Analysts, legal experts and human rights groups condemn the move, which they say violates international law. Supporters of President Daniel Ortega took part in a pro-government march last week as Ortega continues to crack down on opponents [Stringer/Reuters] 16 Feb 2023 Nicaragua has stripped 94 political opponents of their citizenship, including prominent writers, activists and journalists. The 94 people were “traitors” and would have their properties confiscated, Appeals Court Justice Ernesto Rodríguez Mejía said in a statement on Wednesday. He claimed those on the list – among them rights activist Vilma Núñez, former Sandinista rebel commander Luis Carrión and journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro – were guilty of “spreading false news” and “conspiracy to undermine national integrity”. Most of those named fled Nicaragua when President Daniel Ortega began arresting opponents two years ago and Mejía said they had been declared “fugitives”. There was no mention of what might happen to those named who are still in Nicaragua. Analysts, legal experts and human rights groups say the move violates international law and is unprecedented – at least in the Western Hemisphere – in terms of scale and impact. Alvaro Navarro, a journalist stripped of his nationality, was defiant. “I am Nicaraguan by the grace of God… if they think they’re going to bring me to my knees, they are tangled. Long live Nicaragua!” Navarro wrote on Twitter. The move comes days after Ortega freed 222 political prisoners and put them on flights to the United States. Shortly after, Ortega’s government voted to strip the expelled former prisoners of Nicaraguan citizenship. Thousands have fled into exile since Nicaraguan security forces violently put down mass anti-government protests in 2018. In the run-up to Ortega’s reelection in November 2021, Nicaraguan authorities arrested seven potential opposition presidential candidates to clear the field. The government also has closed hundreds of non-governmental groups Ortega accused of taking foreign funding and using it to destabilise his government. Peter Spiro, an international law professor at Temple University, and others say stripping away citizenship in this context violates a treaty adopted in 1961 by countries in the United Nations, including Nicaragua, which sets clear rules meant to prevent statelessness. The treaty states governments cannot “deprive any person or group of persons of their nationality on racial, ethnic, religious or political grounds”. Spiro noted there are some circumstances when governments can terminate citizenship, such as ending nationality for someone who acquires citizenship in another country when the first nation prohibits dual citizenship. But, he said, ending citizenship is not allowed when it is used as a political weapon. Spain has offered citizenship to the 222 exiles, while the US granted the Nicaraguans two-year temporary protection. © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network

DRC authorities have denied its soldiers entered a neutral zone and opened fire on Rwanda’s troops as tensions rise between the countries. Tensions between the DR Congo and its smaller neighbour have been mounting over an offensive in the eastern DRC province of North Kivu (Djaffar Sabiti | Reuters) Rwanda’s army has said its troops briefly exchanged fire with soldiers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo at a border post, as tension continues to spike between the neighbours. In a statement on Wednesday, Kigali said that 12 to 14 Congolese soldiers entered the neutral zone near the western district of Rusizi and opened fire at a Rwandan border post, in “an act of provocation”. “Our security forces responded and [the Congolese] soldiers withdrew,” the statement said. “There were no casualties on the Rwanda side and the situation is calm.” Meanwhile, Kinshasa has denied entering the neutral zone and said there were clashes between its military and a group of “bandits” near the border in Bukavu. “In no case did the [army] cross the neutral zone, let alone open fire in the direction of Rwanda,” Theo Ngwabidje Kasi, governor of South Kivu province, said in a statement. He said the accusations were “a lie” and described the incident as an “altercation” involving an exchange of fire between the Congolese security forces and “bandits,” who sustained one dead and one wounded. “Rwanda’s tendency to want to portray itself as a victim and stoke tensions by making false accusations reveals without any doubt its intention to attack South Kivu province, as is currently the case in the war of aggression that it is carrying out in North Kivu,” he added. The incident occurs against a backdrop of existing tensions between the DRC and its smaller neighbour over an offensive in the eastern Congolese province of North Kivu. Last month, Rwanda accused a Congolese fighter jet of violating its airspace near Goma, a town on North Kivu’s border. The plane came under fire but was able to land safely in Goma. Kinshasa described the attack on its aircraft as “a deliberate act of aggression that equals an act of war” with the goal of sabotaging regional peace efforts. The DRC for months has accused Rwanda of supporting an armed rebel group called M23, that’s fighting in the DRC’s east. The conflict in eastern DRC has gone on for decades, with more than 100 armed groups fighting for control of valuable mineral resources while others protect their communities, and has triggered an exodus of refugees. Rwanda in turn accuses the DRC of supporting the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), another rebel group based in the DRC that has carried out raids into Rwanda in the past. The FDLR has been accused of participation in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which ethnic Hutus killed more than 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus who tried to protect them. Last year, United Nations experts said they had “substantial evidence” of Rwandan government forces crossing into the DRC to reinforce M23 rebels or to conduct operations against the FDLR. The United States and the European Union have urged Rwanda to stop supporting the rebels. The Rwandan government has denied supporting M23 and says the accusations are part of a “tired old blame game” undermining efforts for peace, “to which Rwanda is fully committed”. Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame has said DRC authorities should solve their own problems. In January he said that the crisis in the DRC “is not Rwanda’s problem, and we are going to make sure that everybody realises it is not Rwanda’s problem”. © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network

