been but was the first ever to be convicted for crimes committed by others under his command and it was the first time the i.c.c. focused on rape as a weapon of war speaking to al jazeera in two thousand and seven before his arrest bin berlin assisted he had nothing to answer for you will know that the international criminal court that are. not of course involved in the of this ng's i rested in two thousand and eight convicted war criminal in two thousand and sixteen he's now won his appeal but being better hasn't been freed a cypriot panel of judges continues to consider his punishment for interfering with witnesses during his trial made him the honed to zero. well for more on this reports go but joins me now in the studio his the director of redress an organization dedicated to ending torture and seeking justice for its survivors thanks very much for coming in to al-jazeera just to talk a little bit about the reasons that he now seems to have had his conviction

overturned it sounds like the chain of command it sounds like whatever happened on his watch i suppose with his militia the new judge is now saying actually he can't be held responsible for the situation yes that's the point i mean the trial chamber found that he was ineffective commanding control of the troops they were under his control he should have done more to prevent what happened he should have done more to punish it but the appeals chambers looked slightly differently and their view is that he did everything that he could have done and in the particular peculiarities of the situation where he was in a different country he was in d r c his troops were in the neighboring country of of the central african republic he couldn't have done anything more he didn't have affective communications with them the troops were working with the cia our government as well so their conclusion was that he wasn't under have affected control of as mentioned in her report there sometimes whole families have been affected by this expression some of the sex crimes that happened how do you think the victims are going to be reacting to this this decision today this is going to be very very difficult for them as we heard the troops that the prosecution alleged

were under his control committed appalling acts of rape murder pillage and looting and more than five thousand victims joined the process before the international court so there was a huge intention to participate in this process from the victim community and following the conviction two years ago the court even start of the reparations process whereby they could bring forms of redress to those victims as well so they were all expecting this to continue as it had gone before and to it's going to be a massive blow for those families in ca are to respond having not expected to this to come forward and now he's been told he can go home there's a chance i'm i suppose he could reenter into politics again which takes him back in these democratic republic of congo not c.-l. . back into the field of power possibly an influence well there's still a conviction for entering the witnesses and so both bamber and some of his lawyers were convicted with interfering with witnesses in the course of his trial he was convicted two years imprisonment and three hundred thousand dollars fine for that

and the sentencing has been sent back to the trial chamber because the appeals court for the one year sentence wasn't right so he's not yet been released and he still has that conviction and so it'll be a matter for the domestic authorities as to whether or not he's permitted to reenter politics with that background do you think this will take the shine off the i.c.c. for some people especially those obviously caught up in this in this whole case well for many it will because for the victims who are involved it would be a devastating blow but what it does demonstrate is that the court is a genuine court that looks at things properly this isn't a kangaroo court that can convict anyone who's been charged they were actually acquit where the appeals court judges think that's the right thing to do and they looked at this incredibly carefully before they came to their decision they discovered from richard thanks very much for joining us. coming up in this news hour lebanon's growing rift with the un refugee agency which it accuses of spreading fear to discourage syrians from returning home got similar warns falling ash from the forager volcano could pose

a threat to flights and the french open will have an austrian men's finalist for the first time in more than two decades he said we'll have more. three palestinians have been killed in gaza including a fifteen year old boy after israeli forces fired tear gas and live bullets are protesters at the border medics say more than five hundred others have been injured in the violence on thursday israeli military planes dropped leaflets into the enclave residents to avoid the border area israeli forces have killed at least one hundred nineteen palestinians during weeks of demonstrations that began at the end of march imran khan is out of the gaza israel border with more. as you can see the palestinians are burning tires just over there close to the israeli buffer zone now every so often the israelis fire off

a volley of tear gas they're using this in two different ways firstly coming in from jeeps to give them a height on the take gas comes down into the crowd trying to disperse them clearly it's not working the crowd are still there but they're also using tear gas drones as well which is a fairly recent development however the palestinians figured out a way of dealing with can you see the kites just up there they're becoming a bit of a problem for the israelis there affectively a toy but the palestinians figured out that they can in tangle a drone into those kites they've actually done that and they've managed to bring down an israeli take astro and so that's something the israelis are going to be concerned about now this protest has begun slightly earlier in the day than the regular friday protests that's because of al could stay that was started effectively means jerusalem day but it was started by the iranians after the islamic revolution in one nine hundred seventy nine but it means something quite a lot to the palestinians as well that's why they come to this border however the

