NEW YORK: Russia has  stopped a UN Security Council committee from blacklisting a Libyan militia group and its leader for human rights abuses because it said it wanted to see more evidence first that they had killed civilians.
The US and Germany proposed that the council’s 15-member Libya sanctions committee impose an asset freeze and travel ban on the Al-Kaniyat militia and its leader Mohammed Al-Kani. Such a move has to be agreed upon by consensus, but Russia said it could not approve.
“Our support in the future is possible, but conditioned by the provision of an irrefutable evidence of their involvement in the killing of civilian populations,” a Russian diplomat told his Security Council colleagues in a note.
The Libyan city of Tarhouna, which was recaptured in June by the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA), had for years been controlled by the Kaniyat militia run by the local Kani family, which fought alongside Khalifa Haftar’s eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA).
Last month, Libyan authorities dug 12 bodies from four more unmarked graves in Tarhouna, adding to the scores of corpses already discovered since June.
Libya descended into chaos after the NATO-backed overthrow of dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011. Last month the two major sides in the country’s war — the GNA and the LNA — agreed on a cease-fire.
Turkey backs the GNA. Russia supports the LNA. Those foreign powers have been cited in earlier UN documents as supplying weapons in defiance of the arms embargo.
The US and Germany wrote in their sanctions proposal that international human rights groups and the UN political mission in Libya, known as UNSMIL, has “received reports of hundreds of human rights abuses perpetrated by the Al-Kaniyat militia against private individuals, state officials, captured fighters, and civil society activists in Tarhouna.”
“Under Mohammed Al-Kani’s leadership, the Al-Kaniyat militia has reportedly carried out enforced disappearances, torture, and killings.
“In addition, UNSMIL verified numerous summary executions at Tarhouna Prison conducted by the Al-Kaniyat militia on September 13, 2019,” the proposal read.

AL-MUKALLA: The leader of the Baha’i religious minority in Yemen has accused the Iran-backed Houthis of systematic repression against his group since seizing power in late 2014.
Hamed bin Haydara told Al-Sharea daily newspaper that Yemen’s Baha’is had undergone unprecedented, increasing levels of persecution over the last six years, when the Houthis arbitrarily detained dozens of the group’s followers, sentenced many to death and confiscated their assets.
“The Houthis are applying a policy of silent extermination of our cultural and social heritage. This is a type of systematic religious cleansing crime,” Bin Haydara said in a rare interview with the press.
The Houthis are applying the same radical ideologies that they learnt in Iran, which deems members of religious minorities heretics, the Baha’i leader claimed.  
“There is no country in the world that has persecuted the Baha’is like Iran and the Houthis. There is a great similarity between persecution against us in Iran and Sanaa, as both use the same methods of persecution, rhetoric, rumors and lies against the Baha’is,” he said.

The Houthis are applying a policy of silent extermination of our cultural and social heritage. This is a type of systematic religious cleansing crime.

Hamed Bin Haydara Baha’i leader

Bin Haydara said that he was snatched by security forces from his workplace, at Balhaf gas terminal in the southern province of Shabwa, in 2013, and had been subjected to psychological and physical torture that intensified when the Houthis stormed Sanaa.
“The real systematic persecution began in 2014, in Sanaa, and it has been on the increase since then,” he said, adding that the Houthi operatives involved in abusing Baha’i abductees were trained in Iran.
In 2018, a court controlled by the Houthis sentenced Bin Haydara to death, ordered the confiscation of his assets and shut down the group’s religious institutions. He was accused of apostasy, espionage and seeking to establish the religion in Yemen.  
On July 30, the Houthis unexpectedly released Bin Haydara and other five detainees, and expelled them from the country on a humanitarian flight.
The group’s leader said they were forcibly displaced from the country, a move that caused panic among its thousands of followers who live in the war-torn country.
The roots of the Baha’i in Yemen go back to 1844 when a senior cleric arrived in the country through the then internationally renowned Al-Mokha port, Bin Haydara said, adding that several thousand Baha’is live across Yemen.

“They hail from different components, classes and tribes of Yemeni society. They live in most cities and provinces,” he said.
In Jan. 2015, Yemeni security authorities accused a member of the group of having links with Israel. Bin Haydara strongly denies that, adding that Baha’is frequently visit sacred sites in Haifa and Acre.
“There is no relationship between us and any government abroad. We are loyal and patriotic Yemeni citizens,” he said.
Bin Haydara and the other displaced members of the faith group were currently living in “safe” locations in Europe, receiving medication for wounds and diseases that they contracted during their detention inside Houthi prisons.
The Baha’i leader called for the rescue of at least 20 members of the group being prosecuted by the Houthi-controlled Specialized Criminal Court, who might face death.
“Yemeni society is naturally coexistent and accustomed to intellectual, cultural and religious diversity. What is being practiced against the Baha’is nowadays completely contradicts the nature of Yemeni society and Yemeni tribes,” he said.

