‘Are We Not Humans?’ The New York Times Oct. 12, 2024 By  Nicholas Kristof Opinion Columnist Refugees from Sudan in Adré, Chad.Credit ...Dan Kitwood/Getty Images After my reporting trip to the Chad-Sudan border and columns about the murder, rape and starvation that have devastated Sudan, readers wrote in with many thoughtful comments and questions. Here’s my effort to address some of them: Perhaps you could help us understand the root causes of this conflict. Is the basis for this conflict between the two warring factions religious identity, Shariah law? —  David Wood, Johnson City, Tenn. The two main warring factions are rival Sudanese military branches now locked in a civil war: the Sudanese Armed Forces and a militia called the Rapid Support Forces. Imagine if the U.S. Army and a government-backed Ku Klux Klan military force joined together to stage a coup to overthrow America’s elected government, then co-ruled oppressively for a time, and finally began fighting each other while also slaughtering and starving civilians. That’s roughly the picture. The Rapid Support Forces were responsible for most of the massacres and rapes that I described in my columns in Sudan’s Darfur region, an echo of the Darfur genocide of two decades ago. In Darfur, the divide is not religious, as almost all people are Sunni Muslim. Rather, it is threefold. First, the Rapid Support Forces are Arabs and target non-Arab ethnic groups. Second, those Arab attackers are mostly lighter complexioned and target Black Africans (sometimes calling the Black Africans slaves or comparing them to litter or black plastic bags). Third, the Arab groups are often nomadic herders while the African tribes frequently are settled farmers, leading to conflicts over water access and grazing rights that have been exacerbated by climate change. How can we best respond to a famine like this? Air loads of food or repairing local farming communities?  — Daniel Brownstein, Berkeley, Calif. A famine has already been declared in Sudan, and some experts fear that it could become one of the worst in history, eclipsing the 1984 famine in Ethiopia and other countries. To see starving children is searing: They do not cry or demand food but are almost expressionless, for the dying body does not expend calories on anything but keeping the major organs alive. The best way to prevent so severe a famine in Sudan would be to end the war. But if the war continues, then we should at least press the warring parties to allow more humanitarian access. That means letting trucks bring food to communities that are starving. Doctors Without Borders reports that it has had to cut off rations for 5,000 malnourished children because warring parties are blocking attempts to resupply. In most of the world, “to starve” is intransitive: Children starve. In Sudan, it is also transitive: Warlords starve children. The U.S. should use intelligence community resources to monitor atrocities and release intercepts and images to hold warring parties accountable and end the impunity. Likewise, donor countries need to provide more support for groups like the United Nations’ World Food Program; only about half of the U.N. appeal for Sudan has been met. There is plenty of failure to go around. I don’t know, Nick. It seems to me we have enough problems in our own backyard without sticking our nose into affairs in Africa. —  Dale Bowden, Boise, Idaho In the 1930s and early ’40s America had plenty of problems at home, but does anyone think we were right to largely ignore the Holocaust? Decades later, President Bill Clinton has said that his passivity during the Rwandan genocide was one of the greatest regrets of his presidency. My point is that we have the bandwidth to address problems at home  and  to make a difference in Sudan. And just because we can’t do everything in Sudan doesn’t mean we should do nothing. Is there a military response from the U.N. or U.S. that would curtail the slaughter and improve the ability to receive and distribute food?  — Trevor Ferguson, Victoria, B.C. I don’t see a military solution. Some people talk about an international peacekeeping force, for that did help in the Darfur genocide, but I doubt that there’s the political will to create such a force today. Plus, there isn’t a peace to keep. [Genocide Watch comment: Political will isn't an impenetrable wall. It can be broken through or built around by political movements and leaders with courage. What is needed in Sudan isn't a "peacekeeping force." It's a UN/AU Peace Making Force to stop the war and genocide with a police force to arrest leaders charged by the ICC.] That said, it’s not hopeless. The United Arab Emirates fuels the atrocities by arming and supporting the Rapid Support Forces; I think the U.A.E. can be shamed into backing off, just as it was shamed into withdrawing from the brutal war in Yemen five years ago. Likewise, the Sudanese Armed Forces can be shamed into allowing food into areas it has tried to starve. Ideally, the two scorpions would agree to retreat to their barracks — each reassured that at least the other would not assume power — so that civilian rule could be re-established in Sudan. But that would require sanctions, pressure, attention and shaming at a far greater level than now exists, and this won’t happen unless America and Britain lead the way. The most appalling thing is the U.A.E. sending weapons to support the R.S.F.’s war on Black African tribes. But I guess the U.S. depends on their good graces for our base there, so we aren’t leaning on them. —  Pete Sommer, Redwood City, Calif. I don’t understand why President Biden has been so deferential to the U.A.E.: We have much more leverage over the U.A.E. than it does over us. Biden was rightly critical of President George W. Bush for not doing enough during the Darfur genocide, but Bush was far more activist at that time than Biden is now. If millions die from an avoidable famine in Sudan, that will be a stain on Biden’s legacy. Basketball players, owners and fans should ask hard questions about the N.B.A.’s partnership with the U.A.E., for this tarnishes basketball. Performers should cancel events in the U.A.E., as the rap artist Macklemore did. Even a discussion of such a boycott raises the cost to the U.A.E. of its policies. Do you know of interviews with the leaders of the militias that perpetrate the atrocities that you’ve described? I’m interested in how they can justify these things to themselves, to their families. —  David Margulis, Roswell, Ga. I was unable on this visit to enter Darfur and interview any of the warlords and ordinary gunmen responsible for atrocities, but I have done so in the past. It’s fascinating: They see themselves as the good guys. First, they each say that the atrocities their side has committed have been exaggerated and that the other side has also attacked some Arabs. They say that the Black African groups are intruders and are blocking their herding routes, draining their wells and stealing their animals. So they claim they’re defending their lands. The Arab groups have also dehumanized the Black African groups, referring to them as slaves, and that makes murder and rape easier. Fighters sometimes perceive women as spoils of war and also as weapons of war, and rape can serve grim practical purposes. Indeed, mass