protest organizing committees did the protesters not to go too close to the border to the buffer zone as they have done in the past and they've said stay away from the border we want to try and avoid casualties however the palestinians have turned up as you can see in great numbers not only to commemorate al could stay but to tell you to show the world that they are against the israeli siege israeli led siege of gaza. airstrikes on a rebel held village in the syrian province of idlib have killed at least fifty people and injured up to one hundred others the strikes on the residential neighborhood where reported being carried out by russian warplanes moscow has ignited and volume and on thursday president rather hooton says during his annual phone in the war was has given the russian military a unique opportunity to test and train is forces and weapons lebanon has ordered a freeze on the renewal of residency permits for staff of the un refugee agency

this after it accused the u.n. a.c.r. of intimidating syrian refugees to discourage them from returning home turkey has the highest number of syrian refugees three point five million according to un h.c.r. figures but it's a large country with almost eighty million people jordan's government estimates that it's home to one point three million syrians about fourteen percent of the population which has contributed to the country's current economic crisis but it's lebanon has the highest proportion of refugees in the world more than one point five million people according to the government that's a quarter of the country's population zain all the reports from beirut on the strains that's creating. seven years in exile in lebanon mahmoud i use is now getting ready to go back home he's from the syrian town of moto in the khaled region can't go back because he's not considered a security risk by the syrian government it's a decision not every refugee can make most of it and we are fed up and have been

humiliated the united nations told us that there are no guarantees when we get back home but we want to go back. that advice has caused tension between the un's refugee agency and the lebanese foreign ministry which says the u.n. h.c.r. is discouraging refugee returns a claim the u.n. denies it says it is carrying out its global mandate which is to provide support to refugees and help them establish their lives in line with international standards. is not deterring returns the are you know has expressed many times that it just backs the government of lebanon's decision that is not an option lebanese authorities say a few thousand refugees displaced by the seven year long war have already signed up for what they called voluntary returns and that thousands of others are willing to go home lebanon which is hosting more than one million syrian refugees has long

complained of the burden it carries official say it cost the country about eight billion dollars a year many refugees now have economical and not political or security reasons for staying foreign ministry officials say much of syria is now safe. specifically. which is not the mandate the mandate or at least what they say is that. people. but what what is actually happy happening is much more than that the ministry has now decided to suspend residency applications submitted by u.n.h.c.r. for its staff in lebanon the foreign minister is acting in a caretaker capacity but it does belong to the ruling alliance so his decisions could be a sign of future state policy. some officials are using the refugee political capital they play on fears about the impact of the prolonged presence of refugees in the country those officials belong to the pro syrian government camp they want

refugee returns to be coordinated with the authorities in damascus as a first step toward restoring relations with the assad government. refugees are caught in the middle and what could become a contentious political issue a large scale returns gives legitimacy to the syrian government which wants the international community to provide badly needed funds for reconstruction the u.n. insists it does not encourage or discourage returns but it is not organizing them while discussions with damascus continue on safeguards that still need to be put in place. well joining us from neda he's a director of the levant institute for strategic affairs and joins us now from beirut thanks so much for joining us on. first of all why is that lebanon has done this now is is it says it with the economic strain that all these refugees are still putting on the economy always also

a political reason. i mean this is. this issue was the people who despise. the. price is a huge burden on the economy on the demographics. i mean. on. oh this should be down with i mean some of the government want to be coordinate with this union their team which might which might be perceived as a lot of mana zation a defect in the normalization. that it seems out of the decision today i think it's a bit of defeating because they have been on does not have any interest to. date himself from international institution on the contrary what he needs to do is

to engage more. international community with these international constituent. institution in order to facilitate the return of this union that if you g.'s to their homeland and instead of normalizing with this union asia eem he should actually. diplomacy should engage with this union that is in order to a man that recent lower number than that is the blocking that he turn of the syrian refugee and this is very well known actually a main party that is blocking. of those if you g is not or are not the international institution that are present that they have the syrian regime himself but issuing these no numbers then that is making

very hard that condition for a safe return of he said if we g.'s to their homeland i was going to apologize a little bit for the audience because we are starting to hear a little bit i'm going to have severe as well as very interesting what your thoughts and i mean this is a criticism that's been going on for many many years as to whether the international community is doing enough to help the neighbors of syria when you look at the figures i laid out that jordan of lebanon and of turkey having to deal with such enormous numbers of displaced people is they internationally is it really a full if not doing. they are doing that definitely there are doing but they are not doing enough i mean they are doing the minimum required in order to keep those sit if you jesus and lebanon not having a flood invading europe and just to put a good. two million that if you g. that if you g.

