After a decade in power, President Alpha Conde’s bid for a third term has sparked a year of harshly repressed protests. Published by Al Jazeera on October 14, 2020. On the first day of protests five people were shot dead in the capital Conakry [File: Cellou Binani/AFP] Veteran Guinea President Alpha Conde’s hugely controversial bid to extend his grip on power for a third term has sparked a year of harshly repressed protests in the West African country, costing dozens of lives. The octogenarian incumbent’s candidacy was confirmed after a referendum in March – a vote that raised concerns that Guinea will follow in the footsteps of other African nations whose rulers refuse to cede power. Conde faces former prime minister and main opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo in Sunday’s vote. Opposition parties had organised widespread street protests against the referendum, which were met with a harsh crackdown by security forces. A timeline of the protests: Protests start On October 7, 2019, an opposition coalition, the National Front for the Defence of the Constitution (FNDC), which includes trade unions and civil society groups, calls for demonstrations against an eventual third term in office for Conde. The opposition suspects that Conde, 82, wants to change the constitution to allow him to stand again in 2020. Enormous demonstrations On October 14, on the first day of protests, five people are shot dead in clashes in the capital, Conakry, between police and protesters, according to the opposition. A small number of people took part in scattered demonstrations, but security was out in force, breaking up makeshift barricades and making some arrests as protesters burned tyres and threw stones. Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque, reporting from Conakry, said the usually bustling city centre resembled a ghost town, with most people choosing to stay indoors to avoid danger. Several other enormous demonstrations follow, organised by the FNDC, sometimes involving tens of thousands of people. While the opposition says its movement is peaceful, Conde accuses it of seeking to sow disorder and cracks down harshly on protests. Amnesty International denounces the excessive use of force by the security services, bans on peaceful demonstrations, arbitrary arrests and cases of torture. ‘Constitutional coup’ In December, Conde announces a new draft constitution. Opponents say the draft was crafted to get around the country’s two-term presidential limit and denounces a “constitutional coup”. In January 2020, the opposition urges Guineans “to mobilise massively and everywhere”. Clashes break out between protesters and security forces in several towns across the country. Police headquarters are ransacked and official buildings attacked. Contested referendum win On March 22, Guineans vote to back the new constitution by more than 90 percent at a referendum boycotted by the opposition. The day of the vote is marred by violence, with scores of polling stations ransacked across the country. Authorities report 30 dead in the second city of Nzerekore. Conde’s RPG party wins legislative elections held at the same time. The opposition rejects the results and the United States, European Union and former colonial power France cast doubt on the vote’s credibility. On April 2, Amnesty accuses the security forces of using live fire on protesters. Conde a candidate On August 6, the RPG asks Conde to be its candidate at the presidential election. On September 2, ending months of ambiguity, he confirms he will stand. The opposition promises to stage new protests. On September 9, a split emerges within anti-Conde ranks and Diallo is sidelined for deciding to take part in the election, rather than boycott it. ‘At war’ In September, Conde makes combative campaign speeches, some in his native Malinke language, saying in one “this is not just an election. It’s as if we were at war.” Diallo, who is from the larger Fulani community, accuses Conde of exploiting ethnic divisions. On September 29, protesters and security forces clash in Conakry, with a man shot dead during protests a day later in the central city of Dalaba during an election campaign visit by the prime minister. In early October, Amnesty says at least 50 people were killed and 200 others injured during protests against Conde between October 2019 and July 2020. The opposition says more than 90 people died in the crackdown, a figure rejected by the government. On October 7, the United Nations voiced alarm at ethnically charged hate speech flourishing in the run-up to the election, which is feared could lead to violence. © 2020 Al Jazeera Media Network

Nikol Pashinyan announces ‘painful’ agreement with presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia to end weeks-long conflict. Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia signed an agreement on Tuesday to end six weeks of fierce fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh in a deal Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan described as “unspeakably painful” in an emotional Facebook post. The post was the first indication of a deal, with Pashinyan saying the agreement would take effect from 1 am on Tuesday (21:00 GMT on Monday) to end a conflict that has left at least 1,000 people dead. The deal was later confirmed by Azerbaijan and the Kremlin. “The signed trilateral statement will become a (crucial) point in the settlement of the conflict,” Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said in a televised online meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The agreement came hours after ethnic Armenian officials in the disputed region confirmed that the key city of Shusha (known as Shushi in Armenia), the second-biggest city in the enclave, had been taken by Azeri forces. Azerbaijan also said on Monday it had taken dozens of more settlements. Describing the decision as “unspeakably painful for me personally and for our people”, Pashinyan said the agreement followed “an in-depth analysis of the military situation” that has seen Azeri forces closing in on Stepanakert, the region’s main city. He said the agreement was “the best possible solution to the current situation”. Peacekeepers brought in In Azerbaijan, meanwhile, Aliyev said the agreement was “historic” and that Armenia had been forced to negotiate because of Azerbaijan’s military successes. “This statement has historic significance,” he wrote on Twitter. “This statement constitutes Armenia’s capitulation. This statement puts an end to the years-long occupation. This statement is our Glorious Victory!” Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javaid, reporting from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, said news of the agreement brought people onto the streets to celebrate despite a curfew. The deal includes Armenia handing back some territories on the edge of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, while Azerbaijan will halt its push towards Stepanakert, he added. “It’s not clear how this transition is going to take place,” he said. “There will be Russian peacekeepers and what we have been hearing from Azeri leaders is that they want to live side by side with the people from those areas.” Russia’s defense ministry said it had begun the deployment of 1,960 soldiers to act as peacekeepers for the next five years. Putin said they would be positioned along the frontline in Nagorno-Karabakh and in the corridor between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. Aliyev said that Turkish peacekeepers would also be deployed. “This is not a victory, but there is not defeat until you consider yourself defeated,” Armenia’s Pashinyan said in announcing the agreement. “We will never consider ourselves defeated and this shall become a new start of an era of our national unity and rebirth.” The mood in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, was angry. Within 20 minutes of the prime minister’s Facebook post, people were on the streets, later forcing their way into the main government building and parliament and calling on Pashinyan to go. “The city is in chaos at this point,” Neil Hauer, a journalist based in Yerevan told Al Jazeera. “Everyone is incensed. There’s a great sense of betrayal.” Hundreds forced their way into parliament’s inner chamber, occupying the seats of parliamentarians and shouting “Resign!” and “Out!” Nagorno-Karabakh is within Azerbaijan, but has been under the control of ethnic Armenians since the end of a devastating conflict in 1994. An estimated 30,000 people died in that war. “The reaction to this declaration of an end to the war in Armenia has been greeted with what appears to be absolute disgust and despair,” said Robin Forestier-Walker, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Tbilisi, in neighboring Georgia. “There is just a sense of disbelief that somehow this was the only option for Armenia, to effectively admit defeat, and to sign this agreement, with Azerbaijan, brokered by Russia, that brings this war to an end, but effectively allows Azerbaijan to claim almost complete victory.” The latest fighting began on September 27, raising fears of a wider conflict. Russia has a defense pact with Armenia and a military base there, while Turkey supports Azerbaijan. Hours before the agreement was signed, Azerbaijan apologized to Moscow and offered to pay compensation after it admitted shooting down a Russian helicopter by mistake. Two crew members died in the incident and a third was injured. Three previous ceasefires in Nagorno-Karabakh have failed in the past six weeks. Al Jazeera © 2020 See the full article and access the video here.

Felicien Kabuga, once one of Rwanda’s richest men, is accused of helping create a Hutu militia group and inciting murder through his radio network. Published by Al Jazeera on Novemeber 9, 2020. Félicien Kabuga was detained in Paris on 16 May 2020 after more than two decades on the run. (AFP) A suspected financier of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide faces a pre-trial hearing in The Hague on Wednesday, a United Nations tribunal says. Felicien Kabuga, once one of Rwanda’s richest men, is accused of crimes against humanity including genocide, complicity in genocide and incitement to commit genocide, for having helped create a militia group and using his media company to incite people to murder – charges he denies. More than two decades after Kabuga was first indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), he was arrested near Paris on May 16. The former tea and coffee tycoon was then transferred to The Hague in advance of his trial in Tanzania at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (MICT), the UN tribunal that took over responsibility for trying those accused of atrocities in the Rwandan genocide after the ICTR wound up in 2012. Kabuga’s lawyers will be asked to update the MICT on Wednesday on how their preparations for trial were proceeding, said Judge Iain Bonomy in Arusha, Tanzania. He said Kabuga – aged 84 according to the arrest warrant even though he says he is 87 – could appear in a courtroom in The Hague or via videolink from his detention centre. The MICT will put him on trial for crimes against humanity including genocide, complicity in genocide and incitement to commit genocide. UN prosecutors accuse Kabuga of having helped to create the Interahamwe Hutu militia group and of urging the killing of Tutsis through his Radio-Television Libre des Mille Collines. He is also accused of bankrolling and importing huge numbers of machetes for ethnic Hutu militias who killed hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda during a 100-day period in 1994. © 2020 Al Jazeera Media Network.

UN says it is worried about a refugee emergency if more civilians are forced to flee the fighting between federal and local forces in northern Ethiopia. The United Nations says it is worried about a refugee emergency if more civilians are forced to flee fighting between federal troops and local forces in the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia, the UN refugee agency’s representative in the country said. Sudan has received more than 11,000 Ethiopian refugees since the fighting started and aid agencies say they are unable to restock food, medical and other emergency supplies. The UN is negotiating with both sides in the conflict for humanitarian corridors to be opened, Ann Encontre, UNHCR’s representative in Ethiopia, told the Reuters news agency in an interview. Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed embarked on a military campaign against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) last week, after accusing the regional rulers of attacking a federal military base. Telephone lines to the region were still down, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) said in its report on the crisis on Thursday, hurting aid operations. “Transport is not allowed to and from Tigray, as a result of which shortages of basic commodities are reportedly appearing, impacting the most vulnerable first and the most,” the UN agency said. Aid groups were also concerned about the protection of children, women, the elderly, and disabled people, from the military clashes, it said. Abiy on Thursday said the military offensive had “liberated” the western part of the Tigray region where federal troops have been fighting local forces for a week. With the region cut off to the outside world, there was no independent verification possible nor immediate response from the TPLF, which governs the northern state of more than five million people. The Ethiopian leader also said the federal military had found bodies of its members who were tied and shot in Tigray. He did not say how many bodies were found and there was no immediate comment from the TPLF. Abiy, who at 44 is Africa’s youngest leader, has so far resisted calls by the UN, the African Union, and others for an immediate ceasefire and negotiations. In a related development, Ethiopia’s parliament stripped 39 members, including the Tigray regional President Debretsion Gebremichael, of immunity from prosecution, the state news agency reported on Thursday. Getachew Reda, a senior TPLF official, also lost immunity, the agency added. There are widespread concerns the fighting in Tigray could spread to other parts of Africa’s second-most-populous country, and to the rest of the Horn of Africa region. On Wednesday, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, quoted by state news agency SUNA as he hosted Eritrean foreign minister Osman Saleh, called for a “stop to the fighting as soon as possible” and a return to the negotiating table. See the full article here. Al Jazeera © 2020

