Published by Al Jazeera on January 6, 2021. (Al Jazeera) At least 22 civilians have been killed in a rebel attack on a village in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to local officials. The violence in Mwenda village of the Beni territory was perpetrated by the Ugandan rebel group Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), Donat Kibwana, the administrator of the Beni territory, told Anadolu news agency. “ADF rebels attacked the village of Mwenda on Monday about 19:00 GMT, killing 22 civilians with machetes,” Kibwana said, adding the death toll is provisional. Local leaders Ruwenzori Bozy Sindiwako and Iteni Muvunga Kimwele told the dpa news agency by telephone on Tuesday the rebels used machetes and bladed weapons to carry out the massacre and systematically loot the settlement. Fulbert Kasairo, a local official, said a dozen other villagers were also kidnapped by the attackers in order to transport stolen goods to other localities. “Our region is a powder keg, a cemetery. We live in a dying house while the authorities are disinterested,” Kasairo said. The army intervened too late to push back the rebels, Bozy Sindiwako and Muvunga Kimwele said. “These repeated killings … are causing massive displacements of the population of this sector towards secure [areas], including, in particular, the city of Beni,” Bozy Sindiwako said. “At the moment, the whole village is crying, my constituents are killed, it sickens me,” Muvunga Kimwele said. Lieutenant Antony Mwalushayi of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) confirmed the attack without giving details. More bodies recovered On Monday, authorities said they discovered 21 bodies “in a state of decomposition” in the localities of Loselose and Loulo in the same region after a passage of the rebels. The ADF, which originated in Uganda’s northeast in the 1990s, has been attacking and killing civilians in eastern DRC for decades. The illicit exploitation of natural resources continues to be a root cause and driver of conflict in the east of the country, according to the UN. Most of the militia groups have set aside their political demands and are involved in mineral trafficking. © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network

UN says 38 people were killed across Myanmar on Wednesday after security forces opened fire on anti-coup protesters. A protester uses a fire extinguisher as others holding homemade shields run in Yangon. [AFP] Myanmar pro-democracy activists were back out on the streets on Thursday to demonstrate against military rule a day after the United Nations said 38 people had been killed in the most violent day of unrest since last month’s coup. On Wednesday, police and soldiers opened fire with live rounds with little warning in several cities and towns, witnesses said, a day after neighbouring countries had called on the military government to show restraint. Regardless of the danger, activists said they refused to live under military rule and were determined to press for the release of detained government leader Aung San Suu Kyi and recognition of her victory in the election in November. Five fighter jets made several low passes in formation over the second city of Mandalay early on Thursday, residents said, in what appeared to be a show of military might. UN special envoy on Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener, said in New York that Wednesday was the bloodiest day since the February 1 coup with 38 deaths, bringing the total toll to more than 50 as the military tries to cement its power. A spokesman for the ruling military council did not answer telephone calls seeking comment. In Yangon, witnesses said at least eight people were killed on Wednesday, while media reported six were killed in the central town of Monywa. Save the Children said four children were killed, including a 14-year-old boy who Radio Free Asia reported was shot dead by a soldier on a passing convoy of military trucks. The soldiers loaded his body onto a truck and left, according to the report. Security forces in Yangon detained about 300 protesters, the Myanmar Now news agency reported. The military justified the coup by saying its complaints of voter fraud in the November 8 vote were ignored. Aung San Suu Kyi’s party won by a landslide, earning a second term. The election commission said the vote was fair. Coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has pledged to hold new elections but has given no timeframe. Aung San Suu Kyi, 75, has been held incommunicado since the coup but appeared at a court hearing via video conferencing this week and looked in good health, a lawyer said. Protesters run away after security forces fire tear gas in Yangon, Myanmar's largest city. [Anadolu] People take shelter and block the road during a protest in Myanmar's second-largest city Mandalay. [Anadolu] Soldiers advance to disperse protesters in Yangon. [Lynn Bo Bo/EPA] Protesters take cover under makeshift shields during the anti-coup protest in Yangon. [Reuters] People lie on the ground after police open fire to disperse anti-coup protesters in Mandalay. [Reuters] A soldier stands next to a detained man during protests in Mandalay. [AFP] A police truck transporting arrested protesters during a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon. [Santosh Krl/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images] Soldiers attempt to disperse protesters in Yangon. [Lynn Bo Bo/EPA] Protesters react as police fire tear gas during a demonstration against the military coup in Mandalay. [AFP] © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network

