Photo: South China Morning Post The Bac Kan provincial government stated it had completed the goal of Project No. 78 by eradicating the Duong Van Minh religion in the province. According to the government, the Duong Van Minh religion was present in five districts, 14 communes, and 19 villages with 899 followers. In November 2022, the government organized 11 working groups to suppress the Duong Van Minh religion. Since then, many funeral homes and altars in private homes have been removed, and many followers have been forced to sign a document stating that they will abandon this religious organization. Also, in December 2023, in Bao Lam and Ha Quang Districts of Cao Bang Province, the government held a conference to summarize their two years of implementing Project No. 78 and 34 years of propagandizing and eliminating the Duong Van Minh organization. According to the Bao Lam District government, as of June 2023, the district had dismantled 85 white backdrops and 7 barrows for people to use in funerals and forced 12,252 households to sign a document renouncing the Duong Van Minh religion. In Ha Quang District, as of March 2023, the activities of the Duong Van Minh religion have been completely eliminated, and 100% of households have signed a document agreeing not to follow the religion. In July 2022, the Bac Kan provincial government, for the first time, publicly announced Project No. 78, issued by the government in 2021, to "fight, prevent, and eliminate the illegal organization Duong Van Minh." The full content of this project has not been announced by the government, but the general goal is to eliminate the Duong Van Minh religion by 2023. Since then, the government has continuously suppressed followers of this religion across the country. In the northern mountainous provinces of Vietnam, the government believes that the Duong Van Minh religion has plans for self-rule and the establishment of an independent "Hmong State." The suppression of this religion has been severe. Up to now, four provinces have completely eliminated the Duong Van Minh religion, including Bac Kan, Thai Nguyen, Lao Cai, and Tuyen Quang. ©2024 The Vietnamese Magazine.

To view the YouTube recording of the Lemkin Institute Symposium on the Ukraine genocide click here. The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention is excited to announce the first of our panelists for our online symposium on “How to Identify Genocide: The Ukraine Case” taking place on February 23 from 12-1:30pm ET. Dr. Gregory H Stanton is a renowned genocide scholar and is the founding president of Genocide Watch. To register for this event, visit https://lnkd.in/eevWeP-N

End Harassment, Torture of Immigration Detainees Undocumented migrants walk in line while being detained during an immigration raid in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, July 1, 2022. © 2022 Hasnoor Hussain/Reuters The Malaysian government is detaining about 12,000 migrants and refugees, including 1,400 children, in conditions that put them at serious risk of physical abuse and psychological harm. Malaysia’s degrading and abusive immigration detention system, which treats migrants and refugees as criminals, denies them their rights to liberty, health, and due process. Malaysia should develop community-based alternatives to detention that would make the immigration system more cost-effective, efficient, and humane. (Kuala Lumpur) – The Malaysian government is detaining about 12,000 migrants and refugees, including 1,400 children, in conditions that put them at serious risk of physical abuse and psychological harm, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 60-page report, “‘We Can’t See the Sun’: Malaysia’s Arbitrary Detention of Migrants and Refugees,” documents Malaysian authorities’ punitive and abusive treatment of migrants and refugees in 20 immigration detention centers across the country. Immigration detainees can spend months or years in overcrowded, unhygienic conditions, subject to harassment and violence by guards, without domestic or international monitoring. “Malaysian authorities are treating migrants as criminals, arbitrarily holding them for prolonged periods in immigration centers with almost no access to the outside world,” said Shayna Bauchner Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Malaysia’s degrading and abusive immigration detention system denies migrants and refugees rights to liberty, health, and due process.” Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 40 people, including former immigration detainees, family members, lawyers, humanitarian aid staff, and former immigration officials. Malaysian law makes all irregular entry and stay in the country a criminal offense, with no distinction among refugees, asylum seekers, trafficking victims, and undocumented migrants. There is also no legal limit on the length of immigration detention, leaving migrants at risk of being detained indefinitely. Authorities have detained more than 45,000 irregular migrants since May 2020. Former detainees described a bare and brutal existence inside the immigration detention centers, also called depots, with limited food and hygiene supplies, frequent water shortages, strict and unpredictable rules, and the ever-present threat of punishment. “We would get beaten when we asked for more food, took an extra mug of water to shower, or asked for a blanket for the cold,” said a Rohingya refugee previously detained at the Belantik immigration depot. Detainees are required to present themselves for “muster calls,” or roll calls, several times a day. Some last hours, with detainees ordered to stay silent, heads down and not moving, even to use the bathroom. “If we made any noise, we would be punished, like hanging from the wall, pushups, squats, walking like ducks, or standing under the hot sun for hours,” said an Indonesian woman held in the Tawau immigration depot. Migrants are held without recourse to judicial review or mechanisms to appeal their detention. The Malaysian government’s use of prolonged, judicially unsupervised immigration detention violates international human rights law prohibitions against arbitrary detention. Both ill-treatment and inadequate medical care have led to hundreds of deaths in immigration detention facilities in recent years, according to government data and witness testimony. One migrant worker said that officers tortured him and thirteen others for days after they tried to escape, beating them with bricks and batons and standing on their chests. Two of the detainees ultimately died. Anti-migrant policies and practices, as well as xenophobic rhetoric have risen in Malaysia in recent years. The Malaysian government has denied the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, access to immigration detention centers since August 2019, leaving the organization unable to review asylum claims or protect detainees registered as refugees. Malaysia has not ratified the Refugee Convention and lacks any legal framework or procedure for determining refugee status and providing recognition and protection to asylum seekers. Detained refugees and asylum seekers said that immigration officials used threats, degrading treatment, and violence to block requests to meet with the UN refugee agency or to coerce them to return to their countries of origin. When a UNHCR-registered ethnic Chin refugee and dozens of other refugees at the Ajil depot protested the lack of access to the UNHCR and threats of deportation, the guards beat them. “We were brought outside and beaten on our hands and feet five times with two rubber pipes that were taped together,” he said. “The pipes were filled with metal wires. I fainted after the third hit.” Children detained in the immigration centers face the same abuses as adult detainees, including denial of medical care, inadequate food, and ill-treatment. Malnutrition is widespread. The Malaysian government’s immigration detention of children contravenes international law. Although the government has for years discussed alternatives to detention for children – including in its pledges to the UN Human Rights Council – there has been little progress. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has called for immigration detention to be gradually abolished, stating that “migrants must not be qualified or treated as criminals,” and that immigration detention should only be used “as an exceptional measure of last resort, for the shortest period and only if justified by a legitimate purpose, such as documenting entry and recording claims or initial verification of identity if in doubt.” The Malaysian government should reduce its reliance on immigration detention and move toward abolishing it entirely, Human Rights Watch said. The authorities should immediately stop detaining refugees, children, trafficking victims, and other vulnerable migrants for immigration-related reasons. The government should instead pursue community-based alternatives to detention that would not only counteract abusive and unnecessary immigration detention, but also make the immigration system more cost-effective, efficient, and humane. “Malaysia should seriously consider adopting measures used by other countries that better manage immigration objectives,” Bauchner said. “Instead of maintaining abusive detention centers, the government should develop alternatives that protect the rights of children, refugees, and other vulnerable migrants.” © 2024 Human Rights Watch

Fulani jihadists,,,credit Pilot News, Nigeria Country Report: Nigeria January 2024 By Bhaswati Bhattacharjee Since 2000, 62,000 Christians in Nigeria have been murdered in genocide perpetrated by Islamist jihadist groups including Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), and Fulani militias. The International Committee for Nigeria refers to this genocide as the “Silent Slaughter.” In June 2022, more than 50 parishioners at St. Francis Xavier Church in Owo were massacred. The Nigerian government blamed the massacre on ISWAP, while local eyewitnesses attributed the slaughter to Fulani militias. Aid to the Church in Need reports that in 2022, four Catholic priests were murdered in Nigeria.  23 priests and one seminarian were kidnapped and held in captivity in 2022. In April 2023, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) reported that 18,000 Christian churches and 2,200 Christian schools have been deliberately set on fire. 34,000 moderate Muslims were also murdered by Islamist jihadists. Leah Sharibu, one of 110 school girls who were abducted by ISWAP terrorists in 2018, is still in captivity because she refuses to renounce her Catholic faith. At Christmas in December 2023, at least 140 Nigerian Christians were massacred in  attacks near Jos. Fulani jihadist militias targeted Christian farming communities in 26 villages across Plateau State. Local media reports indicate a death toll of 200. Numerous villagers sought refuge in the bush to escape the assailants. Many are still missing. In a speech delivered on January 11, 2024 in the British House of Lords, Lord David Alton urged the U.K. government to promptly address the ongoing persecution of Christians in Nigeria. Emeka Umeagbalasi, the director of Intersociety, alleges that the Nigerian government and Nigerian Army are complicit in the attacks on Christians. Due to genocidal massacres of Christians and moderate Muslims, and the Nigerian Government and Army’s failure to protect Nigerian citizens, Genocide Watch considers Nigeria to be at Stage 9: Extermination and Stage 10: Denial. Genocide Watch Recommends: The U.N. and Nigerian government should establish an independent fact-finding commission of inquiry to investigate attacks on Christian and Muslim farmers and report to the Nigerian government and U.N. Human Rights Council. The Nigerian Army and police should establish a Strike Force, trained by international counter-terrorism experts, to investigate and arrest leaders of Boko Haram, ISWAP, and Fulani jihadist militias. Nigerian religious leaders should establish a network of monitors to provide early warnings of attacks.

Witnesses claim victims shot ‘execution style’ during house raids after clashes between government forces and Fano rebels Mon 12 Feb 2024 04.30 EST. Last modified on Mon 19 Feb 2024 06.12 EST Ethiopian government troops went door-to-door killing dozens of civilians last month in a town in the country’s Amhara region, according to residents, who said the bloodshed took place after clashes with local militia. The killings in Merawi appear to be one of the deadliest episodes in Amhara since a rebellion by Fano, an armed Amhara group, erupted last year over a disputed plan to disarm regional forces. The Fano fought alongside Ethiopia’s federal military in the two-year civil war against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which ended in November 2022. However, the government came to see it and other regional forces as a threat to its authority. Ethiopia’s government bans journalists from travelling to the increasingly lawless Amhara region and has cut its internet. The Guardian spoke to people in Merawi by phone. Everyone interviewed spoke on condition of anonymity, for fear of retribution. The bloodshed started on 29 January, after several hours of fighting between federal forces and Fano militiamen, witnesses said. When the militia retreated, soldiers went into houses targeting civilians, accusing them of being fighters, they said. Ethiopian government soldiers near the frontline in Gashena, Ethiopia, December 2021. Photograph: Solan Kolli/AFP/Getty Images One witness said he spent that day cowering at home as “the constant sound” of gunfire rang through the town. He added that artillery hit civilian areas. The next day he went outside and saw “at least 34 bodies” in the street, which were collected by townspeople. Some had gunshot wounds to the head with “their faces completely blown out”, he said. Another witness, an Orthodox priest who arrived in Merawi on 30 January, said he saw “around 50 bodies lying on the main road” of the city. Many victims “seem to have been killed execution-style, with a bullet wound to their heads”, the priest said. The priest’s brother was killed during the violence, shot several times on his doorstep by soldiers who stole money and his phone, the priest said. A third resident said he knew of at least 45 people who were killed, including his brother, who he discovered “with bullets lodged in his head”. He said the violence happened over two days, with soldiers “barging into homes [and] smashing doors”. The Ethiopian Human Rights Council, the country’s oldest civil society group, put the total death toll at more than 80 civilians. It released a statement on Tuesday calling for further investigations. It did not say who it believed carried out the killings, but called on the government to “hold the responsible parties legally accountable”. The US ambassador to Ethiopia, Ervin Massinga, called for a full investigation, saying the US government was deeply concerned about the reports. On Friday, Ethiopia’s parliament extended a state of emergency introduced in August to quell the unrest. Daniel Bekele, head of the country’s state-appointed human rights body, said he was gravely concerned by the extension of the emergency, citing mounting civilian casualties, pre-trial detentions and humanitarian needs. Daniel told the Guardian that his organisation had not yet completed its investigation into the Merawi killings, and that it had documented a range of abuses in Amhara since August. These included the shelling of civilian areas, ethnically motivated arrests and killings. In November, Human Rights Watch said: “The authorities have resorted to past repressive tactics to limit access to real-time information and independent scrutiny.” On Tuesday, the prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, called on “extremists operating in the Amhara region” and rebels in the neighbouring state of Oromia “to lay down their arms and take part in peaceful political struggle”. Thousands of people arrested under the state of emergency have been re-educated and released, he added. Abiy’s government announced a plan to integrate regional forces into the federal military and police in April 2023, sparking clashes. In August, Fano militiamen, who enjoy widespread support in Amhara, briefly took over several towns and airports in the region, amid fierce street battles and mass protests. Since then, they have retreated into the mountainous countryside, waging a guerrilla campaign of hit-and-run attacks and regularly raiding police stations in towns for weapons. The US and the UK advise against all travel to Amhara, which is home to several of Ethiopia’s best known tourist attractions. Yet the government is determined to press on with plans to hold a high-level peace and security summit, involving heads of state, in the regional capital of Bahir Dar in April, despite objections by some of those invited, according to a western diplomat. Bahir Dar is just 18 miles north of Merawi. The summit was supposed to take place in October, but was postponed by the organisers who cited unforeseen circumstances. Aid workers say the insecurity is impeding the delivery of humanitarian food in the region, where the federal ombudsman says dozens of people have starved to death recently amid a heavy drought and the after-effects of the Tigray war, which spilled into Amhara. Hundreds more starvation deaths have been reported in Tigray. Regional Amhara forces including the Fano are themselves accused of waging a bloody ethnic cleansing campaign since November 2020 in western Tigray, an area they claim as their own and moved to annex during the war against the TPLF. The Ethiopian government could not be reached for comment.

