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| Nigeria kidnapped girls 'shown in Boko Haram video' - BBC News Posted: 12 May 2014 08:57 AM PDT
12 May 2014
Last updated at 16:39
In the video, released by Boko Haram, its leader says the girls will freed only if imprisoned militants are released Islamist militants Boko Haram have released a video apparently showing about 130 girls kidnapped from a school in northern Nigeria on 14 April. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said the children would be held until all imprisoned militants had been freed. Interior Minister Abba Moro rejected the deal, telling the BBC that it was "absurd" for a "terrorist group" to try to set conditions. Boko Haram abducted more than 200 girls and threatened to sell them. The BBC's John Simpson in the northern city of Maiduguri says Boko Haram's comments show signs that the group is willing to negotiate. Three of the girls - wearing full-length cloaks - are shown speaking in the 27-minute video, obtained by French news agency AFP. Two girls say they were Christian and have converted to Islam, while the other says she is Muslim. "These girls, these girls you occupy yourselves with... we have indeed liberated them. These girls have become Muslims," Abubakar Shekau says in the video. He said his offer to swap the girls for imprisoned militants only referred to the children who had not converted to Islam. It is thought the majority of the abducted girls are Christians, although there are a number of Muslims among them. A man who is related to three of the abducted girls said the video at first gave him hope, but then made him anxious and tearful. "Maybe they are converted into another religion by force, so it truly is a kind of terrifying situation," said the man, who did not want to be named.  Three girls are seen speaking in the video and one says the group have not been harmed
 Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau uses the video to call for the group's imprisoned fighters to be freed
Some 136 girls are shown in the video, just under half of the 276 pupils abducted from their school in the northern state of Borno. Our correspondent says this could mean those abducted had been split into smaller groups to help avoid detection. Local officials said they had started making copies of the video to show relatives and friends of the abducted girls in an attempt to identify them. Boko Haram, which means "Western education is forbidden", had previously said the girls should not have been at school and should get married instead. The militants have been engaged in a violent campaign against the Nigerian government since 2009. The government has faced heavy criticism of its response to the mass abduction. President Goodluck Jonathan said on Sunday that assistance from abroad had made him optimistic of finding the girls. The UK and US already have teams helping on the ground in Nigeria and an Israeli counter-terrorism team is also on its way to the country.  |
| Rebels appeal to join Russia after east Ukraine vote - Reuters Posted: 12 May 2014 08:51 AM PDT (Reuters) - Pro-Moscow rebel leaders in eastern Ukraine called on Monday for their region to become part of Russia after declaring victory in a weekend referendum on self-rule. The separatist region of Donetsk appealed to Moscow to consider its absorption into Russia, a move that would echo the annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula after a similar referendum earlier this year. The call is likely to anger the government in Kiev and Western nations that accuse Russia of stirring up unrest in the east following the overthrow of a pro-Moscow president in February by protesters demanding closer links with Europe. "The people of Donetsk have always been part of the Russian world. For us, the history of Russia is our history," said Denis Pushilin, a leading member of the self-declared "Donetsk People's Republic". "Based on the will of the people and on the restoration of a historic justice, we ask the Russian Federation to consider the absorption of the Donetsk People's Republic into the Russian Federation," he told a news conference. Moscow denies any ambitions to absorb the mainly Russian-speaking east into the Russian Federation. However, it has massed troops on the Ukrainian border, and Kiev fears they may be sent in. Ukrainian President Oleksander Turchinov accused Russia of working to overthrow legitimate state power in Ukraine. He said the Kremlin was trying to disrupt a presidential election later this month, which is taking center stage in a confrontation pitting Moscow and the separatists against the government in Kiev and its Western backers. RIA news agency quoted a rebel leader as saying the eastern Luhansk region would boycott the May 25 election. What he called the "Republic of Luhansk" may hold a further referendum on union with Russia, as Ukraine's Crimea region did under Russian military occupation before its annexation by Moscow in March. Ukraine's election is intended to secure democratic continuity and