At least 46 civilians killed by suspected ADF fighters in Irumu territory, according to a regional official. Published by Al Jazeera on January 15, 2021. DRC - Operation against Ugandan rebel group ADF-Nalu. (Reuters/Kenny Katombe) At least 46 civilians are reported to have been killed in an attack by suspected rebel fighters on a village in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, a senior provincial official said on Thursday. Local security forces have been dispatched to the village in Irumu territory to investigate, provincial Interior Minister Adjio Gidi said by phone. “The death toll as of this afternoon is reported to be 46,” Gidi said. He said the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) were behind the raid. A local NGO leader told AFP news agency that all the victims were from the pygmy ethnic group. The Ugandan armed group is believed to have carried out a string of massacres in the eastern DRC, killing more than 1,000 civilians since the start of 2019, according to UN figures. After being alerted to the latest violence, troops went to the village and are in the process of recovering bodies, local army spokesman Jules Ngongo said. He did not say how many had been killed. DRC’s eastern borderlands with Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi are home to a constellation of more than 100 different rebel groups, many remnants of its brutal civil wars that officially ended in 2003. On Sunday, unidentified attackers killed at least six rangers in an ambush in eastern DRC’s Virunga National Park, a sanctuary for endangered mountain gorillas. ISIL (ISIS) armed group has claimed responsibility for many suspected ADF attacks in the past, although UN experts have not been able to confirm any direct link between the two groups. © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network

US-based research institute voices fear the world’s largest democracy is descending into authoritarianism under Modi. Police detain a woman during a protest outside the police headquarters in New Delhi on January 30, 2020 to demand action against a suspected Hindu nationalist who opened fire on demonstrators during a protest against a controversial citizenship law, outside Jamia Millia Islamia university [File: Prakash Singh/AFP] 4 Mar 2021 Freedom House has downgraded India from free to partly free, voicing fear that the world’s largest democracy was descending into authoritarianism under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The democracy research institute, which is independent but receives funding from the United States, pointed to mob violence against Muslims, intimidation of journalists and rising judicial interference since Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won power in 2014. “Rather than serving as a champion of democratic practice and a counterweight to authoritarian influence from countries such as China, Modi and his party are tragically driving India itself toward authoritarianism,” Freedom House said in its annual report on Wednesday. “Under Modi, India appears to have abandoned its potential to serve as a global democratic leader, elevating narrow Hindu nationalist interests at the expense of its founding values of inclusion and equal rights for all.” Freedom House also pointed to the “ham-fisted” COVID-19 lockdown ordered by Modi in which enormous numbers of workers who lacked resources were obliged to walk across the country to their villages. “The ruling Hindu nationalist movement also encouraged the scapegoating of Muslims, who were disproportionately blamed for the spread of the virus and faced attacks by vigilante mobs,” it said. With the decline of the billion-plus nation in Freedom House’s rankings, it said that less than 20 percent of the world’s population lives in free countries, the lowest since 1995. Freedom House also voiced alarm at deteriorations in Hong Kong, where Beijing imposed a draconian new security law; Belarus, where strongman Alexander Lukashenko has held onto power despite protests following elections widely seen as unfair; and Ethiopia, where Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched a military campaign in which rights groups have reported major abuses. The United States remained classified as free following Donald Trump’s turbulent presidency but Freedom House warned of the “parlous state of US democracy”. It pointed to Trump’s false allegations of election fraud and the January 6 storming of the Capitol “incited by the president himself”. Freedom House also highlighted the Trump administration’s dismissal of inspector-generals tasked with looking out for government misconduct as well as “disproportionate violence by police” against anti-racism protesters last year. “The United States will need to work vigorously to strengthen its institutional safeguards, restore its civic norms and uphold the promise of its core principles for all segments of society if it is to protect its venerable democracy and regain global credibility,” it said. See article here. © 2021 Al Jazeera

Minister for public security says decision has been taken on ‘national security’ grounds; activists decry announcement. Sri Lanka’s government says it will ban the wearing of the burqa, a full-body veil that covers the face as well, and close more than 1,000 Islamic schools, the latest actions affecting the country’s minority Muslim population. Separately, the government on Saturday announced using a controversial anti-terror law to deal with religious “extremism” and gave itself sweeping powers to detain suspects for up to two years for “deradicalisation”. Minister for Public Security Sarath Weerasekera told a news conference he had signed a paper on Friday for cabinet approval to ban the burqa – an outer garment that covers the entire body and the face and is worn by some Muslim women – on “national security” grounds. “In our early days, Muslim women and girls never wore the burqa,” he said. “It is a sign of religious extremism that came about recently. We are definitely going to ban it.” The minister said he signed documents outlawing the burqa, but they need to be approved by the cabinet of ministers and Parliament where the government has a two-thirds majority to see its bills through. Weerasekera also said the government plans to ban more than 1,000 Islamic schools that he said were flouting national education policy. “Nobody can open a school and teach whatever you want to the children,” he said. The government’s moves on burqas and schools follow an order last year mandating the cremation of COVID-19 victims – against the wishes of Muslims, who bury their dead. This ban was lifted earlier this year after criticism from the United States and international rights groups. Shreen Saroor, a Sri Lankan peace and women’s rights activist, said the moves come “at a time when the Muslim community has been constantly targeted”. “It’s part of the Islamophobic reaction in Sri Lanka,” Saroor told Al Jazeera from the capital, Colombo. “The compulsory cremation policy was revised, and now we hear so many other measures to some form of punishing the Muslim