Roy Blunt, who voted against limiting the US's role in the Yemen war, received $19,200 from pro-Saudi lobbyists in 2017. At least five of the 37 Republican Senators who voted against advancing a resolution limiting the United States' involvement in the war in Yemen have received campaign contributions from pro-Saudi lobbying groups. Roy Blunt, John Boozman, Richard Burr, Mike Crapo and Tim Scott all received financial contributions from firms representing Saudi interests between 2016 and 2017, according to a recent investigation by the Centre for International Policy (CIP). All five Republicans voted on Wednesday against advancing the resolution, which, if passed, would force the US to limit its support for the Saudi-UAE war in Yemen. Blunt, one of the two Senators from Missouri, received at least $19,200 in campaign contributions from firms representing Saudi Arabia in 2017, the CIP said, with Boozman, Burr, Crapo and Scott, representing Arkansas, North Carolina, Idaho and South Carolina respectively, receiving contributions ranging from $1,000-$2,500 between 2016 and 2017. Al Jazeera reached out to the Senators but none of them responded to our requests for comment. Last year, the oil-rich kingdom spent at least $24m to influence US policy and public opinion, according to disclosures to the Department of Justice made available through the Center for Responsive Politics' Foreign Lobby Watch tool. Around $18m of that was paid to foreign agents acting on behalf of Saudi interests in 2017 and another $6m in spending has already been reported this year. According to the CIP, it made Saudi Arabia one of the top 10 countries spending on influence and lobbying in the US. But on Wednesday, the political donations appeared to have little effect when the US Senate opted to move forward with the resolution in a bipartisan 63-37 vote. It's time to send Saudi Arabia a message Delivering a massive blow to the Trump administration, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he flipped sides because of the way the government had handled the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. "I changed my mind because I'm pissed," Graham said following the vote. "The way the administration has handled Saudi Arabia is not acceptable." Khashoggi, a US resident and Washington Post columnist, entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 to obtain documents certifying he had divorced his wife so he could remarry. After weeks of repeated denials that it had anything to do with his disappearance, Riyadh eventually acknowledged that its officials were behind his murder. In October, Graham had said he felt "completely betrayed" by the Saudis. Senators on both sides of the political divide, many of whom have historically backed the US-Saudi relationship, have vented their anger over the killing and have pulled their support for the war in Yemen in an attempt to communicate their displeasure. 'Despotic, dishonest dictatorship' Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, who had also previously opposed the Yemen resolution, said it was "time to send Saudi Arabia a message both on its violation of human rights and the incredible humanitarian catastrophe it's creating". Yemen has been torn apart by conflict since 2014, when Houthi rebels, allied with troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, captured large expanses of the country, including the capital Sanaa. Saudi Arabia launched a massive aerial campaign against the rebels in March 2015, aimed at restoring the government of exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Since then, the US has been helping the Saudi-UAE military alliance with weaponry and logistical support. Until recently, it was also refuelling the alliance's planes which were responsible for the more than 18,000 raids carried out on the war-ravaged country. More than three-quarters of the population - some 22 million people - need humanitarian assistance, while 11 million require dire help in order to survive. Senator Bernie Sanders, who co-sponsored the bill, said the time to end the US involvement in the war was now. "We have already seen 85,000 children starved to death, the UN tells us that millions of people are facing starvation, 10,000 new cholera cases are developing each week because there is no clean drinking water in the country," Sanders said following the briefing. "All of that was caused by the Saudi-led invasion of Yemen three years ago, led by a despotic, dishonest dictatorship." Mounting calls to end the war The bipartisan bill intends to exploit a powerful but rarely activated provision in a 1973 law - the War Powers Act - that gives Congress the authority to overrule the president and withdraw troops if the former believes the conflict is not authorised. Shireen Al-Adeimi, a Yemeni political analyst and assistant professor at Michigan State University, said while it was "shameful" Senators were receiving campaign donations from pro-Saudi groups, anti-war activists were hopeful the resolution had advanced and could help end the war. "This was just the first hurdle," she said. "Now that we have permission to debate this issue, we expect a prolonged debate, over ten hours or more, which will be followed by a very long vote. "Given all the setbacks this bill has faced in the past, we are hopeful that we can finally discuss it and vote upon it. The Trump administration, however, has threatened to veto the resolution if it passes. Brett Bruen, a former director of Global Engagement in the White House under President Barack Obama, said it appeared Senators on both sides were not won over by the Trump administrations claims. "It's a major rebuke of the Trump administration and of Secretary Pompeo in particular, who this morning made his case about why the US support for the Saudi operations in Yemen were so critical," he told Al Jazeera. "Clearly Senators were not convinced. "What we're seeing are several issue play out. The Trump administration for the first part of the term has been able to ride roughshod over congressional oversight. "What we're seeing now is both Democrats and Republicans saying: 'We want to look at these issues. We want to look at the direction that you're heading on whether it’s on Saudi Arabia, Iran or North Korea'. Pressure has been mounting for the US to end its support for the conflict. According to a recent YouGov poll, 89 percent of liberals Americans and 54 percent of conservatives expressed an opinion opposing continued arms sales to the Saudi-UAE alliance fighting in Yemen. Akbar Shahid Ahmed, a foreign affairs reporter with the Huffington Post, called Wednesday's vote "unprecedented." "What this shows is that President Donald Trump hasn't been able to keep his own party, and his allies like Senator Graham and Senator Corker in line," he told Al Jazeera. "The Saudis, lobbyists, the Secretary of Defense, none of them have been able to stop this anger which is brewing. "Over the last three years we've seen the Senate get closer and closer [in pushing for a halt] to the sale of bombs, tanks etc to Saudi Arabia, but the Saudis have just continued in Yemen. "They haven't stopped. They keep saying: Iran, Iran, Iran. But that isn't enough for Capitol Hill anymore." © 2018 Al Jazeera Media Network

Large celebrations set to take place in Cambodian capital to mark 40th anniversary of 'Victory Over Genocide Day'. Phnom Penh, Cambodia - Forty years ago on Monday, Vietnamese tanks rolled through Phnom Penh, a city that had been a near ghost town during the Cambodia genocide, to signal the overthrow of the regime of Pol Pot, the ultra-communists' leader who managed to escape in a jeep at the last minute. It was the end of three years, eight months and 20 days of terror that had resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians. Large celebrations will take place at the Cambodian capital's Olympic Stadium on Monday to mark "Victory Over Genocide Day". Prime Minister Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge commander who defected and helped overthrow them, is expected to deliver a speech lauding January 7 as the moment the country was saved from Pol Pot's murderous clutches. But while on the surface the overthrow of one of the 20th century's most brutal regimes should be a reason to celebrate, Cambodian politics are not as straightforward. The invasion had been in response to ruthless cross-border killings by the Khmer Rouge in Vietnam. Vietnamese forces, who were assisted by a far smaller group of former Khmer Rouge defectors, overthrew the Pol Pot regime with relative ease, although the civil war trudged on for another two decades. But rather than see the day as a liberation, the ruling party's detractors, including Sam Rainsy, the exiled acting leader of the dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), have branded January 7 as the start of an occupation by an historic enemy. Vietnamese forces did not leave Cambodian soil until 1989 and during that period installed Hun Sen as prime minister, a position he has retained since 1985. "Whatever they might say in private, the country has virtually no political figure who acts and speaks independently of these two views," reads the 2017 paper Moving Beyond The January 7 Narratives by the Future Forum think-tank. "Even today, Cambodian politicians, from Prime Minister Hun Sen and opposition leader Sam Rainsy on down, spend much of their energy fighting an old civil war which has little relevance to the problems facing most of Cambodia's 15 million people." Government spokesperson Phay Siphan credits January 7 with saving his life. "Without Vietnam, I was about to get killed right away because I was in jail already. At that time I told them I was a student, they put almost everybody in jail," Siphan said. Siphan said Sam Rainsy, who has long taunted Hun Sen with accusations of being a Vietnamese puppet, had no understanding of the importance of January 7 due to not living under the Pol Pot regime. "Sam Rainsy was living abroad; they never came across the suffering from the killings of the Khmer Rouge. They don't care," he said, pointing out that prominent opposition figures allied themselves with the Khmer Rouge in the 1980s. Meas Nee, a prominent Cambodian political analyst, also has little doubt of his fate had the Vietnamese not invaded. "My family's name was already on the blacklist to be killed," Nee said. The reason for Nee and his family being targeted was simple. They were deemed "new people" and had been placed in a "re-education village" near the Vietnamese border due to being educated - a serious red flag in the eyes of the Khmer Rouge. Nee and his family followed the Vietnamese for around 15km as forces poured across the border, sending the Khmer Rouge scarpering west. "It was dark ... and later the Vietnamese and the Khmer Rouge passed during the night while we were in the bush. We were sitting, seeing hundreds of Vietnamese army trucks pass by," he said. After a couple of nights hiding in the forest, Nee and his family returned to their village and started the task of rebuilding their lives. Like many Cambodians, Nee believes the truth of January 7 can be found somewhere between the "liberation" and "occupation" narratives. While appreciating the role some in Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party played in overthrowing the Khmer Rouge, many in the country do not look back on the ensuing occupation with fond memories, he pointed out. "More people decided to escape to the refugee camps in Thailand because they were scared that another communist state would be installed in Cambodia," Nee said. The Vietnamese would have occupied the country for longer than 10 years had it not been down to international pressure, he said. A notable critic of the Vietnamese occupation was Pen Sovann, who was installed as prime minister of Cambodia by the Vietnamese in 1981 before being removed and jailed for 10 years. He later joined the CNRP in 2012 before passing away four years later. "January 7 was a victory day but also a sad day [because] Vietnam violated Cambodian autonomy," Sovann told The Phnom Penh Post in 2001. "After January 7, from year to year Vietnamese have put pressure on all kinds of freedom of expression in Cambodia and the fate of Cambodia was decided by Vietnamese." Cambodia, including Phnom Penh, has changed beyond recognition from the devastation left in the wake of the Khmer Rouge in 1979. Terms such as "stability" and "peace" have long been buzzwords for Hun Sen, who has presented himself as the national saviour and the only true representative of the Cambodian people. But while there has been considerable economic growth on Hun Sen's watch, many young people have become tired of a lack of opportunities, widespread corruption and continued authoritarianism at the hands of a prime minister who has been accused of overseeing widespread human rights abuses. The CNRP tapped into this discontent and came within seven seats of a shock victory in the 2013 general election, before making hefty gains in local elections four years later. Then, in what many saw as a cynical move to assure victory in the 2018 general election, the CNRP was outlawed and its president, Kem Sokha, thrown in jail on widely discredited claims he was attempting to wage a revolution. Sam Rainsy, who has vowed to return to Cambodia despite facing jail on convictions widely thought to be politically charged, said that January 7 was becoming "more and more controversial in the eyes of the population". "It is not like under the communist regime during the Cold War when the only possible reasoning had to be in line with the official propaganda," he said. Sam Rainsy did, however, argue that January 7 rhetoric was losing its appeal with the younger generation. Sophal Ear, a Cambodian-US professor of diplomacy and world affairs at Occidental College who escaped the Khmer Rouge as a child, agreed with Sam Rainsy, but pointed out that the acting opposition leader had also refused to drop the issue. "I don't think he's ready to stop exploiting 7 January either as [a] trigger for Vietnam and the Vietnamese," Ear said. But Hun Sen's efforts to paint himself as a national saviour did not make sense for young people who had never known war, genocide or the origins of the ruling party, he added. "However, I think it's woven into the identity of the party," he said. "Changing the narrative is, I guess, not an option." © 2019 Al Jazeera Media Network

New Amnesty report documents extrajudicial executions, mass detentions during security operations in Amhara and Oromia. A rights group has accused Ethiopian security forces of continuing to commit grave human rights violations, including extrajudicial executions and torture, since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018. In its report on Friday, Amnesty International documented the arbitrary detentions of thousands of people and the forcible evictions of dozens of families from their homes, some of which were set alight, during security operations in response to attacks by armed groups and inter-communal violence in parts of the Amhara and Oromia regions. The report covers the period between December 2018 and December 2019. Abiy has introduced a series of sweeping reforms, including granting amnesty to thousands of political prisoners and repealing draconian laws, since coming to power in April 2018. The initiation of broad domestic changes - along with efforts to end hostilities with neighbouring Eritrea, a longtime foe - has won Abiy international praise and secured him the Nobel Peace Prize last year. But Abiy's tenure has also been plagued by ethnic conflict, with hundreds of thousands of people being internally displaced amid a worsening security situation. "The violations depicted in the report are telling of unfinished business of reform in Ethiopia including impunity for past human rights violations," Deprose Muchena, Amnesty's regional director for Southern Africa and East Africa, told Al Jazeera. The Ethiopian government did not immediately respond to Amnesty's report. Al Jazeera contacted the Ethiopian Attorney General and Ministry of Peace for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication. Amnesty also said government offices did not respond to its report. 'Mass Arrests, Killings' Under Abiy's reformist drive, the government in 2018 lifted a ban on several political parties, some of which had been designated "terrorist" groups. The move paved the way for the leaders of the banned groups to return to the ethnically diverse country, and allowed the opposition parties to participate in long-awaited elections initially scheduled for August 2020 but now postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Amnesty said the opening up of the political space has coincided with politicians stirring up ethnic and religious animosities in their efforts to mobilise support, sparking inter-communal violence and armed attacks in several of the country's regional states. In response, the federal government set up security command posts to coordinate the operations of the military, police and local militia. Amnesty's report documents a series of alleged abuses in Oromia, where security forces are waging a campaign against the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA). The group is the breakaway armed wing of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), an opposition party that pursued military struggle before its return to Ethiopia to pursue a peaceful agenda in 2018. Amnesty said it had collected evidence that at least 10,000 people suspected of supporting or working for the OLA were detained by security forces in rounds of mass detention that began in January 2019. It also said it had found evidence that at least 39 people were extrajudicially executed amid rising tensions in Oromia's East Guji and West Guji zones. Other documented abuses included multiple cases of torture by security forces, with various people interviewed by Amnesty speaking of severe beatings by the security forces. In one case, a woman suffered a miscarriage shortly after she was beaten. In Amhara, Amnesty said "at least 130 people were killed in inter-communal conflict in which the security forces were complicit", either through active involvement or failure to protect the affected communities. The group said regional police, militia and local vigilante groups carried out multiple attacks targeting ethnic Qemant, who seek greater autonomy, resulting in scores of deaths and the displacement of hundreds of people. "From 10-11 January 2019, the security forces and vigilante groups attacked a [Qemant] settlement in Metema with grenades and guns and set homes on fire. Fifty-eight people were killed within 24 hours as soldiers in a nearby camp failed to respond to cries for help," Amnesty said. The deputy head of the Amhara Regional Peace and Security Bureau told the rights group the casualties could have been greater if the security forces had not been deployed and also rejected the complicity claim. 'Power Struggle' Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, said that while it is "very difficult" for countries to "effectively" police environments hit by inter-ethnic or inter-religious conflicts, as well as those experiencing independentist armed groups or movements, arbitrary killings "are feeding the cycle of violence". "In my experience, national or local authorities rely on heavy-handed and violent security tactics in place of political engagement towards long-term reform to address historical grievances," Callamard told Al Jazeera. In the case of Oromia, analysts believe the violence is largely attributed to the return of exiled opposition political parties following the opening up of the political space two years ago. "When Abiy took power he criticised the authoritarian practices of the preceding government. But he has not been able to completely change the character of the regime just by making changes at the centre," William Davison, senior analyst for Ethiopia at International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera. He said the abuses are, to a large degree, a continuation of the violations seen under the previous governments. "The expectation was that when the OLF returned to Ethiopia it would put down its weapons. Instead, a power struggle soon erupted between the OLF and the government, which led to continuing violence," he said. According to Davison, there is "no immediate prospect of a peaceful resolution" to the situation in western Oromia as the government seems intent on eradicating the OLA. The fact that there have not yet been free and fair elections, as promised, and that polls have now been delayed beyond the government's term, complicates the situation, he added. 'Complex security context' Daniel Bekele, the chief commissioner of Ethiopia's Human Rights Commission, told Al Jazeera that: "Amnesty's findings and ongoing reports of killings and arrests, particularly in the Oromia region should be taken very seriously." He added, however, that "we should not lose sight of the complex security context in which armed groups are destabilising the area and the fight within these groups is taking a heavy toll on civilians". In its report, Amnesty acknowledged that the government has taken "initial first steps ... towards improving the human rights environment in the country" but warned that "a persistence of old-style patterns of violence perpetrated by the security forces threatens to derail sustained long-term gain". Fisseha Tekle, the right's group Ethiopia researcher, said there have been "many positive developments after the coming into power of Abiy, but at the same time the reported violations do not reflect well on the government". Looking ahead, Amnesty said it was concerned the rights violations and abuses will escalate during the upcoming general election period. It recommended that the Ethiopian government take measures to immediately order security forces to stop carrying out extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrests, forced evictions and destruction of property belonging to people suspected of supporting opposition political parties or armed groups. Amnesty further called for an end to the culture of impunity in security forces by demobilising the units that were complicit in the violence and human rights violations. SOURCE: AL JAZEERA NEWS

The United Nations Security Council is expected next week to renew the mandate of its peacekeeping mission in Mali, MINUSMA. Often dubbed the UN's most "dangerous mission", MINUSMA will enter its eighth year at the centre of a multilayered and complicated conflict that has spread across the Sahel, a semi-arid region directly south of the Sahara desert in northwestern and central Africa. Its challenges are myriad: a volatile environment that often proves deadly for UN forces, restricts peace-building initiatives and keeps the mission on a defensive footing; an inconsistent Malian ruling class; and a shifting and complex crisis that has exploded in the centre of the country that lacks an adequate framework for resolution. Despite such obstacles, Security Council members have not yet been able to deny that the 15,000-strong mission, which includes 13,000 peacekeepers, is a necessity in a country considered the epicentre of the wider security crisis in the region, said Paul Melly, a consulting fellow at Chatham House's Africa Programme. "However difficult the track record, however troubling the situation, however slow the pace of progress, where there is any, when the Security Council is confronted with the actual reality of the situation on the ground, they come to the conclusion that there is no alternative," he said. "MINUSMA needs to be there." The mission has become "life support" for a Malian state teetering on the edge, providing critical infrastructure, in particular air transportation, for a government that has largely retreated from large swaths of the country, said Judd Devermont, director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "I think that without MINUSMA, for as dire and desperate as the situation in Mali is, it would slide even further down into instability, unrest and un-governability," he said. "The most generous thing we can say about MINUSMA is that it slows Mali's slide ... But Mali continues to devolve and worsen despite MINUSMA's presence." Strategic priorities Mali's crisis was triggered in 2012 when ethnic Taureg separatists, allied with fighters from an al-Qaeda offshoot, launched a rebellion that took control of Mali's north. But the armed group fighters swiftly pushed over the Tuareg rebels and seized key northern cities until they were driven out in early 2013 by French troops, together with Malian forces and soldiers from other African countries under the African-led International Support Mission to Mali (AFISMA) banner. On April 25, 2013, the UNSC established MINUSMA, or the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission, which took over operations from AFISMA in July 2013. MINUSMA's strategic priority first focused on the sprawling north, a flat and unforgiving desert and semi-desert area about the size of Afghanistan. Its mandate included protecting civilians, aiding in implementing a 2015 peace agreement between the government and some separatist groups in the north, helping to re-establish the state authority and building the security sector, which was and continues to be largely absent in some regions. The mission is also charged with monitoring human rights abuses by armed groups and the array of security forces operating in the country, a tenuous role, at times, since MINUSMA works in cooperation with many of those forces. In 2018, the mission began to shift focus to Mali's hot semi-arid centre as the situation there began to devolve drastically. A year later, MINUSMA added a second strategic priority that includes helping the Malian government restore stability in central Mali, while also protecting civilians, helping to restore the presence of the state and promoting political peace initiatives. In this region, various armed groups - including Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an offshoot of al-Qaeda, and the Islamic State of Greater Sahara, an ISIL (ISIS) affiliate - have been jockeying for control while exploiting poverty and inflaming tensions between ethnic groups, notably Fulani herdsmen and Dogon farmers. Those communities have already been pushed to a breaking point as climate change stifles resources in a land where the dry season is long and rainfall unreliable. Attacks in Mali have spread into neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso and grew fivefold between 2016 and 2020, with 4,000 people killed in 2019, up from about 770 killed in 2016, according to the UN. This year, the unrest including armed group attacks and intercommunity violence has so far killed 580 civilians just in central Mali. Meanwhile, the number of people forced to leave their homes due to the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the region has surged from about 600,000 internally displaced people recorded in May 2010 to 1.5 million by April 2020. The evolving situation, and the increase in violence perpetrated by "jihadist" armed groups in central Mali, as opposed to the northern rebel separatist groups, has created a unique position for the UN mission, said Ibrahim Yahaya Ibrahim, a senior Sahel analyst at the International Crisis Group (ICG). "MINSUMA is not a force that does counterterrorism," he said. "However, it collaborates with other forces that operate on the ground ... So it is not unengaged in the counterterrorism arena, even though it does not engage directly in it." 'Most dangerous' MINUSMA's expected renewal signifies a temporary truce between the United States and France, both permanent UNSC members and veto-power holders, analysts say. The US, citing the security deterioration in recent years, has repeatedly called for a "major drawdown" in the mission and that it be repurposed with the sole aim of protecting civilians. Meanwhile, France, which has taken the most active military role of any foreign power in its former colony since its 2013 intervention, sees MINUSMA as an essential component of a broad coalition of forces currently attempting to root out armed groups. The forces operating in the Sahel include France's Operation Barkhane, whose roughly 5,000 troops are largely based in the north and east of the country; the internationally supported G5 Sahel Joint Force, which is mostly composed of troops from neighbouring Sahel countries while operating in the south, centre and east of Mali; a European Union training mission that supports Malian security forces; and the recently approved task force Takuba, an EU special forces initiative set to be operational in the restive tri-border region of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger by 2021. Still, insecurity has continued to reign. Just two days after a virtual UNSC meeting on June 11 to discuss the mandate's renewal, "unidentified armed assailants" attacked a logistical convoy of the UN mission travelling between the towns of Tessalit and Gao, killing two Egyptian peacekeepers. Such incidents occur regularly. To date, 209 UN personnel have been killed in the seven-year-old mission. "That's the main challenge and that has lots of implications," Jair van der Lijn, director of the Peace Operations and Conflict Management Programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), told Al Jazeera. "The mission becomes more expensive, because you need to have all the protection," he said. "It means that you are not as close to the population as you would like to be and you're not able to do the projects in the way that you would like them to be done." In the year since the mandate was last extended, in June 2019, MINUSMA was attacked 136 times, according to quarterly reports by the secretary-general. Seventy-one of those attacks, a majority, occurred in the central Mopti region. Political will From the Malian government, analysts and observers say the will to end the conflict has fluctuated. It remains to be seen how recent protests in the capital, Bamako, belying growing unrest with the government that includes its handling of the central crisis, will affect the attitude of officials currently in power. The large street demonstrations calling for the resignation of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who has been in power since 2013, have been supported by Mahmoud Dicko, a prominent Muslim leader who has long called for dialogue between the government and the armed groups in the central region. Prior to the recent demonstrations, CSIS's Devermont wrote in December 2019 that Mali's political class has appeared more reticent than other leaders in the region to find a solution to the complex crisis, noting that they have not appeared to view the issue as relevant to the 90 percent of their constituents who live in the more hospitable south. "The politics in Bamako and the southern part of the country are paramount and supersede the troubling developments in northern and central regions," wrote Devermont. "Not only has the government faced little sustained pressure to address insecurity, but it may believe there is an unacceptable political cost to doing more, particularly because it believes the violence does not pose an existential threat to stability in the country's south." He added: "Mali's political and business classes may have an incentive to prolong the conflict because they benefit from international financial flows into the country." A lack of inclusivity in the government, as well as corruption and allegations that some officials are involved in criminal networks that fund the violence, have all hindered attempts at reconciliation in the centre, despite a political peace-building initiative led by Bamako and supported by MINUSMA. "The government has its plans for how to deal with the centre of the country. And the best [the UN] basically can do is support any kind of the local mediation that is ongoing and support the parties wherever they are willing to do something," SIPRI's van der Lijn said. "But the challenge for the UN is, you can strengthen governance or you can strengthen the government, but it needs to become more inclusive. And as long as that does not happen, it's going to be a very difficult process." Moreover, the government support of some local militias against others and accusation of abuses and extrajudicial killings by Malian forces have perpetuated deep-seated mistrust and enmity in regions with little government presence otherwise. MINUSMA's human rights monitor has documented 119 extrajudicial killings in the first three months of 2020 committed by Malian security forces in the central Mopti and Segou regions, including some by local forces operating under the auspices of the G5 Sahel Joint Force. Most recently, in June, a Fulani association accused the Malian army of massacring dozens of civilians in a village in the Mopti region. No framework for peace Going forward, several analysts agree the most fundamental challenge faced by MINUSMA is fulfilling its dual mandates in Mali's north and centre. Pivoting away from the north without an increase in funding could jeopardise the substantial gains made there, but resources needed to operate properly in the centre have not materialised, said Flore Berger, a Sahel research analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). "They still don't have, in the Mopti region, military helicopters and ISR aircraft. So even if there is an attack somewhere in Mopti in the central sector, they cannot intervene quickly," she said. "They don't have helicopters and it's the only way to safely move around the region because of IEDs and the presence of armed groups." And while the 2015 accord offers a framework, although laden with obstacles, to approach peace with some of the armed groups in the north, there is no such framework for peace in the centre for MINUSMA to support. "The reason why they have been productive in northern Mali is because there is a peace agreement that they're trying to implement," said ICG's Ibrahim. "In central Mali, there is no such thing, there is no peace framework that MINUSMA can implement and bring all the actors to respect." ©Al Jazeera 2020

Relatives who lost loved ones in a 2018 army clampdown on opposition protesters still wait for compensation and answers Harare, Zimbabwe - Allison Charles is still haunted by the image of her brother's lifeless body lying in a pool of blood. "They just shot him like he was a dog and left his body on the street," she said. Gavin Dean Charles, 48, was one of the six people killed in Zimbabwe's capital two years ago when soldiers opened fire on opposition supporters protesting against what they said was an attempt by the governing ZANU-PF party to steal tightly contested elections. Many other demonstrators were wounded in the army clampdown in Harare's central business district on August 1, 2018, with some of the casualties shot from the back. "I am still struggling to sleep at night and to come to terms with everything that has happened," said Charles. "I am taking anti-depressants now." She is not the only one struggling to cope in the aftermath of the bloodshed. "The death of my son still hurts, even now," said Maxwell Tauro, whose son, Challenge, was also killed on that day. "He was a good boy who was working in town and who was not politically active." President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was declared the winner of the disputed July 30 vote, announced in late August that year a Commission of Inquiry to look into the post-election violence. The commission announced its findings in December 2018, recommending among other things the government pay compensation to the families of those killed and to those wounded, saying perpetrators needed to be held accountable. At the time, Mnangagwa had said he would "study the recommendations and decide the way forward" - but to date, none of the commission's recommendations has been implemented. "I have not heard from the government on compensation," Tauro said. "They bought a coffin and food for the funeral and that was it. When we buried Challenge, we never saw them again," he added. The commission, which was chaired by former South African interim President Kgalema Motlanthe, also recommended financial support including school fees for the young children of the deceased - but Charles said the government has yet to provide for her late brother's daughter, a high school student. "My niece needs school fees and other things to survive," said Charles. Meanwhile, Loveday Munesi, a survivor of the August 1 incident who still has a bullet lodged in his buttocks, is still waiting for a court to rule in his case after he sued the government for the wounds he sustained in the shooting, according to his legal representatives. "Loveday is one of the persons who were mentioned in the Motlanthe report and gave evidence before the Commission of Inquiry which recommended that government should set up a fund to ensure that victims of the 1 August incident are compensated," said Kumbirai Mafunda, a communications officer with Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights. The election was the first since a military coup in November 2017 overthrew President Robert Mugabe, who had ruled Zimbabwe for 37 years. Mnangagwa came to power after Mugabe's removal, promising a new start and a revival of the country's shattered economy by attracting foreign investment. But almost three years later, Zimbabwe is in the throes of a severe economic crisis characterised by hyperinflation, a local currency that is rapidly depreciating against the US dollar, foreign exchange shortages and unemployment at an estimated 90 percent. Mnangagwa, a ZANU-PF stalwart, has also been accused of employing the heavy-handed tactics of his predecessor against political opponents. In mid-January last year, at least 17 people were killed when security forces fired live ammunition at demonstrators protesting against a sudden announcement of a 150 percent petrol-price rise. Rights groups have also accused the ZANU-PF government of cracking down on dissent, citing the beatings and the use of "excessive force" against opposition demonstrators and the arrests of a number of journalists, activists and critics. The government blames the opposition for stirring discontent. Last week, journalist Hopewell Chin'ono was arrested and charged with inciting the public to commit violence. Prior to his arrest, the documentary filmmaker had expressed his support for protests against government corruption called by opposition politician Jacob Ngarivhume for July 31. Ngarivhume was also arrested, and both men deny the charges against them. Amid the rising political tensions and deepening economic woes, a top ZANU-PF official on Monday called the US ambassador to Zimbabwe a "thug" and accused him of funding the opposition ahead of the planned street demonstrations, without providing evidence. Rashwheat Mukundu, a political analyst, said Mnangagwa's time in office has been "disastrous". "It has been two years of disappointment, really, for the people of Zimbabwe," he said. "When he took over, he had the support of the international community who were stampeding to work with him rebuild Zimbabwe's economy which had collapsed under Mugabe." "Now, he doesn't have any goodwill." Economist Victor Bhoroma said Zimbabwe's economic troubles have reached a "tipping point" and called for bold reforms to stem a crisis that has seen Zimbabweans haplessly watch their earnings evaporate. Al Jazeera reached out to both Information Minister Monica Mutsvanga and Mnangagwa's spokesman Nick Mangwana, but repeated attempts to get a comment for this story went either unanswered or were unsuccessful. Meanwhile, with the two-year anniversary of the killing of their loved ones fast approaching, the profound grief of the relatives left behind is also accompanied by a sense of injustice. For Charles, the absence of accountability means she has yet to begin the recovery process. "I want closure and justice for my brother," she said. SOURCE: AL JAZEERA NEWS

Haitians are growing frustrated at the lack of action or an apparent plan to take on the heavily armed criminals. By Widlore Mérancourt and Amanda Coletta July 11, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDT A Kenyan police officer patrols near Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on July 3. (Odelyn Joseph/AP) PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — For Irvika François, navigating life in this gang-plagued city requires a series of precautions. The Haitian educator and feminist has moved her family. She never travels more than a mile from home. Several hundred Kenyan police officers have deployed to this Caribbean nation, the first members of a U.N.-backed security mission to beat back the heavily armed paramilitaries that control 80 percent of the capital, allow new elections and give Haitians like François a chance to breathe. The Kenyans, better armed and equipped than Haitian police, have joined their hosts on street patrols. The gangs, who warned they would resist the deployment, appear unperturbed. They’re still setting homes ablaze, attacking police stations and killing with impunity. “I don’t feel the effect of the Kenyans’ presence,” said François, whose cousin was kidnapped by a gang last year. “Nothing has changed in my life, and I don’t have increased confidence in my security. … I don’t understand why the Kenyans are here.” It’s been nearly two years since former prime minister Ariel Henry first called for an international security force to help restore stability to this beleaguered Caribbean nation. During the long wait, gangs tightened their grip on the capital, busting open prisons, shutting down seaports, taking over fuel terminals and the international airport. Now, less than three weeks after the first officers arrived, frustration is growing. Haitians say the deployment has had no discernible effect on security. Police officers say they haven’t been looped into a plan to restore order. “Haitians have high expectations of the foreign force,” said Diego Da Rin, an analyst with the International Crisis Group. “They say that if … the mission doesn’t start conducting operations soon that lead to tangible changes and victories against the gangs, they might start to frown upon [its] presence.” Officials from Haiti, Kenya and the United States, which says it won’t send troops but is by far the mission’s largest financial backer, counter that it’s proceeding as it should. Rameau Normil, the new head of the Haitian National Police, told reporters this week that he’s met with his Kenyan counterparts several times for “evaluation and planning.” “There is neither a set day nor time for operations,” Normil said. “The population may wake up one day to find that operations have taken place and bandits have been stopped or neutralized. For strategic reasons, we cannot reveal how this will happen.” A Kenyan police officer here said the force is waiting for more equipment to arrive before beginning operations. He did not know when that would be. “We’re ready,” said the officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. “We have more training than the gangs. We have the capacity to kick them out. We’re going to attack the gangs where they are hidden.” Gangs killed at least 3,250 people in Haiti from January to May, the U.N. office here reports, up more than 30 percent from the previous five months. U.N. officials say gangs are reportedly paying people to stay in their communities so they can serve as human shields during police operations. They say they have received reports of gangs trying to recruit children ahead of the foreigners’ arrival, allegedly “to leverage potential incidents against children involving mission personnel in order to undermine the presence of those personnel in Haiti.” Haiti has had a long and difficult history of international interventions. The United States invaded in 1915 and occupied the nation for 19 years, establishing a system of forced labor, training the notoriously abusive gendarmerie and executing dissidents. Most recently, a U.N. peacekeeping mission from 2004 to 2017 was marred by allegations of abuse and blamed for a cholera outbreak that killed more than 10,000 people. Haitians said the troops did little to maintain security; they branded them “turistas.” The United States backed Henry’s October 2022 call for international help but had difficulty finding a country to lead it. The U.N. Security Council greenlit the mission last October, but planning, staffing and funding have been slow. The mission could grow to roughly 2,500 members. Several countries from the Caribbean, Africa and Asia have pledged personnel, but it is unclear when they will send them to Haiti. Kenyan officials have said the mission needs around $600 million, but international donors have contributed just $21 million. The U.N. office here said last month that the mission would be unable to complete a 12-month deployment without more money. Haitian police are to lead operations against gangs with mission personnel providing support, officials have said. But several Haitian police officers said they remain confused about how that will work. The officers, who spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said the Kenyans are better armed and receiving a much higher salary while the Haitians are expected to shoulder most of the risk. “We are going to be at the forefront, but with what weapons?” one Haitian police officer said. “Who will give the orders? How can we defend ourselves? We don’t know anything.” “The Kenyans shouldn’t be patrolling the streets,” said another. “They should be attacking the gangs. They have the resources we lack, including firepower.” Stanley Julien is among the several hundred thousand people who have fled their homes to escape the violence. He used to sell drinks near Haiti’s National Penitentiary but is now sheltering in a school. He hopes the police mission “will bring security and order.” “I can’t say much about the Kenyans yet,” he said. “They haven’t taken any bold actions so far. The armed groups think it’s just a bluff.” Meïka Decime, an economics student at the University of Port-au-Prince, runs a small business selling cocktails in the capital. But the security crisis makes it hard to deliver to many neighborhoods, she said, and sales have dropped 40 percent since December. Many of her teachers, meanwhile, have fled, and her classes have been canceled. She’s withholding judgment on the international force, she said, while giving it “space and time” to do its work. She hopes it will foster long-lasting stability. “I love my country and don’t want to leave,” Decime said. “I can’t imagine spending my life outside of Haiti.” © 1996-2024 The Washington Post

Fighting between Myanmar's military and the Arakan Army has been raging in in Rakhine State for months. Photograph: Getty Images Jonathan Head & Burmese Service BBC News At least 50 people were killed by Myanmar soldiers in a raid on a village in Rakhine State last week, say local residents and opposition forces. Warning: You may find some of the details in this piece disturbing Eyewitnesses told the BBC the village was subjected to two-and-half days of terror as soldiers blindfolded and beat them up, poured burning petrol on their skin and forced some of them to drink their urine. They were looking for supporters of the Arakan Army (AA), which has become one of the most effective ethnic fighting forces in Myanmar. Fifty-one people aged between 15 and 70 were "violently tortured and killed", the National Unity Government (NUG), representing the ousted civilian government, said in a statement. The AA estimated the death toll to be more than 70 people. The ruling military council, or junta, has denied the accusations, which would amount to one of the worst atrocities committed in the three year-old Myanmar civil war. “They asked the men if the AA was in this village,” one woman told the BBC. “Whatever answer they gave, whether they said AA was there or it wasn’t, or they didn’t know, the soldiers hit them." In just six months, the AA has swept through most of Rakhine State, forcing the military to keep retreating. It ended a ceasefire with the army last year and joined ethnic insurgents in other parts of the country in a combined operation aimed at overthrowing the junta which seized power in February 2021. "I saw with my own eyes my husband being taken away in a military vehicle. My son was separated from both of us, and I don't know where he is. Now I don't know if my son and husband are alive or dead," the woman told the BBC. The names of witnesses are not being used to protect them. They told the BBC that everyone in the village, which has just over 1,000 households, were kept out in the open for two days, under the sun, with little to eat or drink, while dozens of men were tied, blindfolded and some taken away in trucks for further interrogation. Many are yet to return. "They were so thirsty, standing all day in the sun, and begged for water. But the soldiers urinated in water bottles and gave them to the men," the woman told the BBC. She said she heard "lots of gunshots", but didn't see who was shot "because we had to keep our heads down". "I didn't dare to look. They called someone standing near me. Then I heard a gunshot. He never came back.'' She was crying throughout because she was worried about her husband and son: "I didn't know if they were dead or alive. I was praying for them, ‘Buddha, please save them’." Survivors say they could hear soldiers asking for shovels to bury the bodies. They say some were clearly drunk. More than 100 soldiers are believed to have raided the village Byai Phyu, which is just outside the state capital of Sittwe, on Wednesday. Sittwe, a city with around 200,000 inhabitants, a large port and airport, is one of the Burmese army's few remaining strongholds. But the insurgents are close, and enjoy the sympathy of much of the ethnic Rakhine population. Men who had tattoos showing support for the AA were singled out for especially harsh treatment, locals said. One eyewitness said the soldiers cut out the tattooed skin, poured petrol onto it and set it alight. Another eyewitness recalled an army officer telling the villagers he had come from the fighting in northern Shan State, where the military suffered heavy losses late last year, to take his revenge on them. Losing Rakhine State on the border with Bangladesh would be one of the greatest humiliations ever suffered by the armed forces, which have dominated Myanmar since independence in 1948. On Friday those left standing in the marketplace, mostly women, children and the elderly, were ordered to gather a few things and leave. They said the soldiers had already looted anything valuable, like gold, jewellery or solar panels from their homes. Most of the village’s residents are now sheltering in Buddhist monasteries in Sittwe. The BBC understands that the army still controls Byai Phyu, and no-one is being allowed back. There are reports that much of the village has been burned down. The NUG has promised to bring those responsible for war crimes in Byai Phyu to justice. The AA also accused what it calls "the fascist military council" of "vicious cruelty", and of gang-raping some of the women in Byai Phyu. The junta has denied all allegations of torture, stating that they were only conducting "peace and security" measures in the village after spotting sandbag bunkers there. It accuses the Arakan Army of launching drone strikes from that area of Sittwe. The isolation of Rakhine State and the intensity of the conflict make any independent investigation of what happened in Byai Phyu impossible for the foreseeable future. But the accounts given by survivors are an ominous warning of what could happen elsewhere in Myanmar as the military continues to lose ground to an increasingly confident and capable armed opposition movement. © 2024 BBC.

