MADRID (AP) — Iñaki Williams is taking pride in becoming the first Black captain for Athletic Bilbao at a time when he said the “far-right is fashionable.”
The 31-year-old Williams, one of the first Black players to ever join the club, will take over as the squad's main caption this season.
Athletic historically has had few Black players because it only fields people from Spain’s northern Basque Country region or adjoining areas.
Williams and his younger brother, Nico, were born in the northern industrial city of Bilbao from Ghanaian parents who made the long journey to Europe looking for a better life.
“This means a lot," Williams said in a news conference. "It's seems like destiny that my mom and dad gave birth to me in Bilbao 31 years ago,” Williams said. “We are lucky to represent many people who come from abroad to make a living. And to be a reference in Basque Country and in Spain, is important for us.
“We come from humble families, and being able to express this is good for everyone,” he said. “It seems like the far-right is fashionable, and those of us who have a voice have to keep working and keep proving people wrong and keep overcoming barriers.”
Both Williams brothers, who have been subjected to racist insults in Spain, have been playing for Athletic since their youth. Iñaki Williams chose to play for Ghana's national team at the last World Cup, while his 23-year-old brother Nico has been a regular in Spain's squad.
Nico Williams has become one of the rising stars in Spanish soccer and reportedly was in negotiations to join Barcelona this season, though he ended up extending his contract to stay with Athletic.
The Basque Country club will be playing in the Champions League for the first time since the 2014-15 season.
“For many players, it will be their first time in the Champions League, and it’s very exciting,” Iñaki Williams said. “In Bilbao there’s a great desire to hear that (Champions League) anthem again.”
Athletic finished fourth in last season's Spanish league, behind Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid and champions Barcelona.
“We’re committed to being ambitious,” Iñaki Williams said. “With the new signings and the young players coming in, we’re making great strides. This is one of the strongest Athletic sides I can remember since I joined.”
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FILE - Athletic Bilbao's Inaki Williams celebrates scoring his side's third goal during the Copa del Rey quarterfinals soccer match between Athletic Bilbao and Barcelona at the San Mames stadium in Bilbao, Spain, on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos, File)
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Myanmar insisted Friday that its deadly military campaign against the Rohingya ethnic minority was a legitimate counter-terrorism operation and did not amount to genocide, as it defended itself at the top United Nations court against an allegation of breaching the genocide convention.
Myanmar launched the campaign in Rakhine state in 2017 after an attack by a Rohingya insurgent group. Security forces were accused of mass rapes, killings and torching thousands of homes as more than 700,000 Rohingya fled into neighboring Bangladesh.
“Myanmar was not obliged to remain idle and allow terrorists to have free reign of northern Rakhine state,” the country’s representative Ko Ko Hlaing told black-robed judges at the International Court of Justice.
African nation Gambia brought a case at the court in 2019 alleging that Myanmar's military actions amount to a breach of the Genocide Convention that was drawn up in the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust.
Some 1.2 million members of the Rohingya minority are still languishing in chaotic, overcrowded camps in Bangladesh, where armed groups recruit children and girls as young as 12 are forced into prostitution. The sudden and severe foreign aid cuts imposed last year by U.S. President Donald Trump shuttered thousands of the camps’ schools and have caused children to starve to death.
Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long considered the Rohingya Muslim minority to be “Bengalis” from Bangladesh even though their families have lived in the country for generations. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982.
As hearings opened Monday, Gambian Justice Minister Dawda Jallow said his nation filed the case after the Rohingya “endured decades of appalling persecution, and years of dehumanizing propaganda. This culminated in the savage, genocidal ‘clearance operations’ of 2016 and 2017, which were followed by continued genocidal policies meant to erase their existence in Myanmar.”
Hlaing disputed the evidence Gambia cited in its case, including the findings of an international fact-finding mission set up by the U.N.'s Human Rights Council.
“Myanmar’s position is that the Gambia has failed to meet its burden of proof," he said. "This case will be decided on the basis of proven facts, not unsubstantiated allegations. Emotional anguish and blurry factual pictures are not a substitute for rigorous presentation of facts.”
Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi represented her country at jurisdiction hearings in the case in 2019, denying that Myanmar armed forces committed genocide and instead casting the mass exodus of Rohingya people from the country she led as an unfortunate result of a battle with insurgents.
The pro-democracy icon is now in prison after being convicted of what her supporters call trumped-up charges after a military takeover of power.
Myanmar contested the court’s jurisdiction, saying Gambia was not directly involved in the conflict and therefore could not initiate a case. Both countries are signatories to the genocide convention, and in 2022, judges rejected the argument, allowing the case to move forward.
Gambia rejects Myanmar's claims that it was combating terrorism, with Jallow telling judges on Monday that “genocidal intent is the only reasonable inference that can be drawn from Myanmar’s pattern of conduct.”
In late 2024, prosecutors at another Hague-based tribunal, the International Criminal Court, requested an arrest warrant for the head of Myanmar’s military regime for crimes committed against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority. Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who seized power from Suu Kyi in 2021, is accused of crimes against humanity for the persecution of the Rohingya. The request is still pending.
FILE - In this Sept. 7, 2017, file photo, smoke rises from a burned house in Gawdu Zara village, northern Rakhine state, where the vast majority of the country's 1.1 million Rohingya lived, Myanmar. (AP Photo, File)