community,” she added, noting that Muslims in the country were not consulted in advance. Citing the fact that the wearing of the mask has been made compulsory in the country during the coronavirus pandemic, Saroor said the burqa “looks [like] a very political revenge move”. The wearing of the burqa in the majority-Buddhist nation was temporarily banned in 2019 after the Easter Sunday bombing of churches and hotels by armed fighters that killed more than 250 people. The move drew a mixed response, with activists saying it “violated Muslim women’s right to practise their religion freely”. Prevention of Terrorism Act Meanwhile, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was elected president in 2019, after promising a crackdown on “extremism” promulgated regulations allowing the detention of anyone suspected of causing “acts of violence or religious, racial or communal disharmony or feelings of ill will or hostility between different communities”. The rules, effective on Friday, have been set up under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), which local and international rights groups have repeatedly asked Colombo to repeal. “Anybody can be arrested for saying anything,” said Saroor, calling PTA “very problematic”. Sri Lanka’s previous government, which was defeated by Rajapaksa at the 2019 elections, had pledged to repeal the PTA after admitting it seriously undermined individual freedoms, but failed to do so. Muslims make up about 9 percent of the 22 million people in Sri Lanka, where Sinhalese Buddhists account for some 75 percent of the population. A former defence secretary, Rajapaksa is immensely popular among the Sinhala Buddhist majority, who credit him with ending the island nation’s 26-year civil war in 2009. Critics, however, say during the war he crushed the dissident Tamil Tigers with little regard for human rights, allowed abductions and gave consent to extrajudicial killings. He has rejected all the allegations. © Al Jazeera 2021

Abiy Ahmed acknowledges ‘atrocities committed’ during the conflict in the northern region amid concerns over the humanitarian crisis. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has admitted for the first time that troops from neighbouring Eritrea entered the northern region of Tigray during the conflict that broke out five months ago, suggesting they may have been involved in abuses against civilians. The admission on Tuesday comes after months of denials from Ethiopia and Eritrea, even as credible accusations from rights groups and residents mounted that Eritrean soldiers have carried out massacres in Tigray following the start of the Ethiopian government’s offensive against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), then the region’s governing party. In a wide-ranging speech to parliament, Abiy said on Tuesday Eritrean troops had crossed the border and entered the region because they were concerned they would be attacked by the longtime foe – the TPLF, which dominated Ethiopian politics for decades until Abiy came to power in 2018, had presided over a brutal 1998-2000 war with Eritrea. Abiy said Eritreans had promised to leave when Ethiopia’s military was able to control the border. He added that the “Eritrean people and government did a lasting favour to our soldiers”, during the conflict, without giving more details. “However, after the Eritrean army crossed the border and was operating in Ethiopia, any damage it did to our people was unacceptable,” he said. “We don’t accept it because it is the Eritrean army, and we would not accept it if it were our soldiers. The military campaign was against our clearly targeted enemies, not against the people. We have discussed this four or five times with the Eritrean government.” ‘War narrative’ The comments also marked the first time Abiy appeared to acknowledge that serious crimes have taken place in Tigray, home to six million people. “Reports indicate that atrocities have been committed in Tigray region,” Abiy said. War is “a nasty thing”, he added, speaking the local Amharic language. “We know the destruction this war has caused.” After months of tension, fighting erupted in Tigray after forces loyal to the TPLF – whose leaders challenged Abiy’s legitimacy after the postponement of elections last year – attacked army bases across the region overnight and in the early hours of November 4. The attacks initially overwhelmed the federal military, which later launched a counteroffensive alongside Eritrean soldiers and forces from the neighbouring region of Amhara. The federal army is now hunting the fugitive TPLF leadership. Abiy said soldiers who raped women or committed other war crimes will be held responsible, even though he cited “propaganda of exaggeration”. He spoke as concerns continue to grow over the humanitarian situation in the embattled region. Abiy accused the TPLF’s leaders of drumming “a war narrative” while the area faced challenges such as a destructive invasion of locusts and the COVID-19 pandemic. “This was misplaced and untimely arrogance,” he said. The Ethiopian prime minister, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for his efforts to make peace with Eritrea, faces pressure to end the conflict in Tigray as well as to institute an international investigation into alleged war crimes. The government’s critics say a continuing federal inquiry is not enough because the government cannot effectively investigate itself. On Monday, the heads of nine UN agencies and other officials demanded a halt to attacks against civilians in Tigray, “including rape and other horrific forms of sexual violence”. In a joint statement, the UN agencies, the UN special investigator on the human rights of internally displaced people, and two umbrella organisations representing NGOs also called on all parties in Tigray to explicitly condemn all sexual violence and ensure their forces “respect and protect civilian populations, particularly women and children, from all human rights abuses”. UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said on Monday the conflict continues to drive massive displacement, with tens of thousands of people arriving into Shire, Axum and Adwa, most fleeing fighting in western Tigray in the last few weeks. There are also reports of people uprooted by violence in the northwest and central areas, he said. Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch reported that Eritrean forces shot dead hundreds of children and civilians in a November massacre in Tigray. An Amnesty International investigation into the same events detailed how Eritrean troops “went on a rampage and systematically killed hundreds of civilians in cold blood”. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres joined calls for the Eritrean troops to leave Tigray while the UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, urged an investigation into the situation. © Al Jazeera 2021

