Migrant crisis: EU plans emergency aid for Greece

The European Union announced plans Wednesday for 700 million euros ($760 million) in emergency aid to Greece as the economically struggling country copes with an influx of migrants stranded in hopes of gaining entry into Europe.
The EU’s Christos Stylianides revealed the emergency funding proposal, promising to “fast-track” the assistance. But EU member states must still approve the funding.
“These are extraordinary times,” said Stylianides, European commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis management. “We all need to step up our efforts with no delay to prevent a further deterioration of the situation.”
Greece, the main gateway to Europe, had asked the EU for help to provide for tens of thousands of migrants in its territory.
A bottleneck of migrants has backed up rapidly in the wake of other European nations tightening border restrictions — a development that led the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to warn Tuesday of a burgeoning humanitarian disaster.
The aid proposal — intended to meet basic needs such as food, water and shelter over the next three years — came a day after NATO’s top general told a Pentagon briefing that ISIS was exploiting the migrant crisis.
Following testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove told reporters Tuesday that mass migration spurred by the ongoing conflict in Syria and the threat of ISIS in the Middle East was allowing terrorists free entry into Europe.
He warned that the mass influx of migrants is allowing ISIS to spread “like a cancer, taking advantage of paths of least resistance and threatening European nations, and our own, with terrorist attacks.”
Breedlove, who is head of Supreme Allied Command in Europe, said the migration “masks the movement of criminals, terrorists and foreign fighters” into the continent.
U.N. agency warns of ‘imminent humanitarian crisis’
Elsewhere Tuesday, the U.N. refugee agency warned the constant influx of migrants meant Europe faced “an imminent humanitarian crisis.”
More than 131,000 migrants entered Europe in the first two months of 2016 — a number close to the total for the first half of 2015, according to the U.N. agency’s figures. More than 1 million migrants entered Europe last year.
The failure to mount a unified response to the situation means Europe now faces a crisis “largely of its own making” as the buildup of migrants stranded in Greece grows rapidly, a statement said.
Some European countries, including those along the main Balkan migration route through the continent, recently agreed to tighten border controls to slow arrivals to a trickle.
The move has created a backlog of migrants in Greece, which faces its own severe financial hardships, as the flow of people there from Turkey continues unabated.
Tensions boiled over Monday at Idomeni, a major transit camp on the Greece-Macedonia border, as migrants were denied permission to cross into Macedonia. Macedonian authorities have been letting a few hundred cross each day, but only Syrians and Iraqis with photo identification.
A group responded to the backlog by ramming through the barbed-wire border fence with a post.
The U.N. refugee agency said the number of migrants stuck in Greece had soared to 24,000 by Monday night, with about 8,500 of them stuck at Idomeni.
Merkel: Reinstate Schengen system
Also Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said European countries needed to reinstate the Schengen system of border-free travel within Europe to deal with the crisis rather than implement extra border controls.
“The situation is not yet so that we can be content. Every day we see the pictures from Greece — we have to get back to the Schengen system,” Merkel said at a news conference with Croatian Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic.
Some member states have temporarily suspended 1985’s Schengen Agreement, which has guaranteed free movement within Europe. It is expected to be amended later this month.
“Greece of course has to protect its borders — this is not about only protecting the Greek-Macedonian border from the Macedonian side, so that we don’t get new routes in the migration flow.”
She also urged EU member states to stick to their obligation, made in September, to resettle 160,000 refugees among themselves over two years. So far, only hundreds have been resettled.
Rise of European Islamophobia
Rights groups have cautioned against scapegoating refugees after violence such as the deadly coordinated attacks in Paris in November.
“Significant refugee flows to Europe, spurred largely by the Syrian conflict, coupled with broadening attacks on civilians in the name of the extremist group (ISIS), have led to growing fear-mongering and Islamophobia,” Human Rights Watch said in its 2016 World Report.
Breedlove told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that alongside the threat posed by extremist organizations in Europe was the potential for unrest from local nationalists opposed to the unprecedented influx of refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and unstable parts of Africa.
Fears are they could become increasingly violent, building on the small number of attacks against migrant and refugee populations.
Russia: Contributing to instability
In his Pentagon appearance, Breedlove also pointed a finger at a “resurgent, aggressive Russia,” which “poses a long-term and existential threat to the U.S. and our European allies.”
Russia’s involvement in the Syrian civil war, which Breedlove said had bolstered Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies, has changed the dynamic and “complicated the problem … in the air and on the ground.”
The view is compounded by Pentagon reports that Russia is using the shaky ceasefire in Syria to seize key territory.
Relations between Turkey — the only Muslim-majority member of NATO — and Russia also threatened security, with tensions between the two increasing the “risk of miscalculation or even confrontation.”

