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British PM urges talks with French president to tackle Calais migrant crisis

2015/08/01

Cameron called the pictures of migrants tearing down fences and hanging onto trucks as they try to enter the Channel Tunnel “unacceptable”.

“We are absolutely on it. We know it needs more work,” Cameron said.

‘France and the UK can only solve this together’ – French MP

London needs to amend labor laws on illegal employment to stop the chaotic flow of migrants seeking to enter the UK through the French border town of Calais, Xavier Bertrand, a French MP and mayor of northern city of Saint-Quentin, told RT.

The Calais crisis, which in recent days has seen thousands of immigrants desperately trying to get through to the Eurotunnel to try and make the way across the British border, has attracted some strong words from UK politicians, including calls to send in troops to deal with the situation.

However, critics say that such rhetoric only distracts the public from the underlying causes of the migrant crisis. According to Bertrand, who visited the site and has been closely following the measures the mayor of Calais, Natacha Bouchart, has been taking, the reason why the migrants are rushing to the UK lies within British jurisdiction.

“UK’s labor laws are such that employment is possible with or without identification. This is the real reason [for mass immigration problem]. If the British want to get rid of this, they need to change the laws,” Bertrand said.

The traffic problems are unlikely to be solved by having the military to intervene, Bertrand believes. Instead, the army will only make things worse for local commercial traffic going through the Channel Tunnel.

Urging the UK government to deal with the origin of the problem, the French MP said forces should instead be sent to patrol Libya.

“We are proposing to block shipping routes near the Libyan coast. There are around 1 million people in Africa who are planning to get to Europe on boats from Libya. What we need to do is to set up a marine cordon in front of the Libyan, not Italian coast, so that migrants would not be able to reach the sea.”

Moreover, countries like Libya and Eritrea should get European support to help them develop and improve the situation, which makes people want to leave en masse, Bertrand said.

But to solve the current crisis, Britain and France cannot resort to bans or demonstrations of force. Instead the two nations need to sit down for talks and find solutions, the French MP said.

“The truth is that France and the UK can only solve this together… I have been suggesting to hold a French-British summit … to study all aspects of the problem – tourism, economy, migration – and make concrete decisions.”

“Until we can get to stop illegal immigration from Libya, until the UK labor laws are changed, until Calais residents are provided greater security – we will only be able to loudly discuss this topic, but never be able to do anything real to solve the problem.”

The UK-France border issue will be a sore point between two countries, according to Bertrand. If Cameron is getting ready to raise the question of the conditions surrounding UK’s EU membership, then France will bring up the issue of moving the border from Calais to the British city of Dover, he said.

Bertrand explained the current Eurotunnel crisis by the construction of additional barricades at the port, which was partly financed by the British. This development, he believes, has convinced the migrants that “the easiest way to the UK is through the Channel Tunnel.”

Zimbabwe asks US to extradite dentist lion killer

2015/08/01

The US has not previously extradited an American citizen to Zimbabwe, and nor has Zimbabwe extradited one of its own citizens to the US, since the extradition treaty between the countries came into force in 2000, a State Department official told AP.

The first Zimbabwean official comment on the killing came from the country’s environment, water and climate minister, who attacked the American dentist for his actions.

"Unfortunately it was too late to apprehend the foreign poacher as he had already absconded to his country of origin. We are appealing to the responsible authorities for his extradition to Zimbabwe so that he be made accountable," Oppah Muchinguri told a news conference.

Palmer "had a well-orchestrated agenda which would tarnish the image of Zimbabwe and further strain the relationship between Zimbabwe and the USA," Muchinguri added.

The US State Department has officially stated that it can’t comment on individual extradition cases, but spokesman Mark Toner said such a request would be presented to a US court to determine its viability, AFP reported.

Palmer is accused of funding an illegal hunt, and of using a crossbow "to conceal the illegal hunt."

On Tuesday, Palmer insisted that his guides had told him the hunt was legal.

"I had no idea that the lion I took was a known, local favorite, was collared and part of a study until the end of the hunt," Palmer said in a statement.

The 13-year-old lion was an international celebrity: friendly to visitors, distinctively large and with a black mane. Cecil was also monitored by conservationists from Oxford, in the UK, as part of their program to protect lions.

Two Zimbabwean citizens, a professional hunter and a farm owner, have already been arrested in connection with the killing of Cecil.

"I don't believe I failed in any duties at all, I was engaged by a client to do a hunt for him and we shot an old male lion that I believed was past his breeding age," Zimbabwean hunter Theo Bronkhorst told AFP.

The killing has attracted worldwide attention, causing the UN on Thursday to adopt a resolution to battle illegal poaching and trafficking of animals.

Diplomat: all Moscow moves in Crimea’s accession were in line with Helsinki principles

2015/08/01

MOSCOW, August 1. /TASS/. All Moscow’s moves during Crimea’s reunification with Russia were strictly in line with the principles of the Helsinki Final Act, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for European Cooperation, Ivan Soltanovsky, told Tass.

"Attempts by some Western countries to accuse Russia of violating the principles of the UN Charter and Helsinki principles of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe are absolutely baseless," Soltanovsky said in an interview timed to the day when the Helsinki Final Act was signed 40 years ago.