The resolution received 22 votes in favour and 11 against, including China and Pakistan, and 14 abstentions including India. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Bachelet, has slammed Sri Lanka's government for reneging on promises to deliver justice to war victims [Denis Balibouse/Reuters] The UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday adopted a resolution giving UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet a mandate to collect and preserve information and evidence of war crimes committed during Sri Lanka’s long civil war, which ended in 2009. The erosion of judicial independence, marginalisation of minorities and impunity in Sri Lanka came up for criticism in the resolution, which received 22 votes in favour with 11 against, including China and Pakistan, and 14 abstentions, including India. The resolution, which was brought by the UK on behalf of a core group of countries, expressed particular concern that the island’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has “exacerbated the prevailing marginalisation of and discrimination against the Muslim community”. It also highlighted “accelerating militarisation of civilian government functions”, “the erosion of the independence of the judiciary”, and “increased marginalisation” of Tamil and Muslim minorities. Last month, Bachelet, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said that 12 years after the end of armed conflict in the South Asian island nation, domestic efforts to ensure justice for victims have failed. “Despite commitments made in 2015, the current government, like its predecessor, has failed to pursue genuine truth-seeking or accountability processes,” she said. “The impact on thousands of survivors, from all communities, is devastating. Moreover, the systems, structures, policies and personnel that gave rise to such grave violations in the past remain – and have recently been reinforced.” The decades-long civil war between the Sri Lankan security forces and the separatist Tamil Tigers killed about 100,000 people, including up to 40,000 Tamil civilians killed by the Sri Lankan forces in the final phases of the war. The government has denied the charge. UN reports have accused Sri Lankan troops of shelling hospitals and carrying out indiscriminate aerial bombardments, executing surrendering rebels and causing the disappearance of thousands of minority Tamils. SOURCE: REUTERS

Rights groups say Christians, a minority in the mainly Buddhist country, are being swept up in the military crackdown on resistance. By Nu Nu Lusan and Emily Fishbein Churches, which have provided refuge to people fleeing violence, are being caught up in the Myanmar military's crackdown on all forms of resistance to its rule. Christians in Chin State say these hymn books were thrown out by soldiers who ransacked their church in August [Supplied] Last month, Myanmar soldiers gunned down Cung Biak Hum, a 31-year-old Baptist pastor, while he rushed to help put out a fire caused by military shelling. As his town of Thantlang in Myanmar’s northwestern Chin State went up in flames, soldiers sawed off the pastor’s finger and stole his wedding ring. “The killing of Cung Biak Hum and mutilation of his finger demonstrate the extent of disrespect and brutality with which [Myanmar military] soldiers are conducting themselves in their ongoing war against the people,” Salai Za Uk Ling, deputy director of the Chin Human Rights Organisation, told Al Jazeera. The September 19 incident is one of at least 20 cases documented by human rights groups and the media, in which Christian churches, church leaders and volunteers have been targeted or caught in the crossfire of military attacks since a February 1 coup. The incidents include shelling churches, detaining pastors, and using churches as military bases. “Churches are now empty and deserted,” said a Catholic church leader in Kayah State who, like several others interviewed for this article, spoke on condition of anonymity due to concerns of reprisals. “Fear is instilled in the hearts of people. Even churches are not safe from attacks,” he said. Military spokesman Major General Zaw Min Tun did not respond to multiple attempts to reach him for comment on the incidents mentioned in this report, as his phone was switched off. In May, the military justified its attacks on churches in Kayah, including a Catholic church where artillery fire killed four people, by claiming “local rebels” were hiding there, Radio Free Asia reported. Christians, including Catholics make up about six percent of Myanmar’s population but are mostly from ethnic minority areas. Experts say they are targeted both for their religion and their ethnicity [File: /Jorge Silva/Reuters] According to 2014 census figures, which surveyed some 50 million people and excluded roughly 1 million mostly Muslim Rohingya, Myanmar’s population is nearly 90 percent Buddhist. The predominantly Buddhist ethnic Bamar majority dominates the military and politics, and the military has long promoted Buddhist nationalist organisations. The military-drafted 2008 constitution also recognises the “special position of Buddhism as the faith possessed by the great majority of the citizens”. Christians, meanwhile, make up just six percent of Myanmar’s population and are mostly from ethnic minorities concentrated along the country’s borders, where their experiences of marginalisation and forced assimilation have contributed to decades-long armed struggles for self-determination. According to Benedict Rogers, senior analyst for East Asia at the human rights organisation Christian Solidarity Worldwide and author of three books on Myanmar, the military has always had a “deep-seated hostility” towards non-Buddhist religious minorities. “[The military] have often used religion as a tool of repression. They have sowed religious nationalism, and that has been the case for decades,” he said, adding that since the coup, these patterns have only intensified. “Christians have certainly been targeted, both for their religion and their ethnicity,” he told Al Jazeera. Chin, Kayah and Kachin State have the country’s largest concentration of Christians, according to the census. Damage sustained to Our Lady of Peace church in Kayah State’s Demoso township during military attacks in the area in June [Supplied} Some 85 percent of the 478,000 residents of Chin State, located on Myanmar’s northwestern border with India, identified as Christian, while in Kayah, which borders Thailand in Myanmar’s southeast, 46 percent of its 286,000 people said they were Christian. Damage sustained to Our Lady of Peace church in Kayah State’s Demoso township during military attacks in the area on June 6 [Supplied] In Kachin State, in Myanmar’s far north on the border with China, 34 percent of 1.6 million people surveyed identified as Christian; the census excluded about 46,000 people living in areas under the control of the Kachin Independence Organisation. “[The central government] set the mark of their ownership on Kachin lands, building their pagodas wherever there is a hill,” said Layang Seng Ja, head of research and publications and a professor at the Kachin Theological College and Seminary. “Our beautiful hills, valleys, plains and mountains have the symbols of their domination.” Crackdown on resistance Military violence towards Christians since the coup comes amid a broader crackdown on the resistance movement which has swept the country. Security forces have killed more than 1,100 unarmed civilians, according to rights groups, mostly during street demonstrations, and as people have increasingly taken up arms, the military has