i mean to europe on the verge of collapse of five hundred million population why is the same two million present and that accounts for forty percent of the population so this city and if we give presents is putting a lot of pressure on that he'd been easy economy on that he'd been easy in fact infrastructure on at the nearby knees neighbor market and deeply threatening the social fabric of lebanon and stability of lebanon definitely need to and this is should be a shared burden definitely the international community has to do more that said i think that is the send decision of. foreign minister is not in line with international law because. of that if you should not be forced it should be voluntarily and the best way for lebanon to deal with

this is to engage with the syrian regime and to start by amending this lower number than that is a major impediment for that heat of the c.d.n. civilian to their country many thanks for your time and explain this terrorist bombing a day from beirut. united nations as a warned of massive civilian casualties in yemen if saudi led coalition forces attempt to take the port city of her data from the hoofy rebels the u.n. says as many as a quarter of a million of her days as residents could die if government forces backed by saudi arabia and the u.a.e. launched an attack or see that now within twenty kilometers of the city her data is on the red sea coast and is the main entry point into yemen for food and other humanitarian supplies the. humanitarian coordinator in yemen is grounded says that a military attack or siege on her data would encourage hundreds of thousands of

innocent civilians humanitarian organizations have rushed to develop a contingency plan in a prolonged worst case we fear that as many as two hundred fifty thousand people may lose everything even their lives still to come this hour the catholic bishops trying to end the bloodshed the neck or or up through dialogue and diplomacy tributes to u.s. celebrity chef on the border who took his own life at a hotel in front and england's rock which team are in south africa preparing for one of the sport's toughest assignments speech we'll tell you all about it in sports. how it's fine and dry across the middle east no surprises there we've got a few showers having said that just between the black sea and the caspian sea see

the areas of cloud which will bring somewhat weather into georgia i mean yes maybe also into azerbaijan and that's going to be the case as we go on through the next day or two little wet weather in play here northern parts of iran could catch a few showers and i just want you to lead to some localized flooding to send something to watch out for here for the most part it's hot sunshine forty four celsius for baghdad pleasant sunshine around the eastern side of the med we'll see temperatures getting up to around twenty nine degrees in by retail for the next couple of days heating up in aleppo to around thirty four degrees still a few showers a little further north that is pushing up towards the black sea the caspian sea still some wet weather them to northern parts of iraq with touch forty celsius in kuwait thirty degrees the chance of wanted to show us that in kabul no chance but showers across the peninsula over the next couple of days meanwhile it was still running hot to be around five or six celsius above average here in doha to around forty five degrees on saturday quite a keen wind coming in over the next couple of days and it is little more cloud just

around the southern end of the red sea so you might just catch one or two showers here. as i want to finally do with. that but that's. what it. says they're not. going to bunch is a breach of the bottom in the first episode of a two part series al-jazeera investigates the world of performance enhancing drugs . sports to bring the industry's. you possibilities treeless journalists or medical facility if they got that either way he declared a state of emergency several weeks ago gripping documentaries to discover a will to feel good winning programming from around the globe. debate discussion on

one side of the split screen dignitaries mingling on the other hand see the world from a different perspective only on al-jazeera. welcome back reminder of the top stories here on al-jazeera canada's prime minister just in trudeau as welcomed world leaders to us expected to be an awkward g seven summits in quebec tensions over the u.s. president's trade policy are likely to dominate the g seven official says it's highly unlikely they'll be a final communique from the summit due to a lack of consensus the international criminal court has overturned the conviction

of four mcconville is the vice president jumpy the court said bamber couldn't be held criminally responsible for what his forces did in neighboring central african republic in two thousand and two and four people have been killed and more than six hundred injured and gaza after israeli forces fired tear gas and belonging bullets palestinians protesting at the border. catholic bishops in nicaragua have stepped in to try to end the political crisis that they have met its president done a lot take pushing to broker talks between the government and protesters the central american country has suffered two months of bloodshed after a violent crackdown on demonstrators angry. and his proposed changes to the social security system memory reports from the capital. another day of unrest and a get out one means another funeral this time it's a thirty three year old opposition demonstrator killed during one of the latest