Authorities in Indian-administered Kashmir send dozens of Rohingya refugees to ‘holding centre’, as activists decry the move. Rohingya carry their belongings as they leave a refugee camp in Jammu [Rakesh Bakshi/AFP] Al Jazeera | Aakash Hassan and Zafar Aafaq 8 Mar 2021 New Delhi, India – Indian authorities have detained more than 160 Rohingya in the Jammu area of Indian-administered Kashmir, with members of the persecuted minority saying the move was a “repeat of what happened with them in Myanmar”. The detentions in Jammu began on Saturday after the region’s administration ordered the police to identify “illegal” Rohingya living in the city’s slums. Approximately 5,000 mainly Muslim Rohingya had taken refuge in Jammu in the past few years after a large number of the ethnic group fled a deadly military crackdown in 2017 in Myanmar, their Buddhist-majority homeland. India hosts about 40,000 Rohingya refugees living in camps and slums in different cities and regions, including Jammu, Hyderabad, Nuh and the capital New Delhi – many of them believed to be undocumented. An Indian Border Security Force soldier stands at a Rohingya camp on the outskirts of Jammu [Channi Anand/AP] The detained Rohingya were taken to the Hiranagar jail, 59km (36 miles) from Jammu, which was turned into a “holding centre” for the detainees. Officials said they would be deported to Myanmar, a country in turmoil as security forces crack down, killing more than 50 people to quell protests over a February 1 coup by the military. “After nationality verification of these illegal immigrants, details will be sent to the ministry of external affairs in Delhi to be taken up with Myanmar for their deportation,” a senior police officer said, according to Indian media reports. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government scrapped Indian-administered Kashmir’s special status in August 2019, splitting it into two federally administered territories that are run from New Delhi. Shockwaves among the community Saturday’s detentions in Jammu have shocked the community. Mohammad Ibrahim, a Rohingya living in Jammu’s Narwal area, said a large police team arrived in their camp on Saturday morning and asked the community leaders to send refugees, in groups, to a nearby sports stadium for a “general verification” process and COVID-19 tests. Rohingya refugees at a makeshift camp on the outskirts of Jammu [Channi Anand/AP] He said more than 300 Rohingya queued in the stadium, where they were subjected to coronavirus tests and biometric scans after they showed the identity cards issued to them by the UN refugee agency, UNHCR. “They were given a slice of bread each and asked to wait,” Ibrahim told Al Jazeera. “The gates of the stadium were shut and no one was allowed to leave,” he said. “In the afternoon, officials announced the names of some refugees and asked them to separate from the rest. Then they were whisked away in buses.” Unnamed officials quoted in multiple local news reports said the refugees were detained for not having the required documents, adding that a process to deport them has been initiated. “They separated wives from their husbands, mothers from sons, sisters from brothers… and grandfathers and grandmothers from their families,” said Siddiq, another Rohingya. The Rohingya said the police raided their camps again later on Saturday evening and started putting more refugees into buses. “We don’t know why the authorities took them to jail,” said Abdul Rohin, whose 26-year-old son and daughter-in-law were among those detained. ‘We are not at peace here’ Last month, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court asked the local government to explain the measures taken to identify and deport refugees staying in Jammu within a month. Rohingya community leaders and activists in India are appalled by the move and fear that this is a sign of hostility from the Hindu nationalist government towards the Rohingya. “Rohingya refugees are innocent people who have committed no crime and yet they are being put in jail,” said Sabbr Kyaw Min, who heads a New Delhi-based Rohingya rights group. “If the authorities are planning to deport us, then they should deport all of us together. And where will they deport? The situation in Myanmar has worsened after the army coup. It is hell there.” Rohingya refugees stand outside their makeshift camp on the outskirts of Jammu [Channi Anand/AP] Min said the Rohingya should be allowed to live in India until the situation in Myanmar improves. “We should be treated at par with other refugees,” he said. A UNHCR official in India, who did not want to be named, said they are following up on this issue but have not been able to reach out to the authorities. Indian legal experts have also criticised the detention, arguing that the move violates domestic and international laws. “The administration is emulating the actions of authoritarian dictatorial governments,” Ravi Nair, a human rights lawyer in New Delhi, told Al Jazeera. Nair said a petition he filed against the deportation of Rohingya is pending in India’s Supreme Court. “I need affidavits from them so that we will move the Supreme Court to stop detention and to free all those already in prison,” he said. “They are not illegal migrants. They are refugees with valid UNHCR cards and, according to the memorandum of understanding between India and the UN refugee body, all urban refugees can be recognised as legal and these are urban refugees in Jammu,” Nair added. In recent months, Indian police have detained dozens of Rohingya for allegedly not carrying valid documents. Activists say there are more than 300 Rohingya held in different Indian jails without trial for years. “If the Indian government is planning to deport us then why are these refugees lying in jails for years? They should deport them first,” said Min. Meanwhile, the refugees in Jammu’s camps continue to live in fear. “They can come anytime and take us away,” said Salah. “This is a repeat of what happened with us in Myanmar.” He said they had decided to pack their bags and flee the camp, but the police stopped them and pushed them back. “Our family members have been separated from us,” said a refugee, carrying a sack of clothes on his head. “We will march to Myanmar on foot. We are not at peace here.” See article here. © 2021 Al Jazeera

