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by Harsh Mander In Varanasi on May 12. | AFP Some national elections became decisive milestones in the journey of the Indian republic. Free India’s first election in 1951-’52 established to a widely sceptical world both the commitment and the capacity of the Indian people for electoral democracy. In 1977, the people of India voted overwhelmingly to restore the constitutional freedoms suspended during the 18-month emergency that preceded it. Still, the 2024 national elections arguably are the most momentous since Independence. Its outcomes will decide if India will remain a secular democracy. India’s constitutional secularism meant many things. The state would have no religion. It would scrupulously be equidistant from all religions. People of every persuasion, both of majority and minority faiths, would have full freedom not just to practice but also to propagate their religious beliefs. The state would have the right but also the duty to intervene in religious practice when this contravened constitutional morality. And people of all minority faiths would be assured full citizenship rights equal to those of people of the majority religion. It would be the duty of the state both to defend these rights and to ensure that the state does not itself discriminate in any way on the basis of religion. The practice of Indian secularism during the building of the Indian republic was never perfect. But the decade of the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has seen a blitz of such grave onslaughts that many fear India has already transformed in practice into a religious state, a Hindu Rashtra, even though the letter of the preamble of the constitution still retains the pledges of secular (and socialist) democracy. In Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler in 1935 announced two laws known as the Nuremberg laws. These stripped Jewish Germans of citizenship rights and criminalised inter-religious marital and sexual unions. These two laws reduced Germany’s Jews to non-citizens and criminalised marriages and sex between Jews and Germans. In Modi’s India, laws have been passed that assailed the principle of equal citizenship of Muslims and criminalised religious conversion for inter-religious marriages. Do these laws in Modi’s India carry echoes of the Nuremberg laws? The Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019, does not directly strip Indian Muslims of their citizenship. What it does for the first time is to introduce religious identity as salient to a person’s eligibility to be a citizen of India; and to exclude undocumented Muslims from a presumption available to Indians of other faiths that they are persecuted minorities from Muslim-majority countries from India’s neighbourhood. The rationale offered for the Citizenship Amendment Act is that this is a humanitarian refugee law designed to aid and shelter persecuted minorities from neighbouring countries. But the word persecution finds no mention in the law and its rules. There is also no explanation why this amendment only fast-tracks applications for citizenship to non-Muslim undocumented persons from three Muslim-majority countries – Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Religious persecution is a grim reality in almost every country in India’s neighbourhood – of Hindus, Christians and Ahmediyas in Pakistan; Hindus, Sikhs and Hazaras in Afghanistan; the Uyghur Muslims and Tibetans in China; Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar; Tamils and Muslims in Sri Lanka; and Hindus in Bangladesh. If it was humanitarian considerations that drove the law, then why should India not have opened its doors to the most savagely persecuted minorities in India’s neighbourhood who are among the most persecuted peoples in the world – the Rohingya from Myanmar, Ahmediyas from Pakistan and Uyghurs from China? Is it because all of these people are of Muslim identity except the Hindu Tamils from Sri Lanka? Credit: Government of Germany, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Note: This is a historical image and reflects racist and offensive language and views. It is intended for informational purposes only. It is reasonable to speculate that not humanity but ideology actually spurred the law. Just as Israel is the natural home of every Jewish person, the ideology underpinning the 2019 Citizenship Amendment Act is that India is the natural home of Hindus from anywhere in the world. But this idea is alien to the secular idea of the country embedded in its constitution, the principle that India belongs equally to its non-Hindu citizens. The dread of possible disenfranchisement raised among Indian Muslims by the statute is inflamed partly by periodic declarations by the prime minister and union home minister stigmatising Muslims as “infiltrators”. This stirs further with Union home minister Amit Shah’s loaded reference to “chronology”; that their government first brought in the Citizenship Amendment Act and then would bring in a National Register of Citizenship. The National Register of Citizenship implemented Assam caused immense suffering to millions of residents because it reversed the burden of proof and presumption of innocence. All residents had to prove with vintage hard-to-procure documents that you were citizens, and if you failed to do this, the state would presume that you were an illegal immigrant – or “infiltrator”, if you prefer – would declare you a non-citizen and possibly incarcerate you in detention centres. But if you were an undocumented Hindu, you had nothing to worry, because with the Citizenship Amendment Act now in statute books, you would be presumed to be a persecuted Hindu from Bangladesh, and your citizenship would be fast-tracked. Contrarily, the protection of this presumption would be denied to you if you were Muslim. Equally fearsome for Indian Muslims has been the spate of what are informally called “love jihad” laws, that have mushroomed in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states during the decade of Modi’s leadership of the country. Once again, these do not explicitly bar and criminalise relationships of Muslim men with Hindu women in the way the Nuremberg laws did. But in the manner that these laws are being interpreted and implemented by the police and even on occasion courts, this is what in practice these laws accomplish. India has long been a dangerous place for couples who choose to marry or live with persons of other faiths or “lower” castes. Families themselves are known to murder women and men who transgress these societal barriers, in what are misnamed “honour killings”. Their perils have grown manifold with the spread of the toxic Sangh myth of “love jihad”, the canard that Muslim men are trained to romantically and sexually trap Hindu women into marriage aiming to convert them to Islam and produce masses of Muslim children as part of a demographic conspiracy. But the so-called “love jihad” laws have raised the dangers to inter-faith couples incrementally. A protest against 'love jihad' in Ahmedabad in 2018. Credit: AFP. What are popularly termed “love jihad” laws are actually amendments to laws related to religious conversions that debar changes in religion due to marriage. These amendments in seven BJP-ruled states during the Modi years require inter-faith couples to apply to state officials and make public announcements of their desire to marry. These effectively expose couples in such marriages to the perils of jail and the marriage being declared void, and to heightened dangers of vigilante intimidation and violence. These multiple hazards are multiplied when couples choose to live together outside marriage. These laws in BJP states have been widely interpreted and weaponised by police authorities – and sometimes courts – families of couples in inter-faith relations and vigilantes to forcefully prevent and annul such unions. These have drastically curtailed both religious freedoms and the freedom of adults to choose their partners – for companionship, for sex, for romance and for marriage - outside their faith. These eclipse the pledges of secular democracy in India’s constitution. In Nazi Germany, the official resolve to expel Jews, the Roma and Sinti people and Black Germans from citizenship was explicit and strident. So too was the official determination to make sex and marriage between Jews and Germans a grave crime. In Modi’s India, the aspirations and sometimes even the public discourse are not dissimilar to Nazi times. But the exclusion and criminalisation of the country’s Muslim citizens through laws and state action are more covert, as we have seen, with Indian statutes of citizenship and inter-faith marriages not as explicit in their exclusions of Indian Muslims as the Nuremberg laws were of Germany’s Jews. Still, in their formulation and also in the official discourse and practice that accompanied these, the threats to both equal citizenship rights of Muslims and their consensual inter-faith relations are grave and violative of both the letter and spirit of the constitution. The dark clouds of 1935 Nuremberg have gathered ominously today over the Indian skies. I am grateful for research support from Swati Draik and Omair Khan.

