News
- By Reuters
Navalny's Wife Detained In Moscow
Russian police detained Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of jailed Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny, during a protest in Moscow on January 23. Her lawyer was not allowed to accompany her to a police van as she was taken away. Navalnaya was released after several hours in custody. Navalny called on his supporters to protest after being arrested last weekend when he returned to Moscow for the first time since being poisoned in August with a military-grade nerve agent. Navalny had been treated in Germany. Police have declared the rallies in Moscow and dozens of other cities illegal and have arrested over 1,900 people.
- By Current Time
Navalny’s Lawyer Detained During Live Interview
Russian police detained Lyubov Sobol, a close ally of Aleksei Navalny, at a rally in central Moscow calling for the release of the opposition leader and Kremlin critic. Navalny was jailed last weekend upon returning to Moscow after medical treatment in Germany for Novichok poisoning. Sobol was speaking to reporters in a crowd of people on January 23 when riot police swooped in and surrounded her. She was herded through the crowd to a waiting police van, where she was taken away. The Kremlin has said the nationwide protests are illegal. Hundreds have been detained.
- By Current Time
Thousands Defy Crackdown In Russia’s Far East To Support Navalny
Young and old came to demonstrate and rally in central Vladivostok on January 23, braving cold weather and truncheon-wielding police to call for the release of opposition politician Aleksei Navalny. The Kremlin critic was jailed last weekend upon his return to Moscow after receiving medical treatment in Germany for Novichok poisoning. Many demonstrators were aware of a documentary produced by Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation that exposed a billion-dollar palace allegedly built for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Protesters could be seen holding screenshots from the film. Reports suggest the protests were likely to be Russia's largest since March 2017, when coordinated anti-government demonstrations took place in 99 cities and towns across the country.
Kosovar Election Authorities Put Main Opposition Leader's Candidacy In Doubt
PRISTINA -- Kosovar election authorities have not verified the party lists of three parties in the upcoming parliamentary elections on February 14, potentially dashing former Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s bid of taking up the post again.
Kurti, the head of the main opposition Vetevendosje party, is believed to be one of 47 candidates not verified by the Kosovo Judicial Council on January 22.
"There are 47 candidates out of about 1,080 who have been found guilty of a criminal offense by a final court decision in the last three years,” the Judicial Council said.
While electoral authorities didn’t name Kurti, he was among four Vetevendosje figures given a suspended sentence three years ago for throwing tear gas in parliament.
According to the law, a candidate found guilty of a crime in the previous three years is barred from running for office.
The Central Election Commission had requested the Judicial Council assist in the process of verifying candidates in accordance with election laws.
Vetevendosje, the Social Democratic Initiative, and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo were all impacted by the decision because they refused to replace problematic candidates on their party lists. As a result, the CEC rejected their entire party lists.
The parties said they plan to challenge the rejection of their candidates with the Election Complaints and Appeals Panel. If the appeal is rejected, the Supreme Court is the final arbiter.
Kosovo was plunged into renewed political crisis last month after the Constitutional Court ruled that the parliamentary vote electing a new government in June was unconstitutional.
The court ruled on December 21 that the election of the government of Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti was illegal because one member of parliament who voted for the government had previously served time in prison.
The vote of lawmaker Etem Arifi was one of 61 for Hoti’s government, which was elected by the minimum number in the 120-seat parliament.
The court ruled that the government did not get enough votes and called for new elections.
In March, Kurti’s government was brought down by a no-confidence motion raised by Hoti’s Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK).
More Than 3,000 Detained In Russia By Police Amid Violent Clashes With Protesters Demanding Release Of Navalny
MOSCOW -- Russian riot police cracked down hard on some of the biggest anti-government protests in years on January 23, detaining thousands of demonstrators calling for Aleksei Navalny's release at nationwide rallies that raised the stakes in the jailed opposition leader's showdown with President Vladimir Putin.
More than 3,000 people were arrested by police who clashed with and beat protesters, triggering criticism from the European Union and United States.
The protests were a high-stakes test of Navalny's support in the depths of the Russian winter during the COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn ahead of legislative elections expected in September.
They pitted public outrage over the Kremlin’s treatment of its chief critic following his recovery in Germany from poisoning with a military-grade nerve agent against how much of a threat Putin sees from the 44-year-old lawyer he has repeatedly sought to downplay.
In Moscow, thousands of demonstrators filled Pushkin Square in the city center, where clashes with police broke out and demonstrators were roughly dragged off by helmeted riot officers to police buses and detention trucks, some beaten with batons.
Police eventually pushed demonstrators out of the square. Thousands then regrouped along a wide boulevard about a kilometer away, many of them throwing snowballs at the police.
City officials put the crowd at some 4,000, while Reuters estimated some 40,000 had turned up for the demonstration in the Russian capital.
The OVD-Info group that monitors political arrests said Russian police detained 3,296 people at unauthorized countrywide protests on January 23, including 1,274 in Moscow.
Arrests in central Moscow included Navalny's wife, Yulia Navalnaya, and the Kremlin critic's close associate Lyubov Sobol, who was detained near Pushkin Square after speaking to Navalny's supporters.
Hundreds of people remained gathered in the city center as evening fell. Police called on them to go home and blocked off several streets around the Kremlin.
Some protesters later on January 23 gathered outside the high-security Matrosskaya Tishina detention center where Navalny is being held but were eventually pushed back by police, who made arrests.
The demonstrators outside the prison chanted "Freedom!" and called on authorities to release Navalny.
In St. Petersburg, scuffles between police and protesters were reported as well. Images of protesters with injuries such as bloodied heads circulated on social media.
More than 40 officers received minor injuries during the protest in the capital, state agency TASS reported.
Police were reported to have also rounded up minors. The detention of a young boy on Pushkin Square was filmed and uploaded to social media.
Instances of alleged police brutality were also filmed, including video posted on Twitter that showed a Moscow police officer kneeling on the neck of a protester.
The U.S. State Department strongly condemned what it called the "harsh tactics" used by Russian authorities and called for all those detained by police to be released.
"We call on Russian authorities to release all those detained for exercising their universal rights," U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement, which also called for Navalny's "unconditional" release.
The European Union's foreign policy chief expressed concern, saying he deplored "widespread arrests" and the "disproportionate use of force."
