Global Political News – sknlabourparty

KATHMANDU (AFP) – Nepal has forcibly repatriated three Tibetan refugees, the United Nations said on Wednesday, adding it was “extremely concerned” by the move.

The UN refugee agency said it had written to the Nepalese government about the incident in early June, details of which were published in a report by the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT).

Two of the refugees — a Buddhist monk and a young woman — are now in jail in Tibet after they were detained in western Nepal and taken by helicopter to the border, where they were met by Chinese security forces, the ICT said.

Theirs is the first such case to be reported since 2003, when 18 Tibetans, some of them children, were detained by Nepalese police and sent back to China in a move that sparked international condemnation.

“Three Tibetans were forcefully returned to China from Nepal in early June 2010. It is a very serious issue and we are extremely concerned,” Nini Gurung, spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency in Kathmandu, told AFP by email.

Thousands of Tibetans used to make the difficult and dangerous journey to Nepal every year, fleeing political and religious repression in China.

They have traditionally been given safe passage through Nepal under an informal agreement between the government and the UN refugee agency put in place in 1989, when Nepal stopped giving them refugee status.

They are then given UN assistance to travel on to India, where the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama lives in exile.

But their numbers have fallen sharply since March 2008 riots in Tibet led China to strengthen border security and increase pressure on authorities in Nepal to stem the flow of refugees.

“Nepal is duty-bound under its own agreement with the UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) to ensure the safe transit of Tibetan refugees through its territory,” said ICT president Mary Beth Markey.

“We urge the Nepal government and the UNHCR to work together to investigate this incident, including China’s extra-territorial role, and to adopt remedies that prevent future occurrences of refoulement (forced return) from Nepal.”

A spokesman for the home ministry in Nepal declined to comment, saying he had no information about any such incident, which involved two Tibetan monks living in a monastery near the border and a 22-year-old woman.

China is a major donor to Nepal, and news of the forced repatriations followed reports of a new aid package designed to help its impoverished neighbour improve border security.

The governments of the two countries will set up a joint mechanism to help share intelligence on “anti-China activities” in Nepal, the Kathmandu Post daily reported, following a meeting of security officials in Kathmandu.

MOSCOW – Russians may now face jail time for crimes they have not yet committed under a new security law signed Thursday by President Dmitry Medvedev.

The law restores Soviet-era powers to the Federal Security Service, the KGB’s main successor agency, a move that rights advocates fear could be used to stifle protests and intimidate the Kremlin’s political opponents. They also say the law’s obscure wording leaves it too open to local interpretation.

The agency, known by its initials FSB, can now issue warnings or detain people suspected of preparing to commit crimes against Russia’s security. Perpetrators face fines or up to 15 days of detention.

“It’s an ugly law with obscure formulas,” independent political analyst Yulia Latynina told The Associated Press. “In case a drunken FSB officer is shooting at you — and there have been many such cases — you might end up getting jailed for 15 days for merely trying to escape.”

The new law was described as part of an effort to combat extremism and thwart terrorist attacks. It was submitted to Russian lawmakers in April after twin subway bombings in Moscow killed 40 people and the Kremlin faced critical media coverage of its anti-terrorism efforts.

A senior lawmaker said the new powers will protect people from abuse by law enforcement officers — a significant problem in Russia.

“Officers of law enforcement agencies have long talked about the necessity of switching from investigating crimes to their prevention,” Mikhail Margelov, the Kremlin-connected head of the foreign affairs committee in the upper house of Russian parliament, said in a statement. “The amendments do not turn the FSB into a new edition of the once-almighty KGB but protect Russian citizens from outrages by men in uniform.”

Some of the law’s most stringent sections — including ones that toughen control over the media for “extremist statements” or allow the FSB to publish warnings in the press — were removed or toned down following severe criticism from the opposition and even Kremlin loyalists.

Still, a lawmaker with the Communist Party, the largest opposition force in Russia’s rubber-stamp parliament, said the latest changes did not tone down the law’s repressive character.

“Despite all the promises to correct the most odious articles, by the second reading nothing had been changed in the text,” Viktor Ilykhin told the AP.

