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world NEWSWednesday 23 September
European ministers agree to relocate 120,000 refugees
MIKE CORDER Wednesday evening in built a fence topped with states, these are very diffi- no mistake it will take a tre-
DANICA KIRKA Brussels to try to adopt a razor wire on its frontier with cult decisions.” mendous amount of effort,
Associated Press unified approach to the Serbia. But even Timmermans con- it will take a long time, and
BRUSSELS (AP) — Deeply crisis that has seen 477,906 EU Commission First Vice ceded it was only a small it will take many steps in
divided European Union many areas.”
ministers agreed Tuesday A Syrian refugee boy cries while he and his family try to board a train at the station in Tovarnik, The office of the U.N. High
to relocate 120,000 asylum- Commissioner for Refugees
seekers to ease the strain Croatia. EU ministers agreed Tuesday to relocate 120,000 asylum-seekers to ease the strain on urged the EU to quickly
on Greece and Italy, which set up facilities in Greece,
are on the front line of the Greece and Italy, which are on the front line of the migrant flood. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo) where tens of thousands
migrant flood. But a senior have arrived after making
European leader conced- people stream into Europe President Frans Timmer- step, and plenty more re- the hazardous sea crossing
ed the move was only a from the Middle East, Africa mans insisted that all mem- mains to be done. from Turkey.
small step toward resolving and Asia, according to es- ber states “respect the “In and by itself, the deci- This may be “the last op-
one of the worst crises ever timates by the U.N. refugee outcome” of the reloca- sion we took today is not portunity for a coherent
faced by the 28-nation agency. Some European tion plan, which he said going to solve the refugee European response,” said
bloc. countries have reinstated showed the bloc is “ca- crisis,” he said. “The refu- Melissa Fleming, a spokes-
Four eastern European border controls to stem the pable of taking decisions gee crisis can be brought woman for the UNHCR.
countries — the Czech flood, and Hungary has even if, for some member under control, but make Tuesday’s deal did not set
Republic, Slovakia, Roma- mandatory quotas for each
nia and Hungary — voted nation — one of the most
against the plan, and it’s contentious aspects of the
unclear if they will even proposed plan. It said that
implement it. Those nations 66,000 asylum-seekers will
have resisted accepting be relocated from Greece
the forced resettlement of and Italy, and 54,000 more
refugees on their territory. in a year’s time.
Slovakia would rather Amnesty International’s
breach the measure “than Europe Director, John Dal-
accept such a dictate,” huisen, cautioned that
said Prime Minster Robert agreed-upon numbers
Fico. “are still too low, given the
His Czech counterpart, Bo- immensity of the current
huslav Sobotka, added: crisis.” “At long last, this is a
“It’s a bad decision, and step in the right direction,
the Czech Republic did all but EU leaders need to be
it could to block it.” looking 10 steps ahead, not
EU leaders will gather one,” he said.q
High-profile trial of Ukrainian officer begins in Russia
MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian urged Russia to drop what the rebels and smuggled killed during an attack on has won a seat in Parlia-
it described as a “baseless across the border into Rus- separatist fighters, Russian ment. Ukrainian officials
court on Tuesday began case” against Savchenko. sia, also is charged with en- news agencies reported. have campaigned for her
Russian investigators al- tering Russia illegally. “I didn’t see journalists,” release and have been
hearing the high-profile lege that Savchenko, who Charges of attempted Tass quoted Savchenko backed by the U.S. and the
served in a volunteer bat- murder in relation to six as saying. “I have never European Union. “The Unit-
case against a Ukrainian of- talion fighting alongside Ukrainian citizens were also in my life shot at unarmed ed States remains deeply
government troops against added to the case. people. I am a soldier, not disturbed by the Russian
ficer who is charged in the Russia-backed rebels, pro- Prosecutors told the court a murderer.” Savchenko, Federation’s decision to
vided the coordinates for on Tuesday that Savchen- who spent 83 days on a move forward with this
deaths of two Russian jour- a mortar attack that killed ko intentionally targeted hunger strike to protest her baseless case,” U.S. State
the journalists in June 2014. the journalists and other detention, has become a Department spokesman
nalists in eastern Ukraine. Savchenko, who law- civilians, while the defense hero figure for Ukrainians Mark Toner told reporters in
yers say was captured by insisted the journalists were fighting the separatists and Washington Tuesday.q
Nadezhda Savchenko
denied the charges, tell-
ing the court “I am a sol-
dier, not a murderer,” ac-
cording to the Tass news
agency. In Washington,
the U.S. State Department