"Following unfolding events in #Russia with concern," Josep Borrell wrote on Twitter on January 23. "I deplore widespread detentions, disproportionate use of force, cutting down internet and phone connections. We will discuss on Monday next steps with EU Foreign Ministers."
Amnesty International condemned Russian authorities for the mass arrests and detentions.
“Russian authorities relentlessly unleash reprisals against peaceful protesters; what we saw today has only confirmed this. The police ignored their duty to guarantee the right to peaceful assembly and instead indiscriminately beat and arbitrarily arrested protesters, many of whom were young people," said Natalia Zviagina, Amnesty International’s Russia director.
Leonid Volkov, an ally of Navalny, said the opposition would hold more protests next weekend to demand Navalny's release.
The first rallies on January 23 began in Siberia and the Far East with large crowds taking to the streets in Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, Novosibirsk, and other cities -- despite subfreezing temperatures and a heavy security presence.
The protests are believed to be Russia's largest since March 2017 when coordinated anti-government demonstrations took place in 99 cities and towns across the country.
More than 15,000 people attended rallies in the regions, according to tallies gathered by correspondents of MBKh Media -- an online news organization founded in 2017 by the exiled Russian businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Reports from Khabarovsk said police beat detainees.
Video posted on Twitter from Vladivostok showed police in riot gear charging at demonstrators and beating some with truncheons.
In the Far East city of Yakutsk, protesters went out on the streets despite strong winds and temperatures of minus 50 degrees Celsius.
Video posted on Twitter from Irkutsk showed a massive crowd of protesters chanting, "We will not leave!"
RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service reports that authorities in Ufa, the capital of the Russian region of Bashkortostan, arrested protesters at a rally attended by more than 3,000 people.
Among those taken into custody were Ruslan Valiyev, the editor in chief of Ekho Moskvy in Ufa, and the head of Navalny's campaign team in Ufa, Lilia Chanyseva.
In Yekaterinburg, riot police reportedly clashed with demonstrators who'd gathered in temperatures of minus 30 degrees Celsius.
Video posted to Twitter earlier in the day from Yekaterinburg showed protesters pelting police with snowballs.
Ahead of the coordinated action in at least 65 Russian cities, authorities detained Navalny allies and warned social-media platforms to pull down posts calling on people to attend the "unsanctioned" rallies or face hefty fines. The Kremlin said the nationwide unsanctioned protests are illegal.
“The Kremlin shot itself in the foot with a completely hysterical campaign to try to prevent the protests," Leonid Volkov, coordinator of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), told Current Time ahead of the protests. Current Time is the Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.
"Should demonstrations on January 23 not bring about an immediate result, which is clear -- we demand a release of Aleksei Navalny -- then such actions will be repeated over and over again,” Volkov said.
Ahead of the protests, universities and colleges across Russia reportedly urged students not to attend the rallies, with some saying they may be subject to disciplinary action, including expulsion.
Russia’s largest social network, VKontakte, blocked all the pages dedicated to the rallies after Roskomnadzor, the national telecommunications watchdog, announced it would fine social-media companies for encouraging minors to participate.
That action came amid media reports of calls for demonstrations -- and videos of school students replacing portraits of Putin in their classrooms with that of Navalny -- going viral among teenagers on the social network TikTok.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on January 22 that “it is only natural that there are warnings...about the possible consequences related to noncompliance with the law" since there are calls for “unauthorized, unlawful events.”
Navalny was taken into police custody shortly after his arrival in Russia on January 17 from Berlin where he was treated for a near-fatal poisoning in August with a Soviet-style chemical from the Novichok group.
At a hastily arranged hearing at a police station on January 18, a judge authorized Navalny’s detention for 30 days pending a ruling on his suspended sentence that could be revoked and replaced by prison time, allegedly for parole violations.
In a message on Instagram via his lawyer late on January 22, he said from a Moscow jail cell that he wanted people to know he was in good physical and mental health.
"Just in case, I am announcing that I don’t plan to either hang myself on a window grill or cut my veins or throat open with a sharpened spoon,” the post said. “I use the staircase very carefully. They measure my blood pressure every day and it's like a cosmonaut's, so a sudden heart attack is ruled out. I know for a fact that there are many good people outside my prison and that help will come.”
Navalny has accused Putin of ordering his assassination, which combined with his detention has sparked widespread Western condemnation and threats of further sanctions.
Human Rights Watch on January 22 urged Russian authorities to cease what it called “unlawful attacks on freedom of expression and instead focus on ensuring safety measures to protect those who wish to assemble peacefully.”
“In the past year Russian authorities have effectively banned all peaceful protest by the political opposition and prosecuted anyone who has refused to comply,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
Dozens of influential Russians, including actors, musicians, journalists, writers, athletes and popular bloggers, have come out with statements in support of Navalny, and some promised to attend the demonstrations.
IN PHOTOS: Navalny Supporters Brave Police Crackdown To Demand His Release
Bloomberg, citing two sources close to Russia's leaders, reported on January 22 that the Kremlin intends to imprison Navalny for "several years, or even more.”
Authorities accuse Navalny of violating the terms of a suspended sentence in a 2014 conviction for financial misdeeds, including violating the terms of parole while convalescing in Germany.
He and supporters reject the charges, saying they are politically motivated to put an end to his anti-corruption work.
Navalny’s latest volley against state corruption -- a two-hour video about a $1.36 billion palace on the Black Sea allegedly belonging to Putin -- was released just two days after he was detained.
The video has since become the most-watched report ever published by Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation.
Peskov said on January 22 that the investigation into Putin and the Black Sea mansion was a “lie” and a “cut-and-paste job.”
With reporting by RFE/RL correspondent Matthew Luxmoore, Current Time, RFE/RL’s Russian Service, RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service, AFP, dpa, Reuters, and AP
French, Chinese Firms Sign Deal On Belgrade Metro
BELGRADE – Two French companies along with a Chinese firm have signed a memorandum of understanding with the Serbian government to build a metro in the capital, Belgrade.
"Today is a great day for all of us because we are one step closer to realizing a decades-long dream," Serbian Finance Minister Sinisa Mali said during the signing ceremony on January 22 with representatives of Alstom and Egis of France and China’s Power Construction Corporation.
The project is expected to cost 4.4 billion euros ($5.35 billion) and consists of two metro lines covering a total of nearly 42 kilometers.