legitimacy after pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovich fled the country in February, and Western governments have threatened more sanctions in the vital areas of energy, financial services and engineering if Moscow disrupts the vote. Moscow said it respected the outcome of Sunday's referendums, in which separatists claimed 80 percent support in the industrial Donetsk region, while RIA, a Russian state news agency, reported 96.2 percent backing in Luhansk region. The results should be implemented peacefully, Russia said, without saying what further action it might take. Eastern Ukraine has been plagued by turmoil as Kiev has tried to regain control, and authorities said 49 people have been killed in violence in the region of Donetsk since March 13. The European Union declared the referendums illegal and increased pressure on Russia on Monday by taking a first step towards extending sanctions to companies, as well as people, linked to Crimea's annexation. However, revealing cracks in the West's united front, diplomatic sources said France would press ahead with a 1.2 billion-euro ($1.7 billion) contract to sell helicopter carrier ships to Russia because cancelling the deal would do more damage to Paris than to Moscow. REPUBLIC OF LUHANSK The rebels have given differing accounts of their plans. However, one spokesman said these did not include taking part in electing a replacement for Turchinov, who has been acting president since pro-EU protesters forced Yanukovich from office. "As of today, we are now the Republic of Luhansk, which believes it to be inappropriate and perhaps even stupid to hold a presidential election," RIA cited the spokesman as saying. Some rebels have publicly supported pressing for annexation by Russia. "This land was never Ukraine ... We speak Russian," said Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, rebel mayor of the separatist stronghold of Slaviansk, who threatened to kick out the Ukrainian army. Asked about the possibility of holding a second referendum, on union with Russia, he said: "There has been no decision, but this referendum showed we are prepared ... We can put on an election or referendum at short notice at barely any cost." Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said rebels had made a new attempt overnight to seize a television tower on the edge of Slaviansk, heartland of a rebellion that has reduced relations between Russia and the West to their lowest point since the fall of the Berlin Wall. "The information war that they are waging against us in the Donbass (east) is more dangerous than a bullet. We must answer back ... The enemy fears this more than special forces," he wrote on Facebook. But there was some hint of compromise in the port city of Mariupol, scene of fierce fighting between Ukrainian forces and rebels over the last week. Turchinov said local police had begun patrols with a volunteer militia set up by a company, Metinvest, mostly owned by Ukraine's wealthiest businessman, Rinat Akhmetov. RUSSIA RESPECTS "WILL OF THE PEOPLE" Turchinov dismissed the separatist vote as a farce. "These processes are inspired by the leadership of the Russian Federation and are destructive to the Donetsk and Luhansk regions' economies, threaten the lives and welfare of citizens and have the aim of destabilizing the situation in Ukraine, disrupting presidential elections and overthrowing Ukrainian authorities," he said in a statement. The referendum opened a new phase of uncertainty in a country historically divided between a Russian-speaking east and a more westward-looking west. One man was killed in a confrontation on Sunday between a National Guard unit and a crowd of pro-Russian activists. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, did not comment personally, but the Kremlin released a statement on the referendum. "We condemn the use of force, including of heavy weapons against civilians ... In Moscow, we respect the will of the people of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and are counting on practical implementation of the outcome of the referendum in a civilized manner, without any repeat of violence and through dialogue," it said. European Union foreign ministers added two Crimean companies and 13 people to the bloc's sanctions list, EU diplomats said. These are in addition to 48 Russians and Ukrainians who have already been targeted with EU asset freezes and visa bans. But the EU remains far behind the United States in the severity of the sanctions it has imposed on Russia. Some European governments fear tough trade sanctions on Russia could undermine their own economies, just recovering from the financial crisis, and provoke Russian retaliation. (Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kiev, Lidia Kelly in Moscow, Adrian Croft and Justyna Pawlak in Brussels, John Irish, Marine Pennetier and Elizabeth Pineau in Paris, Writing by Ralph Boulton, Editing by Timothy Heritage, David Stamp, Giles Elgood and Will Waterman) |
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