By Maggie Astor For seven decades, “never forget” has been a rallying cry of the Holocaust remembrance movement. But a survey released Thursday, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, found that many adults lack basic knowledge of what happened — and this lack of knowledge is more pronounced among millennials, whom the survey defined as people ages 18 to 34. Thirty-one percent of Americans, and 41 percent of millennials, believe that two million or fewer Jews were killed in the Holocaust; the actual number is around six million. Forty-one percent of Americans, and 66 percent of millennials, cannot say what Auschwitz was. And 52 percent of Americans wrongly think Hitler came to power through force. “As we get farther away from the actual events, 70-plus years now, it becomes less forefront of what people are talking about or thinking about or discussing or learning,” said Matthew Bronfman, a board member of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which commissioned the study. “If we wait another generation before you start trying to take remedial action, I think we’re really going to be behind the eight ball.” Despite the gaps in the respondents’ knowledge, the study found an overwhelming consensus — 93 percent — that all students should learn about the Holocaust at school. And Holocaust denial remains very rare in the United States, with 96 percent of respondents saying they believe the genocide happened. “The issue is not that people deny the Holocaust; the issue is just that it’s receding from memory,” said Greg Schneider, the executive vice president of the Claims Conference, which negotiates restitution for Holocaust victims and their heirs. “People may not know the details themselves, but they still think it’s important. That is very heartening.” The survey, conducted by Schoen Consulting from Feb. 23-27, involved 1,350 American adults interviewed by phone or online, and has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points. Millennials were 31 percent of the sample, and the results for that group have a margin of error of plus or minus five percentage points. The questions were developed by a committee that included officials from the Claims Conference, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Yad Vashem, as well as a Holocaust survivor and a polling expert from George Washington University. (In a strange footnote, the head of Schoen Consulting, Doug Schoen, is in the news this week for arranging for President Trump to give a speech during a 2015 event in Ukraine.) Worldwide, the estimated number of living Holocaust survivors has fallen to 400,000, according to the Claims Conference, many of them in their 80s and 90s. And Holocaust remembrance advocates and educators, who agree that no book, film or traditional exhibition can compare to the voice of a survivor, dread the day when none are left to tell their stories. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington collects comment cards from many visitors before they leave, and they underscore that “no educational experience that anyone has coming through here has as much of an impact as hearing from a survivor directly,” said Kristine Donly, interim director of the Levine Institute for Holocaust Education at the museum, who sat on the board that developed the survey. And so, across the country and around the world, museums and memorials are looking for ways to tell the witnesses’ stories once the witnesses are gone. At the site of the Monument to Six Million Jewish Martyrs, the Philadelphia Holocaust Remembrance Foundation has been developing an interactive memorial plaza, scheduled to open in October. Visitors will use a new app that will, among other things, feature survivors’ recorded testimonies. In one part of the plaza, train tracks that carried prisoners to the Treblinka death camp will be embedded in the pavement. When visitors step onto the tracks, the app, using geocaching technology, will pull up videos of Philadelphia residents “who were on those very trains that led to Treblinka,” said Eszter Kutas, the remembrance foundation’s acting director. And at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, near Chicago, visitors can speak with one of seven holograms of survivors — a project also tested at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York. Drawing on recorded testimony, the holograms can answer questions in real time. Visitors to the Illinois museum’s Take a Stand Center first watch a five-minute film in which a survivor introduces him- or herself. In one, Fritzie Fritzshall describes being taken to a ghetto at gunpoint during Passover, and from there to Auschwitz. “I have so much more to tell you,” she says. “So please ask me questions.” Then the hologram appears, “so real that our audience typically gasps when they see it,” said Susan L. Abrams, the museum’s chief executive. “It really was as effective as hearing from a live survivor, and that surprised us,” Ms. Abrams said. “When you sit in this theater and the lights dim, everything else melts away. Our visitors truly believe that they are having this conversation with a survivor. I don’t think even we realized just how powerful it would be.” © 2018 | The New York Times

By Maaz Hussain With experts warning that heavy rains and cyclonic storms could devastate new Rohingya settlements in Bangladesh, several aid agencies have begun efforts to protect the refugees ahead of the impending monsoon season, which typically starts in May. The aid agencies are doing work on different levels to stave off the risks of flooding and landslides, including efforts to move many refugees away from the unsafe areas. “We are trying to relocate as many families as possible and move them to safer ground. We are also advocating very strongly with the government of Bangladesh to find suitable new flatlands so that we can quickly move the families. The government has allocated additional land,” said Caroline Gluck, United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) spokeswoman in Bangladesh. “But it's very forested and hilly and it requires lot of work to make it habitable and suitable for relocations. We are trying to do that now. But, it's a race against time.” Mohammad Abul Kalam, Bangladesh’s refugee relief and rehabilitation commissioner, said plans to save the refugees from potential disasters are moving forward quickly. “In a first major step we are expanding the largest refugee camp by 500 or 600 acres (100 - 200 hectares) on its west. We believe we will be able to relocate over 100,000 of the refugees who are facing risks of floods and landslides to this safer area. The progress of this plan is going on well and we have in fact already relocated 10,000 people to this safer ground,” Kalam told VOA. In about a month, all related work will be over and “no refugees will finally be left at risk,” Kalam said. Mass arrivals Following a military crackdown in August, in which Myanmar’s soldiers were accused of rape, murder and arson in Rohingya villages in Rakhine state, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Rohingya Muslims began fleeing the Buddhist majority country. Although Myanmar has consistently denied the charge of atrocities by the soldiers, since August, over 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have crossed over to southeastern Bangladesh, where most of them are living in flimsily built bamboo-and-plastic shacks, on newly deforested hills. Some Rohingyas are building the structure of a house for a refugee family on the slope of a hill in Tengkhali refugee camp, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Cox’s Bazar district, which registers one of the highest rainfalls in the country and often is lashed by cyclonic storms, is now hosting over one million Rohingya refugees on 3,000 acres (about 1200 hectares) of land. Around half a million of them live in the over-congested area known as Kutupalong-Balukhali. After a “landslide and flood risk hazard” mapping of the area was completed by the UNHCR, using drone images and computer modeling, aid agencies have warned that around one-third of the areas in Kutupalong-Balukhali are particularly at risk during the oncoming monsoon season. Noting that it is the most densely crowded refugee camp in the world, Zia Choudhury, country director of NGO CARE, said Kutupalong-Balukhali was standing at the edge of a disaster. Ahead of the monsoon, when heavy rains and cyclonic storms are likely to hit the region, some Rohingyas are busy doing some reinforcing work at a shack in Kutupalong refugee camp, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. “The land is hilly, fragile and entirely unsuited to unplanned, settlement at this scale. The shelters are tightly packed on all available land, leaving just small gaps for roads and drainage. Many of the shelters are precariously perched on very inappropriate places, including the slope of the hills. We’re deeply concerned that during cyclone and torrential rains many of the shelters will simply collapse and wash away,” Choudhury told VOA. CARE is working in one refugee camp on the hilly slopes in Cox’s Bazar to make it safe from floods and storms. Flimsy shelters In Balukhali refugee camp, Sayeedul Amin, a Rohingya, said that since he fled Myanmar many weeks after violence broke out in August, he found no space to build his shack in a safer flatland area. “I had to build the shelter for my family on the slope of the mountain which is very unsafe. So far during the dry days we did not face much crisis. But, we know we will be in big trouble with heavy rain and strong winds during monsoon. I think the roof made of plastic sheet will be blown away by storm,” Amin told VOA. Some Rohingya shacks on the slope of a hill in a refugee camp in Balukhali, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. The aid agencies are working to relocate refugees from such landlide-prone areas to safer flatlands. Shofi Ullah, a Rohingya house builder, said most refugees cannot not afford to build better quality houses that could withstand the fury of natural disasters. “In [Myanmar], we used to build house mostly using robust timber poles. And, the roofs were strongly built using wooden planks. Rains or storms could not damage those houses easily. But, here, the people are building very weak type bamboo-and-plastic strictures,” Ullah told VOA. High risk According to UNHCR, around 150,000 refugees are facing a high risk of floods and landslides across the hilly slopes in Cox’s Bazar district. The UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and World Food Programme (WFP), in cooperation with some Bangladesh government agencies and others, are using heavy earth moving machinery to level hundreds of hectares of land around the Kutupalong-Balukhali camp. UNHCR'S Caroline Gluck says her agency is also training the refugee community for what they can do to alert themselves, to protect themselves and others, including early warning systems and getting training on first aid and what to do in the even of an emergency. An earlier version of this story misidentified refugee Sayeedul Amin. VOA regrets the error. (c) 2018 VOA https://www.voanews.com/a/relief-agencies-working-to-save-rohingya-refugees-from-mansoon-threats/4351452.html

By M Ilyas Khan Manzoor Pashteen has accused the Pakistani military of promoting militancy (Photo Credit: Alamy) Tens of thousands of Pashtuns are demanding an end to extrajudicial killings and abductions they blame on the Pakistani state - and a charismatic young man has become their spokesman. A compelling, bearded tribesman in his late 20s, Manzoor Pashteen is the unlikely figurehead for protests that have now mushroomed into a wider movement that threatens to upset a precarious balance ahead of general elections. He represents people who say they were brutalised during decades of war in the border areas Pakistan shares with Afghanistan. NGOs say thousands of people have been reported missing in regions such as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and Balochistan. Over the weekend thousands of people attended a rally in Lahore, defying calls from the authorities to boycott the event, and despite officials briefly detaining some leaders of the movement in raids. Thousands turned out at the rally in Lahore, despite official warnings (Image copyright AFP) The Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM, Pashtun Protection Movement) is expressly peaceful, and its demands are within the limits of Pakistani law. But the pressure it has placed on the country's leaders is telling. Even army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa has become involved, calling the protests "engineered", implying they are following a hostile foreign agenda, although they appear spontaneous. 'Terrorists in uniform' Secunder Kermani, BBC News, Lahore "What kind of freedom is this?" the crowd chant. It's the chorus of the anthem of this protest movement, and one that encapsulates the myriad grievances from Pakistan's "war on terror". A common thread is a feeling that Pashtuns have been caught between the militants and the military for years. One man from the Swat Valley tells me how on a single road there would be checkpoints by both the Taliban and the army. If you were clean-shaven the Taliban would accuse you of being pro-government, if you had a beard soldiers accused you of being an extremist. At a stall on the side of the protest, activists are writing the names of young men allegedly in the custody of the intelligence services, but never produced in court. It's one of the most sensitive issues in the country - I'm surrounded by people wanting to tell me what happened to their relatives. Resentment towards the powerful military establishment is expressed most boldly by the slogan, "The ones responsible for terrorism are the ones in uniform". This kind of open challenge is more or less unprecedented in recent times, and seems to be growing. So far there has also been an almost total media blackout of PTM rallies, which attract substantial support. It is a notable contrast to the air time given on Pakistan's increasingly controlled media to small bands of anti-PTM protesters. Those didn't get much traction with the public and are suspected of links with the military. Mr Pashteen comes from Pakistan's mountainous South Waziristan region (Image copyright Getty Images) Manzoor Pashteen speaks Pashto in his native Mehsud dialect. But unlike other young tribesmen he is educated, and can speak Urdu and English with the same ease. He says he never realised he would get such support but he's clear about what needs to change. "People were oppressed. Their life had become intolerable. Curfews and insults by the army soldiers had stripped them of their pride," he told BBC Pashto's Khudai Noor Nasar in March. Since February, he and his supporters have travelled across the Pashtun heartlands, from Quetta to Peshawar, attracting huge crowds and exposing never-ending stories of misery, death and destruction. Tens of thousands of people have taken part in protests ( Image copyright AFP) Many see the PTM as breaking new ground in the political landscape of a country where proxy wars have disenfranchised large populations not only in tribal areas and the north-west, but also in Balochistan, southern Sindh province and the northern areas along the border with China. Mr Pashteen has said his movement won't participate in electoral politics. But even then, one expects them to have a strong off-stage voice when elections are held this summer. Well-known lawyer and columnist Babar Sattar has written that Pashteen's social consciousness may be rooted in his Pashtun identity, "but the questions he is asking are relevant for all of us". The debate triggered by the PTM is about the "coercive relationship between a citizen and the Pakistani state; [about] the character, priorities and actions of our state that are undermining... their rights to