In his bid for re-election, the Indian PM is ramping up sectarian rhetoric and weaponising state agencies against his opponents Abh ke baar 400 paar (“More than 400 seats this time”) has been the rallying cry of Narendra Modi’s election campaign, as voting for India’s 543-member lower house stretches on through the hottest months of the year. The prime minister’s method of ruling a once vibrant and now wounded democracy relies heavily on a heady mix of religious polarisation, subservient institutions and the apparent misuse of state-controlled agencies against his opponents. On the campaign trail, he and his party have been busy peppering his speeches with anti-Muslim rhetoric, in a seeming violation of India’s election law, which expressly prohibits electioneering based on sectarian appeals to religion, caste, language or region. So what is it like to stand as an opposition candidate in today’s India? Let me give you a sense of what we have to contend with. The first line of defence is the election commission of India (ECI), which is supposed to ensure free and fair elections but has become a helpless spectator. The ECI’s members were always appointed by the government of the day, but the institution has never before appeared so partisan. This is the reason that the supreme court last year said that election commissioners should henceforth be chosen by a panel in which the government does not have a majority. To this end, it recommended a three-member panel comprising the prime minister, the leader of the opposition and India’s highest-ranking judge. Modi, however, passed a law that made the third member of the panel merely another government minister, and then pushed two appointments through this flawed panel, an action which the supreme court declined to stop. It is no wonder then that the ECI has been largely silent on allegations of egregious violations of the electoral law by Modi and various members of his ruling party, the BJP. More important, it has refused to intervene in the face of the government’s blatant harassment of opposition parties by various official agencies during the campaign season – something previously unseen. On the eve of the election, the income tax authorities – controlled by the ministry of finance – froze the accounts of the Congress party, India’s largest opposition party. (The authorities said it was a “routine procedure” against defaulters.) This denied it access to party funds for the campaign. The enforcement directorate, the economic offences wing of the finance ministry, has arrested two opposition chief ministers and keeps issuing summons against opposition politicians in what are decried as unsound cases. Under the constitution, the ECI has a sweeping mandate to intervene whenever government agencies at the federal or state level engage in actions that can affect electoral outcomes. While the election commissioners are keen to act against opposition-run state governments at the slightest provocation, Modi’s apparent misuse of federal agencies does not appear to concern them. But nothing illustrates the un-level playing field that India’s opposition is forced to operate in better than the Modi government’s “electoral bonds” scheme – an opaque, anonymous political funding system. In March, India’s supreme court finally came down hard on it, banning the scheme and ordering the country’s largest government-owned bank, the State Bank of India, as well as the election commission, to publicly release all details of donors and their funding to specific parties. Introduced in 2017 by Modi in the face of strong reservations by India’s central bank and the ECI, the scheme effectively allowed shell companies and anonymous donors to give huge sums of money to political parties. The largest chunk of the money, almost 50% of the total, went to Modi’s BJP. The State Bank of India at first refused to release the compromising data until it was rapped hard on the knuckles by a persistent three-judge bench. The results, though astonishing to some, seemed to confirm what India’s opposition had been saying for years: that the scheme operated in the BJP’s interests. Indian media has since reported on several companies that bought electoral bonds after being raided by central government agencies – leading to allegations of “extortion”. Opposition politicians have also made quid pro quo allegations about companies that donated to the BJP and received government contracts. Apart from outspending the opposition in every election, the BJP has suborned large sections of the media and launched a blitzkrieg of propaganda to minimise the importance of every burning national issue, such as joblessness and inflation, the incursions by China into Indian territory, and a civil war-like situation in the eastern state of Manipur that has taken the lives of more than 200 people, and which Modi has failed to address. In place of critical scrutiny, big media propitiates Modi’s personality cult. “What is that power that gives you this strong resolve to move forward?” a major TV news channel asked him this week. “God has probably sent me to do this work,” Modi replied. Unfortunately for Modi, his gamble of a lengthy election during which he hoped to tire out the opposition may well turn out to be his undoing. The first four phases showed a marked reduction in in voter turnout, which doesn’t bode well for the BJP getting an absolute majority for the third election in a row. India’s electorate, used to treating elections as a celebration where, once every five years, the poorest citizens can exert their power, is keeping its cards close to its chest. A desperate BJP is doubling down on its sectarian rhetoric. This time, that may not be enough to push it across the finishing line of a simple majority on its own. Modi owns the track and the man with the whistle is his guy, but what the crowds seem to want is a real contest. Authored by Mahua Moitra Mahua Moitra is an opposition politician with the Trinamool Congress party © 2024 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.

