(Current Affairs) International Events | March: 2017

International Events

Bangladesh will push ahead with plan to relocate Rohingya refugees

  • Bangladesh will push ahead with a controversial plan to relocate tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar to a remote island despite warnings it is uninhabitable and prone to flooding.
  • The government has set up a committee comprising state officials in the coastal districts, ordering authorities to help identify and relocate undocumented Myanmar nationals to Thengar Char in the Bay of Bengal.
  • The committee will assist transferring both registered and unregistered refugees from Myanmar to Thengar Char near Hatiya island in Noakhali district.
  • Hatiya is situated on the estuary of the River Meghna and is a nine-hour journey away from the camps where the Rohingya have taken shelter.
  • Some 232,000 Rohingya Muslims — both registered and unregistered — were already living in Bangladesh before more than 65,000 stateless Rohingya fleeing violence in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine began entering the country.
  • Most of those who fled to Bangladesh live in squalid conditions in refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar district, which borders Rakhine State and is home to the country’s biggest tourist resort.

Austria’s governing coalition has agreed to prohibit full-face veils

  • Austria’s governing coalition has agreed to prohibit full-face veils in courts, schools and other “public places” as part of a package of reforms drawn up after more than a week of negotiations.
  • Govt also agrred to ban police officers, judges and magistrates and public prosecutors from wearing head scarves in the interest of appearing “ideologically and religiously neutral”.
  • Austria’s Chancellor said that the ban was part of a wide-ranging programme aimed at fending off the challenge of the far-right.
  • The 35-page programme also includes beefing up surveillance and obliging migrants granted the right to stay to sign an “integration contract” and a “statement of values”.
  • “Those who are not prepared to accept Enlightenment values will have to leave our country and society,” says the text.

Pakistan puts travel ban on LeT terrorists

  • Pakistani authorities have placed on Exit Control List the name of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed, along with that of 37 members of Lashkar e Taiba.
  • The Interior Ministry has forwarded a letter to all provincial governments and the Federal Investigation Agency, which includes names of the 38 individuals placed on the list, preventing them from leaving the country.
  • The international travel ban on the JuD chief came days after Saeed was put on house arrest, along with four other members of JuD, at his Lahore residence.
  • This followed reports that Islamabad was under immense pressure from the new U.S. administration to take action against Saeed and his organisations.
  • Saeed, the alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, had also been put under house arrest following 26/11 but was later freed by a court in 2009.

Despite opposition British PM firm on welcoming USA president

  • British PM has defended her government’s decision to invite U.S. President on a state visit, despite public pressure to rescind the invitation until the U.S. administration’s travel ban on nationals of seven Muslim-majority countries is withdrawn.
  • Describing Mr. Trump as the “democratically elected head of state of our most important ally”, she insisted that the partnership was necessary to ensure the protection of British citizens and “significant commitments” from the President.
  • About 1.8 million U.K. residents and citizens have so far signed a petition calling for Mr. Trump not to be invited on a state visit.
  • The issue will be debated in Parliament on February 20, alongside another petition calling for the state visit to take place, which has received over 200,000 signatures.
  • It was only when repeatedly pressed, following the travel ban and the temporary halting of the U.S. refugee programme, that Ms. May described the move as “divisive” and “wrong”.

US says Iran is voilating UN resolution by conducting missile test

  • The U.S. said it was “putting Iran on notice” for conducting a ballistic missile test that it described as a violation of a UN resolution. Blaming Iran for a range of other “destabilising activities” in the region.
  • Trump administration would put its entire weight behind Saudi Arabia and the UAE, while upending the breakthrough with Iran, a key foreign policy achievement of the previous Obama administration.
  • “Iran has been formally PUT ON NOTICE for firing a ballistic missile. Should have been thankful for the terrible deal the U.S. made with them!” tweeted President Donald Trump.
  • Pursuing a collision course with Iran will have a spiralling effect on the U.S.’s relations or plans with several other countries, such as Mr. Trump’s attempt to reset ties with Russia and to arrive at some settlement for the crisis in Syria.
  • Significantly for India, a renewed conflict with Iran will pre-empt the possibility of a fresh U.S. strategy in Afghanistan that is less dependent on Pakistan.
  • While Mr. Trump appears eager to overturn Mr. Obama’s Iran rapprochement, he has abandoned his own criticism of the Gulf states during campaign and embraced Saudi Arabia, particularly its bombing of Yemen — which is a continuation of the Obama policy.
  • Israel and Saudi Arabia have been critical of the nuclear deal with Iran, and the U.S. hostility towards Iran is renewed days ahead of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington on February 15.
  • Meanwhile, Iran termed Mr. Trump’s warning “provocative”. Claims made by the U.S. are“baseless, repetitive and provocative”, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said, quoted by state news agency IRNA.

