Kuwait’s health community has denounced an online campaign against health workers who encourage more people to get the jabs against COVID-19 as the country is seeking herd immunity.

The Health Ministry said it appreciates “all official and voluntary efforts” to achieve protection from COVID-19 and condemned what it called “smear campaigns” against health workers.

”These workers have devoted their efforts to protect society,” the ministry said. “It is important to join hands to protect all components of society,” it added, according to local media.

Likewise, the Kuwaiti Medical Association condemned the anti-medic campaign and vowed to take legal action against the slanderers.

“The style of vituperation and bullying adopted by some opponents of vaccination is the biggest evidence of their indefensible argument,” the association’s secretary general Salem Al Kandari said.

Meanwhile, the union’s treasurer Mohammed Al Obaidan said that the association will take legal action against the verbal attacks against medical professionals, calling their practice a “direct strike” at the country’s health security.

Kuwait, a country of 4.8 million people, began its COVID-19 vaccination campaign on December 24. Around 2.3 million doses have since been administered, the Health Ministry said last week./agencies

Kuwaiti authorities are planning to install surveillance cameras to monitor beaches and expose vandalists of public utilities there, according to a municipal official.

“Although there are teams following up maintenance works, every now and then, acts of vandalism and subversion of toilets in particular are discovered,” head of the Construction Department at the Kuwait Municipality Ahmed Al Hajairi added.

“This has raised the idea of installing surveillance cameras on beaches after coordination with the Interior Ministry to monitor subversion attempts,” he told Kuwaiti newspaper Al Jarida.

Ruling out imposing fees for using the public toilets, the official said that notices will be put up to warning and hold to account “saboteurs” of public utilities.

“There is no intention to impose certain fees. Toilets are accessible to everyone. The municipality works to properly develop them.”

The official also cited acts of vandalism against street signs and lampposts.

“These facilities have been provided to serve members of the public,” he said. “Damaging them can hamper emergency teams and rescue operations, a matter that puts people’s lives at risk.”/agencies

Afghanistan’s president on Saturday urged the Taliban to learn lessons from Syria, Iraq, and Yemen and shun violence to join the peace process.

Mohammad Ashraf Ghani was addressing a public gathering in the eastern Khost province after inaugurating the country’s fifth international airport, built at an estimated cost of $20 million.

“Instead of eventually sitting (for talks) tomorrow, why not sit and talk today? Lessons must be learnt from Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Algeria, and Lebanon,” he said.

“If you (Taliban) choose to fight, then all the responsibility would be on your shoulders,” the president added, blaming the Taliban for the upsurge in violence amid the exit of foreign troops from Afghanistan.

Since US President Joe Biden announced an exit plan from Afghanistan in May, the Taliban have captured over 150 districts in the war-weary country.

Afghan forces, on the other hand, have claimed to kill around 200 insurgents in counterterrorism offensives on a daily basis.

On Saturday, the Defense Ministry said 191 Taliban fighters were killed in intensified air raids in different provinces.

The Taliban, meanwhile, claimed to have captured two more districts and a strategically important point in the northern Parwan province.

In a statement, the group also reiterated its commitment for a political solution to the conflict that would lead to the formation of a “true Islamic system” in Afghanistan.

Taliban representatives were in Tehran on Thursday for an intra-Afghan conference and then flew to Moscow for a meeting with Russian officials on Friday./agencies

Turkey's Bayraktar Akinci Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV) on Saturday flied up to an altitude of 30,000 feet, staying in the air for 13 hours and 24 minutes with a total payload of 1,360 kilograms (2,998 pounds).

Developed indigenously by the defense firm Baykar under a project carried out with the leadership of Turkey's Defense Industries Presidency, Bayraktar Akinci UCAV is improving its capabilities step by step, said a statement by the company.

With a take-off weight of 6 tons, the combat drone displayed a strong performance with a payload close to full load and rose to an altitude of 30,000 feet.

Bayraktar Akinci UCAV on July 8 broke an altitude record in Turkish aviation history by climbing up to 38,039 feet in its flight that lasted 25 hours and 46 minutes.

Akinci, which has made 874 sorties in test and training flights so far, hit the targets with full accuracy in the firing test on July 5 with warhead ammunitions MAM-C, MAM-L, and MAM-T, indigenously developed by Turkey's rocket producer Roketsan./aa

Turkey continues to be one of the largest humanitarian donors globally, spending billions of dollars in aid, according to a recent report by the UK-based Development Initiatives (DI).