Facts have not deterred Modi from building up a false alarm among voters about Muslim reservation in UP. Supporters at one of Modi's rallies in Uttar Pradesh. Photo: X/@BJP4India New Delhi:  With the 2024 Lok Sabha election entering its final leg, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has intensified his tactic of polarising Hindu voters in his favour in Uttar Pradesh by manufacturing insecurity among them and projecting a conspiracy theory that his opponents planned to change the constitution to grant reservations to Muslims. Addressing three back-to-back rallies in East UP on May 26, Modi, up against the ‘PDA’ strategy of the Samajwadi Party, primarily focused on pitting OBCs (Other Backward Classes) and Dalits against Muslims. PDA stands for pichda (backwards), Dalit, and  alpsankhyak (minority). “These INDI alliance people want to turn the majority community (Hindus) in India into second-class citizens,” Modi said in Ghosi. Modi then claimed that the opposition was plotting “three big conspiracies” to deprive them of their rights. First, Modi said, the opposition planned on changing the constitution to allow reservations on the basis of religion. Second, he said the opposition parties would scrap the reservations provided to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward Classes. Third, he said the entire reservation quota would be allotted to Muslims on the basis of religion. Apparently targeting the opposition for promising a caste census, Modi accused them of trying to make different Hindu castes – Dalits, OBCs and the general – fight among themselves so that they become “weak” and are diverted from important issues. A new stick that Modi is also using to beat BJP’s main opposition in Uttar Pradesh, the SP, and project it as pro-Muslim is its now-defunct promise – made in 2012 and 2014 – of providing Muslims reservations in accordance with their share in the state’s population. The SP’s promise was made on the basis of the findings of the Sachar Committee report which drew a dismal picture of the social, economic and educational status of Muslims in the country. In absolute terms, UP has the highest population of Muslims in the country – one-fifth of the state’s population comprises of Muslims. The SP lost power in UP in 2017. The state has since then been ruled by the BJP of Modi, who has himself been in power at the Union government for a decade. In the 2017, 2019, 2022 and 2024 elections – both state and Lok Sabha – the SP, stung by a huge defeat in 2014, made no mention of providing quotas to Muslims. Even the Congress, the main constituent of the INDIA bloc in the country, has not made any such promise in its 2024 election manifesto. However, these facts have not deterred Modi from building up a false alarm among voters about Muslim reservation in UP. “Can you imagine how they were bent on snatching the rights of SC, ST and OBC to please their vote bank,” Modi said in Mirzapur. In the wake of the Kolkata High Court quashing OBC quota provided to Muslim communities in West Bengal, Modi claimed that the Opposition parties now planned to change the constitution and provide reservations to Muslims so that their decision cannot be challenged in court. “I also came from a most-backward class community like you. I understand the lives you have to live,” said Modi. Reaching out to Dalit voters in the 13 remaining constituencies in UP, Modi accused the SP of intending to provide Muslims reservation in its 2012 manifesto akin to the quotas provided to Dalits by B. R Ambedkar. “This is against the spirit of the constitution and Babasaheb but the INDI people don’t care about it,” he said. Modi’s stress on the constitution has been in response to the opposition’s high-pitched campaign accusing the BJP of planning to change the constitution after the party gloated over its ambitious goal of hitting the 400-seat mark in the election. Deploying more fear-mongering, Modi said that the opposition parties were “constantly exerting pressure” to reverse the Supreme Court judgment on the Ram Mandir just like the “Shah Bano decision” was reversed. In Bansgaon, Modi claimed that “dua” or prayers were being offered in Pakistan in support of the INDIA bloc and that “jihadis” from across the border were backing the opposition. He also claimed that the opposition parties would reverse the decision to dilute Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and scrap the Citizenship Amendment Act. “The forces against India want this,” he said. ©2023 All rights reserved. Foundation for Independent Journalism (FIJ) Source : https://thewire.in/communalism/narendra-modi-anti-muslim-speech-uttar-pradesh

Selahattin Demirtas, co-leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), greets the crowd during a peace rally to protest against Turkish military operations in northern Syria, in Istanbul, Turkey, September 4, 2016. REUTERS/Osman Orsal/File Photo ANKARA, May 16 (Reuters) - A Turkish court sentenced former pro-Kurdish party leader Selahattin Demirtas to more than 40 years in jail on Thursday for instigating protests in 2014 triggered by an Islamic State attack on the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani. Another pro-Kurdish party leader, Figen Yuksekdag, was sentenced to just over 30 years in jail. The verdict was likely to fuel political tensions in Turkey around their Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which could be ordered to shut down in a separate court case and has been succeeded in parliament by another pro-Kurdish party, DEM Party. Defence lawyers and observers in the courtroom, in a prison complex on the outskirts of the capital Ankara, banged tables and chanted "Long live the resistance of HDP" and "Long live the resistance of Kobani" in Kurdish when the chief judge began to read the verdict. Thirty-seven people died in the 2014 protests, which were triggered by accusations that Turkey's army stood by as the ultra-hardline Islamic State militants besieged Kobani, a Syrian border town in plain view of Turkey. Many other senior HDP figures were convicted among a total of 108 defendants, charged with 29 offences including homicide and harming the unity of the Turkish state. Some of the defendants were acquitted. The HDP denied the charges. Prosecutors had sought 38 "aggravated life" sentences without parole in relation to the protest deaths. The trial did not begin until April 2021 and was viewed by the defendants and defence lawyers as a political case. Speaking outside the courthouse after the trial, DEM Party co-chairs Tulay Hatimogullari and Tuncer Bakirhan denounced the verdicts as a "black stain" on Turkey's judicial record, and an attempt at "erasing" Kurdish politicians. "Today, at the Sincan courthouse, we witnessed a massacre of the law together," Hatimogullari said, and added the verdicts amounted to a "political coup". "There is no such thing as a judiciary remaining in Turkey anymore," she added. "The decision taken by the court today has once again shown us that they side with ISIS and fascism. This verdict is null and void." Ozgur Ozel, head of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), told an interview with SZC TV that the verdicts on Demirtas and Yuksekdag were unacceptable, adding that the case was political. Following the verdicts, 14 provinces including Diyarbakir, Adana, Mardin and Sanliurfa imposed four-day demonstration bans. 