Taliban courts flog women and girls. Being a woman under the Taliban regime is very difficult in Afghanistan. The extreme misogyny of the Taliban deprives women of all freedom and human rights. Forced marriages and rapes of girls and women have significantly increased. Taliban’s Cultural Commission of the Islamic Emirate recently rendered a verdict that states: ‘’Mullah Imams of mosques in the northern provinces of Afghanistan shall collect lists of girls above 15years old and shall list widows’ names. These girls and women must marry Taliban soldiers.’’ Forced marriage of a Taliban Soldier with an underage girl The Taliban commit systematic rapes of women of minority groups and Persian speaking communities in northern Afghan provinces. Taliban persecution of Shias and ethnic minority groups in Afghanistan mirrors the crimes ISIS committed against girls and women in Syria. Article 2 of Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide states: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; RAPE IS AN ACT OF GENOCIDE (ICTR: AKEYESU). THIS VIOLATION OF THE GENOCIDE CONVENTION IS BEING PERPETRATED BY THE TALIBAN AGAINST HAZARA AND OTHER SHIA WOMEN EVERY DAY IN AFGHANISTAN. (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; THIS VIOLATION IS ALSO BEING COMMITTED AGAINST HAZARAS AND SHIAS. (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. The Taliban rape and kill women and girls who belong to Shia religious minority groups and Persian speaking ethnic groups. According to an eyewitness from Baghlan province: “Taliban soldiers invade houses and look for girls for forced marriages. Families who resist are subjected to rape of their daughters by Taliban soldiers in front of their families’ eyes. The Taliban then kill their daughters with gun shots.” The parents of a 12-year-old girl who was kidnapped by the Taliban stated: “Taliban mullah Imam in Mazar-I-Sharif has a significant role in kidnapping girls from the streets. The Taliban kidnapped our daughter three months ago. We have no information whether our daughter is alive or dead. When we were looking for our child and announced it in the mosque, I heard the most shocking words from the mullah imam. He told me “You must be happy because the girls of Afghanistan must provide their services to the Islamic Emirate. These girls belong to the Taliban and Mujaheddin.” The Taliban have increased the culture of violence and discrimination against the women of Afghanistan. The Taliban believe women are their property. A woman has no identity for herself. The number of court verdicts are increasing on a daily basis. The Taliban execute women and girls by accusing them of committing adultery and illegal sexual relations with other men. Women are defenseless. A woman is easily executed if she does not obey the commands of the men of her family or for any other reason. It is easy for the Taliban to accuse them of adultery and illegal sexual relationships. The culture of systematic accusation of adultery is a discriminatory Taliban policy against women. The Taliban raped and killed this girl in Kunduz Province Women in Afghanistan have been left behind. The Taliban have arrested many women’s rights activists such as Julia Parsi. These women were on the front lines, fighting against inequalities. Today they are tortured and raped by the Taliban. The suffocating atmosphere in Afghanistan takes all hope away from women and girls. Women face both domestic violence and violence outside their homes. Many girls commit suicide and put an end to their lives. One of the women who attempted to commit suicide and was rescued by her mother said: “I am in a deep pain. I lost everything. The Taliban destroyed my life. They killed my husband and children. I am tired of living in secret. This life is like hell for me. I have nothing else to lose. Hope has left my world.” There are similar stories from many other girls and women in Afghanistan. One of the nurses in a maternity hospital in Kabul said “I face many shocking incidents in my workplace. I see how some women who give birth to baby girls leave their babies in the hospital or escape and leave their babies close to the mosques.” A 10-year-old girl said: “I have no future in Afghanistan. My life is ruined like thousands of girls who live in this country. I feel ashamed of being a girl. There is no better feeling for me. I feel worthless. I don’t want to be a victim of forced marriage. I see how girls are suffering under the Taliban regime. The men become powerful, and they beat women in their families." Giving birth to a girl in Afghanistan was once a taboo. Today it has become a catastrophe. Systematic discrimination against women in Afghanistan has increased violence against them. The United Nations must take action to prevent the crimes of the Taliban against women and girls. The U.N. must impose pressure on the Taliban to stop court cases against women and girls. The U.N. must demand that the Taliban release women’s rights activists in the custody of the Taliban.

Family groups have been calling for the excavation of land believed to hold the bodies of at least 50 children — the sons and daughters of Algerians who fought for France — who died in internment camps. Toys and flowers mark the field where Algerian Harkis children are believed to have been buried near the former St.-Maurice-l’Ardoise military camp. [Credit: Mauricio Lima] Juliette Guéron-Gabrielle December 24, 2023 Nestled amid the vineyards in a picturesque region of southwestern France known for its sweet wines and goat cheeses is a fenced-off parcel of thorny, empty land, mostly avoided by nearby villagers other than the few who walk their dogs there. The nondescript patch has become part of a national effort to address a painful episode in France’s colonial history: the treatment of the predominately Muslim Algerians known as Harkis who fought for the French during Algeria’s war of independence. After the war ended in 1962, some of the Harkis and their families were placed in several internment and transit camps across France. They stayed for years in those camps, treated more as unwanted refugees in France than former soldiers, surrounded by barbed wire and watchtowers, while the French government organized their relocations across the country. In the early years, many of the children in these families, historians say, died in the camps, including one known as Rivesaltes, where about 21,000 Harkis passed through. Historians say they believe that the bodies of at least 50 of these children are buried under the dry soil of Rivesaltes, which is close to the Mediterranean and about half an hour’s drive from Avignon. A much smaller number of adults also died in the camps; a few are also believed to be buried near Rivesaltes. A stone memorial opposite the field near Rivesaltes lists the names of children who died there, without saying where they were buried. A nearby museum honors the memories of various groups of people interned in Rivesaltes at different periods — including Spanish Republicans and Jews during World War II, and then the Harkis — but there is no mention of the nearby burial site. “It is absolutely vile,” said Hacène Arfi, 68, who lived in the camp as a child and has led an organization to assist Harkis. Walking through the field where he believes the remains of his stillborn brother lie, he said: “They didn’t do a serious job here. They just chucked a stone slab somewhere and decided it was enough.” After pressure from families of people interned in Rivesaltes, the French government promised in October to excavate the land where the children’s bodies are believed to be buried. That pledge is part of a broader effort by the government to address how the Harkis were treated after the war, a conflict that remains a raw wound in France. More than 200,000 Harkis were left to their fate in Algeria after the war and many were tortured and killed by the Algerian authorities, who saw them as traitors. About 84,000 Harkis fled to France — as did about 800,000 French Algerians of European descent — and met with a hostile reception. The French Algerians of European descent were able to rent subsidized housing in modern buildings. Only the Harkis ended up in the camps. President Charles de Gaulle promised the Harkis during the war that they would be incorporated into the French Army, but he later broke that pledge, saying he did not want his beloved town of Colombey-les-Deux-Églises (literally Colombey-the-Two-Churches) to turn into “Colombey-the-two-Mosques.” Amid growing awareness in France in recent years about the plight of the Harkis, President Emmanuel Macron has made efforts to address their treatment, asking them for forgiveness and passing a law to provide reparations for the time they spent in the camps. But the issue of unmarked cemeteries near camps where Harkis lived has never been fully addressed. Historians estimate that from 300 to 400 Harki children died in the camps in the three years after the war. Most died as infants, said Fatima Besnaci-Lancou, a historian who has written several books on the Harki experience in France and who herself is a daughter of Harkis who spent years in the camps. “What killed most was the cold,” Ms. Besnaci-Lancou said. “And the mothers were weak, they were in distress, having lived through war and then finding themselves in a camp.” The last of the camps closed in 1975, and any cemeteries were abandoned. After years of requests from Harki families, Patricia Mirallès, the minister for veteran’s affairs, announced in October that the cemetery near Rivesaltes would be excavated. “There is hope that families will finally be able to recover the bodies of their loved ones,” she said in a statement. Another cemetery in the area sits on the edge of St.-Maurice-l’Ardoise, another camp where Harkis and their families were interned. That cemetery was excavated in March. Archaeologists found the outline of 27 makeshift tombs there and opened two graves; infant remains were inside. “We’d now like to run DNA tests to be able to put a name to each grave,” Ms. Mirallès said, a process that would require further excavation. “They were buried like dogs,” said Nadia Ghouafria, 52, a descendant of Harkis, depositing teddy bears and flowers on graves at the cemetery, which is a two-hour drive east from Rivesaltes. “Now they are treated like humans again.” In Rivesaltes, there has been no excavation yet. The long wait for an excavation in Rivesaltes has been painful for people like Mr. Arfi, who also spent time growing up in St.