Refugee Crisis- Slovenia Warns Break Down of European Union, EU

http://www.newsbharati.com/ Refugee Crisis- Slovenia Warns Break Down of European Union, EU.

Slovenia warns migrant crisis may break down European Union

The European Union faces collapse if the bloc cannot agree on a plan to confront the huge numbers of refugees making their way through the Balkans, Slovenia's prime minister warned on Sunday as leaders bickered over who was to blame for the crisis.

Nine days after Hungary's move to seal its southern border drove unprecedented migrant flows into tiny Slovenia, Prime Minister Miro Cerar sent out a dramatic call to fellow central and eastern leaders in Brussels for emergency talks.

Migrants move through fields after crossing from Croatia to Slovenia on Sunday.

Migrants move through fields after crossing from Croatia to Slovenia on Sunday. Photo: Darko Bandic

"If we don't find a solution today, if we don't do everything we can today, then it is the end of the European Union as such," Mr Cerar said.



"If we don't deliver concrete action, I believe Europe will start falling apart."

Fleeing war and oppression to seek a new life in Germany and northern Europe, refugees have continued to come through the western Balkans and have shifted west into Slovenia after Hungary's border fencing was completed. Since October 17, more than 62,000 migrants have arrived in Slovenia, with some 14,000 still passing through the country on Sunday.



Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was unrepentant, describing his country as an "observer" in the crisis since the border closures and that he had no advice to give other leaders.

But such apparent detachment was not shared by many at the meeting. Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov quoted US independence hero Benjamin Franklin saying: "If we don't stick together we will hang separately."

With winter approaching, Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU's chief executive, called the leaders of Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia to Brussels to seek a common approach.

More than 680,000 migrants and refugees have crossed to Europe by sea so far this year from the Middle East, Africa and Asia, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

Following years of economic crisis, Europe's governments are struggling to cope with an influx of people from countries including Syria, where Russia's intervention has complicated efforts to end nearly five years of civil war.

Border guards

Despite an agreed framework to relocate some migrants already in Europe, a broader common policy is still embryonic, with this latest meeting trying to heal a rift over whether to welcome more migrants or toughen up the EU's external borders.

In a 16-point plan seen by Reuters, leaders will try to balance their approach, likely agreeing to send 400 border guards to the western Balkan border if the EU's frontier states drop their policy of giving arrivals passage to other countries.

Mr Cerar said Croatia, which has already seen some 230,000 migrants pass through since mid-September, was still waiving migrants through into Slovenia without alerting Slovenia authorities.

In the draft statement, the leaders seek to speed up repatriations of people from South Asia, namely Afghanistan and Pakistan, whose asylum requests are rejected because they are simply seeking a better life and not fleeing war or oppression.

Germany, which has troops in Afghanistan helping to stabilise the country under a NATO mission, wants the European Commission to negotiate an agreement on returning people to Afghanistan whose asylum applications have been rejected.

"We commit to immediately increase our efforts to manage our borders," the draft said, which, if formalised, would also mean more ships off Greece to deter people traffickers, more land border checks in Macedonia and more money for border control.

Even with agreement on the 16-point plan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel cautioned that there would be no solution without Turkey, which was not invited to the meeting.

"We will not solve the refugee problem completely, we need, among other things, further talks with Turkey for that," MS Merkel said.

"Only with Turkey we can switch illegality to legality. It is very important that the (European) Commission discusses further the migration agenda with Turkey."

Brussels has presented Ankara with a so-called action plan in which Turkey receives EU funding to absorb more migrants fleeing Syria in return for easier travel rules to Europe and a broadening of long-running talks on eventual Turkish membership of the bloc.

That could mean the European Union sending some 3 billion euros ($3.31 billion) in aid.

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Migrants Crisis- Unrest in Balkans as Refugee Flow Control Measures Coll...

Slovenia warns migrant crisis may break down European Union

The European Union faces collapse if the bloc cannot agree on a plan to confront the huge numbers of refugees making their way through the Balkans, Slovenia's prime minister warned on Sunday as leaders bickered over who was to blame for the crisis.

Nine days after Hungary's move to seal its southern border drove unprecedented migrant flows into tiny Slovenia, Prime Minister Miro Cerar sent out a dramatic call to fellow central and eastern leaders in Brussels for emergency talks.

Migrants move through fields after crossing from Croatia to Slovenia on Sunday.

Migrants move through fields after crossing from Croatia to Slovenia on Sunday. Photo: Darko Bandic

"If we don't find a solution today, if we don't do everything we can today, then it is the end of the European Union as such," Mr Cerar said.



"If we don't deliver concrete action, I believe Europe will start falling apart."

Fleeing war and oppression to seek a new life in Germany and northern Europe, refugees have continued to come through the western Balkans and have shifted west into Slovenia after Hungary's border fencing was completed. Since October 17, more than 62,000 migrants have arrived in Slovenia, with some 14,000 still passing through the country on Sunday.



Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was unrepentant, describing his country as an "observer" in the crisis since the border closures and that he had no advice to give other leaders.

