Angry Trump lashes out at Democrats-led impeachment probe
YANGON (AFP) - Both Myanmar's military and its civilian government are behind the decision for Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to defend her country against allegations of genocide at the UN's top court, an army spokesman said Thursday.
In a shock move, State Counsellor Suu Kyi's office announced Wednesday the onetime democracy icon would travel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague to lead the defence team.
West African nation Gambia is due to open its case at the ICJ in December on behalf of the 57 member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
The mainly Muslim nation accuses Myanmar of breaching the 1948 Genocide Convention through its bloody military
WASHINGTON, Nov 22 (AFP) - An irate Donald Trump said on Friday he welcomes the prospect of an impeachment trial, as the US leader lashed out at “crazy” and “corrupt” opponents probing potential abuse of presidential power.
After a week of dramatic impeachment testimony from current and former administration officials, an embattled Trump took to a favorite broadcaster to air a long, occasionally incoherent list of grievances -against the FBI, his political adversaries, impeachment inquiry leaders, the “deep state,” and more.
“These people are sick,” Trump raged down the telephone line to Fox at the start of a 53-minute tirade that showed how angered and unsettled he has been by an impeachment inquiry that threatens his presidency.
Multiple witnesses, in often damning testimony under oath, buttressed charges the president conditioned much-needed military aid and a coveted White House meeting on Ukraine investigating his political rivals.
But with many Republicans seemingly unmoved, Trump bashed the testimony as “total nonsense” and said he relished the chance to defend himself. “Frankly, I want a trial,” Trump told morning show Fox and crackdown in 2017 against its Rohingya Muslim community in Rakhine state.
“We're cooperating in this case and our legal experts are working together,” military spokesman Brigadier General
Zaw Min Tun told AFP Thursday, referring to the armed forces and civilian government.
He also confirmed Suu Kyi would soon meet powerful army chief Min Aung Hlaing, with whom she has long had strained ties.
Some 740,000 Rohingya fled over the border into Bangladeshi camps as the military
Friends.
Impeachment in the Democratic-controlled House of Representat ives appears increasingly likely in the coming weeks or months.
But removing him from office would require conviction by a two- thirds majority in the Republican-controlled Senate.
The increasing prospect of becoming only the third US president formally impeached, after Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, has riled the brash New York billionaire, and he fired off multiple attacks against rivals leading the effort.
His main Democratic nemesis in Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is “crazy as a bedbug” for pressing a “scam” impeachment, he fumed.
House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, who has presided over the public phase of the inquiry? A “nutjob” and a “sick puppy” who should be sued for having “lied” about the president's “flawless” Ukraine call, Trump added.
Trump was quick to say he “hardly” knows several of the witnesses, including his own ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, who said Trump sought a quid pro quo from Ukraine.
But he rushed to the defence of his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who has emerged in many accounts as having orchestrated the shadow policy to pressure Ukraine.
“Rudy is a great crime fighter,” Trump said, giving an unqualified endorsement to one of the most controversial figures in the Ukraine saga.
“He is a friend of mine. He is a great person, an iconic figure in this country,” he said of the former New York major.
Trump also repeated the conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 US election -- just a day after a former National Security Council expert, Fiona Hill, denounced that in testimony as a “fictional narrative” advanced by Russia to harm the United States.
“They have the server from the DNC -- Democratic National Committee,” Trump said of Ukraine, claiming that Democrats gave the computer to “a company owned by a very wealthy Ukrainian.” The claim appeared to alarm Fox hosts, including Steve Doocy.
“Are you sure they gave it to Ukraine?” a sceptical Doocy asked Trump.
“That's what the word is, and that's what I asked actually in my phone call,” Trump responded, referring to his July 25 conversation with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky at the heart of the impeachment inquiry.