'LIFE SENTENCE FOR A TWEET' Demirtas has been in prison since November 2016 on terrorism related charges but remains one of Turkey's most influential political figures. He and Yuksekdag were among 18 defendants already in jail. Critics say Turkish courts are under the influence of the government and President Tayyip Erdogan, claims that he and his AK Party deny. In 2020, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Turkey must release Demirtas, saying his rights, including freedom of expression and liberty, were being violated. Facing the prospect of closure, the HDP regrouped last year under the banner of the DEM Party, parliament's third-largest party. Among the defendants was Sirri Sureyya Onder, a deputy speaker of the Turkish parliament from the DEM Party. Onder was acquitted by the court. Ankara accuses HDP of ties to the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is deemed a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union. The HDP denies having any connections with terrorism. The PKK launched an insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984 and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict. A peace process between Ankara and the PKK fell apart in 2015 and in a subsequent crackdown on the HDP, thousands of its officials and members have been arrested and jailed. In his final words before the verdict, defendant Alp Altinors said: "This is a conspiracy case aimed at criminalizing HDP activities. Calling to the streets is a call to exercise a democratic right." "This is a tweet case, the only act attributed to the defendants is tweeting. It is a conspiracy case that tries to get a life sentence for a tweet," said Altinors, who was sentenced to more than 20 years in jail. "Calling for democratic protest is not a crime," he added. "It is not a crime to be a member of HDP." © 2024 Reuters

A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini September 2022 Amnesty International has warned of the imminent threat of execution for at least 15 individuals involved in the protests, following what it describes as "grossly unfair sham trials." At least eight of these individuals, Amnesty says, are awaiting execution following their involvement in the "Woman Life Freedom" uprising in Iran. Among them are Fazel Bahramian, Mahmoud Mehrabi, Mamousta Mohammad Khazrnejad, Manouchehr Mehman Navaz, Mehran Bahramian, Mojahed (Abbas) Kourkouri, Reza (Gholamreza) Rasaei and prominent rapper Toomaj Salehi. In their guilty verdicts, they were accused of "enmity against God" (moharebeh), "corruption on earth" (efsad-e fel arz), and "armed rebellion against the state" (baghi). "The authorities have severely violated their fair trial rights and subjected many to torture and other ill-treatment, including beatings, electric shocks and sexual violence," the group added. According to Amnesty International, two additional individuals, Saeed Shirazi and Abolfazl Mehri Hossein Hajilou, were tried on capital charges, and at least five others are under investigation for serious offenses related to the protests. The death of Mahsa Jina Amini in September 2022 at the hands of the regime’s “morality police” ignited a series of nationwide protests lasting for months, commonly referred to as the Woman, Life, Freedom movement. During this period, authorities reportedly killed at least 550 protesters and detained tens of thousands. The UN has since found Iranian authorities responsible for the physical violence that resulted in Amini's death. Amnesty International reported last month that 853 people were executed in Iran in 2023, a record number in the last eight years, pointing out that the government uses execution as a tool of political repression and may continue to execute thousands more if the international community does not take action. © Volant Media UK Limited

By Sera Mishra Genocide Watch Source: Nepali Times Nepal has been a multi-ethnic society since the 5th Century. Caste hierarchy is based on ancient Hindu beliefs. It was officially established in 1769 and legalized in 1854 through the Muluki Ain (National Code). The Dalit caste, or Untouchable caste, is at the bottom of the hierarchy and makes up about 13% of Nepal’s population, nearly 3 million out of 30 million Nepalese citizens. The ideology which characterizes Dalits as unclean arose out of the Brahmanical hierarchy long ago when upper classes viewed aboriginal tribes as impure. The concept of untouchability is deeply entrenched in Nepali culture, and affects the political, social, and economic rights of the Dalit caste in the modern day. Currently, hate speech in person and online worsens the condition of Dalits. This hate speech persists in the form of threats, biases, and stereotyping. There has been an increase in violence against Dalits since the Covid-19 pandemic. The Nepalese government, security forces, and civilian communities subject Dalits to many forms of discrimination and dehumanization. Forms of Discrimination Dalit communities rarely participate in government and social policy making due to institutional and societal barriers. Few Dalit citizens are elected locally and nationally. Nepal’s government does not represent the diversity of the country. As of 2022, 42% of the Dalit population is living below the national poverty line. Dalit communities experience a lack of educational and job opportunities. They often have to live in completely segregated neighborhoods. In many instances, Dalits are not even permitted to drink from the same tap as other castes. Many Dalits have poor health due to discrimination and neglect by medical practitioners. High discrimination rates globally and in Nepal are linked with health problems such as lower life expectancy, lower birth weight, higher infant mortality rates, and higher levels of depression. This pattern is exhibited by a majority of Dalits in Nepal. Many Dalits are severely depressed, but they are afraid to speak about their condition due to fear of further stigma. Nepalese culture is intolerant of mental health problems because of popular associations between mental illness and insanity or substance abuse. Dalits have received the least aid during natural disasters and socioeconomic crises. The devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Nepal in 2015 is an example. Dalit households were intentionally excluded from relief, even though they were often the worst affected by aftershocks. Dalit communities were denied treatment and vaccinations during the Covid-19 pandemic due to lack of access to clinics and higher rates of infection among Dalits. The criminal justice system in Nepal disproportionately arrests and convicts Dalits. Dalits are unprotected from abuse by police and higher castes. They are prohibited from entering Hindu temples. They are excluded from ordinary social life. They are not permitted to marry above their caste. Instances of Violence In 2019, 49 cases of discrimination against Dalits were recorded by Nepal’s Human Rights Commission. This is only a tip of the iceberg of actual discrimination. During Covid lockdown the next year, there was a major spike in violence against Dalits, who were blamed for the pandemic. There were over 753 cases of discrimination against Dalits reported to the Human Rights Commission, including 34 murders. The perpetrators in cases of violence against Dalits are usually members of other castes who typically know their victims and live in the same neighborhoods. They usually utilize intimate forms of violence such as beating or choking to brutalize Dalit victims. Dalits are also targeted because Dalit activism is falsely tied to the Maoist rebellion movement. Dalits are accused to be rebels planning insurgencies against the current government. People feel comfortable inciting violence against Dalit communities because impunity is permitted by law enforcement agencies. Perpetrators are confident they will not be punished for their actions. Police often refuse to register complaints from Dalits. Only weak laws protect Dalits. In 1990, a constitutional guarantee of rights against caste-based discrimination was adopted in Nepal. This bill of rights was expected to prompt social change in Nepal. But it has gone largely unenforced because it must be implemented by the government. In 2011, the Caste Based Discrimination and Untouchability Act (CBDU Act) was passed, which prohibits caste-based discrimination in any public or private place. The Act led to the formation of commissions to ensure the rights of Dalits and other ethnic minorities. However, the Act does not explicitly prohibit direct and indirect forms of discrimination. It does not prohibit discrimination based on skin color. Colorism is a persistent phenomenon in Nepal. The government fails to prosecute individuals who engage in caste discrimination. So in practice, violence and reinforcement of the caste hierarchy continues. In May of 2020, a village mob beat and killed Nabaraj BK and five of his friends due to Nabaraj’s relationship with a girl from an upper caste. On December 5, 2020, one of Nepal’s district courts convicted 26 individuals for the killing of Nabaraj and the five others. The case is seen as a precedent that will hopefully lead to further legal action against hate crimes. In 2020, a 13 year old Dalit girl, Angira Pasi, hanged herself in a village in western Nepal. A 25-year-old man, Birendra Bhar had raped her the day before. Instead of referring the crime to the police, locals decided that Pasi should be married to Bhar. When Pasi was sent to Bhar’s home to be married, she was beaten by his mother. In despair, she hanged herself from a tree. Police took no action until there was a public outcry. Bonded Slavery System and Its Impact Many Dalits were and still are subjected to bonded labor slavery through a system known as haliya. Haliya was officially abolished in 2008, but it is still common. Dalits who are still enslaved are forced to perform inhumane tasks, such as disposing of dead animals or collecting human excrement. Most Dalits still in the haliya system are unaware of their rights. Without economic support, families who try to escape the system often fall back into it. The Nepalese government has established a rehabilitation program for victims of haliya. But it is estimated that this rehabilitation program has reached less than 5% of haliya families. Dalit Women Sexual violence and other forms of violence against Dalit women are common. Dalit women have no control over resources such as land, housing, or money. Children of Dalit women cannot receive an education. Dalit women are vulnerable to human trafficking and sexual slavery. Dalit girls are kidnapped and brought to Indian brothels, where they are forced to work as prostitutes. In Mumbai, there are an estimated 40,000 Nepali prostitutes. The women of the Badi community, who reside in the highlands, are especially vulnerable. It is commonly believed that Badi women’s sole purpose is to satisfy the sexual cravings of men. The Badi are known as the “untouchables of the untouchables.” Due to their low status and extreme poverty, many Badi families have resorted to selling Badi women into prostitution. Dalit women are the most exploited slaves in the haliya system. They already play a subordinate role to men in Nepalese society. Being in bonded slavery they have no civil rights.  Nepalese women usually cannot access the land that is supposed to be granted to them as part of a government rehabilitation program. A Dalit woman’s chance of escaping slavery and oppression is almost non-existent. What Must Be Done The Nepalese government has an obligation to abide by its own laws and protect all its citizens, regardless of their caste or social status. Dalit activists have a growing voice in Nepal. Dalit activism is becoming increasingly effective in the fight for equal rights, education, and economic opportunities for Dalit communities. It will take a concerted effort by the government, security forces, and local community leaders to bring full civil rights to Dalits. The CBDU Act should be amended to fully prohibit direct and indirect discrimination based on caste, ethnic origin, skin color, or religion so that all minorities are protected under this law. The Nepalese government should establish national-level policies for Dalit inclusion in the economy, moving beyond the quota system to specific protections, provisions, and opportunities for Dalit families. The Nepalese government should make a greater effort to include more Dalit women in the haliya rehabilitation program. Sources of hate speech against Dalits must be monitored and taken down. Nepalese police forces must take action to stop violence against Dalits and the sexual abuse and trafficking of Dalit women.

