“I wanted to continue providing people with the assistance and support that they deserve,” says Oleh Mikhalov, about his decision to join WHO in conflict-affected eastern Ukraine, 5 years ago.
The former humanitarian worker was forced to flee his home in 2014 when hostilities broke out in Luhansk. He now works in Sievierodonetsk, a city located in an area of Luhanska Region under government control. His field-based team assesses the provision of local health-care services, identifying acute health needs and ways in which WHO can respond to those needs using existing resources.
In late 2019, following an assessment of health-care services in Sievierodonetsk by Oleh’s team, WHO transferred equipment for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests to the local laboratories, which is now being widely used for COVID-19 testing. As it turns out, the equipment was delivered just in time to aid in the COVID-19 response.
“Thanks to the support provided by WHO, the labs in Luhanska Region were well prepared for this pandemic,” Oleh notes.
Strengthening health systems impacted by conflict
Before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the health system in eastern Ukraine was already in a fragile state. Many health workers had left the region, and health facilities had been neglected for years.
The pandemic has placed additional demands on resources-strapped health professionals and further strained an already-fragile health system.
Since 2017, WHO has been supporting local health and laboratory centres in areas under government control through field-based teams.
Once acute health-related needs are addressed, the team evaluates how health services have improved and whether they benefit the people and adhere to WHO standards. Such field teams are instrumental to improving access to services in places where health-care systems have been disrupted or neglected due to years of armed conflict.
A group of civil society organizations in India has called for support for a two-week campaign to remember the victims and survivors of the anti-Christian violence 12 years ago, saying many of them are still awaiting justice and compensation.
Hell broke loose on the Christians of Kandhamal on August 25, 2008, with Hindu extremists making them scapegoats for the August 23 murder of Hindu leader Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati, even though Maoist rebels claimed his assassination.
The National Solidarity Forum (NSF), a network of 70 civil society and rights organizations, among them activists, priests, religious, lawyers, Christians, Hindus and people of other faiths, has called for a fortnight of commemoration of what they describe as the largest organized communal attacks on Christians “in the history of India in the past three centuries.”
Upholding India’s democratic and pluralistic values
In a press release, NSF said the commemoration is in support of the victims and survivors, whose freedom of conscience and religion has been violated. Organizers intend to promote India’s democratic and pluralistic values seen as best practices and as envisaged by the Indian Constitution.
Due to the restrictions of Covid-19 health protocols, the forum encourages people to organize webinars, issue declarations, hold candle-lit memorials at home for justice, peace and harmony. It also recommends screening of films, videos, photo and art exhibitions on the Kandhamal atrocities, utilizing the social and mainstream media, to spread awareness and information on the event and related issues.
“We are sure that if all humanitarian forces join hands to build peace, justice and harmony in this country,” the NSF press statement said, “we will be able to achieve results in these dark times and protect the values of Indian Constitution so that no such violence takes place in India.”
Toll of violence
The NSF statement also recounted the heavy loss of property and life in the 2008 anti-Christian violence in Kandhamal. As many as 395 churches and places of worship of Adivasi (indigenous) and Dalit (low caste) Christians were destroyed. Some 6,500 houses were destroyed. More than 100 people were killed, 40 women were subjected to rape, molestation and humiliation and several educational, social service and health institutions were destroyed and looted.
While more than 75,000 people have been displaced, several cases of forced conversion to Hinduism have also been reported.
Justice denied
Of the more than 3,300 complaints filed with the police during the 2008 communal violence, only some 820 were registered. Of these 820, only 518 cases were chargesheeted, while others were declared false. Only 247 of the 518 cases were disposed of. The rest of the cases are pending before the sessions and magistrate’s courts. Many of the accused have been acquitted.
“None of the criminals responsible for destruction are in jail today,” the NSF pointed out. “The murderers, rapists, looters and destroyers are today running scot-free.” Instead, 7 innocent persons in jail for 11 years with fabricated cases, are now on bail.
The National Solidarity Forum also drew attention to the Dalits, Adivasis, minorities and other marginalised sections of India, saying they continue to face violence and injustice. Of the 122 cases of violence against Christians, only 23 were registered as of June 2020. The NSF noted that attacks on Christians have “increased consistently” since 2014.
On 20 August 2020, the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) published a Country of Origin Information (COI) report titled ‘Venezuela Country Focus’.
This COI report is a joint initiative of EASO and the Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Consultations on Migration, Asylum and Refugees (IGC)1.