life, liberty, dignity and equality". Despite the media blackout the PTM has been successful in getting its message over through social media, with the help of a growing number of activists, mostly from areas seen as marginalised. In fact, Mr Pashteen says social media came to his rescue when he was arrested after protests against the army and its intelligence service, the ISI, last year. "Our house had been surrounded by the army who picked up my father and uncle and detained them at a nearby checkpost," he said in the BBC Pashto interview. "When I went there, they arrested me and put me in a room. They said protests against the army were detrimental to their morale." Soon, news of his arrest reached friends who spread the word, prompting protests in his support. "So they [the military] took me out and brought me to a brigadier who said we are releasing you, but tell your friends to stop their campaign." Manzoor Pashteen was born and raised in South Waziristan, which was the earliest of the Pakistan Taliban sanctuaries in the post-9/11 period. Like many other tribal districts and parts of the north-west, the local population's freedoms and livelihoods were held hostage - either by the army or the militants, who were seen as the military's proxies despite all the denials. Image caption Pashtun protesters say the military is behind large numbers of disappearances (Image copyright AFP) The son of a school teacher, he was lucky to have easy access to education which continued when his family left conflict-ridden South Waziristan in 2010. It was a time when families had to move from their villages and take refuge in faraway towns and cities like Bannu, Peshawar, Lahore and Karachi. For that generation, political awareness was shaped by exposure to life outside Waziristan, and their experience of disempowerment when they moved back to their villages. As one former senator, Afrasiab Khatak, puts it, "the lava accumulated through all these troubles and tribulations was waiting to erupt. It was only a matter of time". That time came when a young man called Naqeebullah from South Waziristan was killed by police in an alleged "staged encounter" in Karachi on 13 January. Police said he was a militant but his family say he was just an aspiring model. Image caption Naqeebullah's death sparked protests in Islamabad (Image copyright BBC Urdu) This provided the spark for a demonstration outside the Islamabad press club in January. At first nobody took much notice, but then numbers began to swell. A shipping container turned up and they made it a stage with a sound system and began making speeches, some extremely critical of the security establishment. After 10 days it had evolved into a wider movement for the "liberation of Pashtun people from the tyranny" of Pakistan's security establishment. People come from far and wide to the rallies, many with pictures of the missing in search of information. (Image copyright AFP) "I only knew the conditions in my own area. But when we heard stories from other areas - from Swat, or Bajaur - we realised that it was the same all over," Manzoor Pashteen says. He relates one incident that led to protests two weeks before his arrest last October. A bomb had killed a soldier in the village of Shamkai in South Waziristan. "The army clamped a curfew in the area, and ordered all people to come out of their homes," he says. "They made the women sit to one side and tortured the men one by one in front them. One epileptic boy died during torture while his mother and father were watching." The BBC put these claims to the military, but received no response. But many say it is still fair to ask if Pashtuns could be partly to blame for allowing their youth to join militancy. It is a question that Manzoor Pashteen dismisses. "The Pakistani state promoted militancy. It used Islam as a motivating factor," he says. "These are not my words. These are the words of Colonel Imam [a former ISI operative] who said he trained 95,000 youth; or the words of then army chief Pervez Musharraf, who said 'we trained them, we brought mujahideen from all over the world, and they were our heroes'. "When it suits them to bomb us, they'll bomb us; when it suits them to send us rations, they'll send us rations; when it suits them to set our people to kill others, they will train them and facilitate them," Manzoor Pashteen says. "Waziristan is their captured territory. It took us tribals 30 years to find out that we fought the Russians not for Islam, but for American money." (c) 2018 BBC http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-43827660

While global attention is fixed on the Rohingya crisis, another ethnic minority is at risk of being crushed by the military. By Libby Hogan 114-year-old Supna Hkawn Bu is carried on her grandson’s back to safety. Photograph: Zau Ring Hpra When Tang Seng heard gunshots close to his village in Myanmar, he had a choice: carry his grandmother away from the fighting on his back or run for help. She asked him to kill her and leave her there but he refused. Tang Seng walked out of his village carrying Supna Hkawn Bu to a makeshift camp for the displaced, where they remain with their family. She has had to flee from conflict five times in her life and didn’t speak for two days when they first arrived. War in Myanmar is synonymous with the Rohingya crisis but Tang Seng and his grandmother are not Rohingya refugees. They are from the country’s north, in the state of Kachin, where another brutal but far less well publicised conflict is playing out between the largely Christian minority group and government militias. The forgotten war For centuries, the Kachin, who number about 1,600,000, lived in relative peace in the northern Myanmar mountains near the border with China. After Myanmar gained independence from the British in 1948, they were promised equality and self determination. However, conflict broke out after the military seized control in 1962 and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) was formed to defend Kachin land. When Aung San Suu Kyi came to power in 2016, it was hoped she would put a stop to the fighting. But, as with the Rohingya crisis to the south, the situation has worsened. Aung San Suu Kyi has called on rebel armed groups to sign a National Ceasefire Agreement – which was brokered between Myanmar’s quasi-civilian government and eight rebel groups in October 2015 – but the KIA is unwilling to lay down arms while the military bombs Kachin villages. Kachin Independence Army (KIA) soldiers walk through Ka Htang Yang village in Kachin state. Photograph: Zau Ring Hpra “What we are seeing in Kachin state over the past few weeks is wholly unacceptable, and must stop immediately,” Yanghee Lee, the UN’s human rights expert for Myanmar, said last week. “Innocent civilians are being killed and injured, and hundreds of families are now fleeing for their lives.” “Today all the ethnic people from our viewpoint are just existing, they are just protecting their land and trying to share [human] rights together,” says Kachin parliamentarian Ja Seng Hkawn Maran. Human rights groups agree. “Myanmar’s peace process is dictated by the Myanmar military at the barrel of a gun. It’s the violent pacification of ethnic nationalities,” says David Baulk, a Myanmar human rights specialist at Fortify Rights. That violent pacification is intensifying in Kachin. Since April, more than 6,800 villagers have been forced to flee mortar and heavy weapon attacks. That number adds to the 130,000 Kachin who have been displaced over the decades. Many are stranded in the jungle or trapped in conflict zones. Meanwhile, aid agencies say they are being blocked from providing food and other vitals supplies to civilians trapped in the forest. Blocking aid agencies is a violation of international humanitarian law. Political analyst and writer Stella Naw says the Kachin war still doesn’t draw international attention despite the well-documented human rights abuses: “It’s a war where civilians