rape can be the perfect crime, for it terrorizes Black African groups and leads them to flee, it discredits those groups’ tribal leaders because of their failure to protect women, and it is unlikely to be reported and get the attackers in trouble. How can I help on my level — just a housewife here in Texas? I want to do something! This is not right. —  Bonnie Dillon, Fort Worth If you want to help the relief efforts, one approach is to support local Sudanese grass-roots efforts through MutualAidSudan.org . This network was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize this year. I’ve also long admired Doctors Without Borders, which is active both in Sudan and in Chad next door. Those doctors have guts as well as scalpels. Also, consider advocacy groups. One small initiative is Preventing & Ending Mass Atrocities, paema.ngo . And Human Rights Watch has done outstanding research reports on the Sudan crisis. [Genocide Watch comment: Genocide Watch and the Alliance Against Genocide have worked against genocide in Sudan since 1999. We are working to re-establish a UN/AU Force in Sudan to stop the civil war and genocide. We have proposed a UN Security Council Resolution on Sudan to re-establish a 10,000 person armed force to protect civilians with 715 police authorized to arrest persons charged by the International Criminal Court with war crimes or crimes against humanity.] You can also engage in your own advocacy. Former Senator Paul Simon of Illinois said that if each member of Congress had received just 100 letters calling for action during the Rwanda genocide, the U.S. government would have lumbered into action. Sudan will suffer whatever happens, but the toll of famine will depend partly on us: It could be 500,000 deaths or it might be 12 million. We have a chance to save millions of lives, or we can say we’re busy and it’s complicated and someone else had better do something. I think of a woman I met, Maryam Suleiman, who  told me  how the Rapid Support Forces had executed her five brothers and tried to rape her. “Are we not humans?” she asked me. That’s for all of us to answer. More from Nicholas Kristof on Sudan Opinion | Nicholas Kristof I Just Went to Darfur. Here Is What Shattered Me. Sept. 18, 2024 Opinion | Nicholas Kristof When Gunmen Impose a Policy of Rape Sept. 21, 2024   Opinion | Nicholas Kristof ‘Don’t Kill My Child. Kill Me Instead.’ Sept. 28, 2024   Nicholas Kristof became a columnist for The Times Opinion desk in 2001 and has won two Pulitzer Prizes. His new memoir is “ Chasing Hope: A Reporter's Life .”  @NickKristof A version of this article appears in print on Oct. 13, 2024, Section SR, Page 3 of the New York edition with the headline: ‘Are We Not Humans?’.  Copyright 2024 The New York Times Company

For Atomic Bomb Survivors, a Nobel Prize 80 Years Later The New York Times Oct. 11, 2024 By  Hannah Beech   Hisako Ueno  and  Kiuko Notoya Toshiyuki Mimaki, the chairman of Nihon Hidankyo, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, said his foremost wish was to “please abolish nuclear weapons while we are alive.” The devastation of Hiroshima in the aftermath of the atomic bombing in 1945, in a photo released by the United States government.Credit ...United States Army Cities blasted to rubble. Burned bodies and flayed flesh. Invisible waves of radiation coursing through the air. And the indelible image of a mushroom cloud. The atomic bombs dropped by the United States on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki showed the world what an apocalypse looks like. Tens of thousands of people died in the immediate aftermath. But some emerged from the devastation. Struggling with survivors’ guilt and sick with illnesses caused by the radiation, they were shunned for years as living reminders of the human capacity to engineer horror. On Friday, Nihon Hidankyo, a collective of Japanese atomic bomb survivors, was awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize for its decades-long campaign to rid the world of nuclear weapons. The group was honored by the Norwegian Nobel Committee for “demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.” The survivors of the bombings — more than 100,000 are still living — “help us to describe the indescribable, to think the unthinkable, and to somehow grasp the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons,” Jørgen Watne Frydnes, the committee chairman, said, The Nobel committee noted that although nuclear weapons have not been used since the Japanese cities were attacked by American bombers in August 1945, nuclear powers are modernizing their arsenals and other countries are trying to join the nuclear club. The committee did not name any specific nations. But President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has threatened to use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine. And concerns are growing about nuclear proliferation in the Middle East and Asia. “At this moment in human history, it is worth reminding ourselves what nuclear weapons are the most destructive weapons the world has ever seen,” the committee said. Shigemitsu Tanaka, a member of Nihon Hidankyo, reacting in Nagasaki, Japan, after the Nobel announcement on Friday.Credit ...Kyodo, via Reuters Other Nobel laureates have been awarded the Peace Prize for their campaigns against nuclear weapons, including the chemist turned activist Linus Pauling in 1962 and the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2005. It was nearly 80 years ago, on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945, that American B-29 bombers dropped two atomic weapons, code named Little Boy and Fat Man, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Nobel committee said that about 120,000 people were killed by the detonations. A similar number died from burns, injuries and radiation-induced diseases in the months and years that followed. That first and only use of nuclear weapons was followed by the end of World War II, but also by a nuclear weapons arms race. In the deserts of China and Algeria and on the  atolls of the South Pacific , nuclear powers tested increasingly more powerful weapons that spewed harmful radiation. Today, nine countries are considered nuclear powers: the United States, Russia, France, China, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea. There are nearly 13,000 weapons in the global nuclear stockpile, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. In Japan, the payloads dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki echoed far beyond the ruined cities. A once martial Japan blossomed into a culture that has dedicated itself, even in its Constitution, to peace. Japanese children flashed peace signs for photos and Olympic ceremonies in Japan featured white doves. But many Japanese felt more comfortable averting their gaze from the  hibakusha , or “the people affected by bombs,” as the Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors are known. For many in Japan — and in the United States — the hibakusha represented something that they didn’t want to see. When Terumi Tanaka, a representative of Nihon Hidankyo, visited the United Nations in 1976, he was shocked to discover that, at the time, the ruination caused by the atomic bombs was not that well known. The U.N. had drastically downplayed the death toll. Some Japanese feared that radiation-induced diseases were contagious, and hibakusha worried about their marriage and career prospects.  