Anti-government protesters burn awnings of the Le Gray hotel during ongoing protests against the Lebanese government, in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, June 6, 2020. Hundreds of Lebanese demonstrators gathered in central Beirut Saturday, hoping to reboot nationwide anti-government protests that began late last year amid an unprecedented economic and financial crisis. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein) BEIRUT (AP) — The Lebanese military on Sunday said overnight riots and sectarian tensions in central Beirut and other areas left dozens of people injured, including 25 soldiers, and warned that the clashes had endangered national unity. Riot police fired tear gas at protesters, after Saturday’s attempt to reboot anti-government demonstrations quickly degenerated into rioting and stone-throwing confrontations between opposing camps. Lebanese troops deployed to separate the rival groups, and the tensions eventually subsided before dawn Sunday. The Lebanese Red Cross said 48 demonstrators were wounded, 11 of whom were hospitalized. Shooting broke out in several areas around Lebanon late Saturday after videos circulated on social media showing some supporters of Lebanon’s two main Shiite Muslim groups — Hezbollah and Amal — chanting sectarian insults. Saturday’s protests were the largest since the government last month began gradually easing a lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus. Nationwide protests against Lebanon’s political leaders had erupted on Oct. 17 amid an unprecedented economic and financial crisis, but were eventually put on hold due to the pandemic. Lebanon’s army — one of the few institutions seen as a uniting force in the deeply-divided country — called Saturday’s clashes “a serious crisis that could have taken us into dangerous turns. What happened undermined national unity, civil peace and would have increased divisions.” Political and religious leaders issued calls for calm Sunday, after many Sunnis were angered by the online videos of insults against one of the wives of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. The schism between Sunni and Shiite in the early days of Islam was deepened when the Prophet Muhammad’s widow, Aisha, fought a battle against the prophet’s cousin and son-in-law, Imam Ali, who is one of Shiite Islam’s most revered figures. Hezbollah and Amal issued statements condemning the type of insults seen in the videos, as did Shiite religious leaders. Sunni leaders also condemned the insults and urged calm. President Michel Aoun in a statement called the unrest an “alarm bell,” warning that insults against religious figures and riots are not a way to improve the country’s quality of life. Lebanese rose up last year against their political leaders, blaming them for decades of corruption and mismanagement. Lebanon now faces the biggest threat to its stability since the end of the country’s civil war in 1990. The spiraling economic crisis, the pandemic outbreak and the national protests have raised fears of a new slide into violence. © 2020 The Associated Press

An Islamic State-linked group appears to be regaining strength in northeastern Nigeria and is now warning it will target civilians who help the military or even humanitarian organizations. The Islamic State in West Africa Province, which broke away from Boko Haram in 2016, had appeared weakened earlier this year by internal feuding, said Nnamdi Obasi, the senior adviser for Nigeria at the International Crisis Group. But earlier this month it killed more than 120 people in a single week, including 40 in Monguno, a town housing an estimated 150,000 displaced people and a U.N. humanitarian base that was only able to repel the jihadists after hours of fighting. “The new attack now suggests that there is a new flare to their violence,” Obasi said. The Islamic State in West Africa Province broke away from Boko Haram following a dispute over leadership and the strategy of attacking civilian targets such as mosques and marketplaces. The splinter faction is now believed to have as many as 5,000 fighters, according to a International Crisis Group report last year. Boko Haram has focused on attacking military units, targeting soldiers on guard or patrol operations. The extremist group also has attacked civilians through suicide bombings often carried out by young girls. A new campaign by the Nigerian military and the regional multinational joint task force resulted in the “killing of over 1,200″ Boko Haram and ISWAP fighters, according to the military, which claims many of their commanders have been killed or arrested. The renewed push by the Islamic State in West Africa Province comes after the military scored some major gains against the extremists in the northeast. Nigeria’s military and the multinational security force “have made tremendous success” in targeting the group’s operational bases, said Kabiru Adamu, a security consultant based in Nigeria. Those wins have been attributed, in part, to help from communities that are increasingly willing to help the military in the hope that they can end the violence that has engulfed the region for more than a decade. That has led the Islamic State West Africa Province to announce a shift in tactics that threatens to deepen the crisis. Pamphlets left at the scene of the recent attacks warned civilians that they may be considered targets if they aid the military or humanitarian groups. It’s a marked shift for the group, which until now has spared Muslim residents as long as they pledge allegiance to the group and pay taxes that are illegally levied on them, said Bunu Malam-Kolo, chief of a local defense group trying to protect civilians in northeastern Borno state. The recent reports of civilians aiding the military has infuriated the ISWAP group. The militants have even publicly named the communities they intend to attack next. “And they have a long list of such communities where they felt residents are helping the government forces to expose them,” Malam-Kolo added. © The Washington Post (2020), Reporting by The Associated Press (2020)

MOSCOW (AP) — Belarus, shaken by three weeks of massive protests against its authoritarian president, on Saturday cracked down hard on the news media, deporting some foreign journalists reporting in the country and revoking the accreditation of many Belarusian journalists. Two Moscow-based Associated Press journalists who were covering the recent protests in Belarus were deported to Russia on Saturday. In addition, the AP’s Belarusian journalists were told by the government that their press credentials had been revoked. “The Associated Press decries in the strongest terms this blatant attack on press freedom in Belarus. AP calls on the Belarusian government to reinstate the credentials of independent journalists and allow them to continue reporting the facts of what is happening in Belarus to the world,” said Lauren Easton, the AP’s director of media relations. The Belarusian Association of Journalists said accreditation rights were also taken away from 17 Belarusians working for several other media. Germany’s ARD television said two of its Moscow-based journalists also were deported to Russia, a Belarusian producer faces trial on Monday and their accreditation to work in Belarus was revoked. The BBC said two of its journalists working for the BBC Russian service in Minsk also had their accreditation revoked and U.S.-funded radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said five of its journalists lost their accreditation. Criticism over the crackdown came from both media outlets and governments. The program director for ARD’s biggest regional affiliate, WDR, which oversees the coverage of Belarus, called the treatment of its camera team “absolutely unacceptable.” “This shows once again that independent reporting in Belarus continues to be hindered and is made almost impossible,” Joerg Schoeneborn said. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas summoned the Belarusian ambassador following the detention and expulsion of the foreign journalists in Minsk and said “this attack on press freedom is another dangerous step toward more repression instead of dialogue with the population.” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “has consistently called for journalists to be able to do their work free from harassment, anywhere in the world,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The International Press Institute said “authorities in Belarus must immediately drop all charges against journalists detained during recent police crackdowns, stop cancelling accreditation for foreign journalists and immediately halt interference with state-owned publishing houses.” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus urged the government in Belarus to show restraint, to release those unjustly detained and to account for protesters reported missing. “We are concerned by the continued targeting of journalists, the blocking of independent media and opposition websites, intermittent internet blackouts and random detentions of peaceful citizens exercising their rights of freedom of assembly and speech,” she said. Protests in Belarus began after the Aug. 9 presidential election that officials said gave President Alexander Lukashenko a sixth term in office with 80% support. Protesters say the results were rigged and are calling for Lukashenko, who has run the country since 1994, to resign. The protests, some of which drew enormous crowds estimated at 200,000 or more, are the largest and most sustained challenge yet to Lukashenko’s 26 years in office, during which he consistently repressed opposition and independent news media. On Saturday, hundreds of women dressed mostly in red and white — the colors of the former Belarusian flag that the opposition uses as an emblem — marched through the capital of Minsk in a protest. The hard-line leader has cast about for a strategy to end the wave of protests, with little success. In the first days of demonstrations, around 7,000 people were arrested. Some protesters were killed and many detainees were beaten by police. The violence didn’t deter the protests and may have even galvanized the opposition. Strikes have broken out in several state-owned factories, which are the backbone of Belarus’ ailing economy. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he would be willing to send in police to quell the protests in neighboring Belarus if Lukashenko asked him to, a prospect that clearly worries the United States. “We stand by our long-term commitment to support Belarus’ sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the aspirations of the Belarusian people to choose their leaders and to choose their own path, free from external intervention,” Ortagus, the U.S. spokeswoman, said in the statement. The U.S. Embassy in Belarus on Saturday issued a statement saying “we are concerned by the continued targeting of journalists, the blocking of independent media and opposition websites, intermittent internet blackouts and random detentions of peaceful citizens exercising their rights of freedom of assembly and speech.” All contents © copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

A Rohingya refugee woman cries as they arrive at the Kutupalang makeshift Refugee Camp in Cox'€™s Bazar, Bangladesh Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters Bangladesh's border guards have recovered the bodies of 20 Rohingya women and children whose boat capsized, an official said, as they fled violence in Burma amid rising pressure on Bangladesh to shelter thousands of others marooned at its land borders. Around 18,500 Rohingya Muslims, many sick and some with bullet wounds, have managed to slip into Bangladesh since Friday when a series of coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents on security forces in the north of Burma's Rakhine state led to a massive military crackdown. Burma has evacuated thousands of Rakhine Buddhists from the area, where ongoing clashes have so far killed at least 117 people, most of them Rohingya insurgents but also security officials. On Thursday, the bodies of 11 Rohingya children and nine women washed up on the Bangladesh side of the Naf River that separates the two countries as their boat overturned, said Ariful Islam, a commander with Bangladesh's border guards. The bodies of two Rohingya women and two children had been recovered on Wednesday after their boat was fired on by Burma's Border Guard Police, Islam said. Bangladesh on Wednesday pushed back a total of 366 Rohingya trying to enter the country mainly by small wooden boats, though thousands of others have set up temporary camps along the porous land border between the countries. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Reuters

Published by ABC on February 11, 2021. Protesters came out to support LGBT rights after a pride parade was attacked by neo-Nazi groups. (AFP: Michal Fludra/NurPhoto) Poland's "LGBT-free zones" — nearly 100 regions, towns and cities that have passed anti-gay resolutions — could encourage hate crimes and spur violence, according to a human rights body. The European Union has also criticised the zones, which began appearing in 2019 when Poland's nationalist Government started campaigning against the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. "These resolutions are part of a broader attack against the LGBT community in Poland, which include growing hate speech by public and elected officials and public media," the report said. The 94 local authorities have all passed resolutions opposing "LGBT ideology" or have signed a "family charter", which activist says only supports heterosexual, married couples. Advocates say the "LGBT-free zones" have bred violence, including attacks on two pride marches in 2019, and contributed to poor mental health among young LGBT Poles. On Wednesday, a local government body representing 820 million Europeans in 47 countries added its critique in a report for the Council of Europe, the continent's main human rights body. "By naming people as an ideology, they dehumanise them," said Andrew Boff, who co-wrote the report for the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities. "This then gives rise to violence and discrimination against that community. "What other reason is there for these resolutions?" Polish officials did not respond to requests for comment. Hate crimes more than double in recent years International pressure is growing on Poland's Government, with regions that oppose "LGBT ideology" labelled "humanity-free zones" by EU president Ursula von der Leyen. Reported hate crimes against LGBT people more than doubled to 150 in 2019, according to official data cited in the report. Only 16 per cent of Polish LGBT people reported any homophobic attack they had suffered to police, a 2020 EU survey found. Poland says the local resolutions have no legal standing. "[They] are only opinions and do not affect rights and obligations of the residents," Poland's minister of funds and regional policy, Malgorzata Jarosinska-Jedynak, said in an October letter to Norwegian officials. Some countries and international organisations have suspended funding for the conservative southern and eastern Polish regions that passed the resolutions. Norway has suspended 3.5 million euros ($5.5 million) of funding for two cultural projects. In July, the EU rejected six applications for town-twinning grants of up to $39,000 from such authorities. © 2021 ABC

By Aaron Ross The increasingly brutal nature of fighting in central Congo between the army and local militia is on vivid display in the village of Tshienke, where the bodies of rebel fighters were dumped into a mass grave last month following intense clashes. A visit to this site this month was the first time that journalists including Reuters have been able to see the toll that the Congolese military has exacted on fighters of the Kamuina Nsapu militia, whose insurgency poses the most serious threat to the rule of President Joseph Kabila. Reuters was unable to determine the exact number of bodies in eight mass graves dug in January and February in Congo's Kasai-Central province. The graves were also confirmed by nine local witnesses. The United Nations said it suspects that Congolese forces killed 84 militia members close to the town of Tshimbulu between Feb. 9-13. The government denies its soldiers used disproportionate force and says they have recovered automatic weapons from militia fighters after clashes. Government spokesman Lambert Mende told Reuters that the bodies in the mass graves were those of Kamuina Nsapu fighters and it was the group who had buried them, not the army. "I don't see why the soldiers would hide the fact, that after clashing with the terrorists, the terrorists died," he said, confirming that the army killed militia fighters in the clashes. Leaders of Kamuina Nsapu could not be reached for comment. BONE SHARDS At one grave site at Tshimbulu, a human femur poked out of the dirt and shards of bone dotted the perimeter. "We saw arms and legs. There were ... people who were entirely exposed because they hadn't been buried well," said one man who found the mass grave last month with fellow farmers. He, like about a dozen witnesses Reuters interviewed, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from the army. Two km (1 mile) away in Tshienke, another farmer pointed out two more mass graves she said contained bodies dumped by an army truck between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. on the night of Feb. 12, following intense clashes on Feb. 9 and 10. A red headband of the kind worn by members of the Kamuina Nsapu militia was wedged in the grass near the graves. In a statement to Reuters, the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo said it informed the government earlier this month of three alleged mass grave sites in Tshimbulu and, in December, of seven more in the village of Nkoto, about 150 km (90 miles) northwest. The government says the graves were dug by the militia. Kabila's decision not to step down when his presidential mandate expired in December was followed by a wave of killings and lawlessness across the vast central African nation. Kabila has said he is committed to respecting the constitution but an election to choose his successor cannot take place until a lengthy voter registration process is completed. However, the rebellion that began in Kasai-Central has spread to five of Congo's 26 provinces and resulted in hundreds of deaths. VIOLENCE Kabila's opponents have used violence to exploit the uncertainty caused by his decision to stay on. Last August, a local chief known as Kamuina Nsapu after his native village, was killed in a clash with soldiers. He had rejected the authority of the central government in Kasai-Central and demanded that government forces leave. Since then, Kamuina Nsapu militants do not appear to have a leader and some of the latest violence appears to be ethnic score-settling. But they have also demanded that the government move to implement a deal signed on Dec. 31 requiring Kabila to step down after an election this year. "It has taken on a political dimension because the aim is now to see Kabila no longer at the head of the country," said Alphonse Mukendi, a human rights activist in the provincial capital Kananga. More than 60 local leaders connected to the militia, including Kamuina Nsapu's brother, began arriving in Kananga on Sunday for negotiations with the government, provincial vice governor Justin Milonga told Reuters. The government hopes that conciliatory gestures, including suggestions it is prepared to return Kamuina Nsapu's body to his family, can ease tensions, though Milonga cautioned that many in the decentralized rebellion hope to see it continue. Kamuina Nsapu's tactics have alienated many, according to local residents, who say it uses child soldiers, some as young as 10. It has attacked schools and churches, institutions it sees as oppressive, and executed police officers, soldiers and rival chiefs. Mende, the government spokesman, said Congolese forces also suffered casualties at the hands of the group, including about 30 police officers killed last August. But in battles with the military, the militia has faced machine gun fire while its fighters are armed with machetes, batons and home-made rifles. After a video appearing to show soldiers massacring militia members was posted on social media, the United Nations called on Congo's government to end "human rights violations, including apparent summary executions, by the ... armed forces". The military's top prosecutor, Major General Joseph Ponde, announced on Saturday that seven soldiers had been charged in connection with the video, including for the war crimes of murder and mutilation. Ponde also said investigators plan to exhume two graves discovered near where the video was shot in neighboring Kasai-Oriental province. (Editing by Tim Cocks and Giles Elgood) (C) 2017 The Reuters

Scott Chacon from Dublin, CA, USA - Ntrama Church Altar, CCBY 2.0. www.wikipedia.org MUHANGA, Rwanda (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - It would be ridiculous to ask 48-year-old Assoumpta who infected her with the AIDS virus. In the 100 days that spanned Rwanda’s genocide in 1994, she doesn’t know the number of times she was raped, let alone which men raped her. “I only remember the first. He was my neighbor. Someone we knew and trusted. That’s why I remember it,” she said in the stone-walled compound of her village home in Muhanga district, about 50 km (30 miles) southwest of Rwanda’s capital Kigali. “He came to the camp where we were sheltering and picked me out - pointing at me with his machete. The other perpetrators? I didn’t know them. There were many men. Different ones at different times.” Rwanda is this week commemorating the 25th anniversary of a dark chapter of human history: a time when extremist ethnic Hutus slaughtered more than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus - one tenth of the population - over three months. As people across this small, mountainous, east African nation honor the dead by laying wreaths at memorials, thousands of survivors like Assoumpta - victims of a brutal systematic campaign of mass rape - are still living with the aftermath. According to government officials, about 250,000 mostly Tutsi women were raped by Hutu government soldiers and allied extremist militia. And as a result, about one in four victims contracted the HIV/AIDS virus. Many women died, unable to get treatment in time. Others have survived to lead healthy lives a quarter of a century on - largely due to Rwanda’s speedy response in recognizing high prevalence rates, and acting quickly to curb the spread of the virus. “Before the genocide, there was little awareness about AIDS other than it was deadly. They called it ‘slimming disease’ but there was no real treatment available other than to keep patients in isolation wards,” said Sabin Nsanzimana, HIV/AIDS Division Manager at the Ministry of Health. “But we learned quickly because of it. Rwanda was the first country in the world to achieve universal access to antiretrovirals in 2008.” Mortality rates for people with HIV/AIDs have dropped below 5 percent today, compared to 60 percent at the end of the genocide, he added. ‘COME AND TRANSMIT YOUR DISEASE’ The genocide began on the night of April 6, 1994, when a plane carrying then-Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and his counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi - both Hutus - was shot down. The attack sparked a rampage by Hutu government soldiers and allied extremist militia, with the aim of exterminating the Tutsi minority whom they blamed for killing Habyarimana. In the lush, hilly communities across the densely populated country, neighbor turned on neighbor as people were hacked to death, burned alive, clubbed and shot. Sexual violence was used as a weapon of war - and Hutu leaders took AIDS patients from hospitals, jobless youth and petty criminals to form “rape squads” and infect Tutsi women. “Many were drug users hanging out on the streets, frequenting sex workers who were infected,” said Nsanzimana, who co-wrote a research paper on HIV/AIDS transmission in genocide. “The militia leaders would order those they knew were infected and say ‘Come and transmit your disease to these Tutsi women.’ They knew this was a death sentence.” There are also reports that Hutu militia leaders would instruct nurses to inject infected blood into victims, he added. The fighting ended in July 1994, when the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a Tutsi-led rebel movement that swept in from Uganda, marched on Kigali and seized control of the country. But it left hundreds of thousands of women traumatized by the horrors of their ordeal, many of them pregnant with children born from their rape - and infected with the HIV/AIDS virus. HEALTHCARE DECIMATED Transmission of the virus spread with millions of people fleeing for refuge in and out of Rwanda in the years that followed the genocide - making it difficult for authorities to detect and control the spread of new infections. The genocide decimated healthcare infrastructure such as hospitals, clinics and laboratories and generated a mass exodus of skilled medical personnel. Erratic power supply compromised blood safety, data management and drug storage. Academics estimate that by the end of the genocide, nearly 80 percent of physicians had either been killed or had fled the country. Those who remained were so traumatized, they were in no position to care for others. While immediate health priorities were focused on providing food, clean water, and treating sicknesses such as diarrhea and malaria, President Paul Kagame in 2000 recognized that curbing the spread of the virus was a national priority. Supported by donor funding, screening and treatment centers were established across the country, providing free access to anti-retroviral drugs to all patients. “They also provide transportation costs for them to get to the clinics to get their medication,” said Nishimwe Marthe from Sevota, a charity which supports female survivors. According to UNAIDS, new HIV infections in Rwanda dropped by 20 percent between 2010 and 2017 from 9,300 to 7,400. AIDS-related deaths almost halved in the same period, from 6,000 to 3,100, largely due to the provision of medication. Assoumpta, who discovered she was HIV-positive six years after the genocide, had believed she was destined to die. “I am thankful to be alive and be able to help others,” said Assoumpta, who is now married with three children and gives counseling to other women as a community worker for Sevota. “They raped and killed other women during the genocide. I survived that. And I will survive AIDS.” Reporting by Nita Bhalla @nitabhalla, Editing by Lyndsay Griffiths. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit news.trust.org © 2019 Reuters. All Rights Reserved.

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria’s president criticised his heads of security on Thursday for their handling of attacks across the north of the country and said more needs to be done to resolve the problem, the national security adviser said. The comments attributed to Muhammadu Buhari are some of his sharpest criticisms of his security chiefs as the conflict in the north has steadily worsened through most of his five years as president. Security forces in Nigeria, which plays a key role in maintaining stability in West Africa, have in recent months contended with deadly attacks by gunmen in the northwest and a spike in Islamist militants’ strikes in the northeast. “Mr. President has expressed great concern over the declining security situation in the country,” the national security adviser, Babagana Monguno, told reporters after Buhari’s meeting with the security chiefs. “He is extremely unhappy about what is happening,” said Monguno, adding: “He feels that, even though the security agencies are doing their best, their best is not good enough for him and wants an immediate reversal of the current trend.” Jihadist group Boko Haram had been pushed off most of the land it controlled early in 2015, months before Buhari took office. But the group continued to mount attacks in the northeast, as well as neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger. A splinter faction that pledged allegiance to Islamic State in 2016 has become the dominant force in the region. Suspected Islamist militants killed at least 60 people on Sunday in the northeast’s Borno state, days after 69 others were killed in the northeast. Residents in northwestern states have been attacked by gunmen who loot towns over the last two years. In May the United Nations said the violence forced 23,000 people to flee to neighbouring Niger within a few weeks. Reporting by Felix Onuah,; Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram; editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise © 2020 Reuters. All Rights Reserved.

Inocente Orlando Montano accused of planning atrocity aimed at stopping peace talks. A former Salvadoran army colonel who served as a government security minister will appear in court in Madrid on Monday to face trial over the murders of six Jesuit priests, a woman and her teenage daughter in 1989. The attack, at the Central American University (UCA) in San Salvador, was planned and authorized by senior military commanders and was an attempt to derail peace talks aimed at ending the country’s civil war. But the atrocity backfired spectacularly, provoking international outrage and contributing to the US’s decision to pull its support for El Salvador’s military regime. Five of the murdered priests were Spaniards, and the trial is taking place in Madrid under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows human rights crimes committed in one country to be investigated and tried in another. The principal defendant, Inocente Orlando Montano, was extradited to Spain from the US, where he had lived for 16 years. Two officers served short sentences in El Salvador but Montano and other high-level officials accused of planning the murders were never charged by authorities in the Central American country. Although Montano has denied involvement in the killings, a federal judge in North Carolina ruled that evidence “showed” he took part in the plot and approved his extradition to Spain in November 2017. Spanish prosecutors allege that he and another defendant, former soldier Yusshy René Mendoza, took part in “the decision, design and execution” of the murders. The trial, which will be held in two sessions – two days this month and then from 8 to 16 July – will be live-streamed to allow people in El Salvador to follow the proceedings. It will look into the events of 16 November 1989, when soldiers from an elite, US-trained counter-insurgency battalion entered the priests’ lodgings and carried out an attack on the pretext of searching the campus for FMLN rebels. An AK-47 rifle taken from the guerrillas was used in the murders in an apparent effort to pin the blame on the FMLN and so scupper peace talks. The UCA’s 59-year-old rector, Father Ignacio Ellacuría – originally from Bilbao and a key player in the peace negotiations – was shot dead, as were Ignacio Martín-Baró, 47, and Segundo Montes, 56, both from Valladolid; Juan Ramón Moreno, 56, from Navarra, and Amando López, 53, from Burgos. The soldiers killed a Salvadoran Jesuit, Joaquin López y López, 71, in his room before murdering Julia Elba Ramos, 42, and her daughter, Celina, 15. Ramos was the housekeeper for another group of Jesuits, but lived on the university campus with her husband and daughter. El Salvador’s truth commission, which looked into the country’s 12-year civil war, found that Montano was present at two meetings at which the massacre was planned. According to the commission, Col René Ponce, the head of the joint chiefs of staff, ordered the troops to kill Ellacuría and leave no witnesses. Ponce died in 2011. Almudena Bernabéu, a Spanish human rights lawyer who helped build the case against Montano and get him extradited, said the murders had marked a turning point in El Salvador’s civil war. “The people of El Salvador, who are extraordinarily strong and resilient, see this crime as the ultimate proof of what was done to them as a people,” she told the Guardian. “Some of the victims were sophisticated, white, upper-middle-class Spaniards, but they’d earned the trust of the people – they were their hope and voices around the world. Ellacuría had really engaged in peace negotiations and he was lobbying the US to find some common sense and stop financially supporting the military and to put an end to the war.” Bernabéu, a member of the prosecution team and co-founder of the Guernica Group, said El Salvador’s postwar amnesty law had allowed some of those behind the atrocity to escape justice and to reinvent themselves as rich businessmen and aspiring politicians. “It’s not just a crime that happened 30 years ago, it’s about what impunity really means,” she said. • This article was amended on 8 June 2020 to clarify that Ramos was not the cook for the priests who were killed as an earlier version said but was the housekeeper for a different group of Jesuits.

By Sarah Kane Genocide Watch is issuing a Genocide Emergency Alert for Yemen. Yemen’s civil war continues to ravage the country with no end in sight. The Southern Transitional Council has now become an additional party in the conflict. It has further splintered Yemen’s political structures and complicated the path to peace. The Armed Conflict Location & Data Project (ACLED) reports that more than 100,000 Yemenis have died since the beginning of the conflict in 2015. More than 12,000 of those were killed by directly targeted attacks, including 7,500 children. Many Yemeni cities are bombed out ruins. While the conflict is commonly referred to as a civil war, the involvement of a Saudi Arabian-led coalition to bolster the Yemeni government makes this an international conflict. Iran supports the Houthi rebels, which now control Sanaa and much of central Yemen after driving out the Saudi-backed Yemeni government in 2014. A 2019 UN Panel found that both the Iranian-backed Houthis and the Saudi-backed government have committed war crimes, including arbitrary killings, rape, torture, and the recruitment of child soldiers. France, the United Kingdom, and the United States provide intelligence and logistical support to the Saudi-led coalition. They are aiding and abetting war crimes. A report from Mwatana, a leading Yemeni humanitarian organization, revealed 1,605 cases of arbitrary detention, 770 cases of enforced disappearance, and 344 cases of torture carried out by Houthis, the Yemeni government, and UAE forces and affiliated armed groups from May 2016 – April 2020. Both government and Houthi forces have violently attacked, raped, and tortured migrant workers and asylum seekers from the Horn of Africa. Both government and Houthi leaders falsely blame African migrants for the severe cholera epidemic that has ravaged Yemen and for the spread of COVID-19. Twenty million Yemenis have insufficient food, with ten million on the brink of starvation. Young children are dying by the thousands, and over two million are in need of treatment for severe acute malnutrition. Yemen is experiencing the world’s largest cholera epidemic. Children under the age of five make up 23% of total cases. As of July 2020, Yemen had over 1,500 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 440 deaths. The actual number of cases is probably much higher. The Houthis have refused to disclose the number of confirmed cases and deaths in the territories they control. Yemen has one of the lowest testing capacities in the world at 31 tests per million citizens. Yemeni citizens have one of the lowest immunity levels in the world due to famine, making them extremely vulnerable to COVID-19. Yemen’s healthcare system is nearly destroyed. Hospitals turn patients away for lack of basic supplies. The Yemeni population is dying. Houthi rebels, the Yemeni government, the Saudi-led coalition, and UAE-backed forces are all committing war crimes. They have deliberately targeted civilians and caused what the UN calls “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.” The U.S. corporation Raytheon sells the Saudis laser guided bombs used by Saudi bombers to kill Yemeni civilians, despite an arms embargo imposed by Congress that was overridden by a waiver from the White House. Eighty percent of Yemenis rely on humanitarian assistance. Yet the UN and humanitarian organizations have consistently had trouble delivering aid due to a Saudi blockade and Houthi interference. Only $1.3 billion has been pledged toward the UN’s $2.4 billion fundraising goal. Without more funding, three-quarters of UN aid programs may be scaled back or shut down. The U.S. should stop its support for Saudi war crimes. It should send aid to the starving people of Yemen. Genocide Watch considers Yemen to be at Stage 9: Extermination. Download Alert

Genocide Watch Newsletter Staff Updates Check out our new staff page where you can get to know our wonderful summer cohort and management team! Genocide Watch's debut podcast, "Conversations on Genocide," is here! Throughout the series, Alexandra Sharp and Naveen Bhatia will be interviewing genocide survivors, discussing ongoing crises, and speaking with lawyers, scholars, and experts who work on genocide and mass atrocity prevention and punishment. Our first episode is an interview with Genocide Watch's founder and president, Dr. Gregory H. Stanton. You can find the episode here on Soundcloud and here on Spotify. New Alerts Linda Zheng wrote a country report for Bosnia-Herzegovina, noting the ethnic tensions that remain between Serbs, Bosniaks, and Croats in the post-conflict era. July 11th marked the 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide, a genocide that Republika Srpska and the Serbian government continues to deny. According to the report, Bosnia-Herzegovina is at Stage 6: Polarization and Stage 10: Denial. Tom Shacklock authored a genocide alert for the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the Banyamulenge, Hema, and other ethnic groups are at grave risk of genocide. Militias have targeted these groups, with little to no state security to defend against them. According to the alert, the Democratic Republic of Congo is at Stage 9: Extermination. New Timestream Click here to view a new Timestream on India’s Muslims in Assam, which tracks the growth of anti-Muslim sentiment in India. Narendra Modi’s ascension to power with the Bharatiya Jaranta Party (BJP) in 2014 has resulted in an increase in anti-Muslim attacks and has put India’s Assam Muslims in danger of becoming victims of a full-blown genocide. Upcoming Events Linda Zheng is organizing a webinar entitled “Genocide Watch: Impacts of COVID-19 on Ongoing Genocides” to discuss the effects of the global pandemic on groups at risk of genocide in countries such as China, Bangladesh, India, Nigeria, and Syria. She is currently seeking proposals and speakers from members of the Alliance Against Genocide. Keep an eye out for more information on this event! Dr. Gregory Stanton's Work On June 25th, Dr. Stanton spoke at a press conference on the genocide of Christians in Nigeria organized by In Defense of Christians, an Alliance Against Genocide member organization. Also contributing to the panel were Archbishop Ben Kwashi, Bishop Matthew H. Kukah, Congressman Frank Wolf, and Rev. Johnnie Moore. Click here to watch. In the News Burkina Faso 'Guardians of the bush': brutal vigilantes police Burkina Faso [Read More] Over 180 Bodies Found Dumped in Burkina Faso Town, Report Says [Read More] China Uighur Exiles Push for Court Case Accusing China of Genocide [Read More] China cuts Uighur births with IUDs, abortion, sterilization [Read More] Democratic Republic of Congo Armed group's attacks in DRC killed almost 800 in 18 months: UN [Read More] DRC Violence Displaced More than One Million in Six Months [Read More] Mali Villagers killed in central Mali as mediators seek to restore stability [Read More] ICC Opens Trial Against Mali National Over Timbuktu Destruction [Read More] Sudan UN condemns deadly violence in Sudan's North Darfur [Read More] Sudan declares emergency in North Darfur state after violence [Read More] Download Newsletter

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called on Wednesday for a credible investigation into reports of human rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims committed by Myanmar’s security forces after a meeting with its civilian and military leaders. More than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since late August, driven out by a military counter-insurgency clearance operation in Buddhist-majority Myanmar’s Rakhine State. A top U.N. official has described the military’s actions as a textbook case of “ethnic cleansing”. “We’re deeply concerned by credible reports of widespread atrocities committed by Myanmar’s security forces and by vigilantes who were unrestrained by the security forces during the recent violence in Rakhine State,” Tillerson told a joint news conference with Aung San Suu Kyi, the head of a civilian administration that is less than two years old and shares power with the military. Tillerson had earlier held separate talks with Myanmar’s military chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, whose forces have been accused of atrocities. A senior U.N. official on Sunday leveled allegations of mass rape, killings and torture against the Myanmar military, known as the Tatmadaw, after a tour of refugee camps in the Cox’s Bazar region of neighboring Bangladesh. Tillerson called for the Myanmar government to lead a credible and impartial investigation and said those who committed abuses should be held responsible. “The recent serious allegations of abuses in Rakhine state demand a credible and impartial investigation and those who commit human rights abuses or violations must be held accountable,” he said. “In all my meetings, I have called on the Myanmar civilian government to lead a full and effective independent investigation and for the military to facilitate full access and cooperation.” He also said it was the duty of the military to help the government to meet commitments to ensure the safety and security of all people in Rakhine state. A posting on Min Aung Hlaing’s Facebook page said Myanmar’s military supremo had explained to Tillerson the “true situation in Rakhine”, the reasons why Muslims fled, how the military was working with the government to deliver aid and the progress made for a repatriation process to be agreed with Bangladesh. The military launched its clearance operation after an army base and 30 police posts were attacked on Aug. 25 by Rohingya militants, killing about a dozen members of the security forces. CONSEQUENSES Tillerson condemned the militant attacks, but said any response by the security forces needed to avoid to the “maximum extent possible harming innocent civilians”. Myanmar's State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson attend a press conference at Naypyitaw, Myanmar November 15, 2015. REUTERS/Aye Win Myint An internal investigation by the military into the allegations of atrocities that was released this week was branded a “whitewash” by human rights groups. Back in Washington, U.S. senators are pressing for economic sanctions and travel restrictions targeting the Myanmar military and its business interests. Tillerson said he would advise against any broad-based sanctions against Myanmar, as the United States wanted to see it succeed. But he said if there was credible and reliable information on abuses by individuals they could be targeted by sanctions. Tillerson said the United States would work with partners so that those responsible for any atrocities would face consequences, “using all available mechanisms, including those available under U.S. law”. Myanmar is undergoing a transition to democracy after decades of rule by the military, but the generals retain extensive powers over security and a veto over reform of a constitution that has barred Suu Kyi from the presidency. “Myanmar’s response to this crisis is critical to determining the success of its transition to a more democratic society,” Tillerson said. ”It’s a responsibility of the government and its security forces to protect and respect the human rights of all persons within its borders and to hold accountable those who fail to do so.” He said the United States would provide an additional $47 million in humanitarian assistance for refugees bringing the total to $87 million since the crisis erupted in August. “The humanitarian scale of this crisis is staggering,” Tillerson said. But he said he was encouraged by talks between Myanmar and Bangladesh to agree on a refugee repatriation process. During the news conference, Suu Kyi was asked to explain why she had not spoken out more strongly over the plight of the Rohingya, as the Nobel peace prize winner’s perceived failure to speak up has damaged her international reputation as a stateswoman. “What I say is not supposed to be exciting,” Suu Kyi said, adding that she had aimed to keep the public informed without setting different ethnic, religious communities against each other. “It’s important to bring peace and stability to this country and that can only be done on the basis of rule of law and everybody should understand that the role of theirs is to protect peace and stability, not to punish people.” _______________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Reuters