are being systematically targeted by members of Burma Army ... [yet] the international community chooses to overlook it.” San Htoi, the joint secretary of Kachin Women’s Association Thailand, echoes Naw. “It is an invisible war.” She points to the recent United Nations security council visit which included only Rakhine state. “They left the country without knowing [about Kachin].” A war over natural resources San Htoi attributes the recent surge in conflict to a military new strategy: erase the KIA or force it to sign the ceasefire agreement. But there is another reason the military wants control of Kachin. The area that Supna Hkawn Bu and her family fled is not just home to villages and rice fields. It is also the location of a wealth of amber mines. Elsewhere in the state, there are lucrative jade mines. A jade trader displays his wares. Kachin State in Myanmar is home to lucrative jade and amber mines. Photograph: The Washington Post/Getty Images San Htoi says the war in Kachin is primarily a war over rich natural resources. The total export figures of illegal jade sales, made without formal taxation and usually smuggled across the border to China’s Yunnan province, is in the billions. Fighting recently erupted in the amber-rich Tanai region in Kachin state and near the jade mines of Hpakant, with both sides jostling for control of these strategic areas, says a senior campaigner for Global Witness, Hanna Hindstrom. Between 50% to 80% of jade is smuggled across the Chinese border, with little going to the government and even less to Kachin communities. Jade sales primarily line the pockets of well-connected cronies, military elites, drug lords, armed groups, and the Chinese, she says. China, an ally of the Myanmar government, has remained silent on the Kachin conflict despite its border being in earshot of the mortar shells dropping. During the fighting, displaced civilians had previously been accepted across the Chinese border, but in 2017 the displaced population was sent back. ‘Like a scene from a horror movie’ On the outskirts of the neutral Kachin city of Myitkyina, are scattered myriad camps for the internally displaced – with shelter ranging from permanent woven bamboo huts to makeshift tarpaulin tents. One camp leader, U Thein Soe from Taagara Tayettaw, is pessimistic about the future of his people. “In my opinion the war will stop when one side totally disappears,” he says. U Thein Soe retells with tired eyes that he was forced to flee his home after hearing fighting close to his village. “At first I didn’t have plans to leave. But all my friends and neighbours started to move. About 80% fled to China and the rest decided to move to Myitkyina. Now my village is like a scene from a horror movie.” With little hope for their future, many young people are turning to drug use. Heroin is widely available in the region and costs about $4 to $5 a hit. Nhkum Tang Goon, Myitkyina secretary for the anti-drug vigilante group Pat Jasan, describes the situation for his people as a “slow genocide”. An ethnic Kachin woman feeds her child in compound of Trinity Baptist church camp for internally displaced people in Myitkyina. Photograph: Min Kyi Thein/AP “The government has a purpose,” he says. “We feel it is … ethnic cleansing.” Instead of deterring dissent, the renewed army assaults on the Kachin have spawned a protest movement. Over the weekend, demonstrations were held in Yangon by youth leaders. Eight people were arrested. “We need to raise our voices and let those in power be reminded that we don’t want war. It is their duty to end it …” said youth leader Thinzar Shunlei Yi. Organiser of Kachin protests in Myitkyina who was also arrested, Seng Htoi, says she feels “so broken” when she sees so many young people displaced and persecuted. “The youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow. The future for the Kachin people is blinded by so much darkness.” (C) 2018 The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/14/slow-genocide-myanmars-invisible-war-on-the-kachin-christian-minority

By Linda Zheng Image Source: (Reuters: Murad Sezer) Genocide Watch is issuing a Genocide Emergency Alert for the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang) of China. For decades, the Chinese government has systematically restricted the religious, cultural, and social practices of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in Xinjiang. Xinjiang is a region located in the northwest of the People’s Republic of China. Xinjiang is home to several ethnic minorities including Turkic Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and Kyrgyzs. In recent decades, the migration of Han Chinese into the region and religious persecution of Uyghurs has led to growing discontent and support for separatist movements. In July 2009, after a series of riots in Ürümqi led to the deaths of 197, mostly Han Chinese residents, China launched the “Strike Hard Against Violent Terrorism” campaign. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) policy of “ preventive repression ” of religious extremism and separatism has transformed Xinjiang into a mass surveillance state. The CCP is using high-tech surveillance in Xinjiang to monitor and detain Uyghurs and other Muslims. To maintain social control over Uyghurs, thousands of security personnel have been deployed to Xinjiang and numerous checkpoints have been set up in the region. Authorities in Xinjiang are collecting biometric data on Uyghur residents including fingerprints, iris scans, and DNA from forced blood extraction. A mass surveillance database is being used to track the personal records and GPS coordinates of millions of Xinjiang residents. Chinese authorities claim the surveillance will identify potential “terrorists.” Over one million Uyghurs and Muslims have been arbitrarily imprisoned in 1,300 “re-education camps,” state run detention centers. At the internment camps, detainees undergo political indoctrination and are forced to renounce their Uyghur cultural and Muslim religious beliefs. Uyghurs are required to learn Mandarin and to recite and sing songs praising the CCP. Praying or using Muslim greetings is forbidden and detainees are forced to eat pork and drink alcohol, practices that are strictly forbidden in Islam. Those who fail to comply are tortured, raped, or killed. Chinese authorities maintain that these detention centers are “vocational education centers” designed to support unemployed Uyghurs. In fact, they are prisons. Since 2017, efforts to control Uyghur women have increased with the expansion of home stay programs that assign Han Chinese spies to live with Uyghur families. The Chinese government is reducing Uyghur birth rates by forcing Uyghur women to get abortions, undergo sterilization, and implant IUDs. Birth rates have dropped more than 60% in Uyghur regions of Xinjiang. According to Article II (d) of the 1948 UN Genocide Convention , “imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group” is an act of genocide. Half a million Uyghur and Muslim children have been taken from their homes to state orphanages where they undergo political indoctrination. The forcible transfer of children from one group to another is also an act of genocide. Genocide Watch considers the forced sterilizations and forcible transfer of children of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in Xinjiang to be acts of genocide. Xinjiang, China is at Stage 9: Extermination . · The U.S. Senate should pass the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act to prevent the importation of goods made by Uyghur forced labor in Xinjiang. · The U.S. should continue targeted Magnitsky sanctions against Chinese officials responsible for severe violations of Uyghur Muslim religious freedom. · The United Nations Human Rights Council should appoint an Independent International Fact-Finding Mission to investigate genocide and crimes against humanity that target the Uyghur ethnic and religious group in Xinjiang, China.

