Retired military officials will stand trial on charges of disappearing and killing dissidents in 1980s during civil war. Marcia Mendez has spent decades seeking justice for her sister, detained and disappeared in Guatemala in 1984. [Sandra Cuffe/Al Jazeera] By Sandra Cuffe 13 Jun 2021 Guatemala City, Guatemala – Marcia Mendez never stopped searching for her sister. Now, decades after Luz Haydee was disappeared by Guatemalan military forces, justice may be on the horizon, after a Guatemalan judge this month ordered a trial into crimes committed in the 1980s. “For us this is already a huge step forward,” Mendez told Al Jazeera outside the Guatemala City courthouse complex following the hearing last week. Luz Haydee Mendez Calderon was detained and disappeared in 1984 – one of an estimated 45,000 people disappeared during the civil war in Guatemala. An estimated 200,000 people were killed over the course of the 1960-1996 armed conflict. At the time, Mendez Calderon was secretary of international relations for the Guatemalan Labour Party, which had been forced underground after a United States-backed coup in 1954 and became one of the armed fighter groups involved in a 36-year conflict with the military. She was also a mother of two. Her nine-year-old daughter was sexually assaulted during the abduction, and together with her younger brother was held and tortured for several days. The children reappeared but their mother never did. In 1999, leaked documents bolstered the family’s search for the truth. Luz Haydee Mendez Calderon in 1984 was detained and disappeared, one of an estimated 45,000 people disappeared during the civil war in Guatemala. [Sandra Cuffe/Al Jazeera] The Diario Militar, or Death Squad Diary, documented the abductions, torture, disappearances and executions of 183 people, including Mendez Calderon, between 1983 and 1985. The military intelligence dossier includes a section with a numbered list of the 183, with their names, affiliations, photograph, date and location of abduction, and other basic details. On June 9, a Guatemalan judge ordered six ex-military officers to face trial for their roles in the allegations contained in the Death Squad Diary – a move that was celebrated by relatives of the victims, who also reiterated calls for their loved ones’ remains to be located and returned. ‘It seemed impossible’ Most – but not all – of the victims listed in the Death Squad Diary were fighter group members and sympathisers, student movement organisers, union leaders, writers, and other dissidents. Some were just children. In most cases, victims were held for weeks and then killed, according to the document. So far, though, the remains of only eight Death Squad Diary victims have been exhumed and identified, including six found in clandestine graves on a former military base 70km west of the capital, Guatemala City. All six defendants were indicted for crimes against humanity, and five of them were indicted for forced disappearance. They all also stand accused of murder, attempted murder or both, for the killings. The charges relate to 20 individual victims, based on witness testimonies and documentation gathered over the span of more than two decades. “It is a triumph to have made it to this point after nearly 40 years in this struggle,” said Mendez, after the judge’s ruling. “For so many years it seemed impossible to us.” Marcia Mendez (bottom centre) and other relatives of victims of forced disappearance in Guatemala pose with a banner asking, ‘Where Are They?’ [Sandra Cuffe/Al Jazeera] Truth commission A United Nations-backed truth commission concluded in 1999 that Guatemalan army and paramilitary forces were responsible for more than 90 percent of atrocities committed during the civil war. More than 80 percent of victims were Indigenous Maya civilians, many of them killed in more than 600 documented massacres. The truth commission concluded state actors perpetrated acts of genocide, and domestic tribunals have since agreed in landmark rulings. High-level military officials are also currently awaiting trials for genocide, forced disappearance, and other crimes against humanity largely in rural Indigenous areas. In contrast, the majority of Death Squad Diary victims were Guatemala City residents. The urban operations were coordinated by military intelligence tied to the Presidential High Command, according to the prosecution. “It was a systematic policy that gave continuity to the scorched earth policy in the countryside,” said Francisco Sanchez, who was nine years old at the time of his aunt Mendez Calderon’s abduction and disappearance. “I feel privileged because few cases make it [into the courts]. This is 183 of 45,000 people,” he said Wednesday in a plaza outside the court, where he and others had lined the steps with photographs of Death Squad Diary victims. After the 1996 Peace Accords, Sanchez and other children, nieces and nephews of the disappeared founded the HIJOS collective to continue the older generations’ fight for justice. They set up a loudspeaker outside Wednesday to broadcast audio of the courtroom proceedings and set off firecrackers as judge Miguel Angel Galvez read out the indictments. The next day, Galvez remanded the six defendants into custody, ordering they remain in pre-trial detention pending trial. Galvez gave prosecutors three months to continue their investigations and scheduled an intermediary hearing for September. Others arrested The six ex-military officers will likely not be the only defendants in the case. Eleven former military and police officers were arrested on May 27, and a twelfth was arrested when he showed up in court. Six had their initial hearings and will face trial, as per Galvez’s June 9 resolution. The initial hearings for the other six former officers arrested May 27 is pending and will determine whether they will also face trial. Some of the remaining six are in custody in medical facilities while others were arrested in other parts of the country and were not transferred to the capital in time for the initial hearing. “It caught us by surprise,” Antonio Rustrian, whose uncle Manuel Ismael Salanic Chiquil’s forced disappearance was recorded in the Death Squad Diary, said of the arrests. “For me it was very symbolic, because the day of the arrests was the anniversary of my grandfather’s death,” he told Al Jazeera outside the court complex. Relatives of Guatemala’s disappeared have been fighting for decades to get answers [Sandra Cuffe/Al Jazeera] Rustrian’s grandfather, who died of natural causes in 2014, dedicated 30 years of his life to the movement for truth and justice. Shortly after his son’s disappearance, he co-founded the Mutual Support Group (GAM) and later became involved in the Association of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared of Guatemala (FAMDEGUA). “The struggle and the history [have] always been part of my family,” said Rustrian, 25, who was born more than a decade after his uncle’s disappearance. “It left a lasting mark on me since I was little.” Salanic Chiguil was 18 years old when he and three other young men all studying to become teachers were forcibly disappeared one night in 1984. Before he was taken