Prominent commentator and academic Sadegh Zibakalam Iran’s judiciary has confirmed that political commentator Sadegh Zibakalam has been sent to prison prison on charges including “making false statements and engaging in propaganda activities against the regime.” Zibakalam recently published a book titled "Why Don't They Arrest You and What Happens in the End?". His arrest came as he was scheduled to attend the book launch event at the Tehran International Book Fair on Sunday. Zibakalam, a former University of Tehran professor and a figure often described as reformist and neo-liberal, has been a vocal critic of the Iranian government, frequently appearing on international media platforms such as BBC News and Al Jazeera. He has been especially critical of Iran’s nuclear program and has previously acknowledged the State of Israel, citing its recognition by the United Nations, which led to charges of "weakening the system." His legal troubles include an 18-month prison sentence and a two-year prohibition from participating in political activities online and with various groups due to allegations of “conducting propaganda against the state.” Another case that led to a one-year prison sentence involved the dissemination of what the authorities deemed “undocumented and false content.” Additionally, a third case, confirmed by the Supreme Court, sentenced him to six months in prison for similar charges. The legal actions followed a series of statements by Zibakalam, including remarks made during an interview with Voice of America's Persian television. In the interview, he argued that Israel should not be blamed for the January bombing in Kerman, as it typically targets specific individuals and "does not attack innocent people." On January 3, a memorial service at the grave of former IRGC Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani in eastern Kerman, was rocked by two bomb explosions. The attacks resulted in the deaths of over 100 people and left more than 280 others injured. © Volant Media UK Limited 2024

Guns in South Sudan credit: Phillip Dhil/EPA South Sudan breaking arms embargo, says UN Experts Panel Sudan Tribune May 14, 2024 May 14, 2024 (JUBA) – A new report by a United Nations Panel of Experts on South Sudan has accused the Juba government of a potential breach of an arms embargo imposed on it in 2018 after it appeared to have made additional efforts to procure weapons. The Panel, in a report submitted to the Security Council on Tuesday, said it identified several weapons not previously observed in South Sudan, raising queries on their origin. The Security Council imposed an arms embargo on South Sudan through Resolution 2428 (2018) and has since renewed it several times with the most recent renewal being through Resolution 2633 (2022). The Council, however, said it would review the arms embargo measures if South Sudan fulfilled certain benchmarks, mainly related to security reforms. According to the report from the UN experts, a MP5A5 submachine gun with a retractable buttstock and a three-round burst trigger group was observed in the possession of a security detail for the Governor of Upper Nile State on 11 December 2023. Also identified, it said, was a Micro Tavor X95 submachine gun in the possession of a bodyguard for government dignitaries in Terekeka County, near Juba, on 6 January 2024. The 184-page report further observed that the Panel reviewed additional documents indicating ongoing efforts by the Ministry of Defence and Veterans Affairs to procure lethal military equipment during 2023. It said in one letter, dated 19 September 2023, the Director of Acquisitions requests quotes from suppliers for weapons including various rifles, machine guns, mortars and rocket launchers, as well as associated ammunition. The letter, the reports said, includes a direction to potential suppliers that, owing to the arms embargo, “which limit the government’s direct import of classified equipment of military nature,” all contracts will be arranged with the Ministry of Defence and Veterans Affairs of Uganda, which will also be responsible for supplying all end-user certificates. “There is no evidence that Ugandan authorities were aware of these directives, nor that they facilitated the import of military equipment as described in the letter”, it partly read. Also cited in the Panel’s report were the recent explosions at South Sudan army (SSPDF) ammunition depots and weapons stores, amidst recommendations that the South Sudan should seek support for weapons and stockpile management. “On 12 February 2024, the Government requested support for the training of the Necessary Unified Forces, including on inventory and stockpile management procedures, from the Regional Centre on Small Arms, based in Nairobi”, it noted. Meanwhile the Panel corroborated several reports concerning the ongoing recruitment of youth, including children, by both the armed opposition forces (SPLA-IO) and SSPDF over the past year. It stated that while SSPDF forces have attempted to fill gaps left by soldiers who deserted due to economic hardship, SPLA-IO forces appear to be attempting to grow their numbers in anticipation of a second phase of the unification process. The Panel also cited reports of SSPDF youth recruitment around Maridi, in Western Equatoria State, as well as SPLA-IO recruitment in the same state, including after the defection of forces from their barracks at James Diko in Yambio County. However, it says, while some recruitment appears to have been forcible, some youth also volunteered to join forces having viewed it as a viable economic alternative. The Panel urged the Security Council to convene a joint informal consultation of its committee to discuss the conflict in the Sudan, and consider inviting a representative of the Government of South Sudan to provide an update on the impact of the conflict on its oil revenues and humanitarian situation. Copyright 2024 Sudan Tribune

Genocide Watch Calls for Investigation by Nigerian Supreme Court of Blasphemy Murder of Deborah Emmanuel Truth Nigeria By Douglas Gray Burton May 12, 2024 Deborah Emmanuel from her Facebook page. Remembering Deborah Emmanuel in Sokoto and Nigeria’s Failure to Defeat Islamism This chilling testimony of Deborah Emmanuel’s cousin, Josephine, demands an independent investigation by a commission appointed by the Nigerian Supreme Court.” — Dr. Gregory Stanton, Founder, Genocide Watch (Washington) The second anniversary of the blasphemy murder of Deborah Emmanuel (Yakubu) in Sokoto (May 12, 2022) is a teaching moment for Nigeria – and the world. The world only knows that a promising student and exemplary Christian believer was stoned to death on the campus of Shehu Shagari Teachers College because she allegedly had blasphemed against the Prophet Mohammed on a social media app. Mob hatred against her followed her spurning of a Muslim boy who wanted to date her, according to Morning Star News. Deborah’s relatives watched the jihadist mob surround the campus gatehouse where Deborah and her cousin sheltered for the last hours of her life. They tell TruthNigeria that some of her fellow students were jealous of her outstanding abilities in mathematics. They had earlier vocally condemned her because she gave honor to Jesus instead of