Bosnians gathered Sunday to commemorate the 27th anniversary of a massacre that claimed 43 lives and injured nearly 84 in Sarajevo.

The 1995 Markale marketplace shelling was one of the biggest massacres committed during the siege of Sarajevo from April 1992 to December 1995.

It was the second mortar attack that targeted the same market in the city. The first attack killed 68 people and injured 144 others on Feb. 5, 1994.

Amerisa Ahmetovic, who was injured in the 1995 attack, said she lost her leg in the shelling and is still haunted by the attack of bombing.

Sefika Skorupan, a survivor, recalled the horror she felt when she saw people who were taken to hospitals with their arms, leg, and heads ripped off.

Participants of the commemoration ceremony – including family members of the victims, survivors and Bosnian politicians – paid tribute, laid wreaths, and prayed for the dead.

In Sarajevo, which was besieged for 44 months during the war, 11,541 people, including 1601 children, were killed.

War crimes

The shelling is among the crimes former Serbian leader Radovan Karadzic was found guilty of committing during his trial at the International Criminal Tribunal.

The UN court in The Hague also sentenced former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic to life in prison for spreading terror among civilians in the capital Sarajevo and other parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina in an attempt to clear non-Serbs from certain territories.

He was also found to have had "significant responsibility" for the 1995 genocide of over 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica.

For the Markale massacres, the court sentenced Dragoslav Milosevic, commander of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps of the Army of Republika Srpska, to 29 years in prison, among other charges.

AA

Emile Zehnder, 85, a native of Strasbourg, France, told his neighbors Enver and Halide Kodat, originally from Türkiye's Elazığ, that he wanted to see Türkiye and asked them to take him with them after losing his wife nine months ago. The Kodat couple did not refuse Emile's request and took the 85-year-old Frenchman with them on holiday to Türkiye.

The couple and Emile first toured historical sites in Istanbul and later came to their hometown of Elazığ. Emile, who was warmly welcomed wherever he went in Elazığ, woke up one morning and told Enver Kodat that he wanted to become a Muslim.

Enver, who was surprised at first, expressed his happiness and applied to the Provincial Office of the Mufti. After the conversion ceremony was held in the Mufti building, Deputy Provincial Mufti Özer Cömert informed Emile about the basic principles of Islam. Following this, Emile then became a Muslim by reciting the shahada – the Muslim oath and a pillar of Islam – in the presence of witnesses and took the name Emin.

Emin Zehnder said that he is happy because he is a Muslim and that he has a lot to learn, as he has just recently converted to Islam.

He spoke about the support his Turkish and Muslim neighbors gave him in France after his wife passed away and also what impressed him about Islam.

"After my wife died, I came across sincerity everywhere I went, that Muslims really are 'one for all.' That's why I chose to become a Muslim. I previously did not have much knowledge about Islam. After my wife passed away, I started spending more time with my neighbors. They also supported me a lot. After that, I wanted to learn more about Islam. The fact that Turks support each other in France also impressed me a lot," he said.

Based on his experiences with his Muslim neighbors, Turks and his trip to Türkiye, he made the following conclusions: "Islam is a more compassionate religion. I just converted to Islam. I'm learning slowly. I still have a lot to learn. I will learn more over time. I can always say good things about Türkiye.”

Daily Sabah

Turkish military and intelligence unit "neutralised" nine the bloody-minded PKK terrorists in operations in northern Iraq, the Defence Ministry and state-run media said on Saturday.

Ankara regularly carries out air strikes in neighbouring Iraq as part of its cross-border offensive against PKK militants based there.

"Our operations will continue until the last terrorist is neutralised," the ministry said on Twitter, adding that the military targeted seven more PKK members.

State-owned Anadolu Agency reported separately that the National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) had "neutralised" two PKK terrorists in the Sulaymaniyah region of Iraq.

The PKK terror group has launched a terror campaign against the Turkish state since 1984 and leaving more than 40,000 people martyred. Türkiye, the United States and the European Union regard it as a terrorist group./Agencies

Hundreds of people have held demonstrations in several parts of India to protest a recent government decision to free 11 Hindu men who had been jailed for life for gang raping a Muslim woman during India's devastating 2002 religious riots.

On Saturday, protesters in the country's capital, New Delhi, chanted slogans and demanded the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled government in the western state of Gujarat rescind the decision. They also sang songs in solidarity with the Muslim victim.

Similar protests were also held in several other states.

The 11 men, released on suspended sentences on August 15 when India celebrated 75 years of independence, were convicted in 2008 of rape, murder and unlawful assembly.

The attackers were greeted by relatives outside the prison who gave them sweets and touched their feet in a traditional Indian sign of respect. 

A far-right Hindu group Vishwa Hindu Parishad (Global Council of Hindus) greeted the convicted rapists with garlands. 

Parishad is the cultural arm of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (or RSS) –– the largest Hindu far-right group in India.

Demanding answers

The victim, who is now in her 40s, recently said the decision by the Gujarat state government has left her numb and shaken her faith in justice.

