123April-2011

International Events April 2011

China to reinforce trust with neighbours

• The Chinese government said it viewed the security situation in the Asia-Pacific as “volatile”, pointing to the United States “reinforcing” regional military alliances and rising suspicions among China's neighbours.

• In a National Defence white paper issued, China said it would seek to expand confidence-building measures with its neighbours, as well as stick to a defense policy that was defensive in nature.

• The white paper, the seventh that China has issued since 1998, portrayed a strained regional security environment, describing the Asia-Pacific region, in particular, as “volatile.”

• It stressed that China would promote “the establishment of equal, mutually beneficial and effective mechanisms” for military confidence-building, through strategic dialogues, border area confidence-building measures, cooperation on regional and maritime security and military exchanges.

• It said China had established defence and security dialogues with 22 countries. “China consistently pursues a foreign policy of building an amicable relationship and partnership with its neighbours,” said the paper.

UPA government not to ban book on Gandhiji

• The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, after some thought, has abandoned the idea of either tightening the laws to “protect the honour” of Mahatma Gandhi or of banning his controversial biography, Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and his struggle with India, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning former executive editor of The New York Times Joseph Lelyveld.

• The call for a ban came after some reviewers quoted correspondence which they interpreted as evidence that Gandhiji was a bisexual and racist.

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Row over huge death toll in Ivorian town

• The United Nations and the government it supports in Ivory Coast are trading accusations over the killings of hundreds of civilians in a western town.

• But a Minister in the government of internationally recognised President Alassane Ouattara accused U.N. peacekeepers of failing to protect civilians in Duekoue from vengeful fighters supporting the entrenched incumbent leader.

• The U.N. accused traditional hunters fighting in a force supporting Mr. Ouattara of “extra-judicial executions” of more than 330 people in Duekoue.

Nazarbayev re-elected

• Kazakhstan's President of two-decades Nursultan Nazarbayev was re-elected for another five-year term winning an astonishing 95 per cent of the vote that saw a record 90-per cent turnout.

• Mr. Nazarbayev's three rivals received less than two per cent of the votes each. European monitors criticised the election as falling short of democratic standards, citing cases of people being pressed to vote, ballot box-stuffing and lack of transparency in the vote count.

Laurent Gbagbo captured

• Ivory Coast leader Alassane Ouattara's forces, backed by French and U.N. troops, captured his besieged rival Laurent Gbagbo in Abidjan at the climax of a deadly months-long crisis. Mr. Gbagbo, who has held power since 2000 and stubbornly refused to admit defeat in November's presidential election, was detained and taken to his rival's temporary headquarters, with his wife Simone and son Michel.

Nigeria votes on accidental leader

• Voters in Africa's most populous nation are deciding whether to keep their accidental President in power, though unease among Nigeria's Muslims about the Christian leader could force a runoff in this oil-rich country where elections have long been marred by fraud and violence.

• Voters must choose whether President Goodluck Jonathan should now be elected after taking over last year when his predecessor died in office following a lengthy illness. Mr. Jonathan is the candidate for Nigeria's long-dominant ruling party and is the clear front-runner, but several other candidates threaten to siphon off enough votes that it could go to a second round for the first time since Nigeria became a democracy 12 years ago.

• Nigeria, though, largely splits between a Muslim north that nears the Sahara Desert, and a Christian south of forests and swampland. While Mr. Jonathan is embraced in the predominantly Christian south, many in the Muslim north believe one of their own should have had another turn after the Muslim President died in office in May 2010.



Cuba marks Bay of Pigs

• Cuba kicks off a crucial Communist Party congress with a massive military and civilian parade to mark 50 years since the defeat of CIA-backed exiles at the Bay of Pigs, still celebrated as a landmark triumph over the island's powerful neighbour to the north.

Iran-Saudi Arabia rift widens over Bahrain

• The war of words between oil-rich Iran and Saudi Arabia is escalating dangerously following Riyadh's military intervention in Bahrain, where a security crackdown against pro-democracy dissidents shows no signs of abating.

