By Faisal Mahmud Published On 8 Jun 20228 Jun 2022 Dhaka, Bangladesh – The Bangladesh government has cancelled the operating licence of one of its top human rights groups, in a move critics say is intended to send a “chilling message” to the rights defenders in the country. Odhikar, the rights group, on Sunday said Bangladesh’s NGO Affairs Bureau, which comes under the remit of the prime minister’s office, refused to renew its licence, accusing the group of “tarnishing the image of the state to the world”. Odhikar had been raising human rights issues in the South Asian country since its foundation in 1994. It worked closely with the United Nations in recording thousands of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances allegedly perpetrated by the Bangladeshi security forces. The group had documented alleged rights abuses by Bangladesh’s notorious Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an elite police unit sanctioned by the United States in December last year. The RAB is accused of involvement in hundreds of disappearances and nearly 600 extrajudicial killings since 2018. Since the US sanctions, Dhaka on multiple occasions asked Washington to reconsider its decision. In April this year, Bangladesh’s foreign minister A K Abdul Momen even said he had sought New Delhi’s help to get the sanction on RAB and some of its officials withdrawn. The US sanctions stopped extrajudicial killings in Bangladesh for nearly two months, according to local media reports and top government officials, who were seen gloating about the improvement in the human rights situation in various public forums. Against such a backdrop, cancelling the licence of a top human rights body is counterintuitive, analysts say. “This move by Dhaka sends a chilling message that the government doesn’t care about repairing its rights record and that it wants to control the narrative about rights issues in Bangladesh – a narrative that always comes across as more credible when it’s articulated by an NGO like Odhikar as opposed to the government,” Michael Kugelman, South Asia analyst at the US-based Woodrow Wilson Center, told Al Jazeera. “If Bangladesh is trying to prove that it’s taking the steps that warrant the removal of US sanctions, then it’s shooting itself in the foot by making this move with Odhikar. It’s certainly not going to make Washington any more confident that Dhaka is genuinely committed to improving its human rights record,” said Kugelman. In April this year, Odhikar said in a statement the government was retaliating against the NGOs that accused the RAB of rights abuses. Among the measures taken by the government was the monitoring of foreign funding received by the rights groups, the statement said, citing a leaked government circular from January. The circular stated that “foreign donations of some NGOs including Human Rights Watch, Odhikar, Ain o Salish Kendra and BLAST could be monitored strictly”. Bangladesh’s home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal accused Odhikar of publishing “misleading information”. “These NGOs are working with propaganda. They are not trustworthy,” he told Al Jazeera. Kamal, however, said his ministry – which has the jurisdiction over RAB – had “nothing to do” with the cancellation of Odhikar’s licence. “My ministry didn’t influence this decision,” he said. However, the June 5 order issued by the NGO Affairs Bureau and obtained by Al Jazeera carried language similar to Kamal’s. “[Misleading] information about various extrajudicial killings, including alleged disappearances and murders, has been published on the organisation’s own website, creating various issues against Bangladesh,” it said, according to Odhikar’s statement. “There is no opportunity to consider the application for renewal of the registration submitted by Odhikar as the activities of the organisation are not satisfactory due to inconsistencies in the application for renewal of registration,” it added. Odhikar secretary Adilur Rahman Khan told Al Jazeera his organisation has been operating in “a regulatory limbo” since it sought to renew its 10-year licence in 2014. He said the NGO Affairs Bureau neither rejected nor renewed its registration – until this week. “We went to the court challenging that inaction. Interestingly, we had a hearing scheduled today [Wednesday],” he said. “But just days before, they cancelled our licence even though the issue is under trial. This is unethical and unacceptable.” ‘Egregious and shameless act’ Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said the Bangladesh government “appears determined to prove that all concerns over its human rights record are justified”. “When the US has issued sanctions against the Rapid Action Battalion and several of its serving and former officers, the government chose only to blame human rights groups, not the security personnel and other officials that have presided over hundreds of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings,” she told Al Jazeera. “Nor did it act on ensuring accountability and reparations. Above all, the authorities blamed Odhikar, a human rights group that has already targeted repeatedly, their funds held up, offices raided, surveillance.” In a statement, Amnesty International said the authorities in Bangladesh “must immediately rescind the decision to arbitrarily deregister” Odhikar and allow the rights group “to function without fear of reprisals”. “Odhikar’s documentation of human right violations have been critical in holding perpetrators to account in Bangladesh. It is absurd that the authorities withheld the registration of the rights group for eight years and then cancelled it because of the global ire they faced for a poor human rights record. The reprisals against Odhikar are an egregious and shameless act to silence and intimidate human rights defenders in Bangladesh,” said Saad Hammadi, South Asia Campaigner at Amnesty International. Bangladeshi journalist and commentator Nazmul Ahasan told Al Jazeera that freezing its funding, or arrests and legal harassment of its leaders will “not stop Odhikar from stubbornly documenting violations of human rights” in Bangladesh. “But the cancellation of its registration is particularly dangerous because it would fundamentally restrict Odhikar’s ability to carry out human rights work within the country and expose it to more legal and other persecution,” he said. Josef Benedict, Asia Pacific researcher at the global rights organisation CIVICUS said the cancellation of the rights group’s registration is “another blow to the already appalling human rights record of Bangladesh”. “It sends a negative message the outside world that civil society groups and human rights defenders who speak up on human rights issues will be intimidated and silenced. The government must reverse this egregious decision and instead take steps to create an enabling environment for civil society to undertake their work without reprisals,” he told Al Jazeera. Link to the source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/6/8/bangladesh-scrapping-rights-groups-licence-a-chilling-message © 2022 Al Jazeera Media Network

More forest fires have been recorded in the Brazilian Amazon so far this year than in all of 2021, data from INPE space agency shows. A fire burns in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil's Rondonia State on September 28, 2021 [File: Adriano Machado/Reuters] Brazil’s sprawling Amazon region has seen more forest fires so far this year than in all of 2021, official figures show, as environmental and Indigenous rights groups continue to plead for more protection of the critical rainforest. Satellite monitoring detected 75,592 fires from January 1 to September 18 this year, already higher than the 75,090 detected for all of last year, Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) said on Monday. Greenpeace Brazil spokesman Andre Freitas called the latest figures a “tragedy foretold“. “After four years of a clear and objective anti-environmental policy by the federal government, we are seeing that as this government’s term – one of the darkest periods ever for the Brazilian environment – comes to an end, land-grabbers and other illegal actors see it as the perfect opportunity to advance on the forest,” Freitas said in a statement. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is seeking re-election in deeply polarised elections set for next month, has faced international condemnation over the destruction of the Amazon. The world’s largest rainforest has continually set new records for deforestation under the watch of Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain who has weakened environmental protections since he took office in 2019. Since then, average annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has increased by 75 percent compared to the previous decade. Bolsonaro has rejected the criticism, insisting that Brazil “protects its forests much better than Europe”. But Indigenous rights advocates in Brazil have denounced the Bolsonaro government for the wave of destruction, as well as for increased threats across the Amazon region. A study from earlier this year showed that the demarcation of Indigenous territory in Brazil has acted as a barrier against deforestation over the past three decades – but rights groups say Bolsonaro’s administration has stalled the land protection process. On Sunday, Indigenous groups rallied in Sao Paulo to protest against what they described as “a culture of impunity” that has led to dozens of deaths and illegal land grabs by miners, loggers and ranchers in the rainforest. These land grabs have led to clashes between Indigenous tribes and the groups illegally invading protected land to exploit natural resources. “We want to keep our people alive,” said Sonia Guajajara, an Indigenous leader and congressional candidate. “We want our people alive to keep fighting in defence of the environment, fighting in defence of the waters, fighting in defence of Mother Earth.” The Indigenous Missionary Council, a group affiliated with the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil, recorded 305 cases of “possessory invasions, illegal exploitation of resources and damage to property” on Indigenous territories last year. That is up from 109 such incidents in 2018, the year before Bolsonaro took office – a 180 percent increase. Meanwhile, as Brazilians prepare to cast their ballots on October 2, concerns are mounting that Bolsonaro could refuse to accept the election results. For months, Bolsonaro has sought to sow distrust in Brazil’s electronic voting system, saying without evidence that it is vulnerable to fraud. That claim has been slammed by legal experts and critics, who accuse Bolsonaro of pushing false electoral fraud claims in order to reject the results, similarly to former United States President Donald Trump, who the Brazilian president has emulated. Most opinion polls have predicted that Bolsonaro will lose the election to his left-wing rival, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

By Al Jazeera Bosnian Muslim men pray on July 11, 2023, ahead of the burials of 30 newly identified victims of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide [Armin Durgut/AP Photo] The remains of 30 victims of the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia and Herzegovina have been laid to rest as thousands of people commemorated its anniversary against a backdrop of surging tensions. Twenty-eight years after they were murdered, 27 men and three teenage boys only recently identified through DNA analysis were buried at a vast and ever-expanding cemetery just outside Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia on Tuesday. Relatives of the victims can bury only partial remains of their loved ones because they are typically found scattered over several mass graves. Such was the case for Mirsada Merdzic, who buried her father on Tuesday. “Only very few bones of his were retrieved because he had been found [in a mass grave] near the Drina River,” she said while huddling next to a casket shrouded in a green burial cloth. “Maybe the river washed him away.” A Bosnian Muslim woman mourns next to the grave of a relative killed in the Srebrenica genocide in the Memorial Centre in Potocari, Bosnia [Armin Durgut/AP Photo] History of bloodshed The Srebrenica killings, Europe’s only acknowledged genocide since the Holocaust, were the bloody crescendo of Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war, which came after the breakup of Yugoslavia unleashed nationalist, territorial ambitions that set Bosnian Serbs against the country’s two other main ethnic populations – Croats and Bosniaks. On July 11, 1995, Bosnian Serbs overran a UN-protected safe area in Srebrenica. They separated at least 8,000 Muslim Bosniak men and boys from their wives, mothers and sisters and slaughtered them. Those who tried to escape were chased through the woods and over the mountains around the ill-fated town. The perpetrators then ploughed their victims’ bodies into hastily made mass graves, which they later dug up with bulldozers to scatter the remains among other burial sites to hide the evidence of their war crimes. The wartime political leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadzic, and his military commander, Ratko Mladic, were both convicted of genocide in Srebrenica by a special UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague. However, many Serbian and Bosnian Serb officials still celebrate Karadzic and Mladic as national heroes. They continue to downplay or deny the Srebrenica killings. A day ahead of the ceremony, the top international envoy to Bosnia, Christian Schmidt, who is tasked with overseeing the civilian aspects of the peace agreement, pledged to “ensure that legal steps are taken against all those who deny the genocide”. The comment appeared to be a thinly disguised swipe at his chief rival in the country, Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik, who has repeatedly refused to call the atrocity a genocide. Dodik signed legislation last week that targets the authority of the envoy and the constitutional court in Bosnia’s Serb entity. The laws have been widely condemned by Western governments with Washington accusing Dodik of flouting the peace agreement. Dodik’s signing of the laws came just days after Schmidt tried to head off the move by passing an executive order that calls the legislation illegal and prevents its implementation. The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, and enlargement commissioner Oliver Varhelyi used the occasion of the massacre anniversary to pledge to “defend peace and protect life” in Bosnia. “Europe remembers its responsibility and failure to protect. … We vow to do better,” they said in a statement issued ahead of the commemoration ceremony.