The victim was pregnant when she was brutally gang raped in communal violence in 2002 in Gujarat, which saw over 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, killed in some of the worst religious riots India has experienced since its independence from Britain in 1947.

Seven members of the woman’s family, including her three-year-old daughter, were also killed in the violence.

"The whole country should demand an answer directly from the prime minister of this country," said Kavita Krishnan, a prominent activist.

Officials in Gujarat, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP holds power, have said that the convicts' application for remission was granted because they had completed over 14 years in jail.

The men were eligible under a 1992 remission policy that was in effect at the time of their conviction, officials said.

A newer version of the policy adopted in 2014 by the federal government prohibits remission release for those convicted of certain crimes, including rape and murder.

'How am I safe in such climate?'

The riots have long hounded Modi, who was Gujarat’s top elected official at the time, amid allegations that authorities allowed and even encouraged the bloodshed.

The violence was one of India's worst religious riots and more than 1,000 people died, most of them Muslims.

Modi has repeatedly denied having any role and the Supreme Court has said it found no evidence to prosecute him.

Asiya Qureshi, a young protester in New Delhi, said she participated in the demonstrations to seek justice for the victim.

"Modi gave a speech on 15th August on the safety and protection of women of India and the same day they released the rapists," Qureshi said. "How am I safe in such a climate?"

India's Supreme Court will hold a hearing on a petition challenging the convicts' release.

Source: AP

Six of the 43 college students "disappeared" in 2014 have been allegedly kept alive in a warehouse for days then turned over to the local army commander who ordered them killed, the Mexican government official leading a Truth Commission has said.

Interior Undersecretary Alejandro Encinas made the shocking revelation directly tying the military to one of Mexico's worst human rights scandals, and it came with little fanfare as he made a lengthy defence of the commission's report released a week earlier.

"There is also information corroborated with emergency 089 telephone calls where allegedly six of the 43 disappeared students were held during several days and alive in what they call the old warehouse and from there were turned over to the colonel," Encinas said on Friday.

"Allegedly the six students were alive for as many as four days after the events and were killed and disappeared on orders of the colonel, allegedly the then colonel Jose Rodriguez Perez."

The students' parents demanded for years that they be allowed to search the army base in Iguala. It was not until 2019 that they were given access along with Encinas and the Truth Commission.

'Report is not enough'

Through a driving rain later on Friday, the families of the 43 missing students marched in Mexico City with a couple hundred other people as they have on the 26th of every month for years.

Parents carried posters of their children's faces and rows of current students from the teachers' college marched, shouted calls for justice and counted off to 43. Their signs proclaimed that the fight for justice continued and asserted: "It was the State."

In a joint statement, the families said the Truth Commission’s confirmation that it was a "state crime" was significant after elements suggesting that over the years.

However, they said the report still did not satisfactorily answer their most important question.

"Mothers and fathers need indubitable scientific evidence as to the fate of our children," the statement said. 

"We can’t go home with preliminary signs that don’t fully clear up where they are and what happened to them."

Last week, federal agents arrested former attorney general Jesus Murillo Karam, who oversaw the original investigation. 

Prosecutors allege Murillo Karam created a false narrative about what happened to the students to quickly appear to resolve the case.

Source: AP

A leading Chad rebel group said Saturday it had killed 10 soldiers in the north of the country, a claim the government rejected as "fake news.”

The Military Command Council for the Salvation of the Republic (CCMSR) said troops had attacked its forces in the Wouri district in the northern Tibesti region bordering Niger and Libya.

The group, which has refused to sign a peace deal with the government, said its fighters had killed 10 soldiers and captured eight more.

Government representative Abderaman Koulamallah told AFP that some 20 rebel vehicles had entered the country over the past week, but there had been "no skirmish" with government forces.

"We have been monitoring these columns with planes and they left Chadian territory some days back," he claimed, terming the CCMSR statement "fake news.”

The Tibesti region has seen several major rebel movements emerge since independence from France in 1960.

Since the 2012 discovery of gold there, the region's mines have attracted panners by the thousand, as well as rebels from Chad and neighboring Sudan looking to use the precious metal as a means of funding their armed operations.

The CCMSR also Saturday accused France of overflying its positions with planes from the French-led Barkhane anti-jihadist mission and warned it would regard any bombardment as a declaration of war.

The CCMSR was formed in 2016 from a split within the Front for Change and Concorde (FACT) rebel group.

FACT launched the offensive from Libya that led to the April 2021 death of former president Idriss Deby Itno, who had ruled Chad for 30 years.

Deby's son General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno succeeded him at the head of a transitional administration of generals who were loyal to his father.

Last week, the new leader launched a national dialogue toward restoring civilian rule with free and democratic elections within 18 months.

The CCMSR is among the rebel groups that have refused to join.

The group in April pulled out of peace talks in Qatar between the ruling junta and dozens of rebel groups, insisting the authorities had a "secret agenda" to destabilize peace efforts.

