The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- U.N. overwhelmingly approves global arms trade treaty
- Blow to Serbia's EU bid as Kosovo talks end without result
- Four face manslaughter charges for Brazil nightclub fire
| U.N. overwhelmingly approves global arms trade treaty Posted: 02 Apr 2013 07:03 PM PDT UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The 193-nation U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved the first treaty on the global arms trade, which seeks to regulate the $70 billion business in conventional arms and keep weapons out of the hands of human rights abusers.
The National Rifle Association (NRA), a powerful U.S. pro-gun lobbying group that has opposed the treaty from the start, said it was a sad day for the United States, which joined the vast majority of U.N. member states by voting for the pact. Iran, Syria and North Korea cast the sole votes against the treaty. The same three states last week prevented a treaty-drafting conference at U.N. headquarters from reaching the required consensus to adopt the pact. The official U.N. tally showed 154 votes in favour, three against 23 abstentions, though diplomats and U.N. officials said the actual vote was 155-3-22. They said Angola was recorded as having abstained, though it had attempted to vote yes. Iran, which is under a U.N. arms embargo over its nuclear program, is eager to ensure its arms imports and exports are not curtailed, while Syria's government is embroiled in a two-year civil war and relies on arms from Russia and Iran, envoys said. North Korea is also under a U.N. arms embargo due to its nuclear weapons and missile programs. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the vote, saying the treaty "will help to keep warlords, pirates, terrorists, criminals and their like from acquiring deadly arms." The treaty will be open for signature on June 3 and will enter into force 90 days after the 50th signatory ratifies it. Mexican U.N. Ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba told reporters it normally takes two to three years for a treaty to come into force, but said he hoped it would happen sooner in this case. Major arms producers China and Russia joined Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua and other countries in abstaining. Although a significant number of countries abstained, putting the treaty to a General Assembly vote was the only way its supporters could get it adopted after the treaty conference collapsed last week. NRA: 'A SAD, YET TELLING, DAY' Many of the countries that abstained, among them India, complained the treaty favoured exporting over importing states. Russia said Moscow would take a hard look at the treaty before deciding whether to sign it. Several delegates told Reuters the treaty's effectiveness would be limited if major arms exporters refused to sign it. The United States, the world's No. 1 arms exporter, voted in favour of the treaty despite fierce opposition from the NRA, whose lobbying wing - the NRA Institute for Legislative Action - issued a statement condemning the U.N. vote. "This treaty disregards the Second Amendment to our Constitution and threatens individual firearm ownership," said Chris Cox, head of the NRA-ILA. "It is a sad, yet telling, day when the president of the United States and his administration refuse to defend America's Constitution on the world stage." U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement the U.N. adopted "a strong, effective and implementable Arms Trade Treaty that can strengthen global security while protecting the sovereign right of states to conduct legitimate arms trade." "Nothing in this treaty could ever infringe on the rights of American citizens under our domestic law or the Constitution, including the Second Amendment," he added, referring to the U.S. Constitutional amendment that guarantees the right to bear arms. The NRA has vowed to fight to prevent the treaty's ratification by the U.S. Senate when it reaches Washington. Syrian U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari repeated that his government opposes the arms trade treaty because it does not ban the sale of weapons to non-state actors and "terrorists" like those it says are active in Syria. The civil war there has claimed at least 70,000 lives, according to U.N. estimates. Syria routinely refers to rebels trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad as "terrorists" backed by foreign governments. The treaty does not ban transfers to armed groups, but says all arms transfers should be subjected to rigorous risk and human rights assessments first. British Prime Minister David Cameron hailed the vote as a "landmark agreement that will save lives and ease the immense human suffering caused by armed conflict around the world." SCRUTINY ON HUMAN RIGHTS Mexico issued a statement on behalf of 98 U.N. member states saying, "an effective implementation of this treaty will make a real difference for the people of the world." U.N. member states began meeting on March 18 in a final push to end years of discussions and hammer out a binding international treaty to end the lack of regulation over cross-border conventional arms sales. Arms control activists and rights groups have said a treaty was needed to halt the uncontrolled flow of arms and ammunition that they say fuels wars, atrocities and rights abuses. The Arms Trade Treaty aims to set standards for all cross-border transfers of conventional weapons. It would also create binding requirements for states to review all cross-border arms contracts to ensure that arms will not be used in human rights abuses, terrorism or violations of humanitarian law. "The agreement of the Arms Trade Treaty sends a clear message to arms dealers who supply warlords and dictators that their time is up," said Anna Macdonald of the global development group Oxfam. The main reason the arms trade talks took place at all is that the United States, the world's biggest arms trader, reversed U.S. policy on the issue after President Barack Obama was first elected and decided in 2009 to support a treaty. Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| Blow to Serbia's EU bid as Kosovo talks end without result Posted: 02 Apr 2013 05:33 PM PDT BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Crunch talks aimed at ending the ethnic partition of Serbia's former Kosovo province broke up without result on Wednesday, in a major setback for Serbia's hopes of starting European Union membership negotiations this year.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who has been mediating months of talks between Serbia and Kosovo, said the gap between the two sides was "very narrow, but deep" after a marathon 12-hour session. Ashton said the Brussels meeting, the eighth between the prime ministers of Serbia and Kosovo, was the last time all sides would meet formally with EU mediation. The talks have been aimed at "normalising ties" five years after Kosovo declared independence with the backing of the West. "They will now both go back and consult with their colleagues in their capitals and will let me know in the next few days of their decision," Ashton said in a statement, leaving open the slim chance a deal might still be reached. Ashton will issue a progress report in mid-April, which will form the basis of an EU decision in June whether to launch membership talks with Serbia - a crucial stimulus for reform and signal of stability for investors looking to the biggest economy in the former Yugoslavia. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, almost a decade after NATO went to war to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanian civilians during a brutal Serbian counter-insurgency campaign in what was then a Serbian province. Serbia does not recognise the secession, but is under pressure from the West to establish functional relations with Kosovo and loosen its grip on a northern, Serb-populated pocket of the young country. The de facto ethnic partition between Kosovo's Albanian majority and the ethnic Serb north has been at the heart of the Brussels dialogue and stands in the way of Serbia's further progress towards EU membership. Both Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic and his Kosovo counterpart, former guerrilla commander Hashim Thaci, said there was still time left. "This isn't the end; there will be more talks in Belgrade," Dacic told reporters. "We have some more time to reach a solution and to gather our thoughts after these long talks." Thaci mooted the possibility of another meeting next week, "if Serbia accepts the principles," although he did not elaborate where the talks might take place or under whose auspices. "We hope they will use the time in the coming days for sincere reflection," Thaci told reporters. "I remain hopeful an agreement can be reached." In a major concession as it seeks the economic boost of closer EU ties, Serbia has offered to recognise the authority of the Kosovo government over the Serb-populated north, but it wants autonomy for the 50,000 Serbs living there. Dacic and Thaci are at odds over the powers the Serb north should wield, particularly whether it would have its own judicial system and police. (Additional reporting and writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by David Brunnstrom) Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| Four face manslaughter charges for Brazil nightclub fire Posted: 02 Apr 2013 05:20 PM PDT SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Prosecutors charged four people with manslaughter on Tuesday for their roles in the January 27 nightclub fire that killed 241 people in southern Brazil, saying they overlooked grave safety irregularities. The Kiss club's two owners, as well as two members of a band who lit a flare that ignited a soundproofing ceiling foam, will stand trial for manslaughter while four others face lesser charges, including for false testimony.
"They ignored what could have happened to these people for financial reasons," prosecutor Joel Dutra said of the accused. He said the band knowingly used a cheap firework for a risky special-effects show. Police have said the crowd was over capacity and the club, in the wealthy college town of Santa Maria, should have had more exits. Most of the deaths were caused when victims inhaled toxic fumes trying to escape from the building. Lawyers for the club owners and band members have maintained their innocence. Brazil is facing sharp international scrutiny over safety and security issues as it prepares to host the World Cup soccer tournament in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016. (Reporting by Tatiana Ramil; Writing by Caroline Stauffer; Editing by Mohammad Zargham) Copyright © 2013 Reuters |
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