Tag Archives: HRGT

World

Lithuania toughens Belarus border with razor wire to bar migrants

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VILNIUS, July 9 (Reuters) – Lithuania began building a 550-km (320-mile) razor wire barrier on its border with Belarus on Friday after accusing Belarusian authorities of flying in migrants from abroad to send illegally into the European Union.

The government said the military-style wire coil would cost 4.9 million euros ($5.81 million) to put up and run along most of the frontier, which passes over sparsely populated areas and large stretches of forest and marsh.

At a later date the barrier will be reinforced with a two metre (6.5 ft) high border fence topped by razor wire, costing an additional 41 million euros, the interior ministry said.

Hundreds of migrants have crossed from Belarus in recent days, most of them Iraqi citizens, Lithuania has said.

Belarus in May decided to allow migrants to enter Lithuania in retaliation for sanctions imposed by the bloc after Minsk forced a Ryanair flight to land on its soil and arrested a dissident blogger who was on board.

“If someone thinks we will close our border with Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Ukraine and will become a holding site for those running from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Tunis and further down Africa – if someone thinks so, he is misguided, to say the least”, Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday.

Belarus is guarding the border now only as much as it is “profitable” to it, and as much as it can financially, the president said.

Lithuania responded on Wednesday by announcing it would put up the frontier barrier and deploy troops to prevent migrants crossing illegally into its territory. read more

Coils of razor wire lie on the ground on the border with Belarus in Druskininkai, Lithuania July 9, 2021. REUTERS/Janis Laizans

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In a related move, Lithuania’s parliament will meet on Tuesday to urgently pass legislation streamlining asylum application reviews, including shortening their initial review to no more than 10 days, Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said.

All people who crossed the border illegally would be kept locked up, the draft law says, meaning an end to occasional short trips outside detention that are currently permitted.

Just over 1,500 people crossed the frontier illegally from Belarus this year, with 900 of them coming over in the first nine days of July.

The first stretch of the new barrier, to be completed on Friday, will run 500 metres (1,640 feet) in length and measure 1.8 metres (six feet) in height, the army defence chief’s spokeswoman Ruta Montvile told Reuters.

Simonyte told the national broadcaster she did not expect the migrant flow from Belarus to subside on its own.

“As the Belarus regime is making money from these people for visa charges and, I think, gets other income from them as well – it would be difficult to expect any positive trend without additional means of impact”, she said.

Simonyte said on Wednesday Belarus had been offering migrants flights to Minsk, citing documents found on at least one migrant who had reached Lithuania. read more She said the main airport from where people flew into Belarus was Baghdad, and her foreign minister said people also came Turkey.

The Lithuanian-Belarus border is 679-km (420-mile) long. About 78 km (48 miles) was fenced in preceeding years, and about 258 km (160 miles) are monitored electronically, according to the interior ministry.

($1 = 0.8433 euros)

Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius
Editing by Mark Heinrich, William Maclean

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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As Hungary’s anti-LGBT law takes effect, some teachers are defiant

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BUDAPEST, July 8 (Reuters) – When Hungary passed legislation last month curbing children’s access to discussion of homosexuality, transgender chemistry teacher Floris Fellegi-Balta was not sure he would be able to continue teaching at all.

Hungary’s new anti-LGBT law, which comes into force on Thursday, has caused anxiety in the LGBT community and added uncertainty to life under nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government, which has stepped up its campaign against LGBT people ahead of elections next year.

Orban, in power since 2010, has grown increasingly radical on social policy in what he portrays as a fight to safeguard traditional Christian values from Western liberalism.

“I kept poring over the law to see whether I could even continue teaching,” said Fellegi-Balta, who specialises in biology and chemistry in a Budapest secondary school and is in the process of reassignment.

“One interpretation of the law is that by showing up and teaching, I am displaying transsexuality.”

The school, which is private, told him he should not worry. “We will do everything to keep the school a liveable place for the student body and to earn the trust of parents and our students,” one official told Reuters.

“And if a concrete case arises, we will argue our point on every legal forum,” she said.

The Hungarian law says under-18s cannot be shown pornographic content, or any content that encourages gender reassignment or homosexuality. It also proposes setting up a list of groups allowed to hold sex education sessions in schools.

Fellegi-Balta runs an extracurricular workshop which discusses LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) issues and supports children in handling problems in their private lives.

“From a scientific standpoint, I would be lying if I did not tell children about the existence of homosexuality and transsexuality. But this does not mean I would be promoting these issues,” he said. “We will not exercise self-censorship.”