Agence France-Presse

Shale gas production may be brought back on the table to alleviate the European energy crisis similar to coal and nuclear power, which had long been shelved due to mounting reactions from environmentalists. 

Shale gas is extracted through a combination of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, which has been criticized for its damage to the environment by contaminating ground and surface water.

In response to concerns over climate change, European Union nations have been implementing eco-friendly energy transformation policies for many years, ignoring energy supply security.

However, the eruption of the Russia-Ukraine war has prompted European countries to reassess their energy policy alternatives, putting a higher priority on energy supply and security than ecological strategies.  

Coal use revisited

European nations have implemented plans and initiatives to phase out coal resource use over the past 30 years, particularly in light of the growing sensitivity to the negative effects of climate change.

Production from coal mines and power plants, which have long contributed to the security of the energy supply and have been running profitably, has been shut down or reduced in many EU member states.

The share of thermal power plants, which made up 40% of the EU's electricity production in 1990, fell incrementally each year down to 13% in 2020.

However, many countries have pivoted towards coal as an energy resource due to rising demand following the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, both of which exacerbated difficulties in obtaining energy sources like oil and natural gas.

Energy generation from coal reached 15% in 2021 and even grew further following the war. Before the end of 2022, the share of coal in electricity production is estimated to reach as high as 20%.

As a measure to counteract potential natural gas supply disruptions from Russia, several European nations, like Germany, France, England, and Austria, have already developed coal plans.

These nations have turned to reviving their coal-fired power facilities or extending the operational periods of the plants scheduled to shut down.  

Nuclear power plants revival

The energy supply crisis also caused changes in strategies and plans to shift away from nuclear power.

After the Fukushima nuclear power plant leak in Japan in 2011, nuclear power plant safety concerns spread to European nations.

Amid these fears, the process of exiting nuclear power facilities was sparked by the competitive costs of fossil fuels, including coal, natural gas and oil, and a decline in the cost of renewable energy as well as public pressure from environmentalists in Europe.

Several countries, particularly in Europe, have changed their stance against nuclear power as a result of the global energy crisis.

France has announced plans to build 14 new nuclear reactors and invest in small modular reactor (SMR) technologies by 2050.

The UK government has approved the Sizewell C nuclear power plant to be built in the southeast of the country.

Germany has agreed to extend the operating periods of three nuclear power plants.

Belgium will extend by ten years the operation of two nuclear power plants that were destined for closure.

While the Netherlands has kickstarted investment plans for two new nuclear reactors, Poland began preliminary studies on nuclear investments.

Shale gas option

With the US becoming the world's energy self-sufficient producer and one of the largest energy importers thanks to the shale gas revolution, it is now widely debated if European nations will change their shale gas policies and plans.

The recent sharp increase in natural gas prices, breakthroughs in shale gas extraction technology and the fact that the cost of extracting natural gas is more affordable than supplying it from other countries once again brought the shale gas option to the fore.

“EU member states are free to choose their energy sources, with shale gas being one of them,” European Commission Spokesperson Tim McPhie told Anadolu Agency.

“If a member state decides to go for shale gas, relevant EU legislation must be applied,” he said, citing a 2014 EU law on environmental protection.

According to Simon Dekeyrel, a European Policy Center (EPC) policy analyst, shale gas has resurfaced on the political agenda of some European countries like the UK, where both prime minister candidates have declared their support for domestic fracking.

However, Dekeyrel noted the same structural constraints that impeded a European shale boom at the beginning of the 2010s still exist today.

Energy expert Dekeyrel believes these reservations will likely lead national governments to other exceptional measures to tackle the current crisis by significantly accelerating the rollout of renewables and increasing energy efficiency.

Dekeyrel cites several factors that impede a shale revolution in Europe, while the US is benefitting widely from shale production at a time when many countries worldwide are looking for more efficient energy sources to reduce energy costs.

For Dekeyrel, “less favorable geology compared to the US, higher population density, less favorable regulatory frameworks, higher environmental concerns/public opposition, better mobilization of environmental groups” are among these factors.

However, environmental concerns regarding shale remain, and as the energy crisis in Europe intensifies, there is a high probability that short-term security of supply concerns will trump these environmental concerns, Dekeyrel said.

“In fact, this is already the case, as the EU's surging imports of American LNG in recent months demonstrate,” he said.  

Environmental reservations around shale gas production

Studies on shale gas have intensified in Europe over the past 10 years.

According to EU reports based on data by US Energy Information Administration (EIA), the quantity of extractable shale gas in Europe is estimated to be around 13.3 trillion cubic meters.

Poland has the largest reserves at 4.2 trillion cubic meters, followed by France with 3.9 trillion cubic meters, Romania with 1.4 trillion cubic meters, Denmark with 900 billion cubic meters, England with 700 billion cubic meters, the Netherlands with 700 billion cubic meters, Germany with 500 billion cubic meters, and Bulgaria with 900 billion cubic meters.

European countries that avoid shale gas due to environmental consequences are buying resources extracted by the US using the same method.  

AA