Those eligible for reparations include direct and indirect victims of crimes such as rape and sexual slavery. Published by Al Jazeera on February 8, 2021. Bosco Ntaganda (Lionel Healing/AFP) International Criminal Court judges have awarded $30m in reparations to victims of crimes for which a Congolese rebel leader was convicted, with those victims including child soldiers and survivors of rape and sexual slavery. The judges said Bosco Ntaganda did not have the resources to pay the compensation himself. Instead, they asked the tribunal’s own Trust Fund to help set up and finance vocational and other programmes to support victims of his crimes. Ntaganda, known as “The Terminator”, was convicted in 2019 on 18 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes and sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment for his role in atrocities during a bloody ethnic conflict in a mineral-rich region of Congo in 2002-2003. Hundreds of civilians were killed and many thousands forced to flee during the fighting. Those eligible for reparations include direct and indirect victims of “crimes against child soldiers, of rape and sexual slavery, and children born out of rape and sexual slavery,” the court said in a statement. Judges said they were “collective reparations with individualised components” for victims, with the number of eligible victims possibly topping 100,000. “In light of the circumstances of the case and bearing in mind the rights of the convicted person, the chamber set the total reparations award for which Mr Ntaganda is liable at $30 million,” the court said in a statement. Hundreds of civilians were killed and many thousands forced to flee during the fighting. Ntaganda has appealed his convictions and sentence. As Ntaganda could not pay, “the Chamber encourages the Trust Fund for Victims to complement the reparation awards to the extent possible and engage in additional fundraising efforts as necessary to complement the totality of the award,” said judge Chang-ho Chung. In 2020 the fund, which relies on voluntary contributions, had around 18 million euros ($21m) in reserves and much of that was already pledged in other cases. However, the court said that Ntaganda “remains liable” and said it will “continue exploring whether Mr Ntaganda possesses any undiscovered assets and monitoring his financial situation”. In a written statement, the Trust Fund called the ruling “an important step in responding to the long-lasting harm that victims in this case have suffered”. © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network.

Thousands of Pakistan’s Baloch have been abducted by security forces. Will Prime Minister Imran Khan act to find our loved ones? Al Jazeera | Nasrullah Baloch | Chairperson of Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, a collective working for the release of victims of enforced disappearances in Pakistan. 9 March 2021 In this January 5, 2010 file photo, relatives of forcefully disappeared people from Balochistan are seen as they demonstrate in front of Pakistan's Supreme Court, in Islamabad, Pakistan [File:Human Rights Watch] In February 2020, Haseeba Qambrani, a young woman living in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan, received chilling news: Her brother Hassan and cousin Hizbullah had gone missing. This was not the first time her family had experienced such a tragedy, just a few years earlier, in 2015, Haseeba’s other brother Salman and cousin Gazain went missing. One year later, Haseeba’s family discovered their mutilated dead bodies. The whereabouts of Hassan and Hizbullah are still unknown a year later, and Haseeba is still trying to find them. She is not alone in her search for loved ones who have been abducted over the years in Balochistan. Balochistan borders Afghanistan and Iran. Full of mountains and deserts, I call this place my home. Here, thousands of men and boys have been forcefully disappeared, held in incommunicado detention for long periods, or extrajudicially killed in the last two decades. My own uncle, Ali Asghar Bangulzai, was abducted from Balochistan’s provincial capital, Quetta, in 2001. Twenty years on, we still do not know where he is. Deen Muhammad, a local doctor, suffered the same fate in June 2009, and his wife and two daughters Sammi and Mehlab are still searching for him. In October 2016, a student leader, Shabbir Baloch, was disappeared during a military operation. His relatives are still waiting for his return. I could go on. As a co-founder and chairperson of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP), a grassroots collective representing family members of Balochistan’s forcibly disappeared, I have registered more than 5,000 such cases. Other grassroots movements across the country have also collected chilling stories about fathers, brothers and sons who have been picked up by security forces in other parts of the country and vanished without a trace over the years. Several organisations, including the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances, have confirmed that the security forces are the primary suspects behind these disappearances. In 2012, when I admitted cases to the Supreme Court on behalf of VBMP, a three-judge bench formally declared that based on the evidence, it is clear that law enforcement agencies have been behind the abductions. The security forces do not deny their role: They say that they are hunting for “militants.” In 2019, they said that some of the missing may have joined “rebel groups” and not “not every person missing is attributable to the state.” Yet, the practice began under the watch of military ruler, Pervez Musharraf, 20 years ago, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and the US invasion of