“CHILDREN ARE NOT BLIND”

Activists gather in front of a huge rainbow baloon put up by members of Amnesty International and Hatter, an NGO promoting LGBT rights, at Hungary’s parliament in protest against anti-LGBT law in Budapest, Hungary, July 8, 2021. REUTERS/Marton Monus

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The law, which has drawn condemnation across Western Europe, says teachers found violating it could face as yet unspecified penalties, which will be defined later.

Legislation will also determine whether courses like the one Fellegi-Balta is holding conform to the new law, a government spokesman said.

Orban’s government says the law is not aimed at homosexuals but is about protecting children and that it should be mainly up to parents to educate their children about sexuality.

After the law was passed, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union published a post on a Facebook group saying the new law was unfair and so civil disobedience against it was justified.

Some teachers told Reuters they would continue to discuss LGBT issues in school, as such provisions of the law were unrealistic given that pupils themselves often raise the subject in class after reading about it online or watching a film.

“Children are not blind,” said Eva Gadanecz, who teaches in a public secondary school in Budapest. “They are not deaf, they live in the world and if they raise this in class or on a field trip, then you respond.”

Gadanecz told a story about a teenage girl who had shown her self-inflicted scars on her skin as she struggled to come to terms with her sexual identity.

“By talking about these issues, allowing children to see that they are not alone and that this is normal and accepted, then perhaps one teenager less will commit suicide, or two will avoid depression,” she said.

“I will continue as I have done so far. I am not willing to change anything.”

Adam Nemeth, a psychologist and former chair of the LGBTQ Section of the Hungarian Psychological Association, said it was his professional duty to treat patients regardless of any legal constraints.

“Honestly, if it really becomes a law in a sense that they are going to apply it, I am really looking forward to the case against me,” he said.

“If they said that I am harming my clients by being … respectful to their identies, I am up for them to bring it on… I am very angry with the whole thing.”

Reporting by Gergely Szakacs and Anita Komuves in Budapest and Alicja Ptak in Warsaw, Editing by Angus MacSwan

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Hungary rejects EU demand to ditch ‘shameful’ anti-LGBT law

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BRUSSELS, July 7 (Reuters) – Hungary on Wednesday rejected a demand from the European Commission and many EU lawmakers to repeal new legislation banning schools from using materials deemed to promote homosexuality.

Last month, EU leaders lambasted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban over the legislation in a tense discussion behind closed doors, with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte telling Budapest to respect EU values of tolerance or leave the bloc.

“Homosexuality is equated with pornography. This legislation uses the protection of children as an excuse to discriminate against people because of their sexual orientation,” Ursula von der Leyen, head of the EU’s executive Commission told the European Parliament. “It is a disgrace.”

The Commission can open a new legal case against Hungary at the European Court of Justice or use a new mechanism designed to protect the rule of law in the 27-nation bloc by freezing funding for countries that undermine democratic standards.

Orban, who faces a national election next year, has said the new law aims to protect children and does not discriminate against sexual minorities.

His chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, reiterated that stance on Wednesday: “Brussels’ efforts to have us allow LGBTQ activists into schools and nursery schools are in vain, we are not willing to do that.”

The case is the latest flare-up between Hungary and the EU, which has already launched an investigation againstBudapest for undermining democracy. Orban has steadily tightened restrictions on media, NGOs, academics and migrants despite the criticism from Brussels, international watchdogs and rights groups.

Demonstrators attend a protest against a law that bans LGBTQ content in schools and media at the Presidential Palace in Budapest, Hungary, June 16, 2021. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo/File Photo

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Hungary’s conservative ally, Poland, is expected to block any attempt to impose the maximum EU penalty of suspending Budapest’s voting rights in the 27-nation bloc.

‘OFFENSIVE AND SHAMEFUL’

EU lawmakers urged the Commission not to release to Hungary funds earmarked for supporting its economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic if they are to contribute to Budapest’s anti-LGBT agenda or before it can ensure solid anti-fraud protection.

Discriminating against LGBTI+ people is illegal in the EU, said Iraxte Garcia Perez, a Spanish EU lawmaker and the head of the socialist faction in the European Parliament.

“That is why the new law in Hungary must be repealed. An offensive and shameful law that goes against human rights.”

Lawmakers also spoke against so-called “LGBT-free zones” that some local authorities established in Poland, which also faces EU legal action.

