SEOUL, South Korea: North Korea has warned that the United States and South Korea will face unprecedented security challenges if they don’t stop their hostile military pressure campaign against the North, including joint military drills.

North Korea views any regular US-South Korean military training as an invasion rehearsal even though the allies have steadfastly said they have no intention of attacking the North.

The latest warning came as Washington and Seoul prepare to expand their upcoming summertime training following the North’s provocative run of missile tests this year.

DAMASCUS, 23 July 2022, (TON): An Israeli missile attack near Damascus killed three soldiers and wounded seven more, Syrian state media reported, in what a war monitor said was the 17th Israeli attack on Syrian territory this year.

The Israeli military said it does not comment on foreign reports.

Israel has been carrying out strikes for years against what it has described as Iranian and Iran-backed targets in Syria, where Tehran has deployed forces in support of President Bashar Assad since the Syrian war began in 2011.

Citing a military source, Syria’s SANA news agency said Israel “carried out an aerial aggression” at 00:32 a.m., firing missiles from the Golan Heights targeting “a number of positions in the vicinity of Damascus.”

Syrian air defenses managed to shoot down some of the missiles.

ISTANBUL, 23 July 2022, (TON): Russia and Ukraine signed separate agreements Friday with Turkey and the United Nations clearing the way for exporting millions of tons of desperately needed Ukrainian grain as well as Russian grain and fertilizer.

This came to end a wartime standoff that had threatened food security around the globe.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov signed separate deals with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar. The ceremony was witnessed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Guterres said “today, there is a beacon on the Black Sea.”

“A beacon of hope, a beacon of possibility, a beacon of relief in a world that needs it more than ever.”

DUBAI, 23 July 2022, (TON): According to an interview with the Wall Street Journal “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a cease-fire with Russia without reclaiming lost territories would only prolong the war.”

He warned that a cease-fire that allows Russia to keep Ukrainian territories seized since the invasion in February would only encourage an even wider conflict, giving Moscow an opportunity to replenish and rearm for the next round.

Zelensky also spoke about US-supplied high mobility artillery rocket systems, saying, “the Western supplies of Himars, while making a material difference, are much lower than what Ukraine needs to turn the tide.”

“Freezing the conflict with the Russian Federation means a pause that gives the Russian Federation a break for rest,” the Wall Street Journal reported, citing comments by Zelensky.

UNITED NATIONS, 23 July 2022, (TON): Russia defended its veto of a UN resolution that would have extended humanitarian aid deliveries to 4.1 million Syrians in the rebel-held northwest from Turkey for a year.

Russia’s deputy ambassador Dmitry Polyansky had to defend Moscow’s veto on July 8 of a resolution before the General Assembly for only the second time since the 193-member world body adopted a resolution on April 26 requiring any Security Council member that casts a veto to explain its reasoning during an assembly debate on the issue.

Polyansky insisted that a resolution should be limited to six months, with a new resolution needed for another six months, in order to assess progress on Russia’s demands. He said these include stepped up aid deliveries across conflict lines within Syria, more early recovery programs in the country, greater transparency in aid operations.

He accused Western supporters of a year-long extension of failing to make progress on cross-line aid deliveries and early recovery projects. These demands were included in last year’s resolution extending aid deliveries from Turkey for a year, he said.

By TON Research Desk

On Friday, the Nepal’s government registered bill seeking changes in Act seven years after top court ruling that struck down amnesty provisions in serious human rights violations. Amendments to transitional justice law ‘reformist but not satisfactory after seven years of the Supreme Court’s orders for amendment.

The government on Friday registered a bill at the parliament secretariat to review the Commission of Inquiry on enforced missing, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act 2014, which the conflict victims and human rights activists say is progressive but far from reasonable level .

As per the court’s verdict in February 2015, the bill has listed out non-amnesty cases of grave human rights abuses, which comprise “cruel murder” or murder after torture, rape, enforced disappearances and brutal or cruel torture.

It has separated the cases of human rights violations and serious human rights violations which is not the case in the current Act. The law has registered all criminal acts, from rape and killings to burning and plundering, as grave human rights defilements and has ambiguities for pardons in all the acts except rape.

The bill has the provisions that the provisional justice commissions will make suggestions to the Attorney General’s Office to start trial of cases of grave human rights defilements. A Special Court consisted of three judges from high courts will take conclusions in cases of serious human rights violations filed by the Attorney General’s Office within six months of the suggestions from the two commissions.

Criminal cases from the decade-long insurgency that are under trial at the district and high courts will be moved to the Special Court. Any decision from the Special Court will be ultimate with no provision for an plea to the Supreme Court.

The bill has been equipped following to the Supreme Court’s verdict, the international principles of human rights and the response from conflict victims and civil society. It focuses on truth looking for, right measures and prosecution in grave human rights violations.

In 2015, a full bench had annulled the amnesty provisions in the Act, ordering the government to modify the law. The former government in June 2018 had made public a draft to the modification in the Act for the deliberations. It, though, was never listed in Parliament after the subsequent oppositions from the sufferers, human rights protectors and worldwide human rights groups.

On Friday, previous to making the bill listed, the law ministry had held discussions with conflict sufferers, human rights protectors and officials from security forces. Some of its provisions need amendment before it gets through the parliament.