The report addresses the main topics and questions raised by international protection authorities, decision-makers, and COI researchers. It covers recent developments in the economy, political and security situation, and the humanitarian situation. The report also discusses the most recurring targeted profiles by the government and its security forces. It describes activities of armed pro-government civilian groups (colectivos), including targeted profiles, modus operandi, relation with the government and security forces, and state response for victims of colectivos. Final chapters describe identity and courts documents, entry and exit procedures, and the situation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans (LGBT) persons.
Some findings of the report include:
The mass emigration of Venezuelans constitutes one of the largest in recent Latin American history. While the number of Syrians who left their country reached 6.5 million in seven years (2011-2017), the number of Venezuelans who left their country reached 4 million in four years (2015-June 2019).
Venezuela has one of the highest homicide rates in Latin America, despite a decrease in 2019. Armed groups, both domestic and foreign, operate in Venezuela, with distinct objectives, modus operandi, political loyalties and relations with the state.
Colectivos exert political and social control in neighbourhoods where they operate, and have become instrumental in the use of coercive control over protests through the use of violence and often in coordination with security forces.
The nature of protests changed in the first months of 2019, with more targeted demonstrations emerging to protest the deterioration of living standards and the humanitarian situation. Security forces allegedly subjected persons who participated in protests to ‘serious abuse and ill-treatment’ while in detention in order to punish them, force confessions, or incriminating others.
Authorities allegedly engaged in forced disappearances, including for political reasons, to impede the defence of the person while the detention is carried out. Security forces have also allegedly been involved in extrajudicial executions.
Venezuela has established a complex system to eavesdrop, harass, and digitally and physically monitor the population, including through the CLAP food boxes and the Homeland Card (Carnet de la Patria). Social control has intensified during the pandemic.
A systematic and widespread policy of repression in Venezuela for those who are critical of the government was identified by sources. The government and security forces target journalists to silence on what is occurring in the country. Human rights advocates and members of civil society organisations are prosecuted under both the criminal justice system and the military penal jurisdiction, as an ‘exemplary punishment’ to block the work of other human rights organisations. The ‘Law Against Hate’ has been one of the legal instruments used for these prosecutions.
The report was drafted by an independent COI expert, James Restrepo, in accordance with the EASO COI Report Methodology. The report draws on information from 14 oral sources interviewed for this report, apart from a large variety of publicly available sources. It was reviewed by experts from: Canada – Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) of Canada, and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC); Norway -Norwegian Country of Origin Information Centre, Landinfo; Switzerland – State Secretariat for Migration (SEM), Division Analysis (Länderanalyse SEM), and United States – Refugee Asylum and International Operations (RAIO), US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Venezuelan applications for international protection in the EU+ increased considerably since early 2019 and peaked between November 2019 and February 2020. In 2019, Venezuelans launched twice as many applications, over 45 000, as in 2018. In the first quarter of 2020, the number remained similar to the last quarter of 2019 (over 13 000) but already in late March applications began to decrease in the context of restrictive measures to halt the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Spain has remained the main destination country: in the period January 2019 – March 2020 about nine in 10 applications in the EU+ were lodged in Spain.
[1] IGC participating states are: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States.
The first meeting since the outbreak of COVID-19 of the small group of the Constitutional Committee, held under the auspices of UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen in Geneva, is positive news.
The European Union encourages all the parties to seriously engage in good faith on the substance in order to pursue concrete results.
The Constitutional Committee is a door opener for creating the conditions for a political solution to the Syria conflict, although it is not in itself a political solution. Constructive diplomacy by all international stakeholders on all aspects of UN Security Council Resolution 2254 is needed to reach a sustainable political solution.
The European Union commends the work and continues to support UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen in his tireless efforts to pursue a political solution in Syria.
In Mexico, where the poor have very limited and sporadic access to health services and hospital, up to fifty percent of those tested are showing symptoms of Covid-19.
The World Heath Organization says this shows an error of strategy with the pandemic. The WHO insists that there’s appreciably more Covid cases than meet the eye.
Its Emergency Program Executive Director, Mike Ryan, stresses: “Most certainly the scale of the testing remains limited with just three tests per one hundred thousand people.”
The WHO is calling for comprehensive testing as a paramount priority in order to prevent new outbreaks.
The current situation shows mismanagement in the treatment and restriction of the pandemic.
Heavy impact on indigenous groups
Ryan also points out that the pandemic is having a different and significant impact on indigenous enclaves in Mexico.
“There are a large number of people from indigenous communities reporting Covid 19,” he says.
In addition to this, many of these don’t believe the illness is real and there have been a number of violent demonstrations.
Mexican Health Authorities report there are 544,734 infections nationwide, 376,409 recoveries, and 59,610 deaths but candidly acknowledge this is significantly less than the real total.
The pandemic has hit Mexico all the harder, due to the high incidence of serious health conditions including high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and heart conditons.
