Ten soldiers have been found guilty at a court in Lima of crimes against humanity for rapes committed four decades ago during Peru’s civil war.

In what is being hailed as a landmark verdict, a panel of three judges on Wednesday said the systematic use of rape by soldiers in the Manta y Vilca case – named after the communities where the abuses took place – qualified as a crime against humanity.

“It is not legitimate that strategies of sexual violence be used as an intimidation method,” the court said.

The case is the first collective proceeding in Peru over the mass use of sexual violence during the state’s conflict with the Mao-inspired Shining Path rebels, which caused 69,000 deaths and disappearances between 1980 and 2000.

Six of the nine women who took legal action were in court to hear the verdicts. One, known as Marilia, died in March without seeing justice served. Her friend and fellow survivor, María, was in tears after the verdicts.

“Marilia told me, she would have liked [to see] these wretches behind bars for what they did to us,” said María. “They caused us so much harm. And we haven’t been able to move forward until now because of these soldiers. But I am glad that those guilty will pay for this.”

The convicted men were given prison sentences ranging from six to 12 years and ordered to pay 100,000 soles (£20,500) to each of their victims, who were all Quechua-speaking women from a rural Andean community.

The verdict comes at a crucial moment for human rights in Peru. Earlier this month, its congress voted to pass a bill to make crimes against humanity committed before 2002 subject to the statute of limitations. The bill, which awaits a second vote in congress, has been criticised by human rights organisations for undermining accountability for past human rights violations.

External Policy Office of DPRK Foreign Ministry Issues Press Statement

Pyongyang, June 30 (KCNA) -- The external policy office of the DPRK Foreign Ministry released the following press statement under the title "We will continue to make important efforts to deter the acts of disturbing peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and the rest of the world" on Sunday:

The U.S., Japan and ROK staged Freedom Edge, the first tripartite multi-domain joint military exercises in the waters near the DPRK from June 27 to 29.

In the past they staged many large and small joint military drills under various pretexts, but there had been no such a large-scale joint military drill dubbed with a special name.

We strongly denounce the U.S., Japan and ROK for their repeated reckless and provocative military muscle-flexing against the DPRK and other independent states in the region and once again seriously warn of the fatal consequences to be entailed by them.

Now the international community unanimously comments that lurking behind the recent drill is the strategic design of the U.S. to escalate regional military tensions, exert pressure upon the Far East of Russia and lay siege to China.

The regular U.S.-Japan-ROK tripartite joint military exercises clearly show that the U.S. strategy for world domination to encircle and contain independent and sovereign states and secure its military hegemony has already crossed the red-line and is bringing about a very negative change in the world security environment and geopolitical mechanical structure.

Freedom Edge, typical expression of the U.S.-Japan-ROK tripartite military bloc

The danger of the first tripartite multi-domain joint military exercises between the U.S., Japan and the ROK lies not only in the fact that the armed forces of the three countries conducted drills in various operational spheres including the sea and air.

The gravity and danger of the situation lie in the fact that Freedom Edge is a product of the organization, systematization and actualization of the U.S.-Japan-ROK tripartite military bloc.

The U.S. is now claiming that the U.S.-Japan-ROK relations are just cooperative ones for strengthening regional stability and security and do not mean NATO of Asian version, but it is nothing but rhetoric to evade international criticism of the formation of an aggressive bloc.

The document, cooked up at the U.S.-Japan-ROK tripartite summit in August last year, specifies the immediate tripartite cooperation to cope with any threat faced by one of the three countries.

This is, in essence, reminiscent of NATO's principle of collective defense that it mobilizes its defense capabilities if a member country is attacked, regarding it as an attack on all.

Since the Camp David confab, the U.S., Japan and the ROK have operated a real-time missile warning data sharing system under the pretext of coping with "missile threat" from someone to realize the integration in the field of military intelligence. They are also stepping up the integration of the military forces of the three countries by frequently staging joint military drills involving U.S. strategic assets.

As NATO stages annual joint military drills in all spheres including land, sea, air and cyberspace, the U.S., Japan and the ROK decided to regularly stage tripartite multi-domain joint military drills. This means that the U.S.-Japan-ROK relations have taken on the full-fledged appearance of Asian-version NATO.

In the final analysis, Freedom Edge served as an occasion for proving that the U.S.-Japan-ROK tripartite military bloc, the U.S. had been seeking to establish for decades, has become a present perfect form, not a continuous or future one.

True intention in revitalization of exclusive military bloc

An official concerned of the U.S. Department of State recently asserted that Japan and the ROK are very good partners in coping with the threat from Russia.

Lurking behind this is the U.S. strategic scenario to use the U.S.-Japan-ROK tripartite military bloc as a three-horse carriage for carrying out its strategy for hegemony in not only Northeast Asia but also the rest of the world.