Sunao Tsuboi , the onetime chairman of Nihon Hidankyo who was less than a mile from the center of the Hiroshima blast when it went off, recalled that he and his fiancée took sleeping pills in a suicide pact after being told by her parents that they could not wed because he was a hibakusha. (They survived and married, and Mr. Tsuboi met President Barack Obama when he visited Hiroshima in 2016.) Sunao Tsuboi, a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945, photographed in 2016.Credit ...Johannes Eisele/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images “Starting with the inhumane acts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we were oppressed by the United States and abandoned by the Japanese government for a long time,” Sueichi Kido, the secretary general of Nihon Hidankyo and a survivor of the Nagasaki bomb, told NHK, the Japanese broadcaster, on Friday. When Nihon Hidankyo formed in 1956, its founding declaration described the stigma of outliving nuclear annihilation. “We have survived until now in silence, with our heads down,” the statement said. In the years after the war, the hibakusha were living evidence of the fact that the United States, which occupied Japan after World War II and imposed upon the nation a Constitution that renounced war, had caused the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The hibakusha were also a counternarrative to a Japan that was developing into a high-tech economic giant fueled, in some cases, by nuclear power. The 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which led to a meltdown at a nuclear power plant in Fukushima, once again forced a national moment of reflection. Since the nuclear accident, most of Japan’s nuclear reactors remain shuttered. These days, the hibakusha, whose largest grouping is Nihon Hidankyo, are celebrated for their continued campaign against nuclear weapons despite the obstacles. Many have dedicated their lives to recounting their stories of loss and pain, in an effort to ensure that the world comprehends the profound terror that a nuclear war could bring. The Nobel committee said that such witness accounts “have contributed greatly to the establishment of a nuclear taboo.” But that taboo, said Mr. Frydnes, the Nobel committee chairman, “is under pressure.” Henrik Urdal, the director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, said in a statement that threats by both longtime nuclear powers and by newer actors show the crucial timing of the prize awarded to Nihon Hidankyo. “In an era where automated weapon systems and A.I.-driven warfare are emerging, their call for disarmament is not just historical, it is a critical message for our future,” Mr. Urdal said. In awarding the peace prize to Nihon Hidankyo, the Nobel committee said that even though the hibakusha are growing old, a new generation of Japanese could campaign for nuclear disarmament. But Japan’s neighbors include Russia and China. From Laos, where he was attending a regional summit, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba of Japan said that it was “extremely significant” that Nihon Hidankyo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Mr. Ishiba, who was previously the country’s defense minister, has called for Japan to adopt a more muscular military stance. He supports revising Japan’s Constitution to add a specific mention of Japan’s military, which is called the  Japan Self-Defense Forces . The United States is treaty-bound to defend Japan if it comes under attack, and Mr. Ishiba, before he became prime minister, suggested that the United States could possibly share its nuclear weapons with Asia. And while the Japanese public still overwhelmingly supports nuclear disarmament, some young people have expressed support for the nuclear deterrence theory, in which countries arm themselves to deter attack, a Nihon Hidankyo member told the Asahi Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper.   Toshiyuki Mimaki, the chairman of Nihon Hidankyo, said on Friday that his foremost wish was for the world to “please abolish nuclear weapons while we are alive.”Credit...Jiji Press, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Last year, at a summit in Hiroshima, the Group of 7 nations released a statement that did not call outright for nuclear disarmament, instead urging that nuclear weapons “for as long as they exist, should serve defensive purposes, deter aggression and prevent war and coercion.” But Toshiyuki Mimaki, the chairman of Nihon Hidankyo, said on Friday that his foremost wish was for the world to “please abolish nuclear weapons while we are alive.” Mr. Mimaki is 82.   Megan Specia, Steven Erlanger, Anton Troianovski, John Yoon and Lynsey Chutel contributed reporting. Hannah Beech  is a Times reporter based in Bangkok who has been covering Asia for more than 25 years. She focuses on in-depth and investigative stories.  More about Hannah Beech Hisako Ueno  is a reporter and researcher based in Tokyo, writing on Japanese politics, business, labor, gender and culture.  More about Hisako Ueno Kiuko Notoya  is a Tokyo-based reporter and researcher, covering news and features from Japan.  More about Kiuko Notoya   Copyright 2024 The New York Times Company

Some 150 Cuban reporters have gone into exile over the past two years in the face of a witch hunt where authorities use the Penal Code to pursue the media considered contrary to their interests. People protesting in front of the Cuban Capitol building in Havana, in 2021. Ernesto Mastrascusa ((EPA) EFE). Last Thursday afternoon, Cuban journalist María Lucía Expósito wrote that she would love for her “subversive” salary to be enough to help her sister, a doctor, who earns the equivalent of an ice cream shake for a month of work. Or that she would like to be able to cover her grandfather’s medication costs, whose pension for more than 40 years has not exceeded 2,000 pesos (just over $6). A few days ago, the young woman was summoned by Cuban state security agents, who over more than six hours of interrogation not only questioned her ties to independent media and her participation in a journalism training course, but also confiscated $1,000 from her salary. “Why don’t universities speak out about the helplessness and vulnerability of their graduates?” Expósito asked herself in a long post that she published through a friend, because her Facebook account has been disabled. “Why have my loved ones and those close to me advised me to leave my country as soon as possible?” she added. In recent days, complaints from journalists, contributors, content creators and activists have begun to appear on social media, in what is being described as another major purge against the independent media by the Cuban government. Interrogations lasting up to 12 hours, confiscation of salaries or work equipment and threats of imprisonment against those involved, or their families, are some of the ways in which agents operate, once again anonymously attempting to deactivate any attempt at alternative activity to the state. Journalists from the media outlets Periodismo de Barrio, Cubanet, or El Toque