By Aster Misganaw and Dereje Desta At least nine people were killed and more than 30 others were injured in fresh fighting that erupted in Debark and Dabat towns of the North Gondar zone in Ethiopia's Amhara region between government forces and the Fano militias, witnesses and medical sources told VOA Horn of Africa Service. The fighting ignited Monday and continued into Tuesday. Witnesses and medical workers in Debark reported the fatalities and dozens of injuries. The general manager of Debark Hospital, Ale Amlak, told VOA that they have treated at least 30 combatants and civilians, including children that were injured in the clashes since Monday. Ale mentioned that some victims died before reaching the hospital. “A church has been hosting a burial ritual since yesterday,” he told VOA Horn of Africa Service. “This morning, I saw six coffins being buried at St. Michael Ethiopian Orthodox Church.” He said that among those treated, one civilian and one combatant have died. He didn't however indicate whether the combatant was a member of government forces or the Fano militia. A Debark resident, who preferred not to be identified, also said that there was a clash between military personnel and the Fano militia. “By 7 a.m., I had seen perhaps eight deaths, including one woman who was hit while holding her child,” he said. Administrator of the Chilla locality in the Dabat district, Minale Ginbneh, confirmed the clashes, saying at least six houses were damaged Monday in heavy artillery exchanges by both sides. Businesses and government offices remained closed for the second consecutive day on Tuesday in the Debark and Dabat towns as a result of the fighting, three residents, who did not want to be identified for security reasons, told VOA. Debark, about 700 km. north of Addis Ababa, is the nearest town to the Semien Mountains National Park, one of the first sites to be named by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, in 1978. Dabat district hosts the Alemwach Refugee Camp, which is reportedly home to more than 20,000 Eritrean refugees. Minale says the refugees are safe. A representative of the refugees, Mulugeta Gebresellassie, also told VOA, "no one is hurt." Meanwhile, residents in the main Amhara city of Gondar have also reported a third frontline, where government and Fano militias clashed. A resident in Gondar told VOA that fighting has been ongoing since Monday, with Fano entering parts of the city. Anteneh Dires, who said he is the head of the Amhara Fano in Gondar Zone, claimed that Fano militia were “active” in Gondar and Wollo zones. He alleged that government soldiers were to blame for injuries he said were sustained by innocent individuals during the fighting in Gondar. All the casualties reported were from the town of Debark. Casualty figures from clashes in Dabat and Gondar are not clear. Attempts to reach the federal government communication office and Amhara regional officials have not been successful. VOA could not independently verify which side started the fighting. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said last month that negotiations took place with armed militias in the Amhara region to peacefully resolve the ongoing conflict there. A spokesperson for Fano, an ethnic Amhara militia, denied holding talks with the federal government. Fighting between federal government forces and Fano broke out more than a year ago after reports emerged that the government was planning to disarm regional paramilitary forces to integrate them into other security structures, including the federal army. This story originated in the Horn of Africa Service. Credit: Voice of America

‘Wear It or We Will Beat You to Death’ Oleksii Polukhin. Credit...J. Lester Feder The New York Times March 15, 2024 Opinion By J. Lester Feder Oleksii Polukhin’s 64 days in detention began when Russian soldiers stopped him at a checkpoint. They found that he’d been gathering information about Russian military positions to share with Ukrainian forces; they also discovered he was gay. Mr. Polukhin gave a detailed account of his detention to Projector, an Odesa-based human rights organization. He also confirmed the details to me in a series of interviews. It was May 2022, just 10 weeks after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Mr. Polukhin lived in Kherson, a southern city of around 250,000 people that the Russians conquered with blinding speed in the war’s early days. Mr. Polukhin, rail thin and then 22 years old, was on his way to take pictures of a May 9 Victory Day parade organized by the occupying forces, which he planned to send to a network that shared information from occupied territory. He had been keeping close track of the locations of Russian checkpoints, he said, but this new one caught him by surprise. He was forced to unlock his phone for the soldiers, where they discovered L.G.B.T.Q. Telegram channels, including one that he ran. Mr. Polukhin recalled one of the guards calling him an anti-gay slur and forcing him to strip naked on the street. (This is a common practice by Russian forces, nominally to search for nationalist tattoos.) After he was dressed again, Mr. Polukhin said, the soldiers took the opportunity to humiliate him further, calling over a random passerby to ask what should be done with gays in his city. “I think that all of them should be killed,” Mr. Polukhin said the man responded. Once they’d had their fun on the street, Mr. Polukhin said the soldiers forced him into a vehicle and beat him, called him homophobic names and demanded he give up the names of other queer Khersonians. They drove him blindfolded on a roundabout route before dumping him at a detention center, which Mr. Polukhin guessed had been a Ukrainian police station. He said he was left to stew for a time in a holding cell with four other prisoners, who told him the guards had said he was gay. A Russian soldier soon appeared with a red dress. “Wear it or we will beat you to death,” Mr. Polukhin recalled the soldier saying. He did his best to act unafraid, asking the soldier if he could also have a pair of matching high heels. Then he was taken for questioning, the first of about five times he would be interrogated during a detention that lasted just over two months. The beatings weren’t the only form of inhumane treatment Mr. Polukhin was subjected to. Once, he said, Russian soldiers forced him to swallow pieces of a Ukrainian flag several days in a row. The Russians demanded he name other pro-Ukrainian and L.G.B.T.Q. activists; he said they had several names of L.G.B.T.Q. activists they’d already identified and wanted him to give up their locations. Mr. Polukhin said they pressed him for the location of the offices of L.G.B.T.Q. organizations, one of which was raided two days after he was taken into custody. Mr. Polukhin later learned he was held at 3 Teploenerhetykiv Street, the address of one of Kherson’s most infamous detention centers. Torture appears to have been common in facilities across the city, Ukrainian and international war crimes investigators have  since documented , including waterboarding, electrocution and sexual violence that ranged from electrocution of the genitals to sexual assault. Mr. Polukhin did not want to discuss with me many details of what he experienced. But he described the detention center as an environment where Russian guards coerced sex from detainees, such as requiring that they submit to sexual acts in exchange for the right to shower. Iryna Didenko, who oversaw sexual violence prosecutions in Ukraine’s office of the prosecutor general until late last year, told me Mr. Polukhin is one of 200 victims in a case against seven Russians, which is currently in a Ukrainian court. That case involves alleged abuses including illegal detention, ill treatment and torture. Ms. Didenko said in Mr. Polukhin’s case, prosecutors are still working to bring charges that would also include sexual violence.   I first interviewed Mr. Polukhin in January 2023, six months after he was released from detention and just two months after Ukrainian forces drove the Russian occupiers from the city. I was then a senior research fellow focused on queer people in conflict at the L.G.B.T.Q. human rights organization Outright International. Mr. Polukhin was the first queer survivor of Russian mistreatment I was able to speak to about the experience. But it is now becoming clear that his story is just a first glimpse of Russian persecution of L.G.B.T.Q. Ukrainians. During a visit to Ukraine last fall, I also interviewed a lesbian who said she was twice detained and tortured by Russian soldiers, including almost being forced at gunpoint to have sex with another woman for her captors’ amusement. I also heard about a group of men who were pulled off a bus by a Russian soldier who found intimate pictures of two men on a cellphone and threatened to execute them before another soldier intervened. These stories are among those documented in a  new report released on Friday  by Projector and Insha, an L.G.B.T.Q. organization in Kherson, with support from Outright. (I collaborated with Projector in my role at Outright.) This work is just beginning, Projector’s director, Vitalii Matvieiev, told me. There are 30 additional allegations not included in the report, including multiple accounts of rape, because Projector is still working to verify them. Projector is also preparing affidavits for survivors like Mr. Polukhin to submit to the International Criminal Court, which it hopes will investigate whether Russians violated international law by targeting queer Ukrainians. Investigators have a chance to build a case in Ukraine unlike anything ever seen under international law: that persecuting L.G.B.T.Q. people constitutes a crime against humanity. The targeting of queer people in conflict — such as ISIS making a spectacle of executing men accused of homosexuality by throwing them off buildings — has received much attention in recent years, but no international tribunal has ever held that this kind of persecution violates international law. Jurists have done painstaking work to make clear how existing international law gives the court the power to investigate persecution on the basis of sexuality and gender identity. It is time to use it. Regardless of whether investigations lead to prosecutions, queer Ukrainians deserve to have their stories preserved so that no one can ever deny how their community has been a casualty of President Vladimir Putin’s geopolitical ambition. In the past decade, Mr. Putin has taught the world a master class on using homophobia as a political weapon. Now he is showing us what homophobia looks like as a weapon of war. The Russian leader embraced a so-called anti-gay propaganda law passed in 2013 to help  shore up  his flagging popularity at home, part of a rebrand of his political persona as a champion of the Orthodox Church, and a Kremlin ally backed an  anti-L.G.B.T.Q. campaign  in Ukraine to try to drive the country away from closer ties with the European Union. Mr. Putin personally leaned into global controversy around the law before the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia, a chance to dismiss concerns about human rights and pluralism as the ravings of Western degenerates. The Kremlin doubled down on this strategy when it launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russian state media spread outlandish stories about L.G.B.T.Q. people — for instance, that a queer community center in Mariupol was “ practically under the direct patronage ” of President Biden and the U.S. Congress. Mr. Putin himself sounded increasingly unhinged as his invasion bogged down,  describing  the attack on Ukraine as a holy war against the West’s “reverse religion of real Satanism” in a September 2022 speech announcing that Russia would annex Kherson and three other regions. (The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, told me that Russia’s domestic anti-L.G.B.T.Q. actions are “a different story” from Mr. Putin’s rhetoric surrounding the war in Ukraine and that conflating the two would be like “trying to put separate stories into one basket.” He did not comment on the allegation that Russian soldiers have abused L.G.B.T.Q. Ukrainians. Russia’s Ministry of Defense did not respond to questions about the allegations in this essay.) The war was an unprovoked attack on a sovereign state with its own culture and history, which the Ukrainian government has argued amounts to genocide. There is evidence that Russian forces are committing many other crimes in the process: the mass killings of civilians,  as in Bucha ; the forced deportation of children, for which Mr. Putin has been issued an  arrest warrant  by the International Criminal Court; and widespread sexual violence against both women and men. All of these allegations must be investigated and punished. But international law must also recognize that Mr. Putin’s war against Ukraine is an explicit attack on L.G.B.T.Q. people and name that as a crime, too. While Russia is far from the first state to persecute L.G.B.T.Q. people — Nazi Germany is estimated to have sent thousands of queer people to concentration camps — it is the first superpower to deploy homophobia as a major justification for invading another country. International law has never punished L.G.B.T.Q. persecution as a crime. In the case of World War II, for example, the Allies not only did not mention such persecution in charges against Nazi leaders but also allowed West Germany to leave in place Hitler’s law against homosexuality when they purged other Nazi provisions from West Germany’s books. L.G.B.T.Q. people have been persecuted in many modern conflicts, in  Afghanistan  and  Iraq , for example. While there was some effort to highlight these situations — the United Nations Security Council discussed queer persecution in informal hearings on  ISIS in 2015  and on Afghanistan and Colombia  in 2023  — it has so far been toothless. But things could be different in Ukraine. The top prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, issued a  groundbreaking policy paper  in 2022 arguing that L.G.B.T.Q. persecution should be tried as a form of what international law calls “gender persecution.” Written by Lisa Davis, a special adviser to the prosecutor, the paper states, “At their core, gender-based crimes are used by perpetrators to regulate or punish those who are perceived to transgress gender criteria that define ‘accepted’ forms of gender expression manifest in, for example, roles, behaviors, activities, or attributes.”   