Construction is due to start at the end of this year, pending signature of the contracts with the relevant Serbian authorities, with completion expected by 2028.
France’s Egis would develop feasibility studies, preliminary design, and environmental impact assessments, while Alstom would be responsible for the metro equipment and infrastructure, including trains, digital train control systems, platform screen doors, and the power supply solutions.
Construction work would be performed by the Chinese company.
The project is to be partly funded by the French and Chinese governments, while the Serbian government is to finance the remainder from its budget.
In 2020 the French and Serbian government signed an agreement according to which Paris agreed to allocate 454 million euros ($552 million) to Belgrade’s first metro line.
The content of a 2019 agreement between Belgrade and Beijing regarding the project has not been made public.
Alstom said in a statement that the new metro system “will provide the foundations for truly sustainable mobility in the densely populated capital city of Serbia, rapidly contributing to the reduction of road congestion.”
However, Serbian opposition, analysts, and environmental groups have warned that the deal lacked transparency and that construction would affect an area that supplies Belgrade with drinking water.
The main French and Chinese contractors for the Belgrade metro have been selected without a public tender, but Mali ensured that tenders will be organized to select the subcontractors.
"We wonder why we have the Law on Public Procurement and the Law on Public-Private Partnership at all, if they are not applied to the most expensive projects," Nemanja Nenadic of the nongovernmental organization Transparency Serbia told RFE/RL.
Serbia is a candidate for membership in the European Union – its main trade partner. Belgrade also maintains strong economic ties with China, which has invested in infrastructure and energy in the Balkan country.
With reporting by Reuters
Armenian Parliament Approves New Members To Judicial Watchdog Amid Opposition Vote Boycott
YEREVAN -- The Armenian parliament has installed two new members at the state body that nominates, sanctions, and dismisses the South Caucasus country’s judges, amid tensions between the government and judiciary.
Gagik Jahangirian and Davit Khachaturian were appointed to fill vacant seats at the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) in a vote on January 22 that was boycotted by the opposition, following their nomination by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s My Step bloc.
Taron Sahakian of the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) said it would not take part in the vote because “the opposition has been barred from participating in judicial reforms.”
Civil activists have accused Jahangirian of covering up crimes and abetting other abuses in the Armenian armed forces throughout his tenure as chief military prosecutor from 1997-2006 -- allegations he has denied.
Khachaturian is a former chairman of the board of the Armenian branch of U.S. billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundation. His brother Sasun Khachatrian heads the Special Investigative Service.
In recent months, Armenian judges have opposed the arrests of dozens of leaders and members of the opposition, as well as anti-government activists who have been prosecuted in connection with street protests that followed the September-November 2020 fighting in and around the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Pashinian charged last month that Armenia’s judicial system has become part of a “pseudo-elite” that is trying to topple him after a Moscow-brokered cease-fire agreement put an end to six weeks of fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces on November 10, 2020.
SJC chairman Ruben Vartazarian rejected the criticism.
Addressing parliament before the January 22 vote, he accused Pashinian’s political team of failing to “purge” the judiciary and urged lawmakers to pass legislation to “get rid of judges who committed blatant human rights violations.”
Belarus Stripped Of 2021 World Pentathlon Championships Due To 'Instability'
Just days after it was stripped of the world ice hockey championships, Belarus has lost another international sporting event it was due to host, amid a violent government crackdown on peaceful protests over a disputed presidential election last year.
The UIPM Pentathlon and Laser Run World Championships, which were due to be held in Minsk in June, have been postponed “due to instability” in the country, the International Union of Modern Pentathlon said in a statement on January 22, adding that an announcement regarding an alternative venue would be made in the coming days.
The move comes days after the International Ice Hockey Federation announced on January 18 it was removing Belarus as a cohost of its World Championship later this year following pressure from sponsors, the Belarusian opposition, and many European countries.
Belarus has witnessed nearly daily protests since last August when Alyaksandr Lukashenka, in power since 1994, was declared the winner of a presidential vote that the opposition says was rigged.
The EU, United States, Canada, and other countries refuse to recognize Lukashenka, 66, as the legitimate leader of Belarus and have slapped him and senior Belarusian officials with sanctions in response to the “falsification” of the vote and postelection crackdown.
UIPM President Klaus Schormann said the organization’s executive board voted to move the championships in Minsk “to a future date because of a growing concern that the present instability in the host nation could jeopardize the success of UIPM’s flagship competition.”
Schormann also cited “a particular concern that numerous competing nations would be reluctant to travel to Belarus at this time.”
Crisis In Belarus
Read our coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election.
The announcement by the Monaco-based UIPM follows pressure from the Belarusian Sports Solidarity Foundation (BSSF), whose stated goal is to provide support to the athletes who face “repressions” for taking part in peaceful demonstrations.
In a letter to the UIPM, the BSSF warned that a failure from the worldwide governing body to remove the competition from Belarus would be "a threat to the image and reputation" of the sport.
The UIPM "shall not reward Lukashenka’s violent regime with hosting such major tournaments in a country where citizens are subjected to excessive violence, torture, and discrimination by the authorities and almost 200 political prisoners are being kept in jail," the foundation wrote.
Kazakh Court Imposes Three-Year Parole Restrictions On Activist
ATYRAU, Kazakhstan -- A court in Kazakhstan has imposed a three-year parole restriction on Kazakh activist Maks Boqaev after his expected release on February 4.
Boqaev's lawyer Zhanar Sundetqalieva told RFE/RL that a court in the western city of Atyrau handed down its decision on January 22, adding that Boqaev rejected the move calling it politically motivated.
"Maks said he will appeal the ruling. He reiterated his stance that he is not guilty, and stressed that a number of rights organizations have found him to be a political prisoner," Sundetqalieva said.
The 48-year-old activist was arrested and sentenced to five years on extremism charges in 2016 after he organized unsanctioned protests against land reform in Atyrau.
The United States, European Union, and the United Nations have urged Kazakh authorities to release Boqaev.
Human rights organizations in Kazakhstan have recognized Boqaev as a political prisoner. Kazakhstan's government has insisted that there are no political prisoners in the country.
Belarus Teenage Couple Gets Jail For Anti-Lukashenka Slogans
MINSK -- A court in Minsk has sentenced a teenage couple to prison terms for painting slogans against strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who has run the country since 1994, on the shields of riot police officers during ongoing protests.