But such apparent detachment was not shared by many at the meeting. Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov quoted US independence hero Benjamin Franklin saying: "If we don't stick together we will hang separately."

With winter approaching, Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU's chief executive, called the leaders of Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia to Brussels to seek a common approach.

More than 680,000 migrants and refugees have crossed to Europe by sea so far this year from the Middle East, Africa and Asia, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

Following years of economic crisis, Europe's governments are struggling to cope with an influx of people from countries including Syria, where Russia's intervention has complicated efforts to end nearly five years of civil war.

Border guards

Despite an agreed framework to relocate some migrants already in Europe, a broader common policy is still embryonic, with this latest meeting trying to heal a rift over whether to welcome more migrants or toughen up the EU's external borders.

In a 16-point plan seen by Reuters, leaders will try to balance their approach, likely agreeing to send 400 border guards to the western Balkan border if the EU's frontier states drop their policy of giving arrivals passage to other countries.

Mr Cerar said Croatia, which has already seen some 230,000 migrants pass through since mid-September, was still waiving migrants through into Slovenia without alerting Slovenia authorities.

In the draft statement, the leaders seek to speed up repatriations of people from South Asia, namely Afghanistan and Pakistan, whose asylum requests are rejected because they are simply seeking a better life and not fleeing war or oppression.

Germany, which has troops in Afghanistan helping to stabilise the country under a NATO mission, wants the European Commission to negotiate an agreement on returning people to Afghanistan whose asylum applications have been rejected.

"We commit to immediately increase our efforts to manage our borders," the draft said, which, if formalised, would also mean more ships off Greece to deter people traffickers, more land border checks in Macedonia and more money for border control.

Even with agreement on the 16-point plan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel cautioned that there would be no solution without Turkey, which was not invited to the meeting.

"We will not solve the refugee problem completely, we need, among other things, further talks with Turkey for that," MS Merkel said.

"Only with Turkey we can switch illegality to legality. It is very important that the (European) Commission discusses further the migration agenda with Turkey."

Brussels has presented Ankara with a so-called action plan in which Turkey receives EU funding to absorb more migrants fleeing Syria in return for easier travel rules to Europe and a broadening of long-running talks on eventual Turkish membership of the bloc.

That could mean the European Union sending some 3 billion euros ($3.31 billion) in aid.

Tony Blair Making Ground for Chilcot Iraq War Inquiry Report

It seems that by apologizing for Iraq war Tony Blair Creating background for Chilcot report on Iraq War.

As former PM Tony Blair will bear brunt of criticism over Iraq war, report is expected to target wider number of people than had expected.

Sir John Chilcot is to apportion blame for Britain’s role in the Iraq war much more widely than had been expected, going well beyond Tony Blair and his inner team, according to sources involved with his six-year inquiry.

While Blair will bear the brunt of the report’s criticism, one source said it would suit the former prime minister to see a wide range of targets blamed when it is published.

It has been assumed that Chilcot would concentrate on Blair and his closest advisers in Downing Street. However, the Guardian understands the inquiry intends to criticise a much bigger circle of ministers and officials, including Jack Straw, foreign secretary at the time of the Iraq invasion in 2003.

Others in focus are Sir Richard Dearlove, then head of MI6, Sir John Scarlett, chairman of the joint intelligence committee, Geoff Hoon, the defence secretary, Clare Short, the international development secretary, and senior officials in the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the Foreign Office and the Cabinet Office. The inquiry took evidence from about 150 people.

The Chilcot inquiry has come under increased pressure over the last few weeks to publish the report. The inquiry began in 2009, with hearings completed in 2011, but has been beset by repeated delays.

The inquiry team is dismayed about sustained media attacks in the last few weeks over the delay. The media coverage has increased pressure on Chilcot to agree a date for publication. David Cameron also expressed frustration last week over failure to complete the report.

The wide circle of people facing criticism is cited as one of the reasons for the delay. As part of the process, every individual to be criticised is sent draft passages giving them an opportunity to comment. Some of those who have received drafts have expressed surprise, having regarded themselves as peripheral to the events leading up to the invasion.

Chilcot wants to ensure that those criticised are given every opportunity to rebut the criticism. He does not want to give them an excuse to take legal action or attack the inquiry after the final report has been published.

The final report will not include the number of people who have been sent drafts containing criticism. The public may not know to what extent Chilcot has toned down his criticism in response to objections.

The Daily Telegraph reported earlier this month that in response to a freedom of information request, the inquiry said it “does not intend to make public the specific details of timing, content or recipients” of the Maxwellisation process, even after the final report is published.



The Times reported last week that Sir Nicholas Houghton is among those facing criticism for his actions during the Iraq war. But a source close to the inquiry agreed that while there would be criticism of military decisions taken after the invasion, the bulk of the criticism would be directed less towards the military than others involved.

The main focus of the inquiry is on the events leading up to the 2003 invasion, in particular questions of about the legality of military action, faulty intelligence and whether Blair gave an early undertaking to the then US president, George W Bush, to support the US-led invasion.

