elections had never fully given up power.

While the 75-year-old has remained popular at home, Ms Suu Kyi's deference to the generals - going so far as to defend their crackdown on Rohingya Muslims that the US and others have labelled genocide - has left her reputation tarnished abroad.

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2021-02-02 11:02:52Z
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Marjorie Taylor Greene: Pro-Trump congresswoman's 'loony lies' branded a 'cancer' on Republican Party - Sky News

Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell has labelled far-right Marjorie Taylor Greene's embrace of conspiracy theories as "loony lies" and a "cancer" for their party.

Mr McConnell, the top Republican in the US Senate, has intensified pressure on the far-right Georgia congresswoman after, among other moves, she amplified QAnon conspiracy theories which focus on the debunked belief that top Democrats are involved in child sex trafficking, Satan worship and cannibalism.

He told The Hill newspaper: "Somebody who's suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jnr's airplane is not living in reality.

"This has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust debates on substance that can strengthen our party."

But Ms Greene would not be silenced by his stinging criticism.

In a strident broadside on Twitter, she suggested "the real cancer" for the Republican Party was "weak Republicans who only know how to lose gracefully".

"This is why we are losing our country," she wrote.

Facebook videos surfaced last year showing Ms Greene had also expressed racist, antisemitic and anti-Muslim views.

Top Republicans denounced her at the time, hoping to block her from capturing the party's nomination in her reliably red congressional district in northwest Georgia.

But after she won her primary, they were largely forced to accept her. Since then, even more of her past comments, postings and videos have been unearthed, though many were deleted recently after they came to light.

She "liked" Facebook posts that advocated violence against Democrats and the FBI. One suggested shooting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the head.

In response to a post raising the prospect of hanging former president Barack Obama, Greene responded that the "stage is being set".

In an undated video posted online, Greene floated a conspiracy theory that wrongly suggested that the 2017 mass shooting that killed 58 people at a country music festival in Las Vegas could have been a staged operation to build support for gun control legislation.

Mr McConnell's explicit condemnation adds to pressure on House Republicans to take action against Ms Greene even as she is claiming renewed support from former president Donald Trump.

On Monday, House of Representatives Democrats moved to strip her of her committee assignments - if Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy refused to do so himself.

Until now, Republican leaders in the House have been reluctant to criticise Trump supporters, like Ms Greene, out of concern that they could alienate the former president's most ardent voters, underscoring a bitter divide over how the out-of-power party should navigate the two years until the next congressional elections.

Ms Greene's views were in the spotlight even before she joined the House last month.

She once "liked" a Facebook post that challenged the veracity of the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

After her election, she seized on former president Trump's false claims that the election was stolen and cheered on his supporters the day before the Capitol was stormed.

"It's our 1776 moment!" she posted on the conservative-friendly social media platform Parler.

Last week, Mrs Pelosi pressed House Republicans to take action.

She asked: "Assigning her to the education committee, when she has mocked the killing of little children - what could they be thinking, or is thinking too generous a word for what they might be doing?

"It's absolutely appalling."

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2021-02-02 09:22:50Z
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Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest after Myanmar putsch - Financial Times

Aung San Suu Kyi is under house arrest in the Myanmar capital Naypyidaw, a day after the coup that overthrew her government, according to two people with knowledge of the situation.

The people asked to not be named because they fear the steps the military might take against Myanmar’s elected leader or the hundreds of other government officials who were detained after the putsch on Monday.

The coup has brought back grim memories in Myanmar of its decades of military rule and economic stagnation, when the country fell far behind its Asian neighbours in economic development, education and health.

However, the new junta has taken pains to project an image of normality. Tuesday’s edition of the government-owned Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper included a photo of General Min Aung Hlaing, the military commander-in-chief, presiding over a group of green-uniformed officers.

After being cut off in the first hours after the coup, internet services were mostly running on Tuesday in Yangon and other big cities, but most mobile phone services were still down.

The coup was condemned by the US, EU and UN, with the Biden administration threatening to impose sanctions on the country.

The putsch was launched as one of Asia’s poorest countries was already struggling with the health and economic impacts of Covid-19. After reporting a rise in coronavirus cases last year, new infections had been falling and the country began a vaccination programme last week.