indiscriminately attacked entire civilian populations, following a ‘four cuts’ strategy it has applied for decades in ethnic areas. In Kayah and southern Shan State, more than 100,000 people have fled their homes since an intense military offensive began in May. At least five churches have been damaged in artillery fire, including the Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic church in Kayah’s Loikaw township where four civilians were killed. About 300 people from the township’s South Kayantharyar village sought shelter in the church grounds on May 22, hiding in two cathedrals and the priests’ residence. “It seemed like the war was closing in on us, and we thought that the church would be safe,” said Khu Reh, a farmer. Al Jazeera has used a pseudonym for the 56-year-old. The villagers raised white flags around the compound’s perimeter as a gesture of peace. They also disposed of kitchen knives and other items that could be mistaken for weapons, said Khu Reh. According to his account, soldiers arrived the next day, searching the church grounds and questioning the villagers. “They warned us not to leave the church, and said that if they saw anyone coming out, they would shoot,” he said. That night, he and a handful of villagers stood guard at the church gates. A discarded Bible after soldiers ransacked a church in Myanmar’s northwestern Chin State in August [Supplied] One of them, he said, was shot in the leg at about 9pm local time (14:30 GMT). Artillery fire began falling on the village and two nearby villages at 1am (18:30 GMT), and when it stopped two hours later, Khu Reh and the other guards opened the doors to the new cathedral to a billow of smoke. Three elderly women and an elderly man lay dead and eight people were injured. When Khu Reh returned the next day, he found the church ransacked and looted. “After that, whenever [soldiers] came to our village, they always stationed at our church,” said Khu Reh, who along with others from his village has since been living in a displacement camp. The Catholic church leader interviewed by Al Jazeera said that soldiers have also stationed themselves at the Doumyalay Parish Church in Loikaw township, and on May 29 entered the compound of St. Peter’s seminary – also in Loikaw township – where 1,300 people had taken shelter, and shot a volunteer dead. On Wednesday, a Catholic church in Kayah State’s Hpruso township was damaged by artillery fire; the clashes are ongoing, said the Catholic church leader. He added that soldiers have confiscated medicine and food supplies which church groups had collected for displaced people, following patterns of aid obstruction which media and rights groups have documented across the country. Although he risks his life to do so, the church leader says he remains committed to protecting and helping civilians in need. “Humanitarian concern, human dignity and value, and compassionate hearts make us see [all civilians] as our brothers and sisters in need,” he said. “We must be with them in their fear and protect them. The suffering of our people is our suffering. The cries of our people are our pain.” Military suspicions In Chin State, where nearly 12,000 people remain displaced by military attacks that began when armed resistance groups emerged in April, the Chin Human Rights Organisation has collected reports of three churches which were occupied by soldiers and four which were hit by artillery fire, as well as the arbitrary detention of a pastor from Matupi township, who has been in custody without charge since August 23. In August, soldiers passed through the Taal Baptist Church in Falam township and left Bibles and hymn books strewn outside the church amid piles of rubbish, according to photos seen by Al Jazeera. Damage to the Sacred Heart of Jesus church in Kayah State’s Loikaw Township after military shelling on May 24 [Supplied] And on October 3, local media outlet Zalen reported that soldiers entered a Catholic church in Magway region where displaced villagers from Mindat township had taken shelter. Soldiers interrogated them and checked their phones for evidence of ties to armed resistance, according to the report. Zalen also reported on Wednesday that soldiers had set a church in Chin State’s Falam township on fire as it burned and looted a small village. Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify these reports. A representative from the Chin Baptist Convention, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Al Jazeera that soldiers also destroyed Bibles while occupying the Grace Baptist Church in Mindat township in August. “The coup has affected our ability to safely and freely worship,” he said. “People worry that they will be attacked or bombed while they are praying.” The violence, arrests and other forms of persecution which Christian churches across Myanmar have faced since the coup were already being acutely felt in the country’s far north, where a ceasefire between the Kachin Independence Organization and the military collapsed in 2011. In 2015, two volunteer teachers from the Kachin Baptist Convention were raped and murdered near a military encampment in northern Shan State, in a case which was never brought to justice. And in 2017, two Baptist leaders were jailed on charges of defamation and supporting the KIO after they took journalists to a church which had been damaged by military airstrikes. The military also threatened defamation charges against Kachin Baptist Convention president Hkalam Samson in 2019, after he told Donald Trump during a religious freedom event at the Oval Office that Christians in Myanmar had been “oppressed and tortured” by the military and lacked religious freedom. Kachin churches have been integral in the humanitarian response to armed conflict, but have faced ongoing scrutiny for their humanitarian work, especially in KIO-controlled areas, where international aid access has effectively been blocked since 2016. In 2015, two volunteer teachers from the Kachin Baptist Convention were raped and murdered near a military encampment in northern Shan State, in a case which was never brought to justice. And in 2017, two Baptist leaders were jailed on charges of defamation and supporting the KIO after they took journalists to a church which had been damaged by military airstrikes. The military also threatened defamation charges against Kachin Baptist Convention president Hkalam Samson in 2019, after he told Donald Trump during a religious freedom event at the Oval Office that Christians in Myanmar had been “oppressed and tortured” by the military and lacked religious freedom. Kachin churches have been integral in the humanitarian response to armed conflict, but have faced ongoing scrutiny for their humanitarian work, especially in KIO-controlled areas, where international aid access has effectively been blocked since 2016. It is among numerous ways that Kachin churches have been caught up in the post-coup crisis. On March 8, a Catholic nun in the Kachin State capital knelt in front of police and soldiers and begged them to show mercy towards a group of protesters who had gathered in front of her church; she also served as a first responder that day when security forces opened fire, killing two. Churches have long provided refuge to people fleeing