The Kastrychnik (October) district court on January 22 sentenced Sofya Malashevich to two years in prison and Tsikhan Klyukach to 18 months. Both are 18-year-old students of a college in the western city of Brest.
Crisis In Belarus
Read our coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election.
The court found Malashevich guilty of hooliganism, publicly insulting the country's president, and conducting activities that disrupted public order. Klyukach was found guilty of conducting activities that disrupted public order.
The charges stem from their participation in anti-Lukashenka protests in Minsk, during which Malashevich spray-painted anti-Lukashenka slogans on the shields of the riot police while Klyukach was filming her actions on his mobile phone.
Both pleaded guilty and asked the court to choose punishments other than prison terms.
Ongoing protests have rocked Belarus since Lukashenka was officially announced as the winner of an August 9, 2020 presidential election, which opposition and protesters say was rigged.
Several protesters have been killed and thousands arrested during the demonstrations demanding Lukashenka's resignation. There have also been credible reports from rights groups of torture during the widening security crackdown, which has also seen the arrests of many independent journalists.
Lukashenka has denied any wrongdoing and refuses to negotiate with the opposition on stepping down and holding new elections.
- By RFE/RL
Minsk Court Upholds Extension Of Belarusian Opposition Figure Kalesnikava's Pretrial Detention
A court in Minsk has upheld an extension of the pretrial detention of Belarusian opposition figure Maryya Kalesnikava, who faces national-security charges after she urged people to protest against a disputed presidential election.
"Maryya Kalesnikava's defense appealed the extension of her stay at a detention facility with the Minsk City Court on January 21. The legal arguments were turned down. Maryya will remain at the detention facility until March 8," would-be Belarusian presidential candidate Viktar Babaryka said in a statement on January 22, quoting Kalesnikava's lawyer Lyudmila Kazak.
The appeal came after Kalesnikava's pretrial detention was extended on January 6.
Kalesnikava is a key member of the Coordination Council, a body set up by Belarus's political opposition to facilitate a transfer of power in the country following a presidential election in August 2020 that the opposition says was rigged and the West has refused to accept.
She was arrested in September 2020 and charged with calling for actions aimed at damaging the country's national security via media and the Internet -- namely calling on people to protest against the election results.
Crisis In Belarus
Read our coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election.
Kalesnikava, who rejects the charge as politically motivated, could be sentenced to up to five years in prison if convicted.
Mass demonstrations have swept across Belarus since the disputed August 9 vote that gave Alyaksandr Lukashenka a sixth consecutive term.
Lukashenka has directed a brutal postelection crackdown in which almost 30,000 people have been detained, and hundreds beaten in detention and on the streets.
The EU and United States refuse to recognize Lukashenka as the country’s legitimate leader and have slapped sanctions on him and other senior Belarusian officials.
The vote was widely dismissed as having been rigged, with the real winner being opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who left the country for Lithuania shortly after the election due to security concerns.
With reporting by Smartpress and Belnovosti
Navalny Associate Sobol Fined For Calling On Public To Protest In Support Of Kremlin Critic
A court in Moscow has fined Lyubov Sobol, a lawyer at opposition politician Aleksei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, for calling on the public to hold rallies to protest the Kremlin critic's detention.
The Simonov district court on January 22 found Sobol guilty of a "violation of the law on mass gatherings," namely of calling for unsanctioned rallies. It ordered her to pay a fine of 250,000 rubles ($3,400).
She was released after the hearing.
At a separate court hearing, another Navalny ally, activist Georgy Alburov, was sentenced by the Meshchansky district court to 10 days in jail on a similar charge.
Navalny was arrested on January 17 and later sent to pretrial detention after his arrival from Germany, where he was treated for a poison attack in Siberia in August, for which he has accused the Kremlin.
The Kremlin has denied any involvement.
Based on reporting by Dozhd and Meduza
Former Bosnian Army Commander Sentenced For War Crimes
A former Bosnian Army commander has been sentenced to 10 years in prison on January 22 for failing to stop killings and torture carried out by Islamist volunteer fighters who joined his troops during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war.
The Sarajevo court ruled on January 22 that Sakib Mahmuljin, 68, was guilty for the deaths of more than 50 ethnic Serb prisoners in the northeast regions of Vozuca and Zavidovici toward the end of the conflict in 1995.
The victims were killed by members of the "El Mujahid" -- a notorious unit of mainly foreign Islamist volunteers from North Africa and the Middle East -- though also from some Western countries -- who were part of the Bosnian Army's Third Corps.
Mahmuljin "failed to prevent the crimes of murder and inhuman treatment from being committed... and also to act in such a way that the perpetrators of these crimes are punished," the court said in a statement.
The court said that crimes committed under Mahmuljin's watch included torture of prisoners of war, some of whom were wounded, and some civilians.
Mahmuljin was arrested in December 2015, but was subsequently released on bail. He was indicted on January 7, 2016.
Mahmuljin is one just a few top Bosnian Muslim army officials to be convicted for the 1992-1995 war that left more than 100,000 dead.
His defense lawyers argued during the trial that he "had no effective control over the unit." The verdict can be appealed.
Most of the foreign Islamist fighters who joined Bosnia's conflict left after war ended with a U.S.-brokered peace deal in 1995.
With reporting by AP and AFP
- By RFE/RL
Navalny's Lawyers Say Court Ignored Russian Law In Decision To 'Illegally' Detain Kremlin Critic
Lawyers of jailed Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny say their client's pretrial detention is illegal as several procedural regulations were violated while processing the case.
Navalny's website on January 22 made public an appeal filed by lawyers Olga Mikhailova and Vadim Kobzev a day earlier with the Moscow City Court against the 44-year-old opposition politician’s arrest.
According to the lawyers, the decision was made by a team of illegally composed judges, there was no deliberations room in the makeshift court, and the defendant’s right to have lawyers present during proceedings and his right to privately discuss the case with them was ignored. They also said the judicial process was not held in accordance with the law.
The lawyers also said that, as Navalny's case pertains to probation and suspended sentence, he cannot be placed in a detention center, and should be released immediately.
"Aleksei Navalny was imprisoned under a legal article that simply does not apply to him (or to any other conditionally convicted person). This is understood by any lawyer, any judge and, in general, anyone who opens and leafs through the Criminal Procedure Code," the lawyers said in a post on Navalny's website.