A Kremlin loyalist, meanwhile, praised the law for its “preventative measures.”

“This is not a repressive law,” Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the nationalist Liberal Democratic party, told Gazeta.ru online daily. “We’re only talking about preventive measures.”

The opposition has accused the Kremlin of turning Russia into a Soviet-style police state, and many Russians say they have experienced or fear abuse at the hands of FSB officers. Government critics say corruption among the FSB and other agencies stifles business activity and stunts the economy.

Some rights activists say the law simply legalizes practices that FSB officers have been using for years.

“I don’t think it adds anything to what the FSB has been doing without any laws,” Lyudmila Alexeyeva, former Soviet dissident and head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, told the AP. “But it’s very sad when a law approves the outrage of such a dangerous service as the FSB.”

The legislation continues a trend under Vladimir Putin, who as president for eight years rolled back many of Russia’s democratic reforms of the 1990s. The former KGB officer and FSB head allowed the security services to regain power and influence at the expense of Russia’s democratic institutions.

Putin is now prime minister, and many see his intolerance of dissent as influencing Medvedev, his hand-picked successor.

The bill has raised doubts about Medvedev’s commitment to promoting full-fledged democracy and freedom of expression. Medvedev often has spoken of instituting judicial and police reforms, and has taken a less hard line on many issues than Putin.

Medvedev, who initiated the bill, responded angrily to criticism of it. He said earlier this month that “each country has the right to perfect its legislation.”

HANOI (AFP) – Planned naval exercises between South Korea and the United States are a threat to global peace, and new sanctions reinforce a “hostile” policy towards Pyongyang, North Korea said Thursday.

“Such movements pose a great threat not only to the peace and security of the Korean peninsula but also to global peace and security,” said Ri Tong Il, spokesman for the North Korean delegation at regional security talks in Hanoi.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his South Korean counterpart Kim Tae-Young announced the drills on Tuesday, saying they were designed “to send a clear message to North Korea that its aggressive behavior must stop”.

The manoeuvres begin on Sunday with tensions rising over the sinking in March of the South Korean warship Cheonan.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in Seoul before heading to Vietnam for Friday’s ASEAN Regional Forum security talks, announced new sanctions against nuclear-armed Pyongyang on Wednesday.

“If the US is truly interested in the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, it must take the lead in creating an atmosphere (for dialogue) rather than hurting such an atmosphere by staging military exercises or imposing sanctions,” Ri said.

“The sanctions are a clear expression of an amplified and intensified hostile policy against the DPRK,” he added, referring to North Korea by its formal initials.

Seoul, the US and other nations — citing the findings of a multinational investigation — have accused the North of sending a submarine to torpedo the ship near the tense Yellow Sea border with the loss of 46 lives.

Washington has made a major show of support for its ally Seoul.

Ri said the US moves violated the spirit of a July 9 United Nations Security Council statement on the Cheonan sinking.

The UN condemned the attack as a threat to regional peace and called for “appropriate and peaceful measures” against those responsible.

It welcomed Seoul’s restraint and called for direct talks to settle disputes on the peninsula peacefully.

The UN expressed deep concern at the findings of the multinational investigation team, but noted the North’s denial of responsibility and did not apportion blame — a result hailed as a “victory” in Pyongyang.

Clinton said the new sanctions were directed at North Korea’s “destabilising, illicit and provocative policies”.

Ri spoke to reporters after North Korea’s Foreign Minister Pak Ui-Chun met Yang Jiechi, the foreign minister of Pyongyang’s major backer China.

Pak refused to comment, and security guards shoved and manhandled a crowd of cameramen and reporters who surrounded him.

Yang also said nothing after the meeting.

The US called Wednesday for Beijing to look at additional steps to pressure North Korea.

Meanwhile, North Korea’s military will hold more talks Friday at the border truce village of Panmunjom with the US-led United Nations Command about the sinking of the South Korean warship, the Command said.

The UN Command, which enforces the armistice that ended the 1950-53 war, said in a statement the colonel-level talks first held last week would resume at 10 am (0100 GMT).

At the previous meeting, the North demanded the right to send a high-level team to the South to inspect evidence dredged from the seabed, including what Seoul and other investigators say is part of a North Korean torpedo.