Measures enjoy widespread support, but rights groups say they have led to arbitrary arrests and prison overcrowding. El Salvador's gang crackdown has already led to 65,795 arrests, according to official figures, prompting the creation of a new mega-prison to house detainees [Secretaria de Prensa de la Presidencia/Handout via Reuters] Lawmakers in El Salvador have once again extended a state of emergency that suspends certain civil liberties as the government of President Nayib Bukele continues its fight against gangs. The so-called state of exception, renewed for a 12th time late on Wednesday by the Salvadoran Congress, came into effect last year and has led to around 66,000 arrests in the Central American nation. It allows arrests without warrants, government access to private communications and detentions without the right to a lawyer. “We ask that this regime be extended for more time,” Police Director Mauricio Arriaza told reporters ahead of this week’s 30-day extension. “We need to keep fighting criminal groups, we need to give assurance to Salvadoran families, for their lives and their property.” The text of the legislative decree stated that the “war against gangs conducted by the government has allowed the Salvadoran population to feel a sense of security”. While the emergency measures enjoy widespread support in El Salvador, human rights groups and United Nations experts have raised serious concerns around violations of due process, arbitrary arrests and mistreatment of detainees. Last month, rights groups and the Salvadoran police union told Al Jazeera that a rising number of Salvadorans detained under the state of exception have been “re-arrested” upon release after either being granted bail or having their cases dropped. That raised fresh fears that Bukele’s government plans to ensure that detainees remain behind bars, particularly in advance of 2024 elections. “From the beginning, we pointed out that it was not so crazy to think that the state of exception could extend until the elections,” Eduardo Escobar, a lawyer and director of Salvadoran NGO Citizen Action (Accion Ciudadana), told Al Jazeera at the time. Bukele has said around 80 percent of El Salvador is under the control of criminal gangs, with the state of emergency introduced last year after a wave of murders attributed to the violent groups. According to official figures, the crackdown has already led to 65,795 arrests, and 2,513 firearms have been seized. In January, Humans Rights Watch denounced “severe prison overcrowding” in El Salvador’s jails as a result of the surge in detentions. A month later, Bukele unveiled what he called the largest prison in the Americas region, intended to hold 40,000 suspected gang members – more than doubling the country’s current total capacity of 30,000 inmates across 20 prisons. © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network

Knesset votes to allow Israelis to resettle evacuated outposts The amendment could see Israelis resettle four outposts in the northern occupied West Bank evacuated in 2005. Israeli activists carry a tent in the abandoned Jewish settlement of Homesh, in the northern West Bank [File: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters] The Israeli government has greenlighted an amendment that would allow Israelis to resettle four illegal settlements in the northern occupied West Bank that were evacuated in 2005. The second and third readings of the legislation were passed late on Monday night in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, with a majority of 31 votes in support and 18 who voted against. The development could see Israelis resettle in the evacuated settlements of Homesh, Sa-Nur, Kadim and Ganim, all of which are located around the Palestinian cities of Jenin and Nablus. While the government has passed the amendment, the Israeli military must still issue a military order allowing Israelis to resettle in these areas. Between 650,000 and 700,000 Israeli settlers live in hundreds of illegal Jewish-only settlements and outposts, the majority built either entirely or partially on private Palestinian land, across occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank. In August 2005, the disengagement plan implemented by then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon saw Israel remove more than 9,000 settlers in 21 illegal settlements located in the besieged Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank. The new far-right Israeli government, sworn in at the end of last year, has blown full steam ahead with legislation to legalise nine outposts and expand existing settlements. Several top figures in the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are hardline settlers themselves who are pushing a more right-wing agenda, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich who lives in Kedumim near Nablus, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who lives in Kiryat Arba near Hebron. The evacuated settlement of Homesh, in particular, has been the focus of tensions between Palestinians and Israeli settlers, who have consistently attempted to re-establish the site permanently. While all Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law, Homesh is also considered illegal under Israeli law as the Supreme Court ruled that the land belonged to private Palestinian owners from the nearby village of Burqa. Despite the evacuation of the outpost, the Israeli army maintains a military base in the location, and settlers are allowed to access it and operate a school there, while Palestinian landowners are forbidden from doing so. One day before being sworn in, the new Israeli government declared that advancing and developing settlements “in all parts of the land of Israel”, including the West Bank, is a national priority, in a cloaked admission that it had no intention of allowing the creation of a Palestinian state. On Monday, Smotrich, who oversees the Israeli military’s body in the West Bank in charge of building settlements, denied Palestinians even existed. On March 1, he said the Palestinian town of Huwara near Nablus “should be wiped out”, days after Israeli settlers carried out what was described as a “pogrom”, in which dozens of Palestinian homes and hundreds of cars were torched, while one Palestinian man was killed and hundreds of others injured. © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network