away, Salanic’s abductors tortured him with electric shocks in front of his relatives; they also tortured his younger brother and beat his father and uncle, according to the family. “The judicial proceedings that are going on are important because they reveal how the state operated – with great brutality. It is history that needs to be made known and there needs to be justice so it is not repeated,” said Rustrian, a member of HIJOS. Some pushback Military veterans’ groups and some right-wing politicians continue to reject that history, however. When the retired officers were arrested late last month in the Death Squad Diary case, congressional human rights commission president Alvaro Arzu tweeted his support for the men, calling them “war heroes” and saying “they defended the country’s sovereignty and saved us from communism.” Less than two weeks later, nine lawmakers presented a proposal for a bill that would quash prosecution of crimes committed by anyone directly or indirectly related to the armed conflict. The bill would be retroactive, freeing convicted ex-military and paramilitary force members and others awaiting trials. A similar amnesty bill proposed in 2017 sparked months of protests and international condemnation after it passed a first reading in Congress in 2019. The Constitutional Court eventually ruled against the bill and ordered it be definitively shelved. A woman walks in front of a wall with images of people disappeared during the Guatemala civil war in Guatemala City in 2019 [File: Saul Martinez/Reuters] If the new bill proposal makes headway, it will undoubtedly reignite Indigenous-led protests and legal challenges by survivors and relatives of victims. The Guatemalan government has not commented on the new amnesty proposal. For now, though, many groups are focusing on the progress in the historic Death Squad Diary case. “We finally see the result of everything we have done,” said Mendez, wearing a photograph of her sister on a sign hanging around her neck. “We are both sad and happy,” she said, explaining that many of the victims’ parents died before they could see their disappeared children’s cases make it to court. “We have cried a lot too,” said Mendez, “out of joy, out of rage, out of all kinds of emotions.” See article here. © 2021 Al Jazeera

More than 40 countries urged China on Tuesday to allow the United Nations human rights chief immediate access to its far western region of Xinjiang to investigate reports that more than a million mostly Muslim ethnic Uighurs have been detained – some subjected to torture or forced labour – prompting a furious response from China. “We are gravely concerned about the human rights situation in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region,” Canada’s ambassador, Leslie Norton said. The statement at the Human Rights Council in Geneva was backed by Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and the United States, among others. Beijing must allow UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet and other independent observers “immediate, meaningful and unfettered access” to Xinjiang, and end the “arbitrary detention” of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities, it said. “Credible reports indicate that over a million people have been arbitrarily detained in Xinjiang and that there is widespread surveillance disproportionately targeting Uighurs and members of other minorities and restrictions on fundamental freedoms and Uyghur culture,” the statement said. The Canadian-led statement cited reports of torture, forced sterilisation, sexual violence and forced separation of children from their parents. China has denied mistreating the Uighurs, once a majority in their ancestral homeland until waves of ethnic Han Chinese began to migrate there with the support of the state. Beijing has denied all allegations of abuse of Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims and said the camps are vocational skills training centres necessary to combat “religious extremism”. Bachelet told the council on Monday that she hoped to agree on terms for a visit this year to China, including Xinjiang, to examine reports of serious violations against Muslim Uighurs. Her office has been negotiating access since September 2018. The widely anticipated statement, which had been in the pipeline for several days, “sends a crucial message to China’s authorities that they are not above international scrutiny”, said Agnes Callamard, head of the rights group Amnesty International. But countries “must now move beyond handwringing and take real action”, she added. 'Deeply concerned’ Aware that the statement was coming, China had responded even before it was delivered, targeting Canada, which has accused China of “hostage diplomacy” for its detention of two Canadians in December 2018. Beijing’s representative read out a statement on behalf of a group of countries that said they were “deeply concerned about serious human rights violations against the indigenous people in Canada”. Belarus, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Sri Lanka, Syria and Venezuela were among the co-signatories, according to the United Nations. “Historically, Canada robbed the indigenous people of their land, killed them, and eradicated their culture,” the statement said. It referenced the recent discovery of 215 unmarked graves at a former residential school in western Canada – one of many boarding schools set up a century ago to forcibly assimilate Canada’s Indigenous peoples. “We call for a thorough and impartial investigation into all cases where crimes were committed against the indigenous people, especially children,” the statement said. The Canadian-led joint statement also condemned the broadly-worded National Security Law, which China imposed on Hong Kong a year ago following months of protests in 2019. The law criminalises what China deems secession, terrorism, subversion and collusion with foreign forces. The first trials are due to begin this week of people arrested under the legislation. “We continue to be deeply concerned about the deterioration of fundamental freedomsin Hong Kong under the National Security Law and about the human rights situation in Tibet,” it said. The representative of Belarus read another joint statement on behalf of 64 countries, supporting China and stressing that Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet were China’s internal affairs. In Ottawa, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who later condemned what he called “the systemic abuse and human rights violations” in Xinjiang, said Canada had acknowledged and was seeking to make amends for wrongs committed against its Indigenous peoples. A Canadian truth and reconciliation commission had worked from 2008 to 2015 to address the mistreatment of the Indigenous population, although it has yet to act on most of the recommendations. “Where is China’s truth and reconciliation commission? Where is their truth? Where is the openness that Canada has always shown and the responsibility that Canada has taken for the terrible mistakes of the past?” Trudeau asked. “The journey of reconciliation is a long one, but it is a journey we are on. China is not recognising even that there is a problem. “That is a pretty fundamental difference and that is why Canadians and people from around the world are speaking up for people like the Uighurs who find themselves voiceless, faced with a government that will not recognize what’s happening to them.” © Al Jazeera and News Agencies, 2021