-Maurice-l’Ardoise. When he was 6, Mr. Arfi said, he watched his father bury his stillborn brother at the edge of the Rivesaltes camp after his mother gave birth in their unheated tent. “We had nothing, only a bath towel to wrap him in,” Mr. Arfi said during an interview at a cafe in St.-Laurent-des-Arbres, the town where he now lives, a short drive from the two camps. Mr. Arfi and others who grew up in St.-Maurice-l’Ardoise said the camp had no running water. The local prefect threatened to send misbehaving school students back to Algeria, despite their French citizenship. During school vacations, they said, the children sometimes harvested string beans, cherries, tomatoes or grapes for local farmers, to earn money for their families. They spoke Arabic in the camp, living fenced off from the rest of France. The closure of the camps was another traumatic moment for the Harkis and their families, thrusting them into a French society of which they had little knowledge, still deeply traumatized by the war and the isolation of the camp, with no psychological support. In Rivesaltes, in the early 2000s, the gravestone of Abdelkader Attout, a 21-year-old Harki who died in 1963 after being hit by a bus, was shifted to the town’s official cemetery with no warning, his family said. The family also said local authorities would not confirm whether his remains had also been moved. Local officials did not respond to an email seeking comment, but in a recent statement, Ms. Mirallès, the minister for veteran’s affairs, said that the government’s own archival research had not determined the whereabouts of Mr. Attout’s body, and that officials would “seek to accompany the family” on its “legitimate quest for truth.” No date has yet been set for the excavation at Rivesaltes, and Harki families are waiting impatiently. They say, though, that even this will not be enough to completely heal their scars. “Us Harkis, we are psychologically unwell, to this day,” said Rachid Guemrirene, who grew up in the same camps as Mr. Arfi. “It is impossible to heal.” © 2023 The New York Times Company

A village policeman confirms the arrest and jailing of Nuraxun Rozi, who was arrested for sending his son abroad and visiting Turkey. Nuraxun Rozi holds his youngest child, Nabile, in Ghulja in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region, 2016. [Credit: Nureli Nuraxun] Shohret Hoshur December 22, 2023 When Nuraxun Rozi visited his teenage son who was studying in Egypt in 2015, little did he know his trip abroad, including a stop in Turkey, would later land him a 20-year prison sentence in Xinjiang. “At the end of December 2015, my father came for a trip to Egypt,” said Nureli Nuraxun, now 22 and an engineer at an aluminum factory in Turkey. “He stayed there for a week and traveled in Turkey for another week, then went back home,” Nureli told Radio Free Asia. “After he went back, his passport was confiscated, and he was not allowed to go abroad again.” Sixteen months after his return, authorities sent him to a detention camp in April 2017 during the height of mass internment of Uyghurs in “re-education” camps under Chinese authorities’ guise of providing vocational training to prevent religious extremism and terrorism, Nureli said. Nuraxun, now 49, was later sentenced to 20 years in prison in August 2018 for sending his child abroad to study, helping his son while he was in Egypt and for traveling abroad, his son said. Nureli, who had not previously disclosed his family situation to the media to avoid complicating his father’s case, said he recently decided to reveal it after realizing that his silence was useless. The Uyghur from the Ara community of Kepekyuzi village in Ghulja, known as Yining in Chinese, is serving his sentence in Kunes Prison, according to an officer at the Kepekyuzi Police Station contacted by RFA. “A total of 50-60 people are serving in Kunes Prison,” he said. “They are from places like Kepekyuzi and Turpan. They were all arrested around 2017, the same year as Nuraxun.” The policeman said authorities arrested and jailed Nuraxun for sending his son abroad to study. “His visit to Turkey also contributed to his 20-year sentence,” he added, though he did not know how authorities determined the length of Nuraxun’s jail term. 'Sensitive Countries' In their monitoring of Uyghurs’ activities, Chinese authorities previously identified more than 20 countries, including predominantly Muslim ones such as Egypt, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, as “sensitive countries” and arrested those who visited them, imprisoning most for five to 10 years. “I’m not sure how many of the 20 years is due to sending his son abroad and how many is for visiting Turkey,” said the policeman, adding that Nuraxun also took his friend’s teenage son abroad for study. While Nureli was in Egypt, he saw other Uyghur students being sent back to China in 2016, and the following year he lost contact with his family. Fearing that he would be targeted, Nureli went to Turkey in 2018 “I had heard about my father’s arrest in 2017 and sentencing for 20 years in 2018 after coming to Turkey,” he said “I couldn’t handle this news at the beginning,” Nureli told RFA. “It caused psychological trauma. For some time, I was very depressed. Later I focused on my studies. I was determined to study harder, thinking of my father suffering in the cells.” In 2019, Nureli took and passed the exam for prospective mechanical engineering majors at Suleyman Demirel University in Isparta, Turkey, and graduated this year. He works as an engineer at Yalcinlar Aluminum, where he had interned during his senior year of college. Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster. © 2023 Radio Free Asia

Errant Airstrikes by Nigeria’s Military Have Killed Worshipers, Herders and Refugees The New York Times Dec. 12, 2023 By Elian Peltier, Eric Schmitt and Ismail Alfa The U.S.-backed Nigerian military has been killing civilians in airstrikes at an alarming pace, security analysts and human rights advocates say, with little accountability. Victims of an army drone attack at a hospital in Kaduna, Nigeria, last week.Credit...Kehinde Gbenga/Associated Press Last week in northern Nigeria, two drone strikes killed at least 85 people who had been out celebrating a Muslim holiday in a village. In June, dozens of herders and their cattle were hit from the sky, in the state next to the country’s capital. And in 2017, around 100 people were killed in an airstrike on a refugee camp in the country’s northeast. As the Nigerian military wages a domestic war against extremist militants and armed gangs, its widespread use of airstrikes on its own soil has come with a cascade of more than a dozen accidents that have killed hundreds of civilians in the past six years, according to security analysts. The repeated errors raise pressing questions for the United States, which trains and equips the Nigerian military and considers Nigeria a key ally in a region of Africa marred by widespread insecurity and coups. The Dec. 3 attack on a village where hundreds of worshipers were gathered at night for a festive Muslim holiday underscored the deficiencies of West Africa’s largest military. Analysts say the problems include mismanagement, faulty intelligence gathering and a lack of coordination among the different branches of the country’s security apparatus. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, has for years faced multiple security threats at once, from Boko Haram insurgents in the northeast to armed gangs locally known as bandits across the whole north who pilfer, kill or kidnap civilians for ransom. The northern state of Kaduna, where the attack on the village occurred, has been a prime target of those gangs. “The fundamental problem that U.S. and Nigerian leaders refuse to acknowledge is that combat air power — drones, warplanes — is not a policing tool,” said Matthew Page, a former State Department expert on Nigeria, and now an associate fellow at Chatham House, a British research group. “Western democracies don’t use aerial bombings as a policing tool at home, and this is why: because they cause a disproportionate amount of damage,” he said. Community members last week at the gravesite where victims of the drone attack were buried in the village of Tudun Biri.Credit...Kehinde Gbenga/Associated Press The Nigerian military did not respond to questions about systemic problems. But Christopher Gwabin Musa, the Nigerian chief of defense staff, did speak to the bombarding of the celebration last week. He called it a “sad and unfortunate incident” that happened because the military had been tipped off and observed movement consistent with a terrorist attack. Even as many in Nigeria have grown used to these accidental killings, analysts say, the attack on Tudun Biri, a village in Kaduna, was one too many. Protesters stormed the National Assembly last week. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Nigeria called for “a thorough and full-fledged investigation” into an attack he described as “unacceptable.” The army quickly admitted responsibility, saying it had mistaken the crowds of civilians for a gathering of terrorists. “They were Nigerians of profound faith and in the moment of the tragedy, they were reciting the Shahada,” Mr. Tinubu said, referring to the Islamic declaration of faith, at a military conference on Monday. “May their souls rest in eternal peace.” But two residents said in interviews that the police and local authorities had been aware of the gathering for the religious celebration. And the residents said that there was a second strike shortly after the first one, just as they were rushing to rescue the victims, a claim echoed in testimonies collected by human rights organizations. Hundreds of worshipers had gathered on Tudun Biri’s central square that Sunday, setting up canopies and loudspeakers and installing mats and chairs for the Mawlid religious holiday. Many had not been able to find accommodations, and had planned to spend the night on the square. Ahmadu Musa, a 37-year-old farmer, said he had left the celebration early to rest from a stomach infection when he heard a jet hover over his village, followed by a loud bang that felt like an earthquake. At the sight of billowing smoke and a thick fire, Mr. Musa rushed to the square, where one of his two wives, five children and many relatives were attending the celebration, he said. He found his wife and children dead, while other members of his family were only identifiable by their clothing, their bodies unrecognizable. At least 85 people were killed, according to Nigeria’s main emergency agency, and dozens of others injured. The attack was the deadliest since 2017, when about 100 people were killed in the bombing of a camp with 40,000 refugees, run by Doctors Without Borders. A motorcycle in the village of Tudun Biri after the attack last week.Credit...Kehinde Gbenga/Associated Press Nigeria’s security forces have bought attack drones from China and Turkey, according to security analysts, and increasingly resorted to airstrikes to target Boko Haram insurgents and criminal gangs. Before the strike this month, more than 300 people had been killed in airstrikes carried out by the Nigerian military since 2017, according to a tally by SBM Intelligence, a Nigerian risk consultancy. It has faced close to no accountability, analysts say. “The military is given a lot of latitude given how Nigeria is infested with terrorists,” said Confidence MacHarry, a security analyst with SBM Intelligence. “The lack of accountability fuels the culture of impunity.” An American official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence assessments, said an initial U.S. assessment concluded that the Nigerian army drone used in the strike was Turkish made. But Pentagon officials said they had no information about the incident and referred questions to the Nigerian military. Two independent Nigerian analysis firms said the drone used was most likely a Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2, an attack drone popular in Ukraine and among various African militaries such as Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, among others. Nigerian soldiers have trained alongside African troops in Pentagon-sponsored exercises. And last year, the Biden administration approved a nearly $1 billion attack helicopter deal with Nigeria. But for more than a decade, U.S. officials have also periodically raised serious concerns about suspected human rights abuses by Nigerian forces. A State Department inspector general report in 2013, for instance, found that of 1,377 Nigerian soldiers vetted the year before to receive American training, 211 were rejected or suspended because of human rights concerns. American officials said they were heartened by Mr. Tinubu’s call last week for an investigation into the strikes. But some former U.S. diplomats and senior military officials expressed doubts that any senior official would be held accountable, given the Nigerian military’s lack of transparency, or that improved training would result. President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria on a podium at an air base in Maiduguri, Nigeria, on Monday.Credit...Audu Marte/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Earlier this year, two members of Congress urged the Biden administration to cancel the helicopter deal with Nigeria, citing human rights abuses that included forced abortions and indiscriminate killings. J. Peter Pham, a former special U.S. envoy to the Sahel region, which includes countries south of the Sahara, said the incident in Tudun Biri underscored the difficulty with arms purchases from sellers like China and Turkey. The purchases, Mr. Pham said, “might be more easily available or cheaper, but rarely come with the intensive training that Western, especially U.S., packages entail.” But Mr. Page, the former State Department analyst, argued that even as part of the nearly $1 billion helicopter deal, Nigeria had received far less training than initially advertised by U.S. policymakers and diplomats. During a visit to Tudun Biri last week, Vice President Kashim Shettima of Nigeria promised to build houses, schools and clinics. Some senators vowed to donate their December salaries to the community. But few expect long-lasting changes, said Mr. MacHarry, the security analyst. In Tudun Biri, Mr. Musa buried his wife and five children at the local graveyard a day after the strike. Victims who could not be identified were buried in a mass grave. “We are picking up the remaining pieces of our lives,” Mr. Musa said, adding that several families had left the village for fear of another attack. Elian Peltier reported from Niamey, Niger; Eric Schmitt from Washington; and Ismail Alfa from Maiduguri, Nigeria. Pius Adeleye contributed reporting from Ilorin, Nigeria. Elian Peltier is The Times’ West Africa correspondent, based in Dakar, Senegal. More about Elian Peltier Eric Schmitt is a national security correspondent for The Times, focusing on U.S. military affairs and counterterrorism issues overseas, topics he has reported on for more than three decades. More about Eric Schmitt A version of this article appears in print on Dec. 13, 2023, Section A, Page 13 of the New York edition with the headline: Repeated Errant Strikes By Nigerian Army Take Escalating Civilian Toll. Copyright 2023 The New York Times Company

Suspended Opposition Members of Parliament Photo: PTI/Kamal Singh The collapse of parliamentary democracy in Bharat that is not India Indian Express December 21, 2023 by Pratap Bhanu Mehta One might ask, why does the government have to act in such a high-handed manner? It has a parliamentary majority. But as with many things with this government, the impunity is a point: In a democracy attracted by power rather than constitutional form, power will continually need to be projected. It is a monumental tragedy that the government’s suspension of more than 140 MPs is still being seen merely as a political contest between the government and the Opposition. It is rather the latest expression of a radical change in the type of regime we inhabit: The collapse of parliamentary democracy. The biggest challenge we face in acknowledging this fact is that we are still bewitched by the pseudo constitutional façades of our Republic — as if the forms and processes of Parliament, rules of procedure, legal redress, constitutional morality, institutions or even the terminology of parliamentary democracy can save us. The recourse to this formal language of democracy serves increasingly to provide a constitutional veneer to what is in effect, an unconstitutional concentration of power. The Chief Justice of India can give almost a daily lecture on constitutional morality, even as the Supreme Court loses any will to stand up for it. The ruling dispensation can, without a trace of irony, speak of parliamentary decorum, even as Parliament is effectively dead as an institution. The media speaks of this as a contest between the government and the Opposition, even as the government puts chains on the wrists of Opposition members and silences them. The site of public opinion formation, the media, with a few honourable exceptions, fecklessly worships power, or even worse, creates appropriate diversions for it. Elections are still keenly contested, even though post-election we do our best to ensure that any contestation over policies, ideas, or any measure of accountability is effectively muzzled. It is no secret that the separation of powers has long been dead as an idea. In most parliamentary democracies, executive and legislative power has increasingly been fused. This has been a process long in the making and has roots in the nature of party government. It is for this reason that many writers, most recently Bhanu Dhamija, have been advocating a presidential system – at least it makes the nature of our politics explicit. As we are learning, neither presidential nor parliamentary forms are guarantees of liberty. One of the challenges of this moment is that there are two incommensurable languages, both claiming to be democracy at work. In one language, democracy is about the personification of popular will. This is the popular will institutionalised in a single person, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and enacted through his party. In this conception, he wields power, without any seriously effective constitutional limitations. This is as near to an elected dictatorship as we can get — unprecedented concentration of power and monopolisation of all organs of the state. This is being opposed, not by a counter-power that can equally project a popular imprimatur — it is rather speaking the language of rules, norms, processes and discussion. It has to put together a coalition of competing groups, not a party with a united will. In the former conception, democracy is about organising effective power and personifying it; in the latter, it is about dispersing it and making it safe for liberty. The disquieting thought we have to confront is whether we are in a democracy that is instinctively now attracted by power. One might ask, why does the government have to act in such a high-handed manner? It has a parliamentary majority. It would have done the Home Minister no harm to give a textbook statement on the canister episode in Parliament. But as with many things with this government, the impunity is a point: In a democracy attracted by power rather than constitutional form, more by the personification of popular will than liberty, power will continually need to be projected. And nothing speaks of power projection more effectively than a form of constitutional impunity. In fact, one of the paradoxes of Narendra Modi is this: The more he is accused of impunity, the more his attraction grows, because the criticism ultimately acknowledges and reinforces the fact of his power, even as it seeks to question its legitimacy. Marx had written perceptively of Victor Hugo’s critique of Louis Bonaparte III: "Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historical facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce." Even criticisms, such as Hugo’s, that ascribe the subversion of democracy to one man, “ended up making that individual great”, against the author’s own intentions, “by ascribing to him a personal power of initiative unparalleled in world history”. The permanent revolution of this government is the constant deployment of power till all countervailing power is extinguished. The disquieting question is: What is the social condition that makes putting personality in the place of a constitution attractive? This monopolisation of power can be deployed for many purposes. Some of