confrontations with pro-government forces in messiah his body was carried past a checkpoint to the nearby cemetery. with tensions continuing to rise in messiah all the roads leading into the city have been blocked by demonstrators forcing thousands of people to walk for hours to the next town. we have you will kill looking for food they don't have the government i come to having dinner while you go hungry. political violence has become common in this part of the country some of those leaving the area say they're not coming back anytime soon but i mean. we're walking to managua to see if we can make it to the border with jordan doris we don't know if we'll be able to make it all the way there. despite the relative calm demonstrators are quick to react to any activity that might suggest an assault from armed groups behind me is just one of dozens of barricades set up by anti-government demonstrators now these barriers that are set up aren't only here

to shield protesters from pro-government forces but also to prevent the free flow of commercial traffic into the city of messiah which has become a symbol of the resistance against the government. the only traffic allowed to pass through the barricades are emergency vehicles humanitarian aid workers and members of the catholic church here that if you talk about. has seen violence has seen deaths the city is totally paralyzed there is no commerce it's snipers that have left so many dead in messiah. the catholic church continues to act as the primary mediator in the ongoing crisis on thursday bishops and met with president daniel ortega presenting to him a set of conditions for renewing a national dialogue a dialogue the church says will only continue if the government can guarantee an end to the violence and let up. on iran. the united states is planning to transfer six hundred people detained by immigration and customs into federal

prisons five jails are going to temporarily house detainees awaiting civil court hearings why they could be house alongside convicted criminals she has written say has more on the latest in a series of controversial immigration decisions by the chump administration. this isn't the first time that federal prisons have been used to house immigrant detainees but the scale is different the six hundred will be held for up to one hundred twenty days while immigration authorities find space for them elsewhere prison unions complain that they've not been given enough time to prepare for the influx and civil rights groups are concerned that those simply looking for a better life will be housed with those convicted of federal crimes and the u.s. is notoriously brutal prison system the trouble ministrations new policy of prosecuting and detaining every person crossing the border without papers means space is limited there's been a surge in raids on workplaces in the u.s. those who found the job of being rounded up on mass and it's this policy that's led

to the separation of families some six hundred children taken from their parents since may as they wait prosecution according to a u.s. senator we are devastating a generation of children who are being called from their families there will be impacts on educational attainment physical harm and this is inhumane and cruel policy that that is hurting individuals it's hurting these families and it's hurting our communities and our society the u.n. high commissioner for human rights as such separations are against international law and even president trump says he is unhappy but blames the democrats for not helping pass immigration reform oh there was a broad bill that did this great border safety and security as it. was i don't like . separate from the first i don't like it i hate it the drug administration is hoping that the harsh conditions awaiting anyone caught trying to cross. the border without documentation will deter migration recent evidence shows that it's not

working in april if this year almost fifty one thousand people were detained at the southern border an increase of sixteen thousand from the previous year however a policy of des terance is nothing new it was the obama administration that attempted to deter immigrants during a surge of border crossings often by women and children fleeing instability in central america in twenty fourteen president obama vastly expanded family detentions the detention of parents with their children to try and scare migrants away the six hundred migrant children detained this month will join some ten thousand eight hundred already incarcerated in the u.s. the separation of immigrant children by the trump administration may violate international legal protections for children but it would appear that's exactly the point for the administration in washington she had her town see al-jazeera. five days off the mount way go erupted killing at least one hundred nine people got some island officials have warned that falling ash from the volcano is

a threat to flight authorities are ordering a new round of evacuations with flows of volcanic material on contaminated water still threatening homes it is also agency is telling residents of the town of day to leave their homes after some recently returned around two hundred people still missing. in the city of escrow and just south of the eruption what's the latest on the situation. well that's right i mean we know that the volcano that go volcano is still very dangerous and it's still highly active on friday morning this morning we saw another eruption and other pyro quant the glass which sent tons of toxic gas and rocks apparently up to three meters in diameter and i came out of sort of the front side of the volcano and that's what led to another twelve thousand people being evacuated so that's added an additional to the other three thousand or so people