"But the Khimki city court simply did not give a damn about any of this, and put its stamp on a piece of paper, according to which Navalny was sent to Matrosskaya Tishina for a month," they added.
At a January 18 hearing that Navalny called a "mockery of justice," a judge ruled to keep him incarcerated until February 15, by which time a different court is expected to decide on whether to convert a suspended 3 1/2 year sentence that he served into real jail time in an embezzlement case, which he says was trumped up.
The case arose after Navalny was airlifted to Germany for emergency medical treatment because he had been poisoned while traveling in Siberia.
Navalny has blamed the Kremlin for the attempt on his life with what independent laboratories in the West have determined was a military-grade chemical nerve agent.
The Kremlin has denied any involvement.
Navalny’s detention has sparked global outrage and a chorus of international calls pressuring President Vladimir Putin to immediately release Navalny.
His team has called for nationwide protests on January 23, prompting police in Moscow and other parts of Russia to detain several of his associates.
The Interior Ministry has issued a stark warning about repercussions for those who will take part in the unsanctioned rallies.
Two Ethnic Kazakhs From China Violently Attacked In Kazakhstan
ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Two ethnic Kazakhs from China’s northwestern province of Xinjiang with temporary refugee status in Kazakhstan have been violently attacked in the Central Asian country.
Bekzat Maqsutkhan of the Naghyz Atazhurt (Real Fatherland) human rights group told RFE/RL that, late on January 21, an unknown assailant attacked Qaisha Aqan near her house in Almaty, hitting her head at least twice with a heavy object before trying to suffocate her.
"Qaisha says she lost consciousness and woke up some time later lying in the snow. She was then able to call police and an ambulance," Maqsutkhan said.
Lawyer Gulmira Quatbekqyzy told RFE/RL that Aqan refused to stay in hospital fearing for her safety and is currently at home.
On the same night, another ethnic Kazakh from Xinjiang, Murager Alimuly, was knifed and severely beaten in the village of Qoyandy near Nur-Sultan, the capital.
Alimuly told RFE/RL that two unknown men suddenly stabbed him with a knife and hit his head and back with a metal bar as he was going home.
"The knife did not penetrate deep into my body because it hit a power-bank gadget in my pocket, which saved me," Alimuly said.
Police in Almaty and Nur-Sultan told RFE/RL that probes have been launched into the two attacks.
Aqan and Alimuly are two of several ethnic Kazakhs from Xinjiang residing in Kazakhstan after they were convicted for illegally crossing the Chinese-Kazakh border in recent years, but later given temporary refugee status in October.
They have insisted that they fled China fearing that they would be placed in so-called reeducation camps for indigenous ethnic groups in Xinjiang.
The U.S. State Department has said that as many as 2 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and members of Xinjiang's other indigenous, mostly Muslim, ethnic groups have been taken to detention centers.
China denies that the facilities are internment camps.
Kazakhs are the second-largest Turkic-speaking indigenous community in Xinjiang after Uyghurs.
The region is also home to ethnic Kyrgyz, Tajiks, and Hui, also known as Dungans.
Man Hospitalized In Grave Condition After Setting Himself On Fire In Minsk
MINSK -- A man has been hospitalized in grave condition after setting himself on fire in the central Independence Square in Minsk, where mass protests demanding the resignation of Alyaksandr Lukashenka have been under way since August.
Video of the incident on January 22 showed a man engulfed in a fiery ball rolling on the ground for several seconds, with what appears to be a gas canister nearby.
One video that captured the incident shows police officers trying to cover him with a blanket to extinguish the fire.
The incident took place near the building that houses the government, parliament, Minsk city administration, and the City Council.
WARNING: Viewers May Find The Images In This Video Distressing
Minsk city administration spokeswoman Natallya Hanusevich said in a statement that the incident was being investigated.
Interior Ministry spokeswoman Volha Chamadanava added in a statement that "at this point, it is not possible to give detailed information on the incident."
Crisis In Belarus
Read our coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election.
"The investigative group was dispatched to the site. As soon as we know all the circumstances around the incident, we will let the public know," Chamadanava said.
Health Ministry officials said that the man, whose identity was not disclosed, is unconscious and had burns over 50 percent of his body.
Belarus has been gripped by a political crisis since August 9, when officials declared Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who has run the country with an iron fist since 1994, the winner of a presidential election.
Opposition figures called the vote rigged, with thousands taking to the streets to protest on an almost daily basis.
Lukashenka’s declaration of victory has not been recognized by Western nations, many of whom have slapped him and other Belarus officials with sanctions for their violent crackdown on the dissent.
Court Changes Well-Known Kazakh Rights Activist's Prison Sentence To A Fine
TARAZ, Kazakhstan -- A court in the southern Kazakh city of Taraz has ordered the immediate release of well-known civil rights activist Sanavar Zakirova and changed her prison sentence to a fine in a case that she says was politically motivated.
Judge Nurmakhammat Abidov of the Zhambyl regional court on January 22 ruled that Zakirova must be released from prison and pay a fine of 56,000 tenges ($135) instead of serving the remainder of her one-year prison term.
Zakirova was sentenced in July last year after the Medeu district court in the Central Asian country's largest city, Almaty, found her guilty of assaulting the daughter of a woman who had hurled vulgarities at a rally in March.
Zakirova has insisted that all of the accusations against her are groundless and politically motivated.
Zakirova was an initiator of, and leading participant in, rallies in Almaty and Nur-Sultan, the capital, in 2019 by residents of Kazakhstan's various regions, demanding action on what they called "incorrect" court decisions in a number of cases.
In March 2019, Almaty city authorities denied Zakirova permission to hold a congress to establish a new political party, Our Right.
Later that year, Zakirova and two other activists were found guilty by a court in Almaty of distributing false information about the ruling Nur-Otan party over the Internet.
They were ordered to pay the equivalent of $15,000 to the party. Zakirova and her supporters said then that the case was politically motivated.
Days later Zakirova and three other female activists mocked Nur-Otan, staging a public action where they asked worshipers outside a mosque in Nur-Sultan for money to help pay a fine to the ruling party.
Police detained the women and fined them the equivalent of $32 each for causing a public nuisance.
Kazakh human rights organizations have recognized Zakirova as a political prisoner.