Rights group says China’s ‘ruthless detention campaign’ is preventing exiled Uighur families from reuniting with their children in Xinjiang. Amnesty International has called on China to allow exiled Uighur parents to reunite with their children in Xinjiang without the fear of being sent to “oppressive” internment camps. The human rights group on Friday released a new report describing the plight of six families living outside China who have been cut off from their children since 2017, when Beijing intensified its crackdown on the Uighurs, detaining more than a million members of the Muslim minority at what it called “vocational skills training centres”. At the time, the parents – some of whom had fled Xinjiang due to increased police harassment and others for education and jobs – had left one or more of their children in the care of their families in their hometowns. The mothers and fathers believed they would soon be reunited with their children, but Beijing’s “ruthless detention campaign in Xinjiang” put them in “an impossible situation”, said Alkan Akad, Amnesty’s China researcher. The parents, fearing persecution and arbitrary detention, could not return home to take care of their children. But the children were not allowed to leave and rejoin their families either. “The tragedy of family separation in Xinjiang exposes the inhumanity of China’s efforts to control and indoctrinate Uighurs and other Muslim ethnic groups in the name of ‘countering terrorism’,” said Akad. “China must end the measures that restrict the rights of all Muslim minorities to freely leave and return to the country. It must close all political ‘re-education camps’ and release detainees immediately, unconditionally and without prejudice,” he added. There was no immediate comment from Beijing. China has previously rejected allegations of any rights abuses in Xinjiang, saying the camps have been “extremely effective” in reducing “religious extremism” in the region. ‘My wife and I cry at night’ In a news release accompanying its Friday report, Amnesty said Uighurs overseas often hesitate to publicly talk about human rights abuses for fear of repercussions against their relatives in China. But it said the six families interviewed for the report decided to share their stories in the hope they might eventually be able to their children again. Parents Mihriban Kader and Ablikim Memtinin told Amnesty they fled Xinjiang for Italy in 2016 because of police harassment, leaving their four children in the care of Kader’s parents. Soon after they left, Kader’s mother was taken to a camp and her father was interrogated by the police. “Our other relatives didn’t dare to look after my children after what had happened to my parents,” Kader told Amnesty. “They were afraid that they would be sent to the camps, too.” The couple’s three youngest children were then sent to a state-run orphanage, while the eldest was placed in a boarding school. The couple were unable to contact them from Italy, but in November 2019, they received a permit from the Italian government to bring their children to join them. The four children – aged between 12 and 16 – travelled alone across China to the Italian consulate in Shanghai, but they were seized by police and sent back to the orphanage and boarding school. “Now my children are in the hands of the Chinese government and I am not sure I will be able to meet them again in my lifetime,” Kader said. “The thing that hurts most is that, to my children, it’s as if their parents don’t exist anymore; as if we passed away and they are orphaned.” In another case, Omer and Maryem Faruh, who left two of their four daughters in the care of Meryem’s parents in 2016, told Amnesty they have not heard from their separated children in more than four years. “My wife and I cry only at night, trying to hide our sorrow from our other kids here with us,” Omer said. The Faruhs, who obtained Turkish citizenship in June last year, have been trying to enlist the help of the Turkish authorities to bring their two girls out of China. And although the Turkish embassy in Beijing informed Omer it had initiated the relevant procedures in August 2020 and sent a diplomatic note to the Chinese government in October 2020, to date the Faruhs have not been able to bring the girls to Turkey. ‘Heartless policies’ “The heartbreaking testimonies of the parents we spoke to only scratches the surface of the scale of suffering endured by Uyghur families separated from their children,” said Amnesty’s Akad. “The Chinese government must end its heartless policies in Xinjiang and ensure that families can be reunited as quickly as possible without fear of being sent to an oppressive camp.” The report came as global pressure mounts on China for its treatment of the Uighurs. The United States government and the Canadian and Dutch parliaments have labelled Beijing’s actions against the Uighurs “genocide”, and Washington has imposed sanctions on several Chinese officials over Xinjiang. But China has rejected the genocide charge and warned Western countries not to interfere in its internal affairs. Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister, told the United Nations Human Rights Council in February that “there has never been so-called genocide, forced labour or religious oppression in Xinjiang”. He also invited the UN human rights commissioner to visit the closed-off region, but did not give a time frame. © Al Jazeera

Attackers set houses ablaze and open fire on civilians in an overnight raid in Beni’s Beu district. A burned house in Beni's Rwangoma, neighbourhood. [Sébastien Kitsa Musayi/AFP] At least 10 people have been killed in an overnight raid in the city of Beni in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, in an attack blamed on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) armed group. Residents on Thursday said a group of attackers had set several houses on fire in the middle of the night in the city’s Beu district, firing upon people as they exited the buildings and attacking some with machetes. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but officials blamed ADF for the attack in the Rwangoma neighbourhood. “Overnight, there was an attack by ADF enemies. We lost around 10 civilians,” lieutenant Anthony Mualushayi told the AFP news agency. An AFP correspondent saw 10 bodies in the morgue of Beni’s general hospital. With reports of missing people, there are fears the death toll could rise. A burned house in Beni's Rwangoma, neighbourhood. [Sébastien Kitsa Musayi/AFP] The ADF – the most violent of an estimated 122 armed groups in the mineral-rich eastern DRC, many of them a legacy of two regional wars from 1996 to 2003 – has never claimed responsibility for attacks. Gloire Kivetya, president of a body representing civil society groups in Beu, also blamed the attack on the ADF. The Kivu Security Tracker, a monitoring group, also said the ADF was suspected. Thousands killed The ADF, which appeared in the 1990s in western Uganda with the declared aim of creating a so-called “Islamic state”, has made its base in the eastern DRC since 1995. According to a tally compiled by the DRC’s Catholic church, the ADF has been responsible for at least 6,000 deaths since 2013. The KST says the ADF has killed more than 1,200 civilians in the Beni area of North Kivu province alone since 2017. On March 10, the United States branded the ADF a “foreign terrorist organisation” and said its leader Musa Baluku had pledged allegiance to the ISIL (ISIS) armed group. But experts are still unsure about the extent of links between the ADF and ISIL. In May, DRC President Felix Tshisekedi proclaimed a “state of siege” in North Kivu and neighbouring Ituri province in a bid to curb growing insecurity. Under this, senior civilian officials have been replaced by army officers. The army accused the ADF for the overnight raid. [Sébastien Kitsa Musayi/AFP] © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network

Swamy was arrested in October in the eastern state of Jharkhand after being accused of having links with Maoist rebels, a charge he denied. In this file photo from October 2020, Catholic priests and nuns hold placards during a protest in Secunderabad against the arrest of Jesuit priest Father Stan Swamy [File: Noah Seelam/AFP] Father Stan Swamy, a jailed Jesuit priest and longtime Indian tribal rights activist, died on Monday in the western Indian city of Mumbai. He was 84. His lawyer and doctor told the Mumbai High Court that Swamy, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease, died of cardiac arrest. The court was hearing a plea for bail on medical grounds after Swamy had been denied bail in March. The activist had been moved to a private hospital from Tajola Central Jail in May after his health began rapidly deteriorating. He was admitted to the intensive care unit, where he tested positive for COVID-19. “Stan worked to light the world and do away with injustice. The government may have succeeded in snuffing his life out, but his spirit will continue to inspire,” Father Jerome Stanislaus D’souza, the president of Jesuits in India, said in a statement. Swamy maintained his innocence and said he was targeted over his work and writings on caste injustice and struggles faced by marginalised groups [File: Aijaz Rahi/AFP] In October, Swamy was arrested in the eastern state of Jharkhand after being charged under India’s anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). He was the oldest person to be accused of terrorism in India. The government’s National Investigation Agency arrested him and 15 other activists and academics over a 2018 incident in which violence broke out between so-called “lower-caste” Dalits and right-wing groups. Authorities alleged that those arrested had links to Maoist rebels, who are active in several states and are considered the country’s biggest internal security threat. Swamy maintained his innocence and rejected any links to the rebels, saying he was targeted over his work and writings on caste injustice and struggles faced by marginalised groups. His arrest sparked widespread outrage in India, with many prominent opposition politicians and academics demanding his release. The anti-terror law was amended in 2019 to allow the government to designate an individual as a terrorist. Police can detain people for up to six months without producing any evidence, and the accused can subsequently be imprisoned for up to seven years. Critics have called the law draconian, and accuse Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of using it to mute dissent. In February, the government said that almost 6,000 people were arrested under the UAPA between 2016 and 2019 and that 132 were convicted. Tributes pour in Swamy, who focused on empowering and uplifting India’s Indigenous tribes, was known for tirelessly advocating for the rights of those most marginalised. “He deserved justice and humaneness,” tweeted Rahul Gandhi, leader of the main opposition Congress party. “Father Stan Swamy spent a lifetime working for the dispossessed and the disadvantaged,” tweeted prominent historian Ramachandra Guha, calling his death “a case of judicial murder.” Left-wing activist Kavita Krishnan said judges who denied Swamy bail had “blood on their hands”. Meanwhile, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders Mary Lawler said news of Swamy’s death was devastating. “Jailing Human Rights Defenders is inexcusable,” she said in a tweet. In January, to mark 100 days in jail, Swamy penned a letter thanking all those who had stood by him. He said he had not met the 15 other people accused with him, despite being in the same jail. “But we still sing in chorus. A caged bird can still sing,” he wrote. In his last bail hearing in May, he predicted his death if he remained in jail. “I would rather die here very shortly if things go on as it is,” Swamy told the judges. On Monday, his lawyer, Mihir Desai, told the court that Swamy is not survived by any family members, the Live Law website reported. “The Jesuits are his only family,” Desai said. SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

President vows not to return the country to war as world’s youngest nation marks 10 years of independence with little to celebrate. On July 9, 2011, South Sudan became the world's youngest nation. [File: Andrew Burton/AP Photo] South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir, in a speech marking 10 years since independence, has pledged not to return the country to war. At midnight on July 9, 2011, raucous celebrations erupted as the world’s newest nation was born and the people of South Sudan cheered the end of a decades-long struggle for statehood from Sudan. But just two years later, oil-rich South Sudan was plunged into a brutal civil war that killed nearly 400,000 people and forced millions from their homes. Despite a fragile 2018 peace deal between Kiir and his rival Riek Machar, who now serves as a vice president, the country remains in the grip of political instability, economic malaise and an acute hunger crisis. “I assure you that I will not return you back to war again. Let us work all together to recover the lost decade and put our country back to the path of development in this new decade,” Kiir said in a televised address on Friday marking the milestone. He hailed a “new spirit of dialogue” among political rivals and said the Transitional Government of National Unity would focus on economic reforms and improving security. But on Friday, there was no jubilation that greeted statehood, with people told to stay at home because of the coronavirus pandemic. “The mood here is quite sombre, many people really don’t feel like celebrating,” said Al Jazeera’s Haru Mutasa, reporting from the capital, Juba. “There’s a general disillusionment,” she added, citing increasing frustration over the lack of basic services and persistent poverty and unemployment. “People also noticed that when Kiir addressed the nation, he wasn’t standing next to the Machar,” Mutasa said. “People were hoping that the