CAIRO: The Egyptian government on Friday warned the country to brace itself for a second wave of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as the number of new cases continued to rise.
Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said citizens needed to adhere to health and safety measures and take all necessary precautions to help combat the spread of the virus.
And the premier urged relevant authorities to strictly enforce rules in workplaces and on production sites in order to contain the outbreak.
He pointed out that a second wave of the virus, which had already hit a number of countries around the world, appeared to be more dangerous than the first one.
“Work must be done to avoid falling into a second wave,” he said.
The PM issued directives to tighten up anti-virus regulations and penalize those found to be breaching laws. Ministries were ordered to take appropriate actions including steps to reduce overcrowding in workplaces and giving priority to workers with chronic diseases.

On Thursday, the Egyptian Ministry of Health announced that it had recorded 342 new cases of COVID-19, up from 329 on Wednesday, 275 on Tuesday, and 242 on Monday. A total of 111,955 people in the country have now been reported to have contracted the virus.
The new cases count for Thursday was the highest recorded for at least a month, and another 13 deaths on Wednesday took to 6,508 the number of people who had so far died from COVID-19-related illness in Egypt.
Cabinet spokesman, Nader Saad, said the Egyptian government had become increasingly concerned about the recent resurgence of the virus in the region and European countries.
He pointed out that failure to follow precautionary measures could cause a significant rise in the number of cases in the country and added that a special crisis committee had been set up to deal with the escalating situation.
Saad noted that Madbouly had requested government institutions and ministries to reduce, where possible, the number of employees required to work and had said that staff should not provide services to citizens refusing to wear face masks.
However, the spokesman said that only around 300 COVID-19 cases had been reported in Egyptian schools allowing the academic year to continue in its current form, with remote education offering a non-essential alternative.
He added that the prospect of a lockdown in Egypt was a possibility but would be a last resort. “If we imitate the countries that applied the complete lockdown, we would be in a difficult economic situation.”

CAIRO: Ministers from Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia launched a new round of talks on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) this week amid growing political tensions in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.
The resumption of negotiations follows a failure by the three countries to reach an agreement on a workable mechanism for the talks earlier this month.
The latest discussions are part of efforts mediated by South Africa, current leader of the African Union (AU), to reach a legally binding agreement on filling and operating the controversial dam.
Egypt said in an official statement that it wanted negotiations to resume as soon as possible in order to reach a “fair and balanced agreement” that preserves the water rights of all three countries.
However, Yasser Abbas, Sudan’s irrigation minister, announced that “the Renaissance Dam negotiations are paused indefinitely.”
“The request to extend the negotiations for 10 days is of no use,” he added.
Abbas said that the GERD will have a greater impact on the Roseires Dam in Sudan than on Egypt’s High Dam.
“Sudan is adhering to the African Union’s condition of changing the methodology. We do not aim to stop the negotiations in order to negotiate in closed circles. There is insistence not to complete the negotiations in the absence of experts,” Abbas added.
Ethiopia confirmed that the meeting reached an understanding on the need to continue talks on the rules for the first mobilization and the annual operation of the Renaissance Dam.
“The president of the Executive Council concluded the meeting and urged the parties to develop a text that could be presented to the meeting of heads of state and government,” it said.
The Ethiopian statement indicated that the tripartite technical meeting chaired by the minister of water, irrigation and energy affairs of Ethiopia is expected to resume.
Sudan insists on a change in the previous negotiation approach and that time limits be set to reach understandings on any negotiation issue.
The discussions held this month ended without an agreement between the three countries on the methodology for completing the negotiations in the next phase.
The three countries agreed that each will submit a report to South Africa on the course of the meetings and the implementation of AU decisions made on June 26 and July 21.
The delegations from the three countries had presented their vision to complete the negotiations in the previous round. During the meeting, Egypt stressed the need to implement the decisions of the AU bureau’s meetings, by reaching a binding legal agreement on filling and operating the dam in a way that achieves the common interests of the three countries and secures their water interests.
Sources concerned with the Nile water issue confirmed that the current negotiations face a number of challenges, including the difficulty of agreeing on a mechanism for resolving disputes stipulated in the Declaration of Principles signed between the leaders of countries in 2015, and the careful coordination and exchange of information regarding the operation of water dams in Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, which may lead to major technical problems in the absence of a rapid and compatible mechanism for coordination and exchange of information between the two sides.

BEIRUT: In the Zero 4 shopping hub in Antelias, a small town just 5 kilometers outside Beirut, Elie Kesrouwany sits at a table sipping his morning coffee, surrounded by stacks of board games. With Lebanon’s economy on the rocks and the coronavirus outbreak forcing stores to close, Kesrouwany’s business, On Board, is one of the few here that remain open.

Lying sprawled across the table is a deck of comically illustrated cards from his latest creation: Wasta.

The board game, inspired by the anti-government protests that swept Lebanon in October 2019, is an exercise in witty seriousness and black humor. The illustrations, by popular cartoonist Bernard Hage, highlight what many Lebanese view as the bane of their lives: corruption, clientilism and nepotism.