Hungary Becomes First EU Country To Buy Russia's Sputnik-V Vaccine
Hungary has signed an agreement with Russia to buy two million doses of the Sputnik-V anti-coronavirus vaccine, the first European Union country to purchase the Russian immunization serum.
Speaking at a joint briefing with Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko streamed live on his Facebook page, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on January 22 that a "large quantity" of the vaccines would arrive in three shipments. Further details will be revealed later, he added.
Later, ahead of talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Szijjarto said that a contract for two million Sputnik-V doses has been signed -- a quantity that would allow the inoculation of 1 million people.
Szijjarto said the first batch would be enough to inoculate 300,000 people, followed by two other shipments for 500,000 people and 200,000 people, respectively. He did not say when the first delivery would arrive.
Hungary's medical authorities have given initial approval for the use of two vaccines -- Britain's AstraZeneca and Russia's Sputnik-V -- against the coronavirus.
The authorization for Sputnik-V is valid for six months with the possibility of a six-month extension. The European Medicines Agency (EMA), the EU's drug regulator, has yet to green-light the vaccine for use.
The EMA has also not approved the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University in Britain, but a decision on that is expected on January 29.
The only two vaccines approved by EMA so far for use in the 27-member bloc are those made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, and Sijjarto appeared to voice frustration with the pace of delivery of enough doses.
As of January 21, Hungary -- with a population of just under 10 million -- says that it has administered more than 138,000 vaccines. From the start of the pandemic, Hungary has reported more than 354,000 infections and 11,713 deaths.
"Like Russia, we are encountering economic and medical challenges that stem from the coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately, the supply of vaccines to Hungary has been very slow," Szijjarto said at the start of talks with Lavrov.
RFE/RL's Coronavirus Crisis Archive
Features and analysis, videos, and infographics explore how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the countries in our region.
Szijjarto's announcement came as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told state radio that the best approach to achieve a rapid mass inoculation was to authorize the use of several vaccines since competition would force manufacturers to speed up shipments.
Orban said Hungary wouldn't be able to lift coronavirus restrictions until a mass inoculation of the population was under way.
"We don't need explanations, we need vaccines," Orban said.
Budapest is also in negotiations with China to buy its Sinopharm vaccine.
Since November 11, all secondary schools have been closed in Hungary, as have hotels and restaurants except for takeout meals. An 8 p.m. curfew is also in place, and gatherings have been banned.
Orban said that -- once healthcare workers, elderly people, and those working in defense efforts against the pandemic have been inoculated -- then a discussion can start about returning to normal conditions.
With reporting by Reuters and dpa
As Protests Near, Russian Officials Show No Signs Of Easing Up On Navalny, Associates
Russian officials are showing no signs of letting up in efforts to preempt planned nationwide street protests this weekend in support of Aleksei Navalny, vowing to “immediately suppress” any unsanctioned events and threatening jail time for demonstrators after rounding up several of the Kremlin critic’s allies for calling people to take to the streets.
Navalny's allies are planning to hold demonstrations on January 23 in at least 65 cities across the country to protest his arrest and incarceration upon returning to Russia from Germany, where he was being treated following a near-fatal poisoning with a military-grade nerve agent in August.
At least five allies of the 44-year-old were detained on January 21, including top officials from his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK).
One of them, Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh, said in a tweet on January 22 that after spending the night in jail, she had been put under administrative arrest for organizing an unsanctioned event.
“Arrested for 9 days. Well, you know what to do. January 23 14.00, the central streets of your cities. Come!” she wrote, noting that a judge deliberated less than five minutes before handing down the sentence.
At a separate court hearing, another Navalny ally, activist Georgy Alburov, was sentenced by the Meshchansky district court to 10 days in jail on a similar charge, while FBK lawyer Lyubov Sobol was fined 250,000 rubles ($3,340).
Sobol's lawyer, Vladimir Voronin, said the judge refused to allow media into the January 22 trial, noting that a protocol handed to him on Sobol’s “offense” was empty.
Undeterred, Sobol wrote in a Facebook post: "Don't be afraid. Leave it to the Kremlin. We're in the right, and we're the majority.”
"What awaits us in the near future, if we keep silent. And silently watch as the innocent are imprisoned," she added in a tweet.
Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most-prominent critic, was remanded in custody on January 18 for a month in a summary hearing held in a Moscow police station a day after his arrival from Germany. The court claimed he violated probation requirements in a previous criminal case while receiving life-saving medical treatment in Berlin in a case widely considered trumped up and politically motivated. He faces up to 3 1/2 years in prison.
Navalny, in a message on Instagram via his lawyer late on January 22, said from a Moscow jail cell that he wanted people to know he was in good physical and mental health.
"Just in case, I am announcing that I don’t plan to either hang myself on a window grill or cut my veins or throat open with a sharpened spoon,” the post said.
Bloomberg, citing two sources close to Russia's leaders, reported on January 22 that the Kremlin intends to imprison Navalny for "several years, or even more."
Navalny has accused Putin of ordering his assassination and has called for Russians to "take to the streets" to protest against his detention, which has sparked widespread Western condemnation, with the United States, the European Union, France, and Canada all calling for his release.
"In my call with President Putin today, I reiterated (that the) EU is united in its condemnation of Alexei Navalny's detention and calls for his immediate release," European Council President Charles Michel, who chairs EU summits, said on Twitter on January 22.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged Russian authorities to curb their "unlawful" campaign against Navalny, saying they are “harassing, intimidating, and detaining activists and students” ahead of the protests.
“Cease these unlawful attacks on freedom of expression and instead focus on ensuring safety measures to protect those who wish to assemble peacefully," it said.
The Kremlin denies any role in Navalny's poisoning and with support for the protests appearing to grow, Russian officials have begun to issue warnings that participation in any unsanctioned rallies will be met with punishment.
"There is no doubt that certain actions involving calls for unsanctioned, illegal rallies have been taken,” Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov told journalists in Moscow on January 22.
"There can be only one stance, the one in favor of the unconditional need to comply with the law, the inadmissibility of organizing illegal actions," he said, adding that "provocateurs" have been "illegally" encouraging younger Russians to participate in the rallies.
Russia's telecommunications watchdog, Roskomnadzor, has already urged social media networks, including video-sharing app TikTok, to stop the spreading of posts by users that it says call on Russia's youth to take part in "illegal" public gatherings such as the planned Navalny demonstration.