By Mausi Segun Published by HRW on November 30, 2020. Refugee camp in Tanzania. ( Aaron Amy Tate/Flickr) Évariste Ndayishimiye ’s first foreign visit as the president of Burundi was nothing if not symbolic. He chose Kigoma, a town in northwestern Tanzania near which about 154,000 Burundian nationals continue to seek protection from the previous administration’s abuses. Many Burundians in the area probably eyed the visit, during which Ndayishimiye and Tanzanian President John Magufuli agreed to strengthen relations, as a sign that the dangers they face in Tanzania could increase. These dangers are all too real. Since October 2019, Human Rights Watch has documented how Tanzanian police and intelligence agents, in some cases collaborating with Burundian authorities, arbitrarily arrested, forcibly disappeared, tortured, and extorted Burundian refugees and asylum seekers, and forcibly returned at least eight to Burundi. Most cases followed a similar pattern: Tanzanian police entered refugee camps in Kigoma region in the middle of the night and took people away. In some cases, Burundians disappeared without a trace. The abuse is not only shocking in its brutality: it exposes that Tanzanian police and intelligence are working with Burundian authorities to target people the Tanzanian government is bound by international law to protect. The most egregious case was of a group of eight Burundian refugees and asylum seekers, who were detained at a Tanzanian police station in Kibondo for several weeks in July 2020. There, Tanzanian police and intelligence officers held them in abysmal conditions, allegedly torturing them and attempting to extort them, before handing them over to Burundian intelligence. “They used bike spokes to pierce our genitals, and rubbed chili on them,” a 35-year-old Burundian told us. “They said they were going to kill us.” When given the “choice” between remaining in detention in Tanzania or being handed over to Burundian authorities, he said he begged to return to Burundi. After the group’s forced return, Burundian authorities took them to Muramvya and Bubanza prisons where they remain at the time of writing. Their family members at least know where they are. In other cases, Burundians who went missing from the refugee camps in similar circumstances have vanished. Some who were tortured at the Kibondo police station said that Tanzanian police and intelligence officers told them that Burundian authorities had passed on information about them. One man said that the Tanzanian intelligence agents knew all about his past. “I feel like I’ve already died, I have nothing to lose,” he said. “They said that if the government of Burundi needs me, they will come find me.” Tanzania and Burundi have historically had a close relationship — former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere led the peace negotiations that led to the 2000 Arusha Accords, which established ethnic power-sharing and helped end years of conflict in Burundi that left an estimated 300 000 dead. But a protracted crisis in Burundi since 2015 has sent hundreds of thousands of Burundians fleeing to Tanzania. Now pressure has been mounting on them to return home. Between 2017 and 2020 , almost 100,000 Burundians left Tanzania under a tripartite agreement among Burundi, Tanzania, and the United Nations refugee agency. In August 2019, Tanzania and Burundi signed a separate agreement , saying all refugees were to return to their country of origin “whether voluntarily or not” by the end of that year. In December 2019, we found that the fear of violence, arrest and deportation was driving many Burundian refugees and asylum seekers in Tanzania out of the country. The abuses documented in our latest report go far beyond threats and harassment, demonstrating that Tanzanian authorities have committed arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, torture, and refoulement — the return of refugees and asylum seekers to places where their lives or freedom would be threatened. These are grave violations of the internationally protected right to seek asylum. In Burundi, serious human rights violations against real or perceived opposition supporters, including returning refugees, put them at risk. The UN Commission of Inquiry on Burundi reported in September that some returnees continued to face hostility from local officials and the governing party’s youth wing, the Imbonerakure, and that some have been forced to go back into exile. A clear commitment to uphold international law by Tanzanian authorities would provide vulnerable groups and Tanzanians, with additional protection. Ratifying the UN Convention against Torture would be an important first step. Tanzanian authorities should stop arbitrarily arresting and unlawfully sending back Burundians. Tanzania’s regional and international partners, including the East African Community, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the African Union should publicly urge Tanzania to investigate these abuses and to stop forcibly returning asylum seekers or refugees to Burundi. © 2020 Human Rights Watch

Thirty-one year old was sentenced in December on charges denounced as politically motivated By Martin Chulov The Saudi women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul. Photograph: Reuters The prominent Saudi dissident and women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul has been released from prison after 1,001 days in custody. Following a concerted campaign by her relatives and global rights groups, Hathloul was granted probation by a judge in Riyadh and released to her family on Wednesday afternoon. Her sister Lina published a photo of a smiling Loujain on Twitter early evening Riyadh time - the first image of the most celebrated political prisoner in the Kingdom since she was detained almost three years ago. “Loujain is at home !!!!!!”, the accompanying message said. Another sister, Alia, said in a separate post that Hathloul was at their parents’ home in Saudi Arabia , adding “this is the best day of my life”. It is understood that the terms of Hathloul’s probation prevent her from discussing her ordeal in prison. She is banned from leaving Saudi Arabia, and has a suspended sentence looming if she breaks the terms of her release. Hathloul had been a leading campaigner for women’s right to drive in Saudi Arabia before a change in the law in late 2017. Calls for her release by her family had been repeatedly championed by human rights groups and foreign governments. However, as late as December last year she was sentenced to five years and eight months behind bars and accused of pushing a foreign agenda and using the internet to harm public order. The sentence dashed hopes of an imminent release and intensified criticism of the heir to the Saudi throne, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has been the driving force behind widespread social changes in the Kingdom as well as a ruthless crackdown on dissent . Hathloul launched hunger strikes to protest against her imprisonment and joined other female activists in telling Saudi judges that she was tortured and sexually assaulted by masked men during interrogations. The women say they were caned, electrocuted and waterboarded. Some say they were forcibly groped and threatened with rape. Hathloul’s parents said they noticed bruising when they visited her in prison. An appeals court on Tuesday had rejected her claims of torture, her family said. Hathloul became a cause célèbre for leading Democrats in the US during her imprisonment and her case had been championed by Joe Biden during his presidential election campaign. The release of the activist is thought to at least in part be connected to Biden’s election win. Unlike his predecessor Donald Trump, who fully embraced Prince Mohammed and showed no interest in the Kingdom’s human rights controversies, Biden has been noticeably cooler towards Riyadh and has vowed to reassess the US-Saudi partnership and stand up for human rights and democratic principles. Saudi Arabia’s rights record came under intense global scrutiny after the 2018 murder of prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of Saudi agents. A damning UN report found that there was “credible evidence” that Prince Mohammed and other senior officials were liable for the killing of the Washington Post columnist – a charge the crown prince denies. “Loujain’s years-long imprisonment has ended, but she is not free,” said Adam Google, the