Critics of recent immigration reform fear laws could criminalise religious groups and volunteers who work with migrants and asylum seekers. Colonia Mezquital, Guatemala – It had taken hours to cross the border from Honduras to Guatemala by bus, and Edwin Gomez, a 39-year-old migrant from Honduras’s capital, needed a place to rest for the night. That’s how he found himself with Friar German Tax, walking slowly through Colonia Mezquital, a community 15 km (9.3 miles) south of Guatemala City. Their destination was a two-storey house, nestled along a narrow street. “I was told that there was a church where I could come and stay,” Gomez told Al Jazeera. But shelters like the one where Gomez was headed are facing new threats in Guatemala. As migrants and asylum seekers journey north through Central America, with many headed to the United States, Guatemala has instituted reforms that could criminalise the work done by faith-based groups and volunteers to shelter and care for them. In January, the government began implementing new regulations that will require non-governmental migrant shelters to submit biometric information and other data for migrants who use their facilities daily. That data includes identification details, fingerprints, biographical material and other personal information. Leaders from the Episcopal Conference of Guatemala, a branch of the Catholic Church, have raised concerns about the new regulations. Tax, the friar working in Colonia Mezquital, expressed outrage at the prospect of enforcing the new policy. “That’s not possible,” Tax exclaimed, sitting in a chair in the entryway of the shelter. “If we did that, we would be losing the trust that migrants have in us because here migrants come and speak and tell their stories.” But if shelters like Tax’s fail to comply, authorities could use elements of the reforms made to Guatemala’s immigration law in February 2022 to pursue criminal charges against shelter personnel. The reforms target human smugglers known locally as “coyotes”, extending the maximum prison sentence for illegal trafficking to 30 years. But due to ambiguity in the law’s language, the reforms could also be used to punish people who aid and support migrants and asylum seekers. Under the new reforms, the label “trafficker” could be applied to anyone who facilitates a migrant’s stay and transit in Guatemala. “We are not forcing them to migrate,” said Tax. “What we do is no more like receiving the brother or sister so they can rest, sleep a night in a bed, eat about two meals and continue on their way.” The Catholic Church operates nine migrant shelters across Guatemala, which serve thousands each month, including the two-storey house in Colonia Mezquital. The Franciscan order is in charge of that particular shelter, which is located near a bus station where people can find transportation along Guatemala’s southern coast toward Mexico. The shelter opened in 2019 and has capacity for up to 40 visitors. Migrants and asylum seekers can stay for up to three days before they move on to the next stop in their journey north. But during a January 27 press conference in Guatemala City, the bishops of Guatemala’s Episcopal Conference warned they may close all nine shelters entirely, rather than be forced to submit data on the migrants and asylum seekers who use their humanitarian services. The new regulations are “an excessive control”, Cardinal Alvaro Ramazzini, bishop for the department of Huehuetenango, told Al Jazeera following the press conference. “The idea [is] that those who come to the Casa del Migrante come to ask for rest.” But the heightened measures come as Guatemala increasingly cracks down on the migrants and asylum seekers who pass through the Central American country. In January, more than 200 migrants, primarily from Ecuador, India, Haiti and Venezuela, were deported by immigration officials, according to the Guatemalan Migration Institute, a government agency. Guatemala has also implemented new visa requirements for citizens of the Dominican Republic after it saw an increase in people arriving from the Caribbean country. Stricter immigration measures have been a trend across Central America, as the administration of US President Joe Biden puts pressure on the region to stem the flow of migrants and asylum seekers travelling north to its southern border with Mexico. “It is an objective of the United States that the containment [of migrants] starts from countries” like Guatemala, said Ursula Roldan, an immigration expert at Guatemala’s Rafael Landivar University. “These policies only affect migrants and put them at risk,” she said. And the route north is already dangerous, as migrants and asylum seekers face threats and extortion, even from police demanding bribes. As Guatemala continues to implement measures to discourage migrants and asylum seekers, the Episcopal Conference has sought dialogue with the government of President Alejandro Giammattei to advocate against some of the reforms. According to Cardinal Ramazzini, a delegation from the Pastoral of Human Mobility — a Catholic group — will be meeting with Guatemala’s Vice President Guillermo Castillo and the National Immigration Authority in the coming weeks. The Guatemalan Migration Institute told Al Jazeera it was unable to comment on the issues raised by the new immigration reforms until the meeting had taken place. According to congressional representative Ligia Hernandez of the centrist Semilla party, her office will also be holding a hearing alongside church authorities to clarify how the reforms will be implemented so they do not affect the shelters. “Migrant shelters exist not to promote migration but to care for people who have not been cared for in their countries,” Hernández told Al Jazeera. She promised to “make it clear” that the government is “not going to criminalise the actions that are carried out within the shelters”. At the heart of the concerns is the fear that the new immigration requirements will worsen an already worrying humanitarian crisis in the region. But shelter workers like Friar Tax are determined to continue serving the migrants and asylum seekers who pass through his doors. “Our responsibility and our task,” he said, is “to take care of people to the extent that we can. We are going to continue working, serving the people to the best of our ability”. SOURCE: AL JAZEERA By Jeff Abbott Published On 18 Feb 202318 Feb 2023

Israel approves plans for thousands of illegal settlement homes Defence Ministry committee approves more than 5,000 new settlement housing units in the occupied West Bank. January 26, 2017, photo of new apartments under construction in the Israeli settlement of Har Homa. AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/AFP/Getty Images Israel’s far-right government has approved plans to build thousands of new homes in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, in a move that a Palestinian official decried as part of an “open war against the Palestinian people”. The decision comes amid rising violence in the occupied territory and growing United States criticism of Israel’s settlement policies. The Defence Ministry planning committee that oversees settlement construction approved more than 5,000 new settlement homes on Monday. The units are at various stages of planning, and it was not immediately clear when construction would begin. There was no immediate comment from the ministry. The international community, along with the Palestinians, considers settlement construction illegal and an obstacle to peace. More than 700,000 Israelis live in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem – territories captured by Israel in 1967 and sought by the Palestinians for a future state. “The Netanyahu government is moving forward with its aggression and open war against the Palestinian people,” said Wasel Abu Yousef, a Palestinian official in the occupied West Bank. “We affirm that all settler colonialism in all the occupied Palestinian territories is illegitimate and illegal.” Israel’s government, which took office in late December, is dominated by religious and ultranationalist politicians with close ties to the settlement movement. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a firebrand settler leader, has been granted cabinet-level authority over settlement policies and has vowed to double the settler population in the occupied West Bank. Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from the Giv’at Ze’ev settlement in the occupied West Bank, said the news was “a very big victory for Smotrich”. “Normally, to approve settlement expansion, there are six phases. They included things like security considerations, who was going to actually build the settlement, political considerations. At each of those stages, MKs – members of parliament [the Knesset] – and the international community could voice their concerns and often they would be slowed down,” Khan said. “But last week the cabinet, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, streamlined that process completely and handed over almost complete control to Smotrich. He’s exercised that control today.” Netanyahu’s government has made settlement expansion its top priority since he was re-elected in November. Khan said 900 new buildings had been approved for construction in the illegal Giv’at Ze’ev settlement. “That is going to make this an even more permanent place than it already is,” Khan said. “Where I’m standing is supposed to be the state of Palestine if a two-state solution is ever agreed. But the frustrating thing for the Palestinians is that these settlements keep getting built. They have been ongoing since the 80s in quite significant chunks of the occupied West Bank.” Rising violence Senior members of the Israeli government have been pushing for increased construction and other measures to cement Israel’s control over the territory in response to a more than year-long wave of violence with the Palestinians. Last week, at least seven Palestinians were killed and dozens of others were wounded after Israeli forces raided the Jenin refugee camp. Following the raid, four Israelis were killed by two Palestinian gunmen who opened fire next to an illegal Jewish settlement. Israel expanded its military activity in the occupied West Bank in early 2022 after a series of deadly Palestinian attacks. At least 174 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers since the start of this year, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Some 24 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks. Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war. The Palestinians claim all three territories for a future independent state. United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese told Al Jazeera that international law has “a problem of enforcement”. “There is a problem of double standards, because clearly when it comes to Palestine there is a cognitive dissonance especially among Western countries and reticence in applying the coercive measures and all the prohibitions that international law affords,” Albanese said. The administration of US President Joe Biden has been increasingly outspoken in its criticism of Israel’s settlement policies. US Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller said “we are deeply troubled” by the Israeli government’s latest decision. “We are simply concerned by reports of changes to Israel’s system of settlement administration that expedite the planning and approval of settlements,” Miller said. “We have communicated our concerns about settlements and increased settlement units directly to the Israeli government and I suspect they can figure out the proper implications.” Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the settlements “an obstacle to the horizon of hope we seek” in a speech to the pro-Israel lobbying group the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Despite the criticism, the US has taken little action against Israel. In a sign of its displeasure, the White House has not yet invited Netanyahu for a visit – as is customary following Israeli elections. And this week, the US said it would not transfer funds to Israeli institutions for science and technology research projects in the occupied West Bank. The decision restored a long-standing policy that had been canceled by the pro-settlement administration of former US President Donald Trump. Ahead of Monday’s vote, Israeli cabinet Minister Issac Wasserlauf, a member of the far-right Jewish Power party, played down the disagreements with the US. “I think the alliance with the US will remain,” he told the Army Radio station. “There are disagreements. We knew how to deal with them in the past.” Source: Al Jazeera and News Agencies © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network

