WASHINGTON, 1 December 2020, (TON):  Several Groups raised their concern about the UAE’s role in Libya, Yemen conflicts in attempt to halt $23bn in arms sales.

Twenty-nine arms control and human rights organisations have signed a letter opposing the sale of $23bn worth of missiles, fighter jets and drones to the United Arab Emirates and asking US Congress to block the deal.

“The hope is to stop these sales altogether,” said Seth Binder, advocacy officer at the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED), who spearheaded the effort. “But if that is not possible in the short term, this sends an important signal to the incoming Biden administration that there is a diverse group of organizations that oppose delivery of these weapons.”

The White House notified Congress of the sale of 50 F-35 fighter jets to the UAE as part of a broader arms deal worth more than $23bn that lead to concerns among congressional Democrats.

Three US senators proposed legislation to halt the sale, which also includes drones from privately held General Atomics, Lockheed Martin Corp F-35s and missiles made by Raytheon, setting up a showdown with President Donald Trump just weeks before he is due to leave office.

The letter, which will be sent to legislators and the US State Department, said, “The planned arms sales to the UAE, a party to the conflicts in Yemen and Libya, would fuel continued civilian harm and further exacerbate these humanitarian crises.”

“The proposed sales violate long-standing provisions in the Foreign Assistance Act,” the letter said.

The UAE embassy in Washington told Reuters News Agency in a statement, “Aligned closely with US interests and values, the UAE’s highly capable military is a forceful deterrent to aggression and an effective response to violent extremism.”

A sale to UAE will take years to close and then only with sustained congressional approval as the deal has stirred controversy. US law covering major arms deals allows senators to force votes on resolutions of disapproval. However, to go into effect the resolutions must pass the Republican-led Senate, which rarely breaks with Trump. They also must pass the Democratic-led House of Representatives.

KABUL, 1 December 2020, (TON): As US forces has started their withdrawal in phases, Kabul has planned induction of new soldiers and officers in Afghan National Army. Smartly turned out Afghan youth who completed three month mandatory military training course joined Afghan National Army (ANA). Afghan military had already undertaken comprehensive plan to fill the gap and presently it is Afghan National Army which is single handedly controlling security situation in Afghanistan, the Defence Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

These soldiers are capable enough to defend Afghan territory, cater security of its citizens and their properties.

In the recent development, Pakistan has plans to offer full support to Afghanistan youth to recruits and cadets for their military training into Afghan National Army. The military courses of the Pakistan Army focuses on threat perception and realistic mission oriented training at formation level while keeping the monitoring of the training at the highest level. So far 19,000 trainees have been graduated from 55 countries. The training at elementary, med level and advance would commence from next year. There is likely collaboration between Pakistan Army and National Military Academy of Afghanistan, Command and General Staff College and Afghan Military Training Center which will come up during forthcoming military to military talks.  

COLOMBO, 30 November 2020, (TON):  At least eight prisoners were killed and 37 were injured among prisoners, when a mob broke out on Sunday at a prison on the suburbs of Sri Lanka's capital.

As per the sources some prisoners tried to escape forcefully by giving an opportunity to the authorities to use force.

Police authorities confirmed that the inmates created “unrest” at the Mahara prison located about 15 kilometers north of Colombo and prison officials took steps to control the situation.

The incident comes as all of sudden in Sri Lanka's overcrowded prisons. The prisoners have staged protests in recent weeks in several prisons as the number of confirmed COVID-19 positive cases sparked out in the country's overcrowded jails.

Official’s sources revealed that during theincident at least 37 people were injured including two jailors, who were transferred to the nearby Ragama hospital.

INDONESIA, 30 November 2020, (TON): Avolcano erupted in eastern Indonesia on Sunday, produced much flames and ashes as high as 4,000 meters into the sky and forcing the evacuation of thousands of native residents.

Nearly 2,800 people from at least 28 villages were evacuated from the slopes of Mount Ili Lewotolok, which is situated on Lembata island of East Nusa Tenggara province, as the volcano started erupting. There were no confirmed reports of deaths or injuries from the eruption according to local officials.