conflict in Myanmar’s ethnic minority areas including northern Kachin state where the military has been fighting the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) for years [file: Ann Wang/Reuters] In March and April, four Kachin churches were raided. At one of them, a Baptist church in northern Shan State, 30 soldiers entered, firing gunshots and detaining 10 people, including four ministers, for two days, according to local media reports. The Kachin Theological College and Seminary in the state capital was also raided on March 13. According to Layang Seng Ja, a convoy of 15 military vehicles surrounded the campus and soldiers searched the grounds and dormitories. The school has since sent its students home, she said. “If [soldiers] see people gathering, they will think somehow they are planning to do an uprising,” said the professor at the college, who herself fled to the KIO headquarters due to fear of arrest. “I want to go back to the classroom and teach my students about Jesus’ peace and justice, love and compassion, but I cannot do so now,” she added. The military has also kept a close watch on Kachins’ prayer services. Three pastors in the state’s Nawngmun township have been in detention since June 14, under charges of incitement for allegedly using the phrase “ending military dictatorship” during a prayer for peace. And on August 26, plainclothes police searched the Kachin Baptist Convention headquarters, alleging that the church’s secretary signed off on a COVID-19 prayer statement which used the phrase “terrorist junta”; The church claims the phrase was mistranslated from Kachin to Burmese. “[The military] check the contents of our prayers,” said Seng Ja. “We cannot practice freedom of religion in our own land; we cannot talk about peace [or] justice.” “We are in a living hell caused by this military junta and their mentality,” she added. © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network

By Mucahid Durmaz Since January’s coup, the number of attacks has increased by more than 23 percent, compared with the five months before. Burkina Faso President Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba talks to local people, after armed men killed civilians and military personnel in Seytenga, at airport in Dori, Burkina Faso, June 15, 2022. © 2022 Burkina Faso's Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters. When the mutinous soldiers removed the government last January in Burkina Faso, they pledged to end the country’s crippling security crisis, a task that they claimed elected officials failed to execute. The man who led the coup, Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba justified the takeover by saying there was a need to “fight for [the country’s] territorial integrity, its recovery and its sovereignty”. And when the 41-year-old Damiba was sworn in as head of state, he reshuffled the army command to tackle the crisis. But he also encouraged local communities to build dialogue with armed groups as part of a peacemaking process to convince the fighters to put down their arms. But the violence has worsened under military rule. Since the military takeover in January, the number of attacks has increased by more than 23 percent, compared with five months before the coup, according to the conflict monitoring group, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED). In the latest episode of gruesome violence, at least 100 people were killed in the northern border village of Seytenga last month – survivors said the assailants moved unhampered from home to home, slaughtering inhabitants and torching shops. It was the second-worst death toll since the violence unleashed by armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) began to spill over from neighboring Mali in 2015. Villagers who escaped the massacre said they became targets a day after security forces pulled out of the area. “How is it possible that in a key and strategic area terrorists can simply carry out barbaric acts over a period of hours without being disturbed,” Alassane Bala Sakande, who heads the People’s Movement for Progress (MMP) party, asked the government. Military zones As the military battles for territory with the advancing armed groups, state presence is further shrinking in parts of the country. After talks with the military government in June, former Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou, the mediator appointed by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the regional bloc, said Burkinabe security forces have no control over more than a third of the country. And that has kept the military government on its toes. Following the Seytenga attack, it announced the creation of two large military zones and ordered residents in those areas to evacuate. One zone covers an area of about 2,000 square kilometers (494,200 acres) and borders Mali in the northern province of Soum. The other zone covers about 11,000 square kilometers (2.71 million acres) on the southern border with Benin and comprises mostly national parklands and natural reserves. Former President Rock Kabore sought to implement a similar plan but could not do so because of the ill-equipped state of the armed forces. By evacuating civilians, the military is preparing for major operations in these areas against the armed groups that have captured towns by imposing blockades and isolating locals from the rest of the country. “The plan also aims to cut the sources of supply for terrorist groups which have created corridors in the eastern part of the country to be able to move to refuel, motorcycle, and ammunition,” Mahamoudou Savadogo, founder of capital Ouagadougou-based geopolitical advisory firm Granada Consulting, told Al Jazeera. With very few details available about how long people have to evacuate or where they should go, Abdoulaye Barry, a Burkinabe researcher at the United Nations’ University for Peace, says there are concerns about the efficient implementation of the plan. “Does the government have the necessary means to ensure that the message is widely disseminated since the terrorists have destroyed the communication infrastructure in certain areas? What system can the government put in place for the evacuation of populations? What sites are planned to accommodate these populations? So many questions without answers,” Barry told Al Jazeera. Rida Lyammouri, a senior fellow at Policy Center for the New South in Rabat, is also skeptical about the plan. He says it will further deteriorate, not improve the lives of local communities hard hit by the armed uprising. “They either have to flee to find safety and access to basic services, or take the risk and remain in their homes but then perceived by state forces as collaborators or supporters of armed groups”, Rida Lyammouri told Al Jazeera. “Subsequently, this could lead to acts of atrocities by security forces against civilians.” Burkina Faso already has one of the world’s fastest-growing numbers of internally displaced people as 1.9 million have been forced to flee their homes due to the conflict, according to the UN. Worse still, it has also been listed among the world’s most neglected displacement crises in the world, by the Norwegian Refugee Council. Only 22 percent of overall funding promised this year for the displaced