Afghanistan. Musharraf allied the country with the US in the so-called “war on terror” and assisted the US in the abduction, unlawful detention and torture of suspected “militants”. Soon, this extrajudicial practice spread to Balochistan and started to be used against anyone demanding social justice and equal rights. Many political workers, students, teachers and activists who committed no other crime than trying to help those in need or demanding basic rights and freedoms for Baloch communities, have been targeted. Take the case of my uncle, Ali Asghar Bangulzai. In 1998, a Baloch community called the Marris left the Afghan city of Kandahar, crossed into Pakistan, and settled on the outskirts of Quetta, all in an effort to protect themselves from the Taliban. They had migrated to Afghanistan to escape a 1970s counterinsurgency campaign in Pakistan. My uncle witnessed their arrival and, concerned for their welfare, organised aid for them. He distributed food and blankets and even made some schooling and healthcare arrangements for the members of this impoverished and displaced community. He also set up a small support committee, of which I was a part. For these efforts, he was abducted. For more than a decade, families have organised as part of the VBMP and protested in front of press clubs, gone to courts and met politicians to find our missing relatives and prevent other families from experiencing the same pain. We have had some victories and many setbacks on our journey. Since the beginning of our protests, several representatives of the Pakistani state have admitted that security agencies are responsible for enforced disappearances. These admissions led to the establishment of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances in 2011. The commission, however, has failed to achieve much in the last 10 years. In 2019, the Ministry of Human Rights drafted a bill to criminalise enforced disappearances, giving us hope that this unlawful practice may soon come to an end. The draft, however, has since disappeared in a web of bureaucracy and is unlikely to be accepted as law anytime soon. Last year, as a result of negotiations between the VBMP and the Balochistan provincial government, several individuals who have been missing for some time have been released. We also saw some improvement in the length of disappearances – instead of disappearing men and boys for months or years, the security forces started to release many of those they unlawfully abducted after just a few days or weeks. But thousands of people, including my uncle, are still missing, and authorities still seem reluctant to provide us with any answers or take any action against the unlawful practices of the state security forces. Last month, frustrated with the lack of progress on our relatives’ cases, I travelled with thirteen other members of the VBMP to the capital Islamabad. We sat outside the Islamabad Press Club and demanded that government authorities pay attention to our plight. When no one from Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government came to talk to us, we took our protest to the D-Chowk – a square in the government district close to the prime minister’s office, Parliament and the Supreme Court. We sat there, out on the street, in freezing temperatures, for days, and made it clear to those around us that we had no intention of leaving before talking to someone in government. First, members of the opposition started visiting us, and eventually, several parliamentarians from the ruling party showed up as well. The ruling party parliamentarians promised to find out the whereabouts and conditions of our relatives. They also assured us that if our relatives are found to be in state custody, they will either be released or publicly put to trial in a civil court. In subsequent meetings with Federal Minister of the Interior Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Federal Minister of Law and Justice Mohammad Farogh Naseem, Federal Minister of Human Rights Shireen Mazari and the head of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, Justice Javed Iqbal, we were promised action on these points by March 13. We are now waiting for the government, the judges and the bureaucrats to take action and give us some real answers. We are hopeful, yet cautious, as we have been disappointed by promises that proved to be empty many times before. What we want from the government is actually quite simple. As Pakistani citizens, we have rights that are enshrined in the constitution. We ask only that these rights are upheld and respected. We want to know where our relatives are and what they have been through since their abduction. If they are accused of any crimes, we want these charges to be made public. We are ready for our loved ones to be tried in a court of law. What we cannot accept is their disappearance. If the Pakistani security forces are not behind their disappearance, then we want them to work with us to find out what really happened to them, as is their constitutional duty. Today, Pakistan is battling not only the coronavirus pandemic but also a deadly epidemic of enforced disappearances. It is time our elected representatives acknowledged our suffering and helped us find our loved ones. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance. See article here. © 2021 Al Jazeera