The Transportation Ministry issued a warning after the eruption and a local airport had been closed as ashes rained down on many areas of the island.

Mount Ili Lewotolok has been erupting off and on since October 2017. The Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center raised the volcano's alert level to the second-highest level on Sunday after sensors picked up increasing activity.

The 5,423-meter mountain is one of three currently erupting in Indonesia along with Merapi on Java island and Sinabung on Sumatra island.

They are among more than 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, which is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines around the Pacific Ocean.

After the eruption, the Disaster Mitigation Agency advised villagers and climbers to stay 4 kilometers from the crater and be aware of the peril of lava.

BEIRUT, 30 November 2020, (TON): The talks which were scheduled for Wednesday, 1^st  December  between Lebanon and Israel have been postponed until further notice, a Lebanese security source and an Israeli officials said confirmed.
Long-time enemies Israel and Lebanon commenced the negotiations in October this year with delegations convening at a UN Base to try to resolve a dispute about their maritime border that has held up hydrocarbon exploration in the potentially gas-rich area.
The Lebanese security source said the reason for the delay was Israel’s rejection of Lebanese proposals.
Lebanese team has spelled out that the demarcation line should be start from the land point of RasNaqoura as defined under a 1923 agreement and extend seaward in a trajectory up to the area of some 2,300 square km from around 860 sq km.

These Israel-Lebanon maritime border talks are the culmination of three years of diplomacy by Washington, which were scheduled to resume in December 2020.

MARIB, 30 November 2020, (TON): Yemen’s Houthi fighters have claimed the killing of at least eight Saudi soldiers.

Yahya Saree, a military spokesman for the Iran-aligned group, said late on Sunday that fighters attacked the Tadawin camp in the Marib governorate, where Saudi forces are stationed with a ballistic missile.

Several Saudi soldiers were also wounded, Saree added.

There has been no comment from Saudi Arabia on the attack in Marib but its media reported the death of a lieutenant colonel without specifying the circumstances and location of his death.

Yemen is facing “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis” according to the UN, and many people do not have the essentials they need to survive such as food and water.

The UN has called on Yemen’s internationally recognised government and the Houthi group to exercise restraint and stop the escalation in Hodeidah.

Confrontations between the forces of the two sides escalated in several areas of the governorate during the past several days, amid accusations of escalation.

Yemen suffers from an ongoing war between the pro-government forces and the Houthi rebels, who have controlled several provinces, including the capital, Sanaa, since 2014.

The crisis escalated in 2015 as a Saudi-led military coalition launched a devastating air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi territorial gains.

Saudi-led Arab military coalition has been supporting forces loyal to the Yemeni government against the Iran-backed Houthis.

WASHINGTON, 30 November 2020, (TON): The administration of US President Donald Trump is poised to add China’s top chipmaker SMIC and national offshore oil and gas producer CNOOC to a blacklist of alleged Chinese military companies.

The move would curb the companies’ access to investors in the US, escalating tensions with Beijing weeks before President-elect Joe Biden takes over the White House.

Reuters, a news agency reported earlier this month based on a document and sources that the Department of Defense (DoD) was planning to designate four more Chinese companies as being owned or controlled by the Chinese military, bringing the number of Chinese companies affected to 35.

It was not immediately clear when the new tranche would be published in the Federal Register. But the list comprises China Construction Technology Co Ltd and China International Engineering Consulting Corp, in addition to Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) and China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), according to the document and three sources.

The move, along with similar policies, is seen as an attempt by Trump to cement his tough-on-China legacy and to box incoming Biden into hardline positions on Beijing amid bipartisan anti-China sentiment in Congress.

Trump has banned the sale of key components such as computer chips to China’s Huawei. The world’s biggest maker of mobile telecommunications equipment and smartphones is under pressure from US trade curbs designed to choke off Huawei’s access to commercially available chips, accusing it of helping Beijing spy on its rivals.

LONDON, 30 November 2020, (TON): The UK has opened an investigation into allegations of war crimes by British mercenaries involved in the Sri Lankan civil war, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said.  

