The move comes after protests by Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, which called for the expulsion of the French envoy, led to the death of two policemen. A supporter of the Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) party hurls stones towards police (not pictured) during a protest [File: Reuters] By Asad Hashim | Al Jazeera | 14 Apr 2021 Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan’s government will move to ban the far-right Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party, which has held days of violent countrywide protests resulting in the deaths of at least two police officers, the country’s interior minister says. Protests by the TLP continued in pockets across the country on Wednesday, with Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed confirming that at least two policemen had been killed and more than 340 wounded by demonstrators in the past 48 hours. “Today we have decided to ban TLP, and this file is going to cabinet for the approval from today,” said Rasheed at a news conference in the capital, Islamabad. In a later tweet, he said the ban would be issued under Pakistani anti-terrorism legislation. Rasheed said protesters had abducted policemen in several areas during the demonstrations, but that all law enforcement personnel had now been recovered. The TLP, a religious group founded by firebrand Muslim leader Khadim Hussain Rizvi, has made the issue of perceived “blasphemy” its rallying cry, and has been agitating since November for the expulsion of the French ambassador and a ban on all French goods over remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron last year. It called off a big sit-in protest that had blocked a main highway into the capital Islamabad in November after reaching an agreement with the government on consideration of its demands. Police officers fire teargas as they move to disperse the supporters of the Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) party during a protest against the arrest of their leader, in Peshawar [Fayaz Aziz/Reuters] Arrest of TLP chief In February, it threatened further demonstrations if the government did not comply with its demands, but government negotiators were able to secure an extension in the deadline for action. On Monday, however, before the new April 20 deadline, police arrested TLP chief Saad Rizvi, son of party founder Khadim Hussain Rizvi who died of natural causes shortly after the November protests. The arrest sparked days of unrest, with thousands of TLP supporters launching protests and blocking roads and highways across the country. Video footage from protests in Karachi, Lahore and elsewhere showed violent clashes between police and protesters. Interior Minister Rasheed accused TLP leaders of negotiating with the government in bad faith over a planned parliamentary resolution on the issue of blasphemy. “Until the last moment our aim was that a draft resolution could be prepared to present in the assembly with their agreement,” he said. “But all of our efforts failed and one of the main reasons for [this] was that they wanted to come to Faizabad chowk [to hold a protest] no matter what.” Rasheed said the TLP sought a resolution “that would mean [diplomats from] European countries … would all have to leave the country”. “We want[ed] a draft that will raise the flag of the Prophet high … but what [the TLP] want[ed], that will create a perception in the world that we are an extremist country,” he said. Police operations to clear the remaining protests in parts of Lahore and Faisalabad continued on Wednesday. See article here. © 2021 Al Jazeera

Buddhist flags hang limply from bamboo poles at the entrance to Koe Tan Kauk, a "model" village for ethnic Rakhine migrants shuttled north to repopulate an area once dominated by Muslim-majority Rohingya. The new arrivals are moving to parts of Rakhine state mostly "cleared" of its Rohingya residents, whose villages were bulldozed and reduced to muddy stains on a landscape of lush farmland. The Rakhine migrants, who come from the poor but relatively stable south, are - for now - few in number. But they carry great expectations as the pioneers of a donor-led "Rakhinisation" plan to upend the demography of the once majority-Muslim area. "We were really afraid of those Kalars and didn't plan to come here," Chit San Eain, a 28 year old who has moved with her husband and toddler into a basic hut in Koe Tan Kauk told AFP news agency, using a pejorative term for Muslims. "But now that they are no longer here, we have the chance to meet again with our relatives who live up here," she added, the ruins of a Rohingya settlement lying a few kilometres away. Nearly 700,000 Rohingya have been driven from northern Rakhine into Bangladesh since August 25 last year by the Myanmar army, which has used attacks by armed Rohingya fighters as a pretext for its brutal campaign. Another 300,000 Rohingya were pushed out from the south and centre of Rakhine by army campaigns stretching back to the late 1970s. The UN has branded last year's military crackdown as ethnic cleansing, with a top official saying it carried all the "hallmarks of genocide". Myanmar vigorously denies the allegations and says refugees are welcome to return. But so far it has agreed to allow back only 374 of 8,000 refugees whose names have been put forward for the initial phase of repatriation. Many traumatised Rohingya in Cox's Bazar camps are also refusing to be repatriated to Rakhine - where holding camps and hostile neighbours await them. In their absence a blizzard of development projects, government and army-sponsored or privately funded, are transforming northern Rakhine. Taking space vacated by fleeing Rohingya is an old game in a state seen as the front line of a Buddhist nation's fight against encroaching Islam. "The military has been engineering the social landscape of northern Rakhine State so as to dilute the Rohingya population since the early 1990s," says Francis Wade, author of Myanmar's Enemy Within: Buddhist Violence and the Making of the Muslim 'Other'. The Muslim minority are denied citizenship and labelled "Bengalis", outsiders who - the logic runs - have successfully been pushed back to their country of origin. In a pattern with echoes of "the Israeli settler project in the West Bank" Buddhist communities then move in, altering the "facts on the ground" gradually rubbing out Muslim rights to the land, he added. "I'd expect to see more Buddhists settle there over the coming years. And then we'll forget what the area once was, and that process of erasure will be complete." Rohingya out, Rakhine in Chit San Ean is the beneficiary of the Ancillary Committee for the Reconstruction of Rakhine National Territory in the Western Frontier (CRR), a private scheme established shortly after the refugee crisis began. In a zone under a strict army lockdown the resettlement plan could not fly without military consent. Funded by ethnic Rakhine donors, the CRR's ambition is to establish a "Muslim-dry" buffer zone running the nearly 100km from state capital Sittwe to Maungdaw town, according to Oo Hla Saw, a Rakhine MP who advises the committee. "All of this area was under the influence of Muslims. After the military operations, they had to flee ... so we have to establish this area with the Rakhine population," he told AFP. The CRR will fund jobs and homes "so this little population can grow and grow," he added. It's a trickle so far, with around 64 households - some 250 people - moved by the CRR, with 200 more families on a waiting list. They are among the poorest of the poor, mostly daily wage labourers from Thandwe around 600km to the south or squatters from Sittwe. Two village tracts, Koe Tan Kuak near Rathedaung and Inn Din near Maungdaw, have been designated for the scheme so far. The army concedes the second site was the scene of extrajudicial killings of Rohingya captives as violence engulfed the region last August. Koe Tan Kauk was a similarly mixed settlement of Buddhist and Muslim homes. The CRR-sponsored hamlet promises a rudimentary existence. There is little work, no electricity or running water but donors have gifted each family a $450 shack on stilts, made from plywood and metal sheeting. New residents hope to eventually own land, a prospect previously beyond their reach in Myanmar's second-poorest state. Rakhine nationalists say the CRR is a bulwark against Islam and a means to ensure their ethnic group has a say in development projects driven by the Burmese-dominated central state, who they distrust deeply. "Who should be given priority other than Rakhines in Rakhine State?" explained Than Tun, General Secretary of the CRR. Cronies and soldiers For its part, Myanmar's government has enlisted powerful businessmen to rebuild the infrastructure of the battered state. The army is running other projects including beefing up its security apparatus - in what appears to be a multi-pronged effort to keep out the Rohingya. An Amnesty International report this week detailed how roads, helipads and security installations are being built, often on top of razed Rohingya settlements. They labelled the activity a massive "land grab" that threatens to erase evidence of alleged atrocities, including at Inn Din. Across northern Rakhine, abandoned land and rice fields have been commandeered by the army in an area with access tightly controlled to media, investigators and most aid groups. The Rohingya lost their legal status in 1982, under a junta-era Citizenship Law. Now their ancestral lands are being stripped away. That makes return impossible, according to legislator Oo Hla Saw. "These people want to be recognised as 'Rohingya' ethnicity ... to enjoy citizenship, to resettle in their native grounds," he says. "Their demands are unreasonable." Despite their dangerous new neighbourhood, the arrivals at Koe Tan Kauk say they are there to stay. "I will end my life here," said a 69-year-old woman called Osar. "I'm not going anywhere." https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/03/myanmar-ethnic-rakhine-seek-rohingya-free-buffer-zone-180316072803598.html (c) 2018 Al Jeezera

Amnesty international says ‘unprovoked attack’ against civilians also left at least 19 people wounded. Eritrean soldiers have opened fire on civilians in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region, killing three people and wounding at least 19, according to Amnesty International. In a statement on Wednesday, the rights watchdog said the “unprovoked attack” took place in the centre of Adwa town early on Monday, more than two weeks after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said Eritrea had agreed to withdraw the forces it had sent into the northern Ethiopian region during the conflict that broke out there in November 2020. “Three people lost their lives and at least 19 others are in hospital from yet another unlawful attack by Eritrean troops on civilians in Tigray. Deliberate attacks on civilians are prohibited by international humanitarian law and must stop,” Amnesty East Africa Deputy Director Sarah Jackson said in the statement, which confirmed earlier reports of the attack. Jackson reiterated Amnesty’s call for an international investigation of human rights abuses in the months-long conflict in Tigray, including possible war crimes and crimes against humanity. On Monday, international medical charity Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, MSF) cited wounded patients in Adwa as saying that soldiers had opened fire on people near a bus station. It said those wounded were transported to MSF-supported facilities for treatment. Eritrea has not commented on the Adwa shootings. It has previously denied multiple reports Eritreans have committed mass killings and rapes. After months of tension, Abiy sent federal troops into Tigray on November 4 to detain and disarm leaders of the once-dominant regional governing party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). The winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize said the move came in response to TPLF-orchestrated attacks on army camps. The TPLF said the federal government and Eritrea launched a “coordinated attack” against it. Abiy declared victory within weeks, but combat has continued and analysts warn of a prolonged deadlock in a conflict that is believed to have killed thousands of people. Ethiopia and Eritrea long denied Eritreans were involved in the war, contradicting testimony from residents, rights groups, aid workers, diplomats and even some Ethiopian civilian and military officials. Abiy finally acknowledged their presence in March while speaking to legislators. Eritrea has not made any public statements on the issue since Abiy’s admission. Amnesty’s statement on Wednesday cited six witnesses who described how Eritrean soldiers drove through the centre of Adwa shooting at random. “We scattered in different directions. I hid in the drainage … They were shooting from the backs of the moving trucks,” said one witness, identified by the pseudonym Teklu for security reasons. Like witnesses interviewed by AFP earlier this week, Teklu said the Eritreans were easily identifiable because they spoke Tigrinya – the main language in Tigray and Eritrea – rode in vehicles with Eritrean number plates and wore “Eritrean defence force camouflages”. © Al Jazeera and News Agencies, 2021

The defence ministry says deadly armed violence witnessed in parts of the Oromia special zones. Ethiopia has declared a state of emergency in the southern part of Amhara regional state amid violence in various towns. In a statement on Sunday, the Ministry of Defense said the last three days saw deadly armed violence in the town of Ataye and several other areas in Oromia special zones. The statement said an unspecified number of people were killed in attacks by gunmen and property was destroyed. It added that many civilians fled the armed conflict. The Amhara region is dominated by the ethnic Amhara group – Ethiopia’s second-largest – but the Oromo special zone is populated mainly by Oromos, the numerically dominant group. The declaration of emergency came a day after Ethiopia’s military deployed troops to the North Shoa zone and Oromo special zone. The move underscores persistent insecurity extending beyond Ethiopia’s war-hit Tigray region ahead of national elections planned for June. Hundreds killed Ethiopia’s chief ombudsman, Endale Haile, told AFP news agency earlier this month that the violence in Amhara had killed more than 300 people over several days in March. Jemal Hassen Mohammed, chief administrator of the Jile-Temuga area in the Oromo special zone, said the violence began on March 19 after an ethnic Oromo prayer leader was shot dead outside a mosque, sparking clashes between Amhara security forces and ethnic Oromo civilians. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is under mounting pressure to address the violence in Amhara and elsewhere. “The government should deliver on its responsibility to protect the people,” the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, the national human rights body, said in a statement earlier this week. The violence in Amhara has led to sniping between the Oromo and Amhara wings of Abiy’s Prosperity Party, which have publicly accused each other of responsibility. Abiy came to power in 2018 after several years of anti-government protests staged by Amhara and Oromo youth. He won the Nobel Peace Prize the following year but his tenure has been marred by ethnic violence, and analysts warn that hotly anticipated national elections scheduled for June 5 could bring further insecurity. They say the continuing unrest could hamper efforts to organise the vote. Birtukan Medeksa, head of the national election board, said on Wednesday that insecurity had put a temporary halt to voter registration in several locations, including the North Shoa and Oromo special zones. © Al Jazeera, 2021

For months, both sides denied Eritreans were involved, contradicting testimony from residents, rights groups, aid workers, and diplomats. Eritrea has acknowledged for the first time its forces are taking part in the months-long war in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region and promised to pull them out in the face of mounting international pressure. The explicit admission of Eritrea’s role in the fighting came in a letter posted online late on Friday by the country’s information minister, written by its ambassador to the United Nations and addressed to the Security Council. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into Tigray in November last year to disarm and detain leaders of the region’s once-dominant political party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). For months, the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments denied Eritreans were involved, contradicting testimony from residents, rights groups, aid workers, diplomats and even some Ethiopian civilian and military officials. Tigray residents have repeatedly accused Eritrean forces of mass rape and massacres, including in the towns of Axum and Dengolat. Abiy finally acknowledged the Eritreans’ presence in March while speaking to MPs, and promised soon after that they would leave. Friday’s letter from Eritrea said, with the TPLF “largely thwarted”, Asmara and Addis Ababa “have agreed – at the highest levels – to embark on the withdrawal of the Eritrean forces and the simultaneous redeployment of Ethiopian contingents along the international boundary”. It came a day after UN aid chief Mark Lowcock told the Security Council that despite Abiy’s earlier promise, there had been no evidence of a withdrawal of Eritrean troops from the region. He also said aid workers “continue to report new atrocities which they say are being committed by Eritrean Defence Forces”. ‘Increasing international presure’ William Davison, the International Crisis Group’s (ICG) senior analyst for Ethiopia, told Al Jazeera that Eritrea’s admission came as in recent weeks increasing proof made it harder to continue denying the presence of its forces in Tigray. “Obviously, with that mounting evidence [came] increasing international pressure,” he said. “Ethiopia’s government admitted the Eritrean presence and said they would withdraw and Eritrea said nothing; that did lead to suspicions that there was a difference between the two governments who are allies in this conflict in Tigray, so perhaps Eritrea’s government also wanted to dispel the idea that there was any major split between Addis Ababa and Asmara.” Looking ahead, Davison said it was a matter of the international community to monitor “very carefully” whether the Eritrean troops will indeed leave Tigray. “[That is] because, of course, up until now, the two governments have completely denied Eritrea’s presence. So therefore, there’s no particular reason to take them at their word that this withdrawal commitment will be implemented.” Eritrea and Ethiopia blame the conflict on TPLF-orchestrated attacks on federal army camps in early November and describe it as a campaign to restore law and order. he TPLF says Abiy’s government and its longtime foe Eritrea launched a “coordinated attack” against it. Abiy declared victory in Tigray in late November after federal forces took the regional capital Mekelle, but the fighting has continued. The conflict arrived in the middle of the harvest in Tigray and for months humanitarian access was greatly restricted, prompting fears of widespread starvation. In his comments on Thursday, the UN’s Lowcock said he had received a report of 150 people dying of hunger in one area of southern Tigray, calling it “a sign of what lies ahead if more action is not taken”. Ethiopian state media on Friday night aired a report denouncing the claim as “false” and “aimed at tarnishing the image of the country”. © Al Jazeera, 2021

Fresh appeals for action after military TV broadcasts images of six young detainees whose faces appear bloodied and bruised. Fresh appeals for action after military TV broadcasts images of six young detainees whose faces appear bloodied and bruised. A monitoring group in Myanmar has appealed for international action, expressing concern over the torture and murder of anti-coup protesters in the Southeast Asian nation after the military broadcast images of six young detainees bearing severe signs of abuse. In the pictures broadcast on military-owned MRTV on Sunday evening, the faces of four men and two women appeared bloodied and bruised. One of the women had a swollen jaw and what appeared to be a black eye. “This junta uses torture as its policy,” the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said in a tweet. “If the international community does not act, torture and to death, will clearly continue.” According to the AAPP, security forces have killed 737 people since the February 1 coup and rounded up 3,229 others across the country. “The APP is concerned for all those detained, particularly in undisclosed locations,” it said. The six detainees were arrested on Sunday in Yankin, a suburb of Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon, according to MRTV. “The MRTV announcer said the six had been involved in a bombing on Saturday at 2pm (07:30 GMT), outside the Yankin government office in which three government soldiers had been injured. They did not provide more information that,” said Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng, reporting from Bangkok, the capital of neighbouring Thailand. “And we’ve seen the military government accuse people quite spuriously of crimes. We’ve also seen them use this tactic since the military coup, showing people in detention, presumably as a deterrent for those who are still going out and protesting.” Myanmar has been in chaos since Senior General Ming Aung Hlaing seized power on February 1. Amid continuing protests, killings and mass arrests, the United Nations has warned the situation in Myanmar may be heading “towards a full-blown conflict” – similar to the civil war gripping Syria in the Middle East. ‘We can be more brutal than you’ Kim Jolliffe, a researcher on Myanmar civilian and military relations, said the military’s decision to broadcast images of the six detainees was aimed at sowing fear. “The Myanmar junta’s strategy from start to finish is based on the same gambit: ‘We can be more brutal than you. We can be more shockingly hurtful and terrifying than you’,” Jolliffe said in a tweet. “That is all they have. But it knows no bounds.” Twitter users compiled images of the six people before and after their arrests, with some appealing to protesters not to give up on showing their opposition to the coup. “This is the kind of junta we’re facing,” wrote Twitter user Shwe Yee. “We must not give up what we’re doing for our freedom. You can’t suppress us with fear.” The violence has drawn condemnation from Western countries and unprecedented criticism from several members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which Myanmar joined under a previous military government. The 10-member group has been trying to find a way out of the turmoil wracking Myanmar but the military has shown little willingness to engage with its neighbours and no sign of wanting to talk to members of the civilian government it toppled. But in the first hint of progress for the grouping, a Thai government official said on Saturday that Min Aung Hlaing would attend an ASEAN summit in Indonesia on April 24, his first meeting with foreign leaders since he seized power. ASEAN’s invite has prompted outrage in Myanmar, however, with a newly formed National Unity Government – made up of deposed members of the elected parliament and other opponents of the military – appealing to the regional bloc to negotiate with it instead of the military. “There is broad disapproval within Myanmar,” said Al Jazeera’s Cheng. “They would like ASEAN to be speaking to the National Unity Government. They are very concerned that if Min Aung Hlaing is accepted into the fold at this ASEAN meeting, it’ll make it much easier for the military to impose control over Myanmar and to legitimise their coup.” The military toppled Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government after alleging widespread fraud in an election that her National League for Democracy won by a landslide last November. The election commission, however, denies the claims. Aung San Suu Kyi, 75, has not been seen in public since her detention on the day of the coup. She now faces a raft of criminal charges that could see her barred for life from office. © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network

Abdul Qadir has been shot dead at the entrance to his homoeopathic clinic in Peshawar’s Bazikhel area, the latest in a series of attacks. A member of the Ahmadiyya community weeps after burying the dead at a graveyard in Chenab Nagar, northwest of Lahore [File: Reuters] 12 Feb 2021 Islamabad, Pakistan – A member of Pakistan’s Ahmadiyya sect has been shot and killed in the northwestern city of Peshawar, police and a community spokesperson have said, the latest in a series of attacks targeting the persecuted community. Abdul Qadir, 65, was killed at the entrance to his homoeopathic health clinic on Thursday afternoon in the Bazikhel area of the city, community spokesperson Saleemuddin said in a statement. “Upon hearing the doorbell of the clinic, [Qadir] opened its door and was shot at the doorstep by the culprit,” said Saleemuddin. “Mr Qadir was taken immediately to the nearest hospital but due to the severity of his wounds he did not survive the fatal attack.” Police officials confirmed the attack, saying the man accused of the murder had been arrested. The suspect is approximately 20 years old and his attack appeared to be religiously motivated, said Zafar Khan, a local police official. “He fired on him once, and that killed him,” said Khan. “[The suspect] says that it was religiously motivated but we will have to find out more through our investigations.” Members of the Ahmadiyya sect consider themselves Muslim but have been declared “non-Muslim” under Pakistani law. They are subject to the country’s strict blasphemy laws, which criminalise many of their acts of faith. Members of the Ahmadiyya community are not allowed to refer to themselves as “Muslim”, to their places of worship as “mosques” or to perform other rites, with punishments ranging up to three years in prison. Uptick in attacks Last year saw an uptick in attacks on the community, with at least four Ahmadiyya killed in targeted attacks in Peshawar alone. One of those killed was Tahir Ahmad Naseem, a man accused of blasphemy who was shot six times and killed in a courtroom in Peshawar in July. Earlier this month, two teenagers in the central Pakistani town of Layyah were arrested for attacking their headmaster, an Ahmadi man, over his faith, local media reported. “These attacks are creating a sense of deep insecurity amongst the members of the Community while the Ahmadis of Peshawar are living in a deep atmosphere of fear,” said Saleemuddin, the community’s spokesperson. See article here. © Al Jazeera 2021 For more on the persecution of Ahmadi people, see Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

PM Imran Khan calls on Western governments to treat insult against Islam’s prophet as it does the Holocaust. Khan's statement came amid continuing negotiations between his government and the TLP, a far-right anti-blasphemy religious group [File: Mohammad Ismail//Reuters] By Asad Hashim | 19 Apr 2021 Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has called for Muslim-majority countries to band together to lobby Western governments to criminalise the insulting of Islam’s prophet, as negotiations between his government and a far-right anti-blasphemy religious group continue. In a televised address to the nation from the capital, Islamabad, on Monday, Khan said he would lead a campaign of Muslim-majority countries to “convince” Western countries on the issue of blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad. “We need to explain why this hurts us, when in the name of freedom of speech they insult the honour of the prophet,” Khan said. “When 50 Muslim countries will unite and say this, and say that if something like this happens in any country, then we will launch a trade boycott on them and not buy their goods, that will have an effect.” Khan likened the issue to that of the Holocaust, saying the Western nations had understood that questioning the Holocaust hurt the sentiments of the Jewish community, and that it needed to treat the issue of insulting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad in a similar manner. Khan’s address came as his government continued to negotiate on Monday with the far-right Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) group, which held days of violent protests last week and abducted several police officers on Sunday as they continued their agitations on the issue of perceived “blasphemy” by the French President Emmanuel Macron. Since November, the TLP has demanded that Pakistan expel the French ambassador over comments by Macron where he defended a publication’s right to republish caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, an act considered “blasphemous” by some Muslims. Blasphemy is a sensitive subject in Pakistan, where certain forms of the crime can carry a mandatory death sentence. Since 1990, at least 78 people have been murdered in mob violence and targeted attacks related to blasphemy accusations, according to an Al Jazeera tally. Khan blasts TLP protests Khan denounced the TLP’s violent protests over the last week, which have seen at least four policemen killed and more than 800 wounded, as being damaging to the country. “My question is: by sending the French ambassador back and cutting all ties, will this stop [this blasphemy]?” said Pakistani PM Khan on Monday. “Is there a guarantee that people will stop insulting the prophet? “I guarantee that if we do this, if Pakistan does this, then this same thing will happen in another European country on the issue of freedom of expression.” On Sunday, TLP activists raided a police station in Lahore, Pakistan’s second city, abducting several policemen and prompting a fresh crackdown that saw police fire water cannon and tear gas as they attempted to recover the officers. Early on Monday, the 11 abducted police officers were released by the TLP, as negotiations between the provincial government in Punjab, of which Lahore is the capital, and a TLP delegation began, the Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed said. Pir Ijaz Ashrafi, a central leader of the TLP, told Al Jazeera that four TLP activists had also been killed in Sunday’s violence, but Al Jazeera was unable to independently confirm the death toll. Last week, Pakistan’s government designated the TLP a “terrorist” organisation under anti-terrorism legislation, and said it would begin the process of delisting the group as a political party recognised by the country’s Election Commission. On Monday, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said a second round of negotiations with the group had concluded, and that a third round would begin on Monday evening. The next stage of talks would include Interior Minister Rasheed and Religious Affairs Minister Noor-ul-Haq Qadri, he said. Asad Hashim is Al Jazeera’s digital correspondent in Pakistan. He tweets @AsadHashim. See article here. © 2021 Al Jazeera

Ethiopian Human Rights Commission says it received reports an armed group had taken control of Sedal Woreda, with civilians killed and public servants abducted. An armed group has taken control of a country in western Ethiopia that is home to about 25,000 people, reportedly killing civilians and abducting public servants, according to the country’s Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC). The state-appointed body said in a statement late on Wednesday it had received reports that Sedal Woreda, in the Kamashi zone of the Benishangul-Gumuz region, was “under near-full control of an armed group as of April 19”. The commission did not specify which armed group it was referring to. “Residents who have fled the area told EHRC that the armed group has burned down and looted public and private property and that the woreda (county) administration and local police have fled the area. There are also reports that civilians have been killed and public servants have been kidnapped,” the commission said in its statement. “According to residents and officials EHRC spoke to, a small contingent of the regional security force in the vicinity is outnumbered,” the commission said, urging the federal government in Addis Ababa to deploy security forces to the region “to prevent further loss of life”. There was no immediate comment by the government of local officials. With a population belonging to a myriad of ethnic groups, including the Gumuz, Agaws, Shinasas and the Amhar, Benishangul-Gumuz is home to the strategically important Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Ethiopia says the multibillion-dollar project built on the Blue Nile is key to its economic development and power generation, but downstream countries Egypt and Sudan view the dam as a potential threat, fearing disruptions in water supplies from the Nile River. In recent months, Benishangul-Gumuz has been hit by a surge of ethnic violence including an attack in December that killed more than 200 civilians. It is one of the several flashpoints across the country of more than 100 million people where ethnic rivalries over land, power and resources have ignited before delayed national elections scheduled for June. As it battles to contain multiple outbreaks of ethnic and political violence, the government on Monday declared a state of emergency in the southern part of the Amhara region. The move followed three days of violence in the town of Ataye in which an unspecified number of people were killed. Earlier this month, more than 100 people were killed in border clashes between the Afar and Somali regions. The two regions blamed special forces from each other’s sides for the deaths. In March, assailants killed at least 30 civilians in an attack on a village in Oromia. © Al Jazeera, 2021

New US sanctions are aimed at state-owned enterprises that support the government of Belarus President Lukashenko. The Biden administration on Monday renewed United States sanctions on nine state-owned companies in Belarus for human rights violations by the regime of President Alexander Lukashenko. The move by the US Treasury Department primarily forestalled potential future sales of US crude oil to the former Soviet-state, which US officials had hoped was looking for alternative sources to Russian supply for its refineries. The US Department of State cited government suppression of political protests following the August 2020 re-election of Lukashenko, which the US has said was fraudulent. The action came as a “consequence of the Belarusian authorities’ flagrant disregard for human rights and Belarus’ failure to comply with its obligations under international law” the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. More than 340 political prisoners are being detained in Belarus, part of a political crackdown against dissent following Lukashenko’s re-election, according to the State Department. “The United States calls on the Belarusian authorities to immediately and unconditional release all those unjustly detained or imprisoned,” Blinken said. Blinken specifically named several political prisoners still being held whom US officials are concerned about. Belarusian political figure Siarhei Tsikhanouski, who had intended to run against Lukashenko in 2020, was arrested before the August election and remains imprisoned. Protest leader Maria Kolesnikova was detained in September after a mass march against the Lukashenko government. Blinken also cited the continuing imprisonment of blogger Ihar Losik, who has been on a hunger strike. “The nine state-owned enterprises affected by this action, finance and support the Lukashenko regime, facilitating its violent repression of the Belarusian people and repeated rejection of the rule of law,” Blinken’s statement said. The sanctioned companies are Belarusian Oil Trade House, Belneftekhim, Belneftekhim USA, Inc, Belshina OAO, Grodno Azot OAO, Grodno Khimvolokno OAO, Lakokraska OAO, Naftan OAO, Polotsk Steklovolokno OAO, according to the US Treasury Department. The sanctions had been lifted since 2015 when the US and Western nations began trying to develop better relations with Belarus. The US had exported $112m in goods to Belarus in 2020, mostly medicines and cars, and imported $332m, mostly fertiliser, iron and steel, according the US government data. In February, the US imposed travel restrictions on 43 Belarusian nationals identified as taking part in Lukashenko’s political crackdown. The travel sanctions were triggered by the sentencing of two journalists who had live-streamed an enormous protest in Minsk against Lukashenko’s rule in November. The European Union has also imposed travel and financial sanctions on Belarus officials and companies to no effect. With support from Moscow, Lukashenko has refused to step down and blamed the protests on Western attempts to overthrow him. Last month, police in Belarus detained as many as 175 people as they gathered for rallies against Lukashenko in several cities. © Al Jazeera, 2021

Survivors of Guatemala’s 36-year civil war call on court to reverse closure of peace institutions. temalan survivors and relatives of victims of civil war-era crimes against humanity gather on February 25 to commemorate the dead and to demand justice [Sandra Cuffe/Al Jazeera] Al Jazeera By Sandra Cuffe 26 Feb 2021 Guatemala City – Survivors of genocide and other crimes against humanity during Guatemala’s civil war are calling for justice as pending trials against ex-military officials stagnate in court. Indigenous survivors and relatives of victims marched on Thursday in Guatemala City to commemorate the National Day of Dignity for Victims of the Internal Armed Conflict, demanding the government uphold its commitments to peace and justice. “This day carries so much meaning. It honours our dead,” said Rigoberta Menchu, an Indigenous Maya K’iche human rights activist and winner of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize. “For many, many years we have struggled for the recognition of victims,” Menchu, whose father was killed in a 1980 massacre, told Al Jazeera. Nobel peace laureate Rigoberta Menchu said, ‘This day carries so much meaning. It honours our dead’ [Sandra Cuffe/Al Jazeera] A civil war between socialist guerrilla forces and the Guatemalan military from 1960 to 1996 left an estimated 200,000 people dead and another 45,000 people disappeared. More than 80 percent of victims were Indigenous Maya civilians. Military forces were responsible for 93 percent of killings, according to a United Nations-backed truth commission. The Commission for Historical Clarification determined state actors committed acts of genocide, and Guatemalan courts have since come to the same conclusion. The commission presented its report on February 25, 1999, and the date was later recognised as the annual day of dignity for victims. The report helped pave the way for investigations and exhumations that led to the prosecution of high-level former military officials. Over the past decade, domestic Guatemalan courts have issued landmark rulings on genocide, sexual slavery and other crimes against humanity. But pending cases and trials for genocide, mass enforced disappearances and other civil war-era atrocities are stagnating in the courts. “Little by little they want to shut down all the cases,” said Menchu. “There are major latent setbacks in the administration of justice.” Pending cases and trials for genocide, mass enforced disappearances and other civil war-era atrocities are stagnating in the courts [Sandra Cuffe/Al Jazeera] Victim and survivor movements did celebrate a recent important victory, however. The Constitutional Court ruled earlier this month against an amnesty bill that would have freed perpetrators of crimes against humanity. More than 50 associations of victims, survivors and relatives are still waiting on the Constitutional Court to rule on their challenges to Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei’s closure last year of three institutions designed to uphold government commitments stemming from the 1996 peace accords. “To date, there has been no response,” Feliciana Macario, a representative of CONAVIGUA, a human rights organisation led by Maya women whose relatives were killed or disappeared, told Al Jazeera. Guatemalan survivors and relatives of victims of civil war-era crimes against humanity commemorated the National Day for Dignity of Victims of the Internal Armed Conflict [Sandra Cuffe/Al Jazeera] A delegation from the associations attending on Thursday presented a document to the Constitutional Court, urging the court to rule on the issue. The march then continued on to the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman, to express support for the ombudsman, before ending outside Congress. The president’s office did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment on the demands. Jose Yos was born years after the war ended, but he participated in the march to honour his grandfather. The 19-year-old travelled on Thursday to the capital with his mother and sisters from their home in Santa Lucia Cotzumalguapa, 95 kilometres (59 miles) southwest of Guatemala City. “My grandfather was a martyr,” Yos, who is named after his grandfather, told Al Jazeera. “He fought for human rights and for better pay.” In the late 1970s, the elder Yos and other sugarcane harvesters in the Escuintla department began organising with the Campesino Unity Committee. Some of them later joined committee members from other regions in Guatemala City to protest against abductions and killings by the army, and on January 31, 1980, they occupied the Spanish Embassy. Indigenous survivors and relatives of victims marched on February 25 demanding the government uphold its commitments to peace and justice [Sandra Cuffe/Al Jazeera] A fire broke out during a police raid and 37 people – eight Spanish diplomats, including the consul, and 29 civilians, including Menchu’s father and Yos’s grandfather – burned to death. More than 40 years later, their relatives continue to take action with survivors of atrocities from around the country. “I feel uplifted here because there is a kind of unity with other relatives of victims,” said Yos. “What we seek is justice.” See article here. © 2021 Al Jazeera

Four NGOs have filed a criminal complaint against members of the Syrian government for deadly attacks in 2013 and 2017. A UN-commissioned investigation to identify those behind chemical attacks in Syria concluded in 2017 that Syrian government forces had used chlorine and sarin gas [File: Louai Beshara/AFP] Published April 20, 2021 Four NGOs have announced they have filed a criminal complaint in Sweden against members of the Syrian government, including President Bashar al-Assad, over chemical weapons attacks in 2013 and 2017. In the complaint filed with Swedish police, the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), Civil Rights Defenders, Syrian Archive (SA), and the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) accuse Syrian officials of chemical attacks using sarin gas, in Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib probvince in 2017 and Ghouta near the capital Damascus in 2013. “By filing the complaint, we want to support the victims’ struggle for truth and justice,” Hadi al-Khatib, founder and director of Syrian Archive, said in a statement. “We hope that a Swedish investigation into these crimes will eventually result in trials and convictions of those who ordered and carried out these attacks. Sweden can and should contribute to putting an end to the current state of impunity in Syria,” he added. Allegations of war crimes can be investigated by Swedish police regardless of where they were committed. The Syrian government denies ever using chemical weapons against its own civilians in the course of conflict with rebel forces. The conflict, which began in 2011, has largely subsided with Assad having regained control of most key territory with Russian and Iranian military support. According to the complaint, the Syrian government used chemical weapons in attacks on the opposition-held towns of Ghouta in 2013 and Khan Sheikhoun in 2017. Hundreds of civilians, including children, were killed. “In the ten years since the first assaults on pro-democracy protesters in Syria, the government has used chemical weapons more than 300 times to terrorise the civilian population,” said Steve Kostas, a lawyer at the Justice Initiative. “Swedish authorities can join their counterparts in France and Germany to jointly investigate the use of chemical weapons in Syria and demonstrate that there will be no impunity for the perpetrators of these crimes,” he said in a statement. Syria has rejected the allegations A United Nations-commissioned investigation to identify those behind chemical attacks in Syria concluded in 2017 that Syrian government forces had used chlorine and sarin gas. The first trial of suspected members of Assad’s security services for crimes against humanity, including torture and sexual assault, began in a German court in April 2020. Meanwhile, the world’s chemical weapons watchdog will decide this week whether to impose unprecedented sanctions on Syria for its alleged use of toxic arms and failure to declare its arsenal. Member states of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will weigh a French proposal to suspend Syria’s “rights and privileges” at the body, including its ability to vote. Damascus is accused of failing to answer key questions after an OPCW probe last year found Syria attacked a rebel-held village with the nerve agent sarin and the toxic chemical chlorine in 2017. Syria has rejected all the allegations and said the attacks were staged. Damascus and its ally Moscow have accused Western powers of using the OPCW for a “politicised” campaign against them. © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network