In 2020, Turkey accounted for 26% of global humanitarian aid – $30.9 billion – and spent $8.04 billion, up 5.9% on a yearly basis, the Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2021 released late June said.

It came only second after the US, which spent $8.9 billion, increasing 6.9% compared to 2019.

Germany, the EU and UK followed with $3.7 billion, $2.6 billion and $2.1 billion, respectively.

Turkey ranks first if one takes into account national incomes. Its humanitarian aid spending was 0.98% of its GDP, followed by Luxembourg at 0.19%, Sweden and Norway each at 0.16% and Denmark with 0.15%.

Turkey ranked third on the DI report in 2013, 2014 and 2015, second in 2016 and first in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

It hosts nearly four million refugees, the most in any country in the world. The number of Syrians under temporary protection statute in Turkey is 3.68 million.

Largest recipients

The report highlighted that Syria was the largest aid recipient in 2020, receiving $2.6 billion.

Yemen received $2.15 billion, Lebanon $1.56 billion, South Sudan $1.38 billion and the Democratic Republic of Congo $1.05 billion.

"Covid-19 has increased impetus for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of humanitarian response," said the report.

Western countries' steps insufficient

Senol Topal, the Idlib coordinator for Fetihder, a Turkish humanitarian aid association, said Turks consider helping those in need due to natural disasters, war and conflict, and poverty as their "human duty."

He said aid is a humanitarian obligation, and that the Turkish society is sensitive and helpful in this regard.

Topal touched on Idlib's current situation, saying that around four million people in the region are in need of food, medicines and building materials.

"Aid from other countries to Syria is generally provided by governments, and not the people, and is insufficient," he said, adding that donor countries should not discriminate on the basis of ethnicity or religion.

Mentioning Fetihder's global activities, Topal said several places are in need and his group tries to reach them, including in Syria, Yemen, Palestine, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Africa and the Balkans.

Omer Ozhan Bitlis, the head of Istanbul Ensarlari, an Istanbul-based relief organization, said compared to Western countries, Turkey is in good position to host and help refugees.

Turks do not exhibit racism or hostility toward refugees, he said, adding that Syrian refugees embrace Turkey and see Turkish people as their brothers and sisters./aa

SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina 

A caricature artist who wishes to take note of the genocide that took place in Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina in July 1995 reflects the sufferings of those days in his drawings.

Admir Delic in his drawings deeply reflects people's sorrows of losing most beloved ones, endeavoring to reminisce the 8,372 Bosnian civilians killed in cold blood by Serbian troops under the command of the war criminal Ratko Mladic on July 11, 1995.

He told Anadolu Agency that he started drawing about the genocide four years ago. "In the beginning, I was drawing only for July 11. Then, I thought people who lost their lives there should not be forgotten, and decided to depict the genocide on the 11th of every month," he said.

Noting that he is inspired by the stories told by the victims of the genocide while drawing, Delic said: "What happened is very painful. It is very difficult for a regular person to understand what was done in those years."

"I think that I contribute to the realities experienced in Srebrenica with my drawings," he said, noting that he aims to make 8,372 drawings.

"I know that reaching this number in a short period of time is impossible but maybe someone else will take over from where I leave off," he added.

In 50 drawings of Delic has made so far, the pain of mothers in Srebrenica upon losing their dearest ones stand out.

As many as 19 more victims of the Srebrenica genocide will be buried in the village of Potocari, where the graves of 6,652 victims are located, on the 26th anniversary of the 1995 genocide.

Srebrenica genocide

More than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed when Bosnian Serb forces attacked Srebrenica in July 1995, despite the presence of Dutch peacekeeping troops.

The Serb forces were trying to wrest territory from Bosnian Muslims and Croats to form a state.

The UN Security Council had declared Srebrenica a “safe area” in the spring of 1993. But troops led by Gen. Mladic, who was later found guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, overran the UN zone.

Dutch troops failed to act as Serb forces occupied the area, killing some 2,000 men and boys on July 11, 1995 alone.

About 15,000 residents of Srebrenica fled to the surrounding mountains, but Serb troops hunted down and killed 6,000 more people.

Bodies of victims have been found in 570 different places across the country.

In 2007, the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that genocide had been committed in Srebrenica.

On June 8 this year, UN tribunal judges upheld in a second-instance trial a verdict sentencing Mladic to life in prison for the genocide, persecution, crimes against humanity, extermination, and other war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina./aa