UK comes out with white paper for Brexit

  • The British government has published a white paper setting out the 12 principles that will govern its negotiations with the EU as it prepares to leave the union.
  • The paper was published the day after MPs voted by a large majority to triggering Brexit talks. The legislation will continue to progress through the House of Commons and the Lords.
  • The 75-page document elaborates on 12 principles that Ms. May pointed out in her January speech, including providing “certainty and clarity” by pledging a white paper that will convert the body of EU law into domestic law.
  • The paper also outlines plans to forge “ambitious free trade relationships across the world”, including with India, with discussions had already begun. “
  • It also covers issues such as the transitional arrangements — and a phased process of implementation — for exiting the union.
  • It reiterates plans to leave the EU customs union and single market, and reach new agreements that would ensure as “free and frictionless” trade in goods as possible.
  • The Labour’s position, which has been to support the legislation but push for reforms to ensure single market access and protections for workers, at later stages of the bill, has drawn criticism from across the parties.
  • The legislation will now pass to the committee stage where amendments will be considered and then voted on. The bill will also have to make its way through the House of Lords, where it is expected to face considerable opposition.
  • Still, the development is a victory for the government and Leave campaigners, eager to instil certainty into the Brexit process and to ease a jittery market, and global audience.

US raising objections to settlement by Israel

  • Israel discovered that settlement construction may not be as simple as it thought under U.S. President Donald Trump, implying it would tone down activity ahead of crucial Washington talks.
  • Palestinians, however, were worried by the Trump administration’s first direct statements on the issue made since the January 20 inauguration.
  • The White House issued a statement seeming to tone down Mr. Trump’s full-throated support of settlement construction after a series of Israeli announcements on thousands of new homes in settlements.
  • But the remarks did not criticise the very existence of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories as previous U.S. administrations had consistently done.
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had welcomed Mr. Trump’s presidency as bearing “significant opportunities” after eight years of often strained relations with Barack Obama.
  • Mr. Netanyahu, who is due to meet with Mr. Trump in Washington on February 15, did not comment on the remarks, but lower ranking officials played down their significance and noted their upside.
  • Israel has now approved more than 6,000 homes for settlers since Mr. Trump took office, having signalled a softer stance on settlement construction than his predecessor Obama.

More than one lakh visas revoked since travel ban

  • Over 1,00,000 visas have been revoked as a result of President U.S. Donald Trump’s ban on travel from seven Muslim-majority countries, an attorney for the government said.
  • The number came out during a hearing in a lawsuit filed by attorneys for two Yemeni brothers who arrived at Dulles International Airport and were quickly put on a return flight to Ethiopia in response to President’s executive order.
  • The government attorney could not say how many people with visas were sent back to their home countries from Dulles in response to the travel ban, The Washington Post reported.
  • An executive order signed by Mr. Trump over the weekend had halted the U.S. refugee programme for 120 days and indefinitely banned all Syrian refugees.
  • A separate order also suspended all entry from Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Syria on national security grounds.

Sanctions over notorious Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar lifted by UN

  • The UN Security Council has lifted sanctions on the notorious Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, previously branded “a global terrorist” and accused of war crimes.
  • The move follows a peace deal between Hekmatyar’s insurgent group Hezb-i-Islami and the Afghan government in September that granted him legal immunity from past offences, sparking outrage from rights groups.
  • Although Hekmatyar is accused of killing thousands in Kabul during the 1992-1996 civil war, many foreign governments, including the U.S., praised the landmark accord as a step towards peace in Afghanistan.
  • A statement on the UNSC’s website said an assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo targeting Hekmatyar no longer applied.
  • It theoretically opens the way for Hekmatyar’s return to Kabul after two decades of exile in Iran and then in Pakistan.

Iran remain defaint of USA sanctions

  • Iran was to deploy missiles for a Revolutionary Guards exercise on Saturday in a show of defiance, a day after the United States imposed sanctions over a ballistic missile test launch.
  • Relations between Washington and Tehran have deteriorated sharply since Donald Trump took office last month promising a tough line on what he sees as Iranian belligerency towards U.S. interests and allies.
  • Hours after the new U.S. sanctions were announced, Pentagon chief James Mattis charged that Iran was “the single biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world”.
  • The new sanctions are a response to Iran’s test launch of a medium-range ballistic missile as well as its support for Yemeni rebels who attacked a Saudi frigate.
  • Iran’s Vice-President urged calm heads to prevail. “These are worn-out accusations against Iran and even the [accuser] himself is ashamed of saying it,” state news agency IRNA quoted Eshagh Jahangiri as saying.

Bangladesh decided to relocate refugees from Myanmar to remote island

  • Bangladeshi authorities have decided to relocate thousands of refugees from Myanmar to a thinly populated island in the Bay of Bengal to avoid adverse socioeconomic impacts in the mainland.
  • Rohingya refugees, including those who have moved in from Myanmar in the recent months, would be relocated from the Cox’s Bazar district to Thengar Char, an island in the Bay of Bengal about 30,000 hectares in area.
  • Rohingyas are currently living in different camps in Cox’s Bazar including Nayapara, Leda and Kutupalang — apart from other parts of the country.
  • Bangladeshi Foreign Minister told the diplomatic community based in Dhaka, that the country needs international support to provide “assistance in developing the island and in transporting the refugees to the new place”.
  • According to the government, over 4,00,000 Myanmar nationals, including the 69,000 people who recently arrived, are now living in Cox’s Bazar after fleeing military persecution in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.
  • The relocation would be a “temporary arrangement”, government have stressed. Bangladesh has requested the international community to take “meaningful measures” for repatriation of the refugee population to Myanmar.

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