At the other end of the spectrum, Spain became the first large EU country last month to approve a draft bill to allow anyone aged over 14 to change gender legally without a medical diagnosis or hormone therapy.

French President Emmanuel Macron has called the split over values between the liberal West and more conservative eastern countries such as Hungary and Poland a “cultural battle” that damages EU unity.

Reporting by Robin Emmott and Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Toby Chopra, Giles Elgood and Gareth Jones

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Lithuania says Belarus is flying in migrants, plans border barrier

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VILNIUS, July 7 (Reuters) – Lithuania on Wednesday accused Belarus of flying in migrants and said it would build a barrier on the border to prevent them crossing illegaly into its territory.

Belarus decided to allow migrants to cross into Lithuania in response to European Union sanctions imposed after Minsk forced a Ryanair flight to land on its territory and arrested a dissident blogger aboard.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said Belarus has been offering migrants flights to Minsk, citing evidence found on at least one migrant who had reached Lithuania.

“There are travel agencies, direct flights that connect Minsk with Baghdad for example, and there are agencies both in Belarus and other countries that operate and attract ‘tourists’ to Minsk,” Simonyte told Reuters.

She said the main airport from where people flew into Belarus was Baghdad, but she would not rule out people also flying in from Istanbul.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on May 26 that his country would no longer prevent migrants from crossing its western border into the EU.

Simonyte said Lithuania would take action to stop migrants crossing the border by increasing patrols and building a barrier.

“We will begin building an additional physical barrier, which divides Lithuania and Belarus, which would be a certain sign and a certain deterrent to organisers of the illegal migration flows,” she told a news conference.

She also said the country, a Schengen free travel area member, was considering imposing border controls with neighbouring EU countries to stop the migrants travelling from it towards Western EU countries.

Reporting by Andrius Sytas; Writing by Alan Charlish; Editing by Jon Boyle and Giles Elgood

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Mapuche woman picked to lead architects of Chile’s new constitution

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SANTIAGO, July 4 (Reuters) – Delegates chose a woman on Sunday from Chile’s majority indigenous Mapuche people to lead them in drafting the country’s new constitution – a dramatic turnaround for a group that is unacknowledged in the country’s present rule book.

Elisa Loncon, 58, a political independent, is a Santiago university professor and activist for Mapuche educational and linguistic rights. She was picked by 96 of the 155 men and women, including 17 indigenous people, who make up the constitutional body that will draft a new text to replace Chile’s previous magna carta produced during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

Loncon accepted the position with fist clenched above her head, telling her colleagues to noisy celebrations: “I salute the people of Chile from the north to Patagonia, from the sea to the mountains, to the islands, all those who are watching us today,” she said.

“I am grateful for the support of the different coalitions that placed their trust and their dreams in the hands of the Mapuche nation, who voted for a Mapuche person, a woman, to change the history of this country.”

Her election represents a high point in a day of high drama which included the suspension of the delegates’ swearing in after protests outside and inside the venue, and clashes with police forced a delay to the event.

Problems arose after marches organised by independent, left-wing and indigenous groups fielding delegates for the constitutional body, as well as other interest groups, met heavily armed police manning barricades outside Santiago’s former congress building where the ceremony was being held.

Delegates inside the event then remonstrated with the organisers over heavy-handed police tactics, banging drums and shouting over a youth classical orchestra playing the national anthem.

A constitutional assembly member gestures as they gather for the first session to draft a new constitution, in Santiago, Chile July 4, 2021. REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado

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Amid demands by delegates for “repressive” special forces police to be withdrawn, the electoral court official presiding over the ceremony agreed to suspend the event until midday.

The fracas underscored the intense challenges for the drafting of a new magna carta against a backdrop of deep divisions that still simmer after Chile was torn apart by massive protests that started in October 2019 over inequality and elitism and were fueled by a fierce police response.

The constitutional body was picked by a popular vote in May and is dominated by independent and leftist candidates, some with roots in the protest movement, with a smaller share of more conservative candidates backed by the current centre-right government.

The delegates have vowed to address topics including water and property rights, central bank independence and labour practices, prompting jitters among investors of potentially significant changes to the free market system of the world’s top copper producer.

Before the ceremony began, Aymara and Mapuche delegates held spiritual ceremonies with song and dance in the downtown streets surrounding the body’s new headquarters and on a nearby hillside.

Unrecognised in the current constitution, they are hoping a new text will afford their nations new cultural, political and social rights.