By: Al Jazeera 3 Aug 2023 Prolonged post-election uncertainty is raising questions over stability in Thailand, which has seen two coups over the past 20 years. Supporters of the Move Forward Party burn an effigy during a protest at Pheu Thai Party headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand, August 2, 2023 [Sakchai Lalit/AP] Thailand’s parliament has postponed a vote for the next prime minister after the Constitutional Court began reviewing a case challenging the legislature’s refusal to allow the election-winning party a second shot at forming a government. The move on Thursday prolongs a political deadlock that has raised questions about stability in the Southeast Asian nation, which has seen two coups and waves of street protests over the past two decades. Speaker Wan Muhamad Noor Matha told reporters that a vote for a prime minister, which had been scheduled for Friday, could only be held after the Constitutional Court rules on the appeal by the Move Forward Party. “We have to wait for the constitutional court to make its decision on August 16 before determining when we will have the vote again,” he said. Move Forward won the most seats in a general election held on May 14 and forged a coalition with seven other parties in order to form a government. The alliance controlled 312 seats in the 500-member House of Representatives but was unable to form a government because of resistance from conservative opponents and the 250 members of a Senate appointed during military rule. The prime minister is chosen in a joint vote of both houses of parliament. An initial bid by Move Forward leader Pita Limjaroenrat in July fell short by more than 50 votes, largely because only 13 senators backed him. The conservative legislators say they oppose Pita because of his party’s pledge to reform a law banning criticism of the country’s monarchy. His second attempt a week later was blocked by a procedural vote in parliament, which said his name could not be nominated again. The kingdom’s ombudsman referred the decision to the Constitutional Court to determine if it was in line with the constitution. The court said on Thursday that it needed more time and evidence to decide whether to accept the case and would consider it on August 16. “The Constitutional Court has considered that the request requires thorough deliberation as it includes the administrative principle in the constitutional monarchy system, so the Court has decided to postpone the deliberation to study more information,” it said in a statement. The deadlock has strained the reformist coalition, and on Wednesday, Pheu Thai, the second biggest party in the alliance, announced that it will attempt to form a new government without Move Forward. Chonlanan Srikaew, Pheu Thai’s leader, said at a news conference on Wednesday that after speaking with other parties and senators, it was clear that Move Forward’s stance on the monarchy was a major obstacle for the coalition in rallying enough votes in parliament to confirm a new prime minister. Chonlanan said Pheu Thai would nominate real-estate tycoon Srettha Thavisin for prime minister and will announce its new coalition partners on Thursday. Public frustration has grown amid the prolonged uncertainty, with supporters of Move Forward staging several protests calling for senators to stop blocking the candidate from the eight-party coalition. On Wednesday, dozens of protesters rallied outside the Pheu Thai headquarters to demand that the eight-party coalition stay together. Upon hearing the news that Move Forward has been excluded from the coalition, they laid effigies at the front gate and set them on fire. Move Forward won the votes of many young people and its exclusion from power by conservatives allied with the royalist-military establishment has raised the prospect of a return of the sort of street protests that have brought intermittent turmoil to Thailand over the past decades. © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network

Representatives of the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces return to negotiating table in Jeddah. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the deputy head of the military council, waves to a crowd during a military-backed tribe's rally [File: Mahmoud Hjaj/AP Photo] Sudan’s warring parties have resumed negotiations in Saudi Arabia aimed at ending the war that has killed more than 9,000 people and displaced some 5.6 million since April. The deadly war between forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who commands the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has devastated the country. The United States and Saudi Arabia brokered the mediation efforts, which have had limited effect, yielding brief truces that were systematically violated. The warring sides announced on October 25 that they had accepted an invitation to resume negotiations. The talks are taking place “in partnership” with representatives of the African Union and the East African bloc Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), led by close US partner Kenya, according to Riyadh. “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia welcomes the resumption of talks” between the warring sides, the host country said in a statement. The statement called on negotiators to abide by an earlier agreement announced on May 11 to protect civilians, as well as a short-term ceasefire agreement signed on May 20. “The Kingdom affirms its keenness on unity of ranks … to stop the bloodshed and alleviate the suffering of the Sudanese people,” the statement said. © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network

Al Jazeera | 5 Sep 2021 The soldiers said they would convene President Conde’s cabinet ministers and other top officials at 11:00 GMT on Monday. Members of the Armed Forces of Guinea drive through the central neighbourhood of Kaloum in Conakry on Sunday after sustainable gunfire was heard [Cellou Binani/AFP] Elite soldiers who staged an uprising in Guinea’s capital have announced a nationwide curfew “until further notice” and the replacement of regional governors by the military. The soldiers also said in a statement read out over national television they would convene President Conde’s cabinet ministers and other top officials at 11:00 GMT on Monday in Conakry. After seizing state television the day before, the mutinous soldiers had vowed to restore democracy in a statement read out by Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya. “The duty of a soldier is to save the country,” read Doumbouya, who sat draped in a Guinean flag flanked by six other soldiers in uniform. “The personalisation of political life is over. We will no longer entrust politics to one man, we will entrust it to the people,” Doumbouya said, adding that the constitution and government would also be dissolved and borders closed for one week. Doumbouya, who has headed a special forces unit in the military, said he was acting in the best interests of the nation of more than 12.7 million people. Not enough economic progress has been made since independence from France in 1958, the colonel said. “If you see the state of our roads, if you see the state of our hospitals, you realise that after 72 years, it’s time to wake up,” he said. “We have to wake up.” Late on Sunday, the defence ministry had claimed briefly that the attempted uprising had been put down, saying in a statement that the group of attackers had been repelled. Condemnation Earlier on Sunday, unverified videos shared on social media appeared to show President Alpha Conde surrounded by soldiers. His whereabouts were unclear. This followed earlier reports of heavy gunfire in Conakry near the presidential palace. The events drew concern and condemnation from regional and international observers, including United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who said he strongly condemned “any takeover of the government by force” and called for Conde’s immediate release. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) threatened to impose sanctions after what its chairman, Ghana’s President Nana Akuffo-Addo, called an attempted coup, while the African Union said it would meet urgently and take “appropriate measures”. The United States said violence and any extra-constitutional measures would only erode Guinea’s prospects for peace, stability and prosperity. “The United States condemns today’s events in Conakry,” the Department of State said in a statement. “These actions could limit the ability of the United States and Guinea’s other international partners to support the country as it navigates a path toward national unity and a brighter future for the Guinean people.” Situation remains fluid Guinean journalist Youssouf Bah told Al Jazeera the situation is fluid. “Since the coup plotters’ statements on the national television, the opposition supporters have taken to the streets and thousands of youth are dancing, welcoming them,” he said, speaking from Conakry. Bah described Doumbouya as a “popular military officer among most of the presidential guard”. “The city is divided,” he added. “One part is supporting the coup plotters, and the other part has clashes between different groups. So it’s very difficult to understand exactly what is happening.” Videos shared on social media had earlier shown military vehicles patrolling Conakry’s streets and one military source said a bridge connecting the city to the Kaloum neighbourhood, where the palace and most government ministries are located, had been sealed off. Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque, reporting from Dakar in neighbouring Senegal, said troops had been deployed in downtown Conakry and ordered residents over loudspeakers to remain indoors. Haque said the area near the Hotel Kaloum was the scene of the shooting and President Conde was reportedly nearby at the time. “This comes a week after the national parliament voted an increase in budget for the presidency and parliamentarians, but a substantial decrease for those working in the security services like the police and the military.” Disputed elections Conde won a third presidential term in a violently disputed election last October after pushing through a new constitution in March 2020 which allowed him to sidestep the country’s two-term limit, provoking mass protests. Dozens of people were killed during demonstrations, often in clashes with security forces. Hundreds were arrested. Conde, 83, was then proclaimed president on November 7 last year – despite complaints of electoral fraud from his main challenger Cellou Dalein Diallo and other opposition figures. A former opposition activist himself, Conde became Guinea’s first democratically elected president in 2010 and won re-election in 2015 before doing so again last year. Critics, however, accuse him of veering towards authoritarianism. Haque said the growing discontent with Conde was rooted in his inability to unite the population – the majority of who are Fulanis but are ruled by the minority Malinke ethnic group. “It’s interesting to see officers go to the national television on social media calling for unity and the reason being is because the military remains divided,” he said. “There are still members that support Alpha Conde and will go out of their way to defend the president.” Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya is himself a member of the Malinke group. Guinea has witnessed sustained economic growth during Conde’s decade in power thanks to its bauxite, iron ore, gold and diamond wealth, but few of its citizens have seen the benefits. © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network

Eritrean soldiers and Ethiopian rebel fighters raped and killed refugees in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, Human Rights Watch says. Prior to the Tigray conflict between TPLF rebels, (pictured), and government forces and Eritrean allies, Ethiopia hosted around 150,000 Eritrean refugees, fleeing poverty and authoritarian government [File: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP] Eritrean soldiers and Tigrayan militias raped, detained and killed Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray in attacks that amounted to “clear war crimes”, an international rights watchdog has said. Human Rights Watch’s report on Thursday contained detailed attacks around two camps in Tigray, where local forces have battled the Ethiopian government and their Eritrean allies since November in a conflict that has rocked the Horn of Africa region. Tens of thousands of Eritrean refugees live in Tigray, a mountainous and poor province of about five million people. “The horrific killings, rapes, and looting against Eritrean refugees in Tigray are clear war crimes,” said Laetitia Bader, the Horn of Africa director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), whose work drew on interviews with 28 refugees and other sources, including satellite imagery. Eritrea’s minister of information did not immediately return calls seeking comment, but Eritrea has previously denied atrocities and said their forces have not attacked civilians. A spokesman for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) said formal, uniformed Tigrayan forces had only recently moved into the area and that it was possible abuses were committed by local militias. “It is mostly the last month or so that our forces moved into those areas. There was a huge Eritrean army presence there,” Getachew Reda told the Reuters news agency. “If there were vigilante groups acting in the heat of the moment I cannot rule that out.” International investigators were welcome to visit the area, he said. Prior to the Tigray conflict, Ethiopia hosted around 150,000 Eritrean refugees, fleeing poverty and an authoritarian government. Much of the report focused on two camps – Shimelba and Hitsats – destroyed during the fighting. HRW cited UN refugee agency UNHCR figures that 7,643 out of 20,000 refugees then living in Hitsats and Shimelba camps are still missing. UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, said it was “appalled” at the reports of “immense suffering” in refugee camps, which it was unable to access from November to March. ‘In every house, people killed’ Although Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a brutal border war in 1998-2000 that left tens of thousands dead, President Abiy Ahmed initiated a rapprochement with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki that earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, and Asmara has lent him military backing in Tigray. Eritrean forces arrived in the northern town of Hitsats on November 19, killed residents, and pillaged and occupied the refugee camp, HRW said. Some refugees helped direct looters, one resident told HRW. “In every house, people were killed,” one resident told HRW. Four days later, Tigrayan fighters attacked an area near Hitsats camp’s Ethiopian Orthodox church, killing nine refugees and injuring 17, HRW reported. “My husband had our four-year-old on his back and our six-year-old in his arms. As he came back to help me enter the church, they shot him,” one refugee told Human Rights Watch. Two dozen residents in Hitsats town were reportedly killed in clashes that day, HRW reported. The report said that HRW had been unable to determine the extent that Tigray’s formal forces directly commanded local Tigray militias operating around Hitsats. Shortly after, Eritrean soldiers detained 24 refugees, who were never seen again, HRW said. They also took the 17 injured refugees back to Eritrea. Eritrean forces withdrew from Hitsats camp in early December. Tigrayan forces returned on December 5, sending refugees fleeing under attack. Refugees around the villages of Zelasle and Ziban Gedena, northwest of Hitsats, reported being shot at and attacked with grenades. Tigrayan forces marched fleeing refugees back to Hitsats, shooting some stragglers, refugees reported to HRW. Some women also said they were raped by Tigrayan fighters as they fled. One 27-year-old woman said Tigrayan fighters raped her along with her 17-year-old sister. Tigrayan forces withdrew from Hitsats on January 4, HRW said. The Eritrean forces returned, ordered remaining refugees to leave, then destroyed the camp. In the northernmost camp, Shimelba, Eritrean forces killed at least one refugee, raped at least four others and killed local residents, HRW said. The violence and severe food shortages forced some refugees to return to Eritrea. Others fled south to two other camps, Adi Harush and Mai Aini. Tigrayan forces took over those camps in June and refugees have reported killings and looting. “We are extremely worried about the current situation of over 20,000 Eritrean refugees living in Mai Aini and Adi Harush camp in southern Tigray,” UNHCR told Reuters on Wednesday, saying there were severe food and water shortages and healthcare was unavailable. © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network