At least 16 people, including two children, have drowned when an inflatable boat sank in the eastern Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey, according to Greek authorities. Greece's coastguard said on Monday that the bodies of nine people - six women, two men and a child - had been recovered overnight from Greek waters off the island of Lesbos, while Turkish authorities found the bodies of a further six men and a child in Turkish waters. Two women from the boat were rescued and several other people were believed to be missing. Several vessels are continuing the search. The boat was believed to have set sail from Turkey late on Sunday. The alert was raised on Monday morning by a Greek navy vessel that spotted bodies in the water. Citing survivors, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said 25 people were on board. Two survivors, one of whom is pregnant, were from Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the agency said. Hundreds of thousands of people, most of them fleeing the Syrian conflict, have crossed into Greece from the nearby Turkish coast, hoping to head to European countries. But a European Union-Turkey deal reached last year - in which those arriving on Greek islands face deportation back to Turkey - has significantly reduced the number of people attempting to cross the Aegean. An average of 20 arrive on Greek islands each day. Most undertake the short but dangerous journey on overloaded inflatable dinghies or occasionally sailboats. Lesbos is located fewer than 19km from Turkish shores. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 AlJazeera

Prime Minister Najib Razak has demanded the release of Malaysian citizens in North Korea, accusing Pyongyang of effectively holding them hostage. North Korea banned all Malaysians from leaving the country, as relations worsen over the death of Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korea's leader. Quick to respond, Malaysia imposed similar measures on North Koreans in Malaysia. Al Jazeera's Florence Looi reports from Kuala Lumpur.

by Abdullah al-Ahsan Abdullah al-Ahsan is professor of comparative civilizations at the International Islamic University Malaysia. The latest United Nations report on the Rohingya minority shocked the world yet again with descriptions of the kind of atrocities that the Myanmar security forces are perpetrating. From children cut to death, to women raped and whole villages burned, these brutal acts have been justifiably characterised as most likely amounting to crimes against humanity. Despite having ample evidence of the extent of ethnic cleansing pursued by the Myanmar authorities, the world is yet to take serious action against the government in Naypyidaw. Among the many organisations that should be striving to protect the Rohingya, there is one that should clearly lead this initiative: the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Of all the international entities, the OIC is best positioned to undertake the cause of the Rohingya community. Not only does it officially represent Muslim-majority nations, but it also has welcomed powerful nations with Muslim minorities such as the United States, China, and Russia to have their own representatives in the organisation. It has the leverage to lead international action to protect the Rohingya and in the past has stood up for persecuted Muslims in Palestine and Kashmir among other places. An old issue with a new twist WATCH - Bangladesh: Rohingya refugees fear relocation (1:38) The Rohingya problem is several decades old. A 1982 Myanmar law stripped the Rohingya of access to full citizenship. Since then members of the Rohingya community have been driven out of Myanmar. Many have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh and from there to other countries. It is very difficult to determine how many Rohingya have migrated but currently there are about 400,000 of them in Saudi Arabia and about 200,000 in Pakistan and most are supposed to have fled via Bangladesh. The Myanmar government has sought to erase decades of violence and oppression against the Rohingya by citing security concerns to justify its brutal campaign. More recently concerns about the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group spreading its influence in Southeast Asia have presented the government with a welcome distraction from the atrocities it is committing. After the OIC criticised Myanmar at its January 19 extraordinary meeting on the Rohingya issue, its foreign ministry responded by saying: "It is disturbing to note that the OIC meeting held in Kuala Lumpur on January 19, 2017, failed to acknowledge that the situation was a direct result of the well-planned and coordinated attacks on police outposts in the northern Rakhine State on October 9, 2016, by extremist elements both funded and inspired from abroad." The fear of the rise of extremism is genuine and should be examined candidly. Western media have extensively reported on suspicions that ISIL might be recruiting among the Rohingya fleeing violence in Myanmar.

Many Chin refugees say they are fleeing religious persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. The Rohingya crisis in Myanmar has made headlines worldwide, but the Rohingya are not the only minority being persecuted. Ethnic Chin refugees have crossed the border into India in their thousands since the 1960s. Myanmar's crackdown on the Rohingya has discouraged them from even thinking about returning home. Al Jazeera's Pearly Jacob reports from India.

UN-mandated investigators have accused Myanmar's army of 'genocidal intent' and ethnic cleansing. Rohingya have in the past paid people smugglers to make the treacherous sea journey out of Myanmar [File: S Yulinnas/AP] Authorities in Myanmar seized a boat carrying 93 Rohingya fleeing displacement camps in western Rakhine state in hopes to reach Malaysia, an official said on Tuesday. The vessel was the third bound for Malaysia stopped in Myanmar's waters since monsoon rains began to subside last month, bringing calmer weather and raising fears of a new wave of hazardous voyages after a 2015 crackdown on people smugglers. Moe Zaw Latt, director of the government office in Dawei, a coastal town in southern Myanmar, said fishermen reported a "suspicious" boat to authorities. The navy stopped the boat on Sunday and detained the 93 people, who said they had come from the Thae Chaung camp in the Rakhine state's capital of Sittwe. "They said they ran away from the camp. They said they intended to go to Malaysia," said Moe Zaw Latt, adding authorities were preparing to send them back to Sittwe on Tuesday. Photographs in media showed police standing by as passengers - many of them women in headscarves and children - huddled on the deck. The boat resembled vessels the Rohingya typically use to escape the apartheid-like conditions in Rakhine state, where their movements and access to services are severely curtailed. 'Root causes' Myanmar detained 106 Rohingya men, women and children on a boat near the commercial hub of Yangon on November 16 when their engine failed on their way from the Sittwe camps to Malaysia. Those people have been returned along with another group of more than 80 people whose boat was seized off the coast of southern Rakhine last week, also bound for Malaysia, according to an aid worker in Sittwe monitoring the boat movements. The UN refugee agency has said Myanmar must "address the root causes of displacement", including the lack of citizenship for the Rohingya, who consider themselves native to Rakhine. Myanmar regards Rohingya as illegal migrants from the Indian subcontinent and has confined tens of thousands to sprawling camps outside Sittwe since violence swept the area in 2012. More than 700,000 Rohingya crossed into Bangladesh last year fleeing an army crackdown in the north of Rakhine, according to UN agencies. UN-mandated investigators have accused the Myanmar army of "genocidal intent" and ethnic cleansing. Myanmar has denied most allegations of atrocities, blaming Rohingya rebels who attacked police boats for sparking the exodus. © 2018 Al Jazeera Media Network