As already known, the ROK is a "military colony" which left OPECON (wartime operation control) in the hands of the U.S. and Japan is the largest overseas military base of the U.S, where more than 54 000 U.S. troops are deployed.

This hints that the U.S.-Japan-ROK tripartite military bloc is a war and aggression mechanism capable of standing in military confrontation against other countries at any time under the instruction and command of the U.S., unlike AUKUS, the security technology alliance of the U.S., Britain and Australia or the tripartite security cooperation between the U.S., Japan and the Philippines.

It is by no means fortuitous that the U.S. persistently tried to make the relations between NATO, the war machinery in Europe, and Japan and the ROK closely linked with each other.

The U.S., which had already pushed forward with the entry of Japan and the ROK into NATO 18 years ago, has got more frantic in realizing the organic bond between NATO and Japan and the ROK since it turned its strategic focus to the Asia-Pacific region.

Japan and the ROK, which established partnerships with NATO and built channels of regular dialogue at the instigation of the U.S., are now taking part in the annual NATO summit and even in the NATO-led military exercises, further expanding their cooperation with NATO.

After the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis, Japan has been hell-bent on the moves to put pressure on Russia and the ROK has openly sought to provide the Nazi regime of Zelenskiy with lethal equipment. Such facts show that the close ties between NATO and the U.S.-Japan-ROK tripartite military bloc have reached a dangerous level.

The reality goes to prove that the "inseparable relations" between the security of Europe and the one of the Asia-Pacific region, touted by the U.S. and its vassal forces, are nothing but an excuse for realizing the political collusion and military integration between the NATO member states and pro-U.S. states in the Asia-Pacific region and encircling independent sovereign states.

To foil the alliance strategy of the U.S. is urgently needed to ensure international peace and stability

The Biden administration, in its "Indo-Pacific Strategy Report" and the "National Security Strategy Report", called on its allies in Asia and Europe to unite with each other to counter their strategic rivals.

Recently, it has asserted that its alliance strategy is making the switch from a "hub-and-spoke one" of forming various bilateral alliances to a "lattice-like one" of forming several multi-lateral alliances cooperating with each other. It also claimed that the era of "alliance protection" is over and the era of "alliance action" has arrived.

This proves that the primary goal of the U.S. strategy for world domination is to form a global siege network to contain independent sovereign states which are opposed to its high-handed and arbitrary practices.

Such confrontational attempt of the U.S. is the root cause of fomenting political instability and military confrontation and triggering off bloody wars and touch-and-go security crises in different parts of the world.

The prevailing situation requires the independent sovereign states to steadily bolster up their self-defensive power to defend the security of the state and, at the same time, further strengthen mutual cooperation and concerted action so as to establish a structure of forces capable of effectively deterring the hostile forces' collective military intervention.

The U.S. and its vassal forces' expansion of the aggressive bloc and escalating military confrontation that wreck peace and stability of the Korean peninsula and the region will be surely deterred by the powerful and coordinated counteraction of independent sovereign states.

The DPRK will never overlook the moves of the U.S. and its followers to strengthen the military bloc, which openly destroys the security environment on the Korean peninsula and gravely threatens global peace and stability, but firmly defend the sovereignty, security and interests of the state and peace in the region through offensive and overwhelming countermeasures. -0-
www.kcna.kp (Juche113.6.30.)

The announcement comes after the World Health Organization (WHO) together with the European Union said that nine thousand Palestinians need urgent medical evacuation by the end of 2024, amid a brutal Israeli offensive in Gaza.

On Thursday, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store confirmed that the Nordic country will accept and treat Palestinians injured as a result of the Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip.

Norway will participate in the international effort to help Palestinians in urgent need of hospital treatment, VG media reported.

The announcement comes after the World Health Organization (WHO) together with the European Union said that nine thousand Palestinians need urgent medical evacuation by the end of 2024, amid a brutal Israeli offensive in Gaza.

In addition, Norway will contribute to airlifting Palestinian patients to other countries.

In this way, we can contribute to helping many more people than we have the capacity to bring to Norway for treatment, Store told VG.

The government has decided that up to 20 patients with family members from Gaza can be flown to Norway for treatment in Norwegian hospitals, he said.

According to the Norwegian prime minister, the humanitarian situation in Gaza is catastrophic and its health system has collapsed. Last month, Norway officially recognized Palestine as a state.

As early as December last year, health organizations and the UN warned that the health system in Gaza was in a state of serious disrepair.

Today, only 12 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are partially operational, according to the latest reports. Since then, more than 37,700 Palestinians have died in Gaza, most of them women and children, and more than 86,400 have been injured, according to local health authorities.

Nearly nine months after the Israeli war, vast areas of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide before the International Court of Justice, which in its latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it broke out.