By GIULIA PARAVICINI Filed Feb. 23, 2024, 11 a.m. GMT Warning: This story contains disturbing visual content. A secretive committee of senior officials in Ethiopia’s largest and most populous region, Oromiya, has ordered extra-judicial killings and illegal detentions to crush an insurgency there, a Reuters investigation has found. Reuters interviewed more than 30 federal and local officials, judges, lawyers and victims of abuses by authorities. The agency also reviewed documents drafted by local political and judicial authorities. These interviews and documents for the first time shed light on the workings of the Koree Nageenyaa – Security Committee in the Oromo language - which began operating in the months after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018. The committee’s existence has not been previously reported. Five current and former government officials told Reuters that the committee is at the heart of Abiy’s efforts to end a years-old insurgency by the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), which wants self-determination for the Oromo people and greater language and cultural rights. Oromos have long complained of political and social marginalisation. When new protests broke out in 2019, the government cracked down hard. The Koree Nageenyaa took the lead, the five officials said. The violence in Oromiya has displaced hundreds of thousands of people. Ethiopia’s government and human rights officials accuse the OLA of killing scores of civilians since 2019, a charge the group denies. One of the five sources was willing to be identified: Milkessa Gemechu, a former member of the governing Prosperity Party’s central committee. The others, including two people who have attended meetings of the Koree Nageenyaa, spoke on condition of anonymity. The people familiar with Koree Nageenyaa's activities attributed dozens of killings to the committee's orders and hundreds of arrests. Among the killings, they said, was a massacre of 14 shepherds in Oromiya in 2021 that the government has previously blamed on OLA fighters. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is pictured campaigning in Jimma, Oromiya, ahead of parliamentary and regional elections in 2021. REUTERS Reuters presented its findings to the head of the state-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC), Daniel Bekele. In an interview, Bekele confirmed the existence of the Koree Nageenyaa. He said its aim was to address growing security challenges in Oromiya, but it “overreached its purpose by interfering in the justice system with widespread human rights violations.” “We documented multiple cases of extra-judicial killings, arbitrary detentions, torture and extortion,” Bekele said, without elaborating on specific incidents. Ethiopia’s federal government, Prime Minister Abiy’s office and the Oromiya regional government did not respond to detailed questions for this article. Abiy has previously defended his government’s human rights record. On Feb. 6, he told parliament during routine questions: “Since we think along democratic lines, it is hard for us to even arrest anyone, let alone execute them.” The unrest in Oromiya, home to Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, is a reminder of continuing instability in the Horn of Africa nation, a patchwork of many ethnic groups. Ethiopia is scarred by conflict. A two-year civil war in the northernmost region, Tigray, killed hundreds of thousands of people until a peace deal was struck in November 2022. Fighting erupted last July in another northern region, Amhara, between the Ethiopian army and local militiamen. There the federal government has imposed a state of emergency. Violence in Oromiya has continued even after the federal government and OLA rebels held peace talks for the first time in early 2023. Ethiopia’s government has designated the OLA a terrorist organisation – a label that the United States and United Nations have not applied to the group. According to the current and former Ethiopian officials, the Koree Nageenyaa meets in the Oromiya regional offices of Abiy’s Prosperity Party and is headed by Abiy’s former chief of staff, Shimelis Abdisa, the president of Oromiya region. Shimelis and other committee members are ethnic Oromo. Fekadu Tessema, leader of the Prosperity Party in Oromiya, sits on the committee, as does Ararsa Merdasa, head of security for Oromiya, and half a dozen other local political and security officials, the sources said. None of these people responded to questions from Reuters. Reuters found no evidence that Abiy attended the meetings or that he issued orders to the committee. People familiar with the matter said the committee was formed at Abiy’s instigation. Abiy was briefed on at least one occasion in early 2022 about the committee’s activities, said a person who was present. Reuters couldn’t independently verify this. The security committee is little known beyond a tight official circle. Reuters found one reference to it in the public record: a paragraph in a 2021 report by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission about abuses of the justice system. The EHRC report said the committee – known as Yedehinineti Komītē in Ethiopia’s official language, Amharic – investigated and jailed people with suspected ties to armed groups instead of allowing the justice system to take its course. Jaal Marroo, the military leader of the OLA, told Reuters in an interview that he is aware of the Koree Nageenyaa’s existence and that high-ranking officials in Oromiya are its members. He accused the committee of ordering extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, harassment and intimidation, without citing specific examples. Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa (above), lies in Oromiya. REUTERS The enemy within Ethiopia has a long history of using a clandestine security apparatus to quell dissent, Ezekiel Gebissa, professor of history and African studies at Kettering University in the United States, told Reuters. During Haile Selassie’s four-decade rule last century, the emperor created a network of spies known colloquially as the “joro tabi,” or listeners, to hunt his opponents. The communist Derg military junta that toppled Selassie in 1974 set up a vast new security system to eliminate threats to the regime. At the turn of the century, Ethiopia got a new constitution and parliament. But this government, too, led by Meles Zenawi, grew increasingly repressive and fashioned a top-down structure of surveillance that extended to every level of society. The system was commonly known as “Amist Le And” – one-to-five – because spies were typically assigned five people to monitor. Abiy became prime minister in 2018. According to the current and former government officials, the Koree Nageenyaa security committee was formed soon afterwards in response to youth protests in Oromiya over inequality and economic mismanagement. “The Koree Nageenya sits down and decides that a person needs to be detained. Then they go and arrest them without warrant or investigation or due process.” A former judge on the Oromiya supreme court Milkessa Gemechu, the former member of the Prosperity Party’s central committee, said he first heard of the Koree Nageenyaa at a meeting of Oromo political leaders in March 2019. There Shimelis, newly appointed as president of Oromiya, announced that the Koree Nageenyaa “would direct operations against enemy elements and enemy cells,” said Milkessa. Shimelis and Abiy’s office didn’t respond to questions about the Koree Nageenyaa. Reuters couldn’t independently verify Milkessa’s account of the meeting. Milkessa now lives in the United States. He says he left Ethiopia after receiving threats from security officials for criticising Abiy and the Prosperity Party, including over their handling of unrest in Oromiya. From late 2019, the Koree Nageenyaa met in the Prosperity Party’s Oromiya regional headquarters in downtown Addis Ababa as often as three times a week, said the two officials who participated in some of the meetings. The building was emptied of other staff, attendees handed in their phones, and documents were collected at the end of each session, these people said. Abiy’s father is Oromo and he owes his premiership in part to youth-led protests in Oromiya that forced his predecessor, Hailemariam Desalegn, to resign. Nevertheless, unrest in the region quickly loomed as a major challenge for the new prime minister. Ever since Emperor Menelik II’s campaign of conquest at the close of the 19th Century imposed Amhara culture and language on assimilated groups, Oromos have complained of political and social marginalisation. Oromos hoped their lot would improve with Abiy, but many became disenchanted when change didn’t materialise. New protests broke out in October 2019 and the Koree Nageenyaa cracked down. An Oromo thanksgiving festival in Addis Ababa in October 2023. The Oromos have complained of marginalisation since the late 19th century. REUTERS When a prominent Oromo singer, Haacaaluu Hundeessaa, was killed in June 2020 in an attack the government blamed on Oromo rebels, clashes between protesters and police led to at least 200 civilian deaths and 5,000 arrests, human rights groups have said. Oromiya president Shimelis and regional Prosperity Party head Fekadu presided over a series of Skype calls with each of the 19 big cities and 21 zones of the region at this time, according to the two people who participated in some meetings of the Koree Nageenyaa. Shimelis and Fekadu ordered some protesters arrested and others killed, the two people said. According to one of these people, Shimelis told one zonal administrator to have his forces shoot protestors if the demonstrations got out of hand. The sources did not specify numbers of people to be arrested or killed. A tribal massacre A former adviser to Shimelis told Reuters that in “important cases, like prominent executions,” orders come from Shimelis or Ararsa, Oromiya’s police commissioner until his promotion last year to head of security. One such case, the source said, was a massacre in early December 2021 of 14 tribesmen. The killings were reported at the time in Ethiopia, but the blame for the crime has been a matter of dispute. Reuters reviewed previously unreported official accounts of the incident and spoke to a local official who said he witnessed key moments leading up to the slaughter. On Nov. 30, 2021, suspected OLA fighters killed 11 police officers and wounded 17 in an ambush in Fentale, a rural district of Oromiya that lies in the Great Rift Valley. Then police commissioner Ararsa and the region’s deputy president, Awalu Abdi, arrived at the district administration’s compound the following day, the local official said. Like Ararsa, Awalu is a member of the Koree Nageenyaa, according to five sources. Also present was the then zonal administrator, Ababu Wako. The local official recounted that Ababu received a phone call from a military commander whose troops had detained 16 suspected rebels in a forest area near the shallow waters of Lake Basaka. The commander was seeking guidance about what to do with the suspects. The local official said he was present when Ababu took the phone call and heard the discussions that followed. Ababu consulted his more senior visitors. Ararsa and Awalu said the men should be killed, the local official said, and Ababu passed on the command: “Don’t spare anyone. Shoot them all.” Two other sources independently corroborated this account. Both said they were briefed on the events by people who were present. Awalu, Ararsa and Ababu did not respond to requests for comment about the killings. An Oromo man wears traditional costume at Irreecha, a thanksgiving celebration, in Addis Ababa in 2019. REUTERS A phone call The call to local administrator Ababu had come from military commander Gizachew Mekuria, operating in the Seka Forest. As he spoke, the 16 detained Oromo men looked on, according to two surviving witnesses who say they heard Gizachew make the call. The detained men were not OLA members, according to the survivors, other witnesses, an Ethiopian Human Rights Commission report and an investigation by the Oromiya government. They were elders from Oromiya’s pastoralist Karayyuu tribe, who were celebrating “Jila,” the arrival of a new season. The Oromiya government investigation has not been previously reported. Reuters also reviewed details of the EHRC investigation that have not been made public. Wrapped in white traditional blankets, with a machete hanging from one hip and a shepherd’s stick from the other, the Oromo pastoralists had gathered that morning among a smattering of straw huts in the sandy village of Tututi to slaughter an ox, the witnesses said. Around 11:30 a.m., dozens of armed men in military fatigues arrived in the village, according to five witnesses and the report by the EHRC. The fighters were members of the Oromiya regional security force and allied militiamen. Such regional forces form part of Ethiopia’s federal security apparatus. At first, the armed men assured the elders they wanted to talk, the witnesses said. The tribe’s religious leader, Kadiro Hawwas Boru, told the elders to cooperate. But the atmosphere soon deteriorated. The soldiers rounded up the tribesmen, who were standing under the traditional black, red and white flag of the Oromo people, two of the witnesses said. The soldiers started to insult the Karayyuu and accused them of being members of “Shane,” local slang for the OLA. They went on to beat women and children and looted several houses, taking money, clothes and soap, the five witnesses said. The soldiers then marched 38 men and a 10-year-old boy to an asphalt road nearby. There they interrogated their captives for over five hours and badly beat some of them. Gizachew led the interrogations. At one point, he slapped the Karayyuu leader Kadiro and accused him of being an OLA member, the two survivors said. “You are dying first. You are Shane," one of the survivors, Boru Mieso, recalled Gizachew telling Kadiro. Reuters interviewed Boru in May 2022. The second survivor corroborated Boru’s account. Gizachew did not respond to a request for comment. After the questioning was over, the men were split into two groups: one containing 16 men, including Kadiro, and another of 23 captives. The first group was driven to the nearby Seka Forest, while the rest were taken to a jail. When Kadiro arrived at the forest, he begged Gizachew to kill them all to end the beatings and humiliation. “Finish us, please,” he said, according to Boru and the other survivor, who asked to remain anonymous. Gizachew then made his phone call. Blame it on the OLA After Gizachew received his orders, 14 of the men, Kadiro among them, were gunned down at point-blank range. The bodies were left to rot and were eaten by wild animals, according to the survivors and villagers who later recovered and buried the dead. Boru and the second survivor said they managed to escape by scrambling into a ditch to dodge a hail of bullets. Word of the killings spread quickly. Oromiya’s regional government blamed the OLA. Two senior Prosperity Party lawmakers from the region disputed that narrative, and in Facebook posts accused police commissioner Ararsa of being responsible. One of the lawmakers is now in jail, accused of conspiring to overthrow the government, which he denies. An investigation by the EHRC blamed security forces for the killings. It did not specify which forces or name the alleged perpetrators. Two EHRC sources familiar with the case told Reuters that local residents and witnesses said high-ranking officials gave the order to kill. Nine local officials and police officers, including Gizachew, were arrested, but none were charged. In September 2022 they were all released, four local government officials said. Bodies of slain elders from the Karayyuu tribe await burial in the village of Tututi, Oromiya, in 2021. REUTERS/HANDOUT Prime Minister Abiy was briefed twice about the killings, by an official and by Karayyuu elders, according to people who were present. Reuters spoke to one person who witnessed the briefing by the official and five who attended the meeting with the tribal elders. In early 2022, the Oromiya government launched its own investigation. The inquiry resulted in a 10-page internal report, reviewed by Reuters, that cited witnesses as saying regional government forces carried out the killings. Ararsa and Awalu were questioned by Oromiya government investigators. According to the report, they confirmed they were present in the area that day, but they denied ordering that the tribesmen be killed. Awalu said he told the regional government’s communications office to blame the OLA. According to the report, Awalu recalled saying, “No matter who did the killing, let's just blame it on” the OLA “and put out the statement accordingly.” In October 2022, massacre survivor Boru was walking his cattle near the spot where the slain tribesmen are buried. Like most men of the Karayyuu, he was carrying a gun. According to two witnesses, members of the Oromiya security forces pulled up in a pickup truck alongside Boru, confiscated his gun and then beat him. Moments later, they shot him dead, the witnesses said. Security officials did not respond to a request for comment. Murdered Karayyuu elders are buried in the village of Tututi, Oromiya. HANDOUT The names of the dead Karayyuu elders are listed on the grave. Dates accord with the Ethiopian calendar. HANDOUT Arrests and detentions The Koree Nageenya not only eliminates suspected enemies. It also acts preemptively to keep protesters off the streets. In 2019, the committee started to order that people it deemed a threat to security be arrested or have their prison terms prolonged, according to half a dozen judges and prosecutors who worked on such cases. One of the sources, an intelligence official, shared an internal document listing more than 1,006 names of men and women arrested on the committee’s orders between 2019 and March 2022. The document lists full names, gender and location of arrest. “The Koree Nageenya sits down and decides that a person needs