Karim Khan.Credit ...Dimitar Dilkoff/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images   But Mr. Khan’s office will have to prosecute someone for L.G.B.T.Q. persecution to find out whether this argument holds up in international court. “Gender persecution” has been controversial since the treaty creating the court was negotiated in the 1990s, and only now, two decades into the court’s existence, are the first gender persecution cases in progress in The Hague. Prosecuting gender-based violence is often challenging because victims may be reluctant to come forward. That can be especially true in cases involving queer victims. Even if they have left the region and are somewhere safe to come out, there are risks of retaliation against extended family at home. That’s what makes Ukraine so important for investigators. While many Ukrainians remain hostile to queer rights, L.G.B.T.Q. people have been highly visible in Ukraine’s war effort, leading to real progress toward the protection of L.G.B.T.Q. rights in Ukrainian law. Ukraine is the first conflict in which L.G.B.T.Q. people are likely to be victims of persecution in an environment where they could be protected if they come forward. That doesn’t mean finding these cases will be easy. Many people refused to be interviewed by Projector, fearing the Russians’ return or retaliation against relatives in occupied territory. Victims may also be discouraged by the fact that the Ukrainian judicial system simply doesn’t seem to have the capacity to investigate the sheer volume of war crimes allegations. An association of some of Ukraine’s leading human rights organizations reviewed a sample of Ukrainian war crimes cases and  found  that 50 percent were never investigated. L.G.B.T.Q. people have an added concern. “We know from our experience and from the experience of our clients,” Mr. Matvieiev said, “that sometimes when you go to a police station and you want to place a statement or tell them about a case, and it is related to your sexual orientation, what you get is discrimination or homophobia.” Queer Ukrainians’ distrust of law enforcement may be justified, suggested Gyunduz Mamedov, a former deputy prosecutor general of Ukraine, who established the department’s war crimes and sexual violence divisions. Mr. Mamedov said he ordered investigations of L.G.B.T.Q. persecution in Crimea after Russia annexed the peninsula in 2014, but no one from the community would cooperate with them. “We didn’t have a methodology or experience of that kind of investigation,” he said. “Frankly speaking, I think we were not psychologically ready” for that work. Are prosecutors psychologically ready to do it now? I asked him. “I am not certain of that,” he said. The prosecutor who led Ukraine’s sexual violence unit at the time of my visit, Ms. Didenko, acknowledged that law enforcement must work harder to build trust. (Ms. Didenko has since been promoted to deputy director of the prosecutor’s department of international legal cooperation.) She said her office had done a lot to make it safer for victims to report, including running special training sessions for prosecutors to preserve the “human dignity” of survivors and working with nongovernmental organizations to build community trust. To make things even more complicated, many of the reported victims of sexual violence by Russian forces in Ukraine are men, while resources to support sexual violence victims tend to focus on women. Men fear a different kind of stigma when reporting sexual abuse and that may be compounded for gay men, who may worry that others may think they deserved it — or, perhaps even more horrifying, that they enjoyed it. “Practically, in every case, there is a sexual abuse,” Ms. Didenko told me. “The law enforcement system was not ready to recognize all the signs of the abuse.” Even within the queer community, people have been afraid to confide in one another, said Albina Yermakova, an Insha employee who stayed in Kherson during the occupation. “In the L.G.B.T.Q. community there was a certain paranoia,” she said. “You never know who will be taken to the basement,” she added. “You couldn’t be sure what could you handle yourself under torture — how could you be sure about your acquaintance?” Albina Yermakova.Credit ...J. Lester Feder Projector is now preparing affidavits from Mr. Polukhin and other victims to submit to the International Criminal Court. Their accounts pose a challenge to international law: Is persecution on the basis of gender identity or sexuality even a crime? Mr. Khan, the court’s third chief prosecutor, is the first to say he believes that it can be. But international law moves at a glacial pace, and its standards lag far behind many people’s expectations of it. No one has ever been convicted under international law for persecuting women on the basis of their gender, for example. That may change soon. A judgment is expected any day now in a case  out of Mali  concerning the alleged persecution of women while the city of Timbuktu was controlled by Al Qaeda-affiliated groups from 2012 to 2013. But it will be a major breakthrough if Mr. Khan’s team successfully brings someone to trial for persecuting L.G.B.T.Q. people. Even seriously investigating cases of L.G.B.T.Q. persecution would be a big step forward. Whether the court pursues these accusations against Russian forces for violence against L.G.B.T.Q. Ukrainians hangs on many factors that have nothing to do with the horrors victims experienced. These factors include broad legal strategy, the quality of evidence and how far up the chain of command accountability can be proved. Either way, prosecutors — as well as the press and the community of human rights groups — must work to seek out stories like Mr. Polukhin’s precisely because there are so many barriers that prevent victims from coming forward. The time has come to treat L.G.B.T.Q. persecution as a crime against humanity. It won’t stop that persecution from happening, just as the World War II tribunals did not bring an end to genocide. Perpetrators believe homophobia will not only let them get away with their crimes but also rally people to their cause. Charges will be a clear signal that queer people belong in a democratic world — and that the demagogues using homophobia are the ones who should be considered pariahs. Without condemning the motivation of this violence, you don’t get to the logic that drove these crimes in the first place. And the failure to name the injustices of the past encourages persecution in the future. That, ultimately, is why war crimes tribunals matter at all. A century of experience shows they don’t seem to deter future atrocities, nor are they effective tools for punishing wrongs after the fact. War crimes tribunals can never make victims whole. They can’t bring back the dead, erase the scars or wipe away the memories that haunt survivors. Even when prosecutions are successful, only a handful of perpetrators are usually convicted, and such trials often take so long that the convictions feel like far too little, far too late. Perpetrators often escape justice for all kinds of technical, legal and political reasons that have nothing to do with the horrors for which they’re responsible. And no punishment can ever match the crimes. But investigating and prosecuting crimes against humanity has a value that far exceeds the years perpetrators may serve behind bars. Law not only punishes crimes, it is also a tool for setting the world’s standards of right and wrong. In the wake of war, tribunals provide a forum for defining the values a society will uphold in peace. Investigations and trials give victims a chance to engrave their experience in the historical record so that no one can deny what happened to them. We cannot condemn crimes we do not name. The world recognized this fact in the first modern war crimes tribunals, the ones following World War II in which persecution of a particular group — Jews — was tried. And look at the history that followed: Naming the Nazi genocide led to countless actions to ensure the world never forgets the Holocaust; institutions were built to document and preserve the stories of survivors around the world; the U.N. adopted the Genocide Convention, laying the groundwork for prosecuting similar crimes in the future; and offices were eventually created in many governments to combat religious persecution and antisemitism in particular. World War II also showed what happens when we leave victims out. As many as 200,000 women and girls are estimated to have been forced into sexual slavery by Japan in the Pacific, for example, but this was not charged at the  Tokyo war crimes trials  that began in 1946, and the mass rape of women would not be treated as a serious crime under international law until the 1990s. L.G.B.T.Q. people were among the first victims under Germany’s Nazi regime; they were not publicly recognized as Nazi victims by a German leader  until 1985 , and West Germany convicted around  50,000 men  before its law criminalizing homosexuality was abolished. The U.N. initially recognized that international law might someday need to punish the persecution of a broader range of groups when it first proclaimed genocide a crime in 1946. “Genocide is a crime under international law which the civilized world condemns,” the General Assembly declared in  a 1946 resolution , “whether the crime is committed on religious, racial, political or any other grounds.” The phrase “any other grounds,” though left out of the  full treaty  on genocide two years later, is a reminder that justice must always evolve. There are significant differences between the targeting of L.G.B.T.Q. people and the genocide of a religious or ethnic group. But many campaigns against queer people we see now around the world — in countries at war and at peace — seem to have what Maria Sjödin, executive director of Outright International,  has described  as a “genocidal ideology aimed at eradicating L.G.B.T.Q. people from public existence.” Russia and other governments are not only imprisoning, torturing and killing queer individuals, or encouraging their citizens to do so on their own, but also attacking queer cultural and political institutions, silencing speech about queer history and rights and going after L.G.B.T.Q. people’s allies. The stories we remember from the past are the foundation upon which peace is built. And that matters far beyond Ukraine at a time when anti-democratic forces are trying to erase queer people in many parts of the world. If the world forgets how homophobia was turned into a weapon in this war, what hope is there that queer people will be included in a democratic peace?   J. Lester Feder ( @jlfeder ) is a journalist and a senior fellow at the City University of New York School of Law’s Human Rights and Gender Justice Clinic. He is currently at work on a  book project  about queer people and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Additional reporting by Illia Dyadik. A version of this article appears in print on  March 17, 2024, Section SR, Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: Putin’s War Against Queer Ukrainians. Copyright 2023 The New York Times Company