these purposes are instrumentally attractive. But if it is aimed at altering the fundamental nature of our regime, it is nothing short of a constitutional coup d’état. India’s laws on civil liberties have never been perfect. But the direction of almost every legislation this government has introduced has one singular aim: To weaken the protection of individual rights, to give the government more powers of surveillance and control and to render the citizens more transparent to the government than the government is to the citizens. The three criminal code bills that the Lok Sabha has just passed and the Telecommunications Bill are just the two most recent instances. The Criminal Code Bills attest to the inverted politics of our time. First, the Bills are being touted as an act of decolonisation. The three bills are named Nyaya, Nagrik and Sakshya, as if they were about justice, citizenship and transparent evidence. It is astounding that decolonisation has come to mean more arbitrary power to the state. They are attractive not because they decolonise, but because they consolidate more power and constitutionalise impunity. This is not the place for a detailed analysis, but if you think giving more police powers to the state is your idea of decolonisation, then you have become an exemplar of the worship of state power that Indian democracy is increasingly becoming. But, in a way, the lack of public outrage on the Bills, or indeed on virtually the entire Opposition being suspended, may simply be a function of the fact that there is no appetite for constitutional forms left. When Modi assumed office, he kissed the steps of Parliament as he entered it on May 20, 2014. It was a nod to the sanctity of Parliament. But it turned out to be him kissing his own power. For Parliament without Opposition is simply the unbridled power of the executive. He was kissing, not a representative institution, but a Parliament that now rests entirely in the personal power of the leader. The writer is Contributing Editor, The Indian Express © The Indian Express Pvt Ltd https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/pratap-bhanu-mehta-parliamentary-democracy-bharat-india-mps-suspension-9077660/ ALSO READ | CISF to be roped in for Parliament security Behind suspension of 143 MPs, a political immorality

by Brooklyn Quallen, Genocide Watch There are about 7,000 languages in use around the world. By 2100, around 3,000 of them could go extinct. The deaths of these languages will impact more than communication; mother tongues are foundational to the identity of thousands of linguistic minorities. Languages manifest a group’s history and traditions. When they disappear, they take with them the heritage and culture of the group. Safeguarding them is a vital part of protecting and promoting cultural diversity. Linguistic genocide against Indigenous minorities has a long and wide-reaching history. Under the rule of Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan state perpetrated a linguistic genocide against the indigenous Amazigh minority. This article examines Gaddafi’s ethnophobic policies with specific regard to linguistic genocide against the Amazigh minority and the lasting effects of those policies. The article also examines what can be done to promote meaningful change to preserve linguistic diversity in Libya. From 1912 to 1947, Libya was an Italian colony. Arabs and Amazigh alike formed a strong resistance movement to colonial domination, especially during the Second Italo-Senussi War that solidified Italy's hold over Libya. During that period, Italian troops “pacified” Libya through genocidal warfare, massacring both Arab and Amazigh Libyans. By 1934, indigenous resistance to Italian colonization had been crushed, and Italy continued to repress and attempt to destroy Libyan culture. After Italy’s defeat in World War II, Libya was administered by the Allies until 1951. In 1951, Libya declared independence and decolonization efforts began. The United Kingdom of Libya, a constitutional monarchy, was the first government of post-colonial Libya. It lasted only 18 years before Muammar Gaddafi’s 1969 coup. Gaddafi established the Libyan Arab Republic, a new Arab nation. As with many post-colonial states, the creation of a unified national identity was a top priority for Libyan leadership. Nation-building projects often rely on  fostering nationalism   by homogenizing the population; the Libyan Arab Republic was no exception. Gaddafi’s   Cultural Revolution  , which began in 1973, constructed “Libyan” to mean “Arabic,” despite the presence of ethnolinguistic minorities, including the Amazigh. Those minorities were suppressed, often violently, as perceived threats to national unity. The Amazigh were forced to abandon certain cultural practices, especially in public, so as to better assimilate with the newly-Arabized Libyan identity and avoid further persecution. For the Amazigh, Gaddafi’s Arabization policies were genocidal. Part of his strategy was the othering of the Amazigh and their culture. Where he acknowledged their existence, he framed them as an existential threat, dangerous to good, Arab families and the state itself. However, Gaddafi mainly pushed the narrative that the Amazigh were “  a product of colonialism  ” created by the West to divide Libya. They were not a group distinct from Libyan Arabs; even if they wanted to think of themselves as such, they were not allowed to make such a distinction in public. In 2008, Gaddafi told Amazigh leaders and activists, "  You can call yourselves whatever you want inside your homes – Berbers, Children of Satan, whatever – but you are only Libyans when you leave your homes.  " Gaddafi targeted Amazigh linguistic culture, too. He used genocidal rhetoric to eradicate the Amazigh identity by claiming that Tamazight was “  a mere dialect  ” of Arabic, rather than a separate language belonging to a separate group. He also declared that those learning Tamazight were drinking “  poisoned milk from their mother’s breast  .” Part of his Arabization campaign aimed to supplant minority languages such as Tamazight with Arabic. In Libya, the challenge presented by multilingualism has been central to nation-building efforts that have existed since independence. Multilingualism is intertwined with complex discussions of nationalism, indigeneity, and the legacies of colonialism. Under Gaddafi, nearly all Libyans, regardless of ethnicity, were fluent in Arabic, and had been for centuries. The ubiquity of Arabic in Libyan daily life already meant that children could often recite Qu’ranic verses before they could ask for water in their mother tongue. Arabic was the sole and uncontested official language of Libya. Still, Gaddafi saw minority languages as threats to the linguistic supremacy of Arabic. As a result, Tamazight was suppressed in the early years of Gaddafi’s regime; in 1984, legislation was introduced that de facto banned the language in its promotion of Arabic.  Law No. (12) on prohibiting the use of foreign languages and numerals in all transactions  mandated the use of only Arabic in the public sphere. All official documents, signs, advertisements, and publications had to be in Arabic. Any foreign institution operating in Libya had to provide Arabic translations for their materials. The punishment for the use of non-Arabic language was up to a month of jail time or heavy fines. Law No. (12) effectively relegated Tamazight to unofficial settings. While medical and scientific reports were exceptions to the law, such reports were rarely, if ever, published in Tamazight. By making Arabic the sole language of economics, Amazigh parents were disincentivized from teaching their children anything but colloquial Tamazight. Since all media had to be in Arabic, Amazigh children also lost the ability to practice their language skills outside of their homes. The law accomplished its goal: it repressed the growth of language-based Amazigh culture with the intent of forcing the Amazigh to assimilate. Eighteen years later, Gaddafi’s government passed an even more restrictive language law:  Law No. (24) of 2002 on the prohibition of unauthorized use of languages other than Arabic in all transactions . Law No. (24) reaffirmed the terms of the bans on languages other than Arabic set forth in Law No. (12), but expanded the scope to mandate the use of Arabic for street names; any writing on vehicles, buildings, and roads; posters; medical prescriptions; and the names of institutions. Punishments for infractions included fines and commercial license cancellations for a full year. The key difference between the two laws was Article 3 of Law No. (24): a ban on non-Arabic, non-Islamic names. Article 3 of Law No. (24) of 2002 states that: “The use of non-Arabic, non-Islamic names is forbidden, along with Arabic names not sanctioned by Islam and names that have a particular significance that is not in accord with the spirit of Islam and the identity of the Libyan people. It is forbidden to record such names in records and documents of any type.” Appropriate names were determined by the General People’s Committee, the executive branch in Gaddafi’s government. Those who attempted to use traditional Tamazight names were punished with hefty fines and the denial of personal documents, such as passports. Children with Tamazight legal names were barred from enrolling in schools. The grace given to those who already had Tamazight names was minimal; they were granted a year to obtain a legal name change. Law No. (24) not only reinforced the existing prohibition on Tamazight in public, but extended the law to regulate its use in private, too. While Tamazight had been repressed for decades under Gaddafi, this law represented a new phase of Gaddafi’s attempt to eradicate it and Amazigh identity as a whole. By banning Tamazight names, a fundamental part of any culture, the law took aim at intergenerational transmission. One of the most important indicators of language vitality is intergenerational transmission – whether or not a language is taught to children by their parents. Law No. (24) did not ban Tamazight outright, because it did not have to; its provisions disincentivized the teaching of Tamazight to Amazigh children with Arabic names who could not legally use it anywhere but behind closed doors. As a result, Tamazight began to weaken, showing the early stages of language death. Read the full article here.

Bosnia's State Investigation and Protection Agency arrested seven individuals in the Zvornik area on Friday, suspected of participating in the mass killing of 800 Bosniaks after the fall of the UN-declared 'safe zone' in 1995. The Grbavci school, a former killing site, in Orahovac. Photo. ICTY. By Enes Hodzic The State Investigation and Protection Agency in Bosnia and Herzegovina, SIPA, arrested seven people on Friday suspected of committing or participating in the 1995 genocide in eastern Bosnia. According to SIPA, they are suspected of committing criminal acts under individual and command responsibility, as well as aiding genocide. SIPA said the arrested individuals will be handed over to the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina after criminal processing. It mentioned that they are all former commanders and members of the Zvornik Brigade of the Army of Republika Srpska, VRS. “The suspects are linked to the shooting and killing of around 800 victims of Bosniak nationality at the Orahovac site, following the fall of the Protected Zone of Srebrenica,” the State Prosecutor’s Office added. Previous court rulings have determined that before the killings in Orahovac, Bosniaks were held captive in the school hall of Grbavci in this locality. Over 7,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed in a series of massacres by Bosnian Serb forces led by Ratko Mladic after they overran the UN-declared “safe zone’” of Srebrenica in July 1995. The killings have been legally classified as genocide by international court rulings. Together with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the courts in Serbia and Croatia, 54 individuals have been sentenced to five life imprisonments and 781 years in prison for genocide, crimes against humanity, and other crimes in Srebrenica during July 1995. Currently, a trial for genocide in Srebrenica is ongoing at the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but it is in a state of suspension due to the health condition of the accused, Mile Kosoric, former commander of the Vlasenica Brigade of the VRS. In early December, the State Prosecutor’s Office filed charges for genocide against Ratko Vujovic, Ljubomir Vlacic, Vitomir Pepic, Milovan Ognjenovic, Goran Viskovic, Zeljko Dupljanin, and Vlastimir Golijanin, all former commanders and members of the VRS, for the murder of 65 individuals in July 1995 in the areas of Sekovici and Vlasenica in eastern Bosnia. Copyright BIRN 2015

Milorad Dodik speaks to the media in front of the Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina in Sarajevo on December 6 after the trial was postponed. By RFE/RL's Balkan Service A court in Bosnia-Herzegovina on December 6 postponed the start of Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik's trial on charges related to his efforts to ignore decisions by an international envoy at the request of his lawyers, who want the trial moved. Lawyers for Dodik on December 4 asked that the trial be moved from Sarajevo to Banja Luka. The Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina rejected the request, but Dodik’s defense team argued they have right to appeal the decision and that they will do so within the three-day legal limit. Judge Mirsad Strika set December 20 as the new date for the start of the trial, provided a ruling on the appeal is issued by then. During the hearing on December 6, Dodik, who has called the case a "political process" and a "circus," refused to answer the judge's questions or stand up when the judge told him to. Dodik and the head of Republika Srpska’s official legal gazette, Milos Lukic, are charged with criminal offenses in connection with efforts to ignore decisions by Bosnia's Constitutional Court and international envoy Christian Schmidt. Schmidt heads the Office of the High Representative (OHR), the international community's overseer of civilian, administrative, and other aspects of government stemming from the Dayton agreement that ended three years of intense fighting in 1995. Schmidt on December 6 denied the process against Dodik was political. "Those who are accused often defend themselves by saying that it's a political process. It's not, it's a process against Milorad Dodik,“ Schmidt said, speaking in Sarajevo after a meeting of the Peace Implementation Council steering board. He said the case was "about Dodik and he has to accept in a decent way that this is an impartial judiciary." Schmidt also responded to statements by Dodik about the possibility that the Bosnian Serb-dominated entity would declare independence from Bosnia, saying that secessionist rhetoric poisons the reconciliation process and the spirit of cooperation in Bosnia. "It is clear that anyone who tries to threaten the state of Bosnia-Herzegovina and its stability, inside or outside the country, represents a danger for this country and its European future. However, at the same time, I emphasize that the European Union and the international community are ready to protect this country and its citizens, if necessary," Schmidt said. He pointed out that Bosnian citizens had never been closer to EU integration and that "there is a real chance that in the next month they will be closer to that goal." The legislation at the center of the case against Dodik was approved by Bosnian Serb lawmakers in June and signed by Dodik on July 7 before being published in the gazette. It stipulated that the decisions of the OHR and the Constitutional Court should not be applied in the territory of the Republika Srpska. The indictment states that Dodik signed the laws even though he was aware that the decisions of the OHR are binding. Lukic is accused of having "facilitated the implementation of the publication procedure" of the laws. Dodik and Lukic face up to five years in prison and a ban on working in all public institutions and companies if found guilty. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty © 2023 RFE/RL, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Why We’re Helping Yazidi Americans Get Justice New York Times Dec. 17, 2023 By Amal Clooney and Lee Wolosky Nadia Murad with her brother …Credit...Ivor Prickett for The New York Times ISIS was one of the most brutal terrorist organizations in modern history. At its peak, it exercised control of territory the size of Britain, recruited tens of thousands of fighters and carried out or inspired attacks in over two dozen countries. It relied on a network of financiers to realize such global ambitions. But most of that network’s members have yet to face justice, and most ISIS victims have yet to receive any compensation for their losses. That is why we filed a federal lawsuit last week on behalf of more than 400 American members of the Yazidi community, a religious minority systematically persecuted by ISIS, to hold responsible an international conglomerate that paid millions of dollars to ISIS while the terrorists were committing a well-documented genocide against them. Far too often, private entities have escaped responsibility for fueling conflicts around the world, and victims have struggled to receive compensation for the violence that followed, even genocidal violence. This can change only if all those complicit in international crimes are brought to justice for their roles in the atrocities — including through cases, like this one, that are filed by their victims. The world has learned about the plight of the Yazidis thanks to the brave advocacy of our lead plaintiff, the Nobel laureate Nadia Murad. She was 21 when ISIS invaded her hometown in August 2014, murdering thousands of men, raping young girls and displacing her tight-knit community in northern Iraq. She was kidnapped, sold into sexual slavery and abused by 12 ISIS assailants over many weeks. Many of her family members, including her mother and six brothers, were murdered. Her young niece and nephew are still missing. Sadly, Ms. Murad’s experience is shared by many, including other plaintiffs in our case. Almost 10 years on, over 200,000 Yazidis are still internally displaced, many of them living in squalid camps. But they have had little hope of receiving meaningful compensation for the injuries they suffered at the hands of ISIS — until now. Ms. Murad is part of a group of over 400 Yazidi Americans suing the French company Lafarge, one of the largest cement companies in the world. Last year Lafarge (now a subsidiary of the Swiss-based Holcim Group) pleaded guilty in the United States to conspiring to provide material support to ISIS. Lafarge, and its Syrian subsidiary that operated a cement factory in Syria, admitted to an illegal conspiracy to pay ISIS and the Nusra Front, another U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization, nearly $6 million in exchange for various benefits, including getting ISIS to take out its competition by blocking or taxing the import of competing cement. And Lafarge did not just provide money to the terrorist group; it also provided cement that ISIS reportedly used to construct underground tunnels in which it held and tortured Yazidi and Western hostages. All of this was a crime under U.S. law — as the company knew. Lafarge’s deal with the devil was made at precisely the time when ISIS’ tactics were at their most brutal and public. Lafarge admitted to paying ISIS as early as August 2013, the same month the terrorists kidnapped an American aid worker, Kayla Mueller. As ISIS invaded Yazidi villages in Sinjar, Iraq, a year later, Lafarge ramped up its support by agreeing to give ISIS a share of the revenue from its Syrian plant. On Aug. 5, 2014, just two days after the Sinjar invasion made news worldwide, Lafarge’s point man shared a written draft of this revenue-sharing contract with a company executive. Later that week, as President Barack Obama announced targeted strikes on ISIS to avert a genocide of Yazidis, Lafarge confirmed its agreement to the terms of the deal. On Aug. 15, as Ms. Murad’s village was attacked by ISIS convoys and her mother and brothers were executed, the company agreed to ISIS’ request to sweeten the deal, giving ISIS 25 percent of the value of its raw materials, as well as 10 percent of its cement. And as ISIS released videos of the beheadings of the American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and the U.N. Security Council warned that trade with ISIS would “support their future terrorist activities,” Lafarge finalized the deal. It has since admitted that payments continued for months after the genocide began. In 2022, when Lafarge pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organization, it