to the Prophet. Deborah accused the school of discriminating against Christians in favor of Muslims, Pastor David Ayuba Azzaman told Morning Star News. “This is what they used as proof of blasphemy.” She didn’t actually insult the prophet Muhammad, but she turned down a Muslim student’s proposal to date her. So, in revenge, he accused her of insulting prophet Muhammad,” Azzaman said. TruthNigeria is the first to report that the stoning was secretly planned by jihadists for two weeks prior to the actual event. When a relative appeared at the Sokoto police station on the morning of May 12 to beg for officers to rescue Deborah, he was astonished to find that the police already knew that a plot was afoot to murder her days before she was killed, but the police did nothing to protect her. At least 17 Police and 5 Department of Security Service men arrived on the morning of May 12 at the gatehouse on campus where Deborah and her cousin were already under siege by a mob of 50 students who tried to burn the gatehouse. The security men had rifles, but they refused to use them to rescue the two students. For five hours, the police did nothing to stop the mob when it broke into the gatehouse at 3 p.m. The student mob grabbed Deborah, took her outside and stoned her to death. Deborah was a Christian leader on campus: she had created an abstinence group of sisters she called the “Lydia Girls.” She led a church choir that performed at weddings. She had a fiancé who was completing his training at the Sokoto Police academy. Deborah herself had been accepted to study at the police academy. Deborah loved the people of Sokoto, who are overwhelmingly Muslim. She wanted to serve them as a police officer – in the same police unit that stood by and let a mob kill her. It never occurred to Deborah that fellow students would kill her for an alleged comment she made on a message app. In fact, even as she sat bleeding from head wounds in her last hours, she was worried about not getting to her final exams that day, according to her cousin, Josephine, who gave extensive interviews to TruthNigeria. “This chilling testimony of Deborah Emmanuel’s cousin, Josephine, demands an independent investigation by a commission appointed by the Nigerian Supreme Court,” according to Dr. Gregory H. Stanton, former U.S. State Department Foreign Service Officer and Founding President of Genocide Watch. “The investigation must be truly independent. The investigation must not be whitewashed by the same government security officials who were responsible for protecting Deborah Emmanuel Garba and her cousin, Josephine. (Her cousin’s full name is withheld for her protection from retribution. “College security guards failed to protect these innocent students from a terrorist mob. This incident is only one of many in which Christian students have been harassed and murdered by Islamist terrorists,” Stanton continued. “In this case and others, the terrorists were fellow students. The security guards who should have protected them were complicit in their murders. “The terrorists must be arrested, prosecuted, and imprisoned. “Nigeria must be rescued from the Islamist terrorism that has killed thousands of Christians since 2000. “The Nigerian President, police, army, and judges must return Nigeria to the rule of law. Otherwise, Nigeria will descend into full civil war and genocide,” Stanton commented. One may argue Deborah was naive about her fellow students and the religious hatred they harbored. A college campus dedicated to the pursuit of truth and intellectual freedom. Other students must not be so trusting of their classmates. The Muslim religious and government authorities in Sokoto denounced the killing of Deborah afterwards, but none of them have apologized to Deborah’s parents. One Imam in Sokoto even commended the men who killed Deborah. He has not been reprimanded for saying it. The Sultan of Sokoto urged that the perpetrators be arrested and prosecuted. Although two suspects were arrested, after several weeks of postponed hearings, charges against them were dropped. The cover up is complete. The stage is set for more stonings of Christian students to come. Contact: Douglas Gray BurtonBurton newsandviews+1 202-203-9883 email us here Copyright 2024 TruthNigeria

Witnesses Decry Failure of Nigerian Army to Fight Off Fulani Jihadists TruthNigeria April 15, 2024 By Masara Kim (Jos) As Western Mainstream Media remain rivetted to the war in Gaza, thousands in Nigeria defend against Islamist death blows in Plateau State, falling back chiefly on under-equipped civilian volunteers. TruthNigeria investigations learned these ordinary community members, dubbed “vigilantes” by Nigerian Army spokesmen, are bravely confronting hundreds of terrorists in an ongoing battle 45 miles southwest of Jos the capital of Plateau State. With just homemade single shot pipe guns, the local guards, outnumbered and outgunned, are further targeted by soldiers entrusted with their protection, locals say. The Nigerian military has denied the allegations. Local volunteer guard taking aim with pipe gun shotgun. in a file photograph Photo by Masara Kim for TruthNigeria.com As of April 15, more than 20 people have perished in the violence concentrating in an area reputed for its large potato exports and mineral deposits, TruthNigeria has learned. At least 10 of them were local volunteer guards, (contempuously called "vigilantes" by Nigerian Army spokespersons), TruthNigeria has learned. Four of them were killed by “friendly fire” that is by soldiers deployed to assist the self-defense, according to town leaders. On April 12, hundreds of Islamic terrorists ravaged Christian villages along the border of Mangu and Bokkos counties [called “Local Governance Areas” in Nigeria]. Map depicts several of the towns in Bokkos County in Plateau State attacked for six days during Black Christmas. Courtesy of Stefanos Foundation in Jos. A group of 20 to 30 local guards struggled for hours to protect vulnerable residents with just homemade single- shot pipe guns and hunting rifles, facing off against 300 to 600 terrorists armed with assault rifles. Witnesses and local leaders recount how the local guards, trapped between terrorists and the military in one instance, fought desperately, sustaining casualties in a four-hour battle on April 13. The sunny morning fight near the Bokkos seat of power saw at least six local guards killed, including four by the soldiers, said Farmasum Fuddang, the youth leader of a local tribal association. The battle followed a night raid of two villages the previous night on the eastern border of Bokkos with Mangu county, according to Fuddang.  