Beijing's PR machine went into overdrive on Monday, claiming that authorities in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have arrested 13,000 'terrorists' in the province in the last five years. The detail came in a white paper entitled 'the Fight against Terrorism and Extremism and Human Rights Protection in Xinjiang,' issued by the State Council Information Office. Despite the more recent focus on cybersecurity, the programs in Xinjiang were an early driver of U.S. prohibitions on Chinese surveillance technology manufacturers including Hikvision, Dahua and also Huawei. "The role these companies play in the surveillance boom in Xinjiang is no secret," explained Foreign Policy. "Chinese analysts have published detailed reports on the growth prospects for surveillance firms offered by the Xinjiang security expansion." And it doesn't just impact in China. In the last week alone, Google has been criticized by U.S. defense chiefs for engagement in China more broadly, which benefits the Chinese military, and Microsoft for the alleged (albeit denied) inclusion of their technology in the SenseNets surveillance program in Xinjiang, which uses facial recognition to track the population in real time. Xinjiang is a state-sponsored surveillance laboratory, with unconstrained deployments of early-stage, commercial technologies suppressing the population. Upwards of 1.5 million people forced into re-education camps. Police checkpoints. Facial, iris and license plate recognition. Geofenced travel restrictions. Biometric registration. GPS tagging. Blanket video surveillance. And mandatory communications monitoring. This is the reality of a high-tech surveillance state. "What’s new is the breadth of the repression and how the Chinese government is using breakthroughs in technology to increase its effectiveness,” Kelley Currie, a U.S. diplomat said ahead of a U.N. Human Rights Council meeting this month. The devil in the detail "Since 2014, Xinjiang has destroyed 1,588 violent and terrorist gangs, arrested 12,995 terrorists, seized 2,052 explosive devices, punished 30,645 people for 4,858 illegal religious activities, and confiscated 345,229 copies of illegal religious materials," the authorities listed in their white paper, adding that "the counter-terrorism work and the de-extremization struggle in Xinjiang have always been carried out in accordance with the rule of law." Note that de-extremization includes punishment for 'illegal religious activities' and confiscation of 'illegal religious materials'. The Beijing-advocate Global Times claimed that "there has been no terrorist attack in Xinjiang for more than 24 months, which is an achievement brought about by the current de-extremism efforts in the region, according to Xinjiang officials." This is the line being taken by Beijing and its supporters, seeking to shift the focus to the outcomes and away from the approach. "China is deliberately distorting the truth," World Uyghur Congressspokesman Dilxat Raxit said in a statement. "Counter-terrorism is a political excuse to suppress the Uighurs. The real aim of the so-called de-radicalization is to eliminate faith and thoroughly carry out Sinification." There has been widespread political condemnation of the ongoing situation in Xinjiang, including an EU report last year which highlighted "credible reports of mass detentions in political 're-education camps' affecting Uighurs and other minorities; of mass surveillance; of restrictions on travel; and of Uighurs abroad allegedly being returned to China involuntarily." Last week, Chinese vice foreign minister Le Yucheng, was dismissive of this international sentiment. Addressing the U.N. Human Rights Council, he claimed that "as the counter-terrorism situation improves, the training programme will be gradually downsized, leading to its completion. Without our decisive measures, violent terrorist attacks would have escalated in Xinjiang and spread to other places." The value of population control The value of high-tech surveillance programs that have been awarded in Xinjiang runs into billions of dollars. It's a closed procurement market. The Chinese companies that drive the surveillance feed from the state. The money is reinvested. The cycle repeats. Last month, the SenseNets data breach illustrated the scale of this. Exposing the tracking of 2.6 million people, ethical hacker Victor Gevers tweeted that he had found a database "containing over 2.565.724 records of people with personal information like ID card number (issue & expire date, sex, nation, address, birthday, pass photo, employer and which locations with trackers they have passed in the last 24 hours which is about 6.680.348 records." "I posted this tweet," Gevers told me, "saying this is the system we found, it's mass surveillance, it's bad, it's out there." The data cache included location descriptions such as 'mosque' and illustrated the extent of the surveillance state in Xinjiang. "We took a sample of records," Victor explained. "We used Google Translate. We looked up GPS locations. And it all pointed to the same province. So, I reached out to the journalist who said this is bad, this can’t stay covered, you need to list this publicly." Ends and means The Xinjiang white paper sets out the goals and ambitions of daily counter-extremism courses in the so-called (re)training centers: "By learning national laws and regulations, ethnic policies and religious knowledge, trainees can realize that religious extremism totally deviates from religious doctrines," where 'attendees' can "understand the essence and harm of terrorism and extremism and finally get rid of their control and influence." The Chinese equipment manufacturers supplying the technologies that power the surveillance programs in Xinjiang widely export those same technologies. That hasn't changed. As I've written about before, it's a fundamental focus of the surveillance state Beijing has in place, subsidizing exports whilst operating a closed domestic market. And Xinjiang is a frightening shop window for this - with the dollars generated through those exports driving the R&D that powers those dystopian systems. Last week, Shohrat Zakir the governor of Xinjiang, spoke to Sky News and denied that the training centers are 'concentration camps', saying that "some foreign voices talking about Xinjiang, they have said that Xinjiang has 'concentration camps', or 'education camps', and so on. These statements are made up, they are lies and they are very ridiculous." As the world reels from the attack in Christchurch, China's white paper with its claims that "terrorism and extremism promote zero tolerance among different religions, cultures and societies... challenging the justice and dignity of humans, destroying peace and security and severely harm human rights and sustainable development," inevitably strike a chord. China's approach, though, would still cut to the heart of human rights - even if you believed that the 13,000 people the authorities claim to have arrested were really terrorists. Find me on Twitter or Linkedin or email zakd@me.com. © 2019 Forbes Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.

NAYPYITAW (Reuters) - Myanmar’s top court on Tuesday rejected the appeal of two Reuters reporters sentenced to seven years in jail for breaking the Official Secrets Act, in a landmark case that has raised questions about the country’s transition to democracy. “They were sentenced for seven years and this decision stands, and the appeal is rejected,” Supreme Court Justice Soe Naing told the court in the capital, Naypyitaw, without elaborating. Wa Lone, 33, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 29, have spent more than 16 months in detention since they were arrested in December 2017 while working on an investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys. They are being held at Yangon’s Insein prison and were not present to hear the Supreme Court verdict. Their wives, who had traveled from Yangon to hear the verdict on Tuesday, emerged from the courtroom quietly wiping away tears. Panei Mon, Wa Lone’s wife, who gave birth to their first child last year, said she had been “hoping for the best”. “Our husbands are good people,” she said. “We want them to be released as soon as possible.” The journalists were found guilty under the Official Secrets Act last September by a district court judge in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon. They were sentenced to seven years in prison. The Yangon High Court rejected an earlier appeal in January. The appeal to the country’s most senior court, the Supreme Court, cited lack of proof of a crime and evidence that the pair were set-up by police. A policeman testified last year that officers had planted secret documents on the two reporters. “Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo did not commit any crime, nor was there any proof that they did,” Reuters Chief Counsel Gail Gove said in a statement on Tuesday. “Instead, they were victims of a police set-up to silence their truthful reporting. We will continue to do all we can to free them as soon as possible.” Than Zaw Aung, a lawyer for the defense, said the families of the two men planned to submit a letter to Myanmar President Win Myint’s office seeking a pardon. A government spokesman did not answer calls seeking comment. ‘GRAVE INJUSTICE’ The reporters’ imprisonment has sparked an outcry from press freedom advocates, Western diplomats, and world leaders, adding to pressure on Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel laureate who took power in 2016 amid a transition to democracy from military rule. The courtroom on Tuesday was crowded with diplomats and observers as Soe Naing read the brief verdict, without giving any explanation. In a statement, the U.S embassy in Yangon called the ruling “deeply disappointing”. The convictions, along with charges brought against satirical poets, a film-maker and other journalists in recent weeks “point to an increasing intolerance for free speech in Myanmar,” the embassy said. “Journalism, satire, peaceful protest, and other forms of legitimate expression should not be crimes in a democratic society,” the statement said. The head of the United Nations in Myanmar, Knut Ostby, said the U.N. would “continue to call for full respect of freedom of the press and human rights.” The U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told Reuters in Geneva that the judiciary had failed to act as an independent check on authorities and she urged Myanmar to act in line with international human rights standards. “The Reuters case is but one of numerous others where restrictive legislation has been used to limit the right to information and to silence dissent and criticism,” she said. Shawn Crispin, senior Southeast Asia representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said Myanmar had “criminalized independent journalism”. The investigation the journalists were working on at the time of their arrest, which uncovered security forces’ involvement in killings, arson and looting, was completed by colleagues and published in 2018. Last week, the coverage was awarded the Pulitzer prize for international reporting. U.N. investigators have called for high-ranking military officials to be prosecuted for crimes against humanity and genocide over a 2017 crackdown on the Rohingya in response to militant attacks in the western part of the country. Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty International’s regional director for East and Southeast Asia, said in a statement after Tuesday’s verdict that Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were not “isolated cases” and there had been a “disturbing surge” in politically motivated arrests in Myanmar. President Win Myint pardoned more than 9,000 prisoners during a mass amnesty to mark the traditional Burmese New Year in mid-April, but rights group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said among them were just two of dozens of political prisoners. Responding to criticism in local media, the country’s prisons department said in a statement on Monday that there were “no political prisoners” in Myanmar.

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - At least 161 people have been killed in a northeastern province of Democratic Republic of Congo in the past week, local officials said on Monday, in an apparent resurgence of ethnic clashes between farming and herding communities. A series of attacks in Ituri province has mostly targeted Hema herders, who have long been in conflict with Lendu farmers over grazing rights and political representation, although the exact identity of the assailants remains murky. Open conflict between Hema and Lendu from 1999-2007 resulted in an estimated 50,000 deaths in one of the bloodiest chapters of a civil war in eastern Congo that left millions dead from conflict, hunger and disease. Tit-for-tat attacks between the two groups in late 2017 and early 2018 killed hundreds of people and forced tens of thousands more to flee their homes, but a tenuous calm had taken hold until this month. Pascal Kakoraki Baguma, a national lawmaker from Ituri, said the latest violence was sparked by the killing last Monday of four Lendu businesspeople. “Members of the Lendu community believed that these assassinations were the work of the Hema,” Kakoraki said. “This is why they launched several attacks on Hema villages.” “Sources affirm that 161 bodies have been found so far. But the death toll goes beyond the bodies recovered, as there were other massacres of civilians and police officers,” he said. Jean Bosco Lalo, president of civil society organizations in Ituri, said 200 bodies had been found since last week in predominantly Hema villages, including the 161 mentioned by Kakoraki. Lalo said the toll would rise once his teams gained access to other villages where killings had been reported. Ituri Governor Jean Bamanisa said provincial authorities were still working to establish the exact death toll and declined to say who was responsible. He said the assailants’ tactics were to “empty out the villages, burn them and pursue those who had fled to the surrounding areas with bladed weapons”. Congo President Felix Tshisekedi, who took office in January, is trying to restore stability to the country’s eastern borderlands, a tinderbox of conflict among armed groups over ethnicity, natural resources and political power. Several rebel leaders have surrendered or been captured during his first months in office, but armed violence has persisted, particularly in North Kivu province, south of Ituri, which is the epicenter of a 10-month Ebola outbreak. © 2019 Reuters. All Rights Reserved.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - The governor of Mudug, a region in Somalia’s semi-autonomous state of Puntland, was killed with three of his bodyguards in a suicide car bombing on Sunday that was claimed by Islamist group al Shabaab, police said. “A suicide car bomb hit the governor’s car. Governor Ahmed Muse Nur and three of his bodyguards died,” police captain Mohamed Osman told Reuters. Al Shabaab has been fighting for years to topple Somalia’s western-backed central government and frequently carries out bombings in Somalia and elsewhere in the region. The group wants to establish its own rule in the Horn of Africa country, based on its own strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law. “We are behind the explosion. It was a suicide car bomb. We killed Mudug region governor and his three bodyguards,” al Shabaab’s military operations spokesman Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters. Source: Reuters

Soldiers in three West African countries unlawfully killed or caused the disappearance of at least 199 people between February and April during stepped-up operations against jihadist insurgents, Amnesty International said on Wednesday. Security forces in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger launched fresh offensives this year against militants linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State, who are threatening to overrun vast swathes of the Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert. Those offensives have led to repeated accusations by human rights groups that security forces have committed atrocities, including executing displaced civilians - charges the authorities have alternately denied or promised to investigate. Amnesty researcher Ousmane Diallo said it was not clear if the rights abuses, documented in a new report published on Wednesday, were occurring more frequently than in years past but said they took place amid a flurry of activity by national armies after suffering significant losses in militant attacks. “There is a very large desire to achieve military results,” Diallo said. In southwestern Niger, 102 people disappeared after being arrested by the army at a market fair and in villages in late March and early April, the report said. Several mass graves were later discovered in the area, it said. Niger’s Defence Minister Issoufou Katambé said the military and national human rights commission were investigating the events but that the people who had made the accusations “could not produce the proof” when interviewed by investigators. Government spokespeople in Burkina Faso and Mali did not respond to requests for comment, but Mali’s defence minister issued a statement on Tuesday vowing to investigate repeated allegations against the army, including charges that soldiers killed 43 people during attacks on two villages last week. Rights groups say investigations promised by governments rarely lead to criminal sanctions. © Reuters 2020

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Lawyers bringing a case before the World Court accusing Myanmar of genocide against its Rohingya Muslim minority have asked a U.S. district court to order Facebook to release posts and communications of the country’s military and police. The International Court of Justice based in the Hague has agreed to hear a case accusing Myanmar of genocide against the Rohingya in violation of a 1948 convention. The U.N. court, commonly known as the World Court, accepts cases between states, and the case against Myanmar was brought by The Gambia with the backing of a group of Muslim countries. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims have fled a crackdown in mainly Buddhist Myanmar, which considers members of its Rohingya minority to be foreigners. Rights groups have documented killings of civilians and burning of villages. Myanmar authorities say they have been battling an insurgency and deny carrying out systematic atrocities. In 2018 U.N. human rights investigators said that Facebook had played a key role in spreading hate speech that fuelled violence in Myanmar. Facebook has said it is working to block hate speech. A request, filed on behalf of The Gambia on June 8 with the U.S. District Court for the District of Colombia, calls on Facebook to release “all documents and communications produced, drafted, posted or published on the Facebook page” of Myanmar military officials and police forces. Facebook confirmed it was aware of The Gambia’s request and would evaluate it in accordance with applicable laws. Among officials whose Facebook data is being sought is Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of Myanmar’s armed forces. Details from 20 accounts of officials and organisations banned by Facebook in August 2018 are also sought, the document said. The Facebook posts of officials “may constitute evidence of genocidal intent”, the lawyers said. In order to prove genocide, the gravest of international crimes, those overseeing any atrocities in Myanmar must be found to have had the specific intent to destroy the Rohingya ethnic group “in whole or in part”. World Court judges have ordered Myanmar to take urgent measures to protect the Rohingya population from genocide and other forms of violence until the case is heard in full. © 2020 Reuters. All Rights Reserved.

At least 20 soldiers and more than 40 civilians have been killed, and hundreds injured in twin attacks in northeast Nigeria's Borno state, residents and a civilian task force fighter said. The attacks on Saturday, in the Monguno and Nganzai areas, came just days after armed fighters killed at least 81 people in a raid on a village in a third area, Gubio. Two humanitarian workers and three residents told Reuters that fighters armed with heavy weaponry including rocket launchers arrived in Monguno, a hub for international non-governmental organisations, at roughly 11am (10:00 GMT). The fighters then overran government forces, taking some casualties but killing at least 20 soldiers and roaming the area for three hours. The sources said hundreds of civilians were injured in the crossfire, overwhelming the local hospital and forcing some of the injured to lie outside the facility awaiting help. The fighters also burned down the United Nations' humanitarian hub in the area and set fire to the local police station. Fighters distributed letters to residents, in the local Hausa language, warning them not to work with the military or international aid groups. Fighters also entered Nganzai at about the same time on Saturday, according to two residents and one Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) fighter. They arrived on motorcycles and in pick-up trucks and killed more than 40 residents, the sources said. A military spokesman did not answer calls for comment on the attacks. UN officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Boko Haram and its offshoot, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), have killed thousands and displaced millions in northeastern Nigeria.ISWAP claimed the two Saturday attacks as well as the Gubio attack. © Al Jazeera 2020

UBA (Reuters) - South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and vice president Riek Machar have agreed on the process for nominating regional governors, a minister said on Wednesday, potentially eliminating a major stumbling block to a peace deal between them. South Sudan ended five years of civil war in 2018 but disagreements between Kiir and Machar, who led the opposing sides, have prevented the peace process from being concluded. Kiir’s party will nominate governors in six of the country’s 10 states, Machar’s will nominate three states and other South Sudan opposition parties the final one, Minister for Presidential Affairs Nhial Deng Nhial told a news conference. Machar had previously opposed that arrangement but his office said a deal had now been agreed. The two have also failed to work out a mechanism for integrating the country’s various armed groups. The war killed an estimated 400,000 people, caused a famine and created Africa’s biggest refugee crisis since the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Previous peace agreements have held for only a matter of months before fighting resumed. Reporting by Denis Dumo, Editing by George Obulutsa and John Stonestreet Source: Reuters

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan declared a state of emergency in part of the conflict-ridden western region of Darfur after violence and unrest in two towns, state news agency SUNA said. The African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) said it had sent a team to Kutum town in North Darfur state following the reported burning of a police station and cars by unidentified protesters. It gave no details. Protesters demanded on Sunday better security and a civilian state government, a resident said. State governor positions are held in Sudan by military officers despite the toppling of autocrat Omar al-Bashir in April. Separately, another resident told Reuters an unidentified militia had attacked on Monday another sit-in in Fatabarno, a village in the same area. No more details were available about the two incidents. Peaceful sit-ins have sprung up in towns across Darfur and in other parts of Sudan, which also protesting the presence of armed militias. Conflict started in Darfur in 2003 after mostly non-Arab rebels rose up against the Khartoum government. Government forces and mainly Arab militia, which moved to repress the revolt, were accused of widespread atrocities. Some 300,000 people were killed in the conflict, according to U.N. estimates. There has been no serious fighting for years but the conflict remains unresolved as Arab militias are still present and have control over land they seized. The transition civilian Khartoum government, in power with military since Bashir’s toppling, has vowed to end the conflict and is holding talks with some of the rebel groups that had fought Bashir’s government in Darfur and elsewhere in the country. Source: Reuters Reporting by Khaled Abdelaziz and Nafisa Eltahir; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Lisa Shumaker

Objective rankings critical to end abuses, promote progress Rohingya refugee shows receipt of money paid to a human trafficker, Malaysia (©FortifyRights, 2015) (Washington, D.C., March 22, 2016)—The U.S. Department of State should assign the governments of Myanmar, Thailand, and Malaysia the lowest ranking in its forthcoming Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, Fortify Rights said today. The Department of State should take special care to ensure TIP rankings are objective and based on actions and efforts to combat human trafficking. Fortify Rights Executive Director Matthew Smith testified today at a Subcommittee hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, outlining how Myanmar, Thailand, and Malaysia failed in 2015 to meet the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking as set forth in the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act. Fortify Rights also published and submitted a 14-page written testimony to the Subcommittee recommending Tier-3 status for the three countries. “Each of these countries demonstrated a callous disregard for survivors of trafficking last year,” said Matthew Smith. “Governments aren’t impervious to TIP rankings. The process can work when it’s objective, and this year will be particularly important for Southeast Asia.” The governments of Myanmar and Malaysia are currently ranked Tier-2 Watch List, and the Government of Thailand is Tier-3, the lowest designation. This year’s rankings will be based on government efforts and actions to combat trafficking in 2015. The Government of Myanmar must be either upgraded to Tier-2 or downgraded to Tier-3 this year. It has already received the maximum two consecutive waivers to remain at Tier-2 Watch List. Human trafficking is defined as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons,” by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, or abuse of power “for the purpose of exploitation.” All forms of forced labor constitute trafficking in persons. Fortify Rights highlighted the continued use of forced labor with impunity in Myanmar. The Myanmar Army, border guard forces, and non-state ethnic armies still use and recruit child soldiers, and forced labor continues with impunity by the military as well as in public works projects. Fortify Rights and its partners recently documented how the Myanmar Army forced ethnic-Rakhine civilians, under threat of death, to carry weapons and rations in an armed-conflict zone in Rakhine State and to dig graves for soldiers killed in conflict. In 2015, Fortify Rights documented how tens of thousands of Rohingya men, women, and children fled Myanmar, many into the clutches of transnational human trafficking syndicates who abused, bought, and sold them in masses. Boat departures from western Rakhine State have drastically slowed over the past ten months, but this was not due to actions taken by the Government of Myanmar, which continues to commit abuses that put the population at risk of human trafficking. The National League for Democracy (NLD) is currently transitioning into power in Myanmar following a landslide victory in November 8 elections. Meanwhile, unelected military appointees continue to hold a quarter of the seats in Parliament, and the military controls the key ministries of Home Affairs, Defense, and Border Affairs. “We’re hopeful about the incoming NLD government, but the Myanmar Army remains Southeast Asia’s biggest perpetrator of forced labor,” Matthew Smith said. “The Myanmar military should be given 12 months at Tier-3 to prove it’s willing to work closely with the new government to end human trafficking.” Fortify Rights also called on the Department of State to maintain Thailand’s Tier-3 status, noting Thailand’s role in the “boat crisis” in the Andaman Sea last year. Last May, following the discovery of mass graves on the Thailand-Malaysia border, trafficking routes were disrupted and thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshi survivors were abandoned at sea. Instead of prioritizing protection, Thailand reinforced its borders and refused to allow disembarkation, resulting in untold deaths at sea. Thailand still maintains a “help on” or “push back” policy with regard to refugees arriving by boat, which puts lives at risk and fails to ensure the protection of possible survivors of trafficking. Fortify Rights said Thailand showed signs of progress in the last year, noting the prosecution of 92 defendants accused of trafficking Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi nationals. Thailand has also cooperated with search and rescue initiatives and adopted new policies to improve protections in the fishing sector and for survivors of human trafficking. Nevertheless, authorities reportedly obstructed and prematurely closed the police investigation into the trafficking of Rohingya and Bangladeshi nationals and failed to provide protection to high-risk witnesses in the mass trafficking trial. Thailand also continues to indefinitely detain Rohingya refugees and survivors of trafficking in poorly equipped detention facilities and government-run shelters. Fortify Rights is in discussion with Thai officials about improving protections for witnesses and survivors of trafficking. “Recent developments in Thailand are encouraging, but the government’s actions in 2015 contributed to a major regional crisis and failed to protect survivors,” said Matthew Smith. “Thailand’s commitments need to take root before it receives an upgrade.” Fortify Rights also called on the Department of State to downgrade Malaysia to Tier-3 status—the ranking Malaysia should have received last year and continues to deserve for its failure to adequately prevent human trafficking, protect survivors, and prosecute perpetrators. Malaysia failed to conduct an effective investigation into human trafficking networks operating within its territory, despite the discovery of mass graves within trafficking camps in Malaysian territory in 2015. When thousands of survivors of trafficking were stranded at sea during the May 2015 boat crisis, Malaysia eventually allowed them to disembark, but only after first towing boats out of Malaysian territorial waters and into the open sea, putting hundreds of lives at risk. Malaysian authorities continue to detain thousands of Rohingya refugees and survivors of trafficking in poorly equipped detention facilities. Tens of thousands of unrecognized Rohingya refugees are at risk of arbitrary detention. The Government of Malaysia was upgraded to Tier-2 Watch List in 2015, apparently to make it eligible for inclusion in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, as law excluded Tier-3 governments. In February, U.S. legislation passed whereby Tier-3 governments can now participate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. “Malaysia’s upgrade last year cast a dark shadow over efforts to combat trafficking in the country. It was a mistake that shouldn’t be repeated,” Matthew Smith said. “Malaysia needs to protect survivors, prosecute perpetrators, and finally get serious about ending trafficking.” © Fortify Rights, 2015

Accountability Needed for Gross Violations in Rakhine, Kachin, and Shan States After weeks of negotiations, the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a landmark resolution today ordering an independent, international fact-finding mission into allegations of human rights violations and abuses in Myanmar and, in particular, Rakhine State. Fortify Rights welcomed the resolution and encouraged the Myanmar government and authorities to fully cooperate with it. “We commend the Human Rights Council for this initiative. It’s long overdue,” said Matthew Smith, chief executive officer at Fortify Rights. “While this mission isn’t a silver bullet, it’s a welcomed and positive move toward prevention and accountability.” The European Union initiated the resolution, which calls for the U.N. Human Rights Council to “dispatch urgently an independent international Fact Finding Mission . . . to establish the facts and circumstances of the alleged recent human rights violations by military and security forces . . . with a view to ensure full accountability for perpetrators and justice for victims.” The President of the Human Rights Council Mr. Joaquín Alexander Maza Martelli is mandated under the resolution to appoint experts to conduct the Fact-Finding Mission. The appointment process is expected to begin next month. Most U.N.-mandated missions comprise three or five members with certain qualifications, skills, and expertise. At a minimum, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights recommends the appointment of members who are independent and impartial, have substantial knowledge and experience in international human rights law, and are knowledgeable in human rights fact-finding and investigation principles, among other qualifications. Fortify Rights encourages the Government of Myanmar and authorities at the local, state, and national levels to cooperate fully with the mission, and for the Myanmar military to grant it unfettered access to all relevant areas and offices. Fortify Rights also encourages all residents of Rakhine State to cooperate with the mission. “We hope this mission will lead to an end to the atrocities long perpetrated in the country,” said Matthew Smith. “State security forces have committed horrific acts with impunity, and the government must reconcile with the truth and deal with perpetrators accordingly. This inquiry could help set Myanmar in the right direction.” The resolution calls upon the Fact Finding Mission to investigate rape, extrajudicial killings, torture, destruction of property, and other violations by state security forces, “in particular in Rakhine State.” Since October, Fortify Rights documented how Myanmar state security forces in northern Rakhine State committed extrajudicial killings of ethnic Rohingya Muslims, including of infants and children, raped and gang-raped ethnic women and girls, looted property, and razed entire villages, including religious structures and food stocks. In testimony presented during a hearing before the U.S. Congress last week, Fortify Rights stated: “State security forces carried out these violations in a consistent manner in disparate locations, indicating the systematic nature of the attacks. Fortify Rights believes this indicates that the soldiers’ actions were not spontaneous and were likely based on guidance or orders.” During the hearing, Fortify Rights and partners urged members of Congress and the Trump Administration to support the call for an inquiry in the resolution at the Human Rights Council. The U.S. was a co-sponsor of the resolution. Apart from recent violence in northern Rakhine State, the Government of Myanmar continues to confine more than 120,000 people, mostly Rohingya, to more than 40 squalid internment camps in eight townships in Rakhine State, where detainees face avoidable deprivations in aid and basic services. The authorities continue to deny more than one million other Rohingya in northern Rakhine State equal access to full citizenship rights, and subjects them to daily restrictions that violate their human rights. U.N. Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights have said that human rights violations perpetrated by Myanmar state security forces against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State may amount to crimes against humanity. Fortify Rights recommended that the Fact Finding Mission draw on existing U.N. data about human rights violations in Rakhine State, including detailed information in operational U.N. databases. The mission should travel to all affected areas of Rakhine State as well as Bangladesh and Malaysia, where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees and survivors are located. Rakhine Buddhists have also faced human rights violations in Rakhine State for decades, including most recently forced labor committed by the Myanmar Army and arbitrary arrest and detention. The Fact Finding Mission should also investigate human rights violations and abuses against Rakhine Buddhists and other communities in Rakhine State, Fortify Rights said. Fortify Rights encouraged the Fact Finding Mission to also investigate human rights violations in Kachin and northern Shan states—which would be permitted through its mandate—where the Myanmar Army is engaged in armed conflict with non-state ethnic armies. Fortify Rights and Kachin and Shan civil society organizations have documented the widespread use of torture, rape, extrajudicial killings, the use of human shields, and other human rights violations by Myanmar Army soldiers in the conduct of the war since at least June 2011. The Fact Finding Mission will present an oral update at the 36th session of the Human Rights Council and a full report at the 37th session of the Human Rights Council. The U.N. resolution comes in response to numerous calls for an international inquiry into human rights violations in Rakhine State from Myanmar civil society, international human rights organizations, and senior U.N. officials over the last several months and years. For example, on January 18, 40 Myanmar-based civil society organizations called for a“truly independent” international investigation into the situation in Rakhine State—a rare rebuke to government-led efforts in Rakhine State. In December, Nobel Laureates and global leaders called for an international inquiry; in February, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights called for at least a Commission of Inquiry; on March 3, Fortify Rights and 12 international human rights organizations called for an international inquiry, at a minimum, into human rights violations in Rakhine State; and on March 13, U.N. Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee called for a Commission of Inquiry into human rights violations against Rohingya in her report to the Human Rights Council. In October 2015, Fortify Rights and the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School called on the U.N. Human Rights Council to adopt a resolution mandating an international inquiry to assess the totality of the situation in Rakhine State, including human rights violations against Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhists. “Myanmar authorities should view the Fact Finding Mission as a tool to uncover the truth and help the country better protect human rights," said Matthew Smith. "Until these violations are addressed, political reform and development in the country will remain stifled.” WATCH Fortify Rights' film documenting human rights violations committed against Rohingya Muslims since October 2016 in Myanmar's northern Rakhine State. On March 24, 2017, the U.N. Human Rights Council passed a landmark resolution ordering an independent, international fact-finding mission into allegations of human rights violations in Myanmar, and in particular, Rakhine State. For more information, please contact: Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer, Fortify Rights | +66.85.028.0044 (in Thailand);matthew.smith@fortifyrights.org; Twitter: @matthewfsmith, @FortifyRights Amy Smith, Executive Director, Fortify Rights | +1.202.503.8032 (in U.S.),amy.smith@fortifyrights.org, Twitter: @AmyAlexSmith, @FortifyRights ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Fortify Rights

The Government of Malaysia should investigate deaths in immigration detention centers without delay and re-open an investigation into the human trafficking of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar and Bangladeshis in recent years, Fortify Rights said today. In an ongoing investigation, Fortify Rights documented severe conditions in immigration detention centers in Malaysia as well as unchecked trafficking of Rohingya and Bangladeshi nationals to Malaysia from 2013 to 2015. The National Human Rights Commission of Malaysia—known as Suruhanjaya Hak Asasi Manusia Malaysia (SUHAKAM)—published its annual report today, finding that a total of 118 foreigners died in Malaysia’s immigration detention centers in 2015 and 2016. “A single death in immigration custody is unacceptable. More than 100 deaths is completely inexcusable,” said Amy Smith, Executive Director of Fortify Rights. “SUHAKAM’s report should send shockwaves throughout the Malaysian government and elicit an immediate response.” SUHAKAM reported 83 deaths in 2015 and another 