Page 30 - bon-dia-aruba-20211230

A30 world news
Diahuebs 30 December 2021

In under-vaccinated Bosnia, inmate population stands out

and women serving sentenc- The country’s largest penal nated is voluntary for inmates
es in Bosnia’s 13 prisons have institution, the maximum- at Zenica and Bosnia’s other
received at least one dose of security prison in the city prisons. He thinks so many
a COVID-19 vaccine. That of Zenica, is a case in point. inmates submitted to shots as
compares to slightly over Over 90% of the prison’s 600 a matter of convenience; un-
27% for the nation as a whole, inmates and over 60% of the like the public at large, pris-
a rate that results from a lack staff have received two shots oners cannot bend or ignore
of takers, not an absence of after an initial drive to en- anti-infection rules and must
shots. courage vaccine uptake. remain quarantined if they
come into contact with an in-
Bosnia and most of the rest of “We are pretty much done,” fected person.
the Balkans struggled at the warden Redzo Kahric said.
beginning of the year to se- Prisoners who are eligible for
cure vaccines but had a steady While the overall vaccina- weekend leave also are tested
supply of jabs by late spring. tion rate among all prison before and after their trips
While the public demand employees in Bosnia so far outside. The spread of the vi-
for shots quickly slowed, in- has been lower than among rus appears to have generally
(AP) — Bosnia’s rate of country has bucked the terest remained high inside inmates, it is still more than been better controlled inside
vaccination against the national trend: its prison correctional facilities, where twice as high than the rate in than outside Bosnian prisons.
coronavirus is one of the inmates. authorities say getting vacci- the general population. Since the start of the pan-
lowest in Europe, but one nated remains voluntary. demic, no major prison out-
population in the Balkan Over 80% of the 2,000 men Kahric said that getting vacci- breaks have been reported.

How democracy was dismantled in Hong Kong in 2021

(AP) — As the days of 2021 crackdown on political dis- Earlier this month, when two consecutive years. Most
dwindled, so did any re- sent. Authorities sought to In a string of tweets, Hong the election finally was held, of the city’s pro-democracy
maining traces of democ- suppress antigovernment Kong activist Nathan Law pro-Beijing lawmakers won activists are behind bars or
racy in Hong Kong. sentiment that led to months called upon the world to a landslide victory. The city’s have fled abroad.
of political strife in 2019. “publish about Hong Kong largest opposition party, the
On Wednesday, a vocal pro- ... (and) about the brave jour- Democratic Party, fielded no As the year drew to a close,
democracy media outlet -- The most recent example was nalists who risk so much.” candidates for the first time several artworks were re-
one of the last openly critical Wednesday’s raid by Hong Law, who fled to London since the 1997 handover. moved that commemorated
voices in the city -- closed Kong police on the online after the security law was the Tiananmen massacre.
after a police raid. Earlier in pro-democracy news outlet implemented, said he feared Several pro-democracy trade
December, the opposition Stand News. Seven people “a domino effect” that would unions and organizations Two days before Christmas,
was shut out from elections were arrested — among them lead other outlets to close. have also been dissolved the University of Hong Kong
under a new law that puts all two current and former edi- this year. The city’s largest cited legal risks in ordering
candidates to a loyalty test. tors and four former board Little remains of Hong teachers’ union disbanded the removal of the Pillar of
And monuments commemo- members, including a popu- Kong’s pro-democracy in August due to the politi- Shame monument, which
rating the Tiananmen Square lar singer, Denise Ho — for movement. More than 100 cal climate, followed later by depicts a pile of torn and
protests of 1989 were taken alleged sedition under a colo- pro-democracy figures and the city’s largest independent twisted bodies of Tiananmen
down. nial-era ordinance. others have been arrested un- trade union. victims. Several other univer-
der the security law, which sities followed suit, making
Again and again throughout The outlet announced that penalizes actions seen as The Civil Human Rights away with pro-democracy
the year, the city’s authorities afternoon that it would halt separatist or subverting the Front, a pro-democracy and Tiananmen statues.
and the central government operations. Hong Kong or Chinese gov- group that organized some of
in Beijing stamped out nearly ernments. the biggest protests in 2019, China’s Communist Party
everything the pro-democra- Stand News is the second also disbanded following a has long sought to erase Ti-
cy movement had stood for. media outlet to shut down That includes 47 people police investigation under ananmen from the public
Activists fled abroad or were after being targeted by Hong charged with subversion in the National Security law. consciousness in the main-
locked up under the draconi- Kong authorities. The Apple February over their roles in land, forbidding any com-
an National Security Law im- Daily newspaper closed ear- an unofficial primary election Other pro-democracy activ- memorative events. Now it
posed on the city 18 months lier in 2021 after authorities held in 2020 to determine the ists have also been arrested seems determined to do the
ago. Unions and other inde- raided its offices for a second best candidates to field in for involvement in unauthor- same in Hong Kong in the
pendent organizations closed time and froze millions in as- planned legislative elections. ized protests and the annual name of restoring stability to
down. sets. Tiananmen candlelight vigil, the city.
Authorities accused the ac- which has been banned for
Where once Hong Kong al- “Democracy has been under tivists of subversion, saying
lowed “open opposition and a sustained assault for well they planned to win a major-
questioning of the govern- over a year in Hong Kong,” ity and use it to paralyze the
ment’s core policies and le- said Luke de Pulford, a coor- government and eventually
gitimacy ... any meaningful dinator for the London-based force Hong Kong leader Car-
policy debates will now take Inter-Parliamentary Alliance rie Lam to step down.
place among a small circle of on China, a group of legisla-
government loyalists,” said tors from democratic coun- The government postponed
Kurt Tong, partner at The tries focused on relations the 2020 elections, citing
Asia Group and former U.S. with China. “No democracy public health risks from CO-
consul general in Hong Kong can function without a free VID-19. Then, the central
and Macao. press.” government in Beijing an-
nounced new election laws
The days when the former “If no critical information is earlier this year that reduced
British colony was consid- able to be published about the proportion of directly
ered a bastion of freedom the administration in Hong elected seats to less than a
fade in memory. Returned to Kong or in China, then what quarter and required all can-
China in 1997, Hong Kong last vestiges of democracy didates to be loyal to Beijing.
has endured an overhaul there were, I think we have to
of its political system and a say, have been snuffed out.” The results were predictable: