Zarni Analysis of the military in Burma ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 maungzarni

By Edith M. Lederer U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrives at Haneda international airport in Tokyo, as the first stop of his tour to Asia, Wednesday, March 15, 2017. (Toru Hanai/Pool Photo via AP) UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says the United States will not continue participating in the Human Rights Council unless the U.N. rights agency undergoes "considerable reform." He gave no time frame for reforms to take place, saying in a letter to eight non-governmental organizations obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press that the U.S. will continue to participate in the council's current session in Geneva. The eight organizations, which focus on human rights and support for the United Nations, wrote to Tillerson asking the United States to maintain its engagement with the rights council. He urged them to encourage reforms in the council, saying that "would be most helpful." The secretary of state's letter was first reported by Foreign Policy magazine. The United States has long complained that the Geneva-based Human Rights Council unduly focuses on Israel and includes member countries with poor rights records. The United Nations and human rights groups said it would be a mistake for the U.S. to leave the council. "The United States is an integral part of the Human Rights Council," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Wednesday. "It's important that every country participate in its work." Felice Gaer, director of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, a signatory, told the Associated Press: "Secretary Tillerson should appreciate that walking away will not 'delegitimize' the council's bad decisions; rather, it will give the foxes free reign in the henhouse as America retreats from the fight to defend our values on the world stage." And Kenneth Roth, the head of Human Rights Watch which didn't sign the letter, told AP: "If the Trump administration is genuinely committed to human rights rather than just making a political statement on behalf of Israel, it would have the courage to stay and fight rather than flee in a cowardly retreat." Responding to questions about U.S. intentions, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Wednesday "I'm not predicting we're going to walk away from the council." But he acknowledged the U.S. would be working "to urge greater accountability and greater transparency." In a Feb. 9 letter to Tillerson, the eight organizations said that since the United States began participating in the rights body in 2009 "it has been instrumental in making the council a more effective body." They pointed to the council's shift from disproportionate attention to Israel and inadequate attention to some of the worst human rights violations and violators to its "spotlight on rogue regimes and terrorists" and its commissioning of independent investigations that have exposed "serious human rights abuses" by North Korea, Iran, Syria, the Islamic State extremist group and Boko Haram. The proportion of council resolutions and special sessions devoted to Israel has "significantly declined," the organizations said. The United States served two consecutive terms on the Human Rights Council from 2009-2015, took a mandatory year off, and was elected to a three-year term in October 2016. In that election, Russia was defeated for a seat on the 47-member body. But its members include many countries with poor rights records including Burundi, Congo, Cuba, Venezuela, China and Saudi Arabia. The organizations said that however "imperfect" the council is, "this is a critical time for the United States to continue its participation and funding, while redoubling efforts to strengthen the council's performance." "Disengagement from the council would leave a vacuum," their letter said, "and states that do not share our nation's interests and values would fill it, resulting in less condemnation of the world's worst human rights abusers, more action directed against Israel, and more repressive governments gaining membership in the council." It stressed that "none of these outcomes serves America's interests." In his March 8 letter of reply, Tillerson said "we continue to evaluate the effectiveness of the U.N. Human Rights Council." "We may not share a common view on this, given the make-up of the membership," he said. "While it may be the only such organization devoted to human rights, the Human Rights Council requires considerable reform in order for us to continue to participate." But Tillerson said the United States will pursue its "priority objectives" in the current session — renewing the Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria and mandates for special investigators on Iran, North Korea, Myanmar, torture and freedom of expression. It will also seek to renew the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, ensure continued U.N. assistance to promote accountability in Sri Lanka for crimes during its civil war, promote freedom of belief and combat religious intolerance, and oppose the council's "biased agenda" on Israel, he said. The seven other organizations that sent the letter were the Better World Campaign, Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, Freedom House, Freedom Now, Human Rights First, Human Rights Campaign and the United Nations Association of the United States of America. ___ Associated Press writer Josh Lederman contributed to this report from Washington. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Associated Press

By Arman Tarjimanyan Bahzad Farhan Murad points to a list of missing and killed Yazidis to The Associated Press in the small office where he collects evidence on Islamic State crimes against Yazidis, in Dohuk, Iraq, May 22, 2016. He hopes his detailed files of over 2,400 victims can assist a future criminal prosecution for IS’s massacre of Yazidi men and enslavement of women.(AP) WASHINGTON — A Christian activist group called on the Trump administration Thursday to grant Yazidis and Christians fleeing Islamic State-held territories special designation as victims of genocide and allow them to enter the United States. “All of these Yazidis, all of these Christians, all of these Armenian people that are fleeing genocide should be given priority entry in the United States,” said Philippe Nassif, executive director of In Defense of Christians (IDC), a Washington-based nonprofit group. “Not because we favor them more,” he said, “but because they are at risk of being wiped out completely.” Nassif, his supporters and members of a broader anti-genocide coalition issued their call in person, descending on the U.S. Capitol to mark the first anniversary of the United States’ official recognition of acts of genocide by Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. One year ago, then-Secretary of State John Kerry declared Islamic State ideologically, actively genocidal in its treatment of Yazidis, Christians and Shia Muslims. The statement came shortly after the House of Representatives voted 393-0, recognizing acts of genocide. Yazidi children held in Syria According to genocide survivors, official recognition and military operations against Islamic State are the first steps in a much longer process. “About 1,000 Yazidi kids are still being held by ISIS,” Yazidi genocide survivor Nadia Murad told VOA’s Armenian service, using an acronym for the Islamic State, which is also known as IS, ISIL and Daesh. “Most of them are in Syria, and they have been trained and brainwashed to commit suicide,” she added. “These kids will be used to blow themselves up in the future if they have not been saved.” Representative Anna Eshoo, a California Democrat who supports the IDC’s work, stressed the importance of continuous efforts. “We can’t take our foot off the pedal,” she said. “We have to stay on it because, listening to Nadia, it reminds us that we still have a great deal of work to do.” Displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community cross the Syria-Iraq border in northern Iraq. A U.N. panel says the Islamic State is committing genocide, crimes against humanity and other war crimes against the Yazidi community in Iraq and Syria, Aug. 10, 2014 'Safe zones' will help And it's not only hosting refugees but also securing territories for them in Syria and Iraq. “Safe zones” proposed by President Donald Trump will help, said Representative Jeff Fortenberry, a Nebraska Republican. “Once these areas are resecuritized, people can potentially return home and potentially have expanded rights and their own governments,” he said. U.S. lawmakers stressed that American responses to atrocities, and efforts to stop them, are what history will record. The IDC on Thursday issued an open letter to Trump urging him to ensure the survival of vulnerable ethnic communities on the ground in Iraq and Syria. This report was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Armenian service. (c) Voice of America 2017

By Duncan Tucker Young boys and elders head to the Mezcala hills to talk about the importance of their heritage and resisting displacement. Photograph: Duncan Tucker for the Guardian Machetes in hand, the indigenous Cocas are climbing the steep scrubby hills that overlook their territory. Young boys climb alongside elders while a trusty donkey carries their camping equipment. Other groups man outposts beside the entrances to Mezcala, the lakeside town their forefathers founded in the late 13th century, over 200 years before the Spanish arrived in Mexico. They’re heading out on a unique voyage - bringing the community together to discuss their tactics against displacement. The men and boys will spend the night huddled around ceremonial bonfires, telling stories about their heritage, before descending upon the sacred Isle of Mezcala the next morning to discuss with a larger group how to defend their land and way of life. Based in the western state of Jalisco, the Cocas go back more than 700 years and have had to fight off waves of invaders over the centuries. The latest threat to their land? A wave of American retirees heading south - pretty ironic, given President Donald Trump’s demonisation of Mexican immigrants. Thousands of American and Canadian retirees have settled in the neighbouring towns on Chapala and Ajijic in recent decades to take advantage of the cheap living costs, year-round sunshine and stunning views of Mexico’s biggest lake. “We’ve always had invasions by people who want to take control of our land,” says Manuel Jacobo, a 30-year-old Coca activist Photograph: Duncan Tucker for the Guardian Now known as the “Chapala Riviera”, the area is brimming with boutique hotels and gated communities. Foreigners are driving the growth, having spent more than twice as much as locals on housing and tourism in 2015. An estimated 7,000 expats live there all year round, with up to 10,000 “snowbirds” joining them each winter. Expat community leaders say their population could double within five years. Property developers have long coveted nearby Mezcala, the home of 5,000 Coca people. With poorly paved roads and crumbling houses, it is noticeably less developed than Chapala and Ajijic. But after witnessing what happened to the original residents of those towns, the Cocas have reason to fear outsider-led development. Santiago Bastos, an anthropologist who has spent eight years studying Mezcala, notes that (pdf) the arrival of foreign retirees and wealthy Mexicans from nearby Guadalajara saw indigenous residents ousted, often illegally, from prime plots of land, while prices shot up, making the lakeside area unaffordable for many locals. Senior citizens have flocked to Ajijic, attracted by great weather, cheap real estate and the quaint cobblestone streets of the town. Photograph: MCT/MCT via Getty Images “We’ve always had invasions by people who want to take control of our land,” says Manuel Jacobo, a 30-year-old activist with a punk-inspired appearance. “We inherited it from our forefathers who fought and gave their lives for it. Our grandfathers used to tell us the myths and legends. We don’t want future generations to lose [the land].” “We’re not against progress,” adds Vicente Paredes, a Coca spokesperson. “But if there’s urbanisation then let it be carried out by our community, not outsiders. We’ve seen the problems that happened in Chapala and Ajijic, where the original inhabitants have been forced to move into the hills and live as third-class citizens.” There have already been some unwelcome attempts to develop Mezcala’s 3,602 hectares (8,900 acres) of communal land, which were not only formally recognised as belonging to the Coca people under a 1971 presidential decree but also in viceregal deeds dating back to 1539. Since 1999, the Cocas have been locked in a series of legal disputes, still unresolved, with Guillermo Moreno Ibarra, a wealthy local businessman who built a hillside mansion on 10 hectares (25 acres) of their land. The townspeople claim Moreno seized the land illegally, diverted a local stream, sent armed men to intimidate them, and falsely accused several locals of property damage. Moreno, whose family owns a mining firm and has shares in exclusive housing developments along the Riviera, denies the accusations. His lawyer, José Soto, says he built the property in partnership with a local resident in a sustainable manner that “doesn’t affect the community in any way”. The locals are upset, Soto says, because “they’ve never wanted socioeconomic development”. This is not true, the Cocas say. They want to see investment in health, education and communications infrastructure. Mezcala has “an infinite number of needs,” Paredes affirms, describing how they’d like funding for programmes to combat poverty and marginalisation. Mezcala residents have also had to begin patrolling their territory to defend their forests and water from illegal logging or pollution. The town of Mezcala is home to 5,000 Coca people. Photograph: Duncan Tucker for the Guardian They need government support on these issues, though, and that remains lacking. The Cocas, according to their state government, don’t meet the criteria for “indigenous people” as they have no traditional dress or dialect. And without this formal recognition, Mezcala’s residents are ineligible for additional funding that could give them greater control of their destiny. “They’ve been trying to gain recognition from the state for some time in order to gain access to the funds assigned to indigenous communities,” notes Fela Pelayo, the head of Jalisco’s congressional committee for indigenous affairs. But even formally recognised indigenous groups have little control over the administration of public funds in their communities, as local governments rarely consult them before deciding what the money is spent on. As a result of “structural, systematic and historic discrimination”, the National Council Against Discrimination found that Mexico’s 15.7 million indigenous people have substandard access to health and education and suffer “unjustifiable levels of poverty and marginalisation”. The Mexican government is trying to make changes. The current administration says it has invested a record 21.5bn pesos (£917m) in infrastructure for indigenous peoples, issued 8,000 birth certificates to unregistered indigenous children, and provided legal support for 4,100 indigenous people who were found to have been wrongly imprisoned. There is still a way to go though. Last August, Pelayo proposed changes to state law to give Jalisco’s indigenous groups greater control over the use of public funds for development projects in their communities - but it was blocked in February. The Cocas may not have a traditional dress or dialect, but they are determined to protect their way of life. Photograph: Duncan Tucker for the Guardian Local indigenous leaders were bitterly disappointed. “It bothers me that many politicians complain that Mexico is being discriminated against by Donald Trump when they’re the ones discriminating against us in our own country,” says Alfredo Carrillo Salvador, a spokesman for a local Wikárika community. Jacobo, the Coca activist, also feels his community’s potential goes unrecognised by authorities who would rather their land be developed for the benefit of wealthier Mexicans and American and Canadian immigrants. “We’re not stupid, we have the knowledge and organisation to develop our community,” he says, describing how the challenges the community faces partly spurred the organisation of recent talks about how to protect their way of life. “We want progress but we want to own that progress. We don’t want to be sweeping up the crumbs of others because this land is ours.” __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Guardian News and Media Limited

By Hugh Williamson Activist Yulia Galyamina and her husband Nikolai Tuzhilin lie on the ground next to riot police during an anti-corruption protest on Tverskaya Street in central Moscow, Russia, June 12, 2017. The German election is dull, boring even – that’s the verdict of much of the national and international media coverage of the political contest ahead of voting on September 24. Whether you find that a problem depends on your perspective. Many commentators have welcomed a more sober campaign after the recent heated elections in the US, France, and the UK. But dullness is no excuse for complacency over the critical issues facing Germany’s next government. Take Germany’s relations with two key international interlocutors – Russia and Turkey. In both cases chancellor Angela Merkel has in many ways taken the right approach on human rights. Yet there are significant challenges ahead that will test the next government’s resolve. Human Rights Watch recently documented systematic interference in preparation of the 2018 presidential campaign of leading opposition figure Alexei Navalny; in July we published findings on new restrictions on freedom of speech online and reported on mass arbitrary arrests and police abuse against peaceful anti-corruption protesters; earlier in the year, authorities in Chechnya launched a viscous purge against people seen as gay. It is clear from these examples that Russia’s severe crackdown on human rights – the worst since the fall of the Soviet Union – continues unabated. Germany needs to engage with Russia on many bilateral and global issues, but its vital Berlin makes clear it expects Moscow to live up to its international human rights commitments. Berlin also needs to focus on human rights issues in its dealings with Russia on eastern Ukraine and Crimea. On Turkey, relations between Berlin and Ankara are at a new low following the arrests in Turkey of a number of German nationals – including two journalists and a human rights activist – on politically motivated charges. As Berlin has acknowledged, the severe curtailing of basic rights goes far beyond German nationals. Among the many concerns are the hundreds of reporters put on trial and around 170 behind bars for simply doing their work; the nine members of the parliamentary opposition held in prison while on trial on spurious terrorism charges, and even a spate of cases of men facing terrorism investigations who have been abducted and forcibly disappeared. Germany’s relations with Turkey are complex: the large Turkish community in Germany, and Turkey’s role in preventing refugees and asylum seekers reaching Europe under the EU-Turkey refugee deal, are just two issues among many Berlin has to weigh. But Berlin’s insistence that Turkey must return to full respect for the rule of law before normal relations can resume is key in signalling to Ankara the seriousness of Germany’s concerns. Dull or not, there is much at stake on human rights as Germans go to the polls. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Human Rights Watch

By Hugh Williamson United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres shakes hands with Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev during their meeting at the Ala-Archa state residence in Bishkek, June 11, 2017. © UN Photo/Vyacheslav Oseledko UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ tour of five Central Asian countries, which ended Tuesday, appeared big on handshakes and praise but short on specifics about improving human rights problems. In Kazakhstan, Guterres echoed the government’s own promotional pitch, naming the country a “pillar of stability” in the region, with no reference to the lack of free elections, the ban on street protests, and the jailing of activists and union leaders. His praise for Kyrgyzstan as a “pioneer of democracy” hit the wrong note, coming amid a crackdown on independent media and legal charges against outspoken nongovernmental organizations. And his warm words for those attending a meeting in Kazakhstan of the China-led Shanghai Co-operation Organisation undoubtedly pleased them. Increasingly, media has reported on the perception that Guterres, in the job for just under half a year, is too often mum on human rights. Central Asian leaders also pay close attention to what high-level visitors like Guterres focus on, also in public. Not only did Guterres fail to set clear expectations on human rights improvements across Central Asia, his praise for his largely authoritarian audience risks sending the message that trampling over human rights is fine. It’s clear the UN secretary-general has complex priorities, and tackling human rights abuses is part of a larger strategy of engagement with difficult member states. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric recently explained Guterres’ overall strategy, saying the best way to support rights is by “ending conflict and countering the root causes including exclusion and inequality”. But public messaging is vital too. Guterres argued correctly at a regional conference in Turkmenistan on counterterrorism that actions against terror threats need to be consistent with countries’ “broader commitments to respect human rights and promote gender equality.” Yet he ignored heavy-handed measures by the region’s security forces that have stifled peaceful religious activity in the name of security. Guterres didn’t meet civil society organizations even though, as Secretary-General, he has repeatedly spoken out about their importance. We hope that on future trips he will find time for human rights activists who are exposing the abuses the UN is committed to helping eradicate. They need to know he has their back. In regions like Central Asia, the UN should state clearly that ending human rights abuses is an integral part of wider development and security strategies. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Human Rights Watch