have been forced to leave their jobs — even the country — or to publicly resign from their professional activity. In several Facebook posts, some signed a declaration last Thursday in which they renounce “collaborating and/or participating in any media or project of an independent nature and/or considered subversive or contrary to the interests of the Cuban government.” It is an attack that, according to those involved, has intensified since last September. One of the first to make the situation public was the music magazine Magazine AM:PM whose directors, through an editorial, announced that they would take “an indefinite break.” Although they did not offer many more details, they cited “the growing pressure and harassment” of its editor by “Cuban counterintelligence agencies,” which prevent the magazine from “applying for funds” and “endanger the integrity” of the project and the team. The editor of Periodismo de Barrio, Elaine Díaz, denounced the repression unleashed by the government on X, highlighting the summonses issued to at least 20 journalists, activists, and entrepreneurs, stating that the authorities are using the “the only method they know how; using psychological torture.” El Toque, a media outlet that the Cuban government has particularly had in its sights in recent times, has denounced the sustained repression against its contributors and insisted that “it is nothing new.” It also warned of “the possible implementation of a judicial process, lacking guarantees, that could lead to an accusation” against members of its team. Some of those affected have been made to record “mea culpas” that are expected to later be televised. These are strategies that the Cuban government has employed previously. In 2016, there was an awakening of independent media on the island, whose journalists were later forced to publicly resign and subjected to interrogations, fines, threats, or house arrests. Most of them now live in exile. The same thing had happened before with other ventures, initiatives, or media that tried to report on Cuba from within. The response has always been the same: the only version of what is happening on the island is told exclusively by the state press, and there is no room for anything that goes beyond those limits. In the last two years alone, at least 150 Cuban journalists have gone into exile. The government has also made censorship official, with laws that regulate the punishment of freedom of expression such as the Communication Law, which declares the work of independent media illegal, Decree Law 370, under which many reporters have received fines that exceed any salary on the island, and the Penal Code, which classifies as “mercenary” and indicts those who, according to the authorities, receive funds or are involved in some type of activity related to a foreign government, almost always that of the United States. Raudiel Peña Barrios, a member of the Cubalex legal advisory group, explained to EL PAÍS that in this new repressive wave the authorities “are making threats with crimes that are in the Penal Code.” According to the lawyer, in Cuba there are “different criminal offenses that have been used against independent journalists, political opponents, activists, and human rights defenders such as the crime of propaganda against the constitutional order, or all crimes that include referrals to the receipt of funds from abroad. They could also use contempt, illegal economic activity, public disorder... All of them are possible crimes that can be used against these people.” Some of them carry sentences of up to 10 years of imprisonment. This is a reality similar to others in the region in countries with totalitarian regimes. A report by the Institute for Press and Society (IPYS) revealed that in Venezuela, 85.63% of the journalists surveyed had left the country due to restrictions on the practice of their work and persecution ranging from arbitrary detentions, censorship, judicial harassment, risk of forced disappearance and torture, among others. Recently, the Foundation for Freedom of Expression and Democracy (FLED) declared that at least 263 Nicaraguan journalists had gone into exile since 2018 for the same reasons: threats, censorship, persecution, violations of individual freedom and freedom of expression. © EDICIONES EL PAÍS

(KYIV, October 11, 2024)—The Ukrainian Parliament took an important step when it voted this week to amend the domestic Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code to complete its ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), said Fortify Rights today. The parliament initially  voted  to ratify the Rome Statute on August 21, 2024, and the legislation that passed this week, on October 9, was needed to integrate the Statute’s obligations into the country's domestic legal framework.  “We warmly welcome the decisive vote of the Ukrainian Parliament, finally completing the legislative stage of Ukraine's accession to the  International Criminal Court ,”  said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Fortify Rights.  “This is an essential step towards achieving justice for victims and survivors of atrocity crimes in Ukraine, although much more will need to be done to bring Putin and his criminal gang to justice.”   The bill adopted this week was submitted by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to parliament in August 2024, at the same time as the draft law on ratification of the Rome Statute. It was conceived to implement the ratification of the Rome Statute into domestic law. The President’s intent was for parliament to vote on both laws simultaneously because without adopting the implementing law, ratification would not come into domestic force.   The delay in adopting the implementing law was partly due to debates over the incompleteness of the proposed amendments to the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes of Ukraine. The bill, as adopted, does not include the entire catalog of war crimes provided for in the Rome Statute. For instance, it does not fully cover crimes related to causing disproportionate harm to the environment, the involvement of children in combat operations, or deliberate attacks on personnel engaged in peacekeeping missions under the U.N. Charter. In addition, the bill, as adopted, still does not fully address the rights of victims of war crimes, such as their rights to compensation, restitution, and rehabilitation, as provided for in Article 68 of the Rome Statute. To overcome this, Ukraine could rely on cooperation agreements with the ICC, said Fortify Rights. Cooperation agreements play a crucial role in facilitating the effective functioning of the Court and often include provisions for witness protection. The ICC is already investigating crimes committed during Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. Since the start of Russian aggression in Ukraine in 2014, Ukraine has given the ICC jurisdiction over Russian crimes on its territory through two separate  ad hoc  declarations under Article 12(3) of the Rome Statute, despite not being a full state party to the Statute. These declarations allowed the ICC to investigate crimes committed on Ukrainian territory without Ukraine having fully ratified the Rome Statute. Almost immediately following Russia’s most recent invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, 43 ICC member states  referred the situation in Ukraine  to ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan. In March 2022, the Prosecutor applied the Court’s jurisdiction and announced that he had opened an investigation into international crimes committed in Ukraine. The Court has since issued arrest warrants for Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, his Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, and the Army Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov for crimes committed during the Ukraine war. Fortify Rights Press Release Copyright 2024 Fortify Rights