Sagaing region is a hotbed of resistance to military rule and women are forced to flee every time soldiers appear. By Emily Fishbein and Nu Nu Lusan [Illustration: JC] Khine Thu fled her home in Myanmar’s northwestern Sagaing region for the first time in June, running into the jungle as soldiers stormed her village. She has lost count of how many times she has fled since, but thinks it may now be about 15. “Whenever we hear soldiers coming, we run,” she said. “We escape into the forest, and we come back to the village when the soldiers are gone.” As armed resistance to the February 1 military coup increases, the military rulers have responded with violent crackdowns on entire villages, mirroring a “four-cuts” strategy which it has honed for more than 60 years in the country’s restive border areas. Since April, the Sagaing region has been a stronghold of resistance, and also a hotspot for deadly military incursions. A total of 109 people have been killed in the region since July, according to a report Myanmar’s National Unity Government (NUG) submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council on September 19. Among the victims are 73 people from Depayin and Kani townships, where mass killings were documented by human rights groups and local media in July. Those killed, including fighters and civilians, were all men, but as security forces maintain a presence in the area’s villages, women are living with the consequences of conflict on a daily basis. This month, the military blocked the internet in 10 townships in the Sagaing region, including Kani, adding to fears the military could intensify its attacks. The violence started in Khine Thu’s village of Satpyarkyin in Depayin township on June 14, when soldiers opened fire and killed one person the day after two daughters of a military-appointed administrator were found dead in a nearby village. Soldiers returned on July 2; the ensuing clashes left at least 32 local people dead amid indiscriminate shelling and small arms fire, according to the NUG’s report, while the media outlet Myanmar Now reported that 10,000 people from eleven villages fled their homes. The People’s Defence Force (PDF) in Depayin said on its Facebook page that 26 of its members were killed in the incident and that the military had fired heavy weapons onto fleeing villagers, while the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported that “armed terrorists” had “ambushed” security forces, killing one soldier and injuring six before retreating after security forces retaliated. Khine Thu, who, like the other women Al Jazeera spoke to, asked to use a pseudonym for fear of reprisals, said soldiers have since been in and out and that she and other villagers were always ready to run. Even when soldiers are gone, the village remains quiet, and shops and markets have closed. Hiding in the forest for days or weeks at a time, the villagers find it difficult to meet their basic needs, she said. “We couldn’t get drinking water in some places,” she explained. “Some days, we had only one meal, and sometimes, only rice with salt and oil or fish paste. I feel really depressed, and sometimes I don’t even want to live any more.” Aye Chan, another local resident, said locals lacked access to medicine and were relying on plants and herbs to treat their ailments. She and Khine Thu have stopped their work as hired farmhands because of the danger. “We cannot live in peace. We cannot work. We are just depending on other people’s donations and running around seeking safety whenever [soldiers] come,” said Aye Chan. “The presence of soldiers in our village affects us physically and mentally. We cannot eat or sleep well.” Women at risk The military has used force and widespread arrests to crack down on mass protests and a civil disobedience movement, which began days after it seized power from the elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. Since then, security forces have killed more than 1,100 people and arrested more than 8,200, according to the rights group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) or the AAPP, which has been tracking the military’s abuses. [Illustration: JC] Facing a narrowing space to resist military rule through peaceful means, many people have taken up arms. Some have joined existing ethnic armed organisations, while others have signed up with local armed resistance groups which have sprung up by the dozens across the country in recent months, including in areas like Depayin and Kani where most people are from the Bamar ethnic majority. The NUG, which is operating in exile, also announced the formation of a national-level People’s Defence Force (PDF) in May, whose scale and activities remain largely unknown. On September 7, the NUG declared the launch of a “people’s defensive war”, calling on all citizens across the country to “revolt” against the military generals. In many cases armed with little but single-shot hunting rifles and with limited training or combat experience, local armed resistance groups, which also call themselves PDFs but often have no affiliation with the NUG, face a military which has accumulated at least $2.4bn in arms during the past 10 years. Relying on asymmetrical tactics including ambushes on military convoys and police stations, they claim to have killed hundreds of military soldiers, but in response, the military has indiscriminately attacked their communities, as it has done in areas with the presence of ethnic armed organisations since the 1960s. The military has historically labelled ethnic armed organisations as “insurgents” or “terrorists” and attacked ethnic areas under the guise of national security, and it is now following a similar narrative. In a statement published on August 28, the military described PDFs, as well as the NUG and the committee which appointed it as “terrorist groups,” and said that those who encouraged people to participate in “terrorist acts,” sheltered members of these groups, or provided financial support to them would also be considered “terrorists.” In 2019, a United Nations-appointed fact-finding mission described the military’s use of sexual and gender-based violence including rape to “terrorise and punish ethnic minorities,” and reported that sexual violence perpetrated by the military was “part of a deliberate, well-planned strategy to intimidate, terrorise and punish a civilian population.” In May, a 15-year-old girl in Sagaing region was raped and killed by soldiers, according to an ethnic Chin rights group, and in July, Radio Free Asia reported that a woman in Kachin State was found raped and stabbed to death near a military outpost on the way to her farm and that the military was investigating the case. [Illustration: JC] On September 26, local media outlets Democratic Voice of Burma and Khit Thit Media reported that four women in Kani township had been raped between June and September, but had delayed reporting the attacks because of the social stigma. Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify the information. Thandar Aye, a women’s rights activist who works in the Sagaing region and neighbouring Chin State, told Al Jazeera that soldiers commonly harass women verbally, and she worries that additional cases of physical or sexual assault may go unreported due to social stigma and fear of retaliation from the military. Women in the region, she added, avoid leaving their homes even during the day due to concern that soldiers could sexually assault them. “Women cannot go out freely,” she said. “Most women are just staying inside their houses and facing food shortages.” ‘They took everything’ Phyoe, a grocery store owner from Chyaung Ma village, told Al Jazeera that she goes out as little as possible for this reason. “I heard that women were raped in some other villages and regions, so I am really afraid that it could happen to me,” she said. She is among at least 15,000 civilians displaced by intense clashes since April in Kani township, located 100km (62 miles) southwest of Depayin. “When [soldiers] come, we close everything and run again. Only elderly and women with small children who cannot run are left in the village,” said Phyoe, who, like Khine Thu, can no longer remember the number of times she and her family have fled. In July, 43 bodies were found in four locations of Kani township, according to the NUG report; the AAPP and media documented signs of torture on most of the bodies. The military has not released any public statements or responded to media inquiries in response to the deaths. “[Soldiers] accused normal locals of participating in the PDF, and they killed many people who were taking refuge in the forest,” said Phyoe. “We aren’t safe at home, and we aren’t safe in the forest either … We have been sleepless since soldiers came to our village.” Soldiers have twice occupied Phyoe’s house; they have also stolen valuables from her home and emptied the shelves of her family’s grocery store. She said Chyaung Ma’s streets are deserted after dark, and when soldiers come through, locals who remain in the village are too afraid to move around inside their homes for fear they could be shot. Unable to earn an income or buy goods, her family is now relying on food donations from relatives and other villagers. “[Soldiers’] presence in our village and all the cruel things [they did] really affected our lives and survival,” she said. Thuzar also runs a small shop and lives in Na Myar village, which lies 30km (18 miles) east of Satpyarkyin in Depayin township. She too has been in and out of the forest since soldiers fired artillery and raided her village on August 9. “Everyone in the village prepared a few things in case the soldiers came, but when they actually came, we escaped in a hurry, so we couldn’t bring much with us,” she said. With only trees and some small tarpaulins to provide shelter from the rain, they watched as artillery struck a nearby herd of goats. “The images of dead goats were so grotesque,” said Thuzar. “We are depressed and hurt mentally because we have seen many things that we shouldn’t see.” [Illustration: JC] When the soldiers left on August 9, villagers returned home to find their property vandalised and looted. “[Soldiers] took all the food from our refrigerator and ransacked our wardrobe,” she said. “We had locked the door of one room, and they destroyed the door…They took everything. They didn’t even leave the 2,000 Myanmar kyat ($1.20) in my daughter’s school bag.” Soldiers also trashed her friend’s refrigerator by filling it with sand, she said, and in some houses where elderly people were left behind, “one soldier talked to them at the front door, while other soldiers went into the house from the back door and took whatever they wanted.” Later in August, soldiers occupied the village for about 10 days. Thuzar returned home to find her chickens gone and more than 30 houses raided. At a grocery store at the entrance to the village, locals discovered piles of gunny sacks doused in paraffin oil. “If [soldiers] had lit them, our whole village would have turned to ashes,” she said. Thuzar and her husband closed their shop shortly after the coup, turning to rice farming instead. Now she worries that they will not be able to finish planting before the end of the rainy season in October. “When things quiet down a bit, we go back for a few days and everyone rushes to plant,” she said. When Al Jazeera spoke to her at the end of August, she was preparing to flee again, having heard that military trucks were approaching. “We always feel like they are coming to arrest or kill us,” she said. “I will only feel safe when we achieve democracy.” © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network

The Burman majority is finally understanding the abuse ethnic minorities have long been experiencing at the hands of the military. By Thet Swe Win Demonstrators protest against the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar, February 17, 2021 [Stringer/Reuters] The Myanmar people’s struggle against dictatorship has undergone a long journey since the February 1 military coup in the country. As an activist who has been fighting against fascism and standing for peace and the rights of oppressed minorities for 10 years, I believe we are now in a better place than ever before to come together as a nation to resist ethnic nationalism, destructive political polarisation and the military’s attempts to scare us into submission. My own views on what an anti-fascist revolution in Myanmar could and should look like have also changed in the eight months since the coup. During the Aung San Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy’s (NLD) five-year rule between 2015-20, I devoted much of my activism to speaking out against their abandonment of democratic and human rights standards and failure to promote peace in areas of the country populated by ethnic nationalities, where conflict between ethnic armed organisations and the military has been ongoing for more than seven decades. I even boycotted the November 2020 general election, which delivered the NLD a second sweeping victory. So when the coup happened, I initially was not sure where I should stand. While I was disturbed and angered by the military’s power grab, I did not want to put my support behind the NLD, ignoring its past treatment of minority communities, political opponents and activists. But I ultimately decided that the coup is more than a political dispute between the NLD and the military – it represents the forceful suppression of the people’s will, and should be resisted. I demonstrated from February 6, the day anti-coup protests began in Yangon, through the second week of March, when the junta added my name to its arrest warrant list for “sedition” and raided my house and office. My family and I narrowly escaped. Knowing that our lives were in danger, my wife and children fled the country, and I took shelter in the territory of an ethnic armed organisation. Having been sued twice during the NLD’s term in power for supporting ethnic struggles for self-determination and rights, I believed that I understood the perspectives of oppressed minorities in my country. But staying in their villages, where I listened to people’s stories and learned about their daily realities and struggles, I realised how superficial my understanding of ethnic issues in Myanmar had been. Although I had a conceptual awareness of what it is like to live as a small-scale farmer in an area affected by civil war – where children commonly walk for hours to get to school, and it can take days to walk to the nearest clinic – it was very different to witness first-hand the toll of war on communities. Since the coup, fighting between the military and armed resistance groups across the country has displaced at least 230,000 civilians, many of whom fled military air strikes and heavy-weapon attacks. I have passed close to clashes and seen the remnants of landmine explosions. I have also visited displacement camps where people are struggling to meet their basic needs. But none of this is new for ethnic minority communities in Myanmar. Indeed, Burmese soldiers have been tormenting these communities for decades – looting and burning their villages, conducting arbitrary arrests and committing acts of sexual violence against them. My hosts told me that they rarely build strong houses, because they know that they may need to flee at any time. Despite standing with oppressed ethnic minorities in my country for over a decade, I only realised the depth of their suffering, and more clearly understood why so many of them see armed resistance as their only option, after this experience. As my own perspective has shifted, so, too, has the direction of the national protest movement. In mainland cities where most people are from the ethnic Burman majority, protesters had initially focused on freeing Aung San Suu Kyi and elected officials, pressuring the military into accepting the results of the election, and convening parliament. But as the military began terrorising people in urban areas, it opened people’s eyes to the rights abuses other ethnic groups have long been facing. As a result, protesters started broadening their ambitions. Many from the Burman majority began apologising for their prior