The commission has up to a year to agree a common rulebook, establish committees and draft a new text.

Leandro Lima, a Southern Cone analyst for Control Risks, said the independents brought “legitimacy” to the process given Chileans’ deep mistrust in established politics but a paucity of policymaking experience and deep ideological divisions could cause critical delays to the drafting of the text itself.

Reporting by Aislinn Laing
Editing by Marguerita Choy and Diane Craft

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Canada’s Hong Kong diaspora helps new arrivals with jobs, housing, psychotherapy

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OTTAWA, July 4 (Reuters) – Hong Kongers in Canada are banding together to help the latest wave of immigrants fleeing Beijing’s tightening grip on their city.

Networks across the country, some descended from groups set up after China’s crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters in 1989, are offering new arrivals everything from jobs and accommodation to legal and mental health services and even car rides to the grocery store.

“We are in a battle. These are my comrades, people who share the same values,” one 38-year-old who asked to be identified only as Ho told Reuters. “Who is going to provide that helping hand if I’m not going to?”

Ho runs a cooking school near Toronto, and said he hired a former aide to a Hong Kong democratic politician to promote his business online, and recently took on a new kitchen assistant who took part in the city’s 2019 pro-democracy protests.

Ho, who came to Canada as a teenager before Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997, is just one person helping the network of support groups that have been formed in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton in the past two years.

Immigrants looking after each other is not unique. But people in Canada, which has one of the world’s biggest overseas concentrations of people from Hong Kong, told Reuters the situation is urgent because many of the people they are seeking to help fear they will be arrested for taking part in past protests and may not be able to afford professional help to resettle overseas.

“It’s my natural duty,” said Ho, who asked not to be identified by his full name, and did not name his new employees, for fear of problems with Hong Kong authorities. “If I was in Hong Kong, I would be in a desperate position. If there was a helping hand, I would hold onto it.”

Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong a year ago, outlawing a wide range of political activities and effectively putting an end to public protests. Many pro-democracy activists and politicians, including prominent Beijing critics Joshua Wong and Jimmy Lai, have been arrested under the new law or for protest-related offences. Many people have already left the territory.

The Hong Kong government and China say the law was necessary to restore stability after the sometimes violent protests of 2019, and that it preserves freedoms guaranteed by Beijing after Britain handed Hong Kong back to China.

“The Hong Kong national security law upholds the rights and freedoms of Hong Kong people,” said a spokesperson for Hong Kong’s Security Bureau. “Any law enforcement actions taken by Hong Kong law enforcement agencies are based on evidence, strictly according to the law, for the acts of the persons or entities concerned.”

CANADIAN ‘PARENTS’

Britain and Canada are two of the most popular destinations for people leaving Hong Kong after the imposition of the national security law.

Some 34,000 people applied to live in Britain in the first two months after the country introduced a new fast-track to residency for Hong Kongers earlier this year, according to the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, citing government data.

About a fifth of that number applied for temporary and permanent residency in Canada in the first four months of this year, according to the government. The total number of Hong Kongers going to Canada is likely larger but hard to track as many already hold Canadian passports from earlier waves of emigration.

Hundreds of thousands of Hong Kongers moved there in the 1980s and 1990s for fear they would lose wealth and property, or much of their freedom, after Communist Party-ruled China took back control of the city.

But the city prospered and retained freedoms unavailable in mainland China, so many Hong Kongers returned home, or kept a foot in each country. The latest wave of emigration looks more likely to be permanent, as China stamps its authority on Hong Kong. read more

Canada loosened its restrictions on admitting Hong Kongers after the imposition of the national security law last year. It set up a new work visa programme aimed chiefly at young Hong Kongers with a degree or diploma from a post-secondary institution in the last five years, along with two pathways to permanent residency for Hong Kongers in Canada who have recently worked or completed post-secondary studies in the country.

The new coronavirus has complicated matters for new arrivals. Under Canada’s latest travel restrictions, even those who have obtained permission to live and work in Canada through the new programme are only allowed to enter the country if they have a job offer.

That is where the support network comes in. The Toronto Hong Kong Parent Group has so far assisted 40 people, half of whom have already received three-year permits, according to Eric Li, co-founder of the group and former president of the Canada-Hong Kong Link, a rights advocacy organisation established in 1997.

Li said the group has encouraged 20 employers to offer jobs to people arriving from Hong Kong, including Ho’s cooking school, restaurants, a construction company, a travel agency, and a family who hired a Cantonese tutor for their children.