to be detained,” said a former judge on the Oromiya supreme court. “Then they go and arrest them without warrant or investigation or due process.” Prisoners under the authority of the committee are referred to by the police and other security agents as “Hala Yero,” meaning those jailed because of the “current security situation,” according to a dozen prisoners, five judicial sources and the two EHRC sources. All spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. “I was put upside down and then electrocuted on the sole of my foot, five days a week for 45 days.” An ex-detainee who says he was subjected to torture Their cases are handled by the police, who have repeatedly defied court orders that they be released, according to the sources. And the detainees are jailed in separate facilities – mostly military barracks and training camps – without access to family members or the courts, they said. A 2021 report by the EHCR, based on interviews with 281 detainees across 21 police stations in Oromiya, names the Koree Nageenyaa as interfering in the legal process involving people suspected of having links to armed groups. “Their cases were not handled by courts of law, but rather by what is called the security council,” the report said. “This security council was established under the regional administration bodies and has a mandate to investigate and decide on their cases.” Judges and lawyers who resist interference from government officials have faced intimidation, assault, kidnapping and one attempted murder of a court president, according to an earlier May 2019 report by the Oromiya supreme court, seen by Reuters, that was shared with Oromiya’s regional president, his deputy and the police commissioner. A supreme court judge told Reuters that two to four judges approached him each week to complain about interference in the justice system. “I used to believe in the reform agenda of Abiy, I really wanted to be part of the transition,” the judge said. “At first I justified the behaviour of the security forces and thought it was linked to a particular moment, but at some point I realised the problem was systemic. Everyone who disagreed with the Koree Nageenyaa would be removed." Two gym instructors told Reuters they were detained in 2021 on suspicion of working with the OLA and subjected to a torture method known as “number eight” – a reference to how prisoners are suspended from the ceiling, with their arms bound together at the wrist and their legs bound together at the ankle. Both men deny any involvement with the OLA. “I was put upside down and then electrocuted on the sole of my foot,” one said, showing scars from the electrodes on his feet and fingers. “Five days a week for 45 days.” “When they torture you using this method, blood spills out of your body,” said the other. Ethiopian authorities did not respond to requests for comment about the accounts of torture. The two men told Reuters they were released after several months in prison. Others have spent years behind bars with no prospect of freedom, their lawyers and families say. Ethiopia’s Quiet Crackdown By Giulia Paravicini Edited by Aaron Ross and Janet McBride Photo editing: Simon Newman Art direction: Eve Watling

The president of the West African country had postponed a coming election, but the country’s constitutional court said the vote must take place as soon as possible. Demonstrators protesting against President Macky Sall’s decision to postpone a national election, in Dakar, Senegal, last week. Credit: Stefan Kleinowitz/Associated Press Senegal’s constitutional court ruled on Thursday that a national election that had been postponed by the president must take place as soon as possible, throwing the West African country’s political future into fresh doubt. The court, the country’s highest, said that while it is now impossible to hold an election in 10 days’ time — the vote had initially been planned for Feb. 25 — the balloting should be held by the earliest feasible date. Less than two weeks ago, President Macky Sall issued a decree indefinitely postponing the balloting, pending an investigation into corruption allegations in the constitutional court. Just a couple days later, the country’s Parliament decided to delay the vote by nearly 10 months, setting Dec. 15 as the date. But the court’s ruling on Thursday declared the law passed by Parliament to be against the Constitution and ordered that Mr. Sall’s decree delaying the election be canceled. “Neither the president of the republic nor Parliament can postpone a presidential election,” the ruling said, adding that only the court had that power. The precise date could be adjusted to make up for the campaigning days lost, it said. As the highest judicial authority in the land, the constitutional court has the final decision in the matter, and to abide by the ruling, Mr. Sall must now allow political campaigns to begin, organize the coming election and step down by April 2, when his term comes to an end. In a social media post, the Senegalese writer Felwine Sarr called it “a historic decision.” As of Thursday night, it was not clear what the president’s next move would be in response to the ruling. Should he disregard the court’s decision, Senegal would enter a period of “radical uncertainty,” said Ndongo Samba Sylla, a Senegalese development economist. But Mr. Sall has already raised questions about the integrity of the constitutional court itself, saying that allegations of corruption against some of its judges needed to be investigated. This was the principal reason given for delaying elections. Long considered a bastion of stability and democracy among coup-prone neighbors in the strip of countries south of the Sahara known as the Sahel, Senegal has been shaken by the events of the past few weeks. Ahead of the vote in Parliament, opposition lawmakers were thrown out of the chamber by the police, after which the bill passed with a vote of 105 to 1. For years, Mr. Sall refused to say whether or not he would seek a third term — the Constitution limits presidents to two — but last July, he pledged to step down when his second term ended, and his prime minister, Amadou Ba, was named as the ruling party candidate. But Mr. Ba was considered unlikely to win the election in the first round, experts predicted, even with a major opposition leader, Ousmane Sonko, in jail and out of the running. After Mr. Sall’s decree, analysts had asked whether the president was trying to buy time to find a more popular successor, or whether he aimed to retain power himself beyond December. © 2024 The New York Times Company

Cotton growers of Turkmenistan have harvested more than one million tons of cotton. AKI Press Turkmenistan continues to use forced labor of adults and children during the cotton harvest, according to experts from the Committee on the Application of Standards of the International Labor Organization (ILO). “The preliminary findings of this observation mission indicate direct or indirect evidence of mobilization of public servants in all regions visited, with the exception of the city of Ashgabat,” the report by the committee states. Another report by independent Turkmen human rights groups published last year documented widespread systematic forced labor in Turkmenistan – alongside widespread corruption. Under its ILO commitments, Turkmenistan has pledged for years to eradicate this practice, but the reality is different. The Business and Human Rights Resource Center notes that the Turkmen Government obliges farmers to submit a certain quota of cotton each year. Failure to meet these quotas can result in the land being taken away from the dekhkans (smallholder farmers) and given to others, or the issuance of a fine. At the same time, the government maintains a monopoly on the purchase and sale of cotton, sets an artificially low purchase price, and does not disclose information about either the income from cotton or the use of that income. Employees of government organizations are systematically forced to harvest cotton. They are not provided with proper working or living conditions, and are often forced to find housing and food at their own expense. In addition, they face such problems as unfavorable weather conditions – cotton harvesting starts in the summer heat and continues well into winter’s sub-zero temperatures – contact with chemicals used to treat the fields, and travel costs. Despite this, human rights advocates haven’t received any complaints about the authorities’ misconduct. This is likely due to the fact that workers are afraid of losing their jobs in the public sector, where the majority of Turkmenistan’s population is employed. Despite local laws prohibiting the use of child labor – and a ban on the use of child labor in the cotton sector has been in place since 2008 – the practice is widespread during the cotton harvest. The Cotton Campaign, an international coalition of labor groups, human rights organizations, investors and business organizations, has repeatedly spoken out against this practice. Schoolchildren in Turkmenistan often go to the cotton fields themselves to earn money for clothing and food, as well as to help their parents, who are obliged to pick cotton. Turkmenistan is the tenth largest cotton producer in the world and has a vertically integrated cotton industry. Despite the boycott of cotton picked using forced labor, the U.S., Canada and EU countries cannot always control the supply chain of cotton from third countries. Thus, Turkmen cotton harvested by forced and child labor filters into global cotton supply chains at all stages of production. The Cotton Campaign has called on governments, companies and workers’ organizations to take action and pressure Turkmenistan to end forced labor and protect the basic rights of its citizens. Uzbekistan is a successful case study in the effort to eliminate forced labor. In March 2022, the Cotton Campaign announced the removal of its recommended global boycott of cotton from Uzbekistan. According to the ILO, 99% of Uzbek cotton pickers in 2021 worked voluntarily. The cotton boycott negatively impacted the country’s cotton exports – in 2020, the number of brands boycotting Uzbek cotton exceeded 300. The Times of Central Asia © 2023