"It is incorrect to say that the return of Crimea within Russia was a violation of any of the stated principles first of all from the legal point of view. It is obvious that such statements are purely politically motivated," he added.

He reminded the interlocutor that the Final Act of 1975 fixed the principles of territorial integrity of states and inviolability of borders, "and with that, this document as well as the Declaration of Principles [of International Law] of 1970 fix the principle of equality and people’s right to decide their own destiny".

"Thus, self-determination is one of the generally recognized principles of international law,m" the diplomat continued. "In case of Crimea, its declaration of independence and accession to Russia became the only possible option after the country had seen a coup with the use of force and its population faced violence of radical nationalists and saw their legitimate interests ignored," he said.

As for the UN Charter, the diplomat said the right to create a sovereign and independent state, freely join an independent state or unite with it was envisaged in the ‘Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations’.

As a result, by exercising their right to self-determination through holding a referendum, the Crimean residents protected their vitally important interests. "Accordingly, all Russia’s activity within that context was in strict compliance with the Helsinki principles," he added.

Diplomat criticizes ODIHR ‘double standards’ in election monitoring

2015/08/01

MOSCOW, August 1. /TASS/. Representatives from Western countries in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe block the fixing of basic principles in election monitoring within the framework of the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), a top Russian diplomat said, adding that double standards in the Office’s activity persisted as a result.

"The experience of Russia’s participation in the work of ODIHR’s missions to observe elections has confirmed that it is often biased, tendentious, lacks transparency or any common rules in determining the scope of monitoring," said Ivan Soltanovsky, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for European Cooperation.

"Russia has been long in favor of having order established in that sphere," he added in an interview with TASS timed to the signing of the Helsinki Final Act 40 years ago.

The diplomat said that back in 2007, Russia submitted to the OSCE a draft on basic principles for ODIHR in its observation activity. "Unfortunately, the West is blocking it," he added.

As a result, the situation persists in ODIHR, when "a positive verdict on the results of monitoring is mainly passed on the countries situated only ‘west of Vienna’," he said.

This demonstrates "double standards" in its activity, when ODIHR prefers "turning a blind eye" to drawbacks existing in the election system of the West, and at the same time making extremely negative decisions as to election processes in post-Soviet countries, including in Russia," he added.

Some 25 documents ready for OSCE Ministerial Council

Some 25 documents have already been prepared for a session of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Belgrade on December 3-4, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for European Cooperation told Tass on Saturday.

"It is difficult to forecast which matters and draft decisions we will be able to coordinate," Ivan Soltanovsky said in an interview timed to the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Helsinki Final Act.

Soltanovsky said Moscow was satisfied with close cooperation with the Serbian OSCE chairmanship at all levels. "We mark a bid of our Serbian colleagues to play the role of an ‘honest broker’ taking into account in a balanced manner the interests of the member countries, also Russian, in the program of organization’s activity" he noted.

"We, for our part, are ready to make constructive contribution to preparations for the forthcoming meeting in accordance with the Russian national interests," he added.

Ukraine crisis exposes system problems in European security, says diplomat

2015/08/01

MOSCOW, August 1. /TASS/. The Ukrainian crisis has exposed system-related problems in the architecture of Euro-Atlantic security, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for European Cooperation, Ivan Soltanovsky, told TASS on Saturday.

"There is a feeling that different ‘color revolutions’ and other projects to replace legitimate regimes are aimed at triggering chaos and instability," Soltanovsky said in an interview timed to the signing of the Helsinki Final Act 40 years ago.

"Now, Ukraine has fallen a victim to such logic," he added. The diplomat said "the Ukrainian crisis has exposed system-related shortages in the architecture of the Euro-Atlantic security, which was not brought in compliance with the possibilities that opened after an epoch of confrontation of the second part of the 20th century had come to an end," he said.

Russian diplomat: OSCE monitoring mission reports often one-sided

Reports of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine are often one-sided, as it first of all monitors militias, Ivan Soltanovsky told.

"The SMM daily issues reports on the situation in Donbass and Ukraine. Unfortunately, these reports are often one-sided, to which we have repeatedly drawn attention," Soltanovsky said in an interview timed to the day when the Helsinki Final Act was signed 40 years ago.

"Too close attention is paid to militias, and at the same time there is much less information about what is going on west of the line of contact," he explained.

Soltanovsky reminded the interlocutor that the mission’s mandate included the whole territory of Ukraine, noting that this is why "it is very important to also watch how human rights and interests of national minorities are observed in Kiev, Odessa, Kharkov, Lvov, Ivano-Frankovsk, Chernovtsy and other regions of Ukraine".

At the same time, the diplomat highlighted the role of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis. He said OSCE representatives also worked within the framework of the Contact Group and its four subgroups.

"Besides, a group of OSCE observers is deployed at border crossing checkpoints Donetsk and Gukovo on the Russian-Ukrainian border in the Rostov region," he continued.

"We are satisfied on the whole with its activity, observers are objectively fixing and reporting on the situation with travels across the border," the diplomat said.

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