The South has already rejected the demand, saying the UN Command should handle the case as a serious breach of the armistice.

The colonel-level talks are intended to prepare for discussions between generals from the two sides.

But the North last week said US forces should press Seoul to accept its investigation team before any higher-level talks are held.

SEOUL (AFP) – North Korea’s military Thursday held talks with the US-led United Nations Command, the first meeting since the sinking of a South Korean warship sharply raised regional tensions.

The meeting at the border truce village of Panmunjom lasted 90 minutes, focusing on the sinking, according to a spokesman for the command, which has backed up South Korea’s military since the 1950-53 war.

Details of the talks were not known immediately.

South Korea, the United States and other nations accuse the communist state of firing a torpedo which sank the corvette in March with the loss of 46 lives.

The North vehemently denies the allegations and threatens a military response to any attempts to punish it.

Thursday’s talks between US Colonel Kurt Taylor and North Korea’s Colonel Pak Ki-Yong were intended to make arrangements for a later meeting at general-level.

SEOUL (AFP) – The United States said Thursday it will likely hold joint exercises with South Korea in the Yellow Sea in the near future, raising tensions with North Korea ahead of key military talks with Pyongyang.

North Korea’s military is scheduled to hold the talks Thursday with the United Nations Command, the first since the sinking of a South Korean warship, after postponing the meeting from Tuesday for “administrative reasons.”

The talks are scheduled to be held at 10:00 am (0100 GMT) at the border village of Panmunjom, according to a statement Wednesday from the UN Command, which monitors the Korean War armistice.

Only hours before the meeting is due to start, the Pentagon said that the US intended to hold joint military exercises with South Korea, a move likely to anger North Korea and despite objections from China, the North’s main ally.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet their counterparts in Seoul on July 21 to “discuss and likely approve a proposed series of USD/ROK combined military exercises.”

These exercise will include “new naval and air exercises in both the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea,” Morrell said.

The war games will involve a wide range of assets and are expected to be initiated in the near future,” he said.

The announcement comes after China warned against the joint exercises near its waters, and urged the two allies to not add to tensions with North Korea.

Morrell, however, dismissed China’s criticism, insisting the drills are “a matter of our ability to exercise in the open seas, in international waters. Those determinations are made by us, and us alone.”

The exercises would be defensive in nature but “will send a clear message of deterrence to North Korea,” Morrell said.

“Where we exercise, when we exercise, with whom and how, using what assets and so forth, are determinations that are made by the United States Navy, by the Department of Defense, by the United States government,” Morrell added.

Earlier this month South Korea confirmed it would stage a naval exercise with the United States in the Yellow Sea, to deter North Korean’s “illegal provocation,” with defense ministry spokesman Won Tae-Jae again slamming the sinking of the South Korean warship, the Cheonan.

The South, backed up by the findings of a multinational investigation, accuses the North of torpedoing the Cheonan in March with the loss of 46 lives. Pyongyang denies the charge.

The North previously refused to hold discussions with the US-led UN Command over the sinking of the Cheonan, calling for talks only with South Korea, but it shifted its stance last Friday.

Thursday’s talks, between colonels, are intended to make arrangements for a later meeting at general-level.

After the North agreed last week to the talks, the UN Security Council issued a statement which condemned the attack but did not apportion blame — a result hailed by the North as a “great diplomatic victory”.

The statement was watered down under pressure from Pyongyang’s ally China.

In the wake of the UN statement, the North also reiterated its conditional willingness to return to stalled six-party nuclear disarmament negotiations.

But it also threatened “strong physical retaliation” if South Korea and the United States persist in “demonstration of forces and sanctions”.

Some analysts believe the North’s navy sank the corvette in revenge for damage it suffered in a firefight last November near the disputed sea border.

Analysts at a Seoul seminar did not specify who was to blame for the sinking, but said the North may also become more belligerent as it prepares for a power transfer from leader Kim Jong-Il to his youngest son Jong-Un.

David Kang, professor at the University of Southern California, said the new leadership could mean a “more belligerent North Korea that is less willing to negotiate with the outside”.