The victims are reported to be all between the ages of 12 and 14, while many others are injured, with some in critical conditions By Esther J in Karenni state, Myanmar and Emily Fishbein A school in Daw Si Ei village, Karenni state, Myanmar following an airstrike. Photograph: Myo Satt Hla Thaw An airstrike on a school in Myanmar’s south-eastern Karenni state killed four children and injured at least 15 others, according to five witnesses. The victims, all boys aged 12 to 14, were students at the school in Daw Si Ei village, which served about 200 students and was run by local community members and former government teachers. Two additional children remain in critical condition after being wounded in the head and abdomen. The mother of one of the victims reported seeing an plane, followed by a fighter jet, fly over the village at 10am on Monday. “I didn’t even dare to go and look outside in the moments after the bomb dropped,” said Hay Blute Moo. “My children were so scared that they hid under the bed and cried after they escaped from the airstrike, especially the youngest one. He hugged me and cried for a long time.” Witnesses said students at the school were attempting to run into a bunker when the strike hit. Communities across Myanmar routinely dig bunkers outside to protect themselves from military airstrikes. The attack reportedly reduced the school facilities to rubble and left the surrounding area stained with blood. A 16-year-old boy, who arrived at the school shortly after the attack, said he saw the bodies of three of the victims, including his 14-year-old brother. The fourth victim, he said, died as people attempted to transport him to the nearest medical facility run by local resistance forces and community members. Since seizing power in a coup in February 2021, Myanmar’s military has struggled to subdue opposition to its rule and has relied on airstrikes and scorched earth tactics to push back against opposition. Although the military has not yet issued a statement on Monday’s airstrikes, it has in the past targeted civilian areas and infrastructure including schools, medical facilities and religious buildings. Junta-affiliated media outlets claimed reports of an airstrike on the village were false. In January, the UN said that as part of the military’s strategy, it routinely targets places protected under international humanitarian law, including medical facilities and schools. Disruption to basic communications services, it said, means that civilians often have little or no warning in advance of these attacks. Karenni state has been the site of heavy fighting between the military and pro-democracy forces. The fighting escalated in November, when local resistance forces launched a new offensive and the military retaliated by scaling up its attacks, including on civilian areas. Maw Lay, who lost his 12-year-old son in Monday’s airstrike, said the attack occurred while students were preparing for their exams. “I’m very sad but I can’t do anything during the war … even if [the military] targets my house,” he said. A 36-year-old teacher, who was at the school at the time of the incident and who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to security concerns, questioned why the military would target the school. “Our school is far away from an active conflict area and no resistance soldiers are staying here,” she said. “This is a place where innocent students are studying.” A separate airstrike on a school in Loi Nan Hpa village, located two miles away, killed a villager who worked in a rice mill near the school, according to a local resident. One teacher also lost his leg due to the strike. In total, more than 80% of Karenni state’s population has been internally displaced since the coup, according to the Karenni Human Rights Group, a community organisation that monitors human rights incidents in the state. The organisation strongly condemned Monday’s attacks, saying “the military junta is intentionally destroying civilian infrastructure and places of refuge for the thousands of Karenni people who have been forced to flee their homes … The further escalation of attacks on schools is indicative of the military’s disregard for the lives of … children.” In total, the UN has documented more than 554 civilians killed in Myanmar since October and more than 1,600 in 2023, an increase of about 300 from the previous year. A further 19,973 people remained in detention on political grounds, according to the UN. © 2024 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies.

People attend a protest in support of Palestinians in Gaza in Amman, Jordan, November 24, 2023. © 2023 Alaa Al Sukhni/Reuters (Amman) – Jordanian authorities have arrested and harassed scores of Jordanians who participated in pro-Palestine protests across the country or engaged in online advocacy since October 2023, bringing charges against some of them under a new, widely criticized cybercrimes law, Human Rights Watch said today. Since October 7, thousands of Jordanians have participated in peaceful demonstrations nationwide in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Jordanian lawyers representing detainees told Human Rights Watch that the authorities have most likely arrested hundreds for their involvement in the protests or online advocacy. Human Rights Watch documented cases in which authorities brought charges against four activists under the new cybercrimes law, including Anas al-Jamal, a prominent activist, and Ayman Sandouka, secretary of a political party. “Jordanian authorities are trampling the right to free expression and assembly in an effort to tamp down Gaza-related activism,” said Lama Fakih, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Recent government assurances that the new cybercrimes law would not be used to infringe on rights crumbled in less than two months as the authorities deployed it against Jordanians to stifle their activism.” Parliament swiftly passed the repressive cybercrimes law in August, ignoring criticism and bypassing consultation with experts or civil society. The law further undermines free speech, threatens internet users’ right to anonymity, and introduces a new authority to control social media, risking a surge in censorship. Over recent years, Jordan has witnessed a protracted shrinking of civic space, with the authorities increasingly persecuting citizens engaged in peaceful organization and political dissent, using vague and abusive laws that criminalize speech, association, and assembly. Human Rights Watch spoke to four people who have been detained, harassed, or summoned by the General Intelligence Directorate; two relatives of four other additional people under arrest; and three lawyers involved with protest-related cases. Researchers viewed photos and videos from several protests, as well as court documents pertaining to two men’s trials. Authorities detained al-Jamal at his roadside stall in the northern city of Irbid on November 5. A family member said that after they inquired, an official told them he had been detained and transferred to Amman for investigation under the cybercrimes law for three October tweets, one of which revolved around police blocking protests in the Jordan valley. The family member said that a court convicted al-Jamal after a brief trial, during which his lawyers were prevented from providing an adequate defense, sentencing him to three months in jail and a 5,000 Jordanian dinars (about US$7,000) fine based on article 24 of the cybercrimes law, which criminalizes publishing without authorization names or pictures of law enforcement officials online, or new information about them that may offend or harm. Al-Jamal, his family’s breadwinner, was released on January 13 after a crowd-funding effort covered the fine, but he still faces a travel ban. Sandouka has been held since December 18 for Facebook posts, including one mocking the government’s claim