The WHO says the introduction of a vaccine will not provide a total panacea. It’s also being estimated that fifteen million jobs will be lost.
Faith opens us to knowing and welcoming the real identity of Jesus, His newness and oneness, His word, as a source of life, in order to live a personal relationship with Him. Knowledge of the faith grows, it grows with the desire to find the way and in the end it is a gift of God who does not reveal Himself to us as an abstract thing without a face or a name, because faith responds to a Person who wants to enter into a relationship of deep love with us and to involve our whole life.
For this reason our heart must undergo the experience of conversion every day, every day it must see us changing from people withdrawn into themselves to people who are open to God’s action, spiritual people (cf. 1 Cor 2:13-14), who let themselves be called into question by the Lord’s word and open their life to his Love.
(Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus, 14 August 2011)
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(Photo: Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Koreak, 2020.)Peace convocation and march at the DMZ between the North and South Korea.
The war that erupted on the Korean Peninsula 70 years ago to divide Korea has yet to end, so more prayers and discussion are needed to raise awareness for the path to reconciliation and peaceful coexistence in the divided nation, churches believe.
The relations between the nations that were involved in that war and are sometime engaged in trying to resolve the impasse that exists, ebb and flow with some positive-looking signs emerging this week.
South Korea said Aug. 22 it held talks with China’s top diplomat over trade, denuclearization and the coronavirus response, in the first visit by a high-level Beijing official since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted late last year, Reuters news agency reported.
Yang Jiechi, a member of the Chinese Communist Party Politburo, met with South Korea’s new national security adviser, Suh Hoon, in the southern port city of Busan, the South Korean government said.
The talks came after the COVID-19 pandemic had undercut bilateral exchanges and stalled denuclearization negotiations involving North Korea.
On Aug. 14, the World Council of Churches had published The Light of Peace: Churches in Solidarity with the Korean Peninsula, a collection of resources that member churches can use to recognize 70 years of unresolved conflict on the Korean Peninsula.
It notes that, “The division of Korea was followed by the Korean War. Some of the soldiers who served are still alive.”
“History, memory, and narrative are all interconnected with distinctive dimensions, involving a context-bound hermeneutical journey of the processes and events that have occurred for a people over an extended period,” said Rev. Hong-Jung Lee, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in Korea.
RECONCILIATION AND PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE
“As peacemakers, we remember and interpret the period as a period of enhancing the people’s capacity for healing, reconciliation, and peaceful coexistence.”
In the book’s preface, Rev. Sang Chang, WCC Asia president, reflects that it is time for the Korean Peninsula to embrace the life of reconciliation and unification.
“This book traces the 70 years of modern Korean history, offering historical and geopolitical background on the division of Korea,” writes Chang.
She says this includes, “the spiritual and theological meanings of the global ecumenical initiatives for the peace and reunification on the Korean Peninsula.”
“Each chapter will foster an awareness of the pain and suffering caused by the 70 years of Korean War, enlivened by personal stories, interviews, and prayers, beginning with a spiritual reflection that serves as a theological introduction to the chapter.”
The Korean War was fought from 1950 to 1953, but fighting ceased only with an armistice, and a peace treaty is yet to be signed.
At least three million people are thought to have died in the fighting and families were wrenched apart by the division of the country.
Lee asked for continued prayers to arrive at a final peaceful settlement on the Korean Peninsula.
“We are trying to develop a people’s hermeneutics of peace so that we may testify God’s sovereignty of history: we confess that God will recreate a healed and reconciled Korean Peninsula with the fullness of life for all.”
PRACTICAL STEPS TO REMOVE THREAT
In the introduction, Rev. Ioan Sauca, WCC interim general secretary, urges Christians to take bold new steps for peace.
“It is time to find ways of taking real practical steps toward removing the permanent threat of war, toward peaceful coexistence on the Korean Peninsula, and ultimately toward reunification of the long-divided Korean people,” he writes.
The book notes, “People in the North and South have become antagonistic strangers toward each other, deeply distorted by a Cold War consciousness and culture.
“As result the Korean Peninsula has now been sunk into the quagmire of the global military industrial complex of mass destruction on an apocalyptic scale.”
South African church leader Rev. Frank Chikane, moderator of the WCC Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, says in the book, “It is important to recognize that places like the Korean Peninsula are victims of history, of the geopolitics of the world and different interests that have nothing to do with the interests of Koreans both in the North and South.
“If the global players continue to pursue their interests at the expense of the Koreans in the peninsula, we must support the Koreans to agree on their own peace agreement, ending the war between them,” he said.