President Alassane Ouattara’s RHDP wins 137 of 254 contested seats, compared with 91 for opposition parties, according to official results. Published by Al Jazeera on March 9, 2021. Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara (Sia Kambou - AFP) Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara’s party has won a majority in last weekend’s legislative elections, official results showed. Ouattara’s RHDP won 137 of 254 contested seats compared with 91 for opposition parties in Saturday’s polls, according to results published on Tuesday by the country’s electoral commission. The vote passed off peacefully and for the first time in 10 years, it included all of the country’s main political players, providing hope that Ivory Coast has begun to emerge from recent turbulence. It was a key test of stability following the violence surrounding October’s presidential vote, which was boycotted by the opposition, and killed 87 people. The main opposition PDCI has however alleged electoral fraud, while the FPI party of former President Laurent Gbagbo had called on its supporters to remain calm and await the official results. Tuesday’s results showed the largest opposition grouping will be a coalition formed by PDCI members and Gbagbo supporters, which won 50 seats. One seat remains unfilled in the 255-seat assembly due to the death of a candidate in a northern constituency, where an election will be held within a month. The turnout was 37.88 percent, the same as in the last legislative elections in 2016. “The RHDP has succeeded in tipping many regions in its favour and it is in the process of acquiring the status of a national party, beyond its traditional strongholds in the north of the country,” political scientist Sylvain N’Guessan was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency ahead of the complete results. The PDCI, the party of former President Henri Konan Bedie, “seems to be losing momentum”, he said. The return of Gbagbo’s FPI, or Ivorian Popular Front, which participated after 10 years of boycott, “did not have a great influence on either the score or the turnout”, said N’Guessan. The FPI had boycotted all polls since the arrest of Gbagbo in 2011 in Abidjan and his subsequent transfer to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. His arrest followed violence after the 2010 presidential election in which 3,000 people died. Gbagbo was acquitted in January 2019 and is now living in Brussels pending the outcome of an appeal, though he has announced plans to return home. Ouattara has recently reached out to his old foe in a bid for “national reconciliation” and issued Gbagbo with two passports, one of them a diplomatic pass. The 79-year-old president had ignited political unrest last year when he announced he would seek a third term in office – a scheme that critics said sidestepped constitutional limits. In the 2016 elections to the National Assembly, the RHDP commanded 167 seats plus support from its allies. It wielded more than two-thirds of the seats – a so-called qualified majority enabling it to approve changes to the constitution. It has now lost this option, although its majority is still big enough to push through reforms sketched by Ouattara during his controversial third tilt at the presidency. © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network

House of presidential candidate N’Guessan in Bongounou burned down, two people reported killed and several injured. Published by Al Jazeera on October 18, 2020. President Ouattara officially launched his campaign on Friday [Sia Kambou/AFP] The home of an opposition presidential candidate has been burned down during clashes in Ivory Coast on Saturday, two weeks before the country’s high-stakes presidential election. Violence began on Friday in Bongouanou, the stronghold of opposition candidate and former Prime Minister Pascal Affi N’Guessan, as residents from different ethnic groups fighting with machetes while houses and shops were set on fire. Residents told AFP news agency that people from the local Agni ethnic group were fighting Dioula people from northern Ivory Coast, who back current President Alassane Ouattara. At least two people were killed, according to a report citing witnesses. A trader from the Agni ethnic group considered pro-opposition was shot and hacked to death, a family member told AFP. At least one person from a group considered pro-government was also killed in the area, according to several witnesses and a hospital source. An AFP journalist reported that in Bongouanou itself many shops and restaurants were looted and set on fire, and several cars were torched. “The situation is untenable. We have a lot of wounded people being taken to hospital,” said Mathieu, a resident of Bongouanou. N’Guessan, meanwhile, said his house had been burned down. “The people were transported from Abidjan. They targeted the property of opposition leaders,” he told AFP. About 15 people were killed in inter-communal violence in August and September across the country after Ouattara announced his intention to run for a third term. Candidates barred Meanwhile, dozens of prospective candidates were barred from the election, including former president Laurent Gbagbo and ex-rebel chief Guillaume Soro. In a step towards a potential boycott, the opposition asked supporters on Thursday not to take part in electoral events and campaigning. Several high-profile figures, including N’Guessan, have also called for “civil disobedience” in recent weeks. Prime Minister Hamed Bakayoko condemned Saturday’s unrest and warned the opposition they were provoking violence. “We will be quite implacable,” Bakayoko  said. “If you are responsible for violence on people, on public or private property, then sooner or later you will have to pay, there will be a trial.” Ouattara officially launched his campaign on Friday, addressing thousands in a rally in the country’s second-biggest city, Bouake. In addition to Ouattara and N’Guessan, former President Henri Konan Bedie and former parliamentarian Kouadio Konan Bertin are in the running for the October 31 poll. In March, Ouattara announced he would not seek a third term. But he changed his mind after his preferred successor, prime minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, died of a heart attack in July. Ouattara and his supporters have argued that a 2016 revision of the constitution reset the limit on the number of terms. © 2020 Al Jazeera Media Network.