• Around 1,000 Saudi troops last month moved into Bahrain at the invitation of the Bahraini government. They are part of a force belonging to the Gulf Cooperation Council, which also includes 500 personnel from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait. Within hours of their arrival, Bahraini forces launched a fierce crackdown at the Pearl Roundabout, where thousands of protesters demanding political reforms had encamped.

Martelly wins Haiti run-off

• Popular singer-turned-politician Michel Martelly was declared winner of Haiti's presidential election.

• Final results released by Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council showed Mr. Martelly took 67.57 per cent of the vote in the March 20 run-off, confirming preliminary results in which he trounced his rival, the former First Lady, Mirlande Manigat.

Thailand, Cambodia exchange fire

• Thailand and Cambodia exchanged gunfire, with each side blaming the other for firing the first salvo. Thailand said three of its soldiers were killed, while Cambodia spoke of unspecified casualties on its side. Bangkok said many soldiers were also injured in the “unprovoked firing”.

• The flare-up was seen as a reminder of the tensions over claims to a piece of territory near the Preah Vihear temple. The International Court of Justice had awarded the Hindu temple to Cambodia in 1962. The current round of tensions is often traced to the fact that the temple was declared a world heritage site a few years ago. However, both countries indicated that hostilities occurred near a different temple site.

Russia offers to mediate on Libya

• Russia has agreed to mediate in the Libyan conflict if government troops halt their attacks on Misrata and implement the United Nations resolutions, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoud.



Russia proposes global nuclear safety plan

• Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has proposed a plan to tighten the safety standards in nuclear power plants of the world and sent it to world leaders. It will be discussed by the Group of Eight at a summit in Deauville, France, on May 26 and 27.

• Mr. Medvedev was speaking at a memorial ceremony in Chernobyl to mark the 25th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear catastrophe. He was accompanied by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich.

• Nuclear reactor 4 in Chernobyl exploded on April 26, 1986, sending plumes of deadly radioactive debris across Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and much of western and northern Europe. More than 30 people died soon after the blast and hundreds of thousands were exposed to increased radiation levels. A 30-km exclusion zone around the plant, from where 3,50,000 were evacuated after the accident, is still closed for habitation and farming.

U.N. panel accuses Colombo, LTTE of war crimes

• U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon has said he cannot order an international probe into the killing of tens of thousands of civilians during Sri Lanka's final assault on Tamil separatists in 2009.

• His remarks came after a U.N. panel said that the Sri Lanka military killed most of the civilian victims of the offensive but that both sides may be guilty of war crimes, ordering Colombo to conduct a “genuine” inquiry.

Libyan battles spill into Tunisia; clashes in syria

• Libya's civil war briefly spilled into Tunisia after fighters loyal to Libyan strongman Muammar Qadhafi battled with the opposition fighters for the control of a key checkpoint on the Libya-Tunisia border.

• Elsewhere in the region, Syrian forces clashed with protesters seeking major political reforms in the country. Around 15,000 people demonstrated in Damascus, marking the largest protests that the city has witnessed since demonstrators began .

Russia celebrates conquest of space

• Russia marked a half century since Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space, the greatest victory of Soviet science which expanded human horizons and still remembered by Russians as their finest hour.

• At 0907 Moscow time on April 12, 1961 Gagarin uttered the famous words “Let's go” as the Vostok rocket, with him squeezed into a tiny capsule at the top, blasted off from the south of the Soviet republic of Kazakhstan.

• After a voyage lasting just 108 minutes that granted the 27-year-old carpenter's son historical immortality, Gagarin ejected from his capsule and parachuted down into a field in the Saratov region of central Russia.



• With Gagarin's flight, the Soviet Union scored its greatest propaganda victory over the United States, spurring its Cold War foe to eventually retake the lead in the space race by putting men on the moon in 1969.



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