Credit: UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Afghanistan’s Gender Apartheid: The Genocide of Hazara Women By Zareen Taj In collaboration with Jay Simpson. Introduction After the first arrest on January 4, 2024, the Taliban have imposed strict dress code rules on women and girls across Afghanistan. Hazara women, as part of a persecuted minority in Afghanistan, are especially vulnerable to this enforcement of gender rules. Testimonies of Hazara women who were arrested for dress code violations since the start of the year include multiple assertions of torture and humiliation. These stories provide examples of how the Taliban’s system of strict gender rules, denounced as gender apartheid, are crimes against humanity and are a tool for genocide against Hazaras. The Hazaras The Hazara are the third largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, making up approximately 20 percent of the population. Many Hazara are easily identifiable by their Asian facial characteristics and have differing cultural practices from other identities in Afghanistan. For example, it is not traditional for Hazara women to wear burkas and many Hazara women are educated and are able to become leaders in their community. Because Hazara are predominantly Shia Muslims in a country predominated by Sunni Islam, they are also religious minorities. The Taliban see the Shia Muslims as unbelievers and therefore target them as infidels. Both the ethnic and religious identities of Hazaras have been the target of systematic attacks, violence, and genocidal killing for over 100 years. During the 1990s, the Taliban rose to power and led over five massacres against the Hazaras , resulting in over a thousand deaths and many more wounded. The Taliban´s violent attacks on Harazaras continued during the US-backed government (2001-2021) and included bombings, shootings, abductions, and more. Since June 2021, advocates in the Hazara diaspora have mobilized protests in over 160 cities worldwide  rallying around #StopHazaraGenocide to put pressure on the international community and political leaders. Women continue to be the leaders of these protests. Women’s Voices Against Oppression by Taliban “Afghanistan has become a country where breathing is not allowed for Hazara women,” said Sima Noori, a Hazara activist who documents the brutality of the Taliban against Hazara women. “Seeing pictures of Taliban’s tortures and hearing the voices of Hazara women daily gives me pain. The international community needs to hear the voices of Hazara women.” Sima Noori has collected a dozen stories of women whom the Taliban arrested since January 4, 2024, when the Taliban started a crackdown on women  under the guise of dress code violations. Each woman was arrested for supposed dress code violations and told they were not wearing proper hijab covering. Below, I selected three stories that reflect the many Hazara women who suffer in silence right now in Afghanistan. The names of these women are withheld for the safety of themselves and their families. The first story comes from a 20-year-old woman who is a midwife. “On January 8, 2024, on my way home from work, I was arrested by the Taliban. I was accused of not wearing proper hijab, which I did. The Taliban brutally beat me on my way to prison. While they were beating and torturing me, they told me ‘You are Hazara, a spy of western countries. Whore is your name.’ They asked me religious questions which I did not know the answers to because I am Shia and they are Sunni. Once we arrived at the prison, they forced my head under cold water a couple of times while they were collectively laughing and torturing me. They kicked me and  beat me with their fists. Finally, I was released because my family paid a lot of money [160,000 Afghani (~$2,244 USD)] and signed a written document that I would follow their rules.” The second story is from an activist whom the Taliban arrested. “I was arrested by the Taliban, and they tortured me nonstop for 11 hours. It was a dark place. Blood was pouring from my body, and I was passing out frequently. They made me sign a paper that I would not participate in future protests and wanted me to inform them of other activists. I was threatened with death. I wanted to remain alive for my children, otherwise there is nothing left for me to be alive. I was released after my husband paid 200,000 Afghani [~$2,800 USD].” The third is a 13-year-old teenager who was arrested by the Taliban. “I was on the way to the doctor with my mother when the Taliban arrested me. I was taken to a small dark room. There, I was brutally tortured by the Taliban. Each one of them kicked me and punched me with their fists. Each blow felt like I was dying. Because I was Hazara, they insulted me a lot. The seven hours I was there felt like an entire year. Then they called my father. When he arrived, they slapped him, made him sign a paper, and pay 10,000 Afghani [~$140 USD]. They also took a video of me to state that I must wear a black burqa. After coming home from prison, I have not gone outside. I am scared of people. I can’t sleep. I am always sick. I should not be alive because everyone in the community talks about my arrest.” Even within the Hazara community, these stories of arrest, humiliation, and torture are not discussed due to concerns of family respect and honor, in which the protection of girls and women is central. The violence of their experience pairs with the following silence and women are unable to seek accountability. Without a voice in the press, protests, or political representation, these attacks against Hazara women remain invisible to the world.   New Understandings of Gender Apartheid These testimonials also show that the Taliban have not changed since their previous reign over Afghanistan from 1996-2001. Since the Taliban have returned, so too have their restrictions banning girls from school, prohibiting women from holding employment, forbidding women from leaving home without a male relative, and requiring strict covering of women’s faces and bodies. These restrictions have come to be identified as part of a system of gender apartheid, an emerging framework for legal analysis gaining recognition within human rights communities. In February 2024, UN Experts announced  the need for the international community to recognize gender apartheid as a crime against humanity. The term apartheid comes from the discriminatory government from South Africa (1948-1994), meaning “apartness” in Afrikaans, and is formed by “state laws, policies and practices that relegate women to conditions of extreme inequality and oppression, with the intent of effectively extinguishing their human rights.” Within this announcement, experts highlighted the Taliban’s treatment of women to call attention to the consequences of gender apartheid as a crime against humanity. Gender Apartheid as a Tool for Genocide The Taliban’s gender apartheid restrictions are used as an opportunity to selectively target Hazara communities for persecution and collective punishment. As such, the gender apartheid system places an additional burden on Hazara women, victimized by gender apartheid and by the Taliban’s campaign of genocide against Hazara. Looking back over the decades of Taliban oppression, it is clear that the rules of gender apartheid serve their genocidal goals. Immediately after the mass killings of thousands of Hazara men and boys in the 1990s, Hazara women became the heads of their households, responsible for earning money to pay for food and support their entire families left without male relatives. The Taliban’s restrictions on women—in education, employment, and ability to leave their homes—meant women were placed in an impossible situation. Most families were poor and faced starvation, and many women were deeply traumatized by their experiences. Women and girls are targeted explicitly in horrific attacks and bombings. On May 20, 2020, gunmen attacked a maternity ward  to kill Hazara mothers and newborn babies at the Dasht-e-Barchi Hospital. 24 people were killed, including 16 mothers and two children, who represent the future of Hazara generations. On May 8, 2021, a bombing at the Sayed Ul-Shuhada High School  killed 85 people and injured at least 150. The bomb targeted the school as girls were leaving at the end of the school day. On September 30, 2022, the Kaaj Educational Center was bombed  as girls were practicing for University entrance exams. 53 people were killed, including 46 girls and young women, and an additional 110 were injured. The deliberate bombings of educational institutions that support Hazara girls and women intentionally prevent their education and terrorize all those who seek education. Denying education to Hazara girls and young women is an attack on the power of Hazara women, and therefore the entire Hazara community. In Afghanistan, gender apartheid is a tool for genocide against Hazaras. The international community, as it currently comes to define gender apartheid as a crime against humanity, needs to recognize that Hazara women are in peril due to these compounding forms of oppression. Why Target Hazara Women The Taliban targets Hazara girls and women because they know they are the backbone of the Hazara community. As survivors from the massacres during the 1990s, they were forced to take on new roles and sustain their communities. These past 20 years, despite lots of uncertainty, the presence of the international community made progress in Afghanistan possible for Hazara women. Hazara women broke considerable glass ceilings on behalf of all Afghan women; they became leaders in civil society, such as the first minister of the Women’s Affairs , the first female governor of a Province , and the first female mayor . They achieved other milestones too and became police detectives , the first female film director  and the first female singer to win Afghan “Idol”  and many more. Their success in society and leadership roles undermines the Taliban’s ideology and is a direct threat to their power. As it has been for decades, Hazara women are the loudest critical voices against the Taliban. The Danger of Silence For these past 24 years, as an activist, documentarian, and researcher, I have witnessed numerous forms of oppression against my people. The Taliban have found a new insidious strategy to target the Hazara community under the guise of dress code violations of their gender apartheid system. It is a dangerous combination of violence and shame that proves deadly for Hazara women and girls. It is deadly because it causes silence. And the silencing of Hazara women would be the worst outcome for all Hazaras and all minorities and women in Afghanistan. Additional Resources A/HRC/55/80: Situation of human rights in Afghanistan - Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan (Advance edited version) Published 29 February 2024. A/HRC/WG.11/40/1: Draft articles on prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity - Input from the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls (Advance edited version) Published 19 February 2024.   We Will Not Allow Darkness to Control Our Lives (Kabul Press) Published 30 July 2016.    Docu mentary film: Our Face Tells: Seeing the G e nocide of Hazaras in Afghanistan Link: https://zareentaj.com/our-face-tells-2022/

A general view of the Iraqi parliament in Baghdad, Iraq, January 9, 2022. REUTERS/Abdullah Dhiaa Al-Deen/File Photo BAGHDAD, April 27 (Reuters) - Iraq's parliament passed a law criminalising same-sex relationships with a maximum 15-year prison sentence on Saturday, in a move it said aimed to uphold religious values but was condemned by rights advocates as the latest attack on the LGBT community in Iraq. The law aims to "protect Iraqi society from moral depravity and the calls for homosexuality that have overtaken the world," according to a copy of the law seen by Reuters. It was backed mainly by conservative Shi'ite Muslim parties who form the largest coalition in mainly Muslim Iraq's parliament. The Law on Combating Prostitution and Homosexuality bans same-sex relations with at least 10 years and a maximum of 15 years in prison, and mandates at least seven years in prison for anybody who promotes homosexuality or prostitution. It also imposes between one and three years in prison for anyone who changes their "biological gender" or wilfully dresses in an effeminate manner. The bill had initially included the death penalty for same-sex acts but was amended before being passed after strong opposition from the United States and European nations. Until Saturday, Iraq didn't explicitly criminalise gay sex, though loosely defined morality clauses in its penal code had been used to target LGBT people, and members of the community have also been killed by armed groups and individuals. "The Iraqi parliament’s passage of the anti-LGBT law rubber-stamps Iraq's appalling record of rights violations against LGBT people and is a serious blow to fundamental human rights," Rasha Younes, deputy director of the LGBT rights programme at Human Rights Watch, told Reuters. Iraqi officials who oversee human rights could not immediately be reached for comment. Major Iraqi parties have in the past year stepped up criticism of LGBT rights, with rainbow flags frequently being burned in protests by both ruling and opposition conservative Shi'ite Muslim factions last year. More than 60 countries criminalise gay sex, while same-sex sexual acts are legal in more than 130 countries, according to Our World in Data. © 2024 Reuters