two men would at least appear side by side and seem like they’re trying to work together to move this country forward.” ‘Seize this opportunity’ Kiir had warned this week that the cash-strapped state was in no position to celebrate, blaming international sanctions for keeping prosperity out of reach. The international community has used the anniversary to urge South Sudan’s leaders to do more to improve conditions for its 12 million population. “The journey from war to peace has been a long and difficult one and there is still much to be done so that people can exercise the democratic right they earned a decade ago,” Nicholas Haysom, the head of the UN mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), said in a statement. “We … urge the country’s political leaders to seize this opportunity to make the hopes and dreams of a decade ago a reality by securing the sustainable peace needed to enable full recovery and development.” South Sudan still faces many obstacles to achieving that goal, including the lack of a unified security force and pervasive insecurity linked to intercommunal conflict. “It was not only in 2013 when our colleagues, my brother were killed,” John Kuok, a displaced person, told Al Jazeera. “Even during the struggle [for independence], my brothers, they were also killed. So when it repeated itself, it was horrible,” he said, referring to another round of fighting in 2016. “The people of South Sudan are telling their leadership that, ‘look we are tired of war’,” Barnaba Marial Benjamin, minister of presidential affairs, told Al Jazeera. “Nobody wants war any more. If there are some few political leaders who think that they will go and mobilise some of our citizens, so that they cause a fight, because they want to be leaders of this country – I don’t think they will get the audience from the public.” South Sudan enjoyed immense international goodwill and billions of dollars in support when its people voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to secede from the north. But its leaders failed to stem corruption and the new South Sudan was looted rather than rebuilt, as huge sums from its vast oilfields were siphoned off and squandered. The political leaders who led South Sudan to independence – and then back to war – are still in power today, ruling in a tenuous coalition forged under a peace deal. The power-sharing arrangement between Kiir, a former military commander from the Dinka ethnic group, and Machar, a rebel leader from the Nuer people, has kept fighting between their forces largely at bay since the ceasefire in 2018. But the old foes have violated past truces and progress on the latest accord has drifted, inflaming distrust between the pair and raising fears of a return to fighting. The “unity” government they belatedly formed in February 2020 under great international pressure is weak, and safeguards to prevent another war have not been put in place. Though the peace accords paused the worst of the bloodshed between conventional armies, armed conflict between rival ethnic groups has surged in ungoverned areas, exacting a civilian death toll not seen since the war. “The country is just, unfortunately, in a much worse spot than it was 10 years ago,” Alan Boswell, senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera. “The international partners … are pretty much the only ones offering anything close to government services. And of course, that situation doesn’t seem very sustainable,” he said. “Whenever I talk with various diplomats from different countries, there’s not really any sort of coherent plan on how to get out of this situation – they all fear cutting humanitarian aid to South Sudan would just cause more misery. Both the South Sudanese and the outside world feel a bit stuck at the moment.” The political inertia and broken promises also come as South Sudan reels from economic chaos, with soaring inflation and a currency crisis, and faces its worst hunger crisis since independence. Conflict, drought, floods and a record locust plague have ruined harvests and left 60 percent of the population facing severe food shortages. Of those, 108,000 are on the very edge of famine, the World Food Programme (WFP) says. “Despite some lost opportunities, it is never too late to invigorate the peace process so that humanitarian assistance is more effective, and conditions are created where development activities can have broader and greater impact,” said Matthew Hollingworth, the WFP’s director for South Sudan. © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network

UN Human Rights Council condemns the continued use of enforced disappearances in the Syrian conflict. The UN Human Rights Council has called for those behind “massive scale” enforced disappearances in Syria during the past 10 years of conflict to be held accountable. The resolution, presented on Tuesday by several European countries, the United States, Turkey and Qatar, decried that Syria’s crisis had entered a second decade “marked by consistent patterns of gross violations”. The war in Syria has killed nearly 500,000 people since it started in 2011, with all sides in the increasingly complex conflict accused of war crimes. Tuesday’s resolution, adopted with 26 of the council’s 47 members in favour, six opposed and 15 abstaining, voiced particular concern about the fate of tens of thousands of people who have vanished. The text “strongly condemns the continued use of involuntary or enforced disappearances in the Syrian Arab Republic, and related human rights violations and abuses, which have been carried out with consistency, in particular by the Syrian regime”. It also criticised enforced disappearances by other parties to the conflict, including the ISIL (ISIS) armed group, but said the Syrian government was the main perpetrator. The resolution voiced alarm at recent comments by the UN’s independent commission of inquiry on the rights situation in Syria indicating “widespread enforced disappearance has been deliberately perpetrated by Syrian security forces throughout the past decade on a massive scale”. The investigators indicated such disappearances were used “to spread fear, stifle dissent and as punishment”, and tens of thousands of men, women, boys and girls detained by Syrian authorities “remain forcibly disappeared”. ‘Simply inexcusable’ Presenting the resolution to the council, British Ambassador Simon Manley said the government’s role in such a massive number of disappearances was “simply inexcusable”. That regime, he said, “has the bureaucratic means to provide information on these disappeared individuals, the means to end the suffering of the families and loved ones of these people”. “But it chooses not to employ those means. This is a deliberate act of unspeakable cruelty.” Manley accused Syrian forces of “intentionally prolonging the suffering of hundreds of thousands of family members”. The resolution demanded “the need for accountability, including for crimes committed in relation to enforced disappearance”, and added “accountability is vital in peace negotiations and peace-building processes”. © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network Full article with videos here.

Families of victims have until August 13 to submit to The Hague additional documents detailing abuses allegedly committed by Filipino authorities. Duterte, whose term ends next year, has pledged that his government will not cooperate with the possible ICC investigation [File: Erik De Castro/Reuters] Choking back her tears, Llore Pasco still wonders if she did enough to protect her sons, Crisanto, a father of four and a security guard, and Juan Carlos, a bachelor and part-time electric bill collector and former janitor. It has been more than four years since the brothers went missing from their village in Metro Manila on May 11, 2017. That morning, Crisanto had left early to apply for a security guard’s licence, never to return. By noon, Llore’s family started to grow anxious when they realised Juan Carlos was not to be found either. Their worry turned to shock and grief after learning on television the following day that the brothers had died. Reports said they were killed in a police operation following an alleged robbery not far from where they lived in Quezon City, part of the Philippines’ sprawling capital. Llore immediately suspected foul play. Her suspicions grew when she found out her sons sustained more than a dozen gunshots each, including in their foreheads. Llore admits her sons had previously experimented with drugs and had fallen in with the “wrong crowd”. But that was many years ago before President Rodrigo Duterte came to office, she said. This despite having turned themselves in to authorities at the start of the president’s anti-drug crackdown in mid-2016. DIsmissing the objections of her sons, she had insisted that they report to the village chief, because “they had nothing to hide anyway”. “Sometimes, I still ask myself if it was all my fault,” she said, her voice cracking. It would take another week and a hefty $1,500 fee for Llore to recover their bullet-ridden bodies. “I really love my sons … the pain never really goes away,” Llore said, as she spoke of the “indignities” her family was subjected to. Llore’s testimony is included among the additional evidence and testimonies that an independent human rights group, INVESTIGATE PH, is seeking to submit to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has begun a preliminary investigation into the president’s so-called “drug war” following the deaths of thousands of people. Llore had submitted evidence to the ICC previously. INVESTIGATE PH is one of several human rights groups backing the call by recently retired ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda for The Hague court to formally look into alleged “crimes against humanity of murder” committed during Duterte’s war on drugs. The families of the victims have until August 13 to submit to the ICC additional documents detailing the rights abuses allegedly committed by the Duterte administration. On Wednesday, Llore said that at least eight families from her group are filing supplementary evidence to the ICC. On Thursday, she told Al Jazeera that at least 30 more families expressed interest in filing their complaint, and that 26 families showed up at their meeting on Wednesday night. The next step is for the legal volunteers to visit the families in their homes and help them prepare their affidavits. Duterte ‘criminally liable’ The latest government data shows that as of the end of April 2021, police and security forces killed at least 6,117 suspected drug dealers during operations, although figures cited by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights showed that more than 8,600 had already been killed from March 2020. A Philippine police report in 2017 also referred to 16,355 “homicide cases under investigations” as part of its “accomplishments” in the drug war. In December 2016, Al Jazeera reported more than 6,000 deaths in the drug war. It questioned the inconsistency of the government’s record-keeping system and the possible “manipulation” of data. Rights groups say the number of deaths could be at least 27,000, including those killed by “unknown” gunmen, some of whom turned out to be police officers. INVESTIGATE PH said in a statement to Al Jazeera that it also wants the United Nations Human Rights Council to act and “ensure” that Duterte “is held criminally liable for official orders” that are backed by his countless public statements to “kill drug users and dissenters”. The rights group says the Philippine government itself should be made responsible for the “thousands of extrajudicial killings, abductions and disappearances” among other rights violations. Since Duterte’s war on drugs started in mid-2016, Philippine Police Chief Guillermo Eleazar said that crimes had been reduced by 59 percent. [File: Ted Regencia/Al Jazeera] Duterte and his top officials have defended the police’s operation tactics, saying there is a “presumption of regularity” despite the president’s public statements, urging the police to “kill” suspects. In response to a question raised by Al Jazeera during a recent online forum, Philippine Police commander, General Guillermo Eleazar said that in the last five years of the Duterte administration, violent crimes have been reduced by 59 percent – many of which he said were linked to the drug trade. “I’ve seen with my own eyes the devastating effect of drugs … and now everybody could admit that our communities are safer. While it is true that it is not a perfect situation for us, but we have made strides,” said Eleazar, who was a district police commander in Metro Manila at the beginning of Duterte’s term. In the course of five years, more than 290,000 drug suspects have been arrested and about two percent of those have died, Eleazar said. He said all those who were killed fought back against the authorities and promised to investigate allegations of abuse. But Eleazar acknowledges that the Philippines’s drug issues have yet to be resolved while maintaining that progress has been made. Several of the “big time” operators of drug syndicates, many of whom are based “outside the country”, have yet to be arrested, he said. Among those who have been identified is alleged “drug lord” Peter Lim, who has been photographed several times alongside Duterte. Earlier this month, authorities said it was possible that Lim had already left the country despite a 2018 indictment on drug-related charges. ‘Template for abuse’ INVESTIGATE PH says that despite the increased pressure from the international community, the Philippine police have refused to turn over most of the files of the killings to the justice department as legally required. The most recent request was rejected last month, according to the group. The “lack of redress” for the alleged abuses, the attempts by police to “routinely coverup the circumstances of killings in anti-drug operations”, as well as the documented efforts to “intimidate” families and potential witnesses, only lead to the more abuse and “state terror” under the Duterte administration, the report said. The report alleges that the “systematic killing machine” developed under the president’s war on drugs is now being turned into a template for other abuses such as going after the perceived enemies of the Duterte administration, including political opponents, church workers and activists. The report also accuses government forces of failing to distinguish between Muslim combatants and civilians under the guise of its “war against terrorism” in the southern island of Mindanao, which has led to the mass displacement of Muslim communities. INVESTIGATE PH is also demanding “accountability and an end to the injustice” in the Philippines, says Australian Senator Janet Rice, who is part of the independent investigative commission on human rights. “Throughout this investigation, we have remained steadfast in