New report finds evidence the military is using battlefield weapons and conflict-hardened troops against peaceful protesters. Riot police hold their firearms as they face-off with protesters in the capital, Naypyidaw on Monday [Stringer/AFP]. The Myanmar military is using lethal tactics and an arsenal of battlefield weapons to carry out a “killing spree” against peaceful protesters who oppose the February 1 coup, Amnesty International said on Thursday after analysing video and photographic evidence from the past few weeks of mass protests. The cache of 55 video clips offer visual proof of the “systematic and premeditated killings”, Amnesty said in a report on Thursday, as it called on the UN Security Council and the international community to take action to halt the violence. “These Myanmar military tactics are far from new but their killing sprees have never before been live-streamed for the world to see,” said Joanne Mariner, the director of Crisis Response at Amnesty International. Amnesty’s Crisis Evidence Lab verified the more than 50 videos of the ongoing crackdown and confirmed that security forces “appear to be implementing planned, systematic strategies including the ramped-up use of lethal force”. “Many of the killings documented amount to extrajudicial executions,” the rights group said. The footage clearly shows that Myanmar military troops, also known as the Tatmadaw, “are increasingly armed with weapons that are only appropriate for the battlefield, not for policing actions”, the report added. Officers were captured on video frequently seen engaging in “reckless behaviour”, including the indiscriminate use of live ammunition in built-up areas. The latest findings bolster a February report from Amnesty that concluded security forces deployed machine guns against peaceful protesters and shot one woman in the head during a anti-military government demonstration. On Wednesday, police officers who fled to India, told the Reuters news agency that they were instructed by the military to single out demonstrators and to “shoot ’till they are dead”. ‘Murderous methods’ Myanmar plunged into a political crisis on February 1 after the military arrested the country’s elected leaders including Aung San Suu Kyi and seized power in a coup, claiming without evidence that last November’s election was fraudulent. In the weeks since, there have been almost daily protests against the coup and a mass civil disobedience campaign under which doctors, teachers, factory workers and others have gone on strike. The military has responded with increasing force and the United Nations said last week that at least 50 people had been killed. “These are not the actions of overwhelmed, individual officers making poor decisions. These are unrepentant commanders already implicated in crimes against humanity, deploying their troops and murderous methods in the open,” the Amnesty report said. “The military authorities must immediately cease their deadly onslaught, de-escalate the situation nationwide, and release all those arbitrarily detained.” An injured resident, who was shot with rubber-coated bullets as security force destroyed barricades erected by protesters against the military coup, is attended to by medical personnel in Yangon on Tuesday [Stringer/AFP] The video clips, dating between February 28 and March 8, were recorded by members of the public and local media in cities including Dawei, Mandalay, Mawlamyine, Monywa, Myeik, Myitkyina and Yangon. In one video taken in Sanchaung township in Yangon on March 2, a commander can be seen standing over a sniper. The commander appears to be giving him orders to fire directly at specific protesters. In another clip dated March 3 in North Okkalapa township, also in Yangon, officers are seen leading a man towards a larger group of security forces. The man appears to be in the group’s custody and offers no visible resistance, when an officer beside him suddenly shoots him. The man immediately drops to the ground and is left on the road, apparently lifeless, for several seconds before officers walk back and drag him away. Police beat a protester as they detain him during a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon on Saturday [Stringer/AFP] In another verified clip dated February 28, a member of the military in Dawei is seen apparently lending his rifle to a police officer deployed alongside him. The officer crouches, takes aim and shoots, before a group of officers standing with them celebrate. “Not only does this incident show a reckless disregard for human life, making sport of shooting live rounds at protesters, it also reveals deliberate coordination among security forces,” said Amnesty’s Mariner. Machine guns and Uzis Amnesty also identified security forces armed with a variety of military firearms, including China-made RPD light machine guns, as well as local MA-S sniper rifles, MA-1 semi-automatic rifles, Uzi-replica BA-93 and BA-94 submachine guns and other arms manufactured in Myanmar. “These weapons are completely inappropriate for use in policing protests,” Amnesty said, citing UN guidelines, which state that security forces should refrain from the use of firearms unless there is an imminent threat of death or serious injury. “The weaponry deployed by the Tatmadaw reveals a deliberate and dangerous escalation in tactics,” Mariner noted. “Not content with indiscriminately using less-lethal weapons, each new day shows an apparent order to deploy semi-automatic rifles, sniper rifles and light machine guns in increasing numbers. Make no mistake, we are in a deadly new phase of the crisis.” Amnesty also revealed that further analysis of photos and video showed that the generals had deployed the Yangon Command, Northwestern Command, and the 33rd, 77th and 101st Light Infantry Divisions (LID) of the military to be part of the crackdown “and sometimes lending their weapons to police officers”. The soldiers were deployed in Yangon, Mandalay and Monywa, which have seen “extreme instances of excessive force”, including killings, by security forces in recent days. Some of the military divisions have been accused of committing similar atrocities and “serious human rights violations” in Rakhine, Kachin, and northern Shan States. Other military units were also implicated in “crimes against humanity” against the Muslim Rohingya in Rakhine State in 2017. “As the death toll surges, the UN Security Council and the international community must move beyond words of concern and immediately act to halt violations and hold perpetrators accountable,” Mariner said. © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network