At east 16 people were killed in the attacks, Fuddang said. TruthNigeria confirmed that the onslaught started from the village of Kopnanle located in the Mangu county at approximately 9:30 pm local time, with at least six people killed. Two hours later, ten people were killed in nearby Mandung-Mushu village in Bokkos county. The ‘Allahuakbar’ shouting terrorists who spoke the Fulani dialect, according to residents, set fire to houses and a church in Kopnanle, shooting at residents as they tried to escape. For two hours, a group of 10-to 15 local guards battled to slow the attackers with their homemade pipe guns, losing four members in the process, said Asabar Daklak, a local volunteer leader. The Fulani, a predominantly Muslim tribe in West Africa, is believed to have over 10 percent of Nigeria’s population. Despite producing a disproportionate share of Nigeria’s political elites, militants identifying as Fulani have killed six times more Christians than Boko Haram, an infamous self-proclaimed affiliate of the Islamic State, according to monitoring groups. Fulani militants killed more than 8,222 Christians between January 2023 and January 2024 according to Intersociety, which monitors genocide in Nigeria. In one instance alone, Fulani terrorists killed more than 300 Christians in a six-day onslaught at Christmastime 2023. The attackers in Kopnanle — numbering more than 300 — according to Daklak, killed two other residents before retreating to the nearby village of Mandung-Mushu. Hiding under the cover of the moonless night, the terrorists waded into Mandung-Mushu through a dark valley, said a local church leader, Rev. Danjuma Mandik, to TruthNigeria. They first opened fire at a group of local guards standing guard on the outskirts of the town, killing at least four, before shooting six more residents, Rev. Mandik said. The victims included a one-year-old girl, identified as Peret Sylvanus who was brutally killed by the same bullet that killed her mother, Mwanret. During both incidents, soldiers of a special military task force known as Operation Safe Haven failed to intervene from their base only 3 miles away until the attackers had fled, Fuddang said. “We are compelled to perceive these series of events as clear signs the security agencies had colluded with the Fulani to attack our people,” wrote Fuddang, the Chairman of the Bokkos Cultural Development Council (BCDC) Vanguard. “Despite the presence of security forces, including soldiers, the attacks were not halted, and in some instances, exacerbated by their actions,” wrote Fuddang in a press statement shared with TruthNigeria. Fuddang highlighted a distressing scenario in Kopyal village where local guards bravely attempted to repel the assailants. During the 3-hour fire fight, soldiers intervened, not to assist the defense efforts, but to inflict further harm, resulting in the deaths of at least four volunteers, Fuddang wrote. An injured victim of the military shooting, here identified by the pseudonym, “John,” for his safety, told TruthNigeria that soldiers attacking from the rear, opened machine gun fire at a defense line mounted by local guards at approximately 11:30 am local time. At the time, two local guards lay dead, killed by the terrorists numbering approximately 600, according to John. Nigerian Army troops. Photo credit: X/@HQNigerianArmy Several other witnesses speaking on background for fear of retaliation corroborated John’s account, noting that the soldiers based just half a mile away failed to intervene throughout the 3-hour battle until the local guards started making progress at pushing back the invasion. The soldiers, according to the witnesses, turned back after killing four local guards and injuring two others, leaving the terrorists to reluctantly withdraw after discovering that a majority of residents had escaped under the initial cover of the local guard fire. In a statement obtained by TruthNigeria, the Nigerian Army task force through its spokesman, Major Nantip Zhakom, denied shooting at local guards, claiming its troops were “preoccupied with restoring normalcy during the confrontations between militia groups of different ethnic groups on 13 April 2024.” “Kudos should be given to these troops who remained deployed without break for over 72 hours, ensuring that the high grounds and other vulnerable communities were dominated in a bid to protect law-abiding citizens,” according to the Nigerian Army statement. Yet, attacks continued up to the morning of April 15, spreading across a nearby district called “Kwatas.” TruthNigeria gathered that just as in Kopyal, local guards struggled helplessly to minimize casualties, with one member becoming the single victim. Prior to the latest incident, the terrorists marched freely across a large swath of land, attacking communities on their way back to their staging ground in the west of Bokkos, Fuddang said. Governor Caleb Mutfwang on April 13 urged the military to “redouble their efforts in discharging their constitutional responsibility of protecting innocent communities.” Mutfwang in a statement from his Director of Press, Gyang Bere acknowledged the ‘attacks’ of the previous night and promptly shared intelligence on security threats for intervention. But despite the military being ‘adequately’ informed of the presence of terrorists in surrounding mountains in Bokkos on the night of April 13, “no action was taken,” wrote Fuddang. The failure of security forces to intervene effectively has raised concerns among global-rights advocates and politicians alike, with questions surrounding the government’s commitment to protecting its citizens. “Prevention is better then cure,” said Senator Diket Plang, a member of the Nigerian Senate. “You don’t wait for something to happen before you begin to take steps to address it,” said Plang, acknowledging advance warnings including from TruthNigeria prior to the attacks. Mr. Plang, the representative for Plateau central Senatorial district at the Nigerian Senate condemned the labeling of self-defense groups as "militias" or "vigilantes". “The ordinary Plateau man doesn’t look for trouble,” said Plang in a telephone interview with TruthNigeria. “If you don’t bother him he won’t bother you,” Plang said. The disparity in security responses between regions has also come under scrutiny, prompting demands for improved security measures and accountability from the authorities. “Why is it only in the northeast that we have both the well-funded Civilian Joint Task Force and local guards while in the middle-belt, even gunsmiths for local hunters are [targeted]?” Emmanuel Ogebe, the leader of the Nigerian American Law Group asked. “Who is born to rule men and who is born to be killed for cows in Nigeria?” Ogebe queried, emphasizing the constitutional rights of citizens to both government protection and self-defense. Kyle Abts, the Executive Director of International Committee on Nigeria (ICON) raised similar concerns, querying why Air Force raids are not carried out in the Middle Belt against terrorists as witnessed in Muslim-dominated regions of the country. “The government has the ability but lacks the resolve and fidelity, as many enlist as soldiers as a job not a duty or honor,” wrote Abts in a text message. “The Army’s 3rd Division [in Jos] with at least 10,000 soldiers, infantry weapons, and attack helicopters, is about 18 miles from Barkin Ladi and about 40 miles from Mangu and Bokkos. Additionally,  there are several strategically located  “mobile barracks” with at least a platoon, and these station at least a squad to numerous villages,” Abts texted. “ It is no wonder that the victims of these attacks label the security forces as being ‘late’ or complicit, ” according to Abts. —Masara Kim is the senior editor of TruthNigeria and reports from Jos. Copyright 2024 TruthNigeria

NAMTA Manipur Report: Statement by Dr. Gregory Stanton: Statements