Elements of this entrenched culture have also been held responsible for the Beirut port blast on Aug. 4, when nearly 3,000 tons of improperly stored ammonium nitrate exploded, killing more than 200 people and leaving 300,000 homeless.

“I wanted to criticize society, particularly present Lebanese society,” said Kesrouwany, who lost several friends in the blast. “We are in huge pain every day. My entire generation has been suffering from our present predicament and these warlords in the government have been there for years sucking the blood of this country.”

Wasta, which takes its name from an Arabic word for political and social influence or sway, is commonly used to denote an individual’s powerful connections used to rig opportunities in their favor.

The game was first released in June, two months before the port explosion, and sold out its first batch of 500 units in just two weeks.

It has been so popular, particularly among the Lebanese diaspora, that Kesrouwany is now creating an English-language version and an expanded second edition, with new illustrated characters to correspond with the country’s latest travails.

Kesrouwany, who worked as a librarian for 17 years before establishing his business, says he has long been a lover of these humble tabletop games — a vanishing pastime in the age of smartphones and gaming consoles.

“I began collecting board games in the trunk of my car and would go into coffee shops and offer games for people to play,” Kesrouwany told Arab News. “I then organized board game nights. It was a side gig at the time and one I was greatly passionate about.”

Kesrouwany was inspired to establish his own premises following a visit to London, where he encountered an avid community of board gamers. And so, on Dec. 22, 2019, at the height of Lebanon’s revolution — known in Arabic as the “thawra” — he opened On Board, a coffee shop for board-game lovers.

“It was my dream to create a game community in Lebanon open to all ethnicities and different religious affiliations under the umbrella of having fun,” he said. “It was an anti-sectarian space.”

It was during Lebanon’s coronavirus lockdown earlier this year that the inspiration for Wasta struck. Here was a creative and enjoyable way to speak out. “Having fun is a clever way to slip ideas into the minds of people that are hard to talk to,” Kesrouwany said.

Wasta players compete using points-weighted cards, each depicting a different facet of Lebanese society. Among the characters are the sectarian thug, the banker, the mother, the journalist, the soldier and the sheep (who blindly follow the government).

While the symbolism of each card offers a crash course in the different characters that make up Lebanese society, the genius of the game lies in the way the cards interact with one another when played.

The starting player (obviously a Lebanese person) is the last person who managed to withdraw “fresh money” or US dollars from the banks. “This is a sardonic twist to the start, as recently the banks weren’t parting with US dollars anymore,” said Kesrouwany.

Since April of this year, Lebanese banks have forced customers with dollar accounts to withdraw Lebanese pounds at a fraction of the black-market rate. Now the Lebanese, ever creative in their response to sudden change and instability, must exchange their “fresh money,” when they have it, on the black market to get the best value, as the Lebanese pound continues to slide.

“The game is based on kicking other players out of the game and the objective is to either have the highest number or be the last man standing at the table. The most powerful card in the game is the Lebanese flag, which is number 8. So, if you have this card in your hand and the whole deck is done, then you win the game.

“However, on the card there is a small sentence that reads that if you throw the Lebanese flag from your hand, then you lose your dignity and are out of the game.”

Some aspects of the game mirror Lebanon’s system of political patronage. “The player who has the sheep picks his political leader (another player) and he follows him blindly. And if that leader wins the game, the player that played the sheep also wins a round and gains a tarboosh,” he said.

When players win a hand, they win a tarboosh — the iconic Middle Eastern felt hat. The first player to get three tarbooshes wins.

There is even an “external political influence” card — another echo of Lebanon’s entrenched clientelism, which allows you to swap cards between players. “Because both players then have information about each other’s cards, they are now pitted against each other,” he said.

If you get the “political immunity” card, then you become immune to the influence of other cards. “This is a reference to how Lebanese politicians are abusing power today to hide away from law and justice because of their political immunity,” Kesrouwany said.

And of course, there’s the “wasta” card. “Wasta can illegally copy a card that was already played on the field. It’s like a cheat card.”

Given the in-your-face style of Wasta, some amount of backlash was perhaps inevitable. 

 “Bernard (the cartoonist) has enough guts to do whatever is needed through his art and relay the right message,” said Kesrouwany, who has also caught some flak. “It was troublesome for some people. I got some calls too, but I didn’t answer.”

As with so many other things in Lebanon, Kesrouwany’s board game injects charm and humor into an otherwise bleak situation, but with a kernel of hope.

“In the expanded version (created after the Beirut explosion), I focused on the fact that the game should still be fun and that makes people forget a little bit of the pain that they went through,” he said. “At the same time, the game needs to raise awareness, but always with some positivity. This is why I made cards representing the Lebanese diaspora.”

The new version does not go into detail about the explosion, the deaths, the destruction and the broken homes. “It was too painful — we Lebanese already feel like we’ve been going through a funeral for the past month,” he said.

“Lebanon is in a very messy situation now, but we will get through it and will overcome it with time by the sheer will to live.”

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Twitter: @rebeccaaproctor