International
ELN says that resuming kidnappings for economic purposes is not an ultimatum to the Government
The guerrilla of the National Liberation Army (ELN) does not believe that resuming kidnappings for economic purposes, as announced on May 6 after agreeing to its suspension in February, is an “ultimatum” to the Government but a “record” of its “will to continue looking at a search for a way out of this matter.”
This was stated in an interview with EFE by the chief guerrilla negotiator, Israel Ramírez Pineda, known as ‘Pablo Beltrán’, who assured that the announcement to end the suspension of that crime was nothing more than expected, since his commitment was to suspend it for three months until they found another solution.
This is because in Havana, when the extension of the ceasefire was negotiated, which was where this commitment of the ELN to suspend “withholdings for economic purposes” was incorporated, this was done as a sign of the goodwill of the guerrillas, he explains.
“The ELN can increasingly commit to incorporating more prohibited actions on cessation, but the ELN also needs support to sustain the cessation,” he says. That is, they expected a guerrilla financing solution to be negotiated, which has a source of income in kidnappings.
“That is the political will, but in the discussion we did not manage to reach an agreement on that, that is, when we renewed this cessation there was no agreement to include in the extension the cessation of withholdings,” said Beltrán, although even so, he adds, the ELN included its commitment “on a voluntary basis to make a unilateral cessation of three months, while we find solutions.”
However, those three months have passed since the meeting in Havana and “the Bureau (of dialogues) entered a very difficult crisis and those solutions that we left to make were not worked on. Then the three months passed, but we were not able to advance the solutions. There was a gap.”
“Then we were forced to say until May 3 was the unilateral cessation (of withholdings for economic purposes) and we hope that we will resume the discussions again, to see if we reach an agreement in that sense. So, it is not an ultimatum but a record that we have the will to continue looking at a search for a way out of this issue that is expected to be included in the prohibited actions,” Beltrán emphasizes.
The two parties have signed the first point of the six on the negotiating agenda in Caracas, but the crises and open disputes have meant that a new cycle of dialogues has not been made since the end of January.
Now they will have to be found again to, among other matters, see if the ceasefire is extended once again, which began on August 3 and will fulfill, for the first time in the history of the guerrillas, a year without breaches.
It is in that new negotiation where the ELN hopes that, if there is compliance by the Government, more prohibited actions, such as kidnappings, will be added.
Despite the fact that International Humanitarian Law (IHL) considers the taking of hostages (the capture of a civilian outside the conflict) as a war crime, for the ELN the “retention” of civilians for economic purposes is not because it is a “temporary detention.”
“That type of withholding, above all, we focus on characters who have been enriched with the corruption of the treasury. That is a policy, that is, to expropriate corrupt (…) So it is not only to expropriate for expropriate, no, it is to the corrupt,” explains Beltrán.
Thus, the guerrillas point out that “they charge tributes” and that when they do not comply, it is when “a temporary arrest is made.”
“I don’t want to compare, but there are many countries in the world that if you don’t pay taxes, they stop you. Well, that’s it, it’s a temporary detention and for us it’s not hostage-taking,” says the head of the ELN delegation at the dialogue table.
International
At least 120 dead in the Gaza Strip in the last 48 hours from Israeli attacks
At least 120 Palestinians have died in the Gaza Strip in the last 48 hours from Israeli attacks and the death toll since the war began amounts to 44,176, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, controlled by Hamas.
In the case of the injured, the ministry confirmed 205 in the last two days and in total since the war began, on October 7, 2023, they total 104,473, according to that count.
In addition, it is estimated that there are 11,000 missing people under the rubble.
Offensive in Yabalia and Beit Lahia
Although fatalities have been recorded in different parts of the Strip, in the last 40 days Israel’s offensive has focused on the northern half, especially in the cities of Yabalia and Beit Lahia, with more than 2,300 dead since then, and more than 6,000 injured.
Kamal Adwan hospital has been attacked again after an Israeli drone destroyed the electric generator, water tank and oxygen tanks in the center yesterday, where 80 patients remain.
“It seems that there are no limits to the cruelty inflicted on the Palestinians in Gaza. For more than 40 days, the northern population is besieged: surrounded, bombed, deprived of the basic means of survival and forced to flee under threats,” denounced the head of the OCHA (UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs) office for Palestine, Jonathan Whittal.
Whittal said that his teams have been trying to access Yabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanun, the most affected cities, for more than a month, but that the Israeli authorities have rejected all his requests.
“The result? People are under the rubble without being rescued. The sick and the wounded cannot reach the hospitals. Drinking water and food have run out. Lives have been lost,” he said.