A young woman who is not wearing a mandatory headscarf walks past a mural in Tehran in February.Morteza Nikoubazl / NurPhoto via Getty Images Iran has launched a major new crackdown on women defying the country’s strict dress code, deploying large numbers of police to enforce laws requiring women to wear headscarves in public, according to human rights advocates. The campaign began last month just as military tensions spiked between Iran and Israel . Condemning the effort as a “war on women,” Amnesty International said in a statement this week that “security forces across the country have intensified their violent enforcement of compulsory veiling.” Dubbed the “Noor” (Light) campaign, Iranian officials say the operation is aimed at enforcing the country’s mandatory hijab law, which requires women to cover their heads and the shape of their bodies. The operation marks the most serious effort yet by the regime to try to reassert the government’s authority after women-led protests in 2022 and 2023 challenged the mandatory hijab law. The protests erupted in the wake of the September 2022 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in a hospital three days after she was detained by the country’s morality police for allegedly not adhering to the mandatory headscarf law. The demonstrations, which came to be known as the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement, were eventually crushed, but many women and girls across the country have continued to flout the dress code, appearing in public with their hair uncovered. The police operation could have “tragic consequences,” Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran, told NBC News. “Amid increasing dissent at home and international attention focused on regional tensions, the Islamic Republic is grabbing the opportunity to intensify its campaign of repression against dissent,” Ghaemi said in an earlier statement. “Women and girls in Iran are already subjected to severe discrimination in Iran, yet these actions significantly increase the threat of unchecked state violence against them,” he said. Tehran police chief Abbasali Mohammadian announced the operation on state TV on April 13, just as Iran launched its drone and missile attack on Israel. “Starting today, police in Tehran and other cities will carry out measures against those who violate the hijab law,” the police chief said. The United Nations Human Rights Office has expressed concern over the crackdown. “What we have seen, what we’re hearing is, in the past months, that the authorities, whether they be plainclothes police or policemen in uniform, are increasingly enforcing the hijab bill,” Jeremy Laurence, a spokesman for the office, told reporters last month. “There have been reports of widespread arrests and harassment of women and girls — many between the ages of 15 and 17,” he said. Laurence also said hundreds of businesses and restaurants have been shut down by authorities for allegedly failing to enforce the hijab law. A U.N. fact-finding mission said in March that Iran is to blame for the “physical violence” that killed Amini and found that Iran committed crimes against humanity in its violent repression of the subsequent protests. Iran has denied responsibility for Amini’s death  and rejected accusations from human rights organizations, witnesses and foreign governments that it crushed peaceful protests with violence. © 2024 NBC UNIVERSAL

The founder of Genocide Watch weighs in on Israel’s strike on Rafah and its impunity despite global outcry The Express Tribune, Karachi, Pakistan June 2, 2024 By HAMMAD SARFRAZ | Images of charred human remains and video footage of wailing families frantically seeking cover from the latest Israeli air assault on a tent camp in Rafah, a city on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip, offer a haunting glimpse into the ongoing conflict’s relentless toll. With at least 45 people, including 23 women, children, and elderly individuals, killed and hundreds more wounded, the attack has left the international community in a state of shock and disbelief. Shortly after the attack, the UN agency for Palestine refugees took to X, previously known as Twitter, to underscore the grim reality of the conflict in Gaza, describing the war-torn enclave as ‘hell on earth’. Yet, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s right-wing leader, remains undeterred. Just days after the Rafah incident, he declared that the conflict in Gaza would continue through “at least the end of the year.” The involvement of the United States in the conflict is also under intense scrutiny, especially after a CNN report revealed the use of US-manufactured munitions in the deadly strike on the cluster of tents in Rafah, where approximately 1.3 million displaced Palestinians had sought shelter before Israel initiated its operation. Following the devastating air assault, Israeli tanks breached central Rafah, further complicating the situation and defying international pressure. President Biden’s previously stated ‘red line’ was also seemingly ignored. However, the Biden administration later backtracked, asserting that Israel hadn’t crossed this boundary. They even downplayed the Rafah offensive as a ‘limited’ operation. If that was not enough, US lawmakers made a striking display of support this week by inviting Netanyahu to address Congress. The move follows closely on the heels of ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan applying for arrest warrants against several key figures, including Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri (known as Dief), and Ismail Haniyeh, as well as Netanyahu and his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, citing alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. But in a classic display of defiance, Netanyahu denounced the ICC prosecutor, whom he had surveilled and threatened for nearly a decade to derail a possible war crimes probe, labelling him as one of the “greatest anti-Semites of modern times.” In the midst of the prolonged Israeli offensive in Gaza, now in its eighth month, prospects for a peaceful resolution remain elusive. To understand the complexities of this ongoing conflict, the Express Tribune conducted a no-holds-barred interview with Dr Gregory Stanton, founder of Genocide Watch, a non-profit organisation known for issuing warnings five years prior to the Rwandan genocide in the 1990s. ET: What are your thoughts on the situation on the ground in the ongoing Gaza conflict? GS: The situation has only deteriorated. It seems to me that Israel is lying to the world, claiming it is trying to save civilians and only targeting Hamas combatants, when in fact it’s still using bombs that kill hundreds of civilians. From the beginning, I believe, Israel has had a genocidal intent. Hamas also had a genocidal intent when it attacked on October 7th, as is clear from the group’s own ideological underpinnings, like their charter, which declares their intent to destroy Israel. That’s a genocidal intent—it's the intent to destroy a national group. Hamas committed genocidal acts by killing many Israeli people. But since then, most of the genocide has been carried out by Israel. Israel has not made distinctions between combatants and civilians, which is itself a war crime, for which the leaders of Israel should be put on trial. They’ve committed acts of genocide, in my opinion, by killing over 36,000 people in Gaza, mostly Palestinians. That is the intentional destruction of a national, ethnic, and religious group. That’s called genocide. So, when Israel tries to claim that they're not committing genocide, they’re lying. The Genocide Convention very clearly states what its provisions are, and Israel is committing all the acts that constitute genocide. It’s killing members of the group and causing extreme physical and mental harm to its members. It’s creating conditions of life that are deliberately intended to destroy a substantial part of the group. It’s preventing births within the group, and it’s even killing so many children that one has to consider that it is actually taking children away from the group. Those are the five major acts of genocide under the Convention. I think that the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) indictment of Netanyahu and Gallant, as well as the Hamas leaders, is very timely and proper. I believe the ICC prosecutor is correct in bringing charges against them. And my hope is that someday they will be put on trial for their crimes. ET: Netanyahu has stated that the conflict will not end before the end of this year. What concerns do you have about this? GS: I fear that Israel will continue to kill civilians, and that it will be a major battle where Hamas will not surrender. On the other hand, Hamas will try to kill as many Israelis as possible. This conflict won’t end with a peaceful agreement of any kind. It’s unfortunate because I think this conflict could be resolved with a peace agreement. If you look at other serious genocidal conflicts, like the one in Bosnia, for example, both sides were absolutely intent on not coming to a negotiated settlement. But then they were forced to when they realised that the US and NATO were finally taking an active role in Bosnia and defeating the perpetrators of genocide. Eventually, a peace agreement was reached. It was not a perfect peace agreement at all. It divided Bosnia. So, it was not a perfectly resolved conflict, but I don't think this one will be either. This is a deep-seated conflict. It goes down to the very deep fault lines in the Middle East. That is why I don't think we’ll have a peaceful agreement, but I do think we can at least stop this war. And that’s what’s really important. That was what was really important in Bosnia. When you have war crimes, the best way to end them is to stop the war. ET: Israel has expanded this conflict into central Rafah, defying international pressure. Who can stop Israel at this point? GS: I’m afraid no one can. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) made it very clear that Israel should stop its invasion of Rafah, and yet Israel has just ignored the ruling of the International Court of Justice. The ICJ doesn’t have its own police force or army, so it can’t enforce its own rulings. What, unfortunately, is going to happen, I believe, is Israel will continue its movement into the centre of Rafah. In the long run, Israel will not be able to govern Gaza because the people in Gaza will not cooperate. What you’ll have, in fact, is a very, very slow and long-lasting and still hateful peace. ET: The ICJ and the ICC lack enforcement authority for their rulings. Do you foresee the end of these institutions? GS: No, I don’t see the end of either forum, even though they have this weakness. The ICJ still fulfils very important functions. For one thing, it’s still the best place to settle boundary disputes and maritime disputes that eventually involve states. The ICJ is a state versus state court. It has that useful function, I believe. But it’s proven not to be very useful in resolving issues about the Genocide Convention. It can make all the determinations it wants about genocide, and yet it doesn’t have a way to enforce its judgments. The ICC, actually, in some ways, is more useful because it can at least enforce its judgments once it gets people who are, in fact, charged with crimes to come to trial. It can't try people in absentia. But it can try people once they’re captured or when they’re thrown out of power. That’s, of course, what happened with Milosevic. It’s what happened to a number of individuals that the ICC has tried. So, it is still a very useful court. When individuals are convicted in the ICC, they go to prison. GS: Right now, the United States is supplying Israel with most of its weapons. For instance, the so-called precision bomb that recently destroyed the refugee camp in Rafah was an American-made