In an ominous warning on January 22, Moscow police said they would crack down on opposition protests if they go ahead.
"Attempts to hold unsanctioned public events, as well as any provocative actions on the part of their participants, will be regarded as a threat to public order and immediately suppressed," Moscow police said in a statement.
Even though he was behind bars, Navalny's anti-corruption campaign delivered a solid blow to Putin this week when it released a probe into an opulent Black Sea property in the Krasnodar region allegedly owned by Putin.
The two-hour video report had been viewed more than 44 million times since its release on January 19, becoming Navalny's most-watched YouTube investigation ever.
With reporting by Reuters, TASS, AFP, Interfax, and Current Time
World Champion Kickboxer May Face 'Torture, Repression And Even Death' If Extradited From Russia To Belarus
World champion kickboxer Alexey Kudin faces possible extradition from Russia to his homeland of Belarus amid concern the athlete may be politically persecuted and tortured.
Kudin, nicknamed the Brick, was detained in Moscow after fleeing to Russia in the autumn, the Belarusian Sports Solidarity Fund wrote on Instagram January 21.
The mixed martial arts fighter faces extradition to Belarus on charges of assaulting a security officer during pro-democracy protests against strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.
The athlete, who has made sharp statements about Belarusian security forces and the government on social media, may face "torture, repression, and even death" if extradited to Belarus, the foundation said.
Crisis In Belarus
Read our coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election.
Kudin was at an anti-government rally in the central town of Maladzyechna a day after the disputed August 9 presidential election when security forces attacked protesters with tear gas and batons.
During the melee, the heavyweight world champion kickboxer knocked out a security officer.
The fighter was later arrested near a hospital, where he went to treat his injuries.
While in detention, he was beaten and shot with rubber bullets again before being released on house arrest two weeks later.
He then fled to Russia, skipping his trial in November and was declared wanted.
Several protesters have been killed and thousands arrested during the ongoing mass demonstrations demanding Lukashenka's resignation following the August election.
There have also been credible reports of torture during a widening security crackdown.
- By RFE/RL
Russia Welcomes U.S. Call To Extend New START Nuclear Treaty But Wants Details
Russia has welcomed U.S. President Joe Biden's proposal to extend the New START arms control treaty, but said it needs to see concrete proposals from the American side.
The White House said on January 21 that Biden intends to seek a five-year extension of the deal ahead of its expiration early next month, in one of the first major foreign policy decisions of the new U.S. administration.
Reacting to the statement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on January 22 that it was important to see the details of the U.S. proposal. The Trump administration had sought to attach conditions to any renewal, something Moscow rejected.
“Russia stands for the preservation of the New START and for its extension," Peskov told journalists in Moscow, but added, "We can only welcome the political will to extend the document, but everything will depend on the details of this proposal, which is yet to be studied."
New START, the last remaining arms-control pact between Washington and Moscow, limits the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads at 1,550 and deployed strategic delivery systems at 700.
Former President Donald Trump's administration made a late attempt to negotiate limits on other categories of nuclear weapons and add China to the treaty, stalling negotiations. A bid to agree to a shorter extension also ran into complications, leaving the fate of the treaty to the incoming Biden administration just two weeks before its February 5 expiration.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a briefing on January 21 that Biden "has long been clear that the New START treaty is in the national security interests of the United States. And this extension makes even more sense when the relationship with Russia is adversarial as it is at this time."
Russia had reiterated earlier this week -- and before Biden's proposal -- that it would welcome a five-year extension without conditions as permitted by the treaty.
Extending the treaty to allow time for Moscow and Washington another five years to negotiate a new verifiable arms-control arrangement will be welcomed by the United States’ European allies, which were already concerned after Trump withdrew from two other arms-control pacts.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on January 21 called on the United States and Russia to extend the treaty and to later broaden it.
“We should not end up in a situation with no limitation on nuclear warheads, and New START will expire within days,” Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels.
Stoltenberg underlined that “an extension of the New START is not the end, it’s the beginning of our efforts to further strengthen arms control.”
Daryl Kimball, the director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association, wrote in an analysis that extending New START was a top foreign policy priority for the new president.
"A straightforward, no-nonsense five-year extension of New START would provide the new president with an early win and positive momentum, help restore U.S. credibility on arms control issues, and create the potential for more ambitious steps to reduce the nuclear danger and move us closer to a world without nuclear weapons,” Kimball wrote.
Despite the extension proposal, Psaki said the Biden administration was committed to holding Russia “to account for its reckless and adversarial actions.”
She said Biden had asked the U.S. intelligence community for an assessment of Russia’s suspected involvement in the massive Solar Winds hack of the U.S. government and major businesses.
Psaki said the United States would also further investigate Russia's suspected poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexsei Navalny, who was arrested over the weekend upon his return from life-saving medical treatment in Germany.
She also said the intelligence community would assess whether Russia was involved in any interference in the 2020 election.
Psaki said the United States would also investigate unverified reports Russian intelligence may have paid bounties to militants in Afghanistan to target U.S. troops.
With reporting by AFP, AP, dpa, and Reuters
North Macedonia Lawmakers Vote To Hold First Census In Nearly 20 Years
SKOPJE -- North Macedonia’s lawmakers have passed a bill that could pave the way for the Balkan country to hold its first census in almost 20 years this spring.
The bill on Population Census and Households was adopted by a slim majority of 62 lawmakers in the 120-member legislature, with the right-wing opposition VMRO-DPMNE party boycotting the vote.
The draft law was pushed by the Social Democrat-led government of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, whose coalition includes ethnic Albanian parties.
The national headcount is scheduled for April 1-21, but the long overdue process is being threatened by the VMRO-DPMNE, which has questioned the census methodology.
The party has vowed to collect signatures from the public to nullify the legislation and warned it would not recognize the results if the census goes ahead.
Skopje has not organized a census since 2002, with attempts to hold new population counts being hampered by political disputes over the size of ethnic minorities, particularly the ethnic Albanian community.
The data is sensitive because the constitution lays out special rights for minority groups making up at least 20 percent of the national or local population.
The country's population is believed to have shrunk significantly from the 2.1 million figure recorded in 2002, and the lack of new data has complicated efforts to plan for the economy and education system, as well as to update election lists.
