Page 29 - bon-dia-aruba-20220224

A29
world news Diahuebs 24 Februari 2022

EU sanctions hit Russian minister, top advisor, lawmakers

(AP) — The European officials targeted, according 15 February in favor of the
Union agreed to slap to a list of sanctions seen by appeal to President Putin
sanctions Wednesday on The Associated Press. to recognize the indepen-
Russia’s defense minister, dence of the self-proclaimed
a top adviser to President The EU said under Shoigu’s Donetsk and Luhansk ‘re-
Vladimir Putin and hun- “command and orders, Rus- publics’,” EU headquarters
dreds of Russian lawmak- sian troops have held military said.
ers who voted in favor of drills in the illegally annexed
recognizing the indepen- Crimea and have been po- The measures also hit banks
dence of separatist areas sitioned at the border. He is that finance Russia’s armed
in southeast Ukraine. ultimately responsible for forces. They target the ability
any military action against of Moscow to access EU cap-
The sanctions, mostly a Ukraine.” ital and financial markets and
freeze on the assets of those services, and ban EU trade
listed and a ban on them trav- Vaino was said to play “an ac- with the two regions so that
eling in the 27-nation EU, tive role in Kremlin decision- “those responsible clearly feel on Wednesday. “Actually, we ergy and defense sectors, as
are the first steps in a planned making process by taking the economic consequences don’t give a damn about these well as goods that can be used
series of retaliatory measures part in the Russian ‘Security of their illegal and aggressive sanctions.” for both civilian and military
designed to be ramped up Council’ and influencing the actions.” purposes.
should Putin launch an attack elaboration of decisions by “It gives the impression that
or push troops deeper into the president in the field of EU foreign policy chief Josep the authorities in Brussels are More than 190 people and
Ukraine. They are expected Russia’s defense and national Borrell has said the sanctions doing something,” he said. almost 50 “entities,” which
to take effect later Wednes- security.” “will hurt Russia and it will “In fact, they are doing noth- are organizations, agencies,
day. hurt a lot.” ing.” banks or companies, had also
The Commander-in-Chief been separately targeted by
Putin signed a decree recog- of the Russian Navy, Niko- But Pyotr Tolstoy, the deputy The measures come on top of the bloc for “actively sup-
nizing Donetsk and Luhansk lay Yevmenov, is also on the chairman of the State Duma a raft of economic and other porting actions and imple-
as independent and appears list, as are foreign ministry lower house of parliament sanctions slapped on Russia menting policies that under-
to be driving Russia’s cam- spokeswoman Maria Zakha- who was one of the Russians since it annexed Ukraine’s mine or threaten the territo-
paign against Ukraine, but he rova and RT editor-in-chief hit by the sanctions, laughed Crimean Peninsula in 2014, rial integrity, sovereignty and
is not on the EU’s list even Margarita Simonyan — who them off and warned that including steps to force Mos- independence of Ukraine.”
though the sanctions target are both referred to as “a cen- Russia would retaliate with cow to comply with the 2015
those “ involved in the illegal tral figure of the government its own measures. Minsk peace deal, which end- More than 14,000 people
decision.” propaganda.” ed major hostilities in eastern have been killed since 2014
“Every time they implement Ukraine but now appears to in fighting between Ukrai-
Russian Defense Minister “The EU will extend restric- sanctions against Russia, it be overtaken by events. nian troops and Russian-
Sergei Shoigu and Putin’s tive measures to cover all the does not make any sense and backed separatists in eastern
chief of staff, Anton Vaino, 351 members of the Russian it’s worthless,” Tolstoy told Those sanctions already tar- Ukraine.
were among the high-profile State Duma, who voted on Belgian broadcaster RTBF geted Russia’s financial, en-

Gambia urges UN court to continue Rohingya genocide case

(AP) — Lawyers for Gam- hingya,” he warned, adding bia has argued that the 2017 for international cooperation. Summing up Gambia’s pre-
bia on Wednesday urged that “the Rohingya remain crackdown amounts to geno- He replaced pro-democracy sentation on Wednesday,
the United Nations’ top at grave risk of mass atrocity cide and is asking the world icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who Philippe Sands was dismis-
court to throw out Myan- crimes.” court to hold Myanmar ac- led the country’s legal team sive of Myanmar’s attempts
mar’s legal bid to end a countable. at earlier hearings in the case to have the case dropped.
case accusing the South- The case stems from what in 2019. She now is in prison
east Asian nation of geno- the Myanmar military called On Monday, lawyers repre- after being convicted of what “To say that the arguments of
cide against the country’s a clearance campaign it senting Myanmar’s military- her supporters call trumped- Myanmar are tantamount to
Rohingya minority. launched in Rakhine state installed government urged up charges. clutching at straws would be
in 2017 after an attack by a judges at the global court to generous,” he told judges. “It
“This court must reject Rohingya insurgent group. throw out the case, arguing The leader of Gambia’s legal would require you to rede-
Myanmar’s meritless prelim- Security forces were accused they did not have jurisdic- team stressed the case was fine both the act of clutching
inary objections and proceed of mass rapes, killings and tion, in part because they brought by Gambia and not and the nature of straw.”
to adjudicate the merits of torching thousands of homes say Gambia was acting as a the Organization of Islamic
this dispute,” Gambia’s At- as more than 700,000 Ro- mouthpiece for an organiza- Cooperation. Pro-democracy advocates
torney General and Justice hingya fled into neighboring tion of Muslim nations. have harshly criticized the
Minister Dawda Jallow told Bangladesh. “We are no one’s proxy,” Jal- U.N. court for allowing the
judges at the International Myanmar’s legal team was led low told the court. military government to rep-
Court of Justice. The African nation of Gam- by Ko Ko Hlaing, the minister resent Myanmar in a case
“This is very much a dispute focusing on alleged atroci-
Lawyer Paul S. Reichler said between the Gambia and ties by the country’s armed
the military takeover of pow- Myanmar,” he added in a di- forces.
er in Myanmar last year made rect rebuttal of Myanmar’s
the case all the more impor- argument that Gambia’s case “It is outrageous for the ICJ
tant as the country’s new rul- was really brought by the to proceed with these hear-
ers are alleged to be behind Muslim organization and ings on the basis of junta rep-
the atrocities committed that the court can only hear resentation. The junta is not
against the Rohingya. cases between nations. the government of Myanmar,
it does not represent the state
“If they can escape the court’s Judges will likely take months of Myanmar, and it is dan-
jurisdiction, they will be ac- to rule on Myanmar’s pre- gerous for the court to allow
countable to no one and liminary objections. If they it to present itself as such,”
there will be no constraints reject them, the case will go said Chris Sidoti of advo-
on their persecution and ul- ahead and likely take years to cacy group Special Advisory
timate destruction of the Ro- reach a conclusion. Council for Myanmar.