By Al Jazeera Published On 23 July 2023 Critics described the election as the least free and fair in decades due to exclusion of main opposition party. Hun Manet, son of Prime Minister Hun Sen, shows his inked finger – an election security feature used in Cambodia as proof of voting – after casting his ballot in Phnom Penh, July 23, 2023 [Cindy Liu/Reuters] Phnom Penh, Cambodia – Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) has claimed a “landslide” victory in national elections described by critics as the country’s least free and fair vote in decades. “We’ve won a landslide victory but so far there is no clear figures yet [on seats won],” said Sok Eysan, spokesperson for the CPP, just hours after polls closed on Sunday. The claim of an election walkover by the governing party followed after Hun Sen said voter turnout hit 84 percent on Sunday. Hun Sen said the strong voter participation proved that a campaign to undermine the election – by what he described as an “extremist” opposition – had failed, Reuters news agency reported. Some 9.7 million people registered to vote among Cambodia’s approximately 16 million population. Voters who had destroyed their ballot papers in protest against the election should turn themselves in to authorities or face “legal consequences”, Hun Sen said in a message on the Telegram messaging app, Reuters reported. Opponents and human rights groups had blasted the election due to the lack of credible competition as well as Hun Sen’s strongman tactics that have now silenced all opposition to his rule in Cambodia. The National Election Committee (NEC) reported earlier on Sunday that two people were arrested under laws recently passed to prevent people from protesting against the one-sided election by spoiling their votes. One of those detained had drawn an “X” over their ballot paper and posted an image on social media, and the second person had stuffed the ballot in their pocket to remove it from the voting station and discard it, NEC spokesperson Som Morida said. Images of spoiled ballot papers were being shared on Telegram and Facebook, Mu Sochua, an opposition leader living in exile, told Al Jazeera. “I totally respect their courage. It’s an expression of anger, resentment, real defiance,” she said. Mu Sochua also described the election in a separate interview with Al Jazeera as “theatre” and called on the international community to impose sanctions on Hun Sen and other members of the CPP. ‘Predictable outcome’ Eighteen parties, including Hun Sen’s juggernaut CPP, participated in the election, though none of the 17 smaller parties had the popular support to present a serious challenge to Hun Sen’s decades of authoritarian leadership. The only credible opposition challenger – the Candlelight Party – was disqualified from participating in the vote due to a registration technicality in May, which critics blasted as yet another example of Hun Sen’s flattening of democratic participation in the country. Opposition supporters were arrested in the run-up to Sunday’s vote for allegedly encouraging the spoiling of ballot papers in protest of the one-horse election race. Internet service providers were also ordered to block access to the websites of several independent news and information outlets. Ahead of voting, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) said a “predictable outcome” from “an illegitimate process” could be expected from the election. The vote, FIDH said, was set to mirror the country’s last national election in 2018 when the then-popular Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) was banned from political life, which allowed Hun Sen to win all seats in parliament. The popular CNRP had come close to defeating Hun Sen in national elections a decade ago but came under pressure from Hun Sen and the country’s courts, which banned the party in 2017 after another strong showing in local elections. As the longest-serving elected leader in Asia, Hun Sen has consolidated power in Cambodia over the past 38 years. This election victory is expected to see him now pave the way for a transfer of power to his son, Hun Manet, who is head of the Cambodian army. Voters interviewed by Al Jazeera on Sunday gave differing views of the election process with some welcoming the exclusion of the opposition from voting, and former supporters of the CNRP telling of the fear they now feel under an increasingly authoritarian Hun Sen. “Whenever there’s opposition, it’s messy, causing problems,” voter Tea Yumao, 50, said. A 37-year-old taxi driver told how he “loved” Cambodia’s now-banned opposition CNRP and its leaders but feared government repercussions if he did not vote on Sunday. He also believed authorities had ways of discovering how people voted. “I’m very worried about them saying they can see our vote afterwards,” he told Al Jazeera, requesting anonymity as he feared consequences for speaking with reporters, shortly after casting his ballot. “We know the situation. We know the truth. But we can’t speak,” he added. Hun Sen succession A 44-year-old voter in Phnom Penh, who also asked that her name not be used, told Al Jazeera she was unhappy with the lack of competition in the election. But she said she looked forward to Hun Sen stepping aside to allow his son, Hun Manet, to become prime minister. “I only know that this year, it will be the son who takes over,” the woman said, adding that she hopes a new prime minister focuses on the economy and the poor. Hun Manet, who graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and holds a PhD from a university in the United Kingdom, rose quickly through Cambodian military ranks and became commander of the army in 2018. He stood in Sunday’s election for the first time hoping to win a national