that the official stance and public opinion on Israel’s war in Gaza are aligned, his lawyer said. He was detained for a month pending investigation by the public prosecutor, then released. However, the state security prosecutor then summoned him on charges of “incitement to oppose the political regime,” a terrorism provision under the penal code. On January 24, despite acquitting him on two charges, a separate Jordanian court convicted him of intentionally disparaging state authorities and sentenced him to three months in jail and a 5,000 Jordan dinars fine (about US$7,000). Sandouka is serving his three-month sentence while in detention, pending the state security case. A 38-year-old activist, said that police detained her in late October, two days after she attended a protest near the al-Kalouti mosque and posted a video on X, formerly known as Twitter, showing police forcibly breaking up the protest. She said that authorities took her to the Criminal Investigations Unit, where an officer questioned her about her post and asked her to remove it, which she did. She was held for eight days, and the authorities refused to allow family members to provide her medication while in detention. After an online court hearing, a judge ordered her release pending trial under the cybercrimes law, but police kept her in detention due to a summons from Amman’s governor. She said that the governor repeatedly asked her, “Is Gaza worth all of this?” He also said, “You sit in your home, you eat, drink, sleep, and go to the protest and go back home and we make this safe for you.” Following the meeting, she was finally released, but remains on trial facing charges under the cybercrimes law. Another woman said she learned via SMS in mid-December that authorities had issued an arrest warrant against her and banned her from travel. After hiring a lawyer, who faced delays obtaining the case files, she discovered that a first hearing in her case had been in early December. She later learned that someone had sent anonymous social media screenshots of posts critical of Jordan’s relationship with Israel to the police Criminal Investigations Unit, which led to the charges. She denied making the social media posts, and a judge found her not guilty. Lawyers told Human Rights Watch that hundreds of people are sent before judges, with many charges eventually dropped. Lawyers and activists also said that in many cases, even after the public prosecutor or a judge ordered a detainee released, Interior Ministry authorities immediately re-apprehended or kept people in custody using abusive administrative detention procedures, coercing detainees to sign pledges not to protest or incite to protest under threat of a 50,000 Jordanian dinars fine (about US$70,000). Jordanian authorities arrested three young men leaving a protest in Amman in late October; a family member said: “I found out the next day that they had accused them of resisting police officers, inciting rioting, and disturbing public peace during an unregistered protest.” The public prosecutor ordered their release on bail a week later, but police detained them another day, when Amman’s governor’s office ordered them to sign pledges to refrain from protests and pay 150 Jordanian dinars each (about US$211) for bail. He said that a judge dismissed the charges for lack of evidence. An online activist said that an intelligence official summoned him in November. After being called into an interrogation room, he said he briefly laughed, after which an officer responded: “If you knew what is going to happen you would not laugh.” The officer grilled him about his social media activity, including a call for a general strike in support of Gaza, and threatened him with a six-month prison sentence and 50,000 Jordanian dinars (about US$70,000) fine under the new cybercrimes law. He was released after signing a pledge that he would not attend protests or share protest-related content on social media. A 27-year-old activist said that after attending several protests, she was summoned by an intelligence officer in early November. “The man who I went in to see was very angry. He immediately screamed at me to drag the chair in the middle of the room back to the wall. He started asking me basic questions, I wasn’t nervous at all. I was speaking comfortably and confidently, and I think that provoked him, annoyed him.” She said that the officer grilled her about her social media activity and attendance at protests, and threatened that if she continued, she could face a 15-year prison sentence. She said she refused to stop attending protests and was then formally detained. She was released five days later after signing a pledge not to protest. She said, “The worst part of the experience for me was that no one told me what was going on, I was in the dark the entire time.” Despite evidence of mass arrests stemming from the protests, prime minister Bisher al-Khasawneh said on November 26 that “there has been no arrest of any person for practicing the right to peaceful expression.” He added, “those detained and who remain under arrest do not exceed 24 people because they assaulted policemen, destroyed property, or tried to produce gatherings that have no relation to Gaza.” Human Rights Watch reviewed dozens of photos and videos of street protests in Amman in October and November 2023, the vast majority of which appeared to remain peaceful. In a video of an October 27 protest near the al-Kalouti mosque in Amman’s Rabia neighborhood, several blocks away from the Israeli embassy, a group of protesters can be seen sitting and standing in front of a line of Jordanian police chanting “peaceful.” The police charged at them, firing tear gas into the crowd. The only videos reviewed showing potential violent activity by protesters are from a protest on the night of October 17 near the Israeli embassy, which appear to show fires from improvised incendiary weapons thrown by protesters. “Jordanian authorities should not use a regional crisis as a pretext to restrict the rights of Jordanians to express themselves peacefully,” Fakih said. “Recent cases have proven that authorities have and will continue to abuse vague provisions of the cybercrimes law.” © 2024 Human Rights Watch

Dozens of Civilians Killed in Village Battlegrounds, Over 100,000 Displaced Villagers flee fighting between Myanmar security forces and the Arakan Army near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in Cox's Bazar district, Bangladesh, February 6, 2024. © 2024 Syed Mahamudur Rahman/NurPhoto via AP Photo (Bangkok) – Fighting in Myanmar’s Rakhine State has surged in recent weeks, causing civilian casualties and large-scale displacement, Human Rights Watch said today. Myanmar’s junta and the Arakan Army ethnic armed group should take immediate measures to minimize harm to ethnic Rohingya and other civilians caught up in the hostilities. On November 13, 2023, renewed fighting between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army ended a year-long unofficial ceasefire in Rakhine State. Since January 2024, Myanmar military forces have attacked Arakan Army fighters deployed in Rohingya villages particularly in south Buthidaung township, which has resulted in civilian casualties and destruction of property, according to local residents, Rohingya groups, and the media. Over 100,000 people in Rakhine State, many displaced by previous violence, have again had to relocate. “Myanmar military and opposition forces need to do all they can to minimize civilian casualties and destruction of homes and property,” said Shayna Bauchner, Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Rohingya villages that were devastated by military atrocities in 2017 are again at grave risk of attack.” Nine witnesses from Hpon Nyo Leik, a predominantly Rohingya village tract in Buthidaung township with over a dozen hamlets, said that Arakan Army fighters entered the area in late January in an apparent effort to gain control over a nearby Myanmar military command. The military soon responded with helicopter gunship attacks, artillery shelling, and ground assaults. “The Arakan Army suddenly entered our area and started deploying all around the village,” a 30-year-old villager said. “Soon after, three artillery shells fell in our area. One of the shells exploded in the local market, critically injuring four people. The explosion of another shell injured six people, and the third one injured three.” When the villagers told the Arakan Army that their presence was making them unsafe, the fighters said they would leave when they received orders to do so. “We Rohingya are dying, caught between the two parties,” the villager said. Residents and rights groups have reported that during the fighting in late January, between 12 and 24 Rohingya civilians were killed, while as many as 100 more may have been injured. More than 100 homes are believed to have been damaged or destroyed, according to Rohingya groups. “On Friday morning [January 26] the military intensified its offensive,” the villager said. “One of my cousins died on the spot. Almost