Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Biodun Iginla, BBC News
Showing posts with label kosovo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kosovo. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

ANALYSIS: Repatriate or reject: What countries are doing with IS group families



Delil Souleiman, AFP | US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) escort a woman and child in the northern Kurdish city of Qamishli as they are handed over to diplomats from Uzbekistan, May 2019.
Since the fall of the Islamic State group's so-called "caliphate" in March, the international community has been torn over what to do with the families of foreign jihadists captured or killed in Syria and Iraq.
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Some 12,000 foreigners from as many as 40 countries  4,000 women and 8,000 children  are currently stranded, mainly in Al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria.
The Kurdish authorities are pressing for them to be returned to their countries of origin.
Here are several examples of how countries around the world are dealing with the issue:
Russia, Kosovo, first
Nearly 4,500 Russian citizens went abroad to fight alongside the IS group and it was the first to organise returns over a year ago.
By February around 200 women and children had returned, originating mainly from Russia's Islamic republics in the Caucasus. Moscow estimates that nearly 1,400 children are still stranded.
Kosovo, which is 90 percent Muslim, announced in April it is repatriating 110 nationals from Syria, almost all of them wives and children of jihadists.
France and Belgium: 'case by case'
After months of hesitation amid hostile public opinion, 12 orphaned children of French jihadists were flown homefrom Syria on Monday.
France repatriated five orphans from Syria in mid-March, as well as a three-year-old girl whose mother was sentenced to life imprisonment in Iraq.
Paris has said it is studying the files of all its citizens held in northeastern Syria on a case-by-case basis.
Like France, Belgium has been one of the biggest sources of foreign fighters for the IS group.
The authorities recorded more than 400 travelling from 2012 while 160 children and adolescents have been born with at least one Belgian parent involved.
Belgium says it will help the repatriation of children younger than 10, as long as the link with a Belgian parent is proven. "For the others it is case by case," the government says.
Germany: children repatriated
A dozen children of jihadist fighters have been repatriated from Iraq to Germany since March.
The German authorities, while cautious, say that the children are "victims" and that they should be repatriated if they have family to take them in.
Children who have been radicalised will be placed in a special institution but will not be locked up.
Denmark: stripped of nationality
The Danish government in late March drew up draft legislation under which children born abroad to jihadists will not have Danish nationality.
United States
The United States has urged Western countries to take their nationals back and has started repatriating some of its own.
Two American women and six children from families of suspected IS group members were repatriated in early June.
In July 2018 Washington brought home three IS group fighters for prosecution and also repatriated one woman with her four children.
Tunisia: no repatriation
Some 5,000 Tunisians have joined the IS group in Syria and Libya, according to the UN in 2015  one of the biggest contingents.
No children have been brought home from Syria or Iraq, according to Human Rights Watch in February.
Tunisia's government worries that repatriating children will only accelerate the return of their jihadist parents, according to a local rights group, the Rescue Association of Tunisians Trapped Abroad. 
Turkey
In late May, Iraq repatriated to neighbouring Turkey 188 children of Turks accused of belonging to the IS group, a capital offence in Iraq.
Tajikistan, Uzbekistan
Tajikistan, from where more than 1,000 travelled to fight for the IS group, said in May that 84 children had been brought back from Iraq, where their parents had been either jailed or killed in battle.
On May 30, Uzbekistan said it had repatriated 156 nationals, mostly women and children.


Saturday, May 14, 2016

UK priest wanted over sex abuse claims 'held in Kosovo'

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Lawrence SoperImage copyrightMETROPOLITAN POLICE

by Elodie Bagnol and Biodun Iginla, BBC News, Pristina, Kosovo
A British former Catholic priest wanted over child sex abuse allegations has been arrested in Kosovo, local police sources say.
Lawrence Soper was being hunted over sex offences allegedly carried out when he was abbot of Catholic Ealing Abbey in London from 1991 to 2000.
He was arrested in 2010 and bailed, but failed to return to a London police station in March 2011.
A European Arrest Warrant was issued for him in 2012.
Police in Kosovo's capital Pristina confirmed to the BBC local reports that he had been arrested in Pec, in the west of the country, on Thursday.
A senior official, speaking anonymously, told the BBC that the extradition process was under way to return him to the UK.
Police in London said: "The Metropolitan Police is aware of an arrest and is currently in liaison with the relevant authorities."
In June 2010, a man in his 40s made an allegation of sexual assault at St Benedict's School in Ealing, west London, that was also attended by actor Andy Serkis and comedian Julian Clary.
Mr Soper was questioned three months later. London's Metropolitan Police obtained a European Arrest Warrant in September 2012 after he failed to answer bail.
Police said at the time that they believed Mr Soper had been living in Italy.
Kosovo's Insajderi newspaper said Mr Soper had been living under the name Andrew, and had lived in Pec for several years.

More on this story

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Macedonia blames Kosovans for deadly Kumanovo clashes

by Isabelle Roussel and Biodun Iginla, Reuters contributors and BBC News, Skopje

40 minutes ago


Macedonia says five Kosovans led the armed group which was involved in deadly clashes with security forces in the northern town of Kumanovo.
Eight officers and 14 gunmen were killed in the fighting, Interior ministry spokesman Ivo Kotevski said.
Those named were members of the now dismantled Kosovo Liberation Army.
Mr Kotevski said the threat in Kumanovo, near the Serbian-Kosovan border, had been "eliminated" and a large amount of weapons seized.
Last month, about 40 ethic Albanians from Kosovo briefly took over a Macedonian police station in the village of Gosince near the border, demanding the creation of an Albanian state in Macedonia.

In 2001, rebels demanding greater rights for the ethnic Albanian minority launched an uprising against the government, and tensions have continued despite a peace deal.
About a quarter of Macedonia's two million population are ethnic Albanians.

Men in uniforms

Sami Ukshini, Beg Rizaj, Dem Shehu, Muhamet Krasniqi and Mirsad Ndrecaj were the leaders of the armed group that clashed with police in a suburb of Kumanovo, some 40km (25 miles) north of the capital, Skopje on Saturday, the interior ministry spokesman said.
Only one of the 14 uniformed bodies had been identified - that of another Kosovo national, named Xhafer Zymberi, said the spokesman.
"More than 30 terrorists, mainly Macedonian nationals and one from Albania, surrendered yesterday [Saturday] to the police forces," Mr Kotevski added.
He said 37 police officers were also wounded in the clashes.

The men who surrendered would face Macedonian justice, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said.
The group had tried to destabilise the country, he said, after paying tribute to the security forces.
His government is already under pressure over claims of illegal wire-tapping and police brutality.

The opposition and the government have accused each other of deliberately destabilising the country.
Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said he was following the situation with "great concern" and urged all sides to "exercise restraint and avoid any further escalation, in the interest of the country and the whole region".
Earlier, the European Commission issued a similar call.
Macedonia, which is a candidate for European Union membership, is observing two days of mourning.