was the first time the U.S. government had prosecuted a corporation for that crime. The company admitted its illegal behavior and was subject to penalties of over $777 million. But the victims of ISIS were never given the opportunity to be heard, and no portion of the financial penalty that the company paid to the Department of Justice has been used to compensate them. We are asking Attorney General Merrick Garland to exercise his discretion to remedy this injustice and see that those funds are used to compensate the people who suffered under ISIS’ brutality. Victims should also have access to the Department of Justice’s seizure of three terrorist organizations’ cryptocurrency accounts — its largest ever. When Lafarge was prosecuted in the United States, the F.B.I. assistant director in charge stated that this “should serve as an example to others.” And though legal accountability often remains elusive, more and more private entities are being held to account. In 2014 the French bank BNP Paribas was fined almost $9 billion for violating sanctions in place against Sudan, Iran and Cuba, and it is being investigated in relation to accusations of complicity in war crimes in Sudan. A court in Denmark convicted the fuel company Dan Bunkering of breaching international sanctions by selling $101 million worth of jet fuel to two Russian companies active in Syria. The Castel Group, a French beverage conglomerate, is under investigation for possible complicity in war crimes committed in the Central African Republic. Corporations can no longer expect to wash their hands of responsibility for human rights abuses committed by subsidiaries abroad. But legal recourse remains difficult to achieve, and victims’ right to redress must be made a priority. This month, as we mark 75 years since the adoption of the Genocide Convention and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, wars and atrocities continue around the world. It is more important than ever to show that private actors who fuel the flames of violence can be held accountable — and that victims can obtain justice — no matter how long it may take. Amal Clooney is a lawyer who specializes in international law and human rights in Britain and the United States and was an associate at the international law firm Sullivan & Cromwell. Lee Wolosky served under four U.S. presidents in senior national security and legal positions, most recently as special counsel to President Biden, and is currently a partner at the international law firm Jenner & Block. A version of this article appears in print on Dec. 20, 2023, Section A, Page 23 of the New York edition with the headline: Yazidis Are Owed Justice. Copyright 2023 The New York Times Company, Amal Clooney, and Lee Wolosky

Kambale Ngayiremawa, in charge of legal issues and disputes for the Independent National Electoral Commission in North Kivu By Rédaction Africanews and AFP An official of the Congolese electoral body confirmed on Tuesday (Dec. 12) that violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo's east will disenfranchise some voters in the North Kivu province. This comes after incumbent president Tshisekedi conceded parts of the territory will not cast a ballot after a military counteroffensive against M23 rebels fizzled out in mid-November. "In Rutshuru, we have enrolled more or less 10% of the expected voters, and we have no candidates, so the conditions are not right for opening the polling stations. In Masisi, I think it's around 1% of voters who enrolled." Some 44 million registered voters will elect on December 20 their president, MPs, members of provincial bodies and municipal councils. As voting material was being presented to journalists, during the press conference in Goma, Kambale Ngayiremawa was reassuring over final preparations. "[Election] material will go to the voting sites. So no one can tell you [that something is] missing, no no no. In other words, we're moving forward gradually. Otherwise everything is there, rest assured, on 20 (December) we will vote." NGO international crisis group estimated that over one million Congolese will be disenfranchised. Last August, the electoral commission announced that 16 seats at the National Assembly would be reserved for three territories torn by armed conflict; namely Masisi and Rutshuru in the east and  Kwamouth, in the country's west. Africanews

(Illustration by Shubhadeep Mukherjee for The Washington Post; J. Scott Applewhite/AP; Simon Dawson/Bloomberg News/Getty Images; mbell/Getty Images) Covert Indian operation seeks to discredit Modi’s critics in the U.S. By Gerry Shih, Clara Ence Morse and Pranshu Verma December 10, 2023 NEW DELHI — Since 2020, an opaque organization calling itself the Disinfo Lab has published lengthy dossiers and social media posts claiming to reveal the personal relationships and funding sources behind U.S.-based critics of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Disinfo Lab has combined fact-based research with unsubstantiated claims to paint U.S. government figures, researchers, humanitarian groups and Indian American rights activists as part of a conspiracy, purportedly led by global Islamic groups and billionaire George Soros, to undermine India. In each instance, these allegations have gone viral on Indian social media after they were amplified by pro-Modi influencers, who at times used the group’s findings to validate their own positions. Its reports have been cited by Indian officials on television and presented on Capitol Hill. Despite its reach, the Disinfo Lab does not disclose its affiliation, describing itself on its website as a “separate legal entity” that seeks to offer “completely unbiased research.” In reality, however, the Disinfo Lab was set up and is run by an Indian intelligence officer to research and discredit foreign critics of the Modi government, according to three people who worked in the organization or were familiar with its establishment. While claiming that it aimed to uncover anti-India disinformation, the Disinfo Lab itself is running a covert influence operation, they said. The organization’s material is among the most widely circulated by right-wing Indians and Hindu nationalists. Its reports gain global reach, partly because they are spread on social media by high-profile figures with large followings on X, previously known as Twitter, including current and former officials in Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, former intelligence and military brass, and a cabinet minister, according to a Washington Post analysis of nearly 100,000 reposts of Disinfo Lab content on X. While it is unclear how many of them, if any, are aware of the Disinfo Lab’s intelligence ties, these top retweeters give the Disinfo Lab a stamp of authority and, some of its targets say, boost its ability to intimidate individuals overseas. Disinfo Lab reports found their way into a pro-government narrative that a violent 2021 protest by farmers at New Delhi’s Red Fort, seen in a motorbike mirror’s reflection, was masterminded by Pakistan and a U.S.-based activist and journalist. (Smita Sharma for The Washington Post) The Disinfo Lab’s activities show how the online propaganda campaigns waged by the BJP and its allies have been expanding beyond their traditional, domestic aims of shoring up popular support and denigrating opposition parties — and now seek to influence attitudes far beyond India’s borders. Moreover, the organization’s ties to an Indian intelligence officer could blur the line traditionally observed by the country’s security apparatus between operations that serve the strategic interests of India and those that advance the political objectives of the ruling party, analysts said. Sumit Ganguly, an expert on Indian diplomacy and national security at Indiana University at Bloomington, said undermining foreign governments and their officials is “routine” work for intelligence agencies around the world. But if Indian intelligence is “besmirching American critics and civil society organizations, it would be crossing a line reminiscent of KGB tactics during the Cold War,” he said. “It would be part and parcel of the Modi government’s attitude toward dissent, whether at home or abroad.” The Disinfo Lab, which at one point consisted of about a dozen private contractors working out of a four-story whitewashed building on a leafy street in New Delhi, was created in mid-2020 by Lt. Col. Dibya Satpathy, now 39, an intelligence officer who has worked to shape international perceptions of India, said the three people familiar with the operation. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive intelligence activities. Satpathy was initially commissioned as an infantry officer and served in the army’s intelligence and public information units, said a person briefed on his military personnel record. That person and another source close to the military said Satpathy was later detailed to his current posting with India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). Over the years, Satpathy has introduced himself to Western journalists and commentators under fake identities — including his preferred alias, Shakti, meaning “power” in Hindi — and sought favorable coverage of India or critical coverage of its adversaries, Pakistan and China, according to five additional people who have had contact with Satpathy. In an emailed response to questions from The Post, the Disinfo Lab said, “We are in no form associated with any govt agency, nor with any of its personnel. Nor are we associated with any other organization — Indian or International.” The organization said it was created by individuals who had met in an anti-corruption political movement and were concerned about “the massive disinformation targeted at India to sow divisions in society.” The email, signed by “Disinfo Lab,” said the group did not side with Modi’s government. “We are equal opportunity exposers, even calling out the ruling party. Disinformation is our arch-nemesis, irrespective of political allegiance,” the group said. Efforts to reach Satpathy through the Disinfo Lab and separately through an intermediary did not yield a response. India’s national security adviser, Ajit Doval, who helps oversee the country’s intelligence agencies, did not respond to a request for comment. The Secretariat Building in New Delhi, reflected in a windshield, is home to the offices of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and national government ministries. Pro-Modi influencers have amplified Disinfo Lab allegations of conspiracy against his U.S.