With reporting by AFP
Albania Expels Russian Diplomat For 'Repeated' Violations Of Coronavirus Restrictions
Albania says it is expelling a Russian diplomat for allegedly violating lockdown rules aimed at stemming the spread of the coronavirus in the Adriatic country.
The Albanian government declared Aleksei Krivosheev “persona non grata” and required him to leave the country within 72 hours, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on January 21, citing "repeated" violations of pandemic restrictions by the diplomat since April 2020.
The ministry said senior representatives of the Foreign Ministry first addressed the matter with the Russia ambassador in Tirana, but the diplomat continued to break lockdown rules.
“Repeated challenging of the protective rules and steps on the pandemic, and disregarding the concerns of Albanian state institutions related to that, cannot be justified and tolerated anymore,” the statement said.
Albania has imposed an overnight curfew, mandatory use of masks both indoors and outdoors, as well as social distancing.
The Foreign Ministry did not give the diplomat’s position or provide details on the alleged violations, but said the expulsion was "necessary to ensure the health and safety of all citizens, Albanian or otherwise."
The government "wishes for friendly relations with the Russian Federation to be strengthened," it said.
There was no immediate comment from Russian officials.
In 2018, Albania expelled two Russian diplomats, saying their activities were not compliant with their diplomatic status.
Tirana resumed diplomatic relations with Moscow in 1991, 30 years after the country's then-communist regime severed previously close ties with the Soviet Union.
With reporting by AP
Lithuanian FM Calls For Further Russia Sanctions Over Navalny 'Mock Trial'
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis has reiterated his call for the European Union to impose further sanctions on Russia following the arrest of Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny and said the bloc should scrap consideration of a trip by foreign policy chief Josep Borrell to Moscow next month.
Speaking in an interview with RFE/RL in Brussels on January 21, four days after Navalny was detained upon his return to Moscow after being treated in Germany for a nearly fatal poisoning with a nerve agent in August 2020, Landsbergis said he hopes the Putin critic will be released "soon," though the prospects are doubtful.
“I think that on Monday (January 25) he still will be in jail. I think that he'll stay in jail up until February 2 when [a court hearing] is due. And it is very likely that during his court proceedings, he would be sentenced for a long time in jail,” the Lithuanian diplomat said.
Navalny is accused of violating the terms of a suspended sentence from a previous criminal case because he left the country.
The 44-year-old was airlifted to Germany in August 2020 to be treated after being poisoned during a trip in Siberia. When he returned on January 17 after recovering, he was arrested at a Moscow airport. A day later he was remanded in custody for 30 days.
A court is expected to decide on February 2 whether to convert into prison time the suspended 3 1/2 year sentence that Navalny served in an embezzlement case that is widely considered trumped up and politically motivated. The suspended sentence ended on December 30, 2020.
Navalny’s case is likely to dominate an EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels on January 25 amid growing calls for the bloc to expand asset freezes and travel bans already imposed on Russian individuals and entities held responsible for the poisoning to include those involved in the decision to arrest Navalny and what Landsbergis called his “mock trial.”
The EU “should really be heading” toward imposing additional sanctions on Russia, said Landsbergis, who expressed reservations about whether all 27 EU member states are “prepared yet” for such a move.
The January 25 meeting in Brussels is also expected to include a discussion over a potential trip to Moscow by Borrell in early February.
EU officials familiar with the matter have told RFE/RL that some member states feel that such a trip would be particularly useful after Navalny’s arrest, though it has met strong resistance from the three Baltic states -- Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
“My personal point of view is that it's a very unfortunate time to go to Moscow because apparently Russia is raising the bar and seeing how much abuse towards the values that we hold dear can we take and not do anything,” Landsbergis said.
He also criticized Germany’s resistance to growing calls for a halt in the construction of the near-complete Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which would carry Russian natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea.
“Every country needs to answer to itself: how much abuse can we take?” he asked.
Bosnia Urged To Provide Adequate Accommodation To Migrants Left In The Cold
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has joined a growing chorus of calls demanding that Bosnia-Herzegovina immediately provides “adequate, winterized” accommodation for hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers stranded in freezing temperatures in the country's northwest.
The authorities have done “little” to address an unfolding humanitarian emergency after a fire destroyed a temporary camp in December, with hundreds now living in tents that "do not meet basic humane housing conditions," the New York-based rights watchdog said in a statement on January 21.
Bosnia has been under growing international pressure to address the future of stranded migrants and asylum seekers since the Lipa temporary emergency camp was destroyed on December 23, leaving an estimated 1,200 people stranded outdoors, the statement said.
HRW said that within days of the fire, about 350 people were transported to a camp in Sarajevo at their own expense, while the remaining 850 were "stranded at the destroyed camp site or forced to seek shelter in the nearby forest."
Authorities have set up 30 tents near the site, each with the capacity for about 30 people. But the Danish Refugee Council told HRW that not all of the tents are suitable for winter conditions, with some generator-powered heaters failing during the night.
In addition to the 850 people at the Lipa site, another 900 migrants and asylum seekers are elsewhere in the Una Santa canton, forced to sleep in the open or squat in abandoned buildings, the statement said.
Reopening the Bira camp in nearby Bihac, which was closed in September due to pressure from local residents, "appears the most viable option" to ensure that people previously in Lipa can be housed during the winter in buildings with heating, electricity, toilets, and showers, according to HRW.
The group called on EU institutions to pressure Bosnian authorities at "state, entity, cantonal, and local levels" to adequately address the ongoing crisis and ensure that the 28,5 million euros ($34.6 million) of EU funding allocated to Bosnia in December and January for managing migration and providing humanitarian assistance are properly used.
The European Commission should also seek "meaningful long-term solutions” to the situation…instead of allocating largely short-term and emergency funding, and tie its support to the Bosnian authorities to clear progress in terms of suitable reception conditions and fair and effective access to asylum."
Since early 2018, the EU has provided 88 million euros ($106.8 million) to the Balkan country for migration management, including 13.8 million euros ($16.8) for humanitarian assistance.
Many of the migrants in northwestern Bosnia are seeking to enter European Union-member Croatia, which HRW said has "responded with violent police pushbacks that breach EU, human rights, and refugee law and exacerbate the degrading conditions for migrants."
The watchdog urged the European Commission to "trigger legal action against Zagreb for the continued patterns of violent pushbacks at its border" with Bosnia.
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