Magnitude-7.8 earthquake strikes off Indonesia

A magnitude-7.8 earthquake struck Wednesday off the coast of Indonesia, another major tremor in an area known for those — though, thankfully, this one didn’t immediately appear to cause widespread death or destruction.
The quake was centered in the Indian Ocean about 410 miles (660 kilometers) southwest of Muara Siberut and roughly 500 miles west-southwest of Padang, which is on the west coast of Sumatra, the Asian archipelago nation’s largest island.
The U.S. Geological Survey indicated the earthquake struck 15 miles deep.
After initially noting a “potential … threat,” the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, a U.S. government agency, said there had been “no tsunami observed.”
Just in case, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology issued warnings for Cocos Island, which is about 530 miles south-southeast of the quake’s epicenter, and Christmas Island. A watch once in effect for Australia’s west coast was canceled.
Both Australian warnings noted the possibility of “dangerous rips, waves and strong ocean currents,” as well as localized onshore flooding, for several hours Wednesday night.
Indonesia’s disaster management agency reported that tsunami warning sirens went off after the quake, which was felt in Padang.
Authorities were still trying to contact disaster agencies late Wednesday on Mentawai, which includes Muara Siberut. But there are no reports of casualties or damage, nor have there been signs of possible tsunamis on the islands of Sumatra, West Sumatra, Bengkulu and Lampung.
And all tsunami warnings for Indonesia had been lifted as of 10:50 p.m. (10:50 a.m. ET) Wednesday.
Indonesia in Ring of Fire
Large earthquakes are relatively common in and around Indonesia, which is part of the Ring of Fire, an arc of fault lines circling the Pacific Basin that is prone to frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Two earthquakes, one a magnitude 7.1 and the other a 7.0, struck in November 2014.
More recently, on February 12 of this year, a magnitude-6.5 earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Pulau Sumba.
Neither of those did significant damage, though that’s not always the case.
In December 2004, a magnitude-9.1 quake struck off the west coast of Northern Sumatra and the tsunamis it generated killed upwards of 225,000 people in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania and Bangladesh. That quake, which lasted between 500 and 600 seconds, released an amount of energy equal to a 100-gigaton bomb.
More than 1,300 people were killed three months later following an 8.7 earthquake and subsequent tsunami on the same fault line. Another quake, this one a 6.3, killed some 5,750 people in May 2006, and there have been a number of other deadly incidents since.

S. Korea: N. Korea fires ‘short-range projectiles’

North Korea on Thursday fired six “short-range projectiles” that flew 100 to 150 kilometers (about 62 to 93 miles) off the Korean Peninsula, according to a press release from the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The objects traveled off the peninsula’s east coast and the South Korean military is analyzing the situation, an official from the South Korean Defense Ministry said.
The news came one day after the United Nations Security Council voted to impose a broad array of sanctions against North Korea because of that nation’s recent nuclear test and missile launch — both of which defied current international sanctions.
The U.N. resolution that brought about the sanctions aims to cripple the economic factors that fuel North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
According to Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, the sanctions will:
— Require that all North Korean planes and ships carrying cargo be inspected. Previously, nations only inspected planes and ships when they had “reasonable grounds.”
— Ban Pyongyang from exporting most of the country’s natural resources.
— Prohibit nations from providing training to North Korean nationals in fields that could advance the nation’s missile and nuclear programs.
— Ban member states from allowing North Korea to charter foreign vessels or aircraft and ban all nations from operating any vessels that use North Korean flags.
— Prohibit the supply of aviation fuel, including rocket fuel, and the sale of small arms to North Korea.
Discussions about new sanctions started after North Korea claimed to have successfully tested a hydrogen bomb in January — its fourth nuclear test.
Then, in February, Pyongyang said it had successfully launched an Earth satellite into orbit via the long-range Kwangmyongsong carrier rocket.
The nuclear test and missile launch outraged the Security Council and worried neighboring nations.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye released a statement Thursday about the new sanctions, thanking the international community for its efforts.
“I sincerely hope that the North will abandon its nuclear development program and embark on a path of change, and I will make further efforts for peace and unification of the Korean Peninsula,” the President said.
Japan’s chief cabinet secretary said Thursday his government does not believe there is a threat to Japanese security in relation to the incident.
And China called for calm.
“The current situation on the Korean peninsula is complicated and sensitive,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Thursday. “We hope the relevant parties can keep cool heads and not take any actions that will escalate tensions.”