The Toronto group also has interpreters, lawyers and psychotherapists on hand to help new arrivals and has 10 rooms it can provide as free, temporary accommodation. The rooms are in the members’ or their friends’ homes.

Volunteers in Calgary said they have helped at least 29 asylum seekers, picking many up from the airport and driving them to doctors’ offices, grocery stores and banks.

STEPPING STONE

Canada has long had one of the largest populations of overseas Hong Kongers, some of whom came together in 2019 to hold rallies in solidarity with the protests back home.

Many of the new groups can trace their roots to activist organisations that formed in response to Beijing’s crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989, or the 1997 handover. The groups already have contacts with social agencies, such as Community Family Services of Ontario or the York Support Services Network, or with churches and professionals willing to help.

The Vancouver Parent Group, supported by the Vancouver Society in Support of Democratic Movement that formed in 1989, has raised more than C$80,000 ($65,963) to help Hong Kong protesters settling in Canada with living costs and legal fees.

Vancouver “parents” show new arrivals how to navigate public transport or get a library card, and organise donations of winter clothing or kitchenware, according to Ken Tung, one of the volunteers.

Tung said their aim is to “give them a stepping stone to move on.”

Alison, a protester who left Hong Kong last year after many of her friends there were arrested for taking part in protests, was one of those helped by the Calgary group.

Along with a few other new arrivals, she launched the Soteria Institute, named after the Greek goddess of safety and salvation, to offer free, weekly, online English lessons, resume-writing workshops and emotional support.

“We understand what they’re experiencing,” said Alison, who asked to be identified by only one name. “We try to use our experience to help out more Hong Kong exiles.”

Reporting by Sarah Wu in Ottawa
Editing by Marius Zaharia and Bill Rigby

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Hong Kong drinks company Vitasoy faces China netizen calls for boycott

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A policeman takes pictures at the site where a man allegedly stabbed a police officer in Causeway Bay, during the 24th anniversary of the former British colony’s return to Chinese rule and on the 100th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China, in Hong Kong, China July 1, 2021. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

HONG KONG, July 4 (Reuters) – Beverage maker Vitasoy (0345.HK) has become the latest target of Chinese netizens’ calls for a boycott after an employee circulated a memo online offering condolences to the family of a worker who had stabbed a Hong Kong police officer.

In a statement on the Chinese social media platform Weibo on Saturday, Vitasoy said a staff member had circulated a memo that it described as “extremely inappropriate” without authorisation, and the company reserved the right to take legal action.

The memo offered condolences to the family of a 50-year-old Vitasoy worker who had stabbed a police officer, 28, and then killed himself on Thursday, the anniversary the former British colony’s return to Chinese rule, media outlets reported.

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“What this employee wrote should not have been made public and should not have been published internally,” Vitasoy said.

“Vitasoy Group sincerely apologises for any troubles or grievances this has caused. We support Hong Kong’s long-term prosperity, stability and development.”

Police have described the stabbing as an attempted murder. The officer’s condition has improved from critical to serious.

The worker’s memo triggered a flood of online calls for a boycott of Vitasoy, which gets two-thirds of its revenue from mainland China.

The hashtag “#Vitasoygetoutofthemainland” has garnered almost 100 million views.

Hong Kong authorities warned on Sunday that advocating for people to mourn for the attacker was no different from “supporting terrorism” and criticised parents who took children to mourn him.

The Police National Security Department said it had taken over the case and initial investigations showed it was a “lone wolf-style act of domestic terrorism, in which the attacker was believed to be radicalised by myriad fake information.”

It warned members of the public “not to tolerate or glorify violence.”

A 20-year-old woman and a 26-year-old man were arrested on suspicion of inciting others to commit murder, as well as arson and seditious intention, said police Superintendent Wilson Tam.

Tam did not specify whether the arrests were related to the stabbing, telling a news conference only that the pair were suspected of posting messages on social media on Friday. One of the messages incited people to kill police, he said, adding that more arrests could not be ruled out.

On Friday, people went to the scene of the attack, some with children, to pay their respects to the attacker and lay flowers.

Mainland actor Gong Jun, who previously endorsed a Vitasoy lemon-flavoured drink, announced late on Friday he was ending commercial cooperation with the company, said Global Times, a tabloid published by the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s official People’s Daily newspaper.

