The US voiced grave concern Wednesday over an airstrike on a village market in Ethiopia's war-torn Tigray region that reportedly led to dozens of civilian deaths. 

State Department spokesman Ned Price strongly condemned "this reprehensible act," saying there are also "credible reports that security forces denied medical personnel access to the victims of this terrible attack."

"Denying victims urgently needed medical care is heinous and absolutely unacceptable. We urge the Ethiopian authorities to ensure full and unhindered medical access to the victims immediately," Price said in a statement.

"We also call for an urgent and independent investigation, as well as remedial action, to hold those responsible for this attack accountable. The United States again urges an immediate ceasefire in Tigray, unhindered humanitarian access, and protection for civilians," he added.

The bombing near the village of Togoga on Tuesday left up to 30 people dead, CNN reported, citing eyewitness accounts. Ethiopian Military spokesman Col. Getinet Adane dismissed reports of the bombing, telling CNN it is "fake news."

The military reportedly blocked ambulances from reaching Togoga, with doctors who tried to reach the scene shot at by the military./agencies

A top polling official during France’s regional elections last Sunday was demoted from her post for wearing a headscarf, according to official statements and French local media.

Rachida Kabbouri, a Muslim municipal councilor of the European Ecology - The Greens (EELV) party in Vitry-sur-Seine in the greater Paris Ile-de-France region, was appointed head of a polling station in the department of Val-de-Marne during the first round elections.

But after the prefect of the Val-de-Marne got complaints about Kabbouri wearing a headscarf, the young woman’s position was demoted to polling station assessor.

According to French election laws, polling station heads are subject to the "principle of neutrality" since they represent the state, which is why Kabbouri was reassigned to a lower position, said a statement by the prefect’s office.

In an interview with Le Parisien daily, Kabbouri said that she "felt injustice and exclusion to tears."

She said the unexpected move affected her deeply, adding that while she was on duty at the ballot box, a woman insulted her and called an "Islamist."

On the other hand, in Saint-Denis, also in the Paris suburbs, Jordan Bardella, a candidate of the far-right National Rally (RN) – an anti-immigrant, xenophobic party – was welcomed to the polls by a headscarf-wearing polling station staffer, creating a media buzz.

Mathieu Hanotin, the mayor of Saint-Denis, said on Twitter that the poll staff can wear headscarves or any clothing or symbols they wish indicating religious affiliation.

He underlined that the principle of neutrality in the election office requires political neutrality, not religious neutrality.

Rebuffing critics of poll workers wearing headscarves France, Hanotin said: "What has no real place in our democracy is not a headscarved woman who contributes to the proper conduct of elections, but rather rhetoric which waving the 'flag of secularism' to stigmatize Islam or any other religion."

A Crimean human rights activist on Wednesday accused the Russian authorities of using "inhuman tactics" against the Crimean Tatars and targeting them at their worship places.

Speaking at an online international conference titled "Crimea is Ukraine," organized by the Islamabad Institute of Conflict Resolution (IICR), an Islamabad-based think-tank, Lutfiye Zudiyeva, a human rights activist from Crimea, said Tatar Muslim ethnic minority is being persecuted by the Russian forces in Crimea.

"Many of them (Crimean Tatars) openly opposed Russia's invasion which began in 2014, as our people became a minority in our homeland," she said.

She accused the Russian forces of arresting hundreds of Muslims and sentencing them through their courts on terror charges.

"About 50,000 Tatar residents have already left Crimea while at the same time Russia has been substituting the population of Crimea. Over the past seven years, about 200,000 Russian citizens have been moved from Russia to Crimea," she added.

"Dozens of our people have gone missing, and nothing is known about the fate of a member of the Executive Council of the World Congress of Crimean Tatars who was arrested by the Russian forces."

Rights situation in Crimea

Ukraine's First Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzhaparova told the conference that the situation of human rights violation in Crimea is of deep concern for her country.

"If you dare to say publicly that Crimea is Ukraine, you can be detained, at least for five years. We call Crimea a military base (of Russia)," she said.

"By squeezing out the citizens of Ukraine, Russia is trying to bring as many newcomers as possible, and at least half a million Russian citizens have already moved into the Crimean peninsula," the Ukrainian minister said.

She rejected the Russian terror charges against Tatars, saying: "We never had any terrorist attack before 2014. This is a matter of fact, but immediately after the occupation, we found ourselves living in this false reality where Russia, using media experts and officials, tried to show Crimean Tatars as extremist."

She also explained her government's strategy about Crimea and hoped that Pakistan and other countries would support Ukraine to end the "illegal Russian occupation" of Crimea.

Dzhaparova also said Ukraine will observe Feb. 26 as a day of resistance to the occupation and May 18 as a day of remembrance of the victims of the genocide of Crimean Tatar people.

Ukraine and Russia have been at loggerheads since Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea, a takeover both Turkey and the UN consider illegal. Ukraine has also been plagued by Russian-backed separatists in the country's east.

Anton Korynevych, permanent representative of the Ukrainian president in Autonomous Republic of Crimea, said his government decided to support its Crimean citizens and provide them with good opportunities for education and financial support to political prisoners.

"We are also constantly in contact with our citizens residing in Crimea, including internally displaced persons, while the protection of Crimean Tatar indigenous people is very important for the state of Ukraine," he said.

Markian Chuchuk, Ukraine's ambassador to Pakistan, and Sabah Aslam, founder and executive director of the IICR, also spoke at the occasion.