bomb. Boeing made it. Similarly, most of the other bombs are made here in the United States, including the 2,000-pound bombs that the US, I think, was correct in holding back from the Israelis because the Israelis were using them to bomb areas where you could not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Those 2,000-pound bombs are of no use at all for precision attacks in a war. They are, by nature, genocidal because bombs of that sort are bound to destroy and kill hundreds of people and bring down whole apartment buildings and destroy city blocks. Those are some of the main bombs that the Israelis were using and have used to destroy much of Gaza. I believe that in that way, the US is complicit in Israeli genocide. By supporting Israel wholeheartedly, as it does, I think that the US is ignoring its own obligations under the Genocide Convention. ET: Can the Netanyahu case make or break the ICC? What are your thoughts on that? GS: Well, that’s an important point. And the reason for that is, of course, Israel is not a state-party to the ICC. Israel will argue that the ICC has no jurisdiction to try Netanyahu. Under the ICC’s Rome Statute, I think that’s actually a tenable argument that Israel could make to try to defend Netanyahu. It’s the same argument that would arise if an American were charged by the ICC for a crime in an area that the ICC could not prove was a territory subject to its jurisdiction. But if an American were tried for a crime that occurred in a territory under the jurisdiction of the ICC, then the ICC would have jurisdiction. So, the question becomes a legal one. I don’t think these kinds of issues should be used to weaken the ICC. I think the US should be a state-party to the International Criminal Court, as I believe all countries should be. It’s a sad commentary that our own country, the US, has not become a state-party. It’s a denial of the rule of law. What the US is saying is, "we’re immune from international criminal law." The US should not be making that kind of claim. Nor should, for that matter, Russia, India, China, or any of the other countries that are not states- parties to the International Criminal Court. ET: The ICC, like other global platforms, was created by the West. The ruling against Israel and a possible arrest warrant for Netanyahu have triggered a campaign in some Western capitals to discredit the ICC. Some Western countries have rejected the ICC prosecutor’s request for the arrest warrant for Netanyahu. Is the West undermining the systems it created only to protect Israel or its leadership? GS: It looks like it, doesn’t it? You can’t choose which part of the law you’re going to be subject to. If you have an international law, it needs to apply universally. In fact, the ICC has 124 countries that are states-parties to the International Criminal Court. That’s a very large number of countries. So it's really becoming what they call customary international law that the ICC has jurisdiction. What the ICC does not yet have, however, is jurisdiction over citizens of countries that are not states-parties to the ICC, unless one of their citizens commits a crime of genocide, crimes against humanity, or war crimes in the territory of a country that is a state-party to the ICC. The Palestinians could argue that Palestine has accepted the jurisdiction of the ICC. Therefore, the Israelis who have bombed Gaza should also be able to be put on trial in the ICC. I think it’s a plausible argument. One problem, though, is that Palestine is still not considered a nation-state, at least by most countries in the United Nations. It is accepted by a number of countries, but one could argue that its becoming a state-party to the ICC's Rome Statute does not create jurisdiction that would hold against Netanyahu and Gallant. I don’t know if that’s going to be decided. It’s the sort of issue that lawyers will debate. And I'm not sure that Netanyahu and Gallant will ever be hauled in front of the ICC. But what is clear to me, at least, is that both of them, and most of those associated with them, have committed genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. They’ve given the orders. ET: Netanyahu has characterised the request for arrest warrants as anti-Semitic, applying this label to various situations that oppose his narrative, including the US campus protests. Do you believe the Israeli leadership is misusing the Jewish identity? GS: There’s nothing anti-Semitic about indicting someone for war crimes or for crimes against humanity or for genocide, when in fact that person has ordered acts of genocide or crimes against humanity or war crimes. That is not anti-Semitic. It is simply applying the law and it’s not a matter of whether a person has a certain religion, nationality or ethnicity. So, the Israeli leaders are misusing the Jewish identity to defend themselves. I think they are also violating the great laws of Moses. The laws of Moses, which are at the heart of the Jewish identity, include the commandment that you shall not kill. Well, what is happening in Gaza is clearly killing, and I believe that the basic Jewish identity is itself being violated by the acts of Netanyahu and Gallant. I understand, also, why Israel believes it needs to defeat Hamas because Hamas itself is a genocidal organisation. It’s impossible, really, to have a pure opinion here because both sides are committing genocide. What do you do when one side is clearly committing genocide? It’s like saying, "Look, Hitler was committing the Holocaust. So, pretty much any kind of tactic that we can use against Hitler is justifiable." We said the same about Japan, of course, that it was committing genocide and so any tactic including the use of the atomic bomb was somehow justifiable. Well, I don’t agree with that. I think that no genocide is ever justifiable and that’s why I would have opposed the use of the atomic bomb. I think that there would have been other ways to demonstrate to the Japanese that they could not win the war before we had to destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Similarly, I think that the war crimes committed against the Germans by the firebombing of Dresden, for example, were unjustifiable. Those were war crimes. But of course, no one’s ever been tried for those crimes because they were war crimes committed during a war that the states committing the crimes won. I’m afraid this is going to be a similar situation where the people committing these crimes will probably have impunity. GS: This is an important point. The arrest warrants for Putin demand serious attention as he is involved in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The meticulous documentation by legal authorities in Ukraine underscores the severity of his actions. I have confidence that the ICC will remain steadfast despite any challenges in apprehending individuals like Netanyahu, Gallant, or Hamas leaders. The institution will continue to operate effectively, much like any legal system that remains functional even when some violators evade justice. As for Putin, I foresee eventual consequences, possibly through international trials following his overthrow. However, I’m not so sure about Netanyahu, Gallant, and the other Israeli leaders, nor am I that sure about the leaders of Hamas because they will be able to flee to countries that will protect them and keep them from being arrested. ET: The White House is considering whether this latest attack on Rafah, which killed 45 Palestinians in a tent camp, crosses Biden's red line. Will anything that Israel does cross that line, or is it infinitely movable? GS: I have a great distrust of red lines. Former president Obama said it was a red line if Syria used gas against its own population. Then Syria did use g as. It turned out not to be a very solid red line because we didn’t respond in any way. I don’t think that when Biden says it’s a red line that it really means very much. These red lines do seem quite movable, as you said. So my own view is that unless the United States tells Israel we are no longer going to provide you with any weapons, that red line will just keep moving. ET: What does this war mean for the US in the long term and its standing in the world, especially in the Muslim world? GS: I’m not sure our standing was that good anyway, but supplying the weapons being used to kill 36,000 Palestinians in Gaza has reduced our standing even more. I don’t know that any of the so-called "realists," as they like to call themselves, would care. They think it’s all about national interest. Well, I don’t think that international law and our standing in the world are all about national interest. I believe there is a fundamental unity to the human race, and when people violate it as we are now doing, we should be ashamed. We should not be liked or supported. We should be subject to the very same laws that everyone else is. We should be states-parties to the International Criminal Court, and we should accept the compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice. As you may know, we withdrew from the compulsory jurisdiction of the ICJ when Nicaragua sued us for violating its sovereignty. We said, “Oh, okay, we are withdrawing from this case.” We no longer accepted the compulsory jurisdiction of the ICJ. That’s a violation of the rule of law, and I think the US should be ashamed that we did that. I also think we should be ashamed that we’re supporting Israel right now. This doesn’t mean we should not support Israel in the long term. We should. Israel deserves to exist as a nation because it is the place the UN set aside for the Jewish people to have their own state, their own place where they could defend themselves. After the Holocaust, everyone understood that the Jewish people needed that. But right now, Israel is forfeiting its moral standing in the world as a place created to protect Jews from another Holocaust by inflicting genocide on the Palestinians. ET: For almost a decade, Israel’s intelligence services have deployed a range of clandestine actions aimed at dissuading the International Criminal Court from prosecuting its leaders. What does that tell you about Israel, which claims to be a democratic country, and Netanyahu, who claims to be an elected leader? GS: I’m not at all surprised. One could argue, as any American president might, that surveillance operations are necessary to prevent surprises when an enemy tries to attack. So, I’m not surprised that Israel would do that. Mossad is known for its ability to carry out surveillance operations. But look at what happened on October 7th: a total intelligence failure. These intelligence operations aren’t necessarily very effective. From my experience in the State Department, I learned you could often get better intelligence from open sources than from the CIA. The CIA briefed us every morning, but very often, better reports could be found on the front pages of the New York Times. After I left the State Department, David Scheffer, our war crimes ambassador, asked me and a few others to provide him with open-source intelligence about places where genocide was likely to break out. We did, using open sources like LexisNexis and newspapers around the world. The CIA was a bit ticked off, so we decided to have a little competition. We each took a country—Burundi in this case—and by the end of the week, it was clear that our open-source intelligence was superior. It didn't surprise me at all. In fact, I believe many government operations should be more open than they currently are. There’s too much unnecessary classification. ET: The conflict in Gaza exhibits all signs of an unfolding genocide, even being broadcast on live television for the world to witness. However, the West seems hesitant to accept or acknowledge it. What are the consequences of this persistent denial? GS: As you know from the model we use, the 10-stage model of genocide, Denial is always one of the key processes in every genocide. It starts at the very beginning of the genocide. It goes all the way through the genocide and even lasts long after the genocide is over. Denial itself is one of the greatest predictors of future genocides. We’ve shown statistically that where there is denial, you have three times as much chance of a future genocide as you do if there hasn't been denial. That’s why it’s so important to have tribunals. It’s why it’s so important to have education and news coverage of what’s happened. Denial during genocide has been witnessed repeatedly. We had the very same situation during the Rwandan genocide. We have had it in many other genocides. There was even denial during the Holocaust. People here in the United States wouldn’t believe that Hitler was committing the crimes he was. Because of that, we did not bomb the crematoria. We did not try to take out the death camps. The result of denial is genocide, and that’s why I’m so concerned about it. Right now, the Israeli citizens are not getting the truth. They need to get the truth about what their government is doing. ET: Xi Jinping has called for a meeting of Arab leaders. The Chinese leader said that justice cannot wait. What are your thoughts on China taking the lead while the US abdicates its self-proclaimed role? GS: Well, I think it’s ironic, isn’t it? Here we are pointing our fingers at China because, after all, China itself is a genocidal state. The genocide of the Uyghurs, for instance, is still going on. Clean hands are not a qualification for being able to tell the truth. You don’t have to have perfectly clean hands. If President Xi is saying we need justice now, he’s right. I don’t care where he comes from and how guilty he may be and how guilty his country may be. The truth is that even though China is not really in a good position to be calling out Israel or the West or anyone else for violating human rights standards, it’s good if they do so because when we violate those standards, we should be ashamed of it. We should be called out for it. I believe this is a case very much in that line. The US needs to face its own responsibilities. We need to tell Israel to stop the conflict. I would like to meet one of those little girls who has lost her family in Gaza. I would like to take her to the office of Benjamin Netanyahu and ask him to apologise.   Copyright 2024 The Express Tribune, Karachi, Pakistan https://tribune.com.pk/story/2469391/genocide-in-plain-sight?amp=1 Photos of original uncorrected print article:

Marking the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, activists gathered in Belgrade to urge the Serbian authorities to grant legal recognition to survivors of wartime rape. Balkan Insight Katarina Baletic 19 June 2024 Women displayed posters with slogans like “Rape is an act of genocide”, “We remember the women raped in the war!” and “Rape is a form of hatred towards women”. Photo: BIRN. A symbolic protest was staged by the Serbian feminist organisations Women in Black and the Autonomous Women’s Centre in central Belgrade on Wednesday to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict. Women displayed banners with slogans declaring: “Rape is an act of genocide”, “We remember women raped in the war!” and “Rape is a form of hatred towards women”. Serbia is the only country in the former Yugoslavia that doesn’t recognise survivors of wartime sexual violence as civilian war victims. The two NGOs are seeking a change to the Law on the Rights of Veterans, Disabled Veterans and their Family Members to address this omission.  Sanja Pavlovic, an activist from the Autonomous Women’s Centre, told BIRN that they want to highlight the sexual violence that happens all over the world during wars and conflicts, but above all want to emphasise that even though 30 years have passed since the 1990s wars, victims of sexual violence are not officially recognised as civilian victims by the Serbian authorities. They want the law amended to recognise victims of sexual violence, regardless of nationality, allowing them to receive welfare benefits and support from the state, Women in states that recognise them as civilian victims receive some kind of monthly pension, Pavlovic noted. “They use that money, above all, for medicine, to take care of their physical and mental health precisely because of the consequences left by this crime,” she said. She argued that “it is also, on a symbolic level, important for the state of Serbia to recognise the war crime of rape as such”. At this point, she said, the Serbian authorities don’t even know how many victims there are in the country.  “This country often talks about Serbian victims, but we see that in the case of women, it’s not even about that,” she added. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY, in The Hague classified sexual violence as a war crime and a crime against humanity. Its first verdict convicting a defendant of wartime sexual violence came in 2001, in the trial of Bosnian Serb Army commander  Dragoljub Kunarac  and his subordinates Radomir Kovac and Zoran Vukovic. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, women who survived wartime rape were recognised for the first time in the world as civilian victims of war in the country’s Federation entity in 2006. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo have also established legal reparation mechanisms for survivors. Last year, in a world first, Bosnia’s Federation entity recognised children born as a result of wartime rape as civilian victims of war too.  Croatia and Kosovo also recognise survivors of sexual violence in war as civilian victims of war who are entitled to various types of compensation and welfare services. More than 1,500 people have been granted this status in Kosovo, and more than 200 in Croatia, said the Autonomous Women’s Centre in a statement.

Myanmar soldiers are using rape as a tool to terrorize and then push the Rohingya Muslim women out of the country for good, a new report found. By Alice Salles Reuters/Adnan Abidi The horrific plight of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar appears to be particularly difficult (and deadly) to women and girls, a new Associated Press investigation shows. According to the special report, Myanmar’s security forces are using rape as a weapon of war. The AP interviewed 29 women and found that the practice is used as a “calculated tool of terror” to exterminate the ethnic group. According to one of the testimonials, a 13-year-old identified only by the letter R lost her father to a knife attack carried out by soldiers. Later, 10 soldiers came to her house, took her brothers and beat them, and then ripped her jewelry and took her clothes off. According to R, she was then brutally raped by the men, who took turns and even spit at her. She eventually passed out due to the pain and was later rushed to the Bangladesh border to see a doctor. Another woman identified as M told the AP that she was home with her son, feeding him rice, when the military shot at her teenage brother. As her husband and children ran outside, M, who was eight months pregnant at the time, decided to stay at her brother’s side. After two days, her brother succumbed to his injuries. Shortly after, four soldiers stormed into her house. She was dragged outside and stripped naked after being slapped and punched. The soldiers then beat her once again and threatened to kill her when she screamed. Eventually, one of the soldiers started raping her as others held her down. As a second soldier forced himself against her, she started kicking back, finally pushing them away. M gave birth to her child that night in her house, but the baby girl was dead After her husband came back, they found out that soldiers had destroyed their land “They humiliated us, they destroyed our land and farm, they took our cows, they took our produce,” she told the AP. “How would I go back? They destroyed our livelihood.” Like R and M, other women who talked to the AP shared stories involving military men who not only raped them in an effort to push them away, but who also either chased or killed their men, family members, and sometimes even their children Unfortunately, Myanmar officials continue to claim that the military has nothing to do with these incidents while the country’s government also turns a blind eye to the abuse, the violence, and the deaths. Despite pressure from the United Nations to bring about an end to the persecution of the Rohingya, it’s unlikely that change will come anytime soon, prompting many to question whether Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, should have her Nobel Peace Prize taken away. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Carbonated TV

By Anthony Davis Tatmadaw soldiers march on Armed Forces Day in Naypyitaw on March 27. (Photo by Steve Tickner) If the upsurge of hostilities that has shaken northeastern Myanmar in recent weeks were to be summed up in just two words, they would be deja vu. To a remarkable degree, the bitter fighting which has erupted in the Kokang region of northeastern Shan State has been a replay of events in the same region almost exactly two years ago. But there is one salient difference: The crisis confronting Myanmar's embattled military is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. The early hours of March 6 saw well-armed insurgents storm into Laukkai, capital of the mainly ethnic Chinese Kokang special region, a rugged slice of territory wedged between the Salween River and the Chinese border. More than 30 were killed in the first hours of clashes as rebels attacked army and police posts and a large hotel in the city center. They also attacked army garrisons further north in a clearly coordinated offensive. As the military, also known as the Tatmadaw, struggled to reassert control and push back the attackers, Myanmar's media reported "dozens" more troops killed, along with an unconfirmed number of ethnic Chinese rebels of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA). Meanwhile, to the west of the Salween, allied ethnic Palaung guerrillas cut roads and attacked posts, diverting government forces and interdicting movement on the main highway between Mandalay and China. On both sides of the river, the insurgents were operating from a manual first tested in early 2015. On Feb. 9 that year the MNDAA and ethnic allies on both banks of the Salween came down from the mountains to storm Laukkai and other towns. It took the military three months to reassert control, first over urban centers and then strategic heights. Hundreds were killed and wounded in some of the most bitter fighting since Myanmar's independence from Britain in 1948, when the country was known as Burma. While the parallels between February 2015 and March 2017 are striking, the military and political environment in which they have unfolded is very different. Politically the main change has been the slow demise of a peace process centered on a fragile pact known as the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement -- which to date has been signed by only eight mostly militarily insignificant ethnic armed groups from a total of at least 20 nation-wide. Kachin Independence Army soldiers confront Tatmadaw troops at the Hkaya Bhum mountain post in Laiza, Myanmar, in January 2013. (Photo by Steve Tickner) Adopted by the government of Aung San Suu Kyi, funded by Western donors and grudgingly endorsed by a skeptical Tatmadaw, the current process has essentially collapsed amid intensifying conflict. That escalation has been the direct result of what one might call the coming of age of the northern rebel coalition. Comprising the MNDAA, the ethnic Palaung Ta'ang National Liberation Army, the small Arakan Army and elements of the Kachin Independence Army, the alliance has grown in both capability and size, with an estimated 10,000 troops under arms across northern Shan State. Its geographical reach, operational coordination, and a striking readiness to attack urban centers are all unprecedented. In November 2016 the coalition gave itself a formal name - the Northern Alliance-Burma (NAB) -- and launched its second major offensive. A wave of carefully coordinated attacks targeted a string of towns along the Chinese border west of the Salween -- notably the border trade hub of Muse -- while cutting the national highway from Mandalay and Lashio to the Chinese border. Far less visible than the dramatic rise of the NAB, however, has been its flip-side -- the slow-burn crisis of strategy and capability facing the Tatmadaw. Having largely lost the battlefield initiative in the north, the army is now confronting a range of challenges it is ill-prepared to meet, let alone overcome. At the national level, the Tatmadaw's slow war of attrition against its main insurgent challenges has traditionally -- and critically -- relied on a policy of divide-and-rule. In operational terms that has meant concentrating the bulk of resources against one enemy while neutralizing others with de facto or official cease-fires. Decisive offensives in the 1990s against the once powerful Karen National Union on Myanmar's eastern border with Thailand moved forward once a cease-fire had been secured with the northern Kachin; and, more recently after 2012, vice versa. Other potential threats, such as that posed by the powerful United Wa State Army, were held in abeyance by a cease-fire that encouraged the Wa to focus on "business activities," primarily narcotics production. Battlefield coalition Those days may now be over, however. The NAB, Myanmar's first effective battlefield coalition of insurgents, threatens to up-end the strategy of divide-and-rule. For