Following an ecumenical consultation initiated by the WCC in Tozanso, Japan, in 1984, the ecumenical movement has played an important role through prayer, cooperation for reconciliation, dialogue, and peaceful reunification.
From March 1 to Aug. 15, 2020, the WCC, together with the National Council of Churches in Korea, has observed a Global Prayer Campaign, “We Pray, Peace Now, End the War.”
As part of the campaign, the WCC has been sharing prayers and stories commemorating 70 years since the start of the Korean War, inviting churches worldwide to join in prayers for Korea.
The Light of Peace will be translated it into Korean by the National Council of Churches in Korea.
There are, estimated, 25,000 Hindus who live in Ireland, according to the director of the Vedic Hindu Cultural Centre
The Irish Times has reported today that Ireland’s first official Hindu Temple has formally opened its doors this Saturday in Walkinstown after two decades of raising funds and planning by the Irish Hindu community.
The new temple, which is marking, according to The Irish Times, its opening by holding a number of small events over the weekend with limited numbers to keep in line with Covid-19 restrictions, and expects thousands of Hindus from all around Ireland to pass through its doors over the coming months.
While the centre will primarily serve as a place of worship for Hindus, it will also offer meditation and yoga classes, language classes, music and dance workshops and be available for school visits and youth activities for the general public, Sudhansh Verma, director of the Vedic Hindu Cultural Centre of Ireland told The Irish Times.
“The community has been waiting for this for a long time so everyone is very excited. Finally we’ll have a place to embrace our culture, we miss that link here. We expect between 8-10,000 people will have visited by the end of the year but for now we have to keep following restrictions on numbers.”
Mr Verma, who has lead the campaign to find a permanent home for a Hindu temple in Ireland for nearly two decades, says the community has been relying on temporary locations to offer space for worship up until now and described the opening as “a historic moment”.
“Before this we were renting places and moving around all the time. We used community centres, school halls, GAA centres but now finally the hunt is over.
“I remember doing my first prayer session in Clontarf castle in 2001 and we had about 200 people. Back then I could count on my fingers how many people from India and Nepal lived here. But the community has grown a lot.
While the 2016 census recorded just over 14,300 Hindus living in Ireland, Mr Verma says the actual figure, when taking into account the number of students, nurses tech workers who have moved here in recent years, is much closer to 25,000 people.
Asked if the Hindu community has experienced any racism or rejection in this country, Mr Verma told The Irish Times that he’s always found Ireland to be “generous and kind”. He underlined that the new centre at the Sunbury Industrial Estate in Walkinstown would be open to people of “all faiths and religions”.
“We as a religion do not believe in fundamentalism; we believe we are all a family and can have different manifestations of God. We want people to live together peacefully and amicably, that is the main objective. This will not only be a spiritual centre but a community centre.”
He added that he hoped the centre’s kitchen could be used to provide food to homeless people working in partnership with local charities. Teenagers studying religion at Leaving Cert level will be able to attend classes on Hinduism at the temple, he said.
While the centre is open to the public, no walk-in visitors will be allowed while Covid-19 restrictions remain in place and access to the site is only available through pre-booking via the Vedic Hindu Cultural Centre.
Borrell: Urge Libyan parties, to translate principles into concrete actions
Libya – Declaration by the High Representative Josep Borrell on behalf of European Union on the political announcements by the Libyan Presidency Council and the Libyan House of Representatives
The European Union warmly welcomes the announcements issued on August 21, 2020 by the President of the Presidency Council Fayez Al-Serraj and Speaker of the House of Representatives Aguila Saleh. This is a constructive first step forward, which demonstrates the determination of the Libyan leaders to overcome the current stalemate and creates a new hope for a common ground towards a peaceful political solution to the longstanding Libyan crisis and the termination of all foreign interference throughout the country.
We fully support the agreement around the principles to immediately cease all military activities across Libya, requiring the departure of all foreign fighters and mercenaries present in Libya, and resume the negotiating process in the framework of the UN-led Berlin process.
We now urge all the Libyan parties, and all those supporting them in any form, to translate these principles into concrete actions on the ground leading to a permanent ceasefire, as part of the discussions within the 5+5 joint military committee and to relaunch the political process.
We took note of the announcements regarding the lifting of the blockade on oil infrastructure. We now call for these announcements to be followed by concrete developments in terms of a full resumption at full capacity throughout the country in the interest of all the Libyan people, along with the implementation of economic reforms with a view to agreeing on a fair and transparent distribution mechanism for oil revenues and to enhancing the governance of Libyan economic and financial institutions.
The European Union reiterates its full support to the UN and the Libyans in implementing these principles. We reaffirm our commitment to the Libyan people in their efforts to establish a sovereign, united, stable and prosperous country.