deputy director for the Middle East at Human Rights Watch. “Banned from travel and coerced into silence by a suspended sentence hanging over her, Loujain’s ordeal remains a flagrant miscarriage of justice.” Lucy Rae, a spokeswoman for Grant Liberty, which campaigns for the rights of prisoners in Saudi Arabia, said: “Loujain al-Hathloul leaves prison a hero – brutalised by the regime, but not broken. Her courage is an inspiration to us all. But she is not alone – the international community must not make the mistake of assuming that her release signals the end of the oppression of women human rights defenders in Saudi Arabia. “The international community must not relent. It’s not just Loujain – there are many other women in prison today because they fought for human rights in Saudi Arabia. They must be freed, unconditionally. Nothing else will do.” Several other female activists remain locked up in Saudi Arabia after falling foul of a political crackdown that surrounded the granting of the right to drive. Senior Saudi officials at the time feared that public campaigns by prominent women had created the impression that the law change had been the result of activist pressure, rather than an initiative by the Kingdom’s rulers. “It started out as being a slap on the wrist, but it dragged out like this because both sides became indignant,” said one senior royal familiar with government thinking. “It became damaging and they have been looking for a way out for some time.” A senior European ambassador told the Guardian that Hathloul’s release had been close more than a year ago, however her lawyers had not been prepared to sign a non-disclosure agreement that would have prevented her from detailing her ordeal. Late last year, Lina al-Hathloul told the Guardian of her jailed sister: “It’s crazy how strong and resilient she is. After two-and-a-half years she doesn’t give up anything, she wants real justice. She still has strength to tell my parents everything, even though she knows could face backlash [from authorities] over that. “It’s always very stressful for us when she doesn’t call, because our only experience [of communications being cut] is when she is being tortured or on hunger strike.” © 2021 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies

By Lisa Schlein FILE - Residents walk past Adi Harush Refugee camp in Mai Tsberi town in Tigray Region, Ethiopia, June 26, 2021. The UN refugee agency warns about 24,000 Eritrean refugees trapped in two camps in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray province are in great danger as fighting among armed groups escalates. Concerns are growing for the safety and wellbeing of thousands of Eritrean refugees in Mai Aini and Adi Harush camps as fighting intensifies in Tigray’s Mai Tsebri area. The UN refugee agency reports aid agencies have been unable to access the camps since July 14. It says conditions for the refugees have become increasingly dire and worrisome since then. UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch says members of armed groups have infiltrated the camps. He says the Eritreans are living in constant fear. He says they are facing intimidation and harassment and are cut off from humanitarian assistance. "We have received disturbing and credible reports in recent days from Mai Aini camp that at least one refugee was killed by armed elements operating inside the camp," Baloch said. "The latest death is in addition to the killing of another refugee on 14 July." Baloch says he does not know which of the armed groups is responsible for the killings. However, his agency, he says, has received credible reports that people with guns are operating inside the two refugee camps. He says the UNHCR has been appealing to the local authorities and the Ethiopian refugee agency to provide safety for the refugees and to grant aid agencies access to the camps. He notes the Eritrean refugees have been without humanitarian assistance for the last two weeks. "Trapped refugees need urgent life-saving assistance," Baloch said. "Clean drinking water is running out, no healthcare services are available, and hunger is a real danger. The last food distribution to both refugee camps was done in late June, which provided them rations for just one month. Baloch says recent armed clashes in Afar region to the east of Tigray have displaced thousands of people, among them about 55,000 Eritrean refugees. He says concerns for their safety also are growing as armed confrontations are taking place near where the refugees live. © Voice of America

A day after a magnitude-7.2 earthquake killed an estimated 1,300 people in western Haiti, the country, already suffering from a dire lack of doctors, struggled to help the many wounded. By Maria Abi-Habib A wounded woman in Les Cayes, Haiti, being carried to a plane to be airlifted to Port-au-Prince on Sunday. Credit Valerie Baeriswyl for The New York Times LES CAYES, Haiti — With broken bones and open wounds, the injured jammed into damaged hospitals or headed to the airport, hoping for mercy flights out. A handful of doctors toiled all night in makeshift triage wards. A retired senator used his seven-seat propeller plane to ferry the most urgent patients to emergency care in the capital. A day after a magnitude-7.2 earthquake killed at least 1,300 people and injured thousands in western Haiti, the main airport of the city of Les Cayes was overwhelmed Sunday with people trying to evacuate their loved ones to Port-au-Prince, the capital, about 80 miles to the east. There wasn’t much choice. With just a few dozen doctors available in a region that is home to one million people, the quake aftermath was turning increasingly dire. “I’m the only surgeon over there,” said Dr. Edward Destine, an orthopedic surgeon, waving toward a temporary operating room of corrugated tin set up near the airport in Les Cayes. “I would like to operate on 10 people today, but I just don’t have the supplies,” he said, listing an urgent need for intravenous drips and even the most basic antibiotics. The earthquake was the latest calamity to convulse Haiti, which is still living with the aftereffects of a 2010 quake that killed an estimated quarter-million people. Saturday’s quake came about five weeks after the Haitian president, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated , leaving a leadership vacuum in a country already grappling with severe poverty and rampant gang violence. The authorities in Haiti were scrambling to coordinate their response to the quake, mindful of the confusion that followed the one in 2010, when delays in distributing aid to hundreds of thousands of people worsened the death toll. Buildings in Camp-Perrin, Haiti, that were damaged in Saturday’s earthquake. Credit Valerie Baeriswyl for The New York Times Prime Minister Ariel Henry promised Sunday at a news conference “to give a more appropriate response than the one we gave in 2010,” with a single operation center in Port-au-Prince to coordinate the aid efforts. Dr. Paul Farmer , co-founder of the relief agency Partners in Health, which oversees several hospitals in Haiti, said the country’s ability to respond to an earthquake — with new emergency medical services and training programs — had greatly improved in the intervening years. “The things we had at our disposal in 2010 versus now are night and day,” Dr. Farmer said. But he acknowledged that Haiti still faced what he called “old problems” like bad roads, poor transportation and political volatility, fueled by gang violence, which could make managing the disaster all the more difficult. Among the organizations extending help over the weekend were the United States Agency for International Development, which sent a search-and-rescue team, and the U.S. Coast Guard, which said it had deployed helicopters to provide humanitarian aid. The Pan American Health Organization sent experts to coordinate medical support , and UNICEF was distributing medical supplies to hospitals in the south and helping with water and sanitation. The quake — more powerful than the one 11 years ago — triggered widespread landslides, with rocks and other debris blocking many roads, making it hard to reach the injured and needy. The road from Les Cayes, on the coast, to the Marceline district about 16 miles away in mountains overlooking the city, was cracked down the center, with boulders and tree branches blocking it. Families in the area were sleeping in the open, their homes severely