their part, the Wa appear to be far less focused on narcotics trafficking and more on providing political backbone and covert aid to their smaller ethnic allies. Indeed, at a February conference hosted in its autonomous special region, the UWSA emerged as the de facto political leader of an armed ethnic block pushing for a new peace process that would dump the NCA and be mediated by China and the United Nations. Against the backdrop of these tectonic shifts, Tatmadaw control over northeastern Myanmar is being undermined more immediately by a range of serious strategic challenges. In isolation, none spells defeat; but the cumulative impact is undoubtedly weakening the military's grip over a large swath of the country. A.T.N.??? soldiers stand guard in upper Shan State during recent clashes with the Myanmar army in Shan State on Feb. 17. (Photo by Steve Tickner) Mobility and logistical demands across an unforgiving theater of operations are perennial challenges for a military still struggling with modernization. Northern Shan state has only one airport -- at Lashio -- and only two major roads, both vulnerable to interdiction by insurgents now operating at platoon and even company level. Moving troops and heavy equipment between multiple, shifting fronts has become increasingly dangerous, and financially costly. The problem is starkest in Kokang. With no airport at Laukkai, resupply of units in the field hinges critically on one main road and on helicopters operating out of Lashio. But the real dilemma lies at the end of the supply line: a sparsely-populated mountainous region of 10,000 sq. km. Kokang is far too rugged for the Tatmadaw to dominate, let alone control, but too politically and symbolically important to abandon. As a result, thousands of troops are pinned down in an open-ended "meat-grinder" operation with no prospect of either success or withdrawal. A second daunting challenge hinges on manpower. A sprawling behemoth that has dominated Myanmar politically and economically since 1962, the army has over 300,000 men and women in uniform. However, combat-capable units are perennially stretched thin, with a typical field battalion numbering as few as 200 troops (as against 600 to 800 in most modern armies). The "fighting army" has two primary missions: maintaining a presence in townships across the ethnic minority borderlands -- in effect "colonial policing" on behalf of a state dominated by the majority Burman ethnic group -- and waging war on insurgents, which has come to mean scrambling to respond to repeated offensives. Casualties have been high, notably in Kokang, and concentrated in elite light infantry divisions, which constitute the Tatmadaw's "fire brigade" -- troops that can be rushed in to hold the line and retake lost ground. The impact on morale has been predictably severe. Operational rotations with little or no leave, extended well beyond the limits of military effectiveness, have done nothing to improve the situation. Levels of training for newly inducted recruits have also suffered. Mounting strains on mobility and manpower have had two predictable results. First, the army's capacity to mount strategic offensives of its own has been sharply impacted. Second, reliance on heavy artillery and, more importantly, airpower, has grown. Over the past two years, close air support has involved both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, although the use of the air force's obsolescent Chinese A-5 and F-7 fighter aircraft against insurgent concentrations close to the border has been checked by the risk of ordnance falling in Chinese territory, with potentially severe diplomatic and even military repercussions. A third challenge facing the military -- and far from the least-- centers on a remarkable crisis of intelligence. From early 2015 through to 2017 insurgent offensives involving hundreds of fighters have repeatedly caught the military largely or entirely by surprise. The implications are obvious and stark: the Tatmadaw has little or no intelligence capability in rebel-dominated country, where enemy concentrations marshal and maneuver at will, and are now carrying the war to government-held towns The advent of the rains in May will likely provide the Tatmadaw with some respite after what has been a painful dry season. The rains may even allow it to attempt to regain some initiative, if only at the tactical level. But the broader reality in northern Myanmar is that the military is under pressure as never before. And when in November the dry season comes around again, that sense of deja vu will almost certainly return. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Asian Review

By Carol Glatz Mourners attend the April 10 funeral for victims of a bomb attack the previous day at the Orthodox Church of St. George in Tanta, Egypt. That same day, April 9, an explosion went off outside the Cathedral of St. Mark in Alexandria, where Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II was presiding over the Palm Sunday service. (CNS photo/Mohamed Hossam, EPA) See EGYPT-CHURCHES-REACTION April 10, 2017. VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Despite recent and repeated terrorist attacks against Egypt's minority Christian communities, Pope Francis will not cancel his visit to Egypt. "The pope's trip to Egypt proceeds as scheduled," Greg Burke, Vatican spokesman, told Catholic News Service by email April 10. The pope is scheduled to meet governmental and interfaith leaders during an April 28-29 visit to Cairo. "Egyptians are looking forward to Pope Francis' visit, although the atmosphere at present is heavy," Father Rafic Grieche, spokesman for the Egyptian bishops, told CNS April 10, the day after the attacks. "The pope's mission is to be beside his brothers at the time of difficulty. Now is the real time that he can bring peace and hope to the Egyptian people as a whole and to the Christians of the East, in particular," Father Grieche added. He said people were uneasy entering churches with metal detectors and other security measures. "It's not like going to a normal church. But we need these measures to keep people safe," he said. He said after the attack, he celebrated a Mass with 2,000 people. "The people knew already about the attack in Tanta, but they did not want to be afraid. In the evening, they also came for the prayers of the Holy Week," Father Grieche said. Security personnel investigate the scene of an April 9 bomb explosion outside the Cathedral of St. Mark in Alexandria, Egypt. That same day an explosion went off inside the Orthodox Church of St. George in Tanta, during the Palm Sunday service. (CNS photo/EPA) See EGYPT-CHURCHES-REACTION April 10, 2017. Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II was in the Cathedral of St. Mark in Alexandria April 9 for the Palm Sunday service, when an explosion went off outside the church. Security footage appeared to show a security officer direct a man who was seeking entry into the cathedral to go through a metal detector. The man took a step under the detector then backed up a step, followed by a huge explosion that cut off the camera feed. Earlier, a bomb exploded 70 miles away inside the Church of St. George in Tanta, 50 miles north of Cairo, during its Palm Sunday service. Estimates say at least 44 people were killed and more than 100 injured in the two attacks, making it one of the deadliest against the nation's Christians in decades. It was the single deadliest day for Christians in decades and the worst since a bombing at a Cairo church in December killed 30 people. Pope Tawadros told the Italian national network Rai News April 9 the attacks would "not damage the unity and cohesiveness" of the Egyptian people. "Egyptians are united before this terrorism," he said, adding that "these vile attacks that hit people of peace in places of prayer demonstrate that terrorism lacks any religion." Sheik Ahmad el-Tayeb, grand imam of al-Azhar University, also condemned the attacks, calling them a "despicable terrorist bombing that targeted the lives of innocents." Retired Coptic Catholic Bishop Antonios Mina of Giza, Egypt, said the incidents were an attack against the nation's unity, its Coptic Christians, "to remind them that they have no rights, and against all Christian minorities of the country that anxiously await Pope Francis." "Despite it all, we will never lose hope. These atrocious gestures make us firmer in the faith and stronger," he said. "Egypt's Christians are warriors of hope." Mourners attend the April 10 funeral for victims of a bomb attack the previous day at the Orthodox Church of St. George in Tanta, Egypt. Also April 9, an explosion went off outside the Cathedral of St. Mark in Alexandria where Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II was presiding over the Palm Sunday service. (CNS photo/Mohamed Hossam, EPA) See EGYPT-CHURCHES-REACTION April 10, 2017. One Catholic leader highlighted his country's failure to address the real causes behind the Palm Sunday massacres. Speaking to "the officials and the wise of this country," Coptic Catholic Bishop Botros Fahim Awad Hanna of Minya said that "you don't fight terrorism with words or slogans, nor with security or armies alone." "What have you done for social, economic, health, political and human justice? What have you done for the poor and downtrodden? What have you done to reform thought, expression and religious discourse?" In a posting on his Facebook page, Bishop Fahim said that when Pope Francis goes to Cairo, he "will come to say no to terrorism and evil, and yes to goodness and fraternity. Love will never fail." Security personnel investigate the scene of a bomb explosion on April 9 inside the Orthodox Church of St. George in Tanta, Egypt. That same day an explosion went off outside the Cathedral of St. Mark in Alexandria where Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II was presiding over the Palm Sunday service. (CNS photo/Khaled Elfiqi, EPA) See EGYPT-CHURCHES-REACTION April 10, 2017. Around the world, religious leaders offered prayers. Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the attacks on the churches were "unspeakable persecution." "In the midst of what should be peace, horrible violence yet again," he said. On behalf of all U.S. bishops, the cardinal expressed "our deepest sadness" for all those killed and injured, and their loved ones. "I also express our solidarity with the Coptic church in Egypt, an ancient Christian community that faces mounting persecution in its historic home from violent extremism. I also pray for the nation of Egypt, that it may seek justice, find healing, and strengthen protection for Coptic Christians and other religious minorities who wish only to live in peace." Cardinal DiNardo also pledged the U.S bishops' solidarity with the Coptic church in an April 10 letter to Pope Tawadros. He echoed Pope Francis' call for an end to violence and said he joined with the pontiff "in praying for all those who suffer and who have perished, that the Lord will bring healing to victims and their families and consolation as we approach Easter and its promise of the Resurrection." Security personnel investigate the scene of a bomb explosion April 9 inside the Orthodox Church of St. George in Tanta, Egypt. That same day an explosion went off outside the Cathedral of St. Mark in Alexandria where Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II was presiding over the Palm Sunday service. (CNS photo/Khaled Elfiqi, EPA) See EGYPT-CHURCHES-REACTION April 10, 2017. Egypt is 90 percent Sunni Muslim; Christians make up the remaining 10 percent, with that majority being the Coptic Orthodox church. The Catholic community in Egypt numbers about 272,000, less than 0.5 percent of the population. - - - Contributing to this story was Dale Gavlak in Amman, Jordan. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Catholic News Service