Russian treatment of Crimean Tatars

During the World War II, Soviet Russia had to leave Crimea to the Germans.

Crimean Tatar Turks successfully fought against Nazi Germany by joining the Soviet ranks. Despite this, Russian commanders accused Crimean Tatars of "cooperating with the Germans."

After the Russian Red Army recaptured Crimea from Adolf Hitler's Germany, Crimean Tatar Turks began to come under pressure from the Russians.

Reports were prepared for the Soviet administration against the Crimean Tatars, demanding complete expulsion of Crimean Tatars from their homelands.

Nearly 250,000 Crimean Tatar Turks were exiled to Central Asia in three days in wagons that transported animals.

Nearly half of those who were exiled lost their lives on roads due to illness, hunger and difficult conditions.

After Crimean Tatars were expelled from the peninsula, systematic efforts were made to erase traces of the Turkish culture and other communities.

With the decision of the Soviet Union at the end of 1944, all Turkish names of places in Crimea were changed to Russian./aa

Amnesty International on Wednesday accused Greece of contravening their human rights obligations under EU and international law by illegally detaining refugees and migrants and returning them to Turkey.

The human rights group’s new report, “Greece: Violence, lies and pushbacks,” focuses on the Evros region, along the border between Greece and Turkey.

Last year, Greece pushed back migrants after Turkey unilaterally opened its borders. Amnesty said these human rights violations at Greece’s borders have continued and become an entrenched practice.

“It is clear that multiple arms of the Greek authorities are closely coordinating to brutally apprehend and detain people who are seeking safety in Greece, subjecting many to violence, then transferring them to the banks of the Evros river before summarily returning them to Turkey,” said Adriana Tidona, migration researcher for Europe at Amnesty International.

“Our research shows that violent pushbacks have become the de facto Greek border control policy in the Evros region,” she said.

“The level of organization needed to execute these returns, which affected around 1,000 people in the incidents we documented, some numerous times and sometimes via unofficial detention sites, shows just how far Greece is going to illegally return people and cover it up.”

Research interviews carried out by Amnesty showed people claiming to have witnessed violence from uniformed Greek officials, as well as men in civilian clothing. This violence included being hit with sticks or truncheons, kicks and punches, slaps and pushes. Some people were severely injured, according to Amnesty.

The group said in most cases these acts of violence violated the international prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment, adding that some incidents also amounted to torture, due to their severity and humiliating or punitive intent.

Greece has not only pushed back people at its borders, but also detained them deep inside the Greek mainland before being returned illegally, Amnesty said.

Turkey and human rights groups have repeatedly condemned Greece's illegal practice of pushing back asylum seekers, saying it violates humanitarian values and international law by endangering the lives of vulnerable migrants, including women and children./aa

KUWAIT: Minister of Health Sheikh Dr Basel Al-Sabah briefed the Cabinet on the latest coronavirus developments, saying that the country is witnessing a noticeable instability over the last period due to growing numbers of coronavirus cases and deaths.

The health ministry had on Monday reported 1,935 new COVID-19 cases – its highest daily count – and seven related deaths in the past 24 hours. Dr Basel noted that vaccination would lead to herd immunity, affirming the efficacy and effectiveness of the vaccines accredited in Kuwait. The Cabinet stressed the necessity of abidance by health instructions in this regard and working as a teamwork to face and eradicate this epidemic.

During its weekly meeting held at Seif Palace on Monday under the chairmanship of His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, the Cabinet discussed the recommendations of the public services committee on the labor city and other topics. The ministers also studied the recommendations on the periodic report submitted by the Ministry of Public Works regarding the stages of implementing the works related to the Kuwait International Airport (T2) project until the end of March 2021, and the visual presentation of the latest developments.

At the beginning of the meeting, the Cabinet members listened to a presentation made by representative of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Minister of Oil and Minister of Higher Education Mohammad Al-Fares, on the outcomes of his partaking in the second Islamic summit for sciences and technology last Wednesday.

Foreign Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Dr Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah made a presentation on the results of his participation in the consultative meeting of Arab foreign ministers and the Arab League ministerial council’s gathering in its extraordinary session on the developments of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) held in Doha last Tuesday.

The minister briefed the Cabinet on the outcomes of his participation in the GCC foreign ministers’ meeting held in Riyadh last Wednesday on backing the GCC path in all fields and the topics relating to the current developments in the region. He also informed the Cabinet about the outcomes of his participation in the Antalya Diplomatic Forum in Turkey held last Friday and Saturday.

Furthermore, the Cabinet discussed the political affairs in light of the current developments on the political arena on both Arab and international levels. The council of ministers expressed Kuwait’s condemnation and denunciation of Houthi militias’ repeated attempts aiming to target some Saudi cities, pointing to the Houthis’ attack with a booby-trapped drone on Saudi Arabia on Sunday, expressing satisfaction about the destruction of these attacks by the coalition forces. The Cabinet reiterated Kuwait’s support to Saudi Arabia in all measures it takes to defend its territories, and maintain its security and stability.

It affirmed its rejection to those criminal attacks that reflect the persistence of the militias in increasing tension in the region and undermining the peace endeavors. On Iran, the Cabinet congratulated new Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on being elected as the country’s leader. It wished further success and achievements in Iran under the new leader’s leadership, hoping that the Iranian-Gulf ties would witness further improvement and cooperation as well as enhance confidence to achieve common interests and back the region’s stability. – KUNA