populations has been covered so far. The displacement of farming communities in rural areas has exacerbated food shortage, which has been deepened by the militias who have blockaded towns and restricted the movement of goods and people. Consequently, about 3.5 million of the country’s 21 million people are currently facing food insecurity while more than half a million are threatened by starvation. As the multidimensional crisis looms large, Abdoulaye Barry thinks militarizing residential areas will not be the panacea that the government seeks to stabilise the country. “This plan puts security at the centre of the debate in the fight against terrorism but unfortunately, it has shown its limits,” Barry said. Rising discontent Damiba is also organizing reconciliation summits with former presidents in a bid to project social and political unity under his wings in the face of the slowly brewing discontentment over spiraling violence. But that move has attracted public criticism of the government, even though the coup was welcomed by crowds in the capital. One of the invited statesmen was former strongman Blaise Compaore, who ruled Burkina Faso with an iron fist for nearly 30 years. Although in exile in neighboring Ivory Coast, Compaore was recently convicted of complicity in the 1987 murder of his friend and predecessor Thomas Sankara and sentenced to life in prison. His return to the country has left a bitter taste in the mouth of many. The Patriotic Front, a coalition of some 20 civil organisations and political parties, said the reconciliation cannot be achieved by establishing impunity or by “making arrangements between politicians”. Arouna Loure, a member of the transitional parliament, also rejected the idea that Compaore’s controversial return would help build political unity. “If you believe that Compaore is the lion that will come save our country, then you are deeply mistaken because this lion doesn’t have teeth anymore,” Loure said. © 2022 Al Jazeera

The conflict-ravaged country awaits two scenarios: a new cycle of war or an extended cessation of hostilities. Millions of Yemeni civilians are fearful that a new cycle of war and violence is imminent [File: Khaled Abdullah/Reuters] Fear, anxiety, confusion – these are the most common sentiments expressed by civilians in war-ravaged Yemen as a four-month truce is slated to expire on Tuesday. “The ceasefire expiry is a rebirth of multiple ordeals,” said Saleh Ahmed, a 50-year-old resident in the capital, Sanaa, who, like others, fears a descent into a new cycle of war. “Fighting will erupt, roads will be blocked, fuel will be expensive, the price of basic goods will jump, and civilian deaths will mount,” he said. “These troubles make life bitter and unbearable.” The United Nations-sponsored truce has been the longest respite Yemen has seen in seven years of war, which have pitted the internationally recognised government, backed by a Saudi-led military coalition, against the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels, who control most of Yemen’s north. The truce has held, despite reported violations from both sides. As the expiration date approached, the UN’s envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, as well as the United States envoy, Tim Lenderking, intensified diplomatic efforts to extend it. Last week, Grundberg visited the southern port city of Aden, the seat of Yemen’s internationally recognised government, as well as the Saudi and Omani capitals of Riyadh and Muscat, respectively. For his part, Lenderking flew to Riyadh and Jordan’s capital, Amman, which, along with Muscat, have hosted negotiators from Yemen’s warring sides. Ahmed, a minibus driver, described the truce as the “good days”. “Before the ceasefire, I used to spend hours and hours waiting at the gas stations to fill up my vehicle with petrol. Today, I can fill it anywhere at any time I want. I can work and make money to provide for my family. With the truce, my situation has been better.” According to the UN, the truce has resulted in improved humanitarian conditions and led to a significant decrease in civilian casualties. It also reduced queues at petrol stations and allowed Yemenis to travel more easily across the country. Fatima Amri, a 24-year-old university student in the Houthi-held Sanaa, said a failure to extend the truce would be a disappointing setback to diplomacy and an assault on human rights in Yemen. “If war resumes, we will instantly lose many rights, including the freedom of movement. The conflict made the country like a jail. The truce helped partially open that jail. It will be shut again once the ceasefire breaks down,” Amri told Al Jazeera. While Yemenis recognise the truce’s tangible benefits, many are doubtful the current break from war can lead to lasting peace and put an end to the country’s predicament. “There are no indicators that the warring sides are ready to stop the fighting soon,” Mohammed al-Samei, a Yemeni journalist in Taiz, said. “The recurring violations committed since the start of the truce demonstrate the war-prone attitude of the Yemeni rivals, particularly the Houthi group.” And while the truce has brought immense relief to civilians, it has not helped build robust rapprochement between the rival sides. “The level of trust between the Yemeni government and the Houthi group has not improved throughout the ceasefire. Therefore, instability will continue to grip Yemen as both sides have almost equal military power,” al-Samei said. A return to full-blown war cannot entirely be ruled out, considering the complexity of the conflict. Amr al-Bidh, a member of the Southern Transitional Council, a nominal ally of the government which, however, has been pushing for self-rule in southern Yemen, told reporters during a visit to London last week that the truce may be extended. “But at the same time, the war is coming. The preparation for war is happening,” he said. “I think it would be naive not to prepare for war with the Houthis.” For their part, the Houthis have repeatedly expressed their dissatisfaction with the way the truce has been implemented, accusing the Saudi-led coalition and the internationally recognised government of not fulfilling their obligations. On Thursday, just days before the expiration of the truce, Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, the UN-recognised authority in Yemen, replaced the country’s defence minister, a decision that some observers say could signal a shift in strategy. Political analysts also hailed the truce as a diplomatic success but cautioned that the roots of the conflict have not been fully addressed. “Without disarming all militias in Yemen and restoring the legitimate authority, any truce extension or agreement will not serve the national interest of the country in the long-term,” Adel Dashela, a Yemeni political researcher and author, told Al Jazeera. The truce, according to Dashela, could be counterproductive if it were to perpetuate the status quo of a de facto divided Yemen: the Houthis in the north and the government and its local allies in the south. “Yemeni civilians have been glad that the truce reduced violence. But a ceasefire minus a definite peace plan is an incomplete solution, and the roots of war will keep alive.” © Al Jazeera 2022