On 24 July dozens of hooligans and anti-gay-demonstrators shouted ‘kill the gays’ at the first ever gay pride parade in Montenegro coastal town of Budva. Eggs, stones and bottles where hurdled at around 40 participants in the parade mostly arriving in a police escorted bus from the capital Podgorica.
On July 23 Kyrgyz officials stated that an Uzbek border guard has been killed in an exchange of fire between Uzbek en Kyrgyz border patrols. Another Uzbek guard has been injured. There were no casualties on the Kyrgyz side.
In het mooie Oekraïense stadje Lviv organiseerde Foundation Max van der Stoel in samenwerking met de UK Labour Party tussen 16 en 21 juli een Zomeracademie. De 23 jonge deelnemers waren afkomstig uit Armenië, Azerbeidjaan, Georgië, Rusland, Belarus Moldavië en Oekraïne.
On July 22 European Union officials have listed the military wing of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on the EU’s terror list.
The Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Frans Timmermans said: ‘We took this important step today, by dealing with the military wing of Hezbollah, freezing its assets, hindering its fundraising and thereby limiting its capacity to act.’
On July 18 the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been sentenced to five years in a penal colony after a Russian judge found him guilty of embezzlement from a timber firm. Navalny, one of the fiercest critics of the Russian government, says the verdict is politically motivated and claims he will appeal against it.
On 16 July it was announced on state television that interim President Adly Mansour swore in 33 mostly technocratic or liberal ministers. The interim government was installed after one of the most violent clashes between Morsi supporters and security forces this month. Army chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who led the ousting of the former government, is becoming deputy prime minister next to his current position as defense minister. Economist Hazem el-Beblawi, who suspended his membership in the Social Democratic Party, is leading the new government as prime minister. Seven ministers held positions in the former government but none of them are Islamists.
On July 15, the state-level Parliament has decided to continue the approval of the amendments to the conflict of interest law in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH). The move has been criticized by the International Community. According to the amendments, authority to investigate conflict of interests will be transferred from a Central Elections Commission (CEC) to a Parliament commission, a move that could open way for corruption.
After the assassination of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) commander Kamal Hamami on July 11 by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), tensions between the two rebel factions have increased. Hamami, a leading rebel commander and member of the FSA’s Supreme Military Council, was assassinated at a checkpoint near Alatakia manned by fighters of the Al Qaida linked ISIL faction, after he had been meeting the Islamist to discuss battle plans.
Lees hier het verhaal (in het Engels) van meneer Akorli, een Ghanese kippenboer, die vertelt over de impact van Europese kip die dankzij EU subsidies de Ghanese kip van de markt verdrongen heeft.
In deze rubriek stellen we wekelijks 3 vragen aan iemand die verbonden is aan de Foundation Max van der Stoel. Deze week Jan Minkiewicz, voormalig vertegenwoordiger van Solidarnosc in Nederland.
Meeschrijven voor de FMS? Stuur je inzending (maximaal 400 woorden) naar info@foundationmaxvanderstoel.nl