assembly seat. While some see the power handover from father to son as possibly heralding a new start in Cambodia, others doubt that Hun Sen is ready to give up control entirely. Waiting outside a polling station in Phnom Penh’s Dangkao district, Mao Ny Sai said people know little about Hun Manet and she has not heard him lay out plans for the country. “There’s not much known about him,” the 52-year-old said of the likely future prime minister. “He’s young,” she said. “As a parent”, Hun Sen will keep watch over his son, she added. Joshua Kurlantzick, a senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the US think tank the Council on Foreign Relations, said the planned succession was not universally supported in Cambodia’s power structures. “Hun Manet is supposedly going to be Hun Sen’s successor, although pulling off a dynastic succession is not easy and there are many powerful Cambodians opposed to the move,” Kurlantzick wrote earlier this month. With reporting by Fiona Kelliher in Cambodia. © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network

More than 20 others wounded after the bomb exploded near Sayeda Zeinab shrine a day before Ashura – the 10th day of Muharram. People gather at the site of an explosion in the town of Sayeda Zeinab on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria on July 27, 2023 [Syrian TV/AFP] At least six people have been killed and more than 20 wounded after a bomb exploded near a Shia Muslim shrine south of the Syrian capital Damascus a day ahead of Ashura – a day of mourning observed by Shia Muslims, according to the interior ministry. The blast near the Sayeda Zeinab mausoleum, Syria’s most visited Shia pilgrimage site, was caused when a motorcycle exploded near a taxi, the interior ministry said on Thursday. It called it a “terrorist bombing”. State television earlier reported that the explosion was caused by a “bomb placed in a taxi by unidentified people”. Al Jazeera was not able to independently verify the casualty figures and the circumstances around the blast. “We heard a huge blast and people began to run,” 39-year-old civil servant Ibrahim told AFP news agency. “Then ambulances arrived and security forces cordoned off the area.” He said the explosion took place “near a security building around 600 metres from the mausoleum of Sayeda Zeinab”, granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad and the daughter of Imam Ali. The London-based monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the explosion took place close to positions of Iranian militias, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad alongside Russia in Syria’s continuing conflict now in its 13th year. Charred taxi surrounded by large crowds Photos shared by Al-Ikhbariya state TV and pro-government media showed the charred taxi surrounded by large crowds of people and men in military fatigues. The area’s buildings had green, red, and black Ashura flags and banners hung. In a video shared on social media, people carried two men covered in blood and dust off the ground while calling for help. The glass facades of shops nearby had shattered, while one was on fire. Ashura is the 10th day of the Islamic month of Muharram, which is one of the holiest months for Shia Muslims. It marks the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Imam Hussein, and his 72 companions in the battle of Karbala in the seventh century in present-day Iraq. Ashura marks the peak of the mourning procession. Sunni Muslims commemorate the day through voluntary fasting as it marks the day Nuh (Noah) left the Ark and the day Musa (Moses) was saved from the pharaoh of Egypt by God. They also emulate the Prophet Muhammad who used to fast on Ashura in Mecca, where it became a common tradition for the early Muslims. The explosion is the second in the Sayeda Zeinab neighbourhood in the days leading to Ashura. On Tuesday, Syrian state media citing a police official said that two civilians were wounded after a motorcycle laced with explosives was detonated. Frequent targets Earlier this week, two people were wounded in a separate blast outside the shrine, where pilgrims have been flocking to mark a mourning period for Shia Muslims. The Sayeda Zeinab mausoleum was hit by several deadly bombings during the country’s civil war that erupted in 2011. Since then, the mosque complex with its turquoise ceramics and gold dome in the Iranian style has been defended by Shia militiamen, mostly Lebanese and Iraqi, as well as by the army. Attacks have nonetheless declined in recent years, with some of the security measures relaxed. The Islamic State armed group (ISIL/ISIS) said it was behind a double suicide attack in February 2016, 400 meters from the mausoleum, that killed 134 people, including more than 90 civilians. The group had also claimed a triple blast near the sanctuary several weeks earlier that took the lives of at least 70 people. © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network

April 23, 2023 By: News Agencies Authorities have arrested Alain Guillaume Bunyoni seven months after his sacking in a high-level political purge, top security source says. Burundi’s former Prime Minister Alain Guillaume Bunyoni has been arrested, the country’s justice ministry has said. Bunyoni was prime minister from June 2020 to September 2022, when he was sacked after the president accused unnamed people of planning a coup against him. “Alain Guillaume Bunyoni is currently in the hands of the police,” said a statement on Sunday signed by General Prosecutor Sylvestre Nyandwi and shared by the justice ministry. Bunyoni was arrested in Burundi’s capital Bujumbura on Friday, Nyandwi said. The statement did not specify where he was being held or the charges he would be facing. The country’s human rights commission tweeted that representatives had visited Bunyoni in detention and said he had not faced any abuse. Bunyoni was considered the number two in the country’s ruling party and was a close ally of former President Pierre Nkurunziza, who died in office in 2020. He has been under United States sanctions since 2015 over his alleged role in violating human rights during violence sparked by Nkurunziza’s decision to seek a third term in office. Bunyoni served as security minister during the unrest in 2015. Burundi’s National Independent Commission on