His announcement followed that of another mainland Chinese actor, Ren Jialun, who said he was also ceasing co-operation with Vitasoy, the newspaper added.

Fashion retailer H&M (HMb.ST) said on Thursday its sales took a hit in China after its concerns over alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang led to a social media-inspired boycott by shoppers. read more

Reporting By Anne Marie Roantree and Jessie Pang in Hong Kong and David Kirton in Shenzhen; Editing by William Mallard

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France probes fashion retailers for concealing ‘crimes against humanity’ in Xinjiang

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Customers enter a Zara shop in Nantes as non-essential business re-open after closing down for months, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in France, May 19, 2021. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo

PARIS, July 1 (Reuters) – French prosecutors have opened an investigation into four fashion retailers suspected of concealing “crimes against humanity” in China’s Xinjiang region, a judicial source said on Thursday.

The procedure is linked to accusations against China over its treatment of minority Muslim Uyghurs in the region, including the use of forced labour, the source said.

China denies all accusations of abuse in the region.

The source told Reuters Uniqlo France, a unit of Japan’s Fast Retailing (9983.T), Zara owner Inditex (ITX.MC), France’s SMCP (SMCP.PA) and Skechers (SKX.N) were the subject of the investigation, confirming a report by French media website Mediapart.

“An investigation has been opened by the crimes against humanity unit within the antiterrorism prosecutor’s office following the filing of a complaint,” the source said.

France has a Central Office to Fight Crimes against Humanity, Genocide and War Crimes, founded in 2013.

Inditex said it rejected the claims in the legal complaint, adding that it conducted rigorous traceability controls and would fully cooperate with the French investigation.

“At Inditex, we have zero tolerance for all forms of forced labour and have established policies and procedures to ensure this practice does not take place in our supply chain,” the company said in a statement.

SMCP said it would cooperate with the French authorities to prove the allegations false.

“SMCP works with suppliers located all over the world and maintains that it does not have direct suppliers in the region mentioned in the press,” SMCP said, adding that it regularly audited its suppliers.

Fast Retailing said in a statement from Tokyo that it had not been contacted by French authorities and that none of its production partners are located in Xinjiang.

“If and when notified, we will cooperate fully with the investigation to reaffirm there is no forced labour in our supply chains,” it said.

The company lost an appeal with United States Customs in May after a shipment of Uniqlo men’s shirts were impounded because of suspected violations of a ban on Xinjiang cotton. read more

Skechers said it does not comment on pending litigation. It referred Reuters to a March 2021 statement in which it said it maintained a strict supplier code of conduct.

Two nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) filed a complaint in France in early April against multinationals for concealment of forced labour and crimes against humanity.

United Nations experts and rights groups estimate over a million people, mainly Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities, have been detained in recent years in a vast system of camps in China’s western Xinjiang region.

Many former inmates have said they were subject to ideological training and abuse. Rights groups say the camps have been used as a source of low-paid and coercive labour.

China initially denied the camps existed, but has since said they are vocational centres designed to combat extremism. In late 2019, China said all people in the camps had “graduated.”

Several Western brands including H&M (HMb.ST), Burberry (BRBY.L) and Nike (NKE.N) have been hit by consumer boycotts in China after raising concerns about reports of forced labour in Xinjiang. read more

In March, the United States, the European Union, Britain and Canada imposed sanctions on Chinese officials, citing human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Beijing retaliated immediately with its own punitive measures. read more

Human Rights Watch this year documented what it said could constitute crimes against humanity being committed in Xinjiang.

Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten in Paris
Additional reporting by Richard Lough in Paris, Jesus Aguado in Madrid and Rocky Swift in Tokyo.
Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Matthew Lewis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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‘No reason to celebrate’: Canada Day muted as country reckons with dark colonial history

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OTTAWA, July 1 (Reuters) – Multiple cities scrapped Canada Day celebrations on Thursday after the discovery of hundreds of remains of children at former indigenous schools sparked a reckoning with the country’s colonial past.

Calls to scale back or cancel celebrations snowballed after, beginning in May, almost 1,000 unmarked graves were found at former so-called residential schools in British Columbia and Saskatchewan, that were mainly run by the Catholic Church and funded by the government.

Traditionally the holiday is celebrated with backyard barbecues and fireworks much like July 4 in the United States, however this year Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the day would be “a time for reflection.”

A #CancelCanadaDay march is being held in Ottawa, the capital, and Toronto is hosting rallies to honor the victims and survivors of Canada’s residential school system. The schools forcibly separated indigenous children from their families, in what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission called “cultural genocide” in 2015.