First time British mercenaries will be investigated by the Metropolitan Police for allegations of war crimes, which is the UK force designated to investigate accusations of war crimes or human rights abuses.

A case was opened in March after the metropolitan “received a referral concerning war crimes alleged to have been committed by British mercenaries in Sri Lanka during the 1980s” and following a "scoping exercise", the spokesperson said.

The allegations are against a private security group from the UK, Keenie Meenie Services (KMS) that trained a new Sri Lankan police unit the Special Task Force (STF) in 1980s to fight against Tamil separatists.

The force has been accused of links to multiple atrocities, including the 1987 prawn farm massacre in which 83 people were killed.

The probe comes after the publication of a book by Declassified UK journalist Phil Miller, that put forth evidence relating to KMS’s alleged involvement in atrocities in Sri Lanka.

The UN body submitted concerns about KMS to Britain’s Foreign Office, enquiring about the actions taken by the UK government to “combat impunity”.

Sri Lanka witnessed a 26-year conflict beginning in 1983 that ended in 2009. Tamil diaspora communities across the world have been protesting the civilian casualties, demanding military leaders face justice for alleged war crimes during 23 years long Sri Lankan Civil War.

ISLAMABAD, 30 November 2020, (TON): Thousands of small and medium level non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have suffered during the government’s campaign to regularise their affairs in a bid to fulfil the requirements of Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global watchdog for illicit financing.

The mapping of NGOs was stared in May 2019 to fulfil the FATF requirements. The provincial government of KPK deregistered earlier this year around 3,851 NGOs of the total 4,935, working in different sectors in the province.

Prior to launching the exercise, sources said that 3, 838 NGOs were registered with the provincial social welfare department and 1,097 were registered with the provincial industries department. They said that social welfare department deregistered 3,030 NGOs while industries department deregistered 821 for not fulfilling the criteria required for their mapping. Over 3,500 non-governmental organisations deregistered since May 2019

However, later, the social welfare department re-registered 12 NOGs out of 3,030 while industries department re-registered 20 NGOs after they provided the required documents.

The government has also frozen the bank accounts of all the deregistered NGOs. The major information sought by the government from NGOs included registration certificates; constitution, rules and regulations; annual action plan and five years strategic plan; detailed annual budget; tax registration certificates; tax exemption certificates; tax returns of the last three years; evidence of withholding taxes; and annual performance reports for three years.

The director of social welfare department, Habib Afridi, when contacted, said that those NGOs were deregistered, which were not fulfilling the required criteria. “We have reregistered 12 NGOs, which have properly applied and provided the required documents,” he said.

He claimed that the most of deregistered NGOs had been dormant since long.

However, he said, the department had directed all the NGOs through advertisements in the newspapers to provide the requisite information.

For effective and secure working, FATF has recommended scrutiny of non-profits and NGOs. Pakistan was assigned by the FATF with 28 recommendations involving problems like terror financing and money laundering. Despite the publication of notices in newspapers, there was zero response from inactive organizations and were thus sacked.

BORNO, 30 November 2020 (TON): Farmers harvesting crops in Borno state attacked by armed men on motorcycles, in the ‘most violent direct’ assault against civilians this year, UN says.

According to Unite Nation “A “gruesome” massacre against farmers in north–eastern Nigeria killed at least 110 people, raising tolls initially indicating 43 and then at least 70 dead.”

The killings took place in the early afternoon of Saturday in the village of Koshobe and other rural communities in the Jere local government area near Maiduguri, the capital of the conflict-hit Borno state.

“Armed men on motorcycles led a brutal attack on civilian men and women who were harvesting their fields,” Edward Kallon, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Nigeria, said in a statement on Sunday.

He added “At least 110 civilians were ruthlessly killed and many others were wounded in this attack.”

There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack yet but many rebellious groups are active in the region and have killed more than 30,000 people in the past decade during an armed campaign that has displaced some two million and has spread to neighbouring countries including Niger, Chad and Cameroon.