Ethiopia forced into ‘aimless war’ against region, army says
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Ethiopia’s army said Thursday the country has been forced into an “unexpected and aimless war” with its well-armed Tigray region, while Tigray asserted that fighter jets had bombed areas around its capital — a marked escalation with little sign of the two sides willing to talk to calm the crisis.
Ethiopia’s army deputy chief said military forces are being sent to the fighting in Tigray from other parts of the country. “The army will not go anywhere,” Birhanu Jula told reporters, amid fears that the conflic twould spill into other regions of Africa’s second-most populous nation. “The war will end there.”
For his part, the Tigray region’s president, Debretsion Gebremichael, told reporters that “we are in position to defend ourselves from enemies that waged war on the Tigray region. We are ready to be martyrs.”
Ethiopia’s government has not commented on the bombing allegation, read out Thursday evening on the Tigray regional broadcaster.
The strong words came a day after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed told the nation the military will carry out further operations this week in response to an alleged deadly attack on a military base by the regional government.
Observers warn that a civilwar in Ethiopia involving Tigray could destabilize the already turbulent Horn of Africa. The prime minister, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year for his sweeping political reforms, now faces his greatest challenge in holding together a country of some 110 million people with multiple ethnic and other grievances.
Communications remained cut off in the northern Tigray region after services disappeared at just around the time Abiy’s office first announced the attack and military action early Wednesday.
The lack of contact has challenged efforts to verify the Ethiopian federal government’s account of events.
Kosovo president quits: President Hashim Thaci, who served as a guerrilla leader during Kosovo’s war for independence from Serbia in the late 1990s, resigned Thursday and was sent to a special court in The Hague, where he will face charges for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Thaci said he decided to relinquish his post “to protect the integrity of the presidency of Kosovo” and to preserve the historical truth of which side was the perpetrator and which was the victim in the conflict that killed more than 10,000 people.
“We are a freedom-loving people and not vengeful,” Thaci, 52 said, at a news conference in Pristina, Kosovo’s capital. “That is why no claim may rewrite history. Kosovo has been the victim. Serbia has been the aggressor.”
The court confirmed his arrival in The Hague late Thursday and released a redacted version of his indictment, which was initially filed in April and confirmed by a judge Oct. 26, a decision that likely precipitated the timing of the president’s resignation.
It describes Thaci and three other former Kosovo Liberation Army commanders who also are now in The Hague to face charges as members of a “joint criminal enterprise” set up “to gain and exercise controlover all of Kosovoby means including unlawfully intimidating, mistreating, committing violence against, and removing those deemed to be opponents” from March 1998 to September 1999.
Imprisoned American:
The brother of an American convicted of espionage in Russia said Thursday that his imprisoned sibling is suffering sleep deprivation at a prison colony where he is serving a 16-year sentence.
David Whelan said his brother, Paul, complained that hewas being woken up at approximately 2-hour intervals every night over the past few weeks. The practice apparently began because someone in the Russian system deemed Paul Whelan a flight risk, his brother said.
“It is ridiculous to label someone like Paul — a foreigner lacking in money and language skills, let alone family and other connections in Russia — a flight risk,” David Whelan said.
The U.S. Embassy has protested to the Russian Foreign Ministry but not received a response, he said.
Paul Whelan, a former corporate security executive from Michigan, was arrested in Moscow in December 2018. His lawyer said Whelan was handed a flash drive that had classified information on it that he didn’t knowabout.
Request for gunman’s records: A request by several media groups for the school records of the man who gunned down nine people in Dayton, Ohio, last year was rejected Thursday by the state’s Supreme Court.
The groups argued that the student records could provide information on whether authorities properly handled early warning signs from slain gunman Connor Betts.
But the court ruled 6-1 that the law “is unambiguous and is not truly susceptible to differing interpretations,” according to the majority decision written by Justice Melody Stewart.
“The records of a person who attended a public school can be disclosed only with the consent of the student, if that student is 18 years of age or older,” Stewart wrote. “If that student is deceased, he is no longer available to grant consent.” France’s borders: French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that France is reinforcing its border controls after a series of attacks that hit the country in recentweeks.
Macron said the number of police and troops in charge of border controls will double from 2,400 now to 4,800.
They will focus on fighting illegal immigration and smuggling activities, he said, in a visit to a frontier post in Le Perthus, at the border with Spain.
Macron referred to the Islamic extremist attack at Notre Dame Basilica in the city of Nice that killed three people lastweek.
Tanzania swearing-in: Tanzania’s populist President John Magufuli took the oath of office for a second five-year term amid tight security Thursday after the opposition called for a fresh election, the disbandment of the electoral commission and an “endless peaceful demonstration” over the Oct. 28 vote.
Magufuli over the weekend said he will not pursue another term amid some concerns that the ruling party, which won nearly all parliament seats, might try to extend the presidency’s two-term limit.
Police and the army tightened security ahead of the swearing-in, and the leaders of Tanzania’s two main opposition parties, ACT Wazalendo and CHADEMA, were charged with organizing unlawful assembly and demonstration.