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A30 world news
Diaranson 16 December 2020

Bosnia's Muslim, Croat leaders boycott Russian top diplomat

Serb half of the country. member countries. We ex- a four-year war in Bosnia in
Dodik, who is known for his pect them to understand and the 1990s.
staunch pro-Russian stance, support this,” Komsic said.
has been advocating the sepa- Although the deal ended
ration of Bosnian Serbs and Lavrov later traveled to the bloodshed, it left Bos-
their joining neighboring neighboring Serbia where he nia largely dysfunctional and
Serbia. Although Moscow said he doesn't believe “the divided in half between the
formally does not support incident will be essential" for Bosnian Serb Republika Srp-
Bosnia’s breakup, it has nev- Russia's relations with Bos- ska and the Muslim-Croat
er openly criticized Dodik’s nia. Federation.
separatist policies.
“I believe that the politicians Lavrov said on Monday
Komsic said the meeting who made that decision (to the agreement must not be
was rejected because Lav- boycott the meeting) are not changed, referring to com-
rov showed disrespect of the independent, they obviously ments by Western diplomats
Bosnian state at the press work under someone’s in- and Bosnian politicians that it
(AP) — Bosnia’s Mus- dik, showed up. conference late on Monday, structions," he said. needs to be upgraded to en-
lim and Croat represen- where there was no Bosnian able Bosnia to make progress
tatives in the country’s Dzaferovic and Komsic said flag and where he hailed Do- Dodik called the boycott a on reforms.
three-member presidency they boycotted the meeting dik’s comments that Bosnia “diplomatic scandal."
boycotted a meeting with — a major snub to Moscow's will remain militarily neutral “I would like to say that any
Russian Foreign Minister top diplomat — because dur- and will never join NATO. “If they thought that with the attempt to demolish (the
Sergey Lavrov Tuesday, ing Lavrov's meeting with action they could downgrade Dayton agreement) can cause
citing his “disrespect" of Dodik on Monday he sup- “Lavrov knows that only the Russia as a world power, they the most serious risks and
the war-ravaged state in ported Dodik's rejection of state can make such deci- became laughable in front consequences,” Lavrov said.
the way he met with the NATO membership for the sions,” Komsic said at a joint of their own public and the
third member, a Serb. country and opposed changes press conference with Dzaf- world political scene,” Dodik In Serbia, Lavrov was greeted
to a U.S.-sponsored agree- erovic. told the Bosnian Serb Srna by President Aleksandar Vu-
On the second day of his two- ment that ended Bosnia's news agency. cic as a true friend of the Bal-
day visit to Bosnia, Lavrov bloody civil war in the 1990s. “With respect to the Russian kan country. Serbia formally
was due to hold talks with all Federation as a big and pow- The Russian foreign min- wants to join the European
three presidency members, They said he should have erful country, we will not ister’s visit to the Balkans Union, but has also been de-
including Sefik Dzaferovic, a started his official visit in agree to become a Russian coincided with the 25th an- veloping close political, eco-
Bosniak Muslim, and Zeljko Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo, pawn in the Balkans in their niversary of the signing of nomic and military ties with
Komsic, a Croat. Only the instead of first meeting Do- games and conflicts with the U.S.-mediated Dayton its traditional Slavic ally.
Serb member, Milorad Do- dik in the semi-autonomous the EU countries or NATO peace agreement that ended

French theater, cinema workers protest against virus closure

(AP) — Thousands of peo- holidays.
ple working in the French The government announced
theater and cinema in- Workers in the cultural sector last week a 35-million euro
dustries demonstrated in gathered at Place de La Bas- ($42 million) additional
Paris on Tuesday against tille, in front of the modern support package for the cul-
the prolonged closure of opera house that has been tural sector. Yet protesters ex-
entertainment facilities closed for weeks. pressed fears that many jobs
amid the coronavirus pan- won't survive the crisis.
demic. Among them, Veronique
Bellin, deputy director of the Stage set designer Thibault
France earlier Tuesday lifted a new theatre of Montreuil in Sinay said: “We hear about
partial lockdown imposed on the eastern suburbs of Paris, big money being announced
Oct. 30, but will still main- said health measures had but, for theatre productions
tain strict measures at least been in place before the lock- and creations, we don’t see
until Jan. 7, including a cur- down to protect spectators. any money coming. It’s really
few from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., hard for us.”
as numbers of infections re- "Today we see that the gov-
main high. ernment accepts that church- It is the second time French down. reported 372 deaths from
es reopen, and these are the theatres and cinemas have COVID-19 in hospitals,
Theatres, cinemas and other exact same conditions, but been closed down to slow Health authorities said they bringing the country's over-
performance halls, together people can’t go to the theater the spread of Covid-19. They registered over 10,000 new all death toll to more than
with bars and restaurants, or cinema. We don’t under- were shut from March to confirmed daily infections 58,000.
will remain shut over the stand,” she said. June, during the first lock- last week. On Monday, they

Japan 'Twitter killer' sentenced to death for serial murders

(AP) — A Japanese court on Tuesday sen- near Tokyo. agers, after raping them, and also killed a boyfriend
tenced a man to death for killing and dis- Shiraishi, 30, pleaded guilty and said he would not of one of the women to silence him, investigators
membering nine people, most of whom had appeal his death sentence. said.
posted suicidal thoughts on social media, in a Police arrested Shiraishi in 2017 after finding the On Twitter, Shiraishi used the name “Hangman,”
case that shocked the country. bodies of eight females and one male in cold-stor- promising to help his victims die and inviting them
age cases in his apartment. to his apartment.
The Tachikawa branch of the Tokyo District Court
found Takahiro Shiraishi, known as the “Twitter Investigators said Shiraishi approached the victims Although his defense lawyers argued that he assist-
killer,” guilty of killing, dismembering and storing via Twitter, offering to assist them with their sui- ed the victims' suicidal wishes, Shiraishi later said
the bodies of the victims in his apartment in Zama, cidal wishes. He killed the women, including teen- he killed them without their consent.