Gen Min Aung Hlaing’s office has vowed to maintain the vaccine programme, saying it would be “effectively carried out with momentum”. It also promised to help businesses hit by the pandemic and restart a peace process with ethnic minorities that stalled under Aung San Suu Kyi’s administration.

“Things are still fresh and raw and so we are still assessing,” said Melvyn Pun, chief executive of Yoma Strategic Holdings, a conglomerate with businesses in real estate, financial services and consumer goods. “It seems there has been a clear intention to assure it’s business as usual, and business continuity.”

Branches of the group’s Yoma Bank reopened on Tuesday after closing the previous day when the telecoms shutdown disrupted ATMs, he added. Other banks also opened for business, with limited withdrawals.

Human rights groups were struggling to establish basic facts about the whereabouts of the detained individuals. Some government officials appeared to have been offered the chance to resign voluntarily after the coup, including Myint Htwe, the health minister.

The ruling National League for Democracy published a statement on Monday attributed to Aung San Suu Kyi that called on citizens to reject the coup and “resist it accordingly”. There were no immediate reports of large demonstrations in a country that has seen significant protests by civil society activists, Buddhist monks and other groups after past crackdowns.

Analysts, however, warned that the situation was volatile.

“We are in a situation where there was already a lot of dry tinder from the economic impact of Covid and a lot of people suffering, especially the most vulnerable,” said Richard Horsey, a political analyst and Myanmar adviser to the International Crisis Group.

“The fact that this country in the last few months hasn’t seen more anger being expressed openly is because people had a government they trusted and a leader they adored, and now that’s all done.”

Follow John Reed on Twitter: @JohnReedwrites

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2021-02-02 07:30:00Z
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Navalny hearing: Prosecutors seek jailing Kremlin foe for years - Al Jazeera English

Navalny’s allies called for protesters to gather outside the court on Tuesday in a show of support for the 44-year-old. “Without your help, we won’t be able to resist the lawlessness of the authorities,” the politician’s team said in a social media post.

Russian police detained 112 people as they gathered near the court, the OVD-Info protest monitoring group said.

The reported developments came after more than 5,400 protesters were detained by authorities during Sunday’s demonstrations, according to OVD-Info.

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In recent years, Navalny has served a number of brief jail stints but never a long prison term.

A spokeswoman for the court told AFP news agency that Navalny was expected to appear in person.

‘Path towards great trouble’

Kremlin critics say a concerted effort is under way to silence Navalny’s team, dismantle his Anti-Corruption Foundation and pressure his family.

Several others, including Navalny’s brother Oleg and prominent activist Lyubov Sobol, are already under house arrest.

Meanwhile, Pavel Chikov, a lawyer and rights advocate, said police have opened 40 criminal cases in 18 different regions related to the two weekends of protests.

In Saint Petersburg, the ombudsman said authorities unleashed “essentially a military operation” against protesters and paralysed the city.

“Batons and tasers will not solve existing problems. Violence only breeds intransigence and engenders bitterness,” ombudsman Alexander Shishlov said in a statement.

“This is a path towards great trouble. It’s time to stop.”

The jailing of Navalny and the crackdown on protests have prompted international outrage and set off renewed talk of Western sanctions on Russia.

Moscow rejected Blinken’s call as “crude interference in Russia’s internal affairs” and accused Washington of trying to destabilise the situation by backing what it called illegal protests.

France meanwhile has urged Germany to scrap the Nordstream II gas pipeline project with Russia in protest against Navalny’s detention.

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Senin, 01 Februari 2021

Myanmar coup: US threatens sanctions over Aung San Suu Kyi detention - BBC News

US President Joe Biden has threatened to reinstate sanctions in Myanmar after the country's military seized power.

Myanmar's army detained Aung San Suu Kyi and other elected leaders, accusing Ms Suu Kyi's party of fraud over its recent landslide election win.

In a statement, Mr Biden said "force should never seek to overrule the will of the people or attempt to erase the outcome of a credible election".

The United Nations and the UK have also condemned the coup.

The US had removed sanctions over the past decade as Myanmar progressed to democracy. Mr Biden said this would be urgently reviewed, adding: "The United States will stand up for democracy wherever it is under attack."

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called the army's move a "serious blow to democratic reforms", as the security council prepared for an emergency meeting. The UN demanded the release of what it said were at least 45 people who had been detained.