Twelve Bosnian Serbs convicted of genocide have served their sentences and been released - some have returned to live in places where the massacres happened, while others continue to deny that Srebrenica was genocide. By Admir Muslimovic and Filip Rudic Graves of Srebrenica victims. Photo: Wikimedia/Michael Buker. When the 22nd anniversary of the Srebrenica massacres is commemorated on Tuesday, 12 people who were convicted of responsibility for genocide will not be spending the day in prison cells. Having served their sentences and been released, most of them are now retired and live in either Bosnia and Herzegovina or Serbia - some of them in places where the massacres took place in July 1995, and where survivors and victims’ families are able to see them walking freely in the streets. Vinko Pandurevic, Ljubomir Borovcanin, Vidoje Blagojevic and Dragan Jokic have all completed the jail terms they were given by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Pandurevic, a former Bosnian Serb Army officer, was sentenced to 13 years for committing crimes in Srebrenica. Following his early release in 2015, he now lives in Belgrade with his wife and sons. Pandurevic told BIRN that the Hague Tribunal's verdict made it impossible for him to get a job as a university lecturer. “Some faculties are reluctant to accept people with my background; they are afraid that an NGO or a journalist might say that someone with my 'burden' is unfit to teach students,” he said. Other than that, he and his family have had no problems in Serbia as a result of his conviction, he added. Vinko Pandurevic in court in The Hague. Pandurevic is currently active in the Club of Serbian Generals and Admirals and the Oath to the Fatherland Association, which brings together people from the Republika Srpska area of Bosnia and the former Republic of Serbian Krajina wartime statelet in Croatia who now live in Serbia. Since his release, Pandurevic has also published several books on politics and the Bosnian war, and has now written a new book about his experience as a inmate at the Hague Tribunal's detention unit, which is currently being reviewed before publication. Despite his conviction, Pandurevic denies that Srebrenica was an act of genocide. He also believes that the war in former Yugoslavia was inevitable, and that the outcome could not have been significantly different. When asked if he would do anything differently with the benefit of hindsight, Pandurevic responded that he believes that his actions during the war were correct. “The way I saw my duties, and the stance I took towards the enemy and our own forces, was right, in my judgment,” he said. Meanwhile Ljubomir Borovcanin, the former deputy commander of the Bosnian Serb interior ministry’s Special Brigade, was sentenced to 17 years in prison and released from jail in Denmark in August last year. He is now retired and lives in Bijeljina in Bosnia with his wife and sons, and writes political and security analyses for the online journal of the Russia-based Strategic Culture Foundation, which has an outlet in Serbia. Vidoje Blagojevic, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb Army’s Bratunac Brigade, was sentenced to 15 years in prison and served his sentence in Norway. He now lives in a rented apartment in Banja Luka in Bosnia and is a military pensioner. Dragan Jokic, the former head of the engineering section of the Bosnian Serb Army’s Zvornik Brigade, was sentenced to nine years in jail and served his sentence in Austria. He and his family currently live in Zvornik and is also military pensioner, receiving benefits for a retired officer of the rank of lieutenant-colonel. New names The identities of three of the freed Hague Tribunal convicts have been changed in order to protect them after their release. One of them, former Bosnian Serb Army soldier Drazen Erdemovic, admitted that he participated in the shooting of 1,000 and 1,200 Bosniaks from Srebrenica in Branjevo in July 1995. The shooting went on for six hours, he said. Erdemovic finished serving his five-year sentence 17 years ago and now lives in Europe; he has also appeared as a defence witness at the trial of former Bosnian Serb Army commander Ratko Mladic. Momir Nikolic in court in The Hague. Momir Nikolic, the former assistant commander for security and intelligence affairs of the Bosnian Serb Army’s Bratunac Brigade, is the only one who has admitted involvement in the operation to organise the systematic killing of more than 7,000 Bosniaks from Srebrenica and the deportation of women and children. Three years ago, he was released from prison in Finland, where he served his 20-year sentence, and his identity was partially changed so that when he is living outside Bosnia and Herzegovina or Serbia, he uses a different name. Nikolic is retired. He frequently visits his mother at their family house in Bratunac, where he was born. He is currently writing two books, one of which focuses on military operations in the Srebrenica area, while the other one is about the political aspects of the fall of Yugoslavia. Besides their homes in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, he and his family also have a residence in Sweden. Nikolic is just one of many perpetrators who survivors of the massacres and relatives of the Bosniaks from Srebrenica who were killed can see in the places where the killings took place. “I meet the criminals in Srebrenica all the time,” the president of the Mothers of Srebrenica association, Hajra Catic, told BIRN. “Around 400 people who participated in the genocide in one way or another are currently employed in police structures and state institutions. We have lists of those people. Some are even university professors,” Catic claimed. “Victims cannot be satisfied with such things. They will never stop caring.” Meanwhile Dragan Obrenovic’s identity was also changed after the Hague Tribunal offered him protection after his release. The former chief of headquarters and deputy commander of the First Zvornic Infantry Brigade with the Bosnian Serb Army’s Drina Corps was sentenced to 17 years in prison. After doing his jail time in Norway, he continues to live abroad with his family. Five Srebrenica convicts who were jailed by the Bosnian state court - Milivoje Cirkovic, Zoran Kusic, Vaso Todorovic, Marko Boskic and Mladen Blagojevic - have also been released after completing their time in jail. Cirkovic, who worked at the Bosnian Serb interior ministry’s Jahorina Training Centre during the war, returned to his homeland, Serbia, after agreeing a plea bargain and serving his five-year sentence. He now works as a craftsman at his family estate. Kusic, who also served at the Jahorina Training Centre, was sentenced to five years in prison too. BIRN has not been able to establish his current whereabouts or occupation. Marko Boskic in court in Sarajevo. Boskic, a former member of the 10th Reconnaissance Squad of the Bosnian Serb Army’s Main Headquarters, was jailed for ten years. He has now served his sentence, but BIRN has not been able to get any information about his place of residence or occupation either. Todorovic, a former member of the Sekovici Special Police Squad who was sentenced to six years after signing a guilt admission agreement, now lives in the Bratunac area. After having served his seven-year sentence, Blagojevic, a former military policeman with the Bosnian Serb Army’s Bratunac Brigade, returned to the United States, from where he had been extradited to Bosnia and Herzegovina for having given false data to the US authorities about his role in the Bosnian Serb military during the war. The issue of Srebrenica convicts returning to the places where their crimes were committed has caused disquiet among Bosniak victims' organisations. Mediha Smajic, a journalist from Srebrenica, thinks that the return of released war-crimes convicts to the Srebrenica, Zvornik and Bratunac areas, where the massacres took place in 1995, reopens old wounds. “Their presence in the places where they committed crimes causes harm to victims and [post-war] returnees, who they meet on a daily basis,” she argued. The acceptance of the convicts by local Serb communities is also a source of unease, she added. “People must live together, but who belongs where should be defined. I am saying this for the sake of future generations, who should lead normal lives,” she said. Bosnian sociologist Ivan Sijakovic pointed out however that “the victims feel uncomfortable, but there is nothing we can do about it” because there are no legal restrictions on convicted war criminals’ reintegration into society. Moral issues aside, Sijakovic explained, there is nothing to prevent convicts who have been released from returning to live near the scene of their crimes. “From the legal point of view, after serving their sentences, people can live wherever they want,” he said. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 BIRN

By Amar Toor Ibo Omari’s war against swastikas began earlier this year, when a man walked into his Berlin graffiti store and asked for a few cans of spray paint. The man had been playing with his son at a nearby playground and noticed a huge Nazi flag painted on an adjacent wall. The father wanted to paint over the flag himself, but Omari wouldn't let him. "We said we are going to take care of it — don’t spend any money, don’t get your hands dirty," Omari recalls. "So we went there and made something beautiful out of it." Within a few minutes, Omari and another artist transformed the giant swastika into a cartoonish mosquito, effectively neutering a symbol that continues to haunt Germany. Not long afterward, another friend told Omari of another swastika they had seen painted in a Berlin park, and suggested that he perform the same kind of street art alchemy. Thus began Paintback, a campaign to change neo-Nazi graffiti into playful images. Over the last few months, Omari and 11 other members of his graffiti collective have transformed around 50 swastikas into a variety of whimsical designs: rabbits, owls, even Rubik’s cubes. The campaign began in Berlin and has since spread to other cities across Germany, thanks in large part to social media. The idea, Omari says, is to encourage young people to reclaim urban spaces that have been smeared with Nazi iconography. Through graffiti workshops held at his NGO, Die kulturellen Erben e.V. ("The Cultural Heritage"), Omari and other members of his collective developed templates that kids and other street art novices could easily use to alter swastikas. "We wanted to answer with love and happiness so that young people can relate to it, and not just people who come from the graffiti or urban life," Omari said in a phone interview this week. "We take their ugly message and make something beautiful out of it." Far-right groups have seen a resurgence in Germany, amid an influx of more than 1 million refugees fleeing Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Politically motivated violent crimes rose by more than 40 percent across the country in 2015, according to government statistics, and authorities have sought to crack down on anti-migrant hate speech posted online. Omari, a lifelong Berliner, says neo-Nazi sentiment has seeped into the urban landscape, as well. He and his colleagues spent weeks scouring for swastikas in local parks where far-right groups are known to hang out, and quickly "beautified" those that were most prominent. A short video they created went viral in Germany, and soon others began posting images of their own swastika transformations on social media, under the #Paintback hashtag. Carrying out their work hasn’t always been easy. It’s illegal to display swastikas and other Nazi-era symbols in Germany, but graffiti artists can also face fines if they paint a wall without permission. Omari says that the Paintback collective has always obtained permission from building owners before painting over the swastikas, and local authorities have allowed them to skip the bureaucratic processes normally required to paint on public walls. Far-right groups have been less conciliatory. Omari says some neo-Nazis have tried to intimidate collective members as they paint, while others have left hateful comments on the Facebook page for his graffiti store. "You can’t do a campaign like this without offending someone in Germany," he says. Omari isn’t the only one trying to purge Berlin’s streets of racist propaganda. Irmela Mensah-Schramm, a 70-year-old former schoolteacher, has spent 30 years scraping off and painting over neo-Nazi symbols across the German capital, and continues her work despite facing numerous assaults over the years. "I have a strong appreciation for human dignity," Mensah-Schramm told The New York Times this year. "When I see someone’s dignity being hurt, I feel it myself." The campaign is personal for Omari, as well. The son of a Lebanese father and Turkish mother, he and his family fled Beirut in the late 1970s, after civil war broke out, and arrived in Germany as refugees. (He was actually born in Warsaw after the plane taking his family to Germany made an emergency landing.) As a self-described "prototype refugee child," Omari says the Nazi flag painted on that local playground last year struck especially close to home. "I grew up in Berlin, and in the last 20 years there has been a lot of change," he says. "But now when all this right wing hate comes back, I feel like nothing has changed." "It’s strange that in 20 years of integration and politics, people still feel scared by foreigners — like, people they don’t know, their first reaction is fear," he adds. "And this is unacceptable for us." ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (C) The Verge