Responding to reports of the ongoing arbitrary detention of hundreds of people, including members of the academic community, in major towns across Ethiopia’s Amhara region since 28 September 2024, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, Tigere Chagutah, said: “The Ethiopian army and police’s ongoing campaign of arbitrary mass detentions in Amhara region is yet more evidence of the government’s total disregard for the rule of law. Eyewitnesses have stated that authorities came with a “list” and failed to obtain arrest and search warrants before detaining hundreds of civilians across the region. Those detained have largely not been brought before a court of law within 48 hours, as required by the country’s national laws and constitution.” The Ethiopian army and police’s ongoing campaign of arbitrary mass detentions in Amhara region is yet more evidence of the government’s total disregard for the rule of law. -Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International's Regional Director for East and Southern Africa “Ethiopian authorities must immediately end these arbitrary arrests, press charges against those detained for internationally recognized crimes and follow due process, or release them without further delay. It is time for the authorities to stop using arbitrary detention as a tool of repression”. Background In recent months, Amnesty International has documented harassment, intimidation, and relentless attacks on journalists and human rights defenders by Ethiopian authorities, driving many into exile. This exodus of critical voices has severely diminished reporting and documentation of ongoing human rights violations, particularly in conflict-affected areas like the Amhara region. These latest arbitrary arrests of academics and civil servants risk further eroding freedom of expression. Reports indicate that members of the academic community at federal universities in the Amhara region are among those arrested. Witnesses also told Amnesty International that some arrests were made late at night, including by members of the army. © 2024 Amnesty International

More than half of those displaced are children, the UN agency for migration says, calling for international support. People wait for food distribution in a displaced persons camp at the Lycee Marie Jeanne in Port-au-Prince, Haiti [File: Clarens Siffroy/AFP] More than 700,000 people are now internally displaced from their homes in Haiti, with over half of them being children, according to a new report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The United Nations agency said on Wednesday that the figure represented a 22 percent rise compared to June. More than 110,000 people have fled their homes in the last seven months due to gang violence , particularly in Gressier, west of the capital, Port-au-Prince, it added. Haiti has faced years of unrest and instability as powerful armed groups – often with ties to the country’s political and business leaders – have vied for influence and control. The situation worsened dramatically at the end of February, when gangs launched attacks on prisons and other state institutions across Port-au-Prince. The surge of violence this year prompted the resignation of Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry, the creation of the country’s Transitional Presidential Council, and the deployment of a United Nations-backed, Kenya-led multinational force called the Multinational Security Support Mission. Last week, the UN human rights office said more than 3,600 people had been killed this year in “senseless” gang violence in the country. And on Monday, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said in a report that almost 48 percent of people in Haiti are experiencing acute food shortages. International support needed Gregoire Goodstein, the IOM’s chief in Haiti, urged on Wednesday “the international community to step up its support for Haiti’s displaced populations and the host communities that continue to show remarkable resilience in the face of these challenges”. The IOM report said about 75 percent of those displaced were now sheltering in the country’s provinces, with the Grand Sud region alone hosting 45 percent of all displaced individuals. The remainder are in Port-au-Prince “where the situation remains precarious and unpredictable”, said the IOM, with people often living in overcrowded sites, with little to no access to basic services. The agency said 83 percent of displaced people were being hosted by families. “It is crucial that efforts to restore stability and security across the country continue, alongside humanitarian aid to alleviate the immediate suffering of those affected,” it said. © 2024 Al Jazeera Media Network

By Reade Levinson and Giulia Paravicini Five aid workers killed, 10 assaulted, 11 kidnapped in Amhara between January and June 2024 Some NGOs and donors oppose suspension, citing impact on 2.3 million reliant on food aid UN demands safety assurances and independent investigations before resuming aid LONDON/NAIROBI, Oct 8 (Reuters) - The United Nations is considering suspending relief operations, including food aid deliveries, in Ethiopia's Amhara region, following deadly attacks on humanitarian workers, according to a draft proposal seen by Reuters and verified by two diplomats. Five aid workers were killed in the first six months of 2024, 10 were physically assaulted or injured and 11 kidnapped by unidentified criminal groups, according to the document which is dated August 2024. The three-page document, which is marked "internal", states that the U.N. is "seriously considering implementing a temporary cessation of relief operations in the region." Several NGOs and donors have already opposed the move, according to three sources familiar with discussions surrounding the proposal. A cessation of relief operations would have a dire impact on more than 2.3 million people in Amhara who rely on food aid to survive, two donor nations and an NGO opposed to the suspension told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Amhara is home to more than 36 million people as well as the first stop for thousands of refugees fleeing the war in neighbouring Sudan . Fighting between Ethiopia's army and Amhara Fano militiamen broke out in July 2023 and has killed hundreds and displaced thousands according to U.N. estimates. Fano militia fought alongside the army in a two-year civil war that pitted Addis Ababa against the Tigray People's Liberation Front, which controls the northern region of Tigray. During that conflict, Ethiopia's government denied accusations that it was using starvation as a