Ethiopian government forces summarily executed a 17-year-old boy in Ethiopia’s Oromia region in broad daylight, Human Rights Watch said today. The public execution of Amanuel Wondimu Kebede underscores the lack of accountability for security force abuses in the country. On May 11, 2021, government forces apprehended and beat Amanuel in Dembi Dollo, a town in the Kellem Wellega zone of western Oromia. A video posted on social media by the town’s administration shows security forces taunting a bloodied Amanuel with a handgun tied around his neck. He was executed in public that day. In the ensuing weeks, the authorities intimidated and arbitrarily arrested other Dembi Dollo residents, including Amanuel’s family members. “The Ethiopian authorities’ summary execution of a teenage boy shows astounding disregard for human life,” said Laetitia Bader , Horn of Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The callous way that security forces and local officials filmed and then publicized this horrific event demonstrates that these authorities believe they can act above the law without fear of consequences.” Western Oromia has been the site of a three-year-long conflict between federal and regional government forces and the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), an armed group that broke from the political opposition party, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), in 2019. Afederal command post in western Oromia coordinates federal and regional security forces in the area, including Ethiopian Defense Forces, Oromia special police, Oromia regular police forces, and administrative militia forces. On May 1, Ethiopia’s parliament proscribed “Shene” – a government term for the OLA – as a terrorist organization . Human Rights Watch interviewed 11 Dembi Dollo residents and reviewed several videos and photographs posted on social media, media articles, and statements by government officials relating to Amanuel’s killing. Witnesses said that at about 8 a.m. on May 11, Oromia regional special forces, known as Liyu Hail, arrested Amanuel near his home in Dembi Dollo’s Kebele 07 neighborhood. Media accounts said that local authorities alleged that Amanuel had shot and injured a contractor , Gemechu Mengesha, in the town. Relatives said that Amanuel was 17-years-old and was still in school. Residents in Dembi Dollo were surprised that the authorities apprehended Amanuel, and described him as a grade 10 student, who worked at a church, and had always lived in the Kebele 07 neighborhood. Two residents saw the Oromia special forces beating, punching, and kicking Amanuel. “They were using all means to beat him, with their boots, hands, with the stick and butt of the gun,” one witness said. “He was even beaten on his head. He fell to the ground. It was very shocking to see.” Residents later saw Amanuel trying to escape in the Kebele 05 neighborhood, but the soldiers shot him in the leg. A second video that Human Rights Watch reviewed shows Amanuel being paraded down a street, visibly limping on his right side, and surrounded by security forces, including Oromia special forces and local police. Amanuel is forced to repeat: “I am a member of Abba Torbee [an armed group in Oromia and with unclear links to the OLA ]. Don’t do what I did. Learn from me.” Witnesses said a mixture of command post forces, including Oromia special forces, Oromia police, local militia, and Ethiopian defense forces then ordered vehicles to stop and rounded up residents from the local bus stop. Nearby business owners were also forced to close up shop and watch the events. Other residents joined the crowd on their own. One man watching the scene said: “They brought everyone to the center of the town and told the people if anyone tries to attack the security forces in the town, he or she would face a similar fate.” Video corresponding with Dembi Dollo’s communication affairs Facebook post, which showed Amanuel with visible signs of beatings to the head, blood on his t-shirt, clothes torn apart, and his hands apparently tied behind his back at the town’s roundabout with a handgun hung around his neck. Blood appears visible next to Amanuel on the roundabout and the road. The video shows at least three Oromia special forces soldiers standing near him, two of whom are carrying Kalashnikov-style assault rifles. In the video, he is told to confirm his name and where he was born. Four witnesses described how the authorities ordered Amanuel to turn his head and then shot him at least two times in full sight of residents. A photo posted on social media appears to show Amanuel lying down with his hands still tied behind his back, slumped over at the town’s roundabout.

