Global Times - 02.09.2019

Monday September 2, 2019 9

WORLD

Pug life

Germany asks forgiveness from Poland

Amazon

basin fires

keep surging

The number of fires in Brazil’s
Amazon basin is still on the
rise, even though the govern-
ment has banned burning, of-
ficials said Saturday.
In the first 48 hours since
the ban was issued, satellite
data from the National Space
Research Institute (INPE)
showed 3,859 new outbreaks of
fire, of which some 2,000 were
concentrated in the Amazon
region.
From January to the end of
August, 51.9 percent of Brazil’s
recorded 88,816 fires were in
the rainforest, according to the
INPE, a number experts call a
dramatic, direct consequence
of farmers’ widespread defor-
estation.
Brazil’s Amazon region is in
its dry season, but experts note
that 2019 has been wetter than
previous years, and they also
stress that there are no natural
fires in the Amazon.
The no-burn decree may
have been too little too late,
and more of a political than
practical gesture, some analysts
say.
Deforestation has surged
this year as agencies tasked
with monitoring illegal activi-
ties were weakened by Presi-
dent Jair Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro has questioned
climate change, and argues
farmers sometimes need the
land for their livelihood.
Farmers in Brazil, Peru,
Ecuador and Bolivia commonly
set fires in the dry season to
clear the undergrowth in defor-
ested areas. However, this often
leads to uncontrolled burning,
which takes a greater toll on the
rainforest.

AFP

UN chief Antonio Guterres

started a three-day tour of the

Democratic Republic of the

Congo Saturday, expressing

“solidarity” with a region rav-

aged by violence and an Ebola

epidemic.

The UN secretary-general

first visited Goma, the capital

of North Kivu province which is

trying to roll back an epidemic

of Ebola that has claimed more

than 2,000 lives in a year.

Guterres was received by

Leila Zerrougui, his special rep-

resentative in DR Congo.

The two did not shake

hands, in line with health pro-

tocols aimed at curbing the

spread of the highly infectious

and very often fatal disease.

Guterres said he had come

to express his support “with

the armed forces of DRC in the

fight against terrorism” which

represents “a threat not only

for the Congo but the whole of

Africa.”

The UN peacekeeping mis-

sion in the country known by

its French acronym MONUS-

CO comprises some 16,

troops and has an annual bud-

get of over $1 billion. A total of

130 militias and armed groups

roam the North and South Kivu

provinces of DR Congo, a vast

country the size of western con-

tinental Europe.

At a center for demobi-

lized former militia fighters in

Goma, Guterres appealed to the

militias to choose peace.

“It’s always possible to

choose peace,” Guterres said,

urging all combatants to come

“to a center like this [ for]

a new life in peace in their

home community.”

He added he had heard mov-

ing testimony from people liv-

ing in the bush under the illu-

sion that by being in an armed

group they could have a better

life. The reality, he insisted, was

that meant “a tragic life, a life

without a future.”

According to the Group of

Experts on Congo from New

York University and Human

Rights Watch, armed groups

killed 1,900 civilians and kid-

napped more than 3,300 peo-

ple in the region between June

2017 and June 2019.

The demobilization of mi-

litias is a priority for MONUS-

CO, which has been present in

DR Congo since 1999.

DR Congo health officials

said late Thursday that there

had been “2,006 deaths [1,

confirmed and 105 probable]”

since August 2018.

It is the second-worst Ebola

outbreak in history after more

than 11,000 people were killed

in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Li-

beria between 2014 and 2016.

Containment efforts have

been hindered by the conflict

in the country’s east, as well as

attacks on health workers tack-

ling Ebola.

Guterres will end his tour in

the capital Kinshasa, where he

will meet President Felix Tsh-

isekedi, who recently unveiled a

new coalition government after

a delay of nearly eight months.

AFP

German President Frank-Walter Stein-
meier on Sunday asked Poland’s for-
giveness for history’s bloodiest conflict
during a ceremony in the Polish city of
Wielun, where the first World War II
bombs fell 80 years ago.
“I bow before the victims of the attack
on Wielun. I bow before the Polish vic-
tims of German tyranny. And I ask your
forgiveness,” Steinmeier said in both
German and Polish.
Poland suffered some of the worst
horrors of World War II: Nearly 6 mil-
lion Poles died in the conflict that killed
more than 50 million people overall.
That figure includes the 6 million
Jews who died in the Holocaust, half of

them Polish.

“It was Germans who committed

these crimes against humanity in Po-

land. Anyone calling them things of the

past, or claiming that the vile rule of ter-

ror of the National Socialists in Europe

was a mere footnote of German history,

is passing judgement on him or her-

self,” Steinmeier added in the presence

of his Polish counterpart.

The line appeared to be a clear refer-

ence to the German far-right, whose co-

leader Alexander Gauland once called

the 12-year Third Reich a “speck of bird

poop” on an otherwise glorious German

past.

“As Germany’s Federal President, let

me assure you that we will not forget,”

Steinmeier said.

“We want to, and we will, remember.

And we will bear the responsibility that

our history imposes upon us.”

Polish President Andrzej Duda for

his part denounced Nazi Germany’s at-

tack on Poland, calling it “an act of bar-

barity” and “a war crime.”

“I am convinced that this ceremony

will go down in the history of Polish-

German friendship,” he added, thank-

ing Steinmeier for his presence.

The heads of state will later tour the

Wielun museum and meet with local

survivors of the September 1, 1939

bombing.

Although it has been 80 years since

the war started, there are still unresolved

matters according to Poland, which says

Germany owes it war reparations.

A parliamentary commission is cur-

rently working on a new analysis of the

extent of Poland’s wartime human and

material losses.

“We have to talk about, remember

and demand the truth regarding those

losses. We have to demand compensa-

tion,” Morawiecki said Sunday at the

Westerplatte ceremony.

When it comes to reparations, how-

ever, Berlin believes the case is closed.

AFP

UN chief expresses solidarity with Ebola-hit DR Congo

 Leaders mark 80 years since WWII bombing of Wielun

Page Editor:

wanghuayun@

globaltimes.com.cn

Two pugs

play at

the 10th

International

Berlin

Mopstreffen

in a water

tub on

Saturday.

The highlight

is the

traditional

pug race.

However,

this time the

pug owners

competed for

their dogs

after the

veterinary

office

banned the

race for the

dogs due

to the hot

weather.

Photo: IC