weapon of war against Tigray, which was under a de facto blockade. After the war ended, relations between Fano and the government nosedived over accusations that Addis Ababa was undermining Amhara's security by dismantling its regional army. Desperate Need The proposal was written by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and shared with the Ethiopia Humanitarian Country Team (EHCT), which includes donors, NGOs and UN agencies. OCHA declined to comment on the draft position paper. Spokespeople for the federal government, the foreign ministry and the Amhara regional authorities did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov told Reuters that killings and kidnappings of aid workers were "undermining the ability of humanitarian workers to do their work, and thereby, aid delivery is impeded until we establish a way of working that allows safe and principled reach to the communities in need." On Sept. 29, a staff member with the children's charity Plan International, Teklemariam Tarekegn, was killed in Debre Mewi in Amhara along with two others when the minibus they were travelling in was attacked, according to the organisation. Plan told Reuters it was aware of the U.N. proposal to pause work in Amhara and monitoring the security situation closely. "Ceasing operations is a decision that we would never take lightly when humanitarian need is so desperate, and would only do so if absolutely necessary," said Peter Sweetnam, Ethiopia director for Plan International. According to the U.N. document, Ethiopia's government would need to agree to a series of commitments and additional security steps before the U.N. considers restarting Amhara relief work. These include assurances that aid workers can work safely in Amhara and that any severe incidents including kidnappings or killings will be investigated by an independent body. © 2024 Reuters. All rights reserved

By Areeka Khan A child receives treatment for malnutrition at Rifa'a Hospital in Gezira state, Sudan in October, 2023. Earlier this year, UN humanitarians warned that an alarming 700,000 children in Sudan are experiencing the most severe and life-threatening hunger due to the conflict. Photo - Faiz Abubakr The civil war in Sudan has caused a severe humanitarian crisis, impacting approximately 26 million people who are experiencing food shortages.  Food scarcity has forced people to resort to eating leaves and dirt to overcome their hunger.   The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have intentionally blocked access to humanitarian aid.   Long delays in issuing visas and travel permits by the Khartoum government  for United Nations staff and other humanitarian organizations have also hindered the delivery of aid.  The RSF has looted   86 humanitarian organization offices and 50 warehouses.     The RSF has stolen 220  NGO vehicles.   3,000 humanitarian personnel have ceased working  in Sudan due to the fighting. Since the conflict began, 32 aid workers have been detained and at least 20 have been killed.   Farming has stopped in Darfur and other parts of Sudan. Farmers have abandoned their fields and have had their  harvested crops stolen by the RSF.  Many farmers have fled due to the war. The displaced population faces the spread of diseases such as malaria .  1.4 million people have sought refuge in neighboring countries such as the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, and South Sudan. Most of the refugees are living in dire humanitarian conditions,  facing shortages of food, water, and medicines.  The deliberate and intentional obstruction of humanitarian aid and attacks on humanitarian relief personnel by the RSF and SAF are war crimes .   Genocide Watch recommends:   Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) must immediately halt all hostilities and facilitate unimpeded passage for humanitarian assistance.     The government of Sudan must immediately issue visas and travel permits for United Nations staff and personnel of other humanitarian organizations.

By Bhaswati Bhattacharjee © UNICEF/Mohamed Zakaria Rape and sexual assault are  used as weapons of war to terrorize, displace, and destroy  non-Arab ethnicities in Sudan.  Widespread Rape:  Women and girls are being raped in their homes, fields, and during displacement. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have committed 80 percent of rapes  since civil war broke out in April 2023. There are also  reports of non-Arab men being raped  in Ardamata. In July 2023, the Combating Violence Against Women Unit documented 88 cases of sexual violence  in Khartoum, El Geneina, and Nyala. In December 2023, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reported documented 118 cases of rape  in Sudan, including rape, gang rape, and attempted rape, with 19 children among the victims. According to a report published by the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) in April 2024, 244 cases of rape  have been documented. Since only one in twenty rapes are reported, the actual number of rapes may actually be over 4,400 .    Targeting of Specific Groups:  The RSF, dominated by Arabs, with allied Arab militias, targeted non-Arab communities, mainly the Masalit  during attacks on El Geneina in West Darfur. Female human rights defenders  and healthcare providers  have been targeted deliberately.      Forced Pregnancy and Sexual Slavery:   Abduction and enslavement of women  and girls and trafficking of women  are widespread. Victims are subjected to sexual slavery, forced marriages  and pregnancies. According to the SIHA , at least seven women have committed suicide. because of their unwanted pregnancies. Women are forced into prostitution  to get food for their families.  Based on over 300 interviews with victims and witnesses, the U.N. human rights office  concluded in a report in February 2024 that rapes in Sudan are war crimes. Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that rape has been systematically used as a weapon of war  in Sudan. The International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan’s office said in a report  to the U.N. Security Council on July 13, 2023, that it is investigating “allegations of sexual and gender-based crimes, including mass rapes… and violence against children.”   Genocide Watch recommends:   Ethnically targeted rape is an act genocide under Genocide Convention, Article II (b) (Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group), (c) (Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part), and (d) (Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group). (ICTR Akayesu case) Leaders of genocide must be prosecuted.  Reported cases of rape should be investigated and arrest warrants issued by the ICC and Sudanese courts.  RSF and SAF rapists and traffickers must be arrested and tried.  Survivors of sexual violence must receive immediate medical care and protection.  International donors should fund clinics to provide medical and psychological care for survivors of rape.  The Sudanese government must permit emergency medical care without requiring police or legal reports.  Safe escape routes for civilians should be established by agreements with RSF and SAF commanders.  A strong UN/AF Peacekeeping Mission in Sudan should be authorized by the UN Security Council.