Secretary of State Antony Blinken calls for an international investigation into ‘ongoing’ atrocities, as well as the exit of Eritrean troops. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has condemned acts of “ethnic cleansing” in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region, as he called for “full accountability” and the departure of troops from neighbouring Eritrea and other fighters. Testifying before Congress on Wednesday, Blinken said he wanted security forces in the region “that will not abuse the human rights of the people of Tigray, or commit acts of ethnic cleansing which we’ve seen in western Tigray”. Citing “very credible” reports of ongoing human rights abuses and atrocities, he called for “an independent investigation into what took place there” and “a reconciliation process so that the country can move forward politically”. “We have, as you know, forces from Eritrea over there, and we have forces from an adjoining [Ethiopian] region, Amhara, that are there. They need to come out.” After months of tensions, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in early November announced military operations against the region’s then-governing party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), accusing them of attacking federal army camps. Multiple reports quoting witnesses and survivors have implicated troops from neighbouring Eritrea, which denies a military presence, in mass killings, rapes and other crimes in the northern Ethiopian region. The United Nations rights chief Michelle Bachelet, meanwhile, said last week her office has corroborated grave violations that could amount to “war crimes and crimes against humanity”, while humanitarian officials have warned that a growing number of people might be starving to death in Tigray. “I very much understand the concerns, for example, that the prime minister had about the TPLF and its actions, but the situation in Tigray today is unacceptable and has to change,” Blinken said. Blinken’s comments came hours after Berhane Kidanemariam, the deputy chief of mission at the Ethiopian embassy in Washington, DC, quit from his position, accusing Abiy of leading Ethiopia “down a dark path towards destruction and disintegration”. “I resign from my post in protest of the genocidal war in Tigray, and in protest of all the repression and destruction the government is inflicting on the rest of Ethiopia,” he said. “I have loved serving as a diplomat for my country but I cannot do so at the expense of my values, and certainly not at the expense of my people. There is a cost to acting on one’s principles, but there is a bigger cost to abandoning them,” said Kidanemariam, who is believed to be the first Ethiopian diplomat to resign over concerns relating to the conflict in Tigray. He also accused the government of misrepresenting conditions on the ground and failing to come clean about “the presence of foreign powers” – a reference to Eritrean troops. The resignation of a senior diplomat will pile pressure on Abiy, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for his efforts to make peace with Eritrea after decades of hostilities. Kidanemariam, who is from Tigray, said in his statement thousands of ethnic Tigrayans have been harassed, assaulted and arrested in what he called “a witch-hunt that is taking place against Tigrayans in Ethiopia and in the diaspora”. There was no immediate comment by the Ethiopian government. In a statement delivered on Tuesday to an African Union council, Abiy said the Ethiopian government had taken “concrete steps to address alleged human rights abuses” and has signalled “its willingness to collaborate with relevant UN agencies for the purposes of these investigations”. Berhane Kidanemariam's full Statement on the Current Situation in Ethiopia Ethiopia's Amhara rejects charge of 'ethnic cleansing' in Tigray © Al Jazeera and News Agencies

Measures come as the bloc accuses China of ‘serious human rights violations and abuses’ on the Uighur minority. Reuters / Al Jazeera The European Union agreed on Wednesday to blacklist Chinese officials for human rights abuses, two diplomats said, the first sanctions against Beijing since an EU arms embargo in 1989 following the Tiananmen Square crackdown. EU ambassadors approved the travel bans and asset freezes on four Chinese individuals and one entity, whose names will not be made public until formal approval by EU foreign ministers on March 22, as part of a new and wider rights sanctions list. “Restrictive measures against serious human rights violations and abuses adopted,” one EU diplomat said. The Chinese officials were accused of human rights abuses against China’s Uighur Muslim minority, EU diplomats told Reuters news agency. They said the move reflected deep concern about the Uighurs in Europe, the United States and Canada. The EU last sanctioned China, its second-largest trade partner, in June 1989, imposing an arms embargo on Beijing that is still in place. Activists and UN rights experts say at least one million Muslims are being detained in camps in the remote western region of Xinjiang. The activists and some Western