In the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned the coup and Aung San Suu Kyi's "unlawful imprisonment".

European Union leaders have issued similar condemnations.

China, which has previously opposed international intervention in Myanmar, urged all sides in the country to "resolve differences". Some regional powers, including Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines, have said it is an "internal matter".

What has happened in Myanmar?

Troops are patrolling the streets and a night-time curfew is in force, with a one-year state of emergency declared. Ms Suu Kyi has urged her supporters to "protest against the coup".

In a letter written in preparation for her impending detention, she said the military's actions would put the country back under a dictatorship.

The military has already announced replacements for a number of ministers.

Protest in Thailand against the Myanmar military coup

On the streets of the main city, Yangon, people said they felt their hard-fought battle for democracy had been lost.

One 25-year-old resident, who asked not to be named, told the BBC: "Waking up to learn your world has been completely turned upside down overnight was not a new feeling, but a feeling that I thought that we had moved on from, and one that I never thought we'd be forced to feel again."

Myanmar, also known as Burma, was ruled by the armed forces until 2011, when democratic reforms led by Aung San Suu Kyi ended military rule.

She spent nearly 15 years in detention between 1989 and 2010. She was internationally hailed as a beacon of democracy and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

But her international reputation suffered severely following an army crackdown on the mostly Muslim Rohingya minority. Former supporters accused her of refusing to condemn the military or acknowledge accounts of atrocities.

How did the coup unfold?

In the early hours of Monday, the army's TV station said power had been handed over to commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing.

Ms Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other leaders of the National League for Democracy (NLD) were arrested in a series of raids. It is not clear where they are being held.

No major violence has been reported. Soldiers blocked roads in the capital, Nay Pyi Taw, and the main city, Yangon. International and domestic TV channels, including the state broadcaster, went off air. Internet and phone services were disrupted. Banks said they had been forced to close.

Later, the military announced that 24 ministers and deputies had been removed, and 11 replacements had been named, including in finance, health, the interior and foreign affairs.

A curfew is now reportedly in effect from 20:00 local time to 06:00 (13:30-23:30 GMT).

Myanmar people line up in front of an ATM of a closed bank in Yangon, Myanmar, 01 February 2021

The military takeover follows weeks of tensions between the armed forces and the government following parliamentary elections lost by the army-backed opposition.

The opposition had demanded a re-run of the election, raising allegations of widespread fraud that were not backed by the electoral commission.

What has the reaction been in Myanmar?

Michael Ghilezan, a partner of a US law firm who lives in Yangon, told the BBC he had expected military vehicles and protests in the city, but there was instead an eerie calm. "The most common reaction from my Burmese friends has been anger. They feel deeply betrayed by the military and the USDP."

This was reflected in other comments from the streets, although there have been some supporters of the army out waving flags in Yangon.

Theinny Oo, a development consultant, told Reuters: "We had a lawful election. People voted for the one they preferred. We have no protection under the law now."

Many people feared giving their names. One 64-year-old resident of Hlaing township told AFP: "I don't want the coup. I have seen many transitions in this country and I was looking forward to a better future."

Author and historian Thant Myint-U tweeted that a door had opened to a "very different future", and he feared for the millions who had been descending into poverty.

The doors just opened to a very different future. I have a sinking feeling that no one will really be able to control what comes next. And remember Myanmar's a country awash in weapons, with deep divisions across ethnic & religious lines, where millions can barely feed themselves
— Thant Myint-U (@thantmyintu) February 1, 2021

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter

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2021-02-02 01:07:00Z
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Military seize power in Myanmar detaining Aung San Suu Kyi - BBC News - BBC News

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Military seize power in Myanmar detaining Aung San Suu Kyi - BBC News BBC News
Myanmar coup: Military takes control & detains leader Aung San Suu Kyi Sky News
Myanmar coup: Aung San Suu Kyi detained as military seizes control BBC News
Myanmar coup reverses a fragile democracy Financial Times
Aung San Suu Kyi’s reputation is tarnished, but she is not Myanmar The Guardian
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2021-02-01 22:21:20Z
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Selasa, 02 Februari 2021

‘Path towards great trouble’

More from Aung San Suu Kyi

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‘Path towards great trouble’

Senin, 01 Februari 2021

What has happened in Myanmar?

How did the coup unfold?

What has the reaction been in Myanmar?