ignorance or denial of the military’s atrocities against non-Burman ethnic people, including the Rohingya, and calling for justice. As ethnic armed organisations took a leading role in protecting fleeing dissidents and fighting against the regime, urban youth began trying to learn about ethnic political struggles too. By the end of March, the leading protest groups were demanding an overhaul of the military-drafted constitution and the establishment of a federal democracy, in line with the calls ethnic nationalities have been making since long before the coup. With few alternatives, the people have also started to increasingly see armed resistance as the only way to overthrow the junta, and have joined forces with ethnic armed organisations and formed new civilian defence forces and urban guerrilla movements. On May 5, the National Unity Government (NUG), a body of elected lawmakers, activists and members of civil society in exile who are operating a government in opposition to the junta, announced that it had established a People’s Defence Force (PDF) as a precursor to a federal army, bringing armed resistance groups under a central command. And on September 7, the NUG declared a nationwide “people’s defensive war” against the military junta, calling on all citizens across the country to join in a “necessary revolution for building a peaceful country and establishing a federal union.” Now, we face a critical juncture in our revolutionary journey, and I worry that the people’s strength and unity may diminish if we cannot continue to build trust and maintain communication between the predominantly Burman resistance groups and ethnic nationalities. For the revolution to succeed, we must continue our efforts to come together over a shared vision that benefits not only the Burman majority, but also promotes the self-determination and rights of other ethnic people within the country. The NUG must do its utmost to engage with the country’s diverse ethnic communities and place non-Burmans in leading roles, and its PDF must join forces with ethnic armed organisations and sincerely commit to their political objectives. It is also imperative that the NUG initiate a national apology process for the atrocities and inhumane treatment committed by successive governments towards minorities, including the Rohingya. The majority must create an inclusive platform and collaborate with all ethnic people to build together a new federal democracy based on freedom, justice and equality. © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network

Day after day, President Alexander Lukashenko is carrying out a cultural genocide of Belarusians. By: Olga Loginova Demonstrators participate in an anti-Lukashenko rally on August 18, 2020 in Minsk, Belarus [Misha Friedman/Getty Images The Knihauka bookstore in Belarus, which specialised in Belarusian language books, had unexpected visitors on the morning of its first day of operations on May 16. Rygor Azaronak and Lyudmila Hladkaya, two journalists infamous for spreading state propaganda, visited the small shop and criticised it publicly for its alleged “nationalist ideology”. A few hours later, the police arrived, searched the store, confiscated more than 200 books – including a translation of George Orwell’s 1984 – and reportedly sent 15 titles to an “expert” to determine whether they contained “extremist materials”. During the operation, the shop’s owner, publisher Andrey Yanushkevich, and sales assistant, literary blogger Nasta Karnatskaya, were also arrested on “petty hooliganism” charges that are commonly used in politically motivated arrests in Belarus. They remain behind bars after their administrative sentences were extended. This attack on Belarusian language publishing was not unique or out of the ordinary. Earlier in March, Andrey Yanushkevitch’s namesake publishing house was asked to vacate its office. A year earlier, its accounts were frozen and equipment confiscated. Several other publishing houses specialising in books by Belarusian authors or in the Belarusian language – Halijafy, Limaryus, Knihazbor, as well as the printing house Medysont – were ordered to temporarily cease operations “for violation of regulations” earlier in the spring. This wave of persecution in the book publishing industry rolled on top of another one the year before. “With the current government, I don’t see a future for book publishing [in the country],” a Belarusian publisher who was forced to shut his publishing house and a bookstore recently told me. He asked to remain anonymous out of safety concerns. Belarus has historically been a multilingual, multiethnic state, with people speaking Belarusian, Polish, Russian, Yiddish (more common before World War II), and a number of local dialects. When Belarus became part of the Soviet Union in 1918, its ethnic language and culture, just like the languages of many other Soviet republics, came under attack. Belarusian intellectual and cultural elites were purged, books by Belarusian authors, as well as dictionaries were burned. On the night of October 29, 1937, which is now remembered as the Night of the Assassinated Poets, more than a hundred Belarusian writers, poets, artists and scientists were executed in Minsk on the orders of Joseph Stalin and his associates. From 1937 to 1938, more than 100,000 Belarusians were repressed – arrested, jailed, sent to camps or killed. Before Stalin’s death in 1953, between 600,000 and 1.5 million Belarusians were victimised. Russian became the dominant language. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Belarusian language experienced a brief renaissance, becoming the main language in schools and other institutions. In 1994-1995, at its peak, over 75 percent of middle schools had Belarusian as their main teaching language. The abrupt transition was hard for many, and the newly minted President Alexander Lukashenko seized the opportunity. In May 1995, he held a referendum on the status of the Russian language, a new official flag and seal, further economic integration with the Russian Federation and the powers of Parliament. As a result, Russian received an equal status with Belarusian, and became the second state language in the country. Today, the enrolment in Belarusian-language schools is negligible – less than 4 percent – and less than 20 percent of the population speak Belarusian in their daily lives. It is officially an endangered tongue. However, with the war in Ukraine entering its fourth nightmarish month, the language situation in Belarus has started to change. More and more Belarusians now choose to speak their mother tongue. More and more Belarusians are choosing to use the language in their everyday life. The transition is also palpable on social media, with Belarusian Twitter and Instagram becoming more and more dominated by the Belarusian language by the hour. Recently, a close friend of mine has suggested we speak Belarusian, instead of Russian, between us. Soon another friend started texting me in Belarusian rather than Russian. No explanation was needed. As Belarusian poet and Cornell University associate professor Valzhyna Mort told me, “[the] Belarusian language came to signify something more than just a system of signs.” “Just saying a word in it, like ‘thank you’ or ‘hello,’ means more than just ‘thank you’ or ‘hello’ – it is also a political statement.” As Russia continues its immoral war against our southern neighbour, Belarusians all over the world are coming to a conclusion that returning to our mother tongue is one of the few remaining ways for us to signal our protest against the Russian aggression in Ukraine, and in Belarus, and survive as a nation. “Russians refer to us as their ‘younger brothers and sisters’; they say that we have a lot of similarities and we’re the same,” Mort told me. “From that position, it is just one step to say that we do not exist at all as a culture, which is not true. We see what happened in Ukraine.” My attempts to speak Belarusian after speaking English and Russian for decades sound ill-equipped. My Belarusian limps on both feet, but I persevere, like many others. With limited access to Belarusian language education and media, it is through reading Belarusian literature or translations that countless Belarusians like me try to remember the forgotten lexicon and grammar of their mother tongue. So it is not surprising that Alexander Lukashenko’s regime, which has effectively turned Belarus into Russia’s vassal state, assaults Belarusian language bookstores and publishing houses. “We are not just in the crisis of censorship, but in the crisis of annihilation,” said Mort, as we discussed the recent decree signed by Lukashenko that allowed capital punishment for attempts at “terrorism”. In Belarus, where thousands have been persecuted on charges of extremism and terrorism for their acts of peaceful resistance, a death penalty for a book – for example, Alhierd Bacharevič’s novel Dogs of Europe is now considered “extremist material” – doesn’t seem far fetched. Effectively, day after day Lukashenko is carrying out a cultural genocide of Belarusians which was first started by the Soviets. We hope that the international community will not avert their eyes. © 2022 Al Jazeera Media Network