our objective to realise justice for the victims of human rights violations in the Philippines,” Rice said in a statement. The ICC is expected to make its decision as early as mid-August whether to proceed with the formal investigation on Duterte’s war on drugs. ‘Failed drug war’ Observers say it is likely the ICC investigation will move into the next stage. Former Congress member and human rights lawyer Neri Colmenares notes that British lawyer, Karim Khan, who has succeeded Bensouda as ICC prosecutor, is already familiar with the war on drugs in the Philippines. “I don’t see any reason why he would have any difficulty in the investigation. His background knowledge of what’s happening here, and other crimes of humanity and war crimes around the world is extensive,” Colmenares said at a recent online forum. Colmenares also said that despite the ferocity of Duterte’s war on drugs, “it is clear that his policy is a failure”. “For all the deaths linked to the war on drugs, have we really solved the drug problem? Are we better off now as a nation? The corruption is still there, drugs are still prevalent and crimes are still being committed. It’s clear that it is a failure, and that President Duterte is incompetent,” Colmenares told Al Jazeera. According to rights groups at least 27,000 people died in Duterte’s war on drugs including those killed by unknown gunmen, some of whom turned out to be police officers themselves. [File: Ted Regencia/Al Jazeera] The Duterte administration has dismissed the latest developments at the ICC as “politically motivated”. Duterte’s spokesman Harry Roque has said the Philippine government will not cooperate with any effort by The Hague, citing the president’s decision to withdraw its ICC membership in 2019. Duterte himself declared in June that he will not participate in the ICC legal deliberation, threatening to “slap” the court’s judges while calling the international body “bulls**t”. But former University of the Philippines College of Law Dean Pacifico Agabin warns Duterte’s legal strategy is ill-advised and could even backfire, as it will only shorten the time for the ICC to review the case and proceed to the formal trial, during which the court could even issue an arrest warrant. “If the president [Duterte] will not participate, then the investigation will proceed much faster,” Agabin explained during the same online forum. By participating in the investigation, Duterte and his lawyers will be given time to review the evidence presented and question any inconsistencies they may find, thus prolonging the process, the highly respected legal expert said. Tony La Vina, the dean of the Ateneo School of Government in Manila, agreed, saying Duterte’s team would be well advised to take part in the ICC probe. “They have a better chance appearing, rather than not appearing”. By participating in the investigation, however, the Duterte administration would also be required to allow ICC investigators to travel to the Philippines and conduct their own probe. But even without Duterte’s cooperation, it could still take time for the ICC to proceed with the trial and reach a verdict, La Vina noted, citing previous cases in Kosovo and Rwanda. “But the long arm of law and justice reaches you in some form or another. And sometimes, it will just be history that will make that judgement. But the judgement will still be made.” As she awaits the ICC’s decision, Llore, the mother of slain brothers Crisanto and Juan Carlos, says the torment of the killings still haunts her. Last March, a village official had visited the house of Crisanto looking for Juan Carlos. The village official reportedly came by to inform the family that Juan Carlos “has already been cleared of drug use”, Llore said, calling it a slap in the face. Faced with the prospect of a long trial, Llore says she is willing to wait until justice is done. “The hope alone that someday we will eventually attain justice, that already gives me enough strength to fight. Duterte has to account for all his deeds.” © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network

Authorities said they detained a Haitian man, living in the US state of Florida, on Sunday. Moise was shot dead on Wednesday at his Port-au-Prince home by what Haitian authorities describe as a unit of assassins comprised of 26 Colombians and two Haitian-Americans [Matias Delacroix/AP Photo] Haitian police have arrested one of the suspected masterminds behind the assassination of President Jovenel Moise. Authorities said they detained a Haitian man, living in the US state of Florida, whom they accuse of hiring mercenaries to remove and replace the president. Moise was shot dead early on Wednesday at his Port-au-Prince home by what Haitian authorities describe as a unit of assassins comprised of 26 Colombians and two Haitian-Americans. National Police Chief Leon Charles told a news conference on Sunday that the arrested man, 63-year-old Christian Emmanuel Sanon, flew to Haiti accompanied by hired security guards on a private jet in early June, and wanted to take over as president. He allegedly hired Colombian mercenaries through a private Venezuelan security firm based in Florida. The doctor is the third United States resident of Haitian origin – and the 21st person overall – to be detained as a suspect in the case. Charles did not explain Sanon’s motives beyond saying they were political. “The mission of these attackers was initially to ensure the safety of Emmanuel Sanon, but later the mission was changed,” Charles said. Charles added that among items found by officers at Sanon’s house in Haiti were a hat emblazoned with the logo of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, 20 boxes of bullets, gun parts, four automobile licence plates from the Dominican Republic, two cars and correspondence with unidentified people. Haitian police have arrested 18 Colombians and three Haitian-Americans, including Sanon, over the murder, Charles said. Five Colombians are still at large and three were killed, he added. The suspected assassins told investigators they were there to arrest him, not kill him, the Miami Herald and a person familiar with the matter said earlier on Sunday. © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network

One child among those killed as they were returning from a weekly market in North Kivu province. FARDC soldiers rest next to a road after Islamist rebel group called the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) attacked area around Mukoko village, North Kivu province of the DRC. Photo: REUTERS Attackers in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have killed at least 16 civilians as they were returning from a weekly market, according to a report citing medical and local sources. The ambush on Thursday evening occurred on a highway between the towns of Maimoya and Chani-chani, some 40km (25 miles) from the city of Beni in North Kivu province. Jerome Munyambethe, head of the hospital in the town of Oicha, told the AFP news agency that six women and a child – all of whom were shot – were among the victims. “We have 16 bodies in the hospital morgue,” said Nicolas Kikuku, town mayor, adding that nine others who were wounded had been taken to the hospital for treatment. Map of DR Congo showing North Kivu province. Source: AL JAZEERA Fighters belonging to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) – the deadliest of an estimated 122 armed groups in the mineral-rich eastern DRC, many of them a legacy of two regional wars from 1996 to 2003 – carry out frequent attacks in the Oicha region. “The ambush is the work of ADF roaming the area. They also fired a rocket,” said Lewis Saliboko, a representative of grassroots groups in Oicha. “It’s the ADF enemy which yet again has attacked peace-loving