NAIROBI (January 26): Kenya’s High Court has ruled against a Government decision to deploy a contingent of police officers to Haiti.
The deployment would have been part of a United Nations-backed law-and-order mission to the strife-torn Caribbean nation. However, the court ruled the plan “unconstitutional, illegal and invalid”.
The Government says it will appeal.
Kenya had been prepared to send up to 1,000 police and security personnel to Haiti, the first 300 of whom had been expected to arrive in the coming days.
Chad, Senegal, Jamaica, Belize, the Bahamas and Antigua and Barbuda have also pledged officers, bringing the total number of personnel to around 3,000.
The international community and the Haitian Government have long been seeking a multinational force to help combat rising gang violence which saw almost 5,000 people murdered last year alone.
However, many countries are wary of supporting Prime Minister, Ariel Henry's unelected administration, governing in the aftermath of the former President's assassination, and intervening in a nation where previous missions have been dogged by human rights abuses.
A Kenyan Government spokesperson said it "respects the rule of law and has made the decision to challenge the High Court's verdict forthwith".
"The Government reiterates its commitment in honouring its international obligations," the spokesperson said.
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Minister bans workday diversity meetings
LONDON (January 25): New United Kingdom Cabinet Minister, John Glen wants Civil Service diversity network meetings to be held outside working hours as part of his crackdown on political activism.
“Impartiality guidance could also be changed to make it clear that any work on identity and inclusion issues should not be a vehicle for taking an agenda into the workplace,” Mr Glen said.
“When I was in the private sector, these activities were things we did at breakfast before we started work and in the evenings, and that to me is where the orientation of these things should be headed.”
Mr Glen has also reportedly said that Home Office Civil Servants who are unwilling to follow Ministers’ instructions to ignore European court rulings to ground flights of deported asylum seekers to Rwanda should be sacked.
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Malaysian pay ‘inadequate for living’
KUALA LUMPUR (January 25): The head of Malaysia’s main Public Service union says current wage levels of Government employees are inadequate to cover living expenses, given the rise in the cost of living.
President of the Congress of Union of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs), Adnan Mat called for measures to increase the salaries of Public Servants to be implemented immediately, without having to wait for the full implementation of the new Public Service Remuneration System (SSPA).
"Although the Government says the new SSPA system may be ready by the end of this year, we hope the salaries of Civil Servants will be increased before that,” Mr Adnan said.
He proposed an immediate monthly increase of RM300 ($A96.60), which could be readjusted once the new SSPA was ready to be implemented.
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Dutch PM may be heading for NATO
THE HAGUE (January 23): Prime Minister of
the Netherlands, Mark
Rutte is considered likely to succeed Jens Stoltenberg as the next Secretary
General of NATO.
While Mr Rutte (56) has previously
declined the post, the fact he is expected to step down after disappointing
election results may well tempt him to change his mind.
However, he will have to negotiate the
labyrinthine process of choosing a new NATO chief, as each of the Alliance’s 31
countries have to agree in closed-door negotiations.
As a result Mr Stoltenberg, who has been
in the job for a decade, has twice tried to quit and each time has been
prevailed upon to continue in office after NATO members could not agree on a
replacement.
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Taiwan ramps up military service
TAIPEI (January 26): Taiwan’s extended period of National Service has begun, with the first group of new recruits scheduled to serve for a full year.
Men aged 18 or older are obliged to serve, although previously it was for only a four-month period.
More than 9,100 recruits are to join the military under the extended scheme this year, the changes resulting from China’s increasing pressure on the island republic it has always regarded as a renegade Province.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defence said the new recruits would receive “stepped-up training…from an early stage in their service, they will acquire shooting skills and knowhow on rescuing injured fellow soldiers”.
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General sanctioned for Shrine visit
TOKYO (January 26): Japan’s Defence Ministry has reprimanded a senior military official who used an official car for a visit to Tokyo's war-linked Yasukuni Shrine, often seen as a symbol of the country's past militarism.
However, in a statement the Ministry said Lieutenant General Hiroki Kobayashi, who is Vice Chief of Staff of the Ground Self Defence Force (GSDF), visited the shrine in a private capacity “based on free will” and was not subject to any further penalty.
Other members of the GSDF who accompanied General Kobayashi to the shrine have received reprimands, written or verbal cautions.
Past visits to the Yasukuni Shrine by Japanese lawmakers have been a source of diplomatic friction with China and South Korea as the shrine honours the World War II dead, including Japanese leaders who were convicted as war criminals in an international tribunal.
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