Human Rights (CNIDH) said it had visited Bunyoni on Saturday, adding that he “has not suffered any act of torture or any other abuse since his arrest”. Interior Minister Martin Niteretse told a press conference on Wednesday that authorities were looking for Bunyoni. The former prime minister “was arrested very quickly by the national intelligence service”, a high-ranking security source told the AFP news agency on condition of anonymity. Although the international community has noted a relative opening up of the country since President Evariste Ndayishimiye took office in 2020 following the sudden death of Nkurunziza, a United Nations rights committee in September 2021 dubbed Burundi’s rights situation “disastrous”. Nkurunziza’s chaotic and bloody rule saw Burundi largely isolated, and the country of 12 million people remains one of the world’s poorest. In 2015, Nkurunziza oversaw a crackdown on political opponents amid turmoil after he launched a bid for a third term in office, in violation of a peace deal that ended a bloody civil war in 2006. Some 300,000 people were killed in 13 years of ethnic fighting while around 400,000 people fled abroad amid reports of arbitrary arrests, torture, killings and enforced disappearances. The country became an international pariah as a result of these developments, with donors cutting aid and the US and European Union placing sanctions on some officials. © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network

UN refugee agency says automatic detention measure violates the country’s obligations under international law. A Hungarian policeman walks by migrants in Roszke, Hungary, on September 30, 2016 [Vadim Ghirda/AP] Hungary's parliament has approved the automatic detention of all asylum seekers in container camps at the country's southern borders, despite a fierce backlash from human rights groups. Under the new legislation, asylum seekers entering Hungary and those already in the country will be detained or moved to the container camps. Earlier this year, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said the measure was needed as a response to "terror" attacks in Europe, citing the November 2015 attacks in Paris. The move reinstates Hungary's practice of detaining asylum applicants, which it suspended in 2013 under pressure from human rights groups. Measure 'violates' international law The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR, immediately criticised the measure. "This new law violates Hungary's obligations under international and EU laws, and will have a terrible physical and psychological impact on women, children and men who have already greatly suffered," the UNHCR said in a statement. On Tuesday, Orban ordered the reinforcement of fences on the country's southern border. Work began last week on a second border fence and the right-wing government extended a state of emergency that gave authorities additional powers to secure the borders. Hungary had previously built a fence on its borders with Serbia and Croatia in September 2015. In October last year, the majority of Hungarians voted against an EU referendum aimed at sharing 160,000 refugees around the 28-member bloc through mandatory quotas. It has since not accepted any asylum seekers allocated under the scheme. Hungary granted asylum, or some form of protection, to 425 people out of 29,432 applications in 2016. (c) Al Jazeera 2017

Last year’s attack, for which two people convicted of being linked with ISIL were executed, left 13 dead and 40 injured. Emergency personnel transport the injured following a shooting attack at Iran's Shah Cheragh shrine in the Fars province capital Shiraz. © Mohammadreza Dehdari / ISNA / AFP. By Maziar Motamedi Tehran, Iran – A holy shrine in Iran’s southern city of Shiraz has come under a second deadly attack in less than a year with another gunman breaking into its grounds and opening fire. Yadollah Bouali, the provincial commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), told state media that one shooter entered the Shah Cheragh shrine through its southern gate on Sunday at 7pm (15:30 GMT) to carry out a “terrorist” operation, revising earlier reports indicating two shooters. The assailant, who was arrested at the scene, shot four people killing one, he said, adding the shooter carried an assault rifle and eight magazines with 240 bullets, 11 of which he managed to get off before being subdued. Videos online showed people running in panic outside the shrine and shutting down their shops. Images showed bullet holes in walls and windows and blood on the ground. The shrine, located in the province of Fars and one of the most important in Shia Islam, was hit by a similar attack on October 26, 2022. At the time, a lone gunman entered the shrine with an automatic rifle, shooting a group of pilgrims and staff. Authorities said the gunman killed 13 people and injured 40 others before being killed by security forces. The ISIL (ISIS) armed group released a video through its Amaq website and took responsibility for the attack. The group was also responsible for coordinated 2017 attacks on the Iranian parliament and the mausoleum of former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Tehran. In early June, Iran executed two men said to have been in contact with ISIL operatives in neighbouring Afghanistan who provided the gunman with the rifle and took him to the site of the shooting. Three more men were also tried and given prison sentences ranging from five to 25 years for working with the armed group. Last year’s assault on the shrine also came as Iran was rocked by nationwide protests that started in September 2022 following the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for alleged noncompliance with the country’s mandatory dress code for women. It took place 40 days after Amini’s death, when thousands gathered to mark the occasion in her hometown in northwestern Iran. Iranian authorities, who blamed “riots” backed by foreign powers for undermining the country’s security, said at the time that the unrest paved the way for the Shah Cheragh attack to take place. © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network