politicians accuse China of using torture, forced labour and sterilisations. The Dutch parliament followed Canada and the United States in labelling China’s treatment of the Uighur’s genocide, which China rejects. On Twitter, the Chinese mission to the EU republished comments on the new sanctions made on Tuesday by China’s ambassador to the bloc, Zhang Ming, saying that Beijing would not change its policies. “Sanctions are confrontational,” the Chinese mission said on Twitter. “We want dialogue, not confrontation. We ask the EU side to think twice. If some insist on confrontation, we will not back down, as we have no options other than fulfilling our responsibilities to the people.” China denies any human rights abuses in Xinjiang and says its camps provide vocational training and are needed to “fight extremism”. The EU’s full list of 11 names approved by EU ambassadors also include officials from Russia, Libya, South Sudan and North Korea, diplomats said. © Reuters / Al Jazeera 2021

At least 36 countries including all 28 members of the European Union have signed a statement criticising Saudi Arabia's human rights record at the United Nations Human Rights Council on Thursday, diplomats said. "It is a success for Europe to be united on this," an envoy of an EU country told Reuters news agency. The statement will be the first rebuke of the kingdom since the UN forum was set up in 2006. The text, read out by Harald Aspelund, Iceland's ambassador to the Geneva talks, called on Saudi authorities to release activists held in Saudi Arabia and to cooperate with a UN-led probe into the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. "We call on Saudi Arabia to take many full steps to ensure that all matters of the public including human rights defenders and journalists can freely and fully exercise their rights to freedom of expression, opinion, and association including online and without fear of reprisals," Aspelund said. On Wednesday, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet called on Saudi Arabia to release women activists allegedly tortured in detention after authorities accused them of harming the country's interests. Some of the women, including those who campaigned for the right to drive, have been subjected to electric shocks, flogging, sexual assault and other forms of torture, activists say. The Saudi deputy public prosecutor told Saudi-owned newspaper Alsharq Alawsat last week that his office had looked into media reports that the women were tortured and found no evidence, calling the reports "false". © 2019 Al Jazeera Media Network

An MSF staffer and two other aid workers were also killed in the violence over the weekend in the Jonglei state. At least 287 people, including a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) staff member and two other aid workers, have been killed in the most recent spat of inter-communal violence in the eastern state of Jonglei in South Sudan, government authorities have told Al Jazeera. At least 300 people were wounded in the violence, which broke out between the Murle and Lou Nuer ethnic communities on Saturday, according to the government. Many suffered gunshot wounds and other trauma, according to health workers. Meanwhile, a patrol from the UN Mission to South Sudan has been sent to the town of Pieri to interview survivors, the organisation said in a statement on Wednesday. "The team is investigating reports that many people were killed, injured and lost their homes," the statement said, adding that "many" huts were burned to the ground. The UN mission said it had not independently verified the death toll, saying, "it is difficult to verify the number of casualties given conflicting reports and claims". Government officials told Al Jazeera the figure was expected to rise. MSF confirmed that one member of its staff had been killed in the fighting. The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in South Sudan said two other aid workers for other groups were also killed. "We have a primary healthcare centre in the town of Pieri that was active at the time the fighting broke out," Steve MacKay, the deputy head of the MSF mission in South Sudan said. "One of our colleagues who lives in that area was killed during that incident over the weekend." The organisation has resumed its work in the region after briefly pausing following the attack, he said. 'Power Vacuum' The Uror county commissioner, John Dak Gatluak, told the DPA news agency that heavily armed men from the Murle ethnic group had attacked six villages in Saturday's violence. Local authorities believe the attack was carried out in revenge for a similar incident in February, when men from the Lou Nuer ethnic group had raided cattle and abducted children from the Murle. South Sudan is emerging from a brutal six-year civil war that left 380,000 dead and millions displaced. President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar, the former rebel leader, reached a deal to form a unity government in February but remain at odds over issues including who will govern the country's 10 internal states. While political violence has calmed in the country since that agreement, the lack of state governors has created a "vacuum of power" that fosters the inter-communal violence, David Shearer, the UN Special Representative to South Sudan told Al Jazeera. "The governor is a very, very important person in the state because they bring together many of the tribes. They also have the authority to reconcile and take action where there's non-compliance," Shearer said. The tensions have also been inflamed by flooding in August that killed thousands of cattle. "These societies are very much focused in and around cattle and their survival is dependent on cattle," he said. "The fact that so many cattle have died has put real economic pressure on the societies." Source: Al Jazeera and News Agencies