The bill require to get through both Houses of Parliament before it comes into implementation. Its necessities can be reviewed in Parliament or in the parliamentary committee earlier to ratification. The provision that only “cruel murder” or murder after torture or rape will be indicted shows there can be amnesty in other murders and there are risks that all sorts of murder will be listed as amnesty crime.

There are serious reservations over the provision that the cases moved to the Special Court from other courts will be promoted to the transitional justice commissions to determine whether they are the cases of grave human rights violations or not .

Although, the bill has many liberal provisions, it is very weak when it comes to trial because amnesty is its due focus. The bill permits the government attorneys to file the cases with abridged sentencing if a committer discloses the facts they have in a specific case, collaborates in disclosing the reality behind the case they were intricate in, and admits to and say sorry for the crime they have committed.

The bill also says the punishments in every grave human rights violation from the conflict era will be abridged equated to that of the current practice. The People of Nepal have serious concerns with several provisions in the bill though it is liberal compared to the present Act. However, it is not at parity with the expectations. The bill fails to include crimes against humanity, war crimes and ethnic killings that occurred during the insurgence as non-amnesty crimes.

The provision to decrease punishments in all cases of serious human rights violations and not including pleas against the Special Court’s verdict to the higher court needs to be reviewed. The warfare criminalities and wrongdoings against humanity fall under the universal jurisdiction of human rights, which can be prosecuted in any country, if Nepal fails to sort them out through the provisional justice mechanism.

The bill envisages indicting serious violations of human rights based on the Penal Code that came into effect in 2018. The enforced disappearances and torture were criminalized for the first time by the code.

However, the code doesn’t have retrospective ambit to cover the cases from the insurgency. The code needs an amendment,” she told the Post. Sharma sees a problem in the composition of the Special Court, which, as per the bill, will be composed by the government in consultation with the Judicial Council.

The court must be constituted by the council and must have more than three judges. The bill has proposed setting up a fund to support reparations and compensation to which all three tiers of government, then warring parties, any domestic organization or Nepali citizen, foreign governments or international organizations can chip in.

The government wants to wrap up the entire process within two years as the bill proposes a one-year tenure of the chairperson and members of the commissions with the possibility of extension by another year. Similarly, the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons and Truth and Reconciliation Commission will have a maximum extended tenure of three years.

On Friday, the government increased the terms of the two commissions by three months, expecting that the amendment bill will be endorsed by the parliament within that period. The tenure of its chairpersons and members, however, has not been extended.

Through the amendment, the government wants to hire new sets of chairpersons and members for the commission. There is no possibility of investigating thousands of complaints in just two years. The truth commission has received 63,718 complaints while the number of cases is far lower—just 3,223—at the disappearance commission.

However, the disappearance commission is conducting investigations into only 2,484 cases saying others do not fall under its jurisdiction. The bill is targeted at providing amnesty with little attention to prosecution and sentencing.

DHAKA, 23 July 2022, (TON): The US Embassy in Dhaka today interviewed over 600 students applying for student visas in a special workday called "Super Friday" to overcome the visa backlog that accumulated due to the COVID pandemic.

A US Embassy press release said “the consular section of the embassy is making special efforts to ensure as many students as possible receive interviews before the start of the fall semester.”

It added “these special efforts include spending selected Fridays dedicated to interviewing applicants for student visas.”

US Embassy Consul General William Dowers said "we recognize the unique opportunity that study in the United States offers and we are prioritizing student visa interviews.”

The US Embassy Dhaka plans to have another Super Friday on Friday, July 29 as part of a campaign to allow the mission to meet high demand for such visas.

DHAKA, 23 July 2022, (TON): Italian Ambassador to Bangladesh Enrico Nunziata here said “going Italy through crossing Mediterranean Ocean is too dangerous.”

"People who are going to Italy in such dangerous way falling into human trafficking."

The envoy said “this while speaking at a view-exchange meeting, organised by Foreign Ministry, on "Tackling Human Trafficking and Safe Migration" at Shariatpur municipality auditorium this noon.

With Deputy Commissioner Md Parvej Hasan in the chair, the meeting was addressed, among others, by lawmaker of Shariatpur-3 constituency.

Enrico Nunziata also emphasized on building awareness of human trafficking and creating skilled labours in the meeting.

He said "both the countries are trying to create a path for ensuring that the Bangladeshi migrants can go to Italy legally."

KABUL, 23 July 2022, (TON): Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to launch a luxury bus service between the two countries by the end of the next month.

The development comes after the three-day bilateral talks in Kabul, which concluded, local media reported.

During the meeting, the two sides also agreed on multiple measures to ensure early clearance and free movement of trade traffic and improve efficiency in goods clearance.

The meeting also agreed on increasing the operational timings at all crossing points, Torkham, Kharlachi, Ghulam Khan and Chaman-Spin Boldak. It was also agreed that the difficulties in visa processing would be addressed through mutual coordination.

The two sides also reaffirmed to maintain regular coordination for implementing these understandings and further expand economic cooperation.

DHAKA, 23 July 2022, (TON): Bangladesh welcomed the judgment delivered by the International Court of Justice on the preliminary objections of Myanmar concerning the admissibility of the Genocide Convention in the case between the Gambia and Myanar.

The ministry of foreign affairs welcomed the judgement in a statement hours after it was delivered in The Hague.

The ICJ Judgment rejected all four preliminary objections of Myanmar on legal and procedural grounds.

The statement said “Bangladesh maintains that the question of international justice and accountability will be critical in finding a durable solution to the Rohingya crisis.”