damaged or completely destroyed. Others were too nervous about the aftershocks ripping through the region to feel comfortable taking shelter under a roof. Boulders along the road from Les Cayes to Camp-Perrin on Sunday. Credit Valerie Baeriswyl for The New York Times In Marceline on Sunday, Honore Faiyther had just discovered his aunt’s body among the remaining pews of St. Agnes church when an aftershock jolted the town, rattling corrugated tin roofs that had collapsed and were strewn across the ground. Mr. Faiyther closed his eyes and waited for the trembling to pass as he sat on a slab of concrete that had been part of the church wall. Just steps away, the body of his aunt, Ilda Pierre, lay on a metal grate, covered by a white sheet. Ms. Pierre had been cleaning the church with a friend when the quake struck. “My aunt has four children, and she’s very active in our community and volunteered in this church for five years,” Mr. Faiyther said. “Her husband is in denial. He cannot face that she is dead.” The Rev. Jean Edy Desravines said he had been preparing a sermon for Sunday “to inspire parents to send their children back to school next month, to have them rejoin our community after such a tough year,” referring to the pandemic. “Now there is no school to even send them to,” the priest said, explaining that the primary school his church runs had also been flattened. “In a small town like this, the church is all we have,” he said. Shifted ground in Marceline, Haiti, showed the temblor’s impact in the country’s west. Credit Valerie Baeriswyl for The New York Times The mayor of Marceline, Fenicile Marssius, dropping by to check on the priest, said her own home had been destroyed. “We have had no assistance from the government,” Ms. Marssius said. “Maybe they have so much to do in the cities that they cannot reach us in these remote areas.” In the town of Mazenod, outside Les Cayes, people watched as volunteers tried to extract two women from the rubble of a collapsed church guesthouse, the metallic crush of a bulldozer heaping the debris aside as men used their bare hands to move concrete slabs. Nearly the entire complex of the Chapel of St. Eugene of Mazenod was destroyed, including the seminary and secondary schools the church runs. “I don’t think there’s any hope,” said Melchirode Walter, 31, whose sister, Solange Walter, 26, was trapped. “We have been calling her name since yesterday and knocking on the concrete, but there is nothing.” The Rev. Corneille Fortuna, who helps run the complex, said he narrowly survived when his residence on the property caved in. He was trapped by bricks blocking the entrance until friends were able to pull him out. “Haiti is a country where every disaster is possible,” Father Fortuna said. “And there is never any help.” Officials in Les Cayes estimated that only 30 doctors served the entire western region. They are now confronting the overwhelming prospect of treating thousands of grievous injuries from caved-in buildings. All the main hospitals are damaged; doctors worked overnight to erect the temporary operating room near the airport in Les Cayes because local hospitals were in such bad condition. A damaged church in Camp-Perrin on Sunday. Valerie Baeriswyl for The New York Times At the General Hospital of Les Cayes, two surgeons operated on eight people with dwindling supplies on Sunday but were forced to turn most away. After their procedures, the patients were wheeled in their beds in the baking Caribbean sun to the parking lot, which has become an outpatient center. Dr. James Pierre, one of the surgeons, had just finished operating on a 5-year-old girl with abdominal trauma who had been crushed by a wall of her home as she played in the yard. “We can only do simple surgeries here, we have nothing to work with,” Dr. Pierre said as he watched the girl’s chest labor with every breath under a blanket in the open air. Medical files, stacked two feet high atop a metal table, lay adjacent to an open tap where the patients and their families and friends washed. Chickens ran in between the injured. At the airport, Herve Foucand, a former senator from the region of Les Cayes, was using his small propeller plane over the weekend as a flying ambulance, taking the most needy to Haiti’s capital, a 45-minute flight. He said he had evacuated 50 people since Saturday. “The hospitals are broken inside,” he said. “I have 30 people in serious condition waiting for me,” Mr. Foucand added. “But I only have seven seats.” Palmera Claudius, 30, lay in the bed of a truck her relatives had hired to take her to the airport, the entire left part of her face swollen. She had been home in Camp-Perrin, on the outskirts of Les Cayes, when she felt her whole house jolt. As she tried to run outside, a wall collapsed on her. Like many others headed to the airport, she was hoping for a free flight to the capital, since her family could not afford a ticket. Ms. Claudius said that she could not feel her legs and that the clinic in her town did not have the capacity to take an X-ray to determine what was wrong. Taking a break from tending to the injured, Dr. Destine, the orthopedic surgeon, was trying to get his own father, also a surgeon, to the United States for treatment. His father suffered major head trauma from a fallen roof, he said. Dr. Destine said he expected thousands of people to get potentially deadly infections unless proper supplies were delivered in time. The prospect of malnutrition, too, was likely to exacerbate the natural disaster for an already impoverished and hungry population, he said. “We can’t even do lab tests,” he added.

By Margaret Besheer FILE - Displaced Yemeni children are pictured at a makeshift camp for people who fled fighting between Houthi rebels and the Saudi-backed government forces, near the conflict zone in Yemen's western province of Hodeida, on August 21, 2021. The United Nations warned Monday that Yemen is no closer to peacefully resolving its civil war, as the country spirals faster toward famine and other catastrophes. "There is perhaps one overarching humanitarian priority and that is to stop the famine," said Martin Griffiths, who was until last month the U.N.'s Yemen envoy but is now the organization's new humanitarian chief. "Today about 5 million people are just one step away from succumbing to famine and the diseases that go with it. Ten million more are right behind them." Griffiths said the famine is a symptom of the country's deeper collapse. "In many ways, it is all of Yemen's problems rolled into one and it demands a comprehensive response," he said. More than six years of war have pushed the Middle East's poorest country to the brink. While food is available in the country's markets, people can no longer afford it. FILE - People wait to refill their gas cylinders amid increasing shortages in Yemen's third city of Taez, July 31, 2021. The currency is in freefall, the GDP is down 40% since the war started in 2015, and fuel shortages have become critical. Even cooking gas for stoves is in short supply, with customers waiting a month to have their gas cylinders refilled. Civil servants only receive their salaries sporadically, meaning millions of people have no income to purchase food or other basic services. A U.N. humanitarian appeal for nearly $4 billion is only about half funded. The U.N. children's agency says the situation of children is particularly dire. "In Yemen, one child dies every 10 minutes from preventable causes, including malnutrition and vaccine-preventable diseases," said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. UNICEF estimates that nearly 21 million Yemenis are in need of humanitarian assistance to survive. Half of them are children, of whom 2.3 million are acutely malnourished. Nearly 400,000 children younger than 5 suffer from severe acute malnutrition and are at imminent risk of death. "Being a child in Yemen is the stuff of nightmares," Fore said. FILE - Women sit next to malnourished children lying on beds at a malnutrition treatment center in Yemen's war-ravaged western province of Hodeida, August 18, 2021. Political talks Meanwhile, progress on political talks has stalled between the Saudi-backed government of President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi and the Iranian-supported Houthi rebels. The U.N. is trying to broker a nationwide cease-fire, reopen Sana'a airport and ease restrictions on the flow of fuel and other imports through Hodeida port and get direct talks going again. Earlier this month, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed Hans Grundberg, a career diplomat from Sweden, to be his new Yemen envoy. A veteran diplomat, Grundberg has represented the European Union as its ambassador to Yemen since 2019. He will take up his new post in early September. "The new special envoy presents us with a real opportunity," U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said of Grundberg's appointment. "We all agree that the fighting must end. And we all agree that a political path to peace, one with meaningful participation by women, minority leaders, and civil society, must be pursued," she said. "Let us seize this moment. Because time is precious, and lives are being lost." © VOA News