who are evacuated at the same time they have blocked the road which leads to the town of la. which is back behind me there were the police are blocking the road to people residents who are living there and people who are near angry the emergency services shut down their operations their search operations because of this threat but people who have family members who are still missing and they're certainly got it is point but who are still missing and there are those people want to get into the site they want something done and they were actually down here yelling at the police saying that they want to get through and they're going to go in there and dig for their loved ones themselves if they have to so a little bit of tension here this morning in a swindler and the government was criticized quite badly for its handling initial handling of the disaster not warning people was imminent how are they dealing. now with what you're talking about seemingly with body recovery but also with all those people have been displaced to lift people in their homes.

well that's right it's a very complex situation that the government is faced with here now first of all as you mentioned the debt disaster management agency has come under a lot of fire public prosecutors have announced that they are going to be investigating that agency about whether that they followed the proper evacuation protocols or not so that's one thing that's going on and on the other hand like you said there is going to be thousands of people who have lost their homes who are now going to be looking for some kind of permanent shelter and that's going to be a very challenging issue here that is going to take months and months and months to figure out that means that they're going to have thousands of people who are living in these temporary shelters which are largely schools which is certainly not going to be adequate for you know thousands of people over the course of months so you know a very difficult situation for them as well there's also been the case of international aid not you know will to get through salvador sent along truckloads of food and

other supplies across the border we're trying to send it across the border to guatemala they were detained at the border for at least a day because the government here wasn't prepared to allow them through the government said that they needed seventy two hours to determine exactly what the country's needs were now that now the government has said that they do not want assistance from other countries in the form of food or medical supplies or anything like that but they said that they've opened up a bank account for cash donations now what it all is a country with a long history of government corruption and so there's going to be a lot of oz watching to see what exactly happens with any money that is channeled into guatemala from overseas so complex dynamic moving situation here and what i'm on many things that i. the world health organization says if boehner outbreak in the democratic republic of congo is stabilizing director general ted just out hannah holmes says he is cautiously

optimistic after a decrease in the number of cases reported in the past week more than eight hundred health workers have received an experimental vaccine for the virus the agency says it's also donating more than fifteen million dollars to countries bordering the d r c to help improve emergency care the austrian government plans to shut down seven mosques and could expel dozens of him arms is part of measures by the rightwing chancellor sebastian coots to target what he calls a political islam in the country dominic kane reports from neighboring germany in the six months since becoming chancellor civil courts has taken an even tougher line on immigration and what he says is the threat from parallel societies forming in his country now he's turning his sights on what he calls political islam due from illinois to become we can announce to you today

a decision from the office of religious affairs the lead to prohibit should of the activities of seven mosques this means dissolving the gray wolf mosque and secondly showing down the arabic cultural community to operate a total of six mosques. in addition to the closures these measures could also see dozens of him arms face expulsion from austria several of whom ministers in vienna believe are funded by elements inside turkey a spokesman for the turkish government has condemned the move as racist and anti islam courts as long and located a toughening of approach but forming a coalition with the far right anti islam freedom party last december seems to have been the catalyst for him to act in april his government announced plans to prevent girls in nurseries and primary schools from wearing head scarves we have a new climate of political climate here in australia since the last election and with the new government that has been in power or little more than half

a year you see. various measures taken against foreigners against immigrants against islam and sounds of all this is just one more step. one more match for. and their policy and that's what will interest far right movements across europe particularly in france the netherlands and here in berlin where the alternative for germany party made a parliamentary breakthrough in last year's election on a platform of opposition to islam dominant came al-jazeera. the e.u. is back that negotiator says a business plan to avoid a hard border in northern ireland raises more questions than answers michel barnier he said the u.k. had made welcome progress that the rest of the country wouldn't get the same terms of access to the single market that northern ireland has been off it. our backstop

cannot be extended to the whole u.k. why because it had been designed for the specific situation of national nine and what does it do. and customs notice an island would form part of our were accustomed territory what is feasible which a territory the size of national island is not necessarily feasible for look at. the celebrity chef and writer and reporter and has been found dead in his hotel room the sixty one year old was filming in france when his body was discovered they say because of his own life and a gala that reports anthony bourdain is career spanned continents but his love of the restaurant business had humble beginnings started out as it did.