By Areeka Khan A frame from a social media video shows the victims of the attack on Wad al-Nourah in June 2024. Survivors confirmed that RSF forces attacked the village from three sides, entered homes, killed civilians, and stole valuables such as gold, vehicles, and agricultural supplies. Foreign powers are facilitating and profiting from the conflict in Sudan. The United Arab Emirates is providing military support to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF)  through Am Djarass. Since June 2023, there has been a significant increase in the number of cargo planes flying from Abu Dhabi International Airport to Am Djarass Airport in eastern Chad. These aircraft sometimes deliver medical supplies to a UAE hospital in Chad but most flights  deliver arms and munitions to the RSF.    The RSF has obtained fuel from southern Libya . Tanker trucks transport fuel to the RSF in North Darfur through the Libya-Chad-Sudan tri-border area, often through Am Djarass.  The RSF also purchased weapons and vehicles such as Land cruisers from Libya  which are crucial for their military attacks. The RSF has also imported fuel from South Sudan .   The RSF obtained weapons and munitions through the Central African Republi c in operations  planned and carried out by RSF commander, Abdallah al-Jazouli.    Egypt is the primary source for weaponry  supplied to the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).  Both the RSF and SAF are violating the UN arms embargo imposed on Darfur in 2005, which is still in effect.    Genocide Watch recommends:   United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Chad, and Libya must immediately cease their military support to the RSF and SAF.   South Sudan, Chad, and Libya must close weapon supply routes through their territory to Sudan.

Genocide in Sudan: A Continuing Humanitarian Crisis By Bhaswati Bhattacharjee Bodies are scattered near homes in El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, on June 16, 2023. A United Nations report reviewed by Reuters on Friday indicates that as many as 15,000 people were killed in the city last year due to ethnic violence. (Photo - AFP) Fourteen months after civil war broke out in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on 15 April 2023, Sudan is undergoing a severe humanitarian crisis caused by war and genocide. Since the civil war began, ACLED has recorded 5,550 violent incidents and over 15,550 fatalities in Sudan. Khartoum has had the most fatalities. 32% of civilian fatalities in Sudan were in Darfur. RSF Arab militias have focused their genocide against the Masalit people in West Darfur. Masalit leader Khamis Abakar was assassinated by the RSF on the same day he accused the RSF of genocide . Over 900,000 Masalit and Erenga people have fled into Chad. UN experts accuse the RSF and its allies of war crimes. Since April 15, 2023, an estimated 7,262,187 people have been internally displaced within Sudan. Over 2,170,592 people have fled to neighboring countries. In Geneina, West Darfur, RSF massacres since late April 2023 have resulted in the deaths of at least 38,100 Masalit people. By July 2023, a Masalit leader claimed that the death toll in West Darfur had exceeded 10,000 , with 80% of Geneina’s residents having fled. Massacres occurred in towns like Tawila and Misterei, and a mass grave containing 87 bodies was found in Geneina. The RSF has murdered nearly all Masalit intellectuals, politicians, professionals, and nobility. The RSF goal is to drive all black Africans out of Darfur. The UK government, witnesses, and observers describe the violence as akin to genocide , primarily targeting non-Arab groups such as the Masalit. The Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, in their April 2024 report , stated that based on “clear and convincing evidence, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militias have committed and are committing genocide against the Masalit” and they also “have committed and are committing direct and public incitement to genocide.” The atrocities committed by the RSF in West Darfur targeting non-Arab Masalit members can only be interpreted as “an intent to destroy the Masalit group in whole or in part.” Genocide Watch recommends: The systematic RSF massacres of members of the Masalit ethnic group should be recognized as genocide since they violate Genocide Convention, Article II (a) (Killing members of the group), (b) (Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group), and (c) (Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part). The warring parties should be pressured to reach an immediate ceasefire and negotiated end of the war. Foreign sources of funding and weapons must stop. Arms embargo violators must be sanctioned. The RSF must be held accountable for committing genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Reported cases of mass killing, torture, and forcible displacement should be investigated, and arrest warrants should be issued against the perpetrators by the ICC and Sudanese courts. The RSF must be forced to ensure humanitarian access to all people, without hindrance. Safe travel routes for civilians should be established by the warring factions, especially the RSF. A UN Human Rights Council mandated international fact-finding mission for Sudan should be created. The African Union and the UN Security Council should re-establish a UN Peacekeeping force in Sudan.