35 deaths up to December 20, 2016. The causes of death reportedly ranged from sepsis or septic shock, leptospirosis—a type of bacterial infection—pneumonia, lung infections, and heart-related conditions. In 50 of the reported cases, the authorities apparently failed to provide the specific cause of death. Fortify Rights called for the Malaysian authorities to conduct a criminal investigation into the deaths in immigration detention and for perpetrators to be held accountable, regardless of rank or position. “These deaths can’t be swept under the rug,” said Amy Smith. “Those responsible must be held to account.” Former immigration detainees interviewed by Fortify Rights in Malaysia in 2016 described how Malaysian authorities detained them in overcrowded detention facilities for protracted periods of time with inadequate access to clean water, sufficient food, or healthcare. One former detainee from Myanmar—an ethnic Kachin man, 22—told Fortify Rights: “The guards gave us pink water to drink at breakfast. If you wanted water at other times, then you had to drink the toilet water.” Malaysia’s Immigration Department implausibly claimed that detainees contracted illnesses prior to their detention. SUHAKAM’s report confirms that access to clean drinking water is a problem in Malaysia’s immigration detention facilities and contributes to preventable illnesses. In its report, the commission refers to “untenable living conditions with little regard for the inmates’ basic human dignity.” SUHAKAM called for the Immigration Department to work with the Ministry of Health “to ensure that a medical officer is placed at all immigration detention centres and that medical facilities including medicine are adequately supplied to the centres.” Former immigration-detention detainees told Fortify Rights that detention guards beat them and subjected them to physical abuse. For instance, a Rohingya woman from Myanmar, 19, diagnosed with tuberculosis told Fortify Rights: “I was beaten often by the guards because I asked for medicine. If I asked to see a doctor, then the guards would handcuff my hands above my head all day.” Speaking to Reuters, the Deputy Home Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed acknowledged the overcrowding and poor conditions of the immigration detention centers as well the need to improve “procedures, health conditions and management of these sites” but cited “a budget brick wall” as the problem. “The problems with Malaysia’s immigration detention practices extend well beyond budgetary concerns,” said Amy Smith. “Malaysian authorities could begin tackling this by ending arbitrary and indefinite detention of migrants, including refugees and survivors of trafficking. No money is required to uphold the right to liberty.” International law prohibits arbitrary, unlawful, or indefinite detention, including of non-nationals. A state may only restrict the right to liberty of migrants in exceptional cases following a detailed assessment of the individual concerned. Any detention must be necessary and proportionate to achieve a legitimate aim, according to the law. Malaysia also has a duty to ensure that the treatment and conditions for detainees in immigration detention centers are in line with international standards. This would include ensuring access to basic necessities, such as clean drinking water, adequate and nutritional foods, and access to appropriate medical treatment. More than half of those who died in Malaysian detention facilities during the past two years were from Myanmar, including Rohingya Muslims and other ethnic and religious minorities fleeing ongoing persecution by Myanmar authorities. Moreover, 82 of the deaths in immigration detention occurred in 2015, the year in which human trafficking of Rohingya and Bangladeshis to Malaysia via Thailand reached its height. In 2016, Fortify Rights and the Burmese Rohingya Organization UK documented the protracted confinement and risk of indefinite detention of Rohingya refugees in Malaysia. Malaysian authorities allowed several hundred Rohingya survivors of human trafficking to enter Malaysia after traffickers abandoned them in boats at sea. Malaysian authorities later detained the survivors. Rohingya women who survived the “boat crisis” and were later detained in Malaysia’s Belantik immigration detention facilities told Fortify Rights that at least one person in the Belantik immigration facility died of tuberculosis after the guards refused to facilitate access to a doctor. Transnational criminal syndicates trafficked tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Thailand and Malaysia since 2012. Despite the discovery of more than 100 gravesites of suspected trafficking victims in Wang Kelian near the Thailand border, the Malaysian government’s investigation has failed to result in any notable accountability. SUHAKAM notes that the Malaysian government’s rate of prosecution of human traffickers with respect to the mass graves includes no government officials and is “not convincing.” SUHAKAM is proceeding with an investigation into the human trafficking of Rohingya Muslims and others from Myanmar to Malaysia. Fortify Rights is cooperating with and contributing to SUHAKAM’s ongoing investigation. “We’ve seen little accountability for the trafficking of tens of thousands of Rohingya and others into Malaysia,” said Amy Smith. “Urgent action must be taken to end impunity for human traffickers and ensure protection for survivors.” For More Information, Please Contact: Amy Smith, Executive Director, +66 (0) 87.795.5454 (in Bangkok),amy.smith@fortifyrights.org; Twitter: @AmyAlexSmith, @FortifyRights Matthew Smith, CEO, +66 (0) 85.028.0044 (in Yangon)matthew.smith@fortifyrights.org; Twitter: @matthewfsmith, @FortifyRights ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Fortify Rights