The ethno-nationalist political underpinnings of Black July still characterise the Sri Lankan state today. By Ambihai Akilan and Archana Ravichandradeva Residents of the capital city of Colombo, Sri Lanka, walk amid the charred remains of a market following five days of riots and fire, July 29, 1983. The anti-Tamil violence left several hundreds dead, and buildings and businesses destroyed [Jeff Robbins/AP Photo] The Tamil community from Sri Lanka commemorates the 40th anniversary of Black July. The anti-Tamil pogroms which occurred throughout the island in July 1983 were the culmination of years of systemic violence and discrimination. Politicians, including then-president JR Jayewardene, the uncle of current President Ranil Wickremesinghe, chose to fan the flames of ethnic violence instead of addressing the legitimate concerns of the Tamil people. Weeks before Black July, Jayewardene stated in an interview with the Daily Telegraph in the United Kingdom: “Really, if I starve the Tamil people out, the Sinhala people will be happy.” During the pogrom, Sinhalese mobs killed several hundred Tamils, according to government numbers, though activists have long insisted that the evidence suggests the true death toll was in the thousands. The mobs also destroyed Tamil businesses and displaced tens of thousands of Tamils. The violence was targeted and intentional, while police and government officials either failed to stop the violence or actively encouraged it. This has led to allegations that the events of Black July represent genocide. The pogroms did not occur spontaneously, whipped up in a flash of ethnic tension and violence. Black July occurred after years of similar anti-Tamil pogroms in 1956, 1977, after the burning of the Jaffna Library in 1981 – destroying more than 95,000 historical Tamil texts and manuscripts – and after months of violence from May to July in 1983. The 1977 parliamentary election was a tipping point. After years of nonviolent protest by Tamil politicians and civil society, the Tamil United Liberation Front – a coalition of Tamil parties – won a resounding electoral victory in the country’s northern and eastern provinces on the political promise of creating an independent Tamil state. Yet, instead of trying to address the concerns driving that sentiment, the Sri Lankan government responded with more state violence. By 1983, tired of what they deemed the futility of non-violent protests, nascent armed Tamil groups were beginning to engage in attacks against the state. Days after the horrific anti-Tamil violence of Black July, on August 4, 1983, the Sri Lankan government, instead of passing constitutional changes to protect Tamils, passed the 6th amendment to Sri Lanka’s constitution which criminalised the advocacy of a separate state. This amendment in combination with the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), which is still in effect, continues to be used as a tool of violence to arbitrarily detain and terrorise Tamils. The PTA has been used to target members of the Muslim community as well, especially in recent years. The political underpinnings of Black July still characterise the state today. The hardening of the state’s ethnocratic foundation on the basis of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism set the stage for the violence which would eventually lead to a 30-year-long armed conflict in Sri Lanka during which the state has been accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. In the 40 years since Black July, there has been a striking absence of accountability. This has allowed an environment of impunity to flourish and thrive, emboldening individuals who stand credibly accused of perpetrating or abetting crimes throughout the armed conflict to assume prominent roles as political, economic, and military leaders. Fifteen years following the end of the armed conflict, the echoes of Black July still resonate. The northeast of the island, where most Tamils live, remains developmentally and economically deprived, their plight exacerbated by the significant presence of the Sinhalese-dominated military. The ethno-nationalist ideology continues to echo through the corridors of power, shaping policies and governance in ways that further marginalise the Tamil people. As long as this ideology remains interwoven with governance, the country cannot claim true progress or unity. The lack of political will of successive Sri Lankan governments to engage their Sinhalese electorate on these issues has only further entrenched Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism. In the years after Black July, the government established the Presidential Truth Commission on Ethnic Violence in 2001, mandated to investigate the ethnic violence against the Tamils that took place between 1981 and 1984. However, this commission, like other truth commissions established in Sri Lanka, failed to bring any semblance of justice or accountability for the victims. Since the 1970s, Sri Lanka has set up more than 15 such commissions. But their limited mandates, lack of transparency and lack of political will have contributed to a justified mistrust of domestic-led mechanisms, perpetuating the sense of injustice and marginalisation experienced by the Tamil people, and leading to demands for international investigations. The government is now touting a new initiative through a proposed National Unity and Reconciliation Commission. This has rightly been called out by various Tamil civil society organisations as being yet another disingenuous means for the Sri Lankan government to pretend to move forward on ‘reconciliation’ without addressing the lack of accountability and acknowledging the root causes of Tamil disillusionment. Tamil calls for internationalised justice mechanisms should be heeded, and Tamils must be able to fully exercise their political demands for self-determination. The twin demands of accountability and a sustainable political solution have remained unaddressed since Black July, and it is only by meaningfully engaging with both of these issues that there is the possibility for change in Sri Lanka. As Tamils in the northeast continue to mobilise and demand their grievances be addressed, now more than ever, sustained international pressure on Sri Lanka’s government to address Tamil concerns will be crucial for any semblance of a brighter future. The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance. © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network