Biden’s Moral Failure in Israel The New York Times Oct. 8, 2024 By Peter Beinart Mr. Beinart is a contributing Opinion writer at The Times. President Biden Credit...Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images   Joe Biden’s presidency has a distinct origin story. As he tells it, he was  done   with politics , happily retired from public life. That changed after Donald Trump’s equivocal response to the 2017 white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Va. It was then that Mr. Biden realized that Mr. Trump and his allies threatened what he called the “ soul of this nation ”: its commitment to equality. So he re-entered the fray. Ever since, Mr. Biden has argued that championing equality is the key to preserving American democracy at home and enhancing American influence abroad. He began a 2019 campaign  announcement video  by noting that Charlottesville was home to Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the words “all men are created equal.” In his  acceptance speech  at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, he claimed America’s “great purpose” was “to be a light to the world once again. To finally live up to and make real the words written in the sacred documents that founded this nation that all men and women are created equal.” In his 2021  Inaugural Address , he described American history as a “constant struggle between the American ideal that we are all created equal and the harsh, ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, and demonization have long torn us apart.” He promised to make the United States once again a “beacon to the world.” Since taking office, the president has framed a commitment to equality as the answer not only to the rise of domestic white nationalism but also to the authoritarian powers that threaten democracy overseas. This self-presentation now lies in ruin. Through his unwavering backing of Israel, Mr. Biden has effectively supported its unequal treatment and oppression of Palestinians — especially in Gaza — and undermined the ethical rationale for his presidency. Domestically, Mr. Biden counterposed equality to his predecessor’s ethnonationalistic tendencies. Mr. Trump has repeatedly implied that Americans who aren’t white and Christian are not truly American. In 2016, he  said  that Gonzalo Curiel, a judge born in Indiana, could not rule fairly on civil lawsuits against Trump University because of his Mexican heritage, given Mr. Trump’s promises to build a wall between this country and Mexico. In 2019, Mr. Trump demanded that the four congresswomen of color who constitute the so-called Squad — three of whom were born in the United States — “ go back ” to the countries they were from. Mr. Biden, by contrast,  declared  in a May 2023 speech to Howard University’s graduating class that America was based on an idea — equal rights — “not religion, not ethnicity.” Throughout his presidency, Mr. Biden has depicted himself as defending that principle from authoritarian impulses both at home and abroad. But Israel’s political system is explicitly based on religion and ethnicity. Its controversial 2018 nation-state bill declares that Jews alone can “ exercise national self-determination .” Most of the Palestinians under Israeli control (those in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) can’t become citizens of the state that dominates their lives. A minority of Palestinians, (those who live within Israel’s 1967 borders) do enjoy citizenship and the right to vote. But when Arab Israeli politicians advanced a bill that would have made legal equality between Arab and Jewish citizens a foundation of Israeli law in 2018, the speaker of Israel’s Parliament  refused  to allow a vote on it because it would “gnaw at the foundations of the state.” As I have previously  argued , there was a Zionist tradition that envisioned Jews living equally alongside Palestinians in a binational state — although many Americans now take for granted that Israel gives Jews legal supremacy. But when it comes to Israel, Mr. Biden hasn’t supported equality under the law.   The war in Gaza has made that contradiction impossible to ignore. It is most glaring when Mr. Biden expresses deep empathy for Israeli suffering but  relative indifference  to the far larger number of dead Palestinians, or when his administration seems to distinguish even between American citizens, showing more concern for those  murdered  by Hamas than for those  killed  by Israel’s military. No wonder, according to a September  survey  by the Institute for Global Affairs, Democrats consider Mr. Biden’s policy on Gaza his greatest foreign policy failure. Young Americans are especially alienated by the chasm between Mr. Biden’s actions and his stated ideals. A March  poll  by Harvard’s Institute of Politics found that more than three-quarters of Americans under the age of 30 disapprove of his policy toward Israel’s war in Gaza. Mr. Biden’s near-unconditional support for Israel’s actions has damaged his reputation overseas, as well. He has long  claimed  that the United States, unlike Russia and China, defends a “rules-based” order in which all countries, irrespective of their power, are bound by certain standards. That rhetoric reached a peak after Russia tried to overrun Kyiv in February 2022. At stake in Ukraine, Mr. Biden  told  a Polish audience the following month, was the choice “between a rules-based order and one governed by brute force.” That September, Mr. Biden  told  the United Nations that members of the Security Council should “refrain from the use of the veto, except in rare, extraordinary situations.” It was another swipe at Moscow, which during Mr. Biden’s presidency had  employed  its veto seven times, and an effort to associate the United States with a fairer international order, in which even the most powerful nations cannot act with impunity. To strengthen those rules, the Biden administration in July of last year reportedly  ordered  the United States to share evidence on Kremlin officials that could help the International Criminal Court in its investigation into possible war crimes in Ukraine. Then came the Oct. 7 massacre and Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza. In the war’s first seven months, the Biden administration vetoed  four resolutions  concerning Israel and Palestine. Mr. Biden  denounced  the I.C.C.’s chief prosecutor for requesting warrants for the arrests of Hamas and Israeli leaders. While Mr. Biden has warned against Israel’s “indiscriminate” bombing of Gaza and the loss of civilian life, he has also repeatedly reiterated his support of Israel and supplied the country with vast quantities of arms. Whatever chance Mr. Biden had of convincing large numbers of foreigners that the United States believed that international law applies to all has now largely collapsed. Over the past year, according to the Pew Research Center, the percentage of people who trust Mr. Biden “to do the right thing regarding world affairs” has dropped by double digits in  Britain, Japan, Australia, Spain and Sweden  — all key allies in the great power struggle Mr. Biden is waging against Moscow and Beijing. Britons, Canadians and Italians have  less faith  in Mr. Biden today than they had in George W. Bush in 2003, the year he invaded Iraq. Last month, in his final speech to the United Nations, Mr. Biden  acknowledged  that “many look at the world today and see difficulties and react with despair.” What he didn’t acknowledge is that for many who believe in the vision of equality Mr. Biden himself once outlined, he has contributed to that despair — by effectively treating Palestinians as lesser human beings, and by treating Israel as above international law. A few days before Mr. Biden’s speech, the Gaza Health Ministry released a catalog of the names and ages of Palestinians killed in this war. According to  The Guardian , the first 100 pages are composed entirely of the names of children who died under the age of 10. Their lives will need to be accounted for when historians gauge how Mr. Biden shaped the “soul of this nation.”   More on Biden’s foreign policy in the Middle East Opinion | Nicholas Kristof Biden’s Chance to Do the Right Thing in Gaza May 24, 2024 Opinion | Nicholas Kristof What Happened to the Joe Biden I Knew? April 19, 2024 Opinion | Aaron David Miller Words Over Deeds: Why Biden Isn’t Pressuring Israel March 14, 2024   Peter Beinart ( @PeterBeinart ) is a contributing Opinion writer at The Times. He’s also a professor at the  Newmark School of Journalism  at the City University of New York, an editor at large of  Jewish Currents  and writes  The Beinart Notebook , a weekly newsletter. His book “ Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza ” is forthcoming from Penguin Random House.   A version of this article appears in print on Oct. 11, 2024, Section A, Page 18 of the New York edition with the headline: Biden’s Moral Failure on Israel.  Copyright 2024 The New York Times Company