-based critics. (Smita Sharma for The Washington Post) ‘New player’ on the world stage Over the past five years, social media researchers have uncovered large Indian online networks that promote the BJP’s foreign policy positions to domestic and foreign audiences. Coordinated social media accounts have been found to play a role, for instance, in spreading identical posts in support of Russia, an important supplier of weapons and energy to India, and of Israel, an increasingly close partner. “The Indian right wing is a new player that has arrived on the world stage and wants to shape global discussion,” said Joyojeet Pal, a professor of information at the University of Michigan who studies disinformation in India. “So far, much of it is done in the same way it’s done within India — through crude, blunt force. But it’s getting smarter.” The Disinfo Lab has emerged as one of the more sophisticated players. In 28 reports it has published so far, the organization has often painted a picture of an India under attack by a sprawling “nexus” of conspirators funded by Pakistani intelligence, the Muslim Brotherhood and Soros. The Disinfo Lab alleges that Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), an Indian American and outspoken Modi critic, is among several U.S.-based recipients of funding by a “nexus” of foreign actors conspiring against India. (Tom Brenner/Getty Images) The Disinfo Lab’s narrative alleges that these funds have found their way to Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), an Indian American and outspoken critic of Modi; Indian American activists who criticized the Modi government for discrimination against Muslims and low-caste Hindus; and members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedoms (USCIRF), a bipartisan panel that has recommended the State Department designate India a “country of particular concern” for the Modi government’s treatment of Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and other minority groups. The Disinfo Lab often cites publicly available U.S. lobbying and campaign finance records and produces complex flowcharts to illustrate alleged relationships. But the group draws tenuous connections, claiming, for instance, that a USCIRF commissioner was influenced by Islamists because she once worked on a conservative fundraising committee alongside a lobbyist who went on to represent Muslim American groups. When the Disinfo Lab released its first major report, in early 2021, it created a template for the kind of attacks that would be repeated in the coming years. The organization released a dossier nearly 100 pages long alleging that Pieter Friedrich, a California-based activist and journalist who has written magazine articles and given public speeches critical of the BJP and affiliated Hindu-nationalist groups, had ties to the Sikh separatist movement and Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency. The Disinfo Lab burrowed into California state records to uncover Friedrich’s employment history, published his parents’ names and plotted detailed graphs about his social media activity. A prominent Indian official among others spread the dossier on Twitter, amplifying the allegations. Police officials in New Delhi called a news conference and distributed the dossier, telling reporters that the “carefully researched” report showed Friedrich had been “on the radar of Indian security establishment.” Citing Disinfo Lab research, pro-government television channels ran reports alleging Friedrich and Pakistan had masterminded a 2021 protest by farmers at New Delhi’s Red Fort that erupted into violence and represented a major challenge to the Modi administration. In a recent interview, Friedrich said that many personal and work details reported by the Disinfo Lab were true but that other claims — that he fomented an anti-government riot or had ties to Pakistani intelligence — were fabricated. The attacks made him fear for his safety, he said. “It felt like the earth shook,” he said. “I understood it as a warning shot across the bow saying, ‘You need to stay in your lane, stop poking your nose in our business and keep your mouth shut.” The Disinfo Lab also published a lengthy report in April denouncing Sunita Viswanath, the New York-based founder of the rights group Hindus for Human Rights who has criticized the BJP’s Hindu-nationalist ideology as antithetical to Hinduism. The Disinfo Lab dug into her past and reported that a nonprofit she launched to help female Afghan refugees had received funding from Soros’s Open Society Foundations. Two months later, after Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi attended a meeting in Washington with Viswanath as part of a U.S. tour, Amit Malviya, the head of the BJP’s social media team, tweeted a photo of the meeting and shared a flowchart stamped with the Disinfo Lab logo illustrating Viswanath’s connections to Soros. “Who is she exactly?” Malviya wrote on X. “She is nothing but a proxy of George Soros, who has committed $1 billion to meddle in India’s internal affairs, through a network of opposition leaders, think tanks, journalists, lawyers and activists.” The post was retweeted 7,800 times. And last month, after The Post published an article about the Indian government’s efforts to censor X, the Disinfo Lab took to that platform and accused The Post, falsely, of waging psychological warfare against India at the behest of the CIA. The thread also went viral. Hindu nationalism, which coursed through a 2022 demonstration at New Delhi’s iconic Qutub Minar, above, where activists sought to rename the UNESCO World Heritage site for a Hindu god, often contours with allegations made by the Disinfo Lab. (Smita Sharma for The Washington Post) An information warrior Until at least 2021, the Disinfo Lab shared its office with a separate team headed by a career RAW intelligence officer who specialized in China and carried out information operations related to Tibet, said the three sources who described the activities to The Post. The Disinfo Lab itself was headed by Satpathy, whose work has focused mostly on countering Pakistan and the unrest it allegedly foments in the Indian border state of Punjab and Indian-controlled Kashmir, these people said. Much of the Disinfo Lab’s work reflected the thinking of its founder, Satpathy, who was described by journalists, a government official and a person close to the military as a deeply patriotic officer who is fascinated by geopolitical intrigue and concerned by threats he sees India facing. When he self-published a novel in 2016, Satpathy gave book talks and interviews, describing himself as a 2002 graduate of India’s National Defense Academy who loved writing, theater, single-malt whisky and his motherland. In 2019, he penned an article for a defense journal analyzing how India used a “carefully scripted narrative” to justify to the world an airstrike conducted against Pakistan earlier that year. By late that year, the Indian government was coming under intense international criticism for revoking the semiautonomous status of Muslim-majority Kashmir, and around that time, four journalists recalled, a polished national security official began introducing himself as “Shakti” to foreign correspondents in New Delhi, telling them he wanted to help them understand India’s perspective. The Disinfo Lab was created in mid-2020 and at one point was run out of this four-story building in New Delhi. (Smita Sharma for The Washington Post) They said Satpathy offered to arrange a meeting for them with Modi’s national security adviser, Doval, coordinated a rare visit to Kashmir, which was then off-limits to foreign reporters, and pitched story ideas about Kashmir’s economic recovery under India’s direct rule. “Shakti” refused to disclose his name or affiliation, said the journalists, but they later identified him as Satpathy when shown photographs of him. One of Satpathy’s former associates recalled working with him to feed Pakistani documents to Bruno Macaes, a former Portuguese diplomat who has written books about China’s Belt and Road Initiative and maintains a large following on X. Macaes, who confirmed he had been approached by men claiming to be Pakistani dissidents, said he was not aware they were connected to Indian intelligence, but he shared screenshots showing he was forwarded documents from a Telegram user named “Shakti.” Macaes said he ultimately did not write about the documents. One person who played a role in the Disinfo Lab’s formation said the operation emerged from a world view in which India is besieged by “information warfare” from foreign countries that stoke religious divisions and grievances within India. For years, government officials, including Modi, have also pointed a finger at Western human rights and other nonprofit groups and news media, alleging they unfairly criticize India and conspire to hold back its development. “The Indian government felt it was not having its views conveyed in the international media,” the person said. He added that, initially, the goal was for the Disinfo Lab to be viewed as a neutral organization on a par with well-known Western disinformation research groups and cited by mainstream news outlets. Like other people cited, he spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of Indian government retribution. Another person, a former employee, said the Disinfo Lab named and modeled itself after groups such as the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab and the EU DisinfoLab, a Brussels-based nonprofit that researches disinformation targeting Europe. The office operated under the name “Root and Wings Media,” which describes itself online as a social media marketing company, said the three sources familiar with the operation and Rohan Mehta, the landlord of the building where the operation was located until mid-2021. The Post could not locate company registration records for Root and Wings or its current address. Employees who picked up at its publicly listed phone number declined to provide their address or comment. On a YouTube show in 2021, the founder of Root and Wings, Ajayendra Tripathi, described himself as a social media expert who specialized in busting fake news and inauthentic accounts. “You can’t tell outright lies if you want to spread fake news,” Tripathi explained to his interviewer. “You have to tell lies that are somewhat close to the truth.” When reached by The Post via text messages, Tripathi denied any association with the Disinfo Lab and said he now works for a political consultancy. He declined further comment. Asked by The Post about its offices, the Disinfo Lab said, “The place we worked from had multiple other offices including a co-working space. We do not and did not work for any other firm.” The Disinfo Lab has aimed its accusations toward Washington, including a tenuous claim that a member of a federal panel that has drawn attention to the Modi government's treatment of religious minorities was influenced by Islamists. (Eric Lee/Bloomberg News) Transnational reach The Disinfo Lab has often served as a rapid-reaction force to counter criticisms of the Modi government that have attracted international attention or to preempt anticipated flak. In February, Soros, a frequent critic of Modi, warned in a speech at the Munich Security Conference that the Indian leader was undemocratic and would lose his “stranglehold” over the Indian government. A day later, the Disinfo Lab posted a lengthy tweet thread alleging that Soros had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and manipulated “fake” U.S.