people,” said Kikuku. The ADF, which first appeared in western Uganda before making its base in the eastern DRC in the mid-1990s, does not claim responsibility for attacks. The DRC’s Catholic Church says the ADF has massacred nearly 6,000 civilians since 2013, with the toll sharply rising since 2019. The Kivu Security Tracker (KST), a respected United States-based monitor of violence in the eastern DRC, blames the ADF for more than 1,200 deaths in the Beni area alone since 2017. On March 10, the US branded the ADF a “foreign terrorist organisation” and said its leader Musa Baluku had pledged allegiance to the ISIL (ISIS) armed group. But experts are still unsure about the extent of links between the ADF and the ISIL. In May, DRC President Felix Tshisekedi proclaimed a “state of siege” in North Kivu and neighbouring Ituri province in a bid to curb growing insecurity and step up the fight against armed groups. Under the move, senior civilian officials were replaced by army officers. But Saliboko, the representative of grassroots groups, complained that the new measures had failed to curb the attacks. “What is the point of this state of siege when we continue to have massacres?” he said. “There are no operations, there are no additional forces.” © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network

The demonstrations marked the end of a weeks-long pause in the unrest over taxes, police and poverty. A demonstrator clashes with riot police during a protest in Medellin against the government of President Ivan Duque [Joaquin Sarmiento/AFP] At least 70 people have been arrested in the latest round of anti-government protests in Colombia, according to police. Authorities announced on Wednesday, a day after Colombians again took to the street in demonstrations that first began in April in opposition to a since-abandoned tax hike. The protests have shifted into a wider movement against the right-wing administration of President Ivan Duque. Tuesday’s demonstration against the government’s introduction to parliament of a new, more mild tax proposal marked the end of a weeks-long pause in demonstrations, which prompted security crackdowns that observers say have left at least 60 people dead. The government puts the number of dead at about a third of that and the United Nations has called for an independent probe into the killings. Authorities said 50 people – 24 civilians and 26 agents – were injured in the cities of Bogota, Medellin and Cali amid clashes between riot police and protesters. While the government has said the most recent round of protests were largely peaceful, officials have repeatedly accused armed groups of infiltrating the demonstrations. Those arrested on Tuesday faced charges including blocking public roads, damage to property, throwing dangerous objects or substances and firearm possession. Police reform, poverty relief The demonstrators have also demanded an end to police repression and more supportive public policies to alleviate the economic effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 40 percent of the country’s 50 million inhabitants are now living in poverty. On Wednesday, the government presented to legislators a bill to reform the police, who are accused of abuses against civilian protesters. It proposes better training for officers and sanctions for those who do not identify themselves when carrying out arrests, or who refuse to be filmed while carrying out their duties. But it does not suggest removing the police from the control of the Ministry of National Defense, as demanded by protesters. Police officials have said the police must remain part of the military to combat violence, drug trafficking and smuggling. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, among other groups, has condemned Colombia’s “disproportionate” and “lethal” response to the protests and has also recommended separating the police opertions from the military. © Copyright 2021 Al Jazeera

Ivory Coast leader Ouattara meets rival, says crisis ‘behind us’ First published by Al Jazeera on July 27, 2021. (Issouf Sanogo/AFP) Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara offered a hearty welcome to his predecessor Laurent Gbagbo on Tuesday as the rivals met for the first time since the West African country’s deadly 2010-11 conflict. Gbagbo, 76, has leapt into the spotlight since returning last month from Europe, where he won a landmark case at the International Criminal Court (ICC). “Cordial and fraternal meeting with my young brother Laurent Gbagbo. We will work to build confidence for the benefit of our country,” Ouattara posted on Twitter. At a joint press conference, Ouattara said the “crisis created differences but that is behind us”. “What is important for Ivory Coast is peace in our country.” Gbagbo, for his part, called for the release of prisoners held since the crisis, sparked by his refusal to accept defeat at the ballot box to Ouattara. Gbagbo, who was in power since 2000, was sent to The Hague-based court in 2011 after some 3,000 people were killed in a months-long conflict that followed his refusal to accept electoral defeat at the hands of incumbent Ouattara. ‘Courtesy visit’ “The mere fact of seeing Ouattara and Gbagbo together is being seen as a sign of healing and a strong image for Ivorians in their quest for peace and national reconciliation,” the opposition newspaper Notre Voie (Our Road) said. But Gbagbo’s spokesman Justin Katinan Kone urged the public “not to make too much” of the meeting, expected to last about half an hour and to be followed by a news conference. “This is a courtesy visit to his elder … If it helps to ease the political atmosphere, so much the better,” he said. “Laurent Gbagbo is in a spirit of openness, dialogue and reconciliation,” Franck Anderson Kouassi, spokesman for Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party, told AFP news agency on Monday. “Meeting President Ouattara is exactly in line with our way of thinking. “Dialogue in our country… will continue, because that is the government’s will,” said government spokesman Amadou Coulibaly. A onetime international banker, Ouattara, 79, won a landslide victory in the last elections on October 31. But the credibility of the win was undermined by an opposition boycott. In the run-up to the vote, many people died in clashes with police after Ouattara unveiled his controversial bid for a third term. What next? While Ouattara has officially welcomed Gbagbo’s return, hoping it will ease tensions, questions remain whether Gbagbo will stick to the script of statesman or prefer an active political role that may challenge Ouattara. Gbagbo has said little about what political role he might play back home. He retains strong support among his base of supporters, particularly in the south and the west. Gbagbo rose in the 1970s as a left-wing campaigner who helped end Ivory Coast’s one-party system following independence from France in 1960. His years in power were marked by rebellion, civil war, national divisions and repeatedly postponed elections, but he retains considerable grassroots support. His defenders portray him as a champion of the poor and oppressed. Commentators are also watching the interplay among Ouattara, Gbagbo and former President Henri Konan Bedie, 87, three men who have dominated the political stage for decades. On July 11, Gbagbo and Bedie – who were also once rivals – announced that they were united in the goal of forging “final and sustainable peace”. One lingering matter is a 20-year jail sentence for Gbagbo, who was convicted in absentia of “looting” the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) during the 2010-11 conflict. Authorities have hinted that this sentence will be lifted. © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network