“Canada is having a reckoning with its history,” said Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, a University of Toronto sociology professor who studies race, crime and criminal justice.

“I don’t think we can celebrate this country for what it is without recognizing this country for what it isn’t: a utopia and a bastion of equality and freedom and equal opportunity for all members of society,” he said.

Canada’s reputation for tolerance was built on its efforts, starting in the 1970s, to create a multicultural society, but inequalities abound both for indigenous communities and among visible minorities, data show.

STARK DISPARITIES

Indigenous people, who make up less than 5% of the population, face higher levels of poverty and violence and shorter life expectancies.

The unemployment rate for visible minorities, who make up more than 20% of the total population, was 11.4% in May compared with 7.0% for whites, according to Statistics Canada. In 2020, the unemployment rate for indigenous people in Ontario was 12.5% compared with 9.5% for non-indigenous people.

Some 30% of visible minorities and indigenous peoples feel treated like outsiders in their own country, according to an Angus Reid Institute poll on diversity and racism published on June 21.

The discovery of the remains and a deadly attack on a Muslim family in June that killed three generations of members has led to soul searching in Canada about the country’s oft-touted reputation for tolerance. The suspect is accused of murder and domestic terrorism.

Hate crimes against Muslims rose 9% to 181 in 2019, according to the latest data by StatCan. Some 36% of indigenous people and 42% of visible minorities said Canada is a racist country, according to the Angus Reid survey.

A number of Muslim women who wear hijabs have also been attacked in Alberta in recent weeks, while in Quebec a law banning public servants from wearing the hijab is facing legal challenges, and critics have called the measure a form of institutionalized racism.

New Democrat lawmaker Mumilaaq Qaqqaq, who is Inuk, said she felt unsafe in the House of Commons as an indigenous woman, and last month announced she would not be running for re-election.

“I don’t think there’s any reason for celebration (on Canada Day),” Qaqqaq said.

Reporting by Steve Scherer, additional reporting by Julie Gordon; Editing by Aurora Ellis

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Military coup puts Telenor’s future in Myanmar on the line

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Since Myanmar’s military ordered telecoms operators to shut their networks in an effort to end protests against its February coup, Telenor’s business there has been in limbo.

As one of the few Western companies to bet on the South East Asian country after it emerged from military dictatorship a decade ago, the return to army rule led to a $783 million write-off this week for Norway’s Telenor (TEL.OL).

The Norwegian state-controlled firm, one of the biggest foreign investors in Myanmar, must now decide whether to ride out the turmoil, or withdraw from a market which last year contributed 7% of its earnings.

“We are facing many dilemmas,” Telenor Chief Executive Sigve Brekke told Reuters this week, highlighting the stark problems facing international firms under increased scrutiny over their exposure in Myanmar, where hundreds have been killed in protests against the Feb. 1 coup.

While Telenor plans to stay for now, the future is uncertain, Brekke said in a video interview.

Although Telenor had won praise for supporting what at the time was a fledgling democracy, activist groups have long voiced concerns about business ties to the military, which have intensified since the army retook control of the country.

Chris Sidoti, a United Nations expert on Myanmar, said Telenor should avoid payments such as taxes or licence fees that could fund the military directly or indirectly, and that if it cannot be independently determined that Telenor is “doing more good than harm” in Myanmar, then it should withdraw.

However, Espen Barth Eide, who was Norway’s foreign minister at the time Telenor gained a licence in Myanmar in 2013, told Reuters that Telenor should stay and use its position as a well-established foreign firm to be a vocal critic of the military.

A spokeswoman for Norway’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries, which represents the Norwegian government as a shareholder, said on Thursday that “under the current circumstances Telenor faces several dilemmas in Myanmar”.

“From a corporate governance perspective the investment in Myanmar is a responsibility of the company’s Board and Management. Within this framework the Ministry as a shareholder keep a good dialogue with Telenor regarding the situation,” the spokeswoman added in an emailed response to Reuters.

The Myanmar junta, which has said it seized power because its repeated complaints of fraud in last year’s election were ignored by the election commission, has blamed protesters and the former ruling party for instigating violence.

And it said on March 23 that it had no plans to lift network restrictions. It has not commented on the curbs since and did not answer Reuters calls on Thursday.

NEW MARKET

Telenor is no stranger to operating under military rule in both Pakistan and Thailand, where it challenged the Thai junta over what it said was an order to block social media access.