Pressure increases to call ISIS attacks genocide

The Obama administration this week faced intensifying pressure from lawmakers and activists to label what ISIS is doing in Syria and Iraq a genocide.
Advocates of religious freedom stepped up their campaign with a petition and a commercial to be aired on cable news channels, demanding the United States make a legal determination to call the atrocities by ISIS a genocide, actions that include brutal attacks on the Yazidis in Iraq and the bloody beheading of Christians.
A website operated by the Knights of Columbus and listing representatives of several denominations counts presidential candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio among their backers, as well as religious figures including Pope Francis, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, and Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles. Even former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has weighed in, declaring in December, “What is happening is genocide.”
At three separate hearings this week, Secretary of State John Kerry was pressed by Republican lawmakers.
“It’s time for America to act,” said Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California at Thursday’s hearing. “We are talking about the lives of tens of thousands of people who are brutally being brutally slaughtered, targeted for genocide.”
“I share just a huge sense of revulsion over these acts,” Kerry told lawmakers Wednesday. While he promised a decision soon, he said fact-gathering and legal analysis were required first.
“We are currently doing what I have to do, which is review very carefully the legal standards and precedents,” he said.
Thousands of members of the Yazidi religious sect in Iraq have been killed by ISIS fighters, activists say, starting with an attack on them in 2014 in Sinjar, Iraq.
One Yazidi, Sabah Mirza Mahmoud, told CNN afterward, “ISIS killed my dad, my uncles, they kidnapped 25 relatives, including women.” Another said, “A man was shot next to me, and fell on me. I was covered with his blood.”
Many of the victims said the Islamic State attacked them because of their religion.
A 19-year-old Yazidi woman who escaped said ISIS fighters came to her village and said, “You have to convert to Islam, or we will kill you.”
And a woman who said she had been captured and raped told CNN that her ISIS captor said, “Anyone who doesn’t convert to Islam, we will kill the males and ‘marry’ the girls.”
But Christian advocacy organizations and some lawmakers say the Yazidis are not the only victims, and are demanding that the administration declare that Christians are victims of ISIS genocide, too.
They point to the brutal beheadings by ISIS of Christians from Ethiopia and Christians from Egypt, and to ISIS propaganda that explicitly pledges to wage war on Christians. One issue of their magazine Dabiq showed an ISIS flag flying over the Vatican, with an article saying, “We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women.”
U.S. officials tell CNN there has been a debate inside the White House and the State Department going back to last year over whether to invoke the genocide label.
“There are lawyers considering whether or not that term can be properly applied in this scenario,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said earlier this month. “It has significant consequences, and it matters for a whole variety of reasons, both legal and moral.”
But he added that the designation would not change the administration’s response, which he described as an aggressive campaign to push back ISIS, coupled with efforts to protect minorities, such as the coalition effort to help Yazidis escape from Sinjar.
In general, genocide characterizes the systematic destruction of a national or ethnic group, specifically by execution or murder.
One thing a genocide designation could do for victims is bolster their asylum claims in other countries, according to Travis Weber, director of the Center for Religious Liberty at the Family Research Council.
“They can say, ‘Look, it’s been clearly established that we’re the target of genocide based on our religion,’ ” he said.
But such a designation could also open complicated questions about U.S. obligations to refugees and asylum seekers from Syria and Iraq, and to calls for greater U.S. military engagement. While there are no concrete steps it would specifically require the administration to take, it could rally the international community to step up the campaign against ISIS, according to former State Department senior adviser Robert McKenzie, now at the Brookings Institution.
“That would not only mean more bombing. Potentially, that would also mean more support to displaced persons,” he said.
Still, McKenzie said, a genocide label is unlikely to have a practical effect on Islamic State’s violent ambitions.
“I mean, this is a group that has an apocalyptic worldview,” he said. “I don’t suspect that this is going to impact the way that they operate.”