-based advocacy groups to smear India. A spokesperson for Soros’s Open Society Foundations called the Disinfo Lab’s claims “entirely baseless” and said they were part of a “campaign by this site and others in India against advocates of human rights, democratic governance and the rule of law in the service of the political aims of the BJP and its allies.” When Jayapal arranged to have House and Senate members in June write a letter pressing President Biden to raise human rights issues with Modi days before his state visit to Washington, the Disinfo Lab published a lengthy X thread — retweeted more than 1,000 times — claiming Jayapal was influenced by Pakistan and “Islamist funding.” Jayapal did not respond to requests for comment. Billionaire George Soros, a frequent critic of Modi, is accused by the Disinfo Lab of having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and of manipulating “fake” U.S.-based advocacy groups to smear India. A spokesperson for Soros’s Open Society Foundations called the Disinfo Lab’s claims “entirely baseless.” (Simon Dawson/Bloomberg/Getty Images) The Disinfo Lab’s reports and social media posts often gain an enhanced veneer of authority as they propagate online because of the prominence of their retweeters. The Post analyzed the 250 most-followed accounts that reposted content from the Disinfo Lab. Of those, The Post identified 35 current or former BJP officials, 14 government or military leaders, 61 journalists, authors or thought leaders, and 140 influencers or content creators, including Indian and American right-wing ideologues. Many had hundreds of thousands or millions of followers, and shared Disinfo Lab content dozens or even hundreds of times. These retweeters included Tajinder Bagga, the national secretary of the BJP youth wing; Sanju Verma, a BJP national spokeswoman; and Kapil Mishra, the vice president of the BJP’s Delhi unit who has 1.5 million followers on X. Government- and military-linked amplifiers have included Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the junior information technology minister; Kanchan Gupta, senior adviser to the information ministry; Ved Malik, a retired chief of army staff; and Vikram Sood, a former RAW chief and author of “The Ultimate Goal,” a book about how shaping narratives at home and abroad is a key responsibility of intelligence agencies. “Great work,” Sood said in tweeting a 108-page Disinfo Lab report detailing how Pakistan allegedly funded American academics, activists and retired CIA officials to criticize India’s governance of Kashmir. Sood also shared the report on Koo, an Indian homegrown alternative to X. When contacted by The Post, Bagga, Mishra and Malik said they were not familiar with the Disinfo Lab’s background. Verma, Chandrasekhar, Gupta and Sood did not respond. Other key spreaders, The Post analysis found, were U.S.-based groups advocating for Hindu-nationalist causes. Some of the Disinfo Lab’s frequent retweeters included HinduPACT and Hindu Action, two initiatives of the U.S. branch of the Vishva Hindu Parishad, a right-wing Hindu organization that is ideologically allied with the BJP. Sudha Jagannathan, an American activist who lobbied to block a California bill banning caste-based discrimination, retweeted the Disinfo Lab 120 times. Ajay Shah, the convener of HinduPACT, said the group disseminates surveys, research reports and news items from “a wide variety of sources if we consider them to have impact on the American Hindus.” He said he does not know who runs the Disinfo Lab, adding, “We do believe that their analysis, unless unequivocally proved inaccurate, is highly relevant to American Hindus … and American national security.” Hindu Action did not respond to a request for comment. But after being contacted, the group tweeted that the “material that we have shared are concerning and should be taken seriously by our American law enforcement agencies.” Jagannathan did not respond to a request for comment. Disinfo Lab reports have also made their way into American halls of power. Amid the covid pandemic in 2021, a senior U.S. congressman in the House India caucus received a Disinfo Lab report from a group in his district claiming that Islamic humanitarian agencies were receiving federal aid and sending it to Pakistan to fuel terrorist activities targeting India and the United States, said a congressional staffer speaking on the condition of anonymity to share details of private conversations. The staffer said the lawmaker’s Hindu constituents insisted the office provide updates about what Congress would do about the claims made in the Disinfo Lab report and, a member of the office forwarded the report to law enforcement for further review and investigation. The group’s work also showed up in the debate this year over California legislation to outlaw caste-based discrimination. Opponents of the measure gave lawmakers a slide presentation suggesting, in part, that they read a Disinfo Lab report attacking the group leading the push for the legislation, a person familiar with the lobbying efforts recalled, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. The dossier painted that group — a U.S.-based civil rights organization called Equality Labs — as a radical outfit funded by Pakistan to orchestrate caste-related protests in the United States and included personal information about the group’s director, her divorce and her father. “This is a situation where the American government needs to protect American citizens that are being targeted for foreign influence, simply because we want to have rights like other Americans,” said Thenmozhi Soundararajan, director of Equality Labs. Ria Chakrabarty, a policy director for pro-pluralism Hindus for Human Rights, a group critical of Modi, said lobbyists working for U.S.-based Hindu nationalist groups have disseminated Disinfo Lab dossiers in other venues. She recalled attending the 2022 International Religious Freedom Summit at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington when a lobbyist from HinduPACT walked around distributing a thick, bound Disinfo Lab report that claimed to connect the Indian American Muslim Council, an Indian diaspora group critical of Modi, to Pakistani intelligence. The lobbyist knew that Chakrabarty often collaborates with the IAMC, Chakrabarty recalled, and warned her to “know who you’re sitting next to.” In its response to The Post, the Disinfo Lab pointed to its record of forcing “activists” and “human rights fronts” to shut down by exposing them, saying, “We take our craft very seriously, and we make sure that our claims stand. In our understanding, fake news/ fabricated data is the core of any info-war.” India Gate, a New Delhi war memorial, is reflected in an autorickshaw mirror. In an interview, the Disinfo Lab argues that India is in a “narrative war” against the likes of the United States, China and Pakistan, among others. (Smita Sharma for The Washington Post) The ‘Disinformation Age’ Ajai Shukla, a retired Indian Army colonel and a military affairs journalist, said that former prime ministers such as Indira Gandhi also painted her critics as national security threats. But the Modi government has gone further, sometimes blurring the line between its political foes and those who should be targeted by the security apparatus, he said. The defense establishment “exists to serve national and strategic interests, not political interests,” Shukla said. “But the BJP under Modi has seen critics as anti-Indian, the enemies of India itself.” With its reports repeatedly cited by BJP officials and its profile rising, the Disinfo Lab gave its only interview to date, in written format, to the Indian freelance journalist Sandhya Ravishankar this summer. In response to Ravishankar’s emailed questions, the organization explained that it was founded in 2020 by people with political and marketing backgrounds. The group said it relied mostly on conventional open-source intelligence-gathering methods, lots of Googling and its self-made data visualization tools. It warned that India was caught in a “narrative war” against many belligerents: the United States, China, Pakistan and “hydra-headed Islamist fronts, all operating under lofty human rights and other banners.” “Left with no other choice, we are trying to do what we can with limited resources,” the Disinfo Lab said. “The world moved from the Information Age to the Disinformation Age long back.” Morse and Verma reported from Washington. About this story Design by Anna Lefkowitz. Visual editing by Chloe Meister, Joe Moore and Jennifer Samuel. Data editing by Anu Narayanswamy. Copy editing by Christopher Rickett. Story editing by Alan Sipress. Project editing by Jay Wang. By Gerry Shih Gerry Shih is the India Bureau Chief for the Washington Post, covering India and neighboring countries. By Clara Ence Morse Clara Ence Morse is an intern with the Data team at The Washington Post. She joined The Post last summer as the Investigative Reporting Workshop intern with the Data team, and previously served as the editor in chief of the Columbia Daily Spectator. She lives in Washington, D.C. By Pranshu Verma Pranshu Verma is a reporter on The Washington Post's technology team. Before joining The Post in 2022, he covered technology at the Boston Globe. Before that, he was a reporting fellow at the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer. © 1996-2023 The Washington Post

President Paul Kagame of Rwanda. President Felix Tshisekedi of DR Congo. credit BBC