The British handling of Iraq after the invasion, including its attempts to subdue Basra, is regarded as important but secondary.

Senior military figures told the inquiry they were given insufficient time to prepare for the war for political reasons, mainly because the government did not want to admit that the invasion was almost certain to go ahead.

Military commanders were among the sharpest witnesses to the inquiry, strongly criticising the failures of Whitehall decision makers. They have been prevented by the MoD from publishing their criticisms of the invasion of Iraq and its aftermath.

Letters: I respect the uncompromising determination of Sir John Chilcot and his commission to find out the facts behind this. But we must be told when his Iraq inquiry report will be made public

 Admiral Lord Boyce, chief of the defence staff at the time of the invasion, told the inquiry: “I suspect if I asked half the cabinet were we at war, they would not have known what I was talking about. There was a lack of political cohesion at the top.”

The Guardian understands the inquiry will avoid judging on this. Although Lord Goldsmith, the then attorney general, described how Blair shut him out of discussions, his critics say the attorney passed the buck to Blair.



The inquiry has already heard that Straw roundly dismissed the unanimous view of the top lawyers in the Foreign Office that an invasion of Iraq would be illegal.

Houghton, chief of the defence staff of the British armed forces, was not directly involved in the events leading up to the invasion. He only became involved in Iraq from 2005 through to 2009.

The inquiry was angry over delays by the Cabinet Office in reaching agreement on publication of some of the Blair-Bush correspondence, which Chilcot has described as key evidence that is “vital to the public understanding of the inquiry’s conclusions”.

The frontrunner in the race to become the next Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, last week partially pre-empted Chilcot’s findings, issuing a statement saying he would apologise for the Labour government’s decision to go to war.

One of his rivals, Andy Burnham, said he would be open to such an apology but only after the Chilcot report was published and if “apologies need to be made”

Even though Chilcot indicts the real culprits in British political hierarchy for bloody Iraq war, who is responsible for loss of thousands of lives of innocent Iraqi people? Can Tony Blair compensate these lives?

Russia Released Clear Drone Footage of Syria War Devastation

http://www.newsbharati.com/ Russia Released Clear Drone Footage of Syria War Devastation.

Russia posts Syria attack drone footage amid propaganda drive

Dramatic footage shot by team working for Russia’s state broadcaster purports to show Assad forces advancing into rebel-held suburb of Damascus

This dramatic drone footage from Damascus gives a chilling idea of the scale of destruction on Syria’s urban battlefields.

The footage, shot by team working for Russia’s state broadcaster VGTRK, purports to show Syrian regime forces advancing into Jobar, a rebel-held suburb of the Syrian capital.

The attempt to retake Jobar is one of several offensives launched by Syrian government forces since Russia began airstrikes to support ground operations by the regime, Iran, and Hizbollah three weeks ago.

Elements of the footage were first broadcast in a report from Syria on Russia’s Vesti news channel last Wednesday, but a full montage - including stylised editing and a techno soundtrack - was posted on Youtube on Monday.

Russia’s military and government spin machine has been working overtime to sell the intervention to the Russian public.

Much of the effort appears to be modelled on strategies used by Nato and other western governments during previous interventions in Iraq, the Balkans, and elsewhere.

Russia’s defence ministry, which was heavily criticised for a lack of transparency during Russia’s last official war, in Georgia in 2008, issues daily briefings including cock-pit camera and drone footage of strikes being carried out.

The briefings emphasise the “surgical” nature of strikes, consistently claim impressive results, and downplay reports of civilian casualties as “information attacks” by Russia’s enemies.

And they have sought to neuter western objections that Russia is mostly bombing anti-Assad rebels, but not Isil, by painting all anti-Assad forces as extremist “terrorists.” The “moderate opposition,” the argument goes, exists only in the imagination of American policy makers.

Meanwhile, correspondents from Russia’s tighty-controlled state broadcasters and pro-Kremlin newspapers have been embedded with Syrian government forces since before airstrikes began, and began sending in dramatic dispatches from the ground the moment the intervention was announced in Moscow.

That has been backed by pundits and talking heads explaining the necessity of the campaign. At one point state television even showed a weather forecast that predicted perfect weather for the bombing campaign.

Bellingcat, a citizen journalism group, has challenged many of the Ministry of Defence videos, saying that satellite photo analysis shows the MoD have occasionally lied about where strikes were filmed.

The group has highlighted two cases where videos purporting to show airstrikes on targets near the Isil terror-group’s stronghold of Raqqa, in eastern Syria, actually showed attacks on positions roughly 100 miles to the west.

Domestically, the spin seems to be working. Before the intervention just 14 percent of Russians said they backed direct military support for Bashar Al Assad’s government, according to a mid-September poll by the independent Levada Centre.

But a later survey by the same pollster released on October 8, one week into the air campaign, showed 72 percent of Russians backing airstrikes against ISIS/ ISIL



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