International
At least 10 people died at the hands of strangers in a mosque in northern Afghanistan
At least 10 people were killed in an attack by unidentified armed men in a mosque in Baghlan province, in northern Afghanistan, Taliban government sources confirmed to EFE this Saturday.
The attack in the Nahrin district of Baghlan, northern Afghanistan, took place on Thursday night, according to Taliban government deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat.
“Unfortunately, before last night (Thursday night) in a mosque and on a pilgrimage during the night, ten people who stayed for worship were killed by strangers,” he said.
Sufi communities in Afghanistan often spend nights in mosques as a worship practice.
Research to identify the authors
Fitrat assured that investigations are being carried out to identify and bring the perpetrators to justice for this “horrible incident,” for which no armed group has claimed authorship.
“The Islamic Emirate strongly condemns this terrible act and considers it an unforgivable crime,” added Fitrat, who blames extremist groups.
“This act was committed by those extremist groups that have no respect for the blood of other Muslims,” he condemned.
In the last three years, since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, ISIS-Khorasan, the Afghan branch of the jihadist group Islamic State- has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on minorities and members of the Taliban, becoming the country’s greatest security threat.
Minority groups such as the Hazara Shiite community and Sufi practitioners have been frequent targets of violence by extremist groups that try to impose a rigid interpretation of Islam.
The Taliban de facto government has insistently denied that the Islamic State is a security threat to Afghanistan or any other country, while the regime’s secrecy and iron controls on the press have cut off the flow of information on the country’s security situation.
International
Ukraine attacks the port of Berdyansk with missiles, according to pro-Russian authorities
The Ukrainian army attacked the port of Berdiansk, in the Sea of Azov, with missiles on Saturday, according to the pro-Russian authorities of the Zaporyy region today.
“The enemy perpetrated an attack with guided missiles against the port of Berdiansk. The fires caused by the impact have been suffocated,” reported the governor imposed by Moscow, Yevgueni Balitski, on his Telegram channel.
The governor, who was recently received in Moscow by Russian President Vladimir Putin, stressed that the attack did not cause injuries among the civilian population and did not interrupt the work of the port facilities.
In turn, he assured that anti-aircraft defenses continue to be on maximum alert, since new Ukrainian attacks against the city are not ruled out.
At the end of October Kiev had already attacked the strategic port under Russian control since 2022 with a dead old woman.
The Russian army controls more than 70% of Zaporiyia and tries to take control of the rest of the region as it advances at forced marches in neighboring Donetsk.
North Korean soldiers in the Belgorod region, according to Ukraine
Ukraine claims that North Korean soldiers, who until now were only in the Russian region of Kursk, were also transferred to Belgorod, which borders the northeastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv.
“Some soldiers from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea were transferred to the border of the Belgorod region,” the head of the Central Intelligence Department of the National Security and Defense Council, Andrí Kovalenko, wrote on Telegram.
The senior Ukrainian official stressed that “they are not in the Kharkiv region,” as some US media had reported based on Ukrainian sources.
The Kremlin rules out a second onde of mobilization
For its part, the Kremlin today ruled out a second wave of mobilization of reservists to fight in Ukraine with a view to the fourth year of fighting in the neighboring country.
“Our citizens very actively sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense,” Dmitri Peskov, presidential spokesman, told the official agency RIA Novosti.
Peskov stressed that volunteers carry out courses in which they are instructed “consciously,” so “now there is no need to talk about mobilization.”
“There are many, hundreds who sign contracts every day,” he added.
The Kremlin has refrained from declaring a new partial mobilization after the first one in September 2022 caused great popular discontent and the exodus of hundreds of thousands of military-age men.
1,000 days of combat
Fighting in Ukraine reached 1,000 days this week with Russian forces advancing in forced marches in the Donbas, although Moscow has not yet been able to expel Ukrainian troops from the Kursk region.
Ukraine hopes to slow down the current Russian offensive with Western authorization to use American and British long-range missiles against targets in Russian territory, which Kiev used against the Bryansk and Kursk regions.
Russia responded on Thursday by launching an Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile at an arms factory in the Ukrainian region of Dnipro.
In addition, on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that there will be more launches and announced the mass production of those new generation missiles capable of circumventing any Western missile shield.
At least 120 dead in the Gaza Strip in the last 48 hours from Israeli attacks
At least 10 people died at the hands of strangers in a mosque in northern Afghanistan
Ukraine attacks the port of Berdyansk with missiles, according to pro-Russian authorities
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