MOSCOW: Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg has responded with wry humor on Twitter to patronizing comments made about her by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The 16-year-old changed her Twitter biography to say “A kind but poorly informed teenager” after Putin described her in these terms at a Moscow forum this week.
On Wednesday, Putin said: “I don’t share the general enthusiasm” for Greta Thunberg’s impassioned speech at the United Nations climate summit in September, which went viral with her repeated question: “How dare you?”
“I’m sure Greta is a kind girl and very sincere,” Putin said of the campaigner who sailed across the Atlantic instead of flying to speak at the UN.
However, “no one explained” to Thunberg, who has 2.7 million followers on Twitter, that “the modern world is developing quickly,” he lamented.
Putin said it was praiseworthy for young people to raise environmental issues, but raised the possibility that someone was manipulating Thunberg “in their own interests.”
He warned “adults must do all they can not to lead teenagers and children into any extreme situations.”
US President Donald Trump also attempted to crush Thunberg, only for her to use his own words against him.
After her speech at the UN, Trump mocked her tone on Twitter, saying she “seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future.”
Thunberg later changed her Twitter biography to read: “A very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future.”
Thunberg has been tipped as a possible winner of this year Nobel Peace Prize.
Greta Thunberg mocks Putin’s ‘kind girl’ jibes on Twitter
Greta Thunberg mocks Putin’s ‘kind girl’ jibes on Twitter
- Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg has 2.7 million followers on Twitter
- ‘Adults must do all they can not to lead teenagers and children into any extreme situations’
UN’s top court opens Myanmar Rohingya genocide case
- The Gambia filed a case against Myanmar at the UN’s top court in 2019
- Verdict expected to impact Israel’s genocide case over war on Gaza
DHAKA: The International Court of Justice on Monday opened a landmark case accusing Myanmar of genocide against its mostly Muslim Rohingya minority.
The Gambia filed a case against Myanmar at the UN’s top court in 2019, two years after a military offensive forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya from their homes into neighboring Bangladesh.
The hearings will last three weeks and conclude on Jan. 29.
“The ICJ must secure justice for the persecuted Rohingya. This process should not take much longer, as we all know that justice delayed is justice denied,” said Asma Begum, who has been living in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district since 2017.
A mostly Muslim ethnic minority, the Rohingya have lived for centuries in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state but were stripped of their citizenship in the 1980s and have faced systemic persecution ever since.
In 2017 alone, some 750,000 of them fled military atrocities and crossed to Bangladesh, in what the UN has called a textbook case of ethnic cleansing by Myanmar.
Today, about 1.3 million Rohingya shelter in 33 camps in Cox’s Bazar, turning the coastal district into the world’s largest refugee settlement.
“We experienced horrific acts such as arson, killings and rape in 2017, and fled to Bangladesh,” Begum told Arab News.
“I believe the ICJ verdict will pave the way for our repatriation to our homeland. The world should not forget us.”
A UN fact-finding mission has concluded that the Myanmar 2017 offensive included “genocidal acts” — an accusation rejected by Myanmar, which said it was a “clearance operation” against militants.
Now, there is hope for justice and a new future for those who have been displaced for years.
“We also have the right to live with dignity. I want to return to my homeland and live the rest of my life in my ancestral land. My children will reconnect with their roots and be able to build their own future,” said Syed Ahmed, who fled Myanmar in 2017 and has since been raising his four children in the Kutupalong camp.
“Despite the delay, I am optimistic that the perpetrators will be held accountable through the ICJ verdict. It will set a strong precedent for the world.”
The Myanmar trial is the first genocide case in more than a decade to be taken up by the ICJ. The outcome will also impact the genocide case that Israel is facing over its war on Gaza.
“The momentum of this case at the ICJ will send a strong message to all those (places) around the world where crimes against humanity have been committed,” Nur Khan, a Bangladeshi lawyer and human rights activist, told Arab News.
“The ICJ will play a significant role in ensuring justice regarding accusations of genocide in other parts of the world, such as the genocide and crimes against humanity committed by Israel against the people of Gaza.”