By Margaux Dandrifosse A man rides past fire following a protest in N'Djamena, Chad, Tuesday, April 27, 2021. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba) On April 20, 2021, Chadian President, Idriss Déby Itno, died in battle after ruling for 31 years. Déby left behind a legacy of violence, ethnic polarization and abuses, including genocidal massacres against southerners during the 1990s. His Zaghawa ethnic group has occupied the country’s positions of power since 1990. In the south, the division between northern Muslims and southern Christians and animists has increasingly resulted in ethnic conflict. Historically oppressed and excluded southerners express mounting grievances against the Muslim government and repression by its security forces. Following Déby’s death, the country entered a transitional period under Déby’s son, Mahamat Idriss Déby, under a self-declared military government. In April and May, protesters took to the streets of N’Djamena and Moundou to demand a civilian government and a democratic transition. Security forces violently suppressed protesters, killing several civilians and arresting and torturing hundreds of others. Over the last two years, territorial conflicts along ethnic lines have intensified in eastern and southern Chad. Between January and April 2021, conflicts between Arab herders migrating from the north and local farmers resulted in over 130 deaths in the southern Salamat Province. Clashes between farmers of the Ouaddai and Sila regions and northern Arab and Zaghawa herders killed hundreds . The herders looted and burned villages, and destroyed cultural sites and property. The government deployed security forces and launched disarmament efforts against farmers. Locals have reported widespread abuses and rights violations by these troops. Farmers resent discrimination by state authorities and the impunity of herders , who largely belong to the politically dominant Zaghawa minority. Government officials and security forces are often from herder groups, increasing ethnic polarization. Former President Déby exploited ethnic cleavages to weaken and divide rebel groups in eastern Chad. Boko Haram and The Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) have targeted civilian populations in the Lake Chad basin. They launched over 15 terrorist attacks between 2019 and 2020, killing and kidnapping dozens of civilians and destroying villages. The Lake Chad basin had an increase in internally displaced persons from 180,000 in 2020 to over 400,000 in 2021. The Chadian army's anti-terrorist operations have included rape, torture, and extra-judicial killings against local populations. Genocide Watch considers Chad to be at Stage 5: Organization . Opposing ethnic groups in the Ouaddai, Sila and Salamat regions are organizing ethnic militias .Herder-farmer conflicts in Nigeria and Darfur have spilled over into Chad. Genocide Watch also considers Chad to be at Stage 6: Polarization. Genocide Watch recommends : · Government officials should establish a registry of farmland rights with corridors for herders. · The Chadian government should involve the UN and NGOs in disarmament and demobilization. · The Chadian government should appoint officials from all ethnic communities, and with NGOs it should support initiatives to build trust between communities. · The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights should appoint an independent fact-finding team to investigate abuses by Chadian security forces during anti-terrorist operations in the Lake Chad Basin and in repression of popular protests. · The United States and European Union should impose Global Magnitsky sanctions on officials of the Chadian government who commit crimes against humanity.

Genocide Watch is issuing a Genocide Emergency Alert for the Central African Republic (CAR). By Margaux Dandrifosse Central African refugee camp in Ndu on the border in the DRC - ALEXIS HUGUET - AFP via Getty Images Before the runoff Presidential elections of December 2020, ex-Séléka and anti-Balaka militias formed an alliance, the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC) led by former President Bozizé, who ruled CAR from 2003 until 2013. Since then, fighting has surged between the CPC, which occupies two-thirds of the country, and the national army under President Faustin-Archange Touadéra. The army is reinforced by mercenaries from the Russian Wagner Group. All sides are now committing grave human rights abuses against civilians, with increased targeting of Muslim communities. In January 2021, the U.N. Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) pushed back a series of offensives launched on Bangui by CPC rebels. The insurgent groups blockaded the capital, stopping humanitarian aid and using food deprivation as a weapon of war . The CPC is responsible for many war crimes, which include use of sexual violence as a weapon of war . National security forces and allied Russian mercenaries are also committing war crimes according to the U.N., including looting, disappearances, indiscriminate killing, torture, and rape. On 15 February, national forces and Russian mercenaries attacked a Mosque in Bambari, and killed 17 people, including at least 6 civilians . Human rights violations increased more than 25 percent in 2021, with increased targeting by all sides of Muslim communities, particularly the Fulani ethnic group . The U.N. says that cases of sexual violence are five times higher in 2021 than in 2020. Ethnic hate speech is inciting hate crimes and massacres. Médecins Sans Frontiéres (MSF) says that more than one-third of the population in CAR, 1.3 million people, is displaced, including a high number from the Fulani minority . This number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) has not been seen since the 2013 civil war. Close to 700,000 people are IDPs. Approximately the same number have fled to neighboring countries. Armed groups frequently attack IDP camps . Since January 2021, attacks targeting aid workers , humanitarian convoys, and health facilities have surged, from 190 assaults in 2020 to 267 in the same period in 2021, resulting in deaths and dozens of centers destroyed. The rampant insecurity, exacerbated by the increasing use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and the targeting of MINUSCA peacekeepers , has impeded humanitarian aid and medical care. These attacks forced several organizations, including Médecins Sans Frontières, to halt their activities despite the fact that more than half of the population is dependent on humanitarian assistance. Genocide Watch considers the CAR to be at Stage 7: Preparation and Stage 8: Persecution . Genocide Watch recommends: France, the African Union (AU), and the United States should offer stronger military, financial, and material assistance to President Touadéra’s government. The CAR government should expel all Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group. France, the U.N., and AU should pressure the Central African government to investigate and stop war crimes committed by state security forces and Russian mercenaries. President Touadéra should negotiate with CPC rebels to halt their attacks on aid workers and health facilities. President Touadéra, along with churches, and Muslim leaders, should campaign to stop hate speech. The U.N. should increase the troops and equipment of MINUSCA to protect civilians and stop abuses by CAR security forces, Russian mercenaries, and ex-Séléka and anti-Balaka militias. Because the CAR is a state party to the International Criminal Court, leaders of forces responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the CAR should be arrested, charged, and tried by the ICC.