Amnesty International report accuses Moscow of dropping banned cluster bombs in Ukrainian city killing hundreds of civilians. Residential area destroyed by a Russian bombing in Kharkiv, Ukraine [File: Ricardo Moraes/Reuters] Russia has committed war crimes in northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, said Amnesty International, as the rights body accused Moscow of using banned cluster bombs and carrying out indiscriminate attacks killing hundreds of civilians. “The repeated bombardments of residential neighbourhoods in Kharkiv are indiscriminate attacks which killed and injured hundreds of civilians, and as such constitute war crimes,” the rights group said in a report published on Monday. Since late February, Russian forces have relentlessly targeted Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine, resulting in hundreds of deaths and massive destruction of the city. Amnesty International found evidence of Russian forces repeatedly using international banned weaponry such as 9N210/9N235 cluster munitions and scatterable mines that are known for their indiscriminate effects. “The people of Kharkiv have faced a relentless barrage of indiscriminate attacks in recent months, which killed and injured hundreds of civilians,” said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s senior crisis response adviser. “The repeated use of widely banned cluster munitions is shocking, and a further indication of utter disregard for civilian lives. The Russian forces responsible for these horrific attacks must be held accountable for their actions, and victims and their families must receive full reparations,” Rovera added. ‘Indiscriminate attacks’ Since Russia invaded its western neighbour on February 24, 606 civilians have been killed and 1,248 injured in the Kharkiv region, the director of the Medical Department at the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration told Amnesty International. Russia and Ukraine are not parties to the international conventions banning cluster munitions and anti-personnel mines. But, Amnesty stressed, “international humanitarian law prohibits indiscriminate attacks and the use of weapons that are indiscriminate by nature”. “Launching indiscriminate attacks resulting in death or injury to civilians, or damage to civilian objects, constitutes war crimes.” A large number of Kharkiv residents have been forced to leave the city due to heavy shelling since the February invasion. Al Jazeera reported from the city in March showing the widespread destruction due to the Russian bombardments, with an Al Jazeera correspondent describing the city as one ridden with “apocalyptic scenes” of bombed-out buildings. More than six million refugees have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began on February 24 by May 11, according to figures from the United Nations refugee agency. In May, Amnesty International reported war crimes in Ukraine, including the “wilful killings of civilians” by Russian forces when they occupied an area northeast of Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, in February and March. Similarly, Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Russia of carrying out “apparent war crimes”, detailing summary executions, torture and other grave abuses in two regions of Ukraine. Ukraine says it has launched more than 12,000 war crime probes since the war began. © 2022 Al Jazeera Media Network

The International Truth and Justice Project says Gotabaya Rajapaksa committed grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions during the civil war. Sri Lanka's former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa submitted his resignation from Singapore, a day after fleeing on July 13 [File: John Angelillo/Reuters] A rights group documenting alleged abuses in Sri Lanka has filed a criminal complaint with Singapore’s attorney general, seeking the arrest of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa for his role in the island nation’s decades-long civil war. In its 63-page complaint filed on Saturday, the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) said Rajapaksa committed grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions during the last days of a 25-year-long civil war when he was the country’s chief defence official. Sri Lanka ended the civil war between separatist rebels from the ethnic Tamil minority and government forces in 2009. Rights groups accused both sides of abuses during the war. The South Africa-based ITJP argued that based on universal jurisdiction, the alleged abuses were subject to prosecution in Singapore where the 73-year-old former leader fled after months of unrest over his country’s worst economic crisis in decades. Rajapaksa submitted his resignation from Singapore, a day after fleeing on July 13, when anti-government protesters stormed the offices and official residences of the president and the prime minister. ITJP executive director Yasmin Sooka confirmed filing the complaint in a telephone interview with Al Jazeera on Sunday. “We believe he has a case to answer. The legal complaint argues that Gotabaya Rajapaksa committed grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and violations of international humanitarian law and international criminal law during the civil war in Sri Lanka which include murder, execution, torture and inhuman treatment, rape, and other forms of sexual violence, deprivation of liberty, severe bodily and mental harm, and starvation,” she said. “Gotabaya in September 2008 ordered the immediate withdrawal of the United Nations and relief agencies from the war zone in order to ensure that there would be no witnesses to the carnage that was unleashed on [Tamil] civilians by the Sri Lankan army. Our submission to the attorney general calls for the arrest, investigation and indictment of Gotabaya Rajapaksa. That is the basis of our case.” The ITJP assisted in two civil lawsuits against Rajapaksa, proceedings for one of which were served in a California parking lot in 2019. Rajapaksa was a US citizen at the time. Both cases were withdrawn after Rajapaksa was granted diplomatic immunity upon becoming president later that year. Rajapaksa could not be reached for comment through Sri Lanka’s High Commission in Singapore. He has previously strenuously denied allegations he was responsible for rights abuses during the war. A spokesperson for Singapore’s attorney general did not respond to a request for comment. The country’s foreign ministry has said Rajapaksa entered the Southeast Asian city-state on a private visit and had not sought or been granted asylum. Shubhankar Dam, a professor at the University of Portsmouth School of Law in Britain who has taught in Singapore, said while its courts were able to try alleged war crimes, genocide, and torture, it has repeatedly stated that such jurisdiction should only be invoked as the last resort. “While neutrality is not officially enshrined in Singapore’s foreign policy, it has long cultivated a form of even-handedness,” Dam said. “Any decision to prosecute a former foreign head of state has to be balanced against its foreign policy objectives.” Saroj Pathirana contributed to this report from Colombo, Sri Lanka © 2022 Al Jazeera Media Network Link to source : https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/7/24/rights-group-seeks-arrest-of-former-sri-lanka-president