all of my family members were injured and admitted to the hospital. My brother is still struggling to recover as one of the bomb fragments in his body hasn’t been removed.” A 66-year-old villager said: “An artillery shell hit and killed my son. There were dozens of funerals all around, but I only dared to attend my son’s funeral. He was 42 and the father of five children.” Another villager, 42, said: “During the attack, we had to leave the village, wrapping the dead bodies in blankets. After about five or six hours, we returned to the village to complete the burials.” Rohingya villagers said that all the beds in the hospital in Buthidaung and local clinics were filled and that the facilities had stopped admitting people. Clinics were running low on supplies and charging injured patients exorbitant prices. Some residents described the Myanmar military’s airstrikes on their village as indiscriminate bombardments. “The military is not just targeting the Arakan Army,” said a 47-year-old Rohingya villager. “They are using their helicopters to shoot all over the village.” Many people fled for shelter in nearby villages but have had little to no access to food or medical supplies, and received no humanitarian support. “My family of 25 people is now displaced and scattered,” a villager said. “We spend our days uncertain about food and shelter.” Rohingya families expressed concerns about food stocks dwindling and unharvested crops rotting in the fields. Fighting was continuing into early February. During two phone interviews on February 1 with villagers who had remained in Hpon Nyo Leik, gunshots and explosions could be heard in the background. “No one can enter the village,” a 35-year-old villager said. “It’s not yet safe to go back since the fighting is still going on. The internet is completely down in Buthidaung township. Maybe for two hours a day we can make phone calls, but after that no more calls, as the network is down. No shops are open, everything remains closed. No one is coming to help us, not the authorities or the UN or any international agency.” The junta has continued to block urgently needed humanitarian aid to civilians in conflict areas, a form of collective punishment that is a war crime. The military is blocking major roads and waterways, destroying nonmilitary supplies, imposing severe restrictions on aid workers, and shutting down telecommunications services. The humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said on January 16 that restrictions are preventing MSF from running any of the 25 mobile clinics in Rakhine State and warned of a “catastrophic impact on people’s health.” Since the February 2021 military coup in Myanmar, the junta has driven the country further into a humanitarian and human rights catastrophe. The junta’s widespread and systematic abuses amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled the Myanmar military’s crimes against humanity and acts of genocide in 2017. About 600,000 Rohingya remain in Rakhine State, confined to squalid camps and villages under a system of apartheid in which security forces have arrested thousands of Rohingya for “unauthorized travel” and imposed new movement restrictions and aid blockages. This has left the Rohingya particularly vulnerable to armed conflict. Since December, civilian casualties have been reported in a number of other Rohingya villages in northern Rakhine State. The laws of war prohibit attacks that do not or cannot discriminate between civilians and combatants. Bombardments that treat a populated town or village as a single military objective are prohibited as indiscriminate. Parties to a conflict are required to take constant care to spare the civilian population and to take all feasible precautions to avoid or minimize the incidental loss of civilian life and damage to civilian objects. Warring parties, to the extent feasible, should avoid deploying their forces in heavily populated areas. Several Rohingya said they felt caught between both sides. “If we talk to the military, the Arakan Army will suspect us,” a villager said. “But if the military or the government find any connection between us and the Arakan Army, I’m sure the military would kill the Rohingya.” He said that the Arakan Army has promised security to the Rohingya once they have fully captured the territory, but for the present they have sought to confiscate food and other support. Fighting near the border has spilled over into Bangladesh, including casualties from mortar fire. Influential foreign governments should respond urgently to the worsening crisis in Myanmar, Human Rights Watch said. “Foreign governments should loudly express their concerns about the spiraling risks to the Rohingya population from the fighting in Rakhine State,” Bauchner said. “The junta needs to immediately lift the blockage on communications and humanitarian aid and stop their forces from violating international humanitarian law.” © 2024 Human Rights Watch

Irene Khan, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, holds a news conference during an official visit to the Philippines, in Mandaluyong, Manila, Philippines, February 2, 2024. © 2024 Eloisa Lopez/Reuters MANILA (2 February 2024) – Threats, vilification and violence against journalists and human rights defenders in the Philippines were particularly high during the previous Administration, but intimidation of critical voices has continued under the new government, a UN expert said today. “The tone of the new Administration, coupled with its decision to open peace talks with insurgents and a renewed engagement with the international community, are positive signals, but addressing the serious and deep-seated human rights issues will require more fundamental and sustained reforms,” said Irene Khan, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, in a statement at the end of a 10-day visit to the country. Khan noted that many individuals critical of state policies, including, human rights defenders social justice advocates, journalists, students, trade unionists and others continued to be unfairly branded as supporters, recruiters or members of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA), resulting in increased human rights risks. “In many cases, vilification has been followed by threats, unlawful surveillance, attacks or even unlawful killings,” she said. “It intimidates and chills freedom of expression and suppresses legitimate activism, journalism or criticism.” The UN expert urged authorities to publicly denounce so-called “red-tagging” practices and hold officials accountable for any violations. She said the counter-terrorism task force (NTF-ELCAC) – set up by the previous Government – should be abolished, allowing for more inclusive peacebuilding platforms involving women peacemakers and communities, as a genuine “whole of nation” approach to peace. The Special Rapporteur stressed that the Philippines remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. According to official UNESCO figures, 117 journalists were killed in the country in the last 30 years, of which 81 cases remain unsolved. “The killing of journalists is the most egregious form of censorship,” Khan said. “Although some measures have been taken, the continued failure of the authorities to speed up the legal proceedings is a blow to the fight against impunity and to the families’ quest for justice,” she said. “The results of the Inter-Agency Committee on extra-legal killings, enforced disappearances, torture and other serious violations (AO35 Mechanism) to investigate unresolved cases of political violence are clearly insufficient,” the expert said. She advised the Government to consider establishing a dedicated Special Prosecutor for crimes against journalists and human rights defenders. Khan also raised concerns about the legal framework affecting freedom of expression, which she considers poses risks for the safety of journalists and human rights defenders. The Special Rapporteur deplored that the Anti-Terrorism Act 2020 contains an overly broad and vague definition of terrorism, which leaves it open to abuse. She also raised concerns that the Cybercrime Prevention Act and the Penal Code contain provisions that criminalise libel. She called for the adoption of the Human Rights Defenders law, which is currently before the House of Representatives. Khan met with young pre-trial detainees Mariel Domequil, Alexander Philip Abinguna and Frenchie Mae Cumpio at the Tacloban prison during her visit. “All three have been languishing in prison for four years, awaiting the resolution of their cases for non-bailable terrorism-related offences,” she said. “As justice delayed is justice denied, I urge relevant authorities to either review the cases and dismiss the charges, or at a minimum expedite the trials with full due process,” the expert said. The Special Rapporteur called on the Government to continue to give the UN an important and active role, helping to ensure a smooth transition and building trust with civil society, with a view to addressing impunity as a matter of urgency.