At around the same time, Telenor was signing up its first customers in Myanmar.

Its then-CEO, Jon Fredrik Baksaas, told Reuters that Telenor had thought “a lot” about the risk that Myanmar’s experiment with democracy might not last.

“But we argued at that time that, when we get in a western company that delivers telecommunication in a country, we stand also with some responsibility, and a bit of a guarantee that things are done correctly,” Baksaas said.

Its position had support internationally at the time after Barack Obama became the first U.S. President to visit Myanmar in 2012, the year after a military junta was officially dissolved and a quasi-civilian government installed.

For its part, the Norwegian government, which owns a majority of Telenor, had long supported democracy in Myanmar, hosting radio and TV stations reporting on it under military rule.

And in 1991, the Norwegian Nobel Committee gave the Nobel Peace Prize to Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent 15 years under house arrest in Myanmar before leading a civilian government which retained power in last year’s election.

Suu Kyi was detained after the coup and charged with offences that her lawyers say are trumped up.

While Norway was supportive of Telenor’s Myanmar venture, the government also warned of the risks, Barth Eide, Norway’s foreign minister at the time, said.

“We told them that it’s a complicated country which had a harsh military dictatorship. Telenor was very much aware of it … It’s not like they were novices,” he added.

Telenor was one of two foreign operators granted licences in 2013, alongside Qatar’s Ooredoo (ORDS.QA). The other operators in Myanmar are state-backed MPT and Mytel, which is part-owned by a military-linked company.

About 95% of Telenor’s 187 million customers worldwide are in Asia and it has around 18 million customers in Myanmar, serving a third of its 54 million population.

‘NO DIRECT LINKS’

For Telenor, doing business in Myanmar had its challenges, including trying to avoid commercial ties to the military.

Former CEO Baksaas said for the first couple of weeks after it began operations in Myanmar, staff had to sit on the office floor because Telenor refused to pay bribes to customs officials for furniture which it had imported.

He also said they had to navigate corruption risks when acquiring land to build mobile towers.

Then there was dealing with the military, whose economic interests range from land to firms involved in mining and banking. The military has faced allegations of human rights abuses including persecuting minorities and violently suppressing protests going back decades. It has repeatedly denied such allegations.

Activist group Justice for Myanmar said in a 2020 report that Telenor had shown “an alarming failure” in its human rights due diligence over a deal struck in 2015 to build mobile towers that involved a military contractor.

Another report by the United Nations in 2019 said Telenor was renting offices in a building built on military-owned land.

The report said firms in Myanmar should end all ties with the military due to human rights abuses.

A Telenor spokesperson said in an email on April 9 responding to Reuters questions that it had addressed the matter of the 2015 deal, without elaborating, and that its choice of office was “the only viable option” given factors like safety.

“Telenor Myanmar has been focused on having minimal exposure to the military and have no direct links to military-controlled entities,” the spokesperson said.

Since the coup, Telenor has cut ties with three suppliers after finding links to the military, the spokesperson added.

BALANCING ACT

On the day of the coup, the military ordered Telenor and other operators to shut down networks. Telenor criticised the move but complied. Services were allowed to resume but there have been intermittent requests to close since, and the mobile internet has been shut since March 15.

Ooredoo has also said it “regretfully complied” with directives to restrict mobile and wireless broadband in Myanmar, which hit its first quarter earnings. It declined further comment on the outlook for its Myanmar business.

Like other operators, Telenor paid license fees to the now military-controlled government in March, which critics argue may help it finance repression of public protest.

Telenor said in the emailed response to Reuters that it made the payment “under strong protest against recent developments”.

One of its major shareholders, Norway’s KLP, said it had been in a dialogue with Telenor after the coup to ensure it was identifying the human rights risks.

“It is a challenging situation because Telenor cannot choose what it can and can’t do. They get their directives from the authorities,” said Kiran Aziz, senior analyst for responsible investments at KLP. “It is difficult to assess how positive Telenor’s contribution can be in this context.”

Weighing up human rights is just one of the dilemmas Telenor now faces, said CEO Brekke, alongside safely serving its customers and maintaining network access for them.

“We work on that balance every single day,” he said.

And although that balance, for now, is tilted to Telenor staying in the country, it is not a given.

“We make a difference like we have done since we arrived. But with the situation being this unpredictable, it is impossible in many ways to speculate about the future and how this will develop,” Brekke added.

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