By Bill Neely and Ziad Jaber A Jordanian military officail estimates that up to five percent of the camp's residents — about 4,000 people — may be militants. Raad Adayleh / AP AL RUKBAN REFUGEE CAMP — Some 80,000 people are trapped in a scrub land of hopelessness in a forgotten corner of the Middle East. Huddling in the wind, walled in by desert sandbanks, they have been driven there by war. Abandoned by governments, they are preyed on by the very ISIS gunmen and suicide bombers they fled their homelands to escape. NBC News was given unique access to the area where Rukban straddles a rocky, arid no man's land along the border linking Syria and Jordan — an important American ally, and a key member of the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS. A map showing the location of the refugee camp on the Jordan-Syria border. Google Officially, it is located in a demilitarized zone. However, the pilot of the Jordanian military helicopter used during a recent NBC News visit wouldn't fly over it for fear of being shot down by ISIS cells in the camp. Brig. Gen. Sami Kafawin, commander of Jordan's army in the area, told NBC News that militants there "have whole weapons systems … small arms, RPGs, anti-aircraft." He added: "They consider the camp a safe haven. We consider it an imminent threat." President Donald Trump says he wants so-called "safe zones" to keep refugees in or near their own country even as they are displaced by war. It is not clear whether Rukban is what he had in mind, but this makeshift refugee camp offers a stark lesson to those seeking to de-escalate the Syrian civil war and establish secure areas for civilians who've been driven from their homes. Inside Syria's 'Safe Zones': How to Protect Them? Syrians who left ISIS-held territory found themselves stranded at Rukban when Jordan closed its entire border with the country last year. The country has also blocked much humanitarian assistance from getting into the camp. Aid agencies have complained for months that they can't gain access the site to provide food and essential supplies. Coordinated by the U.N.'s World Food Program, a monthly delivery by a crane located in Jordanian territory makes up the bulk of what keeps men, women and children alive at the ever-growing camp. According to UNHCR, some 659,000 Syrian refugees and around 63,000 Iraqis have officially registered in Jordan — a country of about 9 million people. Citing the most recent census, state-run media last year reported that at least 1.26 million people in Jordan were Syrians. Now in its seventh year, the war in Syria has left an estimated 450,000 dead. Aid organizations believe that around half of Syria's population has been killed or forced to flee their homes in what is the world's worst humanitarian crisis since World War II. Daily gunbattles The sea of tattered tents, the barefoot women and begging children, along with the burn victims being treated nearby at Rukban are all proof that the desperate crisis is beyond the reach of aid workers. Last year, an ISIS suicide bomber killed seven Jordanian soldiers at a military base located less than a mile away. That resulted in Jordan preventing all but a handful of refugees from crossing its borders — and declared the area a "closed military zone." There have been regular attacks this year and daily gunbattles inside the camp, according to Kafawin. He estimates that up to five percent of its residents — about 4,000 people — may be militants. Syria's government lost control of this area years ago, and its border posts lie empty. Rebels opposed to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad control the neighboring region. Syrian women and children living in the Al Rukban refugee camp cross the only legal border point along the demilitarized zone in eastern Jordan. Despite having closed the area after an ISIS attack on a nearby military base in 2016, the Jordanian government allows refugees with health issues to cross into the country for medical treatment, before they are forced to return. Ziad Jaber / NBC News Yet parties in the war continue to talk about making areas like this into safe zones. Trump ordered the Pentagon and State Department to examine how to make such "zones of security" actually safe. While the White House has not released information about the plans, it is clear that true safe zones would require lots of money, boots on the ground and planes in the air. Making such areas secure was also discussed when Trump met Jordan's King Abdullah on April 5. On Wednesday, Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed establishing such areas, according to the White House. And on Thursday, Iran, Russia and Turkey backed the establishment of safe zones in or around Syria — although the U.S. was not part of the agreement, and said it was concerned about Tehran's involvement. So clearly setting up safe zones would will not be an easy task. It "needs a lot of effort to do it, to maintain it, to secure it," Kafawin said. "It's difficult to protect. You need a no fly zone, you need 24-hour patrols and you need, for sure, ground forces." And who will provide all of that? "I don't think it's possible without U.S. support," he said. Trump already has a lot on his plate including escalating tensions with North Korea and Russia, and a worsening crisis in Afghanistan. Last month, he launched cruise missiles against a Syrian military airfield to try to prevent further attacks on civilians. Protecting tens of thousands of civilians with no-fly zones in camps like Rukban is a whole lot harder. Mathoor Yassen Ikhleif, 14, suffered burns to more than 70 percent of his body after a heater exploded in the Al Rukban refugee camp. He was treated by volunteers at a UNICEF field hospital — the only medical facility for hundreds of miles. Ziad Jaber / NBC News ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 NBC News

By Frederic Guiro Although Canada regularly tops international rankings for its quality of life, the daily existence of the country’s indigenous people, also known as "First Nations", has more in common with that of the world’s least developed countries. Even today, Canada’s indigenous peoples, also known as First Nations, are still paying dearly for the colonialism they have suffered for centuries – and which the country’s Supreme Court recently described as "cultural genocide." They live a markedly different existence from the rest of Canadians, filled with poverty, unemployment and alarming high suicide rates. But in recent years, some indigenous people have decided to work together, determined to improve their living conditions through concrete initiatives. As a result of this unprecedented action, a wind of change seems to be blowing and has even caught the attention of the prime minister. Enthusiasm and scepticism Justin Trudeau, Canada’s young prime minister, has called for a genuine “nation-to-nation” process to improve the relationship between the two sides. Immediately after his election, Trudeau announced six billion euros in investments in indigenous communities. This historic pledge has been met with both enthusiasm and scepticism. Although the urgency of the situation on the ground is undeniable, indigenous people remain mistrustful of the Canadian authorities, who have so often betrayed them. From Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba province, to Cross-Lake, a remote reserve in the province’s north, FRANCE 24’s reporter went to meet Canada’s First Nations. (c) France24 2017

By Fiachra Gibbions Barbet Schroeder spent months with Ugandan dictator Idi Amin at the height of his power, when corpses would wash up every morning on the shores of Lake Victoria and Kampala was rife with rumours that he was eating his opponents. But in his decades of documenting evil, the veteran Swiss filmmaker says he has never been as scared by anyone as he was by a Myanmar Buddhist monk named Wirathu. "I am afraid to call him Wirathu because even his name scares me," the highly acclaimed director told AFP. "I just call him W." "The Venerable W", his chilling portrait of the monk who has been accused of preaching hate and inciting attacks on Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya minority, has been hailed by critics at the Cannes film festival as a "stirring documentary about ethnic cleansing in action". What dismays Schroeder is that Wirathu, whom Time magazine dubbed "The face of Buddhist terror" in a 2013 cover, is utterly unfazed by the chaos and suffering he has unleashed. Buddhism is supposed to be the philosophy of peace, enlightenment and understanding, he thought. It helped centre Schroeder's own life when he made a pilgrimage to India to follow on the path of the Buddha 50 years ago to "cure myself of my jealousy". But the hate speech and fake news that Wirathu spreads from his Mandalay monastery, accusing Muslims -- barely four percent of the country's population -- of trying to outbreed the majority Burmese, made Schroeder's head spin. - 'Devilishly clever' - "He is much more intelligent and in control of himself that I thought, devilishly clever in fact," said Schroeder, who shot his film secretly in Myanmar until he attracted the attention of the secret police. "It was like being faced by a good Jesuit or some very clever communist leader back in the day," he said. Rather than "question him like a journalist", Schroeder just let the monk talk as he did with the other subjects of his "Trilogy of Evil", which began with "General Idi Amin Dada" in 1974 and includes his 2007 film "Terror's Advocate" about the French lawyer Jacques Verges, who defended Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic. "If you wait long enough, slowly the truth would come out," Schroeder said. "That is what I did with Idi Amin and Jacques Verges." "When he lied I'd say, 'Tell me more, how interesting... So the Rohingya burn their own houses so they can get money from the United Nations...'" "For me one of the most shocking moments is when he says they destroy their own houses, and then you see a crowd of maybe 3,000 people fleeing their burning homes. It's nightmarish." In another telling scene Wirathu, leader of the Buddhist nationalist 969 movement, is shown watching Muslims being beaten to death in Meiktila near Mandalay in 2013, a month after he gave an anti-Muslim speech there. - Hate speech 'escalating' - Schroeder said the monk had returned "all peace and love" to the town to call for calm, "but he was at least indirectly responsible for what was happening." "Wirathu said all this happened because a monk was killed by the Muslims. But I read the pamphlet that sparked the riots and it sounded very much like his speeches and that he could have written it." This month, Wirathu -- who has been called the Buddhist Bin Laden -- stirred tension by touring Muslim areas in troubled Rakhine State despite Myanmar's top Buddhist body banning him from preaching in March. Hundreds of Rohingya Muslims died in 2012 when sectarian violence ripped the state apart, and tens of thousands still languish in fetid displacement camps. More than 70,000 have fled into neighbouring Bangladesh since October after the military launched a months-long crackdown that UN investigators say cost the lives of hundreds of the persecuted minority and may amount to crimes against humanity. Last week a UN envoy criticised the government of Aung San Suu Kyi for not clamping down on "hate speech and incitement to discrimination" which she claimed "appear to be drastically escalating". In the film Schroeder, 75, seems to trace Wirathu's Islamophobia to the rape and murder of a Buddhist woman by a Muslim in his hometown of Kyaukse. But in person he is not so sure. "Another theory is that his mother left his father and married a Muslim, or because his monastery was burned when he was 14. But every time I checked I was never sure. "Why was Hitler like he was? We will never know how this garbage collected in his mind." _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 France 24

By Halima Athumani The nearly 1 million South Sudanese refugees in Uganda face shortages of food, water and medical care, but they have also brought with them the trauma of the war they fled. Aid agencies are struggling to meet the need for counseling for survivors of gender-based violence. She was attacked in South Sudan six months ago, but she is still afraid to answer the door. VOA met this 35-year-old woman at the Pagirinya refugee settlement in Uganda. She spoke through a translator. She said she doesn't know if it was government soldiers or rebels. She says there were four of them who walked into my house and one of them started raping me. The other three stood guard. After that, she says, they asked me for money. They started looking around and took 500 South Sudanese pounds and left. She said when her husband came home, she told him what had happened. He told her to leave or he would kill her. She arrived in Uganda in February. Insufficient trauma counseling U.N. human rights officials said earlier this year that rape had reached “epic proportions” in the conflict in South Sudan. The impact is felt in the refugee settlements, though U.N. officials say funding for trauma counseling is insufficient. FILE - A young South Sudanese refugee girl shields her face from the scorching sun as she waits in line at Maaji Health Center, Adjumani district, northern Uganda, June 14, 2017. (H. Athumani/VOA) “We have about 20,000 women that have visited our center," said Alain Sibenaler, the Uganda Country Representative for the UNFPA. "Those are women that report abuse, that talk about, and that’s of course very difficult to estimate how many more there are who have been silent, but it’s important to know that, before they cross the border, there is already a large amount of violence that they have been subjected to. Now, that violence sometimes continues on their way to the settlement or is even perpetrated within the settlement.” VOA spoke to a community facilitator working with abused women in the settlements. He said he sees food shortages intensifying domestic violence. Domestic violence One 30-year-old refugee from East Equatoria told VOA about the abuse she faces. She has seven children, two of them from her previous marriage. She said her husband beats her when he sees her feeding them from the family’s rations. She says “he used a bamboo stick to beat me. He hit my hand and broke my wrist. He also hit my back, I am always in pain." She says the day I returned from the hospital, he raped me and while at it he said 'I want to see who will come and rescue you. You are my wife.'" She says she threatened once to report him to Ugandan police, but he told her he would cross back into South Sudan to evade capture. In this photo taken Friday, June 9, 2017, women and children return home with plastic containers of water, in a section of the sprawling complex of mud-brick houses and tents that makes up the Bidi Bidi refugee settlement in northern Uganda. Uganda’s government says it is aware of the problem of violence against women in the settlements. “When they struggle for resources in the areas that we give them, say, like water points, they become susceptible to all sorts of abuses," said Minister for Refugees Musa Ecweru. "I have had to go sometime as a minister responsible to speak very strongly to refugees, that some of you may have run from countries where law enforcement was weak, you have now run to a country where we take rights of others very strongly.” However, the minister said there have not been any recent arrests or prosecutions related to gender-based violence in the settlements. He said the government has placed priority on counseling survivors of abuse. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 VOANews

Intensifying clashes between security forces and insurgents in western Myanmar sent terrified civilians scrambling toward the Bangladesh border on Sunday in a desperate search for refuge. By Eric Nagourney The civilians are Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim minority group that faces repression in Myanmar. About a million Rohingya live in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State, and conflicts between insurgents and security forces there have become increasingly deadly. On Sunday, a statement from the country’s de facto leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, said the death toll from violence that began Thursday night had reached 96, The Associated Press reported. The dead included both Rohingya insurgents and government forces. But civilians may be at the greatest risk. A United Nations report in February said the military crackdown on the Rohingya had led to gang rape, the killing of hundreds of civilians and the forced displacement of as many as 90,000 people. On Sunday, some managed to make it into Bangladesh. But the journey was arduous — and many Rohingya did not make it, turned back at the border by Bangladeshi soldiers. Witnesses and refugees on the Bangladesh border quoted by The A.P. described a tense situation. Thousands of Rohingya had sought unsuccessfully to flee from the Myanmar side. Witnesses reported the sound of gunshots, and Bangladeshi villagers said they could see military helicopters hovering in the Myanmar sky. This woman was among those denied passage. Still, an estimated 2,000 Rohingya were believed to have made it across the border overnight. Several hundred others